Seeing the great black snake on high alert, the hunter guessed that whatever it was had been coming their way.
He looked up at the peak the fox had climbed. Its cliffs were steep and difficult to scale, making it an excellent refuge. But there probably wasn't enough time to climb up...
The weather in the mountains could change in an instant.
The sky had been clear and bright a moment ago. Suddenly, fierce winds swept cool air into their faces, and roiling black clouds swiftly swallowed the blue sky. Raindrops the size of beans came pelting down, merging into a vast curtain of rain that blurred all the verdant trees in mist.
The grass shelter they had just built came in handy. The three men and the dog huddled together beneath it.
The hunter drew the short knife at his waist, chose a piece of hardwood, and hacked and shaved at it with all his strength. Amid dull, rapid scraping sounds, he quickly fashioned a straight, long shaft, then secured the knife firmly to its tip to make a spear.
He sharpened two more sticks for the master and his young attendant to defend themselves.
His bow, arrows, and iron hunting fork were in the thatched hut beside the pool. For now, they could only use whatever they had at hand.
Amid the confusion, only Black Snake remained unmoving. Rain wet his scales, lending them a dark, glazed sheen. He neither retreated nor showed any desire to fight.
His cold, slit pupils quietly examined and assessed.
Black Snake was very displeased.
It was raining, yet he couldn't peacefully enjoy the lovely rain-laden air. How annoying.
Leaves and weeds were as good as nonexistent under Black Snake's gaze. To the hunter and his two companions, wherever the great snake stared was where the beast must be.
Besides the sharp weapons in their hands, this impossibly large black snake was their greatest source of confidence in remaining on the boulder.
Before long, the sound of footsteps crushing sodden, rotting leaves in the rain grew clearer, mingled with the slippage of mud and loose stones on the steep slope.
Through occasional gaps between swaying branches and leaves, the hunter actually glimpsed a striped tiger!
It was simply unbelievable!
According to the village elders, the last tiger sighting had been decades ago.
This wilderness was rugged and riddled with ravines, home only to lynxes and wildcats. Tigers usually hunted in forests on gentler terrain. Why had one appeared here?
He tightened both hands around his spear, his heart pounding wildly and his breathing growing heavier.
Time seemed to crawl...
When the tiger came into view, the three men, who had never seen one before, finally understood that every tale about tigers had understated how terrifying they were.
Black Snake carefully examined the unfamiliar beast and decided it was unsuitable prey. It was too large to swallow.
From some distance away, the tiger surveyed the boulder.
First, the abnormally huge black snake intimidated it, stirring instinctive wariness. Then its gaze shifted to the three men. It was surprised to find humans gathered with a great snake. A group of humans carrying sharp weapons wasn't worth the risk either.
Only the yellow dog made a suitable meal.
Their surroundings were terrifyingly quiet, save for the rustle of rain striking the forest leaves.
The tiger kept its eyes fixed on Black Snake, the greatest threat.
In the wild, tigers and snakes usually avoided each other cautiously. Conflict would erupt only when they unexpectedly came close and one felt threatened, and such a fight to the death offered great risk for little reward.
A venomous snake's fangs were the greatest danger. Its venom could easily cause grave injury or even death.
Yet the tiger had been hungry ever since venturing deep into these barren mountains. Its stomach felt as though it were burning, and it couldn't resist taking a few tentative steps forward.
The hunter did not retreat. Any show of weakness could invite a lethal pounce.
Black Snake reacted most violently.
Originally, Black Snake had merely been watchful, treating the encounter as nothing unusual. Suddenly, he realized the tiger had entered his safety zone. His enormous body instantly tightened like a bow ready to loose, and he let out a piercing hiss!
"Hiss-!"
He deliberately opened his mouth wide, exposing hooked venomous fangs far longer and sharper than anyone had imagined. Slender silver threads of mucus stretched from their tips!
The enormous black snake's rasping hiss carried farther than an ordinary snake's. Unlike the cry of any other creature, it held a merciless malice that awakened the ancient fear of venomous snakes buried deep in every living creature's blood.
Startled, the tiger instinctively leaped backward.
A chill ran down the spines of Chi Ke and his two companions. Had the tiger not been in front of them, they would surely have fled without looking back.
There were many ways to kill a venomous snake, but once its fangs sank into you, life and death hung by a thread. Even if you were lucky enough not to die immediately, you couldn't escape the damage the venom wreaked on your body. Weakness meant that a slow death would ultimately be unavoidable.
They returned to their original silent standoff, cautiously weighing whether the risk was worthwhile.
Black Snake remained intensely tense and vigilant, gathering his strength in utter stillness. Unwittingly, he stirred the rain-laden air, condensing a thin mist around himself.
The mist was actually accidental and served no purpose, but anyone unaware of that would hardly think so.
The tiger was intimidated. It had never seen such an abnormal phenomenon. It decisively abandoned the risk, turned, and retreated down the mountain, its silhouette blurring in the gray curtain of rain.
Black Snake continued watching intently. Only after confirming that the heat source had moved away did he slowly relax.
The rain was still falling.
The three men's taut shoulders and backs finally relaxed, and they let out long breaths.
The bloody struggle they had imagined never took place. The danger quietly dissolved after a subtle weighing of risks on both sides.
Having personally experienced that standoff on the razor's edge between life and death, the three men gained a little more understanding of the wilderness.
The threat was confirmed gone.
Black Snake calmly raised his head toward the sky and devoted himself to breathing in the lovely rain-laden air.
As for what had just happened, he probably wouldn't remember it.
Mountain rain came fiercely and departed swiftly. Black clouds had loomed overhead only moments earlier, but in the blink of an eye, the wind stopped and the rain ceased. Only Black Snake still wanted more.
Water dripped from Chi Ke's hair, and his gaze was hollow.
Even after relaxing, his fingertips still trembled. A grown man, a recluse who had withdrawn from the world, had actually been driven into such a wretched state by a tiger...
Judging that the tiger had gone far away, the hunter immediately hurried back to the thatched hut with his distraught employer and the young attendant.
He tore off a piece of cloth and had the attendant draw a tiger on it, then deftly tied it to the yellow dog's collar. After feeding the dog two more chunks of meat, he pointed toward the path out of the mountains and shouted a few words. The yellow dog immediately ran out of the mountains without looking back.
He then barricaded the door and window with thick logs and sharpened the iron hunting fork.
Chi Ke sat before the window. The opening that should have admitted daylight was blocked by logs, leaving only a few faint rays filtering through the gaps into the dim little room. He sat in silence, as though his mood had merged with the gloom filling the hut.
Only when it had grown completely dark outside did the attendant light a candle and bring over a bowl of hot porridge. The flickering candlelight cast a somber shadow on the wall.
The candle flame swayed as Chi Ke spoke hoarsely.
"I won't give up just like this."
His hands clenched the earthenware bowl and chopsticks, his knuckles turning white.
"If I can't finish the road in this life, then I'll keep walking in the next, if there is one!"
With that, he lifted the bowl and swallowed in great mouthfuls, chewing up his unwillingness to yield along with the coarse fare and forcing it all down.
The candlelight in the valley couldn't be seen that night, but that heat source burned hotter than ever.
The next day.
In the middle of the night, more than twenty people entered the mountains carrying bows and hunting forks. The yellow dog led over a dozen village hunting dogs, running with its tongue flopping to one side, its ribs heaving as it panted.
Seeing the arrivals, the hunter finally smiled.
The dog rushed into the courtyard, its hot breath washing over the hunter's hand. Its tail struggled to wag between exhaustion and excitement.
Breathing as he gazed at the moon, Black Snake spotted the cluster of heat sources and heard dogs barking one after another.
After dawn, he watched the long procession descend along the streamside path and saw the hunter carrying the yellow dog on his back.