Li Long looked around, loaded up some wild mushrooms with Meng Hai, and prepared to head back.
"Roar-!"
A long, drawn-out cry suddenly came from a distant valley to the south. Li Long stopped in the middle of getting into the vehicle.
Why did that sound so much like a tiger?
He waited for the sound to end, then turned to Meng Hai.
"We've heard it several times already," Meng Hai said. "We've all been guessing what it is. It doesn't sound like a bear or a wolf. As for a tiger, there shouldn't really be any around here..."
"It's happened more than once?" Li Long was a little surprised. "Do you hear it often?"
"Not often, exactly. It started a few days ago. Sometimes we hear it a few times in a day, and sometimes we go two or three days without hearing it once."
Li Long thought of that Tiger King.
Was it him?
Suddenly, he felt a little regret. He regretted building this road.
Had the road workers disturbed the Tiger King's "secluded cultivation," making him roar in agitation?
Of course, that regret lasted only a moment. The Heavenly Mountain range was so vast that a single road wouldn't affect much.
A tiger's territory ordinarily covered at least several hundred square kilometers. Surely he had other places where he could move around freely?
Once the roaring stopped, Li Long got into the vehicle, waved goodbye to Meng Hai and the others, and drove away.
He drove slowly on the way back, listening carefully the whole time, but never heard another roar.
Just before leaving the mountains, Li Long turned toward the Wooden Cabin. There, he saw Bolati talking to someone, with a cloth sack sitting beside them.
Most people used fertilizer sacks when digging fritillaria these days.