Normally, Li Long would not have wanted to go out. He just wanted to stay home with his wife and child on the warm kang, and feed Little Black and the two roe deer-though the roe deer had grown a little too big and were no longer quite so much fun.
But after Gu Xiaoxia shooed him out, he drove the Jeep to buy some daily necessities, picked up some grain along the way, and headed into the mountains feeling just as happy. He even felt as though he had escaped a cage.
It was a contradictory feeling.
As he left the county town, he spotted a watermelon stall on the west side and bought seven or eight large watermelons. If Sun Jiaqiang was still at the Wooden Cabin, he was probably missing big watermelons, wasn't he?
When the Jeep passed Qingshui River Village, Li Long could see plenty of people harvesting wheat in the fields around the village. Several wheat stacks had also been piled up on the village threshing ground.
Threshing had not begun yet, and there was no sound of tractors or horse-drawn rollers.
Li Long did not stop. He drove the Jeep along the mountain road, passed through Mountain Pass, and headed straight for the Wooden Cabin.
It was not yet time for Harimu and the others to return, so Li Long planned to go straight there and see whether Sun Jiaqiang was around.
As he passed the woods, the sound of the Jeep startled several birds into flight.
The mountains, quiet until then, grew a little noisier.
A gray shape darted across the left side of his view ahead, then plunged into the woods.
Holding the steering wheel with his left hand, Li Long reached for the rifle on the passenger seat with his right,