While Li Long and Sun Jiaqiang were eating, he asked a question:
"Xiao Sun, how many days have you been staying here?"
"Let me count." Sun Jiaqiang swallowed his food, then thought for a moment. "Must be... four days. I came into the mountains at noon four days ago and headed straight here. I thought you might have opened up already. If you had, I could come straight to you.
"But you weren't open, so I could only stay in the shelter... It's all right, better than an Earth Cellar."
"Weren't there wolves at night?" Li Long asked again. "There are plenty of wild animals around here. It's dangerous."
Hot Spring Ravine was no more than three kilometers away in a straight line. If brown bears could reach there, they could most likely reach here too.
And when Li Long had stayed here before, there had been plenty of wolves at night.
"There were. I heard them howling. Not just wolves, either. A herd of wild boars thundered past in the middle of the night, then thundered back into the mountains just before dawn."
"What did you do? Wolves are cunning and vicious. Weren't you afraid?"
"I was, but I had a way of dealing with them." Sun Jiaqiang pointed with his chopsticks at the ground in front of the shelter.
"Before bed, I lit a fire right there. Wood burns slowly. It kept me warm and scared the animals off. Honestly, wolves, wild boars, whatever-they wouldn't come close when they saw fire. These last two years in the mountains haven't been for nothing!"
That explained it to Li Long. He glanced in front of the shelter and smiled.
"Did you sweep away the ashes after daybreak? I didn't even notice them when I arrived. Even now, you can't see