Chapter 13 Chapter Eleven The Hunter's Death

Heizi, Wang Chunhong, and Li Yuanxin went up the mountain to collect firewood, fearing that they would encounter wolves, tigers and leopards.At that time, the mountains and wild grass in Quliu Village were deep and lush, and jackals, tigers and leopards often appeared.They knew that there was only one person in Quliu Village who was not afraid of wolves, tigers and leopards, and that person was the old headhunter. The old headhunter is in his fifties, as thick as a cow, and he is also an orphan in Quliu Village who cannot get a wife.He would often sneak into the widow Qiu Lingdi's house and have a nice sleep with Qiu Lingdi.The old headhunter doesn't live in the village, he lives far away at the foot of the mountain.Quliu Village is a small basin, and it took the old headhunter more than half an hour to walk from his cabin to the village.Sometimes, Heizi can see a black spot moving from the foot of the mountain far away at the entrance of the village, and he can't reach it for a long time.The old headhunters are the watchmen of the brigade, guarding the forests and prey on the mountain, so as to prevent people from other brigades from breaking into their mountains and cutting down.The old headhunter had a hound and a gun.

When Heizi and the others went up the mountain to collect firewood, they all passed the old headhunter's cabin. Every time he passed by that place, Heizi would hold the hatchet tightly in his hand, and beware of the big dog of the old headhunter. The ferocious hound was sitting at the door of the old headhunter's cabin, with its ears pricked up, looking warily at the people passing by.When Heizi saw the dog, he would think in his heart, if the dog went crazy, no one would be able to stop it.Heizi quickened his pace.Wang Chunhong said, "Heizi, why are you walking so fast?"

Heizi was embarrassed to say that he was afraid of dogs. Li Yuanxin said, "Chunhong, don't you know that Heizi is afraid of dogs?" Wang Chunhong laughed. Heizi said, "Okay, okay, don't expose people's faults." They went up the hill. The old headhunter had a lot of prey, and he usually ate it himself, and sometimes he gave some to the widow Qiu Lingdi when he was happy.When encountering special circumstances, the secretary of the brigade, Qiu Huomu, would also ask him to get some prey. The old headhunter sometimes led his dog around the village and mixed some drinks at the branch secretary's house.He was very excited when he drank, his eyes were bright, and he told the story of how he killed a leopard with his bare hands when he was young.

Party secretary Qiu Huomu knew about it, but young people like Wang Songguo didn't. Qiu Huomu knew very well that the old headhunter at the age of nineteen was tall and heroic, and his strength surpassed that of the boatman and the dumb uncle.Unlike the dumb uncle punter and the others, the old headhunter has a murderous look about him. That was before liberation. That year, on the mountain road leading to the town, a leopard always came out to cause trouble, often killing and injuring passers-by. The county issued a notice that anyone who could kill the leopard would be rewarded with a hundred yuan.The old headhunter worked hard for two lifetimes, but he couldn't make so much money.

The nineteen-year-old headhunter is full of vigor. One night, the cold wind howled. The old headhunter drank a jar of old wine and went up the mountain with the gun on his back. No matter how hard his parents tried to dissuade him, it was of no avail.The father said to the mother: "We should prepare a coffin." The mother said with tears, "You can't say a good word, Amitabha, the merciful Guanyin Bodhisattva, you can save my son's life by appearing." The old headhunter came to the place where leopards haunt - Niushiao. The howling wind made the mountains and forests look like a stormy sea.The old headhunter lit a fire under a leeward rock, and then threw a piece of boar meat that had been prepared a long time ago into the fire.He found a commanding height, packed iron sand and gunpowder, and waited for the leopard to arrive.

Generally, tigers and leopards will come here whenever they smell the smell of wild boar meat. It happens that the wind is strong tonight, and the smell of wild boar meat will be spread far and wide. This leopard is very vicious. A few days ago, it killed a pregnant woman who was visiting relatives.If I don't get rid of you tonight, I'll be alive in vain.Damn, I'm going to die!The alcoholism of the old headhunter began to flare up. He knew the leopard was nearby. He could smell the leopard. He heard a shrill howl. Fuck, you're finally out! Sure enough, the leopard rushed towards the fire.The leopard was beautiful in the firelight, and its eyes were like bells, revealing a cold murderous look.

The leopard stopped before the fire. It wonders whether to snatch that piece of meat from the fire. At this moment, the old headhunter aimed at the eyes of the leopard. Only by hitting the iron sand through the eyes can the leopard be effectively killed.At that moment, the old headhunter pulled the trigger. "boom--" Hearing the loud noise, the leopard roared angrily and jumped up towards the old headhunter. The old headhunter's face was covered with blood, and his chest exploded. The old gun didn't give him face, and he didn't hit the leopard, but hurt himself.The eyes of the old headhunter were bloody, his head and face were smashed by the iron sand from the bomb, but luckily his eyes were not blinded.He howled, and a wave of anger welled up in his heart.

He stood up suddenly, cursed loudly, and rushed towards the leopard. The next day, the old headhunter's father took people to find his body, only to see him dragging a dead leopard down the mountain in a bloody mess. Father stayed. Those who went to him were all stunned. Afterwards, people asked him how he killed the leopard, and he said he couldn't remember it himself, because he drank too much. The old headhunter recovered from his injuries, and went to the county with the village head to receive the reward. The old headhunter became bruised, and there was no flat spot on his face.

At that time, it happened that the Kuomintang was arresting young men in this county. The county magistrate said to the old headhunter: "You deserve to be rewarded for eliminating harm for the people. The one hundred yuan the government gave you will not be less than one cent. Do you think it is better to take it now...?" The old headhunter was full of joy, he looked at the village chief.The village head said: "Lord County Head, what do you mean..." The county magistrate pretended to cough, looked at the eager old headhunter, and asked meaningfully: "How old is the young man?"

The old headhunter looked like a man in front of the leopard, but he looked fearful in front of the county magistrate.He replied in a low voice: "I am nineteen years old." The county magistrate raised his voice: "Nineteen years old, it seems that it should be a good age to be a soldier! It just so happened that the national army came to my county to recruit soldiers. Isn't this a good material? If the hero who beat the leopard is placed on the battlefield, then Isn't there a place for heroes to use their talents?" Hearing this, the old headhunter was terrified.

Who wants to be a soldier? How many people will be cannon fodder and never come back!The old headhunter didn't know what to say.The village head said: "Master County Chief, I think you have to show your respect and let him go. He is the only son, and he is gone. What will the parents do?" The county magistrate rolled his eyes, "Okay then, I'll help him manage some money, but are you going to take the money?" The village chief said, "No need, no need." The village head dragged the old headhunter and left. The old headhunter followed the village head out of the county party headquarters as if he had picked up a life from the battlefield.As soon as they got out of the gate, a person was chased out from inside. That person was the secretary of the county magistrate, and the secretary stopped them.The old headhunter looked at the secretary suspiciously, wondering if the county magistrate had changed his mind again.The secretary smiled, and took out a red cloth bag from his pocket and put it in the old headhunter's hand, "This is the ten dollars that the county magistrate gave you personally. I will give you ten yuan from my official salary to reward you!" The village head said: "Good county magistrate!" The old headhunter also said: "Wow, good county magistrate!" Although he didn't get a hundred dollars, he saved the military disaster and got ten dollars from the county magistrate. The old headhunter was still very happy.The old headhunter held the ten ocean dollars and didn't know what to do. The village chief took him for a stroll in the county town.They will stay overnight in the county town tonight, and return to Quliu Village early tomorrow morning.It takes a day to walk from the county seat to Quliu Village. The old headhunter decided to buy a better gun. The village chief accompanied him to buy a gun and then went to rest in the hotel. The village chief was too tired.The old headhunter promised to invite the village head to drink at night. The village chief fell asleep. The old headhunter was not sleepy at all, he bought a new gun for three oceans and had seven oceans left.He figured out what to do with the seven ocean dollars.He walked to the street alone, wandering around in the not-so-busy streets of the small county town. Suddenly, he found a circle of people on a street corner. He pushed through. It turned out that it was a girl with a grass root in her head, and beside her was a thin old man in ragged clothes.The girl's face was dirty, like a duck egg made of shit, her true face could not be seen clearly, and she was also dressed in rags.In front of the girl was a piece of blank paper, with four small stones pressing down the four corners of the blank paper.The old headhunter couldn't read the words written on the white paper, but he knew that this girl was going to be sold here. He asked a person in a long gown next to him: "What is written on this paper?" The man in the long gown gave him a contemptuous look: "You can't afford it. If you have five oceans, you can take this girl away." The man in the long gown shook his head and walked away. The heart of the old headhunter was moved. He was nineteen years old and hadn't found a wife yet, so he was considered incompetent in Quliu Village.He touched the seven ocean dollars in his bosom, and his heart was pounding. He was moved. He stared at the girl, staring intently, as if he wanted to see a lotus flower from the girl's dirty face. The girl had evidently spotted him too. She glanced at him, then looked down. As soon as the girl bowed her head, the old headhunter's heart was captured by her.That is a kind of shyness.The shyness of the girl is very touching.Without further ado, the old headhunter took out the red cloth bag from his pocket, counted five yuan to the old man beside the girl, pulled off the straw label on the girl's head, and dragged her to the hotel.The onlookers went into an uproar, no one thought that this young man in the mountains could spend so much money to buy the girl. When the old headhunter returned to the hotel, the village chief was still asleep. He filled a tub of water and asked the girl to wash her face.As soon as the girl's face was washed, the old headhunter was stunned, it was clearly a flower!The girl's charming face was fair and white, and he jumped up excitedly. Early the next morning, he and the village head led the girl on the way back to Quliu Village.Before leaving, he went to the hotel kitchen to get some pot bottom ashes, and wiped the girl's face, and the girl's face was blackened by him.The village head said: "You are crazy." The old headhunter had his own idea: "It's better to be safe, don't run into bandits on the road, see her beautiful and take her away." The village head said: "I didn't expect you to The boy is still very careful!" The old headhunter smiled. Just like that, the old headhunter returned to Quliu Village with a new gun and a bride, and it became a good story in Quliu Village for a while. The old headhunter never imagined that the bride brought unexpected disasters to his family. At that time, there were small groups of Communist guerrillas operating in the mountains of Quliu Village.The guerrillas often attacked some landlords and bullies, making those landlords and bullies panic.The Kuomintang sent a battalion of troops to Quliu Village. As soon as these soldiers were stationed in Quliu Village, the villagers in Quliu Village became even more panicked. Those unreasonable soldiers were stalking women and doing all kinds of bad things.At night, the doors of every house were locked tightly, for fear that the soldiers would suddenly come in and harm them. The old headhunter's bride does look juicy.That day, she got up early in the morning and went to the river to fetch water. On the way back, I met the battalion commander and a group of soldiers coming over.As soon as the battalion commander saw the bride, the weight was hanging on his leg and he couldn't walk. It's really a strange thing that such a beautiful flower can grow in such a remote place. As soon as they saw the expression of the battalion commander of the national army, his subordinates immediately understood what was going on. A minion blocks the bride. The bride is terrified. "Hey, our battalion commander has taken a fancy to you. If you follow our battalion commander, then you will enjoy great blessing." The bride's legs trembled. Her trembling appearance was like peach blossoms trembling in the breeze in the battalion commander's eyes, he narrowed his eyes, "What are you doing, let her go, what are you talking about!" The bride ran away as if fleeing. The battalion commander looked at the bride's twisting buttocks, with an imperceptible smile on his face. That night, rich man Li Wangcai invited the old headhunter to drink.The reason for inviting the old headhunter to drink is very simple, that is, the old headhunter killed the leopard to eliminate harm for the people, and he, Li Wangcai, wanted to express his heart.The old headhunter couldn't get over his hospitality, so he had no choice but to go to the banquet. The old headhunter drank until late at night at Li Wangcai's house, getting drunk like mud.The old headhunter's parents and bride are waiting at home for the old headhunter to come back. There was a knock on the door, "Open the door!" "Who is it?" the old headhunter father asked. "It's us, sending the old headhunter back. The old headhunter is drunk." The person outside said. The old headhunter's father said: "This kid, he can't stop drinking, alas!" The father went out and opened the door, and the bride followed. As soon as he opened the door, a group of Kuomintang soldiers poured in.The Kuomintang soldiers drove the old headhunter's father into the house.The faces of both the father and the bride changed.They were all people who had never seen the scene, and it was no surprise that they were not surprised when they saw so many soldiers pouring in. A man who looked like an official asked his father, "Where is your son?" The father stammered, "Drink at Wang...Wangcai's house!" The official said sharply, "You are lying. Your son is clearly a Communist. Did he run off to the mountains?" Father's face was pale. The official said, "Drag that young Communist woman away!" Several soldiers rushed forward like wolves, picked up the bride and left.The father knelt in front of the official and hugged his leg, "Sir, you made a mistake. My son is not a Communist Party member. He is really drinking at Wangcai's house. If you don't believe me, I can take you there!" "Old thing!" The official kicked the old headhunter's father aside, and that kick hit his father's heart, and the father screamed and passed out. The bride yelled: "Help—" A soldier gags the bride's mouth with a towel. The soldiers carried the bride into the Li family ancestral hall where they were stationed. Early the next morning, the old headhunter woke up from his drunkenness, his head was still throbbing and throbbing.When he got home, he knew something was wrong.Father lay dying in bed.His mother narrated what happened last night to him with snot and tears.The old headhunter went into the back room and took out a new gun, and filled it with iron sand.Mother said, "Son, what are you doing?" The old headhunter's face turned pale, and he remained silent. The mother's voice was bloody: "Son, don't go there, there are so many of them, they are soldiers!" The old headhunter walked out of the house with a gun in hand. Mother had no choice. She couldn't stop him when he went up the mountain to hunt leopards. Now that this kind of thing happened, who can stop him? He hadn't walked a few steps before he saw the boatman rushing over, and the boatman said out of breath, "It's not good, your wife has thrown herself into the river." "What!" The old headhunter buzzed, and he and the boatman rushed towards the river. The bride has been scooped up. She was lying in a piece of desolate green grass, her clothes were torn, revealing her white body.Her face was contorted, angry and pained.The old headhunter wailed, threw himself on the bride's body and wept bitterly. The old headhunter buried the bride. On a high hill, a new tomb stands silently. That night, the old headhunter walked into Li Wangcai's house with the blunderbuss on his back and a sharply sharpened hatchet knife in his hand, and chopped off Li Wangcai's head.After he threw Li Wangcai's head into a pit, he moved into a dark corner at the entrance of the Li Family Ancestral Hall.He saw someone standing guard at the door.He quietly climbed onto the roof. He came to the side room of the ancestral hall and took off a tile. He saw the battalion commander sleeping with a woman under the oil lamp. He knew that woman was Li Wangcai's concubine. He removed the tiles one by one. The dog and man found nothing. The old headhunter jumped down and killed them one by one.He escaped from the ancestral hall and threw the heads of the couple into the pit.Then, in the darkness of night, he fled to the mountains.His parents were stabbed to death by the Kuomintang with bayonets after he fled. The Kuomintang soldiers didn't understand their hatred and burned down the old headhunter's house.Some people said that the old headhunter went to become a bandit, while others said... Anyway, after liberation, the old headhunter returned to Quliu Village with the gun on his back. These stories about the old headhunters are circulating in Quliu Village like the wind. Naturally, Heizi had also heard the story of the old headhunter. Heizi had an indescribable feeling for the old headhunter.As long as he met the old headhunter, Heizi's heart would shrink.Heizi is wary of anyone who has killed someone. Heizi, who has always been afraid of dogs, thinks the hunting dog of the old headhunter is a good dog.The hound was usually silent, and it behaved very tamely when walking in front of or following the old headhunter. When there is nothing to do, the old headhunter will take his hounds to the grass on the wild river beach to catch hares.Heizi, Wang Chunhong, and Li Yuanxin have seen the scene of dogs catching hares. The old headhunter was sitting on the grass and smoking a cigarette. His gaze seemed empty. He put the gun aside.Every time Heizi sees the old headhunter, there are two things around the old headhunter, one is his old gun, and the other is his hunting dog. As the old headhunter sat there, the hound pricked up its ears warily. After a while, the hunting dog shot towards the grass like an arrow. Heizi and the others saw the grass trembling constantly. The old headhunter sat there calmly, still smoking leisurely. Before he finished his bag of cigarettes, the hound held a wild rabbit whose throat was bitten off and was still shaking.It put the gray hare in front of the old headhunter.The old hunter stretched out his hand and touched the head of the hunting dog. The hunting dog wagged its tail happily, which looked very beautiful and harmonious. The old headhunter's hand patted the hound's head lightly, and the dog jumped into the grass again.After going back and forth, before the sun went down, a few hares were piled up next to the old headhunter. "The hunting dogs of the old headhunter are really powerful." Wang Chunhong said. Li Yuanxin said quietly: "It would be great if I had such a hunting dog." Heizi felt that the hunting dog of the old headhunter was really good, but he didn't dare to have such a dog, because his memory of fear of dogs was too deep. The old headhunter stood up, the sun had already set. The old headhunter spotted Heizi and the others not far away, and he said loudly, "Come here." They walked towards the old headhunter. The dog wagged its tail straight at them, showing friendliness, because the master was also friendly to them. The old headhunter said: "You have been with me over there for so long, and it has been very hard. You can each take a hare and leave!" "How is this possible?" Heizi said. The old headhunter was on fire, and he said, "You guys just take it, don't talk so much nonsense!" Heizi and the others had no choice but to take a hare and walk back. The old headhunter strung up the hare, carried it on his shoulders, and walked towards the village with his dog. Heizi let him go first. Heizi followed behind him.The old headhunter walked very fast, leaving Heizi and the others behind in a while. Wang Chunhong asked: "Where will the old headhunter go?" Li Yuanxin said: "He will definitely go to the widow." Heizi asked, "How do you know?" Li Yuanxin asked back: "Does that still need to be said?" Sure enough, the old headhunter entered the widow Qiu Lingdi's house, and the door was closed, but the hunting dog did not go in. It squatted at the door like a loyal guard, guarding it vigilantly.Heizi laughed, the old headhunter was really interesting, he went in to enjoy the blessing, but left the hunting dog outside to stand guard.This seems to have become a custom, as long as the old headhunter's dog is squatting outside, people will know that the old headhunter is inside, and no one will go in. Heizi fell in love with that hound on a sunny noon.At noon, when Heizi went to deliver food to the boatman and returned to the village entrance, he saw the hunting dog running towards him covered in blood.The hunting dog ran directly to the brigade secretary Qiu Huomu's house. Heizi was very curious, he knew something was wrong. He followed. The hunting dog ran into the secretary Qiu Huomu's room, grabbed Qiu Huomu's skirt, and kept shaking his head, his eyes were full of pleading and uneasiness. Qiu Huomu understood at a glance that something happened to the old headhunter! He immediately went to the door and said loudly: "The old headhunter has an accident, the old headhunter has an accident!" The crowd came out with picks and sticks. The militia battalion commander anxiously called the militiamen to assemble with live ammunition. Qiu Huomu led the crowd and militiamen and ran towards the mountain under the leadership of hunting dogs.The hound ran very fast, and left the crowd far behind in a short while. It would stop anxiously and wait for a while, and then it would start to run forward again when the crowd approached. If people who don't know the truth see this scene, they will think that people are chasing the dog. The dog took Qiu Huomu and the others to the depths of the forest. People saw the old headhunter fainted there, the gun was far away from him, he was covered in blood, and his body was covered with marks of being scratched by sharp claws.Qiu Huomu immediately ordered the old headhunter to be carried to the town hospital for emergency treatment.It turned out that when the old headhunter was patrolling the mountains with his beloved hunting dog, he found a leopard.The leopard appeared to be identical to the one he killed decades ago.The leopard stared at him and growled at him.The old headhunter raised the old gun, which had been with him for more than thirty years. It was bought with the county magistrate's bounty after he killed the leopard.Before he could pull the trigger, the leopard jumped up and threw him to the ground.The gun was thrown far away, and the man and the leopard began to fight, and the dog also joined in the fight.If the hunting dog hadn't bitten the leopard's tail and bit it off, the leopard had to be wounded and go away, and the old headhunter would definitely have died.Obviously, this leopard came prepared.Vaguely, the old headhunter felt that there was a crucial connection between this leopard and the leopard more than thirty years ago. The old headhunter was rescued because of the hunting dog. After the old headhunter was discharged from the hospital, he couldn't lift his head up, and his face was dull. For the first time in many years, he was defeated by the claws of his prey. He walked to the cabin alone with his hounds. His heart was very desolate. He had a premonition that the leopard had not gone far, it was in the nearby forest, and the leopard would come to him again. He knew that sooner or later something would happen. After he was discharged from the hospital, he never went to the widow's house again. He is waiting. Waiting for a life and death struggle. That was something he couldn't escape. He has to face it!Ever since he killed the leopard thirty years ago, he knew that something would appear sooner or later, and he could only understand the mysterious omen.Now, he finally came. In the middle of the night, the old headhunter was sleepless.He sat there, clutching the old gun tightly in his hand.There was nothing in his eyes.He waited calmly.Dogs stand guard outside the cabin.This is indeed a good hunting dog, and the old headhunter didn't want it to be buried with him.During the day, the old headhunter kept chasing the hound away, but it would not go away.The old headhunter got angry and beat it with a stick, making it scream and walk away.The old headhunter thought it would leave him, but after a while, the hound came back again, licking the palm of the old headhunter's hand with its wet tongue, whimpering and wagging its tail, the old headhunter stroked the dog's neck with tears in his eyes. He turned his head and said emotionally: "Fool, why don't you leave, I will hurt you, I am old now, and my strength is not as good as when I was young, it will be unlucky for you to follow me, why don't you leave!" It was windy outside the house. The wind carried the smell of blood seeping in through the cracks in the cabin.The old headhunter smelled the strong smell of blood.He is very familiar with this bloody smell.Ever since he started hunting, he has been very sensitive to this bloody smell, especially after killing the leopard, the bloody smell has always surrounded and engulfed him.The smell of blood became his scent too. The wind howled and whimpered in the forest. The dog barked. He knew something was up. Immediately afterwards, he heard a heavy growl. That low growl contained hatred and anger. That growl was full of confidence. The old headhunter trembled in his heart. He stood up and walked out the door. They didn't even close the door, so they took the hounds into the forest.The wind howled, completely drowning out the old headhunter's gradually intensifying breathing. No one saw the fight. A few days later, someone found the bodies of the old headhunter and hunting dog in the grass at the bottom of a cliff.Not far away, there is a leopard body, which is a colorful leopard.