"CRACK!"

With a sharp crack, the lynx’s spine snapped.

The lynx shrieked in agony, its body convulsing.

Zhao Jun immediately followed with another blow. Careful to avoid hitting Daqing, he struck the lynx’s neck at an angle. With another CRACK, blood foamed from the lynx’s mouth, and it stopped breathing.

"Get back! Get back!" Zhao Jun yelled, waving his hands to shoo the dogs away.

Just then, Li Baoyu rushed over. He helped Zhao Jun drive all three dogs away and wrestled the dead lynx from their jaws.

"Look what they’ve done to it!" Li Baoyu said, flipping the lynx over. Its hindquarters had been torn to shreds by Hua Xiao’er.

As Li Baoyu spoke, the lynx’s head lolled down his arm. A large flap of skin on its head, including an ear, had peeled away from its skull and hung loosely.

Daqing’s bite may have been gentle on wild boars, but it was vicious with the lynx, managing to tear the skin right off its head.

Zhao Jun reached out, grabbed the lynx’s left foreleg, and with a slight tug, pulled the entire limb right off.

This wasn’t a testament to Zhao Jun’s strength; Da Huang had gnawed and torn at this foreleg, breaking the bone and leaving it attached by only a sliver of skin. That’s why it came off so easily.

"This..." Li Baoyu was visibly unhappy, muttering, "Can we even get a good price for this now?"

"My foolish friend, it’s still better than being torn to shreds, isn’t it?"

Zhao Jun said, bending to pick up the detached lynx leg from the snow.

But just then, Hua Xiao’er and Daqing let out a few whimpers and both took off toward the north.

Da Huang, however, looked at Li Baoyu and stayed put, wagging its tail nonstop toward the north.

’Not good!’ Zhao Jun’s heart sank. He knew from his two dogs’ behavior that this wasn’t the excitement of spotting new prey, nor was it the wariness of encountering a stranger. This was how they acted when they met their master.

There were only a few people in his family. His mother and two younger sisters would never come out to the mountains, so there was no need to wonder who the approaching person was.

"Run!" Zhao Jun yelled to Li Baoyu. Grasping the lynx leg like a relay baton, he sprinted back the way they came, whistling as he ran.

Li Baoyu now knew who was coming, too. He hastily hoisted the dead lynx onto his shoulder and broke into a run.

You had to hand it to him—Li Baoyu was in excellent shape. He could shoulder a lynx weighing over fifty pounds and still run at top speed.

As Li Baoyu took off, Da Huang followed right behind him.

Hearing Zhao Jun’s whistle, Daqing stopped in its tracks and bounded back toward him.

Hua Xiao’er, on the other hand, spun around twice before chasing after Zhao Jun.

Two or three minutes later, Zhao Youcai appeared at the spot where the dogs had savaged the lynx. He looked at the bloodstains in the snow, his brow furrowed, and stared in the direction Zhao Jun had fled.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu took turns carrying the lynx as they ran through the snow. They covered nearly half a mile without stopping, and by the time they finally paused, they were so exhausted they nearly collapsed.

"Brother, your father... he won’t find out it was us who killed it, right?" Li Baoyu asked, leaning back against a large tree and pointing to the dead lynx.

Zhao Jun ticked off the days on his fingers. "Don’t worry," he said to Li Baoyu. "We’ll make sure there’s no one to testify against us."

"Huh?"

Zhao Jun smiled. "We’ll spend one more night in the mountains, then head down tomorrow morning. A small train runs in the morning, so we’ll take it into the Town and sell the pelt."

"Deal!" Li Baoyu was secretly delighted. ’If there’s no one to testify,’ he thought, ’that means this money will end up in my own pocket.’

Once they’d caught their breath, the two rose, shouldered the lynx, and headed for Xing San’s dugout with the dogs.

When they got back to the dugout, neither Xing San nor Xu Changlin had returned. Li Baoyu suggested they go ahead and skin the lynx.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment, then said, "Let’s not. We should wait for Master Xu to get back and see what he has to say."

When Xu Changlin had asked Zhao Jun to hunt the lynx, he’d offered a whole Lynx Fur as payment for him to bring his dogs and kill it.

The old man’s request was bizarre. He wouldn’t get anything out of it and would be out one Lynx Fur besides.

But from his conversation with Xu Changlin, Zhao Jun guessed that the old man might want the lynx meat.

That was why it would have been fine even if the dogs had swarmed and torn the lynx to shreds.

’I just don’t know what he wants the lynx meat for.’

And now, they had their lynx. Even though the pelt was damaged in places, it was still worth a lot of money.

This complicated matters, which was why Zhao Jun wanted to wait for Xu Changlin to return.

But after a long wait, it was Xing San who returned. He dragged a roe deer back from the mountain and buried it directly in a large snowdrift outside the dugout.

"Well, now!" Xing San’s interest was piqued the moment he entered the dugout and saw the lynx. He walked over, squatted, and stroked the fur a couple of times. Feeling its softness, Xing San exclaimed, "This really is a fine prize."

Xing San had barely finished speaking when Xu Changlin returned with White Dragon. The moment he stepped inside and saw the lynx, the old man’s face lit up with a huge smile.

"My boys, you two are really something." Xu Changlin gave Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu a thumbs-up. "I never expected you to bring it back in one piece."

Zhao Jun smiled faintly. "Master Xu, since it’s in one piece, there’s a share of the pelt in it for you."

The old man thought for a moment and understood Zhao Jun’s meaning. He smiled and nodded. "Alright. The pelt I promised you is yours. As for this one, the three of us will split it three ways."

"Great!" Zhao Jun said. "It’s a deal!"

Now that they had come to an agreement, Zhao Jun told Li Baoyu to start skinning the animal.

But just as Li Baoyu was about to start, Xu Changlin suddenly stopped him. "Son," he said, "we’ll eat the meat. But you have to leave the head for me."

"What? We can eat this meat?"

"Master Xu, what do you want the head for?"

The two questions came from two different people.

The one asking if the lynx meat was edible was Li Baoyu. He had eaten most kinds of meat, but never lynx.

The second question was from Zhao Jun. He had spent two lifetimes roaming these mountains and had never heard of a lynx head having any use.

What he couldn’t wrap his head around was why Xu Changlin would be willing to give up an entire Lynx Fur just for a single head.

After all, with current prices, a single pelt like that could fetch over fifteen hundred yuan.

Hearing this, Xu Changlin smiled at Li Baoyu. "It’s edible. I heard you caught one last time. You didn’t eat it?"

"No, we didn’t." Li Baoyu glanced at Zhao Jun. He could tell that Master Xu had no intention of answering Zhao Jun’s question.

Xu Changlin turned and called to Xing San, "Elder San, go ahead and braise this thing. When it’s tender enough to fall off the bone, we’ll shred the meat into large pieces and stir-fry it with chili peppers."

At this, Xu Changlin turned back to Li Baoyu and said, "You’ll know once you taste it. The meat on this thing flakes apart like garlic cloves. It’s absolutely delicious."

"Oh," Li Baoyu replied simply, saying nothing more.

Zhao Jun just smiled and didn’t press the issue. As curious as he was, if Master Xu didn’t want to say, he couldn’t very well force him.