The sudden change took everyone by surprise. No one expected the weasel to have this trick up its sleeve, and Xu Lang was no exception. He hadn't expected this turn of events either.
Using the dim light from inside the room, Xu Lang could clearly see a large mass of gas rising from behind the weasel.
Before the smoke-like gas had even dispersed, a strange stench hit him. Xu Lang felt his breath catch in his throat, and a dizzying sensation rose, causing his eyes to blur and his ears to ring. It was extremely uncomfortable, with a nausea that made him want to vomit.
Just as he was about to rush out of the door, he saw Lao Hu already darting out. The moment the cold wind blew in, Xu Lang immediately felt much better.
Xu Lang's mind stirred, and a thought suddenly popped into his head. He silently circulated the faint energy within his body, and almost instantly, the uncomfortable feeling disappeared.
Xu Lang ran a few more steps forward, taking in deep breaths of fresh air.
At that moment, for the first time, Xu Lang felt how wonderful it was to be able to breathe fresh air freely.
Yan Zi and Hua Mei had also been affected. They had already run outside and grabbed handfuls of icy snow, rubbing it on their faces before feeling a bit better.
Xu Lang turned his head to look, but couldn't see Fatty. He hurriedly asked, "What's going on? Where's Fatty?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he saw Fatty crashing out of the window. This fellow must have been so choked up by the stink that he couldn't find the door.
Looking closer, Fatty's big face was green from the fumes. He hadn't had time to dodge, and his eyes were streaming with tears from the stench. He looked truly miserable.
But even so, Fatty still held onto the weasel with a death grip.
One hand held the weasel tight, while the other grabbed snow and rubbed it on his face. At the same time, he burst into a string of curses: "Damn it, you think you can run while you're in my hands? Ten pounds of fruit candy, even if you stink me to death, I won't let go…"
Hearing Fatty's words, Xu Lang was both amused and annoyed. He found the fellow's reckless personality endearing. This was a complete fool, one who valued money over life!
The room was uninhabitable. At least they needed to air it out for a few minutes to clear the stench.
Hua Mei lit the oil lamp in the nearby hut and started a brazier to dispel the cold. This hut was too small to accommodate so many people.
Besides, there was a difference between men and women. They couldn't possibly make Hua Mei and the others share a room with the two men.
As for Xu Lang, he was still a child, so it didn't matter where he slept. Lao Hu and Fatty took the opportunity to tie up the weasel.
Almost everyone was blinded by the promise of ten pounds of fruit candy. They had completely forgotten about what happened earlier. Fatty was so happy he was dancing around, and even Hua Mei had taken out some sticky bean cakes made with yellow millet flour from the jar. She heated them up and generously shared them with everyone to fill their stomachs.
This was a delicacy. It was something they rarely got to eat in normal times. They had no idea how Hua Mei managed to get so many sticky bean cakes.
Xu Lang couldn't help but lament the hardships of this era. Decades later, people would be living a life of luxury, wasting food every day. They didn't realize how precious food was in this time.
Every grain of rice and every sip of soup should be cherished; each thread and every piece of cloth should remind us of the difficulty of making a living.
In Gangzi Camp, some food could get you a wife. In a few decades, the bride price for a wife would be exorbitant. And don't even mention the car, house, and savings. In the end, you end up marrying a granny and taking care of her.
But that's not all. You might even end up doing something reckless and add some color to the heads of your fellow countrymen!
What's more, you might not even know who you're raising a child for!
Xu Lang had witnessed countless such bizarre events in this age of information overload.
Some things were so mind-boggling, they wouldn't even dare to write them in novels, yet they were real.
Xu Lang ate three of the sticky bean cakes, then broke off a bit and tossed it to the weasel. But it wouldn't eat. It looked like a mournful woman, squatting in the corner staring at the ropes binding its body. Its expression was filled with sadness, and its big, watery eyes were glistening with tears.
For some unknown reason, seeing the weasel in such a state made him feel a pang of guilt.
But Xu Lang quickly suppressed this thought. Especially since the other four were so excited, dreaming of the ten pounds of fruit candy. They couldn't possibly let it go.
If it was just his own prey, he might have actually considered letting go of the weasel out of compassion for an animal with such intelligence.
Fatty found the situation amusing and sneered, "You have the nerve to cry? I, on behalf of the people, want to ask you, how many chickens have you stolen from the people? You dare to fart on me? Tomorrow, Fatty will send you to the supply and marketing cooperative to be made into a scarf."
Lao Hu and Yan Zi immediately burst into laughter. Seeing how funny Fatty was being, Hua Mei couldn't help but crack a smile. The atmosphere of sadness instantly dissipated.
At that moment, Xu Lang suddenly felt like he had been tricked by the weasel.
Xu Lang laughed, "Comrade Little Fatty, you and this weasel share a common goal. You give him a stink, and he returns it with poison gas. You two are a perfect match. A man and a beast battling it out with farts in the dead of night, that's quite a tale.
Fatty was about to retort to Xu Lang's teasing.
Just then, there was a sound of banging on the door outside the small wooden house. A strange sound came along with it, like crying, but not quite. It was an earsplitting sound.
"I'll go take a look."
Lao Hu finished speaking, grabbed Hua Mei's hunting rifle, and pushed open the wooden door. The night was pitch black, and the wind and snow had started blowing again. The vast forest was empty, without a single human figure in sight. But how could the banging sound come from nowhere?
Looking at the vast forest, a chill ran down Xu Lang's spine. It was too strange.
Fatty suddenly shouted, "Who the hell is playing tricks, come out and let Fatty see. I'll slap you to death with my big hands!"
There was no movement for a long time, and the group returned to the room.
Xu Lang asked, "Lao Hu, earlier on Tuan Shan Zi, I heard you call the weasel Yuan Pi Zi. Is there any particular reason for that?"
Lao Hu explained, "We usually call the weasel Huang Pi Zi, but there's a rule in the mountains. After you see a weasel, you can't call it that anymore. Because the Greater Khingan Mountains have always had gold mines. You've probably heard the saying that the three thousand li mountains are rimmed with gold."
"Where there's a ditch in the mountains, there's gold. The old folks believe that weasels are in conflict with gold. So when you're catching a weasel or looking for gold veins, you can't use the word 'Huang' (yellow). You have to use the word 'Yuan' (prime) instead, otherwise you'll definitely come home empty-handed."
"That's roughly the idea. I was just saying it casually. It's all just superstitious nonsense. We're proletarian revolutionary soldiers. Why would we have so many taboos? It doesn't matter how you say it."
Xu Lang gave him a thumbs up in encouragement for his explanation.
Lao Hu loved to show off, and Xu Lang was a perfect straight man, instantly making him beam with joy.
What Lao Hu didn't know was that there was another saying: When someone gives you a thumbs up, they might not be praising you. It's also possible they're about to bombard you with artillery. Of course, Xu Lang was truly praising him.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
Suddenly, the banging sound came again.
The group quickly ran out of the hut to find out what was making the noise. Xu Lang looked down at the snow on the ground, hoping to find some clues. He saw a broken bowl in the snow ahead, and a few soybeans in the bowl.
But looking closer, Xu Lang noticed something different about the soybeans. They were irregular.
Hua Mei took out the only electrical appliance in the forest, a flashlight, and shone it on the soybeans. The light was blinding, and it was clear these were gold beans.
The group looked stunned. Xu Lang sighed, "This weasel has really become a spirit. It must be trying to use the gold beans to buy its life, to get us to let go of the weasel we caught. Basically, it's treating us like kidnappers."
"Look, there are five gold beans in the bowl. There are five of us. Clearly, the weasel wants us to have one each. It must have been following us all along. Only a weasel could leave such shallow tracks in the snow."
"Fatty, you mountain hick, could you please stop biting it with your teeth? How do you know if there's poison on it? Even if there isn't, it's still dirty."
Fatty immediately dropped the gold beans when he heard that it might be poisonous.
The others heard Xu Lang's analysis and felt a chill down their spines. They thought, could the weasel really have become a spirit? Otherwise, how could it know to use gold to buy its life?
Yan Zi whispered, "Should we let it go? It looks kind of pitiful. If we kill this weasel, the others will surely take revenge on us. In the past, people in the village who angered a weasel would mysteriously encounter misfortune."
Yan Zi wasn't soft-hearted. Otherwise, she wouldn't have become a hunter. It was just that she was scared. She had heard countless stories about weasels.
But Fatty said, "These days, even weasels have learned this trick. They're trying to use sugar-coated bullets to corrupt the iron will of our revolutionary soldiers. It thinks it's so clever."
"I think we should keep the gold. We definitely won't let the weasel go. We'll eat the sugar coating and fire the bullet back at it."
"Later, we'll go up the mountain and destroy its grave. We'll do it once and for all. We might even find more gold and trade it for more fruit candy. We'll be doing the people a favor, and maybe the organization will give us a commendation for eliminating a pest."
"These weasels have wreaked havoc on countless people's chickens, and maybe even harmed people."
Hearing this, Xu Lang felt something strange.
He felt it wasn't right. Since they had taken the gold beans, they should let the weasel go back.
But as soon as this thought arose, Xu Lang suddenly realized a problem. The idea itself was wrong. He had unconsciously started treating the weasel like a human again.
Thinking about this, Xu Lang couldn't help but blow on the cold wind to clear his mind. He thought to himself, this weasel is truly strange.