Although the Shennongjia primeval forest does not grow food, it is also a treasure mountain.
The unique geographical environment and climatic conditions make it a place where a variety of flora and fauna meet, and it is known as the "gene bank of animal and plant germplasm".
Of course, this good name is of interest to biologists like Lin Shuo's second wife, Di Lan. For the locals, the benefits here are another name for this place.
Kingdom of Chinese Herbal Medicine.
In ancient times, Shennong tasted all kinds of herbs here, wrote "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", and left behind the legend of "building a wood for an altar, and flying a crane to the sky".
Today's mountain people rush to the deep mountains again and again with personal risks, and they don't have such a big pursuit. They are nothing more than the oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea at home.
Furthermore, children go to school, weddings and funerals.
Now that the He family's hunting ground is in trouble, the way of life will be cut off.
A large number of mountain people went to work in the city, and the He family took advantage of the opportunity to secure a house and send them a house. The number of people in the mountains is decreasing day by day.
But even so, there will always be people guarding the mountains, such as Lehua and his mother, the orphan and widow.
Lin Shuo learned before that Lehua sneaked into the mountains this time, most likely to collect herbs for his mother.
Lehua's mother had a boil on her back, the pain was unbearable, and she hadn't slept for several nights.
In Shennongjia, there are four kinds of extremely precious medicinal materials, which are called "Wen Wang's pen", "a bowl of water by the river", "a bead on the head", and "a seven-leaf flower".
According to Lehua's mother's symptoms, Lin Shuo knew that the medicinal material he was looking for should be "Aesculus chinensis".
This thing is also called Chi Xiu, and it has a miraculous effect on boils, swelling and pain.
Lin Shuo can now be sure that the child must have found the medicine.
The plant in front of me is a veritable seven-leaf flower, with a flower on top of seven leaves.
I can't tell what color the flowers are, because it's completely dark and the light is too dim.
But things are right.
And the scent of Lehua, which Lin Shuo had been following, ended here.
People just disappeared out of thin air.
The smell of people is gone, but the smell of wild beasts is now coming from far away from all directions.
The encirclement has already been formed.
These are eight beasts of different breeds, but Lin Shuo doesn't know what they are just based on the smell.
The Shennongjia forest area is the territory of the He family, and hunters inherited from other families will not come unless they are adults.
Lin Shuo's adult hunting was completed in the Qinling Mountains, so it was his first time here.
He knows most of the medicinal materials here, because they are also found in other places, but Shennongjia is particularly famous.
But he doesn't know the beasts here.
Because most of the wild beasts in the He family's hunting ground were not native to China, but the He family captured cubs from all over the world a hundred years ago and put them in. They are essentially invasive alien species.
It's okay to not know what these eight beasts are, but Lin Shuo still has a rough idea of their biological groups.
These are eight mammals with particularly large body odors.
Fighting against this kind of thing at night, unless it is absolutely necessary, even the Lin family has to weigh it carefully.
In the long history of biological evolution, there was a period of "dragon-beast hegemony", that is, reptiles with unstable body temperature and mammals with constant body temperature competed in various ecological niches.
At the beginning of that period, mammals were at a disadvantage, so they could only hide in their nests during the day, and came out to eat when the ambient temperature dropped at night and those ectothermic animals were not as energetic as during the day.
This kind of strategic flexibility under the pressure of biological competition has allowed mammals to gradually evolve extremely developed night vision capabilities.
When humans first evolved, they experienced several rounds of mass extinctions, and the competitive environment changed again.
Humans were still apes living in trees at that time, eating fruit.
Being able to tell whether the fruit is ripe, and being able to distinguish between red and green means that you have mastered the core competitiveness in the population.
The light is weak at night, and no matter how strong the night vision ability is, you can't see the color spectrum, so you can only see it when the sun comes out during the day.
Human ancestors thus slowly became mammalian outliers, diurnal and sensitive to the distinction between red and green.
And because they are not active at night, the night vision ability that mammals are generally good at, including the whole set of perception ability at night, has been degraded in all aspects by human beings.
Even today, the inheritance hunters with unique skills including Lin Shuo have reversed this talent disadvantage, but generally they cannot escape the law of biological evolution.
Therefore, it is a big disadvantage for hunters to fight against mammalian beasts at night.
What's more, Lin Shuo was not around this time, and Lin Shuo still had two burdens behind him.
He Yongnian is a nine-inch hunter, and his ability is not bad, but eight beasts of different species, this is not something a hunter of this level can deal with.
As for Mr. Qi, this girl still doesn't know what the situation is, let alone.
Right now, Lehua's smell suddenly disappeared, and Lin Shuo couldn't continue to search, but it didn't mean that the matter would stop here.
Xiao Ba also came this time, was let up by Lin Shuo, and is now wandering around Shennongjia.
When the bird returns, there will surely be new leads.
At this moment, Lin Shuo judged the situation and realized that it was not wise to break out, so he simply sat down and asked He Yongnian to get some firewood from nearby, so that he could light the bonfire.
It was freezing cold in the mountains at night, and he and He Yongnian were fine, Teacher Qi couldn't bear it as a woman.
This girl was a little stupid, but it wasn't such a big crime as being frozen to death.
He Yongnian quickly lit the bonfire.
As soon as the fire light shines, the body relaxes, and the heart naturally calms down.
Teacher Qi looked at the fire in front of him, sat on the ground with his hands on his knees, and lost his mind for a while, it seemed that his mind hadn't turned yet.
He Yongnian is a hunter after all, now his brain is active, and he asked:
"Boss, what's the current situation?"
"It's okay." Lin Shuo said, "If you're tired, go to sleep when you should. Right now, we're surrounded by eight beasts of different species, and they're standing guard for us. It's probably going to be a peaceful night."
"Boss, don't entertain me." He Yongnian pointed at Teacher Qi, "At least I'm smarter than her, and I can tell what irony is."
"I didn't say irony." Lin Shuo said, "It's all the truth."
"Then you are troubled, let me understand." He Yongnian rolled his eyes.
Lin Shuo smiled: "You, He Yongnian, have been a hunter for not a day or two. Have you seen this battle before?"
"I've never seen it before." He Yongnian shook his head and said with a wry smile, "Even if I've experienced it, I don't know. I'm not as capable as the chief executive. If I can go a long way, I'll know that something is approaching me."
"Then, have you ever heard that eight beasts of different species will surround people?"
"If it's the same thing, it's possible." He Yongnian said, "Group hunting, this is not uncommon among beasts of different species, but from your point of view, these eight heads are not from the same species."
"You should be more aware of the situation in your He family's hunting ground than I am." Lin Shuo said, "In order to prevent the wild beasts from breeding each other out of control, the cubs of the different species were released individually, and they were not of the same species in the first place."
"So it's hell." He Yongnian shook his head.
"The current situation is not as simple as encircling us." Lin Shuo said, "They call it siege without attacking, and they are standing still, like standing guard. Do you know what that means? ?”
"Is someone in control?" He Yongnian asked.
"Yeah." Lin Shuo nodded, "Naturally, someone controls it. This person's method of controlling animals is very clever, better than the Miao family."
"Lord Ma?"
"If there is such a person, it is likely to be him." Lin Shuo said.
"Then why did he do it?"
"I don't know." Lin Shuo shook his head, "But it's also because you don't know that you, He Yongnian, can sleep well tonight."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't tell us his intentions, how could he let us die?" Lin Shuo said.
"Understood." He Yongnian nodded, "Then I can sleep, how about you?"
"I can't sleep."
"And why?"
"Because there is another possibility, I have to be on guard." Lin Shuo looked up at the night in the distance and said.
"Which possibility?"
"He didn't tell me his intentions, but told others. I am currently his bargaining chip on the negotiating table."
"Boss, I can't understand again."
"You don't need to understand, just sleep." Lin Shuo smiled slightly, "I'll watch the night. You should sleep well and refresh yourself. I'll take the two of you to break through tomorrow morning."
"yes!"
…