Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ah Ow’s voice was no longer as boisterous as before but extremely sad and shrill. Li Du, who was familiar with it, knew very clearly that Ah Ow was either injured or very sad or angry.
Brother Wolf had a pistol, but Li Du pulled open the backpack and took a couple of rifles out of the black hole, and then threw them to Brother Wolf and Firecracker.
Both of them quickly combined the pile of M4A1 parts into rifles.
Godzilla, carrying a shotgun on his back, quickly reloaded and headed for the area where the shots started.
Ah Meow was leading the way, knowing his friend was in trouble.
The mountains behind the campsite were covered with trees. The Appalachian Mountains used to be forested all over. Today, the southern part of the mountain range has one of the largest and most beautiful broad-leaved deciduous forests in the world, with plenty of coniferous trees.
The trees were not very tall. In the fall, the leaves turned into every hue of red, orange, yellow and brown before they fell down.
Li Du chose to stay there and set up camp because of the beauty of the forest among other reasons.
They entered through a stretch of red spruce and glue-fir, great hardwoods that stood on the mountains like giant sentinels and were very imposing.
Ah Ow’s voice sounded again and a gunshot was heard. Li Du was anxious and shouted, “Damn! Ah Ow! Come back! Ah Ow, come back!”
He surmised that Ah Ow met a hunter, and the hunter did not know the animal had an owner. They shot her because they thought she was a wild wolf.
Li Du could only worry, feeling helpless. He could not blame the hunter. For ordinary people, meeting a wolf roaming in the mountains would lead to the instinctive reaction of protecting themselves, which was very normal!
Brother Wolf, who knew from experience a human’s voice couldn’t spread very far in the woods, raised his gun and shot three times, as a signal.
Ah Meow dodged and moved into the woods, running very fast. Li Du and the others followed up as soon as they could.
Hearing their gunshots and Li Du’s shouts, Ah Ow returned. After going some distance further into the wood, Li Du saw Ah Ow.
Ah Ow ran fast, her strong muscles taut and her slender limbs extended powerfully. He was relieved to see that his little pet was all right.
However, when he looked again carefully, his breath caught in his throat. Ah Ow was carrying Ah Bai in her jaws and the monkey’s white fur was dyed red.
When Ah Ow saw Li Du and the others, she ran even faster. Li Du took over Ah Bai, whose red blood was flowing.
Brother Wolf immediately took out medication for injuries, iodine, and bandages. “Hurry up, it was shot!”
Perhaps because of the loss of blood, Ah Bai, who was always clever and mischievous, became a little listless. Its head flopped limply and its big eyes were not as bright as before.
Li Du embraced it and said in a gentle voice. “It’s okay, everything will be fine, dear, Daddy is here, Daddy will cure you, you will be fine in no time!”
Firecracker tried to stem the blood flow from the little monkey’s wounds. Ah Bai was shot in its abdomen, thighs, and buttocks. It was hit by a hunting rifle, and the wounds were multiple and messy.
Brother Wolf took out the bullet from the monkey’s body first. This was very painful, and Ah Bai struggled in Firecracker’s hands.
Li Du comforted it, but it gave out a weak squeak and kept twisting its body.
All of a sudden, Li Du’s repressed emotions burst out. He shouted, “Don’t move! Don’t move, Ah Bai! Damn, don’t move! If you move again, I’ll hit you. I’ll beat you, I swear.”
Hearing his roar, Ah Bai shivered in fear, but it still carefully moved wriggled free from Firecracker’s hands. Then he took out a few fruits from its bloody bag and handed them to Li Du.
The fruits were small and bright red. Those were the fruits of the dogwood. They could be eaten fresh or made into preserves or wine.
It handed the fruit to Li Du, its forepaws trembling and its eyes shining again.
Li Du suddenly understood its meaning. It was trying to tell Li Du that it was not only good at eating. It could find food too.
.
Li Du couldn’t help it. His eyes were red.
After taking the fruit, Li Du put them all into his mouth. He hugged Ah Bai and said in a low voice, “Good boy, Ah Bai is a good boy. Be quiet, we need to treat your wounds first.”
Ah Bai did not struggle, but it was squeaking in Li Du’s arms. The wounds were very painful.
Brother Wolf quickly removed the bullets and cleaned the wound with iodine. Firecracker skillfully took over and bandaged the wound with gauze, knowing he must be quick, as the little white monkey was bleeding.
Li Du felt it was still too slow and shouted, “Hurry up, hurry up! Damn, I should have taken Sophie along! If only Sophie were here! I’ll take Sophie next time!”
He had his reasons for being angry with himself. He didn’t think he was in danger in the United States, so he didn’t take Sophie, the surgeon, but he was wrong!
While they were busy, a voice behind them called out faintly, “Hey, where’s the white monkey?”
“It looks like the wolf got it!”
“Kill that wolf, damn it, that white monkey should be very valuable. I have been in so many places and hunted many animals, but I have never seen such a white monkey!”
“There’s no use killing the wolf. F**k, it must have eaten the monkey…”
As the voice approached, Li Du’s face became more and more gloomy.
However, reasonably, he couldn’t get mad, as the hunters didn’t know that Ah Ow and Ah Bai had owners and that Ah Bai belonged to a protected species, so theoretically the hunters couldn’t be accused of indulging in their favorite sport, no matter how repulsive it was.
He had only himself to blame for not looking after the little ones, which led to them being in danger.
Brother Wolf looked at him. He then smiled wryly and said, “Put away the gun, boss, don’t cause a misunderstanding.”
Lu Guan went up to greet the hunters. When they came out from the deep woods, he said, “Hi, good day. Are you hunting here?”
Half a dozen men, all of them very strong-looking, stopped at his voice and raised their guns warily.
Lu Guan smiled. “We are tourists. Are you tourists too? Or tare you just interested in hunting?”
“It’s none of your business,” said a black man with a bald head.
Someone next to him noticed and pointed, “Brother, the white monkey is in their hands!”
The bald black man looked carefully, raised the gun to Li Du’s arms and said, “Hey, that monkey is ours, what are you doing? Hand it over!”
Ah Ow stared at the crowd. When she saw him raise the gun she immediately rushed forward, lowered her head and issued a muffled growl, “Wooooo!”
The big black man noticed Ah Ow and said, “Hey, is this a wolf? Damn it, you are keeping a wolf as a pet?”
“That was the wolf that bit Sucker!” He raised the gun and suddenly pulled the trigger.
Bang!
