He was surrounded by wolves right from the start. Beneath the moonlight, a narrow path lay blanketed in snow.
Li Xiangdong carried a stick as thick as an egg in his hand. He wore a brand-new army-green padded coat and a padded hat, with a bedding roll strapped to his back and a large canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
He hurried along, glancing back repeatedly as he walked.
About fifty or sixty meters behind him, a wolf roughly the size of a husky was following at an unhurried pace.
Under the moonlight, the wolf’s eyes gleamed an eerie green.
Li Xiangdong was somewhat regretful. If only he had listened to the others and waited until someone else was ready to travel with him. Instead, he had insisted on going alone.
But it was too late for regrets now.
Since a wolf had already started following him, he had to deal with it. To avoid ending up in its jaws as its dinner, he needed to stay alert at all times, give it no chance to attack, and hurry toward the village.
If it got to the second half of the night, he would be in even greater danger.
At this point, all Li Xiangdong could do was keep picking up his pace. But whether the wolf attacked wasn’t up to him.
After he had gone another hundred meters or so, a second wolf suddenly sprang from the grass beside the road, not far ahead.
It landed directly in his path.
Seeing the wolf ahead, Li Xiangdong stopped and looked back at the one following him.
At this late hour, there was no way anyone would be walking along this road. The chance of someone coming to rescue him was practically zero.
That left him with only one option: fight the two wolves.
Li Xiangdong quickly steeled himself. Gritting his teeth, he glared fiercely at the two wolves. “Looks like you two really don’t plan on letting me go today. Fine, let’s see how this goes. It’s either you die or I do!”
He took off his bedding roll and shoulder bag and tossed them to the ground. Then he gripped the meter-long stick tightly in both hands, planted his feet apart, and watched the two wolves in turn.
Li Xiangdong had expected the two wolves to rush him and fight him head-on.
He was fully prepared for that.
But to his surprise, the wolves weren’t in a hurry. They merely came a little closer, then stopped twenty or thirty meters away.
One of them even crouched down and sat there, staring at him.
Those two pairs of glowing green eyes were quite unnerving in the darkness.
‘This won’t work. It’s only the first half of the night. If they keep wearing me down until the second half, I’ll probably be so frozen I won’t be able to move my hands or feet.’ Li Xiangdong thought.
The wolves were covered in thick fur, but Li Xiangdong wasn’t. Even with his padded coat and thick hat, he couldn’t withstand the bitter cold here.
While he was walking, he stayed active and didn’t feel that cold. But as soon as he stopped, he could barely stand it.
Seizing an opportunity, Li Xiangdong charged at one of the wolves with his stick.
To his surprise, the wolf saw him coming, sprang up, turned, and ran away.
But when Li Xiangdong stopped, it stopped too. And when he returned, it followed him again.
After several back-and-forth chases, the wolf was no worse for wear, while Li Xiangdong was exhausted and panting.
‘Damn, you two have become spirits or something? You even know how to toy with me. Uncle’s not chasing you anymore!’ Li Xiangdong leaned on his stick, gasping as he spoke.
After moving around for a bit, he felt a little warmer, but the warmth wouldn’t last long. While his body was still warmed up,
Li Xiangdong thought he should quickly gather some firewood, get a fire going, and then figure out how to deal with the two wolves.
Wild animals were generally afraid of firelight. With a fire, he could buy himself some time and get warm.
He looked around. Woods stretched along both sides of the path, with plenty of shrubbery, grass, and fallen leaves. He stepped off the road.
He went up to a birch tree as thick as his waist, used his stick to gather some leaves and dry branches, then reached up and pried off a piece of birch bark.
After checking that the two wolves hadn’t come closer, he pulled out a match and lit the birch bark.
Birch bark had one advantage: even the smallest flame could light it easily, and it burned very brightly.
People in Northeast China generally used birch bark to start their fires.
Unfortunately, before he could toss the birch bark onto the firewood, the two wolves had already closed in.
The wolves had been watching him the whole time. When they saw him enter the woods beside the road, they followed him in.
As Li Xiangdong gathered leaves and dry branches at the foot of the tree, the two wolves quietly crept closer while he wasn’t looking.
Although the birch bark was burning, that tiny flame wasn’t enough to scare the wolves away.
Besides, the wolves had been following him to eat him. How could a fire possibly scare them off? If anything, while he was striking a match, they had crept even closer.
In that brief moment of distraction, the wolves pounced. Li Xiangdong had no time to think of anything else and tossed the birch bark onto the firewood pile.
He suddenly drove forward with both legs and leaped aside, evading the wolves’ attack.
Li Xiangdong darted to the side, swung his stick, and brought it down toward the wolf’s head. Just as the stick was about to hit,
the wolf abruptly leaped aside, dodging the blow.
“Damn, you’re pretty nimble!” Li Xiangdong had expected his stick to land squarely on the wolf’s head.
But the wolf really was much more agile than a dog. It had actually dodged.
The wolf immediately pounced again. Li Xiangdong was startled for only a moment before dodging its attack.
He swung his stick again.
The two wolves and Li Xiangdong fought in the woods. At first, they were evenly matched, and neither side could hurt the other. But as time went on, one side was bound to let its guard down.
As one wolf pounced at Li Xiangdong, his stick came down at just the right moment and struck it squarely on the head.
Li Xiangdong had put all his strength into the blow. With a sharp crack, the stick in his hands broke in two.
The wolf let out a pained howl and was sent flying, crashing heavily to the ground.
Just then, the other wolf pounced from the side, aiming straight for Li Xiangdong’s arm.
He quickly dodged, reversed his grip on the stick, and thrust the broken, pointed end at the wolf.
'Thwack!'
“Riiip!”
“Awoooo!”
The pointed stick plunged solidly into the wolf’s body. The wolf’s teeth also caught the shoulder of Li Xiangdong’s coat and tore it open, exposing the white cotton padding inside.