C139

In the middle of the night, Yang Fan was suddenly awoken by the light shining from the window. He got up and leaned against the window to look outside.

Passing through the fires of the mountains was not a trivial matter that had nothing to do with the people of the mountain. It was something that could affect the lives and livelihoods of the entire family.

Yang Fan quickly put on his clothes, pushed open the door and walked into the courtyard. He climbed up a locust tree and looked towards the west.

At this time, many people in Yang Shuigou had already woken up. Some people were standing on the nearby hill, while others were climbing on top of houses or trees. Everyone wanted to see where the mountain fire was located, and it was not far from Yang Shuigou.

In terms of experience, Yang Fan and his father, Yang Dong, were still a distance away. After looking for a long time, he still wasn't able to pinpoint the location of the mountain fire. Yang Dong only needed to take a glance before telling Yang Fan that the Tiger Ridge in the west was on fire.

The Tiger Ridge was a much larger mountain range than the Pear Ridge. It was around ten li away from the Yang Tree Gully. It was near the Snake Valley where Yang Fan had brought Song Bo Wen and Wang Da Fu to.

Normally, they wouldn't be able to get this far, but if they caught up with a strong gust of wind, it would be hard to say.

Whether it was the southeast wind or the southwest wind, the possibility of the mountain burning into the poplar ditch was not very high, but he had to be on guard against it. With the west wind blowing all at once, he would not be able to do his best to prevent the fire, and once the fire was over, it would be too late to save the fire.

The village chief Yang Guoqing's loud voice gathered the villagers, calling out a total of five or six names, all of them being young people who had stayed in the village. Among them were Yang Fan's name, as well as Yang San Mao's, who told them to be young, and now was the time to use them.

This sort of thing was unavoidable. Yang Fan didn't have anything to complain about, so he quickly packed a simple backpack and went to the village's threshing floor to gather. He prepared to enter the mountain during the night to check out the fire.

When Yang Fan arrived, Village Head Yang Guoqing was already waiting for everyone. As the village head, he had to lead the way with his own body, even if other elderly villagers could not enter the mountain, he could not. Otherwise, how could he submit to the crowd and allow his own descendants to enter the mountain in the middle of the night?

After a short while, everyone had arrived. With the exception of a guy who wasn't in the village yet, all the other young people who were called by Yang Guoqing had also arrived.

There were also several middle-aged men who volunteered to follow Yang Guoqing into the mountain to check on the fire, but Yang Guoqing didn't refuse. Including him, there were a total of ten of them, after exchanging a few words, they arrived at Scattered Flower Creek, sat on Yang Guoqing's boat, and went into the mountains to the west.

Entering the mountain at night was not a joke. Even without the wild beasts and venomous insect and snake ants, just the complex terrain of the mountain could easily cause a loss to the team.

Fortunately, Yang Guoqing and a few middle-aged men were present. Otherwise, such inexperienced youngsters would really be unreliable.

When the flat-bottomed boat came to a halt at the upper reaches of Flowery Stream, the ten of them abandoned the boat and went ashore, changing their route to the mountain road.

Yang Guoqing took the lead with two other middle-aged men who were walking at the front with a powerful flashlight. The other two middle-aged men were walking at the back with Yang Fan, Yang San Mao and the other two young men in the middle.

With Yang Fan's current sight, even without lighting, he could still see things clearly in the middle of the night. Although he might not be as good as tigers or lions, he could move around as he pleased.

Even though Yang Guoqing had been the village chief for more than ten years, he was still a good hunter when he was young. He might be weaker than Yang Dongdong, but he was still much stronger than the others.

As long as you follow the path that the hunters have left behind, you will be fine. The only thing you need to pay attention to is not to step on venomous snakes. As for the large ferocious beasts, they are too close to the village.

If it was an ordinary person, they might not even be able to reach the ten-mile distance by walking on the mountain path at night. However, Yang Fan and the others only needed less than two hours to see the Tiger Ridge reflected in the fiery light.

The fire on the Tiger Ridge was fierce, but it did not seem to be as large as everyone had imagined. Furthermore, it was located in the east and west. It did not seem to be connected together as it was not a natural fire.

Yang Guoqing divided everyone into two teams, a five-man team, and went along both sides of Tiger Ridge to check the specific situation of the fire.

As the village chief, Yang Guoqing had the responsibility of guarding the forest. For something as big as the mountain fire, he had to report it to his superiors, and he also had to report it in time. Otherwise, if something big happened, he would be arrested for dereliction of duty.

Yang Fan and Yang Sanmao were in a team, following the Tiger Ridge towards the north to observe the fire. The team was led by none other than Yang Fan's fourth uncle, Yang Xiangcheng, and another middle-aged man.

After walking about two to three miles, there was still no sign of the mountain fire burning down from the Tiger's Ridge. Tonight was a beautiful night, the wind was very small, and the wind was blowing from the southeast, adding to the fact that the fire was moving upwards, if one was lucky, the wind would never be strong. Even if the entire Tiger's Ridge was burned to the ground, it would not affect anything else.

The five of them walked for a while, but still didn't discover the possibility of the fire burning Tiger Ridge. Yang Xiangcheng discussed the matter with another middle-aged man, and the group began to walk back, preparing to gather at the location of their separation and then return home.

Suddenly, Yang Fan caught sight of a figure from the corner of his eyes. However, when he tried to look at it clearly, there was nothing he could see.

"Fourth uncle, wait a moment, I think I saw someone." Yang Fan called his troops to a halt, climbed up a large tree, and looked around. Under the light of the fire atop the Tiger Ridge, the trees all around were filled with shadows.

"Brother Fan, are you seeing things?" "I'm a coward, don't scare me. This is the middle of the night and the wilderness is everywhere. Where did this person come from?" Yang San Mao saw that Yang Fan didn't come down from the tree for a long time, and suddenly thought of those ghost stories he often heard. He felt his hair stand on end, and even his voice trembled.

"Xiaofan, did you see anything?" Do you need me to go up there too? " Yang Xiangcheng somewhat believed what Yang Fan said, because he felt that the flames on the Tiger Ridge seemed to be man-made, so it wouldn't be strange if Yang Fan could actually see figures.

"No need, fourth uncle. I'll take a look. I'll go down shortly." Yang Fan didn't let Yang Xiang climb the tree. If he couldn't see anything with his own eyes, then it would be useless for the others to climb up.

Even Yang Fan himself suspected that he was seeing things. Just as he was about to descend from the tree, he suddenly saw a shadow flash by, leaving an image in his vision. When he looked again, he didn't see anything!