CH 19.1

It was still dark, and the mountains were foggy, if not for Shen Xuanqing and the dog, Lu Gu wouldn't dare to go up the mountain by himself at this time. 

The little dog barked twice from time to time, swinging in the open mountain forest. 

The two of them were still in the outskirts of the forest at the moment. People often came here, and there were few wild animals. There was no need to be afraid of bringing dogs. Those ferocious wolves, tigers and leopards were all deeper and farther away in the mountains. 

After walking for a quarter of an hour, to the forest with few people behind, the sun would come out, and the things that roamed at night would retreat to their nests before the sun came out , so there was no need to be afraid. 

It was not impossible to travel during the day, but Shen Xuanqing was used to walking at this time, and it was only half of the morning when he arrived in the deep forest house, and the remaining half of the day was enough to do many things. 

But at this moment, listening to Lu Gu's movements behind him, he thought to himself that next time, he should wait until the daytime to leave. Now that he didn't have to work so hard to pay off the debt, he should take his time and didn't hurry too much. 

"These chopped wood piles, keep going forward, and after a few trees in front, you can see the traces of axe cuts on the tree, just follow along." 

Hearing Shen Xuanqing's words, Lu Gu's eyes followed to look at the stake, and he wrote it down carefully. 

There were still some stepped roads in the front mountain, which disappeared at the back. In order to let him see it more realistically, Shen Xuanqing even told him to go to the front and pointed out the road signs all the way 

The sun hadn't come out yet, but it was much brighter than before. It was a struggle to pull the cart to the end, and when they saw a flat boundary, the two stopped to rest, and ate a steamed bun to cushion their stomachs. 

Stopping and stopping, originally Shen Xuanqing could get there in an hour and half, but today it took nearly three hours to get there because of pulling a cart. 

Lu Gu looked at the courtyard in front of him, who would have thought that there was such a tall mud courtyard wall in the deep mountain forest, which was higher than the wall of the house at the bottom of the mountain, and even the courtyard gate was tall, so it looked solid. 

Seeing the surprise in his eyes, Shen Xuanqing opened the door and pushed the cart in, and told him the reason when unloading. 

His master, that was, the old hunter, lay down early one evening after drinking alcohol. Before it was dark, he heard movement outside. It was an old bear coming from the depths of the old forest. When it came in, it broke into the kitchen outside and ate all the food. 

The rice and flour were swallowed, the bags of flour were torn apart and scattered all over the ground, the pumpkins and wild fruits were eaten up, and the litter of rabbits that were captured alive  to raise them were all killed by the old bear.

Meeting a bear in the mountains was not a trivial matter, especially this kind of bear that had lived for some years. It was like becoming a spirit. It could dig out any delicious food, and it looked terrifying. It could cut a person's head with a claw. 

The old hunter didn't dare to make a sound in the room, it kept wandering outside, trying to break into the room, wandered around outside a few times, and slammed into the door, fortunately, the old hunter locked the door with a thick tree trunk before going to bed, and after it hit a few times, it didn't break open, then walked to the window and smashed the wooden window with its claws. 

The old hunter's bed was right under the window. When he realized that the old bear was in front of the window, he quickly turned over and hid under the bed, and he didn't make any movement. 

The window was so small that the old bear couldn't get in, and it didn't scratch when it stretched its paws in. Maybe it was too lazy to move after eating, so it found a place outside to sleep on its stomach. It snored loudly all night, and the old hunter kept hiding and didn't dare to move under the bed, it could be described as a night of torment. 

It wasn't until dawn that the old bear had enough to eat and sleep, and then the old hunter dared to show his head, and hurried down the mountain while the sun was bright. 

Fearing that the old bear would often came to look for food here in the future, he called his whole family, four young and strong men in the village who could build walls with yellow mud and straw, and took some twenty dogs with them. Even the dogs from the next village were borrowed, and a group of people brought hatchets, bows and arrows, and marched into the mountain in a mighty manner. 

Being a hunter was risky, but it earned more money than ordinary farmers. The old hunter was unwilling to give up this work, so he spent a lot of money to build such a high courtyard wall in the deep mountain, blocking the beasts wandering out of the old forest.

Not only the courtyard walls, but also some of the houses that were destroyed were repaired. 

Now this house was given to Shen Xuanqing to live in when he came to the mountains. It was still strong after more than ten years, not only the courtyard walls, but also the beams and wood. The most indispensable thing in the deep mountains was wood, and no one could manage it here. All the huts were built with good wood, otherwise there would be heavy wind and snow in the mountains, and people would go down the mountain in winter, and if the roof collapsed, they would have no place to live when they came up again in the next spring.