King of the Wilderness

Chapter 68: Chapter 67: First Snow, Setting Rabbit Snares

The fifty-seventh day,

Lin Yu’an awoke to an eerie silence.

Unlike the usual morning bird chirps and the rustling sound of wind through the needle forest, today, everything outside the shelter seemed unusually quiet.

He sat up a bit puzzled, rolled out of the sleeping bag, and left the warmth of the deer hide blanket.

The stove inside the stone house hadn’t gone out yet, but thanks to the thick reed insulation on the walls, it didn’t feel cold indoors.

He walked outside the shelter, and the sight that met his eyes made him gasp in astonishment!

Overnight, the whole world had changed its appearance!

An expanse of white covered everything in sight! The ground, tree branches, the woodshed he built, and the roof of the smokehouse, all covered in a thick layer of snow! ℴ

The sky remained gloomy, and tiny snowflakes continued to drift down from the gray clouds with no sign of stopping.

”It’s snowing... It’s actually snowing heavily!” Lin Yu’an’s face was full of shock and excitement.

He walked out of the shelter, his feet sinking into the soft snow with a crunching sound.

A piercingly cold wind, mixed with snow grains, rushed towards him, making him shiver involuntarily.

However, after the brief shock, Lin Yu’an’s eyes showed no panic or dejection.

”Wow! Look at this snow! It’s incredible!”

His tone shifted from initial shock to excitement, even opening his arms towards the swirling snow.

”Guys! I really didn’t expect to persist until the day of the heavy snow!”

He excitedly spoke to the camera, his breath clearly visible in the chilly air.

”Do you know what this means?”

”It means all disguises have been removed! Any animal will leave the clearest traces!”

He bent down, grabbed a handful of soft snow, feeling its coldness and purity.

”To a hunter, this is a dream environment! Tracking will become easier than ever!”

”And luckily, I’ve made preparations in advance.”

He pointed to his sturdy stone shelter and the nearby simple woodshed full of dry wood.

”Our shelter has been fully upgraded with a reed insulation layer, capable of coping with such low temperatures.”

He turned and walked into the shelter, focusing the camera on the hanging smoked deer jerky and the fish balls stored in ceramic pots.

”A large amount of jerky and fish balls would ensure I don’t go hungry even if trapped inside for days!”

”But the downside is the wind is too strong, my Pioneer is completely unusable now.”

He first cleared the snow at the entrance of the shelter and the path to the woodshed, then carried a large bundle of dry wood from the woodshed to reignite the stove inside the stone house.

The fiery flames rose swiftly, soon warming the entire stone house like spring, starkly contrasting with the icy scene outside.

For breakfast, he luxuriously stewed a pot of steaming fish ball soup in a clay pot, adding plenty of wild onions and a few pieces of smoked deer meat for flavor.

The piping hot soup and fish balls dispelled the last bit of cold from his body!

After breakfast, Lin Yu’an didn’t hesitate for a moment and immediately started preparing for action in the snow.

”I can’t stop just because of a heavy snowfall, on the contrary, we need to seize this opportunity!”

He put on all his warmest clothing, donned his fur gloves, then stepped into the snowy forest that filled him with excitement.

Walking in the snow was somewhat challenging, with each step sinking into the snow.

But he quickly confirmed his judgment.

”Look here!” He pointed to a series of clear, plum blossom-shaped footprints in the snow.

”These are tracks left by a snowshoe rabbit! In the snow, their trails are as clear as highway signs!”

Lin Yu’an’s face was filled with excitement. He didn’t immediately follow the tracks but squatted down to observe carefully.

”Guys, tracking in the snow isn’t just about following footprints.”

”We need to understand its behavior patterns through these tracks. The stride of these footprints isn’t large, and the path is quite convoluted, indicating it isn’t fleeing, but leisurely searching for food.”

He stood up, eyes following the direction of the footprints—which led to a patch of low, snow-covered shrubs.

”In winter, snowshoe rabbits feed mainly on the tender branches and bark of these shrubs—this patch of shrubs is likely their ’dining hall.’

”And where there’s a dining hall, there’s bound to be a path leading to it!”

Lin Yu’an investigated the periphery of this patch of shrubs.

As expected, in this seemingly chaotic patch of shrubs, there were a few relatively noticeable sunken paths in the snow.

”Found it! This is the rabbit trail!”

”They move along these familiar paths almost every day—this is the best spot to set traps!”

Lin Yu’an selected the most densely tracked trail, which happened to pass between several closely spaced spruce seedlings.

”I’ll create a simple yet classic stationary lasso trap.”

”This trap doesn’t rely on complex triggers but purely on the strength of materials and the precision of placement to capture prey.”

He first cut a piece of steel wire about forty centimeters long, quickly making a smooth loop with a diameter of about ten centimeters.

Then, he tightly wrapped the non-loop end of the steel wire around the roots of a spruce seedling next to the rabbit trail, securing it firmly.

Leveraging the inherent stiffness of the steel wire and surrounding spruce branches, he propped up the lasso loop, suspending it right in the center of the rabbit trail.

”Look, like this. The bottom edge of the lasso loop should be about a fist’s height from the snow surface.”

”This height is precisely where the head and neck would pass, unsuspectingly sticking their head through.”

He carefully adjusted it, ensuring the lasso loop was perpendicular to the rabbit trail and the opening was smooth, with no obvious obstructions.

”The theory behind this trap is simple: when the rabbit’s head and neck pass through the lasso and continue forward, the lasso naturally tightens.”

”The more it struggles, the tighter the lasso will constrict, until ultimately catching it.”

From a distance, the snow trail, with just one almost camouflaged metal loop blending with the surrounding dead branches was visible.

In the following hours, Lin Yu’an added five more similar stationary steel wire lasso traps using the same technique.

Lin Yu’an brushed the snow off his hand, a confident smile on his face.

”The snowshoe rabbits in this area have a relatively fixed range of activity. With these six new lassos, I believe the fresh protein source for the next few days should remain stable.”

Having completed the trap setup, it was afternoon.

Sharp howling tumbled down from the distant mountain ridge, and visibility decreased compared to the morning.

Lin Yu’an could only return to the shelter.

(Just these 5 Chapters for now. More Chapters during the day.)

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