He must first get Su Ziceng down the mountain to find the old hunter who saved his life. Her eyes required treatnt; snow blindness, if not treated in ti, would lead to blindness. A blinded Su Ziceng would miss out on the many wonderful things soon to unfold, wouldn’t she?
Pello, stroking Su Ziceng’s forehead, gazed at her as a joyous smile appeared on her cheeks. He stopped in his tracks, the snow stopping at his knees. At that mont, he yearned to tell Ziceng the truth—to tell her she shouldn’t wear such a smile because, one day, he would utterly obliterate it from her face.
It wasn’t until the fifteenth day after the avalanche that Olson finally notified the local rescue team. As the rescue team entered the mountains and assessed the impact of the avalanche, they reported that several groups of skiers had been buried underneath the snow.
So local shacks and livestock were also crushed to death, along with so wild animals. No survivors were found, and several bodies, mangled beyond recognition by the imnse force of the avalanche, needed to be identified.
Upon hearing the news, Olson seed oddly in good spirits, abandoning his plan to descend the mountain imdiately. Instead, he felt the urge to go hunting.
"After an avalanche, the animals seeking refuge will co out, making it the best ti to hunt," Olson said as he readied his shotgun, donned his lightweight hunting attire—which included a bulletproof vest—and, with several skilled hunters by his side, they might just bag a winter bear, unseen for a long ti.
Wen Maixue also joined the hunt, wanting to experience the thrill of a real hunt, while Orleans followed groggily behind.
"Snap out of it," Olson pulled Wen Maixue into his arms, sitting on a snowmobile. "How on earth did I end up with such a useless thing like you."
The heavy wheels moved steadily across the snow, leaving parallel trails as if left by skis.
Olson, seated at the front seat, looked back and saw Mai Xue glance at Luo with a look of grievance.
Luo turned his eyes away, his hands rubbing the shotgun he held non-stop, heating the barrel with friction.
After the avalanche, the landscape was in disarray, and more traces of prey appeared on the snow, just as Olson said: after a severe avalanche was, indeed, the best ti for hunting.
Ahead and behind, the lead vehicle was a Volvo convertible heavy truck, followed by a modified Humr, with two small chimney-like exhaust pipes, stirring up a mist of snow and fus in the snowfield.
The snow roads sank under the pressure of the tires, compacting into ice. Fortunately, these vehicles were hard on fuel but easy on snow, and the journey down was relatively stable.
On the way out, those lazy hunters suggested hunting wild swans by Snow Lake, but Olson flatly refused. There was no need to hire a whole truck of hunters to hunt swans; he just wanted to show off to ta Wen Maixue better.
In the past few days, Mai Xue had seed unusually quiet, and even Luo, that useless son of his, looked listless all day. They wouldn’t enliven without seeing so blood.
"Orleans," Olson rolled down the window, indulging in the cold wind rushing in. His hat was lifted slightly by the wind, revealing patches on his head that resembled either bald spots or liver spots.
Mai Xue also turned towards the window, her hair neatly tucked behind her ears. To protect from the wind and snow, she covered her face with a light purple veil. The Green Love pin was fastened to her jacket.
She had almost argued with Olson over that veil that morning. The first one she chose was a black net, like the veils at Muslim funerals. Olson yanked down her black veil, spat on it, and cursed, "Don’t dare dress like you’re mourning a Black Widow; I’m not dead yet."
Olson had a talent for eliciting love and hate in people in a short period. When Mai Xue first t him, he was a suave middle-aged gentleman. But in these few short days, he had turned into a zombie as rotten as maggots, probing Mai Xue’s body every night with his dry and coarse fingers until it hurt all over her skin before he would stop.
The nights seed especially long, with Mai Xue shivering as she listened to the snores by her side. As her complexion progressively worsened, the madness in Luo’s eyes grew more intense.
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