Thinking of this, Chen Lan smiled and said, "Leave these foxes to me! You guys go and search the surroundings of this birch forest carefully. See if any other animals were smoked to death. Be careful when you search, and make sure to look closely before you act."
Hearing this, everyone agreed with a sound and immediately dispersed, searching carefully around the birch forest. Chen Lan also walked to the side of the large iron pot and began to prepare to deal with the foxes on the ground.
Except for the black and brown fur on their ears and limbs, most of the fur on their backs was reddish-brown. Among them, two foxes had particularly red fur on their backs, a bright red that was very beautiful. Chen Lan thought that these two foxes should be the legendary fire foxes!
They all looked as if they were sleeping in the snow. Chen Lan took off his gloves and placed his hands in front of each fox's nose to check their breathing. He found that none of them were breathing. As Chen Lan put them into the system's storage one by one, he couldn't help but sigh. These greedy foxes had lost their lives for a bite of food.
Chen Lan also had an unexpected discovery on the ground on the other side of the large iron pot. He found a snow fox lying in the snow, which is commonly known as a white fox. The snow fox looked like a sleeping "Pomeranian dog," with a pointed snout. Except for its nose and eyes, which were black, its entire body was snow-white, almost blending into the white snow. No wonder everyone hadn't noticed it earlier.
If one looked closely, this white fox indeed resembled a white-furred dog, but its body was more slender than a dog's, and its tail was longer, bigger, and fluffier than a dog's tail.
Chen Lan had long heard people say a proverb: "A hundred-year-old red fox, a thousand-year-old white fox, a ten-thousand-year-old silver fox." In myths and legends, it is said that a fox must cultivate for ten thousand years to become a white fox. This shows how rare these two types of foxes are. Chen Lan couldn't help but sigh at the magic of nature and lament his own good luck. He had encountered and obtained both a rare white fox and a fire fox at the same time, which could only be described as sheer luck.
Chen Lan sighed as he put the white fox into the system's storage and then used snow to wipe the large iron pot twice before putting it into storage as well.
At this time, those searching in the birch forest gradually returned. Seeing them excitedly carrying three wolves back, Chen Lan thought to himself, there were indeed some who got away.
After Chen Lan put the three wolves into the system's storage, he said to everyone, "Clean yourselves up properly. Don't fall behind, do you understand? I'm telling you, if you fall behind, you'll have to go back to the valley alone, or you'll have to stay here in this deep mountain and old forest along the Songhua River. We'll start by heading back the same way we came. If all goes smoothly, it will take at least five or six days, and if the weather is bad, it might even take seven or eight days. So, while there's still sun, I'll give you ten minutes to prepare. We'll set off home ten minutes from now."
Everyone also shouted excitedly, "Oh yeah! We can finally go home!"
Chen Lan smiled without saying anything, thinking that they were a little homesick, which was understandable. Besides, wasn't he homesick too? Moreover, most of these people had arrived at the valley when they were only a few years old. They had grown up in the valley and had not left for over a decade. It was normal for them to be homesick now.
Ten minutes later, Chen Lan led the members of the hunting team and set off as planned.
Chen Lan was even more eager to return home. While he was vigorously skiing forward, he thought to himself that he had been out with everyone for seven days, and it would take at least another six or seven days to get back. His triplet siblings, who had never left him since birth, must be causing a ruckus at home. Furthermore, with the New Year less than half a month away, the valley would also begin preparing for the New Year's goods. Everyone worked hard all year waiting for the New Year, and they had to rush back to the valley to make some preparations in advance.
In addition, his uncle and aunt were new to the valley, unfamiliar with the place. He had sent Xu Mingxuan to the farm, and both of them still had some troublesome chronic illnesses. He also had to ask Dr. Guo to take a good look at them before the New Year. Xu Mingxuan had to return home in a hurry this time, and this matter couldn't be disclosed. Therefore, the matter of treating his uncle and aunt would have to wait until he returned.
Chen Lan thought as he skied forward with all his might. He then thought about the New Year in the valley this year and thought to himself, "It seems like I won't have time to specifically go hunting this time. I'll just hunt whatever game I see along the way. If I don't see anything, I'll just keep moving! God bless! I hope everything goes smoothly on the way back and there are no accidents during camping at night."
Perhaps Chen Lan's prayer was heard by heaven. The journey back was relatively peaceful this time, and there were no attacks by wild boars or wolves during camping at night. However, Chen Lan still did not dare to be too careless. He would place several large animal traps in front of the snow dens every time they camped.
In this way, Chen Lan and his team members returned to Fuyu smoothly. They found the same snow dens they had camped in last time. Everyone inspected the snow dens and found that two of them were quite sturdy. If they were used again, there would be absolutely no problem. Therefore, they decided not to dig new snow dens today and would make do with these two snow dens for one night.
Since they didn't need to dig new snow dens, Chen Lan instructed them not to go too far and to collect plenty of firewood nearby to boil water and cook. He decided to take advantage of the time before it got dark to explore the surroundings and hunt some game, as this was the time when many animals came out to forage.
When he was here last time, Chen Lan had discovered that there were many prey in this forest, so he decided to hunt more to bring back to the valley. Now, near the valley, besides rabbits and pheasants, animals like roe deer and wild boars were becoming rare. It seemed that they had been hunted by the people in the valley, or they had migrated to other mountains.
With the system as a good helper, Chen Lan quickly found four target prey: four roe deer with their heads bowed, foraging. Needless to say, Chen Lan skillfully caught them all and put them into the system's storage.
Chen Lan wandered in the forest for a while longer, then shot a few more pheasants. After Chen Lan cleared out a rabbit's nest, the sky began to darken.
So, Chen Lan stopped hunting and headed back to the campsite with the pheasants and rabbits.