Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Deliberate
Actually, that could be set aside for now. Xie Changqing frowned: “What I’m more concerned about is what kind of tree branch could cut his leg like this…”
This kind of wound didn’t look like it was made by a normal tree branch.
“Hmm? What do you mean?” Qiaoba immediately perked up.
“When I was cleaning his wound just now, I was worried there might be debris inside…”
Generally speaking, with this kind of wound, especially one involving tree branches, there would be various wood chips, grass, and other debris left behind.
That would be more troublesome and quite difficult to handle.
So initially, Xie Changqing was thinking of directly exchanging medicine from the medical kit…
But after he arrived, he found it was purely just an injury. After cleaning it, there weren’t any of the troublesome complications he had expected inside.
Xie Changqing lowered his eyes and lightly tapped the wooden fence with his fingertip: “The main thing is that it’s snowing now. If that place isn’t far from us and the snow gets deep enough to cover that area…”
Then if people pass by, not only humans but livestock would be in danger too.
“Exactly.” Qiaoba immediately became alert and quickly went to get his horse: “Hairile! Hairile!”
Hairile was pouring water and quickly ran over, wiping his hands as he ran.
“Quick, come with me on horseback to check out where Haierte got injured!”
While the sky hadn’t completely darkened, they could make a quick trip and should make it back in time.
“Oh!” Hairile was honest-hearted and didn’t ask anything, just mounted his horse and followed.
“I’ll come too.” Xie Changqing didn’t wait for Qiaoba to refuse and said decisively: “If there’s any situation, I can handle it promptly.”
At least he had brought the medical kit – that place was apparently dangerous, so having one more precaution meant one more safety measure.
Qiaoba originally wanted to refuse, but hearing him say this, he gritted his teeth: “Alright, but ride slowly.”
After greeting Sangtu and the others, the three of them set off.
Nomin heard the commotion and chased out, but by the time she did, they were already nowhere to be seen.
She stamped her foot angrily: “Why didn’t they take me!”
Qiaoba led the way, running at the front.
Xie Changqing and Hairile followed behind. Running like this, the wind whooshed into their necks – it was really cold.
At this moment, Xie Changqing truly appreciated how thoughtful the scarf and hat Tana had put on him were.
No matter how strong the wind, only the area around his eyes felt a bit stinging.
Everywhere else was basically warm. Even if his legs and feet were a bit cold, it was just cool, not freezing.
“There! That’s the place!” Hairile suddenly pointed ahead.
“Good, slow down a bit – let’s go slowly.”
Although Haierte had been injured here before, you basically couldn’t see any traces now.
The white snow had erased everything.
Getting closer, they simply dismounted.
Step by step, they approached and could see that the snow was indeed shallower in some places.
“There was a stick here…” Hairile felt around and indeed found a stick to hand to Xie Changqing: “Here.”
“Good, thanks.” Xie Changqing didn’t dare touch it directly and used the stick to poke around the area.
After exploring this whole area, they found where Haierte had been injured.
Qiaoba’s face looked rather grim as he stared at the shallow pit with frozen snow and blood: “Someone dug a hole here and buried something.”
So when the horse passed by, its hoof would sink in and it would be easy to fall.
There could be holes everywhere on the grassland.
But generally speaking, if a horse lightly stepped and lifted its hoof, as long as three other hooves were on the ground, it generally wouldn’t fall.
Moreover, Haierte’s horse was Sangtu family’s best horse.
Fast and young.
“It wouldn’t have fallen unless someone had set a trap.”
Xie Changqing nodded. After measuring the distance, he found a sharpened wooden block from another location.
To prevent the wood from rotting, someone had even coated it with thick grease that had frozen hard.
So even though it had cut Haierte, his wound was quite clean.
It wasn’t because he was lucky – someone had done this deliberately.
“Despicable!” Qiaoba threw the branch in his hand to the ground and began cursing wildly.
He spoke extremely fast, cursing from the eternal blue sky down to the eighteen levels of hell, greeting this person’s ancestors and descendants, giving them all a thorough verbal lashing.
But cursing aside, they still had to do what needed to be done.
Together, they cleared the snow from this area a bit and found the traces extended quite far.
Haierte was really lucky – when he was thrown off, he slid a long way but landed on grass.
“So his leg wasn’t broken, just cut.”
After careful examination, Xie Changqing determined: “This was deliberately placed by someone, probably within the last couple of days, and there’s probably more than just this one.”
“But this is our ranch!” What made Qiaoba angriest was this point: “Even if you’re going to set traps, you can’t set them here!”
Whether the injured person was one of their own or someone else, they would still come looking for them!
“Quick, let’s search everywhere.”
Fortunately, the snow had stopped by now, and they looked around without daring to pause.
Xie Changqing felt around carefully and found a small mechanism: “There’s a grass rope here.”
“Hmm?”
Xie Changqing was wearing a scarf and hat but no gloves, so he was feeling around bare-handed.
It was precisely because of this that he felt one end of a grass rope embedded in the pit: “He was probably afraid that once the snow got deep, he wouldn’t be able to find the locations himself.”
So he had installed the grass rope before setting the traps.
As long as he followed the rope, he could connect all the holes.
“This makes it much easier.” Qiaoba took the grass rope and noticed Xie Changqing’s fingertips were a bit white, so he quickly told him to rub his hands with snow.
“Alright.” Xie Changqing also felt the cold was severe. Hairile quickly came forward and wrapped his hands in snow, rubbing vigorously.
He rubbed until his fingers felt hot and swollen, gradually returning to red, before they relaxed.
Fortunately, they had discovered it in time.
Hairile looked at him somewhat embarrassedly and let go: “I rubbed too hard…”
He was indeed quite strong, but how could Xie Changqing blame him: “It’s fine, I should thank you.”
Thanks to him rubbing like that, the blood in his fingers quickly came back to life.
After that, Xie Changqing didn’t dare put his hands out anymore – if they got frostbitten, he really would need amputation.
Qiaoba frowned and blamed himself: “How could I forget to bring you gloves…”
“It’s fine.” Xie Changqing lifted his chin and breathed out a puff of cold air: “Let’s hurry up and finish checking so we can go back.”
Following the rope all the way, they discovered five more holes.
Fortunately, there was snow on the ground that reflected light, so even when it got dark, it didn’t feel too dim.
Qiaoba followed the rope forward to search, while Hairile destroyed the holes from behind and pulled up all the wooden stakes planted near the holes.
He originally wanted to throw them away, but Xie Changqing told him to keep them: “We can use them to catch wild animals later.”
It really wasn’t easy to get them to this level.
Xie Changqing didn’t miss a single one and collected them all in the grass basket.
The horses clip-clopped along, obediently following them.
“Hey! Changqing, come quickly!” Qiaoba in the distance was already just a dot. He stood on a small hill, anxiously waving to them: “Changqing, Hairile, come here quickly!”