WS - Chapter 154
Chapter 154
It was clearly just a rabbit hunt, but that human and dog duo walked with the momentum of someone setting out to rout an entire army. Watching from behind, Zhuang Jiachuan could barely hold back his laughter.
Even Yu Nianbing, who was still deeply worried about Song Shiyue, couldn't help but reveal a few traces of relaxed amusement at this scene that was obviously serious yet looked entirely like a comedic act.
Even though not even a rabbit's shadow had been seen yet, it seemed that from the moment Song Shiyue was alert and lucid again, everyone—whether the few people on Wilderness Planet or the viewers watching the livestream on StarNet—had relaxed considerably.
"I bet fifty cents, next we're going to witness how Song Shiyue flattens that rabbit hole with a single shovel!"
"Hahaha, one rabbit per shovel? It reminds me of that scene where Sister Song sent a frog off with a single pebble before."
"Before, there was news on StarNet—someone had already found a big shot in animal science to do a frame-by-frame analysis of the recordings. Those rabbits the Dog dug out yesterday, excluding repeats, there were at least twelve different rabbits."
"??? This is even possible? I thought those rabbits all looked pretty much the same yesterday!"
"So today can our Sister Song happily get twelve bun-buns? Let's wipe our eyes and wait eagerly!"
"At times like this we have to thank the previous team for their mercy in not leaving anything, otherwise twelve bun-buns wouldn't even be enough for one each—how else would just these few people end up eating to the point of bursting!"
"Speaking of which, it's because these few who stayed are loyal that we get bun-buns to eat. Look at the team ahead—when they left the next camp this morning, they packed up even the little bit of food that was left. Really like locusts sweeping through, leaving not even a blade of grass..."
"Speaking of which, how come this Dog doesn't have its own dedicated camera? I'd super love to see how it went back into the hole to find the jerky earlier. And now, we can only wait until the StarNet AI determines it's in a highly viewable state through Song Shiyue or Zhuang Jiachuan's cameras for it to even be captured!"
"Being able to capture it is already good enough! Our family's Little Ice Block is also freeloading off a camera. Sigh, luckily I started shipping a CP before the Yaoxing Storm, otherwise waiting for Little Ice Block's screen time would've driven me crazy with impatience!"
"Rubbing my little hands waiting for Sister Song's loving repayment~~~"
Song Shiyue, who was concentrating on discerning the movements underground, had no idea how many pairs of eyes on StarNet were staring at the shovel in her hand.
The jerky in the camp had all been eaten, and even the powder ground from snake bones hadn't been missed, but in truth it was still far from enough.
Just like her hearing: it had currently only recovered to about being able to hear movements within a few square meters beneath her feet, unlike her former peak when covering this entire slope where the rabbit holes were dug out wouldn't have been a problem.
But being able to hear a little was still better than not hearing anything.
What was lacking could be made up for with the skill of her hands.
Song Shiyue followed the Dog to the nearest rabbit hole, but didn't rush to match the Dog's eager little paws digging toward the entrance. Instead, she lowered her eyes and listened carefully for a moment. Just when the Dog was getting anxious and was about to nudge her pant leg again, Song Shiyue thrust the shovel into the ground.
The metal spatula-shovel plunged into the ground and easily sank halfway in one go.
But the point of impact wasn't where the Dog had been vigorously digging at the hole just now; it was shifted a few dozen centimeters to the right.
The Dog looked at the shovel on the ground and tilted its head in a silly way.
Yu Nianbing and Zhuang Jiachuan knew they couldn't be of much help, and didn't want to affect Song Shiyue's performance, so after discussing they stood where they were. At this moment they could just see the situation on Song Shiyue's side, and the two of them, like the Dog, were somewhat confused.
On the way here earlier, Yu Nianbing had hinted in her words that Song Shiyue shouldn't overdo it. Being a little special once or twice, versus being constantly special, looked very different in people's eyes. Song Shiyue had responded with vague "mm"s and "ah"s along the way. But Yu Nianbing didn't know whether that person truly understood what she meant.
Judging from Song Shiyue's manner of having victory within grasp yet thrusting the shovel askew, Yu Nianbing felt that this wave of operations would probably blind people's eyes once again...
Song Shiyue had no idea what her so-called low-profile behavior looked like in Yu Nianbing's eyes.
Gripping the spatula-shovel stuck in the ground with one hand, Song Shiyue exerted force, tilting the spatula-shovel and heaving up a large chunk of soil from the left.
It was slow to say but fast to happen: Song Shiyue decisively abandoned the spatula-shovel, swiftly took two steps to the rabbit hole entrance that the Dog had been digging at earlier, and reached out...
The rabbit bursting out of the hole tried to pull the same old trick: no matter what, leap up and first deliver a flying rabbit kick to knock out the entire field.
But this time, what awaited it was not the silly Dog that only knew how to dig dirt, nor Zhuang Jiachuan and Yu Nianbing who were holding long spears in bare hands but hadn't grasped the essentials of attacking.
What awaited it was one hand—Song Shiyue's hand.
The sturdy rabbit leg kicked right into Song Shiyue's waiting palm. Under the camera's capture, what was displayed to the StarNet audience could simply be called a friendly and precious moment akin to a high-five photo with a small animal.
Of course, the premise was that they were not in the relationship of ingredient and diner.
That rabbit foot kicking into her palm was steady and powerful, even making her palm ache a little from the shock, but a satisfied smile appeared on Song Shiyue's face.
Mm, the steadier and more powerful, the more it proved this rabbit was sturdier and fatter...
Hunters do not fear the prey's resistance; what they care about is only whether the prey is fat enough, delicious enough.
Since we've already high-fived, wanting to leave is impossible now.
Borrowing the force of the rabbit's kick, Song Shiyue withdrew half a step, and then as that rabbit foot sank into her palm, she swiftly closed her five fingers. From then on, a furry rabbit was caught in her hand.
Pity that rabbit—it was precisely one of the group that had kicked the Dog's face the day before. How happily that leg had kicked the previous day, today the kick was met with how much confusion.
It had been squatting nicely in its burrow when suddenly a shovel came for the fur on its head. Running away as fast as it could, and yet there was actually something above when it emerged. The usually very effective kick-and-run had today turned into a kick-kick-kick that just wouldn't let go! How could this be!
Why must the heavens beat up a poor little bun-bun like this!
A gray rabbit, about the length of a forearm. An autumn rabbit beginning to put on fat—though it wasn't the plumpest season—was already quite sturdy.
Song Shiyue reached out and also grabbed the struggling rabbit's other hind leg, conveniently giving its body a feel.
Mm, the fur was sleek and glossy, pressing down revealed the flesh; this was a fine rabbit.
"Teacher Song is amazing! Is this a pace of one rabbit every half-minute?" Zhuang Jiachuan laughed as he stepped forward carrying the backpack, diligently performing his function as a transport container.
Song Shiyue glanced at Yu Nianbing following behind Zhuang Jiachuan, and smiled modestly while holding the rabbit: "Luck, luck..."
Yu Nianbing: "..."
Fine, between behavior and attitude, at least one could still keep a low profile.
The rabbit had been caught, but bringing it back was still a bit troublesome.
"Teacher Yu, look, isn't that a spaceship!" Song Shiyue suddenly pointed a hand toward the sky.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Zhuang Jiachuan and Yu Nianbing simultaneously looked toward the patch of sky Song Shiyue was pointing at.
"Where? At... eh?" Zhuang Jiachuan was looking around with his head raised when he suddenly felt the backpack in his hand grow heavier. Looking down, he saw the rabbit that had been hopping vigorously moments ago now lying motionless in the backpack.
Song Shiyue, who had just taken advantage of the two's averted gazes to swiftly pinch the rabbit unconscious, smiled apologetically: "Ah, I saw wrong."
"This... is the rabbit dead... dead?" Zhuang Jiachuan's hand holding the backpack was a bit lost; he suddenly realized that being a walking transport container wasn't actually so easy.
"No, it's just unconscious." Song Shiyue pulled the spatula-shovel out of the ground, then extended her hand to Zhuang Jiachuan. "Teacher Zhuang, give me the spatula-shovel and spoon you're carrying too."
"Ah... oh... eh..." Zhuang Jiachuan somewhat flusteredly removed the spatula-shovel and spoon clipped to the backpack and handed them to Song Shiyue, then said in confusion, "What's the point of distracting us when you knock out the rabbit like that? It's not like you killed it..."
Don't hit someone in the face, don't expose someone's shortcomings when speaking. Teacher Zhuang, can you still be okay like this?
The smile hanging on Song Shiyue's face stiffened for a moment. Facing Yu Nianbing's similarly inquisitive gaze from behind, she had no choice but to brace herself and jokingly explain: "Isn't this just, maintaining my ladylike image, heh. Knocking out a little rabbit with bare hands and all, seems... a bit, ah, not so good, right..."
The words were said like a joke, but the heart meant it.
Earlier, when Song Shiyue was holding the rabbit, she had noticed that trace of reluctance suppressed on Yu Nianbing's face.
Indeed, everyone called Yu Nianbing "Teacher Yu," but after all, she was only four years older than Song Shiyue. Adding the years Song Shiyue had lived in her previous life, Yu Nianbing at this moment was still just a young girl.
Young girls mostly liked fluffy things. Looking at how Yu Nianbing had been fond of the Dog before, one knew she definitely couldn't bear it for the rabbits either.
Clearly unable to bear parting with the fluff, yet she still came to set traps and hunt rabbits... This sentiment, Song Shiyue truly didn't know how to repay.
Although Song Shiyue had seen too much in the apocalypse and could now look at fluff like this simply in terms of whether it could be eaten and how tasty it was. But... for some reason, even though she was clearly this kind of person, Song Shiyue didn't want to be seen this way in Yu Nianbing's eyes.
Now the camp's food was completely gone, and everyone was relying on these rabbits at the foot of the slope to survive.
Song Shiyue, who hadn't yet fully recovered her strength, couldn't say things like let these rabbits go and turn to find other food either.
Rather than being domineering, Song Shiyue still wanted to be pragmatic: first achieve a small goal: dinner.
Hunting—she couldn't not hunt, but Song Shiyue felt that her image could still be salvaged a little.
Hence the earlier spur-of-the-moment distraction, only to be completely exposed by Zhuang Jiachuan's questioning.
Song Shiyue stammered a few explanations, and without waiting for the other two to say anything more, took the spatula-shovel and large iron soup spoon handed over by Zhuang Jiachuan, turned around, and moved on to the next rabbit hole.
Listening for sounds, determining positions, based on the situation below—she would thrust one or several spatula-shovels, force the rabbits out from the predicted direction, and then... mm, high-five, grab, knock out.
Perhaps because of that little embarrassment from earlier that really shouldn't have existed, afterward Song Shiyue threw herself wholeheartedly into the great undertaking of catching rabbits, to avoid letting her mind wander with random thoughts.
The direct consequence was... an assembly-line operation of one rabbit every half minute.
Song Shiyue didn't care whether they were big or small, fat or thin down there, she just started from the outermost perimeter, digging them out one by one. When she encountered a whole nest, she wouldn't high-five but directly chop them unconscious.
Pity those rabbits under the slope—broad daylight, all staying nicely in their burrows, just a bit of noise overhead, yet how could any rabbit know that their neighbors were disappearing one by one, family by family, household by household?
Because she was digging rabbits out too fast and too many, Song Shiyue had no time to send them back, and also didn't really want Yu Nianbing to follow and watch.
Thus, the new-generation conveyor belt—the Dog—grandly took up the post.
Whenever it smelled a somewhat familiar scent, one suspected to belong to one of yesterday's ruffians, the Dog would secretly bite down a little harder, settling a private grudge under official cover.
Just like that... with head high and stride bold, carrying rabbits one after another, with the big boss's help, the Dog finally realized its wish for revenge.
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