Leaving aside Mistress Zhao's anxiety for her children, let us speak of Li Qiu and the others. Like birds newly released from a cage, the four youths bounced and skipped about, bursting with joy. Filled with wonder at everything, they constantly looked here and touched there. Having never ventured so far from home before, they were a mixture of excitement and curiosity. Even the trees seemed greener than those at home, the water sweeter, and the hills more vibrant.
Li Zhuo cracked jokes along the way, spinning one funny story after another to keep everyone in stitches. Wang Suo periodically mimicked the calls of birds and insects with such flawless precision that actual birds were drawn to the spot. As a flock of birds fluttered incessantly above Wang Suo's head, Li Zhuo reached up to catch one, only for a bird to drop a dollop of excrement right onto his head, sending the others into howling fits of laughter. Furious, Li Zhuo hopped up and down, swearing to skin and dismember the bird, but lacking wings and unable to take to the skies, there was nothing he could do. By dusk, the four boys finally felt that initial surge of excitement wear off and settled down a little.
As the descendants of hunters, all four understood the rules of the wild: set up camp early and hit the trail at dawn. Calculating their pace, despite dawdling along the way, they had covered fifty or sixty miles that day. They found a river beach where the terrain was level and set up camp.
They divided the labor among themselves: Li Qiu tended the fire and cooked the meal, Li Zhuo went to gather firewood and hunt, Wang Suo laid out traps around the perimeter of the camp, and Zheng Shude sought out the tallest tree to keep watch that night.
An hour later, everyone had finished their tasks, but Li Zhuo had yet to return. Unable to set his mind at ease, Li Qiu decided to look for him, instructing Wang Suo and Zheng Shude to stay in the camp and on no account wander off. Both acknowledged the order.
Li Qiu followed the direction Li Zhuo had taken when he left. After walking two or three miles, the surrounding footprints gradually disappeared, so Li Qiu carefully inspected the nearby tree branches. Seeing that some of the tender twigs were broken—evidently brushed aside by Li Zhuo's frame—he headed in that direction. After another two or three miles, he spotted Li Zhuo lying prone in a patch of thick brush, staring ahead with his heavy cudgel clutched tightly in his hand.
Li Qiu followed Li Zhuo's gaze and saw, thirty paces away, a gigantic bull elk—and a mature one at that. Just the sight of its massive antlers revealed how immensely powerful it was. He was struck by a mixture of shock and delight. No wonder Li Zhuo had delayed his return; most likely, he had spotted prime game but found himself unable to strike, leaving him tortured by indecision.
At that moment, Li Zhuo noticed Li Qiu and motioned for him to approach cautiously. Li Qiu crept over on tiptoe and lay down beside Li Zhuo in the brush, both of them wearing solemn expressions.
"Brother Qiu, did you see it?" Li Zhuo whispered. "That's a mature bull elk, and a male at those horns alone could sell for several strings of cash, not to mention the pelt..." As he spoke, saliva nearly pooled in his mouth.
Li Qiu remained silent for a moment before asking, "Is this the only one you've seen this whole time?"
"Isn't one elk enough to make us rich..." Li Zhuo replied.
"Elk travel in herds," Li Qiu reminded him.
"You mean..."
"Yes. My guess is that it exhausted itself trying to rescue its herd, leading a tiger or a leopard here, and ran out of stamina by the time it reached this spot. That's why it hasn't moved."
Li Zhuo realization dawned on him. "No wonder it hasn't budged. If I'd known, I would have made a move earlier—one swing of the cudgel would have... But if what you say is true, where are the tiger or the leopard?"
Li Qiu replied, "The tiger or leopard probably ran out of stamina too. It's likely hiding nearby, recovering its strength. And you should thank your lucky stars you didn't strike earlier. A six-hundred-pound elk only needs to toss its head, and those antlers could pierce your chest. No matter how good your martial arts are, if you fought an exhausted elk to a standstill, by the time your own strength gave out, the tiger or leopard hiding in the shadows would simply step out and finish off both you and the elk."
A cold sweat broke out all over Li Zhuo. "Good grief, Brother, how do you know all this? Thank goodness you're here... I couldn't see the beast hiding nearby at all. What should we do? Should we fall back?"
"I can't see it either," Li Qiu said. "These beasts are masters of camouflage. Hunters know that when the situation is unclear, one should hold one's ground. You saved yourself this time. But the next time something like this happens, you must come back and consult with us so we can figure it out together. Otherwise, it's far too dangerous. As things stand now, if we retreat, we might startle the tiger or leopard and cause it to charge at us. If we don't retreat, launching a rash attack against an unseen enemy hiding in the shadows gives us no guarantee of victory. What are we to do?"
Li Qiu told himself to stay calm—a lesson he had learned the last time he hunted wolves.
He closed his eyes slightly and entered a state of serene stillness, thinking nothing, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, moving nothing, gathering his inner breath in his dantian. Suddenly, it felt as though he had sensed something.
Though his eyes were closed, he was certain he heard the elk's heavy, ragged breathing. Further ahead, he caught another sound: a suppressed, excited respiration—the breathing of a leopard, dull and prolonged. Then...
Suddenly, he opened his eyes.
Seeing Li Qiu sitting there with his eyes closed, Li Zhuo had assumed he was deep in thought, figuring out a solution. Now, seeing him open his eyes, he hurriedly whispered, "Well? Do you have a plan?"
With a solemn shake of his head, Li Qiu said, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."
Li Zhuo chuckled. "Right, we're the oriole."
"No, we're the mantis," Li Qiu said gravely.
"What! You mean we've become the prey?"
"Yes. In fact, we've become *one* of the targets. Let me tell you: we must pull back. Because fifty paces directly ahead of our prey is a leopard—the very one that chased this male elk. And seventy paces to our right rear is a tiger, staring right at us. A moment from now, when the leopard attacks the elk, if we hope to reap the profits like the fisherman in the fable, we'll be playing right into the tiger's paws, letting it wipe out the leopard, the elk, and the two of us in one fell swoop."
"Good heavens, has this tiger turned into a demon?" Li Zhuo gasped in fright, paying no mind to how Li Qiu had managed to detect both the leopard and the tiger.
"Perhaps it's an old tiger wise as a demon, or perhaps it's just coincidence," Li Qiu said. "But the situation is what it is, and we must fall back. Gently, head forward, legs back, moving to the left—slowly."
The two of them lay flat on the ground, hugging their bodies close, heads facing right as they backed away and crawled toward the left. Their eyes remained fixed on the right to prevent the tiger from suddenly launching a vicious surprise attack.
They had only retreated about thirty paces when they heard a sharp, saw-like roar—the leopard was finally making its move.
They watched as a spotted leopard burst from a patch of grass like a gust of wind, leaping instantly upon the elk and beginning to tear furiously at it. The elk's strength clearly had not recovered sufficiently; after a few exchanges, the spotted leopard had already scrambled onto its back.
The leopard dug its claws deeply into the elk's hide while its fangs savaged the beast's back, bathing the elk in blood. The elk struggled desperately, lashing out with its hind legs, but the leopard held on tight to its back and refused to be shaken off.
Li Qiu estimated that barring any accidents, within half an hour the elk would collapse from exhaustion and die.
Sensing that the tiger's attention had been drawn away from them by the combat between the leopard and the elk, Li Qiu signaled Li Zhuo to move another ten paces back just to be safe. Feeling the tiger slowly closing in on the fighting pair, Li Qiu signaled Li Zhuo to stop, and a sly grin crossed his face. "Now, perhaps we *are* the oriole."
***
Half an hour later, the elk finally crashed to the ground, utterly devoid of strength to resist. The leopard was in little better shape: breathing heavily and trembling all over. Still, it was the victor; all it had to do was walk forward, bite through the elk's windpipe, and a grand feast would be right before its eyes.
The leopard lowered its head to bite the elk's throat when a sudden, thunderous roar shook the mountain forest to its roots. Realizing it had encountered a tiger, the leopard tried to retreat in haste, but its limbs were utterly exhausted, and it could no longer muster the explosive leap of moments before. In that single, hesitant pause, the tiger pounced upon it, sending it tumbling over several times. The leopard thrashed about before finally managing to stagger to its feet, letting out a few low growls to display its lingering defiance.
The tiger paid it no mind. As far as it was concerned, the leopard was spent and unable to fight again, while the two little runts (Li Qiu and Li Zhuo) were weaklings who had already chosen to withdraw. The spoils of war were now its own; it would now snap the elk's windpipe and savor the bull's warm blood.
Knowing it was no match for the tiger, the leopard prepared to retreat.
The tiger strolled up to the male elk, lowered its head toward the throat with an air of leisurely ease, and prepared to bite.
In the blink of an eye, a drastic change occurred.
With a final, desperate burst of its remaining strength, the elk launched a dying counterattack, violently tossing its head upward. Its hard antlers pierced clean through the tiger's belly, immediately staining the beast with blood. In a fury, the tiger clamped its jaws down and ripped open the elk's windpipe. In its final moments, the elk thrashed its hooves wildly, one of them striking the tiger squarely in its belly wound. Wincing in pain, the tiger backed away. But the elk had finally exhausted its last ounce of strength and died a thorough death.
Meanwhile, catching the scent of the tiger's fresh blood, the leopard's savage nature was reignited. Its roar shook the peaks, its features twisted in ferocity. It knew the tiger was wounded, while its own strength was slowly returning; the tiger would bleed more and more, and who would ultimately claim the victory was anyone's guess.
Clearly aware of its precarious situation and knowing that the longer it stayed, the more disadvantageous it would become, the tiger disregarded its throbbing, bleeding wound and decided to strike first, lunging straight at the spotted leopard.
Normally, the leopard could have used hit-and-run tactics to avoid the tiger and wait for it to bleed to death, but having expended too much strength earlier, it could no longer run away. It had no choice but to engage the tiger in close combat, the two beasts rolling into a tangled ball together.
In the end, the leopard snapped the tiger's foreleg, while the tiger, enduring the agony, clamped its jaws onto the leopard's throat with a crunch. The leopard refused to loosen its grip, holding on until the very last breath left its body.
The dust settled.
Limping on its front leg, the tiger trembled its way over to the elk, and just as it was about to feed, it found itself utterly unable to muster any strength. It collapsed with a crash; the earlier battle had caused it to bleed its very last drop of blood.
Hearing something approaching from afar, it struggled to raise its head, wishing to defend the fruits of its victory. But its strength finally faded away, and it collapsed for good. Its pupils gradually dilated, and the very last sight it beheld was two youths whose faces were plastered with wicked grins...