"What's wrong? Why give up hunting?"

The Golden Eagle's tone was a bit sullen.

Chen Wen, hearing this, comforted, "Don't worry, we'll get these blue grouse sooner or later. I've just got a different idea now."

Speaking, Chen Wen motioned for the Golden Eagle to come over.

He quickly outlined his plan, "If we act now, at most we'll catch one or two, which won't last long at all."

"Moreover, grouse are very vigilant. Once hunted, it's much harder to catch them again."

"But as long as we don't alarm them, they won't temporarily change their habits. We can take this time to devise a plan to catch as many grouse as possible!"

Listening to Chen Wen, the Golden Eagle started thinking too.

"You're right. I agree with you, but at most, the two of us can hunt only two. Can you really hunt more?"

Not thinking much.

Chen Wen sighed and said, "What I mean is, I can set traps and use them to hunt."

Traps?

A bit overwhelming.

Looking at the Golden Eagle's naive expression, Chen Wen gave up discussing the plan with it.

He began to ponder on his own.

Hunting these grouse with ordinary snares is unlikely.

Blue grouse have relatively fixed activity ranges and regular activity times.

In the cold winter, they like to perch and nest on low-altitude Yunshan trees, Douglas firs, and other conifers.

They return to the trees at night and forage in nearby clearings and bushes during the day and twilight.

Therefore, using a snare is unlikely.

Set a trap too far, and the grouse won't go there.

Set it too close, and the grouse will see it.

While eliminating snares, Chen Wen also ruled out many similar trigger traps.

As for the "leaf to fool the bird" method, while useful, it doesn't suit blue grouse.

Blue grouse, unlike domestic chickens, once one is caught, the others will immediately escape noticing anything unusual.

But after a brief thought, Chen Wen suddenly had a bold idea.

He thought of the bearberries he had picked earlier.

Bearberries should be part of the grouse's diet. After all, bearberries are berries.

And grouse particularly like berries.

Berries can lure the grouse out.

Therefore, Chen Wen decided to use this to set a bait trap.

The first thing that came to his mind was a fishing net.

The fishing nets they brought, also called gill nets, have relatively large mesh sizes.

But that's for fish.

For the grouse, the mesh can absolutely trap them.

Hence, Chen Wen planned to lay the mesh as a capture net on the ground.

Then cover it with sand and dead leaves for a disguise.

Sprinkle some of the remaining bearberries at the ambush spot.

Once the grouse enter, Chen Wen, hiding in the dark, can quickly scoop up the grouse that enter the trap with a rope.

This way, more grouse can be captured.

But after this haul is done, the remaining grouse will likely disappear without a trace.

Chen Wen felt this idea was pretty good.

He immediately went to find the gill net.

However, to Chen Wen's surprise, the place where the net was previously kept was empty.

"What the hell? The net got stolen?"

Chen Wen scratched his head, a bit shocked.

Who dared to steal their net?

It couldn't have been animals; they aren't strong enough.

Could it have been others?

As Chen Wen wildly speculated, the Golden Eagle leisurely said, "Are you looking for that stick? Your companion moved it to another place."

Ah, Hua Yun took it, no problem then.

Chen Wen asked, "Do you know where it was taken?"

"Yes, follow me."

...

The place where Hua Yun re-set the net.

Chen Wen came over and understood Hua Yun's intention.

"Did you see fish here? That's why you set it here."

Looking at the calm and deep water, Chen Wen clicked his tongue, "But this spot is really badly chosen. This is downstream, and with the current weather, the fish in the water won't migrate."

"It needs to be set in further, but forget it. I'll take the net now and redo it when we return in the evening."

Chen Wen shook his head, pulled out the gill net, and took it down from the trunk.

After putting away the gill net, Chen Wen returned to where he found the grouse and began setting the trap.

...

Setting traps for catching grouse was relatively easy.

The only difficult part was how to hide the rope.

Chen Wen chose an area under a Yunshan tree.

He used the branches high on the Yunshan tree as a fulcrum, threading the rope through the branches.

Next, Chen Wen used one end of the rope to string four branches together.

This served as the trigger mechanism for the rope.

Initially, Chen Wen planned to hold the other end himself.

But the rope's length didn't support Chen Wen's plan. A ten-meter rope would leave him too close to the trap if he held it.

Chen Wen worried about being discovered.

So the task of triggering the trap was assigned to the Golden Eagle.

The Golden Eagle, thinking it wouldn't have a chance to show off, was suddenly delighted.

It gladly took on the task.

The Golden Eagle flew to a height of about ten meters, and the other end of the rope was tied to its body by Chen Wen.

Chen Wen hid a little further away, making it easier to signal the Golden Eagle.

As soon as Chen Wen felt the time was right, he would immediately make a gesture.

The Golden Eagle, hidden high above, would then dive sharply until the net's loops were cinched together, scooping up the grouse.

Chen Wen felt this plan was flawless.

After letting the Golden Eagle hide, he took out the bearberries from his backpack and crushed them all.

Taking a risk by approaching the grouse group, he threw the bearberries near them.

Chen Wen laid a trail, eventually tossing most of the bearberries onto the trap.

Now came the long wait.

...

As for the grouse group.

A conflict erupted among a few female grouse over food.

They had been in this area for a while.

The surrounding nuts and berries had been almost entirely consumed by them.

What's left isn't very tasty anymore.

In pursuit of richer food, the grouse group was preparing to migrate.

In the conflict, one grouse was pushed out of the fighting zone.

It originally intended to rush back in and continue the scuffle.

But for some reason, the grouse instinctively glanced to its side.

Red, dry.

It's bearberries!

The grouse became immediately excited.

In their diet, bearberries count as top-tier food!

The grouse were very fond of these foods they could only eat in autumn and winter, rich in sugar and fat, they were rare delicacies!

This grouse avoided the quarreling flock and lunged toward where the bearberries were.

And as soon as one grouse moved, others keenly detected this anomaly.

Faced with the red bearberries, all the grouse rushed over, abandoning the pine nuts they were fighting over.

They began a frenzy to seize the bearberries.

Yet these bearberries weren't limited to just one patch.

The grouse found that the bearberries seemed to be plucked like a monkey stripping corn, stretching out along the ground.

The whole grouse group was stirred up.

They competed along the path paved with bearberries.

Unaware, the road, red like fresh blood, was meticulously crafted by a human with a slight kinship to monkeys: a path of death!

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