She slowly rode closer and saw someone on a motorcycle herding a flock of sheep on the other side.
It was a large herd of sheep, appearing as a white mass from afar, but up close each sheep looked dirty and gray, only the lambs seemed a bit cleaner.
The sheep were slowly blocking the road, and the person at the back was even kicking their bottoms to move them along, seeming to be the shepherd.
Wen Qian thought she had just received some money from previously edited videos on her phone.
Wen Qian didn't know if she could buy a sheep, so she asked about the price, and the shepherd readily agreed to sell her one.
However, Wen Qian didn't want a live sheep. She wanted him to slaughter it, preferably help skin it, and then she would take it away.
The shepherd seemed puzzled, wouldn't taking a live sheep back be fresher?
But Wen Qian wanted to slaughter the sheep and put it in her space.
If it was alive, would it wander the world with her?
And if she developed feelings for it, could she still eat it?
Wen Qian couldn't accept eating an animal she had bonded with, so it was better not to raise it at all.
The shepherd said he could kill the sheep, but he needed to do it at home.
Where was home? Wen Qian looked around, but aside from one road, she saw nothing else.
The shepherd pointed: "Go this way, up, keep going up. You'll see my home, there are people there, you can just go buy the sheep. It'll take me half a day to get back."
So Wen Qian rode her motorcycle in the direction he pointed.
When Wen Qian arrived, she found a young, beautiful girl standing at the entrance, seemingly there to greet her.
Wen Qian conversed smoothly with her, it turned out she was the shepherd's daughter.
She looked only a little younger than Wen Qian, but extremely pretty.
"My dad called and said someone was coming to buy sheep, is that you?"
"Yes," Wen Qian smiled at the beautiful girl, "Can you slaughter sheep?"
The girl smiled and said she could a little.
Wen Qian felt she was being modest, as her eyes showed great confidence.
Indeed, under Wen Qian's watchful gaze, the girl delivered a fatal, swift and decisive blow, leaving Wen Qian in awe, so she began observing the slaughtering technique.
The girl also skinned the sheep smoothly, and Wen Qian carefully studied her methods.
With the first sheep, the girl just thought Wen Qian was observing out of curiosity, though she was surprised that Wen Qian wasn't afraid.
With the second sheep, the girl began explaining carefully, and Wen Qian listened attentively, wishing she could try it herself.
After taking care of both sheep, Wen Qian put them in her vehicle, tied them down, chatted with the young lady for a bit, and left.
On her way back, she saw the shepherd from afar, the flock grazing and slowly heading home, so their pace wasn't fast.
Wen Qian didn't plan to return the same way, but to continue forward.
Seeing her head towards the ranch, the shepherd thought she was from that area.
Up to this point, Wen Qian could still receive phone signal, likely because of the ranch ahead.
In the afternoon, Wen Qian finally saw the ranch area, which seemed to be a well-established ranch with good infrastructure.
Wen Qian planned to go further, and if she couldn't find a good place to camp, she would return and camp nearby.
After passing the ranch, there were no more roads, so Wen Qian had to walk slowly, fortunately the terrain was relatively flat and the weather was nice, she just needed to confirm the direction and keep going.
By dinnertime, Wen Qian set up camp at the foot of a small hill, and also surrounded it with obstacles.
Not feeling secure, she also made a circle on the ground and lit a bonfire inside.
In her conversation with the girl, she mentioned that you had to go deeper into the mountains to encounter bears, but this ranch area was fine, no wolves, though further west there might be some.
In areas with little human disturbance, there might be wolf packs, as they prefer places with cover and abundant food.
This made Wen Qian afraid of being prey for wild animals.
However, the girl also said she had only heard wolves howling, never seen them, which reassured Wen Qian a bit.
The other thing was that south of the Jade Mountain Range was a protected area, so there was more diverse wildlife there and wolves were more common.
Wen Qian safely spent that night, and set out early the next morning heading west.
So, after repeating such travel days, Wen Qian came across a small river and began following it upstream.
This area was relatively flat but desolate, with little dense vegetation or diverse life along the river banks.
She had only seen small creatures running on the ground, so she didn't pay much attention.
She wanted to follow the river upstream, as she had previously noticed that the people living in the Jade Mountain Range basically lived along the rivers, so she wanted to find a place like the locals.
Although she was also worried about wild animals, Wen Qian felt that as long as she took precautions, she could get through this winter, and she also had means of self-defense.
Compared to the lush vegetation in the south of the Jade Mountain Range, the north truly faced a desert.
She was in an uninhabited area.
As she followed the small river upstream, Wen Qian didn't forget to use her binoculars to observe the surrounding environment, so she could run away if she spotted any dangerous animals early.
But fortunately, she didn't encounter any.
Wen Qian found a place similar to the safe spot at Jade Lake, except with a more gentle slope.
This place was also farther from the mountains and closer to the uninhabited area.
So she decided to settle there first.
She took out her previous building materials and piled them into a circle, looking like a circular ruin, then lit a bonfire in the middle and set up her tent.
She really hoped to settle here and not go any further, but tomorrow she planned to explore further upstream.
For now, she hadn't used the water here yet, hoping to confirm the upstream area first.
Perhaps having reached her destination, Wen Qian woke up very early the next day, before dawn, as it got light and dark later here.
So Wen Qian gathered all her previous building materials and set out upstream.
The further she went, the less flat the path became. At first she could ride her vehicle, but later had to go on foot.
The river became narrower, then more winding, and she would have to enter the mountains, which made Wen Qian apprehensive as she looked at the steep valleys.
These mountain valleys were so steep that Wen Qian could even imagine how boulders rolled down from the top.
Forgive her vivid imagination, but she was also afraid of encountering bears in the mountains.
So she took out her binoculars and scanned around, only to see smoke.
Could there still be people living in these mountains?
