Several people stepped off the sled. Wang An looked at his watch, then frowned and said helplessly
"I reckon there's an eighty percent chance we won't be able to make it back today; we'll have to spend the night in the mountains. Oh for fuck's sake, this is truly goddamn bullshit."
The four of them had indeed traveled quite far. The main issue was that they hadn't found that bear yet; once they found it and killed it, it would definitely be dark by the time they returned. Moreover, whether they could find it at all was another question, which was why Wang An had this thought.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li said with a hint of excitement
"What's there to fear about spending the night? I reckon spending the night in the mountains is super thrilling, super awesome, hahahaha!"
Hearing this, Wang An was instantly infuriated. The main point was that Wang An did not want to spend the night in the mountains—one could say he didn't want to at all.
Crucially, at this moment, Wang An was thinking about the two little treasures back home.
It had to be said that children changed incredibly fast; one could say they were different every single day, never the same as the day before.
The two little ones, Xingfu and Kuaile, were completely different from when they were first born; they were practically two different children.
The most significant change was that their faces had become fair and tender, looking both beautiful and cute, and they had both learned how to smile.
During this past month, Wang An's primary daily activity had been holding the children—holding this one, then that one—he simply doted on the two little ones beyond measure.
Before entering the mountains this morning, Wang An had held each of them in his arms, doting on them over and over again. The thought that if they had to spend the night in the mountains, he wouldn't be able to dote on his two little treasures today made Wang An feel incredibly agitated.
So, while Wang Li was laughing happily, Wang An quickly stepped forward, grabbed Wang Li's arm with his left hand, aimed his big foot at Wang Li's backside, and kicked him, saying indignantly
"I'll give you thrilling! I'll give you awesome! I'll give you thrilling! I'll give you awesome!"
After kicking him several times in a row, Wang An grabbed the back of Wang Li's neck and questioned him
"Still thrilling? Still awesome?"
As Wang Li was being kicked, Mu Xueli burst out laughing, because she had long predicted that Wang Li would get kicked sooner or later today.
While Huang Zhong was also laughing, he didn't make a sound, merely pursing his lips in a secret smile.
Having been kicked, Wang Li immediately became docile. Hearing Wang An's questioning, he replied submissively
"Not thrilling anymore, not awesome anymore. Actually, Fourth Brother, I don't really want to spend the night in the mountains either; it's just that we have no other choice."
Wang An pushed Wang Li away, his face full of annoyance as he said
"Just get the hell away from me. Do you think I don't know what you're thinking? I'm telling you, if you dare to show off again today, I'll kick you again."
Regardless of anything else, in this deathly cold winter, the fact that Wang Li actually liked the idea of spending the night in the mountains was truly eccentric.
Wang Li gave a couple of dry laughs and stopped talking.
The four of them waited a while longer until the three horses had caught their breath, then they fed the fodder brought on the sled to the three horses.
After feeding the horses, Wang An turned to Huang Zhong and said
"Xiao Zhong, do you want to stay by the sled, or come with us to look for that bear? I'm telling you in advance, once the dogs find the bear, we'll have to run after the dogs. You'll have to run fast; we can't wait for you."
Mu Xueli also chimed in
"Running after dogs is really not a pleasant job. If you reckon you can't do it, staying by the sled is fine too."
Having eaten plenty of full meals and meat for so long, Huang Zhong now looked very healthy. However, perhaps because it hadn't been long, or perhaps because the previous Huang Zhong had been too malnourished, his height hadn't changed much yet; he was still quite small, around 1.4 meters.
For someone of that size, trying to keep up with the pace of Wang An and the other two while running was simply unrealistic.
Unexpectedly, after the two finished speaking, Huang Zhong said very firmly
"Big Brother, I can run. I can run forever and be fine."
As he spoke, Huang Zhong scratched his head and said quite bashfully
"I'm just not as fast as you guys."
Wang An thought about it and agreed
"Alright then. If you can't keep up, just follow the footprints; you'll catch up to us sooner or later."
Rubbing Huang Zhong's head, Wang An gave a whistle to Da Hei and the other dogs. Once all the dogs and wolves had gathered, Wang An said to Da Hei
"This time we're mainly looking for a big bear, but if we run into other things, we'll hunt those too. Right, if you happen to find that big bear, all of you stay far away from it; you can't beat it. Alright, let's go."
And so, the four of them, each carrying a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, led a large pack of dogs and wolves and began wandering around the vicinity of Dayashan.
To be honest, searching for a single big bear aimlessly across the vast mountains and fields was truly no ordinary difficulty.
Fortunately, the four of them had a pack of dogs and wolves with very keen noses to help, so it wasn't impossible to find.
Over an hour later, Wang An and the group had already circled four hilltops. However, among those four hills, let alone a trace of the big bear, even the footprints of common animals like wild boar and roe deer were scarce.
Furthermore, the animal prints they did see were several days old, making them practically useless.
It wasn't until they finished circling the fifth hilltop that Mu Xueli said somewhat discouragedly
"Brother-in-law, how about we stop wandering around here? These are all just poplar and pine forests; it's impossible for a bear to stay here."
Actually, Wang An had noticed this issue as well. Normally speaking, a bear that had been startled out of its den during hibernation would first look for food.
Once they had eaten their fill, they would find another cave or tree hollow to crawl into and continue hibernating.
In places like poplar and pine forests, there wasn't much edible food, so it was impossible for a bear to stay inside them.
Wang An looked at the hilltops they hadn't searched yet. One glance told him that those areas were still just poplar, pine, and elm forests. In short, there probably weren't any walnuts, jujubes, hazelnuts, or wild grapes.
Consequently, Wang An grit his teeth and said
"Do you think that old Xiao Pao intentionally pointed us to a place like Dayashan?"
After Wang An spoke, Wang Li cursed and said
"I reckon so too. That old bastard is really something. Who could tell a veteran gunner was playing mind games?"
Only Mu Xueli shook her head and said
"I reckon what he said should be correct; it's just that after the bear came out of the cave, we don't know where it bolted to."
Since things had come to this, giving up was out of the question. Wang An looked at the surrounding terrain and pointed west
"Let's head that way. If the two Su brothers are coming down the mountain, they'll definitely take the ridges over there."
(End of Chapter)