Wang An kept his left hand on the steering wheel and reached out with his right to give Wang Li's head a hard shove, saying irritably
"I've realized your damn mouth really doesn't know how to speak. One of these days, I'm going to get some soapy water to wash it out for you."
As soon as Wang An finished, Mu Xueli chimed in with a grin
"Mm-hmm, I think that's a great idea. Old Fifth's damn mouth is irritating enough as it is. It'd be perfect to pour my grand-nephew's boy-urine into it; boy-urine is supposed to ward off evil spirits."
Although Wang Li was afraid of Wang An, he wasn't afraid of Mu Xueli at all. As soon as Mu Xueli finished speaking, Wang Li replied with a face full of indignation
"Like your damn mouth is any better! I learned it all from you. If you hadn't led me astray, would I be like this now?"
Actually, put that way, Wang Li's words seemed quite reasonable.
However, with Mu Xueli's sharp tongue, how could he possibly be left without a comeback?
Thus, Mu Xueli mocked him, saying
"You can't even learn it right. Just how stupid are you? I'm telling you, getting some soapy water to wash your mouth out really is a good idea."
Chatting and shooting the breeze, the three of them soon reached their destination: Tiaobingshan.
Upon entering Tiaobingshan, Wang An didn't go anywhere else; he drove straight toward the railway tracks. This was primarily because the place where they had hidden the money was near the tracks.
Tiaobingshan was a small area of land, less than 24 kilometers from north to south and less than 21 kilometers from east to west. Therefore, Wang An drove from north to south along the side of the railway.
It must be said that it was lucky the Gaz vehicle had such impressive off-road performance; otherwise, the broken roads near the railway would have been truly difficult to navigate.
However, as they drove, Wang An and Wang Li both noticed something was wrong at the same time.
Both Wang An and Wang Li remembered very clearly that when they had hidden the money, there were many large trees near the pit. Furthermore, Wang An had fired several shots into one large tree to use as a marker.
But now, as they were nearly driving out of the Tiaobingshan boundary, not only had the familiar large trees failed to appear, but trees were scarce in general—sparse and few and far between.
Most crucially, although the road was rough, the Gaz could still drive on it.
This was clearly contrary to common sense.
As everyone knew, if there were no roads, no matter how powerful an off-road vehicle was, it couldn't drive into a dense forest.
Frowning, Wang An asked Wang Li and Mu Xueli
"Do you two remember what station name was announced on the train when we were fighting the bandits?"
In Wang An's memory, before the incident occurred, the conductor had announced the station as Songyuan, and after Songyuan came CT. Based on the timing, the place where the train stopped should definitely have been Tiaobingshan.
Wang Li answered first
"CT. I remember it was CT."
After Wang Li spoke, Mu Xueli remained silent.
So, Wang An asked Mu Xueli
"Xueli, what about you? What do you remember it being?"
At this moment, Mu Xueli was in the back looking at the map Wang An had bought. Hearing Wang An's question, Mu Xueli suddenly frowned and said
"Brother-in-law, did you mess things up? If you look at this map, after the train passes CT, shouldn't the next stop be Kaiyuan? This train doesn't go through Tiaobingshan at all. Why the hell did we come to Tiaobingshan?"
Wang An was stunned and immediately slammed on the brakes.
This sudden brake sent the unprepared Wang Li lunging forward, slamming his head right into the windshield. Wang Li immediately let out a
"Aw, holy shit!"
Following that, Wang Li clutched his head and groaned several times.
Mu Xueli was equally unprepared and flew forward, but fortunately, the backrests of the two front seats blocked him, leaving his shoulders wedged right there.
Then, Wang Li complained to Wang An while still groaning
"Fourth Brother, are you trying to kill me? Why the hell did you suddenly slam the brakes?"
Mu Xueli also said exaggeratedly
"Oh my god, I almost got shot right out of the car."
Ignoring the two idiots, Wang An turned to Mu Xueli and said urgently
"The map! The one with the railway lines, give it to me, quick!"
Hearing this, Mu Xueli immediately handed the map—which had been torn in half—to Wang An, explaining
"This isn't my fault, brother-in-law! You slammed the brakes so suddenly I didn't have time to react, and I just ripped the map."
Wang An still ignored him—or more accurately, completely disregarded him—and aligned the two pieces of the map along the tear, focusing intently on it.
After a long moment, Wang An put the two pieces together and then raised his right hand to slap Wang Li's thigh hard, saying
"Aw, holy shit, I totally messed it up."
Wang Li replied with dissatisfaction
"Even if you messed it up, why the hell are you slapping my thigh?"
Wang An turned and laughed, looking completely innocent
"Is that so? Did I slap your thigh? I was wondering why my own thigh didn't hurt."
As he spoke, Wang An felt his own thigh, then reached out to pat Wang Li's shoulder and said
"My bad, my bad. I messed it up again. Every single day with this..."
Wang Li gave Wang An a sidelong glance; though he looked aggrieved, he didn't dare speak up.
Seeing this from the back seat—specifically seeing Wang Li get the short end of the stick—Mu Xueli beamed with joy.
Shifting gears and turning the steering wheel, Wang An drove straight toward Kaiyuan.
The reason he turned back toward Kaiyuan instead of continuing toward CT was that just over two hours ago, the three of them had fought someone in CT. If they continued driving toward CT, it was very likely that unnecessary trouble would arise.
Therefore, to minimize trouble, going to Kaiyuan was the safer bet.
Over an hour later, Wang An finally drove into the Kaiyuan area.
Unlike the area near the Tiaobingshan railway, the Gaz could not drive along the sides of the railway in Kaiyuan.
Mainly, some slopes were too steep, some areas had trees that were too dense, and there were many shrubs and fallen logs in the woods.
Looking at the distant forest, Wang An couldn't help but think to himself, "I really am stupid."
The place where they had hidden the money was clearly in a dense forest, yet the area near the Tiaobingshan railway was all drivable. This proved that near the Tiaobingshan railway, there simply weren't any of those remote, uninhabited forests.
To put it more bluntly: as long as a car could drive there, it was impossible to find the hiding spot!
It was laughable that in his quest for the money, he had lost his ability to think and had forgotten such a common-sense issue.
Sighing, Wang An said to Mu Xueli and Wang Li
"We'll stay at the guesthouse first. Then Xueli will guard the goods at the guesthouse, and Old Fifth and I will hike over to find it."
Mu Xueli suggested
"How about we carry the goods? I can help you search, and it'll be faster."
Before Wang An could speak, Wang Li said
"Brother Mu, forget it. The two of us hid it, and even we'll have a hard time finding it. You don't even know where the money is hidden; what use are you in the mountains? Besides, carrying two big sacks into the mountains—don't you think that'd be exhausting?"
Wang An smiled and didn't interrupt. He asked a passerby for the address of the Public Security guesthouse and drove toward it.
Using a letter of introduction to check into a room and moving the soda and sacks inside, Wang An and Wang Li each changed into mountain-trekking clothes, tied their leggings, packed their dry rations, and walked toward the railway station.
Wang An's plan was to go to the station and then follow the tracks toward CT; that way, he would inevitably find the hiding spot.
In any case, the train had stopped after leaving the CT station but before reaching the next stop, so the hiding spot must be between those two stations.
The distance between the two stations was about 30-some kilometers, or about 60-some li.
A distance of 60-some li wasn't exactly long, but it certainly wasn't short. Mainly because the road conditions were poor, even at the walking speed of Wang An and Wang Li, it would take at least four hours to cover the entire distance.
The two arrived at the tracks near the station. Looking at the rails that stretched beyond the horizon, they said nothing and began to stride forward. (End of Chapter)