The area near the railway station was still quite prosperous and densely populated.
Therefore, Wang An and the other man saw no need to even observe the terrain in such a location and simply hurried past it.
They walked like this for over an hour, covering approximately fifteen or sixteen li. As they progressed, the surroundings became increasingly desolate and remote; by now, the two had reached the outermost fringes of the urban area and the village towns.
In a place like this, aside from the occasional footprints left by railway maintenance workers in the small snow drifts beside the tracks, the only marks a few meters away from the rails were those left by rabbits or mountain voles.
Wang Li surveyed the mountains to the east of the railway and subconsciously said to Wang An
"Fourth Brother, if I remember correctly, we jumped off the train on the inner side, right? If we assume the train was heading south from the north at the time, then we just need to focus our search on the east side of the tracks, right?"
The "inner side" Wang Li referred to was actually the left side, because locally, people at that time mostly spoke in terms of "inner" and "outer" rather than "left" and "right."
If the inner side was left, then the outer side was naturally right.
Hearing this, Wang An nodded.
"Yeah, just focus on searching this eastern side."
After a pause, Wang An added helplessly, "It was so damn dark back then that you couldn't see a thing looking out from the train. Otherwise, would searching be this grueling?"
Wang Li agreed, "That's for sure. If there had been even a bit of light, our eyes definitely would have remembered it."
Wang An suddenly said with a smile, "Actually, we should think of it this way: it's pretty great that we got a chance to hide some money. Besides, didn't the three of us each take 3,000 yuan? That's already quite a bit, hahahaha..."
Hearing this, Wang Li's attitude shifted immediately. He laughed along with Wang An and said, "That's true! The big color TV only cost 2,300-something, not even 2,400. Even if we can't find the money we hid, we've still made a profit, hehehehe..."
Chatting away, the two of them continued their search.
However, after walking for another hour or so, the two suddenly stopped in their tracks, staring at the scene ahead in utter bewilderment.
The reason was simple: in the mountain forest before them, many of the large trees had been felled.
Even the trunks and thick branches had been hauled away, leaving behind a ground covered in dead twigs and a few withered leaves that hadn't yet been blown away by the wind. It was as if they were telling Wang An and his companion
"Didn't expect this, did you? Feel stupid now? We've been cut down."
In other words, this patch of forest had undergone selective logging by the local forestry department.
Selective logging was quite common in the Northeast. Whether in the Lesser and Greater Khingan ranges of Heilongjiang Province or the Changbai Mountains, selective logging had been the practice for the past few years.
There was no other way; by this time, many had realized that the previous methods of logging were wrong. The most scientific and sustainable method was "selective logging."
To put it simply, it meant choosing which trees to cut—felling the mature timber while leaving all the small trees that didn't meet the standard.
Only in this way could the original ecology be maintained as much as possible.
Unfortunately, while selective logging was normal, for the two brothers Wang An and Wang Li, it was a "blow to the head."
They were already unfamiliar with the local geography, and now this happened. This was just ridiculous!
After a long while, Wang Li finally closed his gaping mouth and said with a face full of bitterness, "Fourth Brother, we're screwed now. The trees are gone, so that big tree you shot several times definitely didn't survive. There's an eighty percent chance we'll never find our money."
Wang An blinked, pursing his lips tightly, suddenly at a loss for what to do.
Someone who frequently wandered the same forest might notice the differences between individual trees.
But for someone unfamiliar with the woods, no matter where they walked, the trees all looked roughly the same. It was impossible to determine one's position based on the appearance of the trees.
This was exactly the situation Wang An and Wang Li faced, and with nearly a year having passed, it was still the season when heavy snow blocked the mountains.
Without that bullet-riddled tree as a reference, trying to find the spot where they hid the money was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
After a long silence, Wang An said irritably, "Damn it, this is going to be a pain. It's all because of that big claw! If that big claw hadn't left me injured for over half a year, we would have retrieved the money long ago. Why the hell did we have to wait until now to come back? Oh, fuck it all!"
At the time, the two sacks of money combined totaled at least sixty or seventy thousand. Even after Wang An and Wang Li took nine thousand, there should have been at least fifty thousand left in the sacks.
And that didn't even include the gold, silver jewelry, and watches stolen from those bandits, nor the various coupons and vouchers.
A rough estimate suggested the jewelry and watches could be worth several thousand or even ten thousand. As for the vouchers, most—aside from the grain coupons—had likely expired and become waste paper.
However, for Wang An and his two companions, those vouchers weren't of much use anyway.
After Wang An finished his outburst, Wang Li tried to comfort him
"Fourth Brother, let's try looking a bit more. What if we actually find it? That money is a serious amount."
Wang An sighed and said, "Let's go. I remember there weren't many shrubs in that area, and it was quite flat. Then, moving east from the railway tracks, there was a gentle slope."
Wang Li recalled as he spoke, "Yeah, I remember as soon as we got off, there was a pretty big rock under a pile of rubble that almost tripped me."
Wang An added, "Right, right, right! Now that you mention it, I remember. Next to that rock, I think there was a small elm stump. I just don't know if that stump was cut down this year."
And so, the two brothers went back and forth, sharing every detail they could recall.
To be honest, it was only because this matter was too sensitive and involved too many other complications.
Otherwise, they would only need to go to the railway department and look up the temporary stop records for that day to pinpoint the exact location of the incident, allowing them to quickly find the hiding spot.
But given the sensitivity of such a case, let alone seeking help, Wang An and the others hadn't even dared to tell their own families.
Mainly because this was stolen loot from a train robbery with extremely malicious consequences. What was there to brag about? (End of Chapter)