After being scolded by Wang An, Huang Zhong didn't argue. He pursed his lips and said
"Anyway, Big Brother, regardless of who you want killed, just give me the order and I'll definitely take care of him. If it happens that I can't get away, I won't let it drag you down; I'll just put a shot through my own head and finish myself off."
As he spoke, Huang Zhong's face was full of determination and resolve; it was obvious he was prepared to die at any moment.
Wang An knew that Huang Zhong wasn't intentionally professing loyalty, nor was he just saying things to sound good; this was truly what he was thinking.
However, since his rebirth, Wang An had deliberately distanced himself from illegal and criminal activities. Crucially, he himself was a border defense officer, and many things no longer required the use of dark methods.
Having been reborn, if he still had to make a living by dancing on the edge of legality and crime, wouldn't his rebirth have been for nothing?
Of course, extreme special circumstances were an exception...
For instance, if he suddenly had a "narrow encounter" with armed robbers; in such a case, Wang An would absolutely not overthink things—he'd kill them first and ask questions later.
Wang An sighed and didn't try to persuade Huang Zhong further, because regardless of what he said on this matter, Huang Zhong wouldn't listen.
Mainly, it seemed that the current Huang Zhong—perhaps because he had watched too many movies—had completely merged himself into the role of Wang An's bodyguard, or even Wang An's death soldier.
Day after day, he wanted to follow movie plots to do some unspeakable dirty work for Wang An, or help Wang An eliminate people he wanted dead.
Wang An had already advised him several times, wanting to pull him back into the world of normal people, but the kid was young and a bit stubborn, insisting on his own ideas.
Wang An patted Huang Zhong on the shoulder and said with a smile
"You're following me now, so as your Big Brother, I can't exactly lead you down a dead-end road, damn. You underestimate your Big Brother's strength too much, hahaha..."
Then, Wang An rubbed Huang Zhong's head and said
"To deal with a peddler wandering from village to village, there's no need to go to such lengths. You're just responsible for finding where he's staying, and that's it."
Seeing Huang Zhong's confused gaze, Wang An explained further
"When the time comes, I'll find a pretext to send him straight to the 'fence' for a few days. Once he's in the fence, he'll confess everything. Don't worry, for your Big Brother, dealing with these kinds of bottom-feeders is a small matter."
After hearing this, Huang Zhong nodded heavily and said
"Yes, Big Brother, I understand. I'll definitely find his location tomorrow."
Wang An said
"Right, take it slow, no need to rush. Also, try not to let him know you're watching him. Oh, before you head out tomorrow, come to my room for a few sips of deer blood. Then wear more clothes and wrap yourself up tight; otherwise, riding a horse is genuinely quite cold."
The reason he said this was because Wang An knew all too well how miserable it was to ride a horse or a motorcycle in the dead of winter; it could practically freeze a person to death.
Huang Zhong suddenly asked Wang An
"Big Brother, which horse should I ride tomorrow?"
Wang An thought for a moment and said
"Pick an Oroqen horse. Those horses are steady and have plenty of endurance; they'll be fine even after running all day."
Huang Zhong nodded and agreed happily
"Aye, you got it, Big Brother."
——
After assigning the task to Huang Zhong, Wang An went to his parents' room and saw that his father, Comrade Wang Dazhu, had finished removing the meat and tendons from the musk deer bones.
At this moment, Wang Dazhu was using a scale to weigh the medicinal herbs that would be paired with the bones in the liquor jars—things like ginseng, lingzhi, goji berries, astragalus, and eucommia.
Wang An had obtained many liquor-soaking recipes from Fang Xiu'e and bought many Chinese medicines from the pharmacy. Furthermore, while Wang Dazhu and his wife were gathering mushrooms, they had also harvested quite a bit of lingzhi, goji, and astragalus.
So, if the family wanted to brew medicinal liquor, they weren't lacking in herbs.
"Dad, how's the liquor coming along? Need my help?" Seeing his father working with great concentration, Wang An asked.
Wang Dazhu continued weighing the herbs and said without looking up
"No need, I'm almost done. In a bit, move that small jar of musk deer blood liquor and that jar of musk deer spine liquor to your room. I reckon this musk deer blood is truly excellent, its medicinal properties are even stronger than deer antler blood. Have a small cup before you go to sleep."
Wang An nodded and smiled
"Alright, I'll move the two jars to my room in a bit. Dad, wait a few days and I'll catch a few more musk deer so we can brew more liquor."
Wang Dazhu's eyes lit up upon hearing this
"Catching those things is good, that's very good indeed."
After a pause, Wang Dazhu suddenly added
"Xiao An, next time you go to the county town, go to the supply and marketing cooperative and buy some yeast. We have so much grain at home, and there's enough to feed the livestock. I'm thinking we should brew some of our own liquor to drink."
Although things had been liberalized by this time, grain could only be traded in small quantities privately; large-scale buying and selling were not allowed.
To exchange large quantities of grain for money, one could only sell to the grain station.
But at this time, the grain station not only offered low prices, but due to the "price scissors" effect, the prices were significantly lower than the market rate.
Most importantly, the grain station's quality requirements for the grain they purchased were extremely high, almost the same as the specifications for official government grain quotas, and they frequently rejected shipments.
To put it bluntly, whether the grain could be accepted or if it met their requirements was entirely up to them.
However, Wang An had been paying attention to the prices of grain and meat.
Compared to the first two years, grain prices had risen significantly this year, and meat had risen as well.
Currently, white rice and flour were already over 30 cents, nearly 40 cents per jin. Corn had exceeded 20 cents per jin, and domestic pork had reached 1 yuan per jin.
As for wild boar, bear, and other mountain game, their prices had also risen, reaching the previous price of domestic pork—around 70 cents per jin, no longer the 30 or 40 cents of previous years.
He just didn't know if this price increase was related to the opening of the market.
However, Wang An knew that grain prices in China had always been exceptionally stable; even in later generations, the maximum purchase price for corn was only around 1 yuan.
In any case, having lived two lives, Wang An had never heard of anyone getting rich from farming!
Not only could they not get rich, but sometimes when they did the math, they actually lost money.
That would be the only surprise!
Hearing that his father actually knew how to brew liquor, Wang An was momentarily stunned and instinctively asked Wang Dazhu
"Dad, you know how to brew liquor? When did you learn that? How come I didn't know?"