Chapter 222: No Choice But to Take the Loss
Everything happened so fast that the tall man and the short man, who hadn't moved their guns, were now completely bewildered.
If Small-Eyes hadn't pulled the bolt, it would have just been a fight—at worst, they would have lost. Besides, both sides had three people; the outcome would have been uncertain.
Even if Small-Eyes's "string of pearls" gun hadn't fired, there would have been room for theoretical excuse: he got scared and reacted instinctively. That wouldn't have been a problem.
But Small-Eyes had not only pulled the bolt, the gun had actually gone off. That changed the nature of the situation entirely, because it meant he was intending to kill!
If you try to kill someone and get shot in return, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's a matter of being outclassed; if you get shot, you get shot. You just have to take the loss—a classic case of the attacker becoming the victim.
Having a gun pointed at your head is terrifying for anyone, let alone a gun that had just fired a bullet.
Thus, in the freezing cold of these mountains, sweat began to bead on the foreheads of the tall and short men, dripping from the edges of their cotton hats.
"Bro... brother, my younger brother is ignorant. Please... please show mercy and let us go. Would that work?" the tall man said, swallowing hard and stammering.
"He tried to blow my head off, and now you want me to let him go? Is that the idea?" Wang An said with a half-smile, still pointing the gun at the three of them.
"But... but he didn't... didn't hit you, right?" the short man stammered.
Though the tone was soft and the statement was a fact, the implication was infuriating.
Hearing this, the corners of Wang An's mouth twitched. Not knowing what to say, he remained silent. With the Type 54 still pointed at them in his left hand, he stepped forward and delivered a massive slap across the man's face.
The man was wearing a cotton hat that protected his face, so aside from being knocked off balance, the short man was actually fine.
Consequently, Wang An followed up with a kick, sending the short man sprawling onto the snow.
After the beating, Wang An said to the tall man, "Hand it over. What the fuck are you still thinking about?"
This time, the tall man was very cooperative. He turned around and pulled the sable out of the burlap sack on the mule.
Seeing the sable, Mu Xueli immediately cheered up and trotted forward to take it.
Once Mu Xueli had the sable, Wang An said in a flat tone, "Originally, we could have split this sable half-and-half, but since you broke the rules first, it's all ours. No objections, right?"
Although Wang An had killed many people, it was always under duress, and those he killed were bandits and thugs. Wang An wasn't arrogant or crazy enough to just kill people in a situation like this.
Furthermore, it really wasn't worth it over something this small. It's impossible for people to never have conflicts; if you killed everyone you had a conflict with, would that even be possible?
"No objections, no objections," the tall man replied hastily.
"It's not worth the effort to kill you. Let's leave it at that. We're busy. We're leaving." After speaking, Wang An turned and walked toward the sled.
The tall and short men watched the backs of Wang An's group, but neither had the thought of raising their guns to shoot them. Instead, they hurried to help up Small-Eyes, who had fainted from the pain.
In truth, regardless of who they were, no one had the courage to kill easily.
Moreover, the reason Wang An dared to turn and walk away was that he could tell the tall and short men had no intention of using their guns from start to finish.
Only Small-Eyes had genuine killing intent in his eyes—though whether he'd be able to fire a gun in the future was now a question.
Wang An didn't even look back as he drove the sled away, and Mu Xueli and Wang Li followed suit.
After traveling a long distance, Wang An heard Da Hei's frantic barking. He stopped the lead horse and tied them up to feed them.
Da Hei's barking proved he had caught the scent of prey. Besides, the three horses were due for some fodder and a rest.
However, Wang An didn't know what prey Da Hei had found, as there were no animal tracks on the surrounding snow.
Once the horses were tended to, they released all ten dogs.
Then, the ten dogs, led by Da Hei, bolted forward. The three men didn't dare linger and ran after them.
Among Wang Li's four dogs, the lead was a female. Although she was the smallest, Wang Li had still named her Da Huang. The remaining three were named Er Huang, San Huang, and Si Huang based on their size.
Actually, both Mu Xueli and Wang Li had learned how to name dogs from Wang An. Since Wang An named his dogs using numbers plus colors, they did the same.
This time, the ten dogs didn't fight among themselves. Because Wang Li's lead dog was a female and relatively small, despite looking fierce, she naturally followed Da Hei's command.
The other three yellow dogs were just supporting players and naturally followed Da Huang into the pack.
Since they didn't know what Da Hei had found and there were no tracks, the three men could only chase after the dogs.
Running through the snow was genuinely exhausting, so the three of them soon slowed down.
"Brother-in-law, do you think those three people will seek revenge on us?" Mu Xueli panted, his face still grave as he dwelled on the previous encounter.
Equally out of breath, Wang An looked at Mu Xueli and couldn't help but laugh. This brother-in-law was truly not cut out for fighting.
He was far behind his sister. If it had been Mu Xueqing, she might have emptied an entire magazine in that situation.
But as he laughed, Wang An inhaled the freezing air, causing him to cough. He coughed and said, "Cough... are you... cough... crazy?"
After a moment, with his face and neck flushed from coughing, Wang An said, "What? You have a gun in your hand, what are you afraid of?"
Mu Xueli, panting with a bitter expression, said, "A gun... a gun... I still... I still wouldn't dare fire it at a person."
Wang An had been coughing quite painfully and hadn't recovered yet, so he didn't want to talk and said impatiently, "Ugh, we'll figure this out later. Cough, if you keep talking, I'm going to run out of breath. Fuck."
Although Mu Xueli was still conflicted, he didn't dare ask further and kept his head down, continuing to run.
In a place the three men couldn't see, the ten dogs were barking wildly, rushing toward a group of pigs. The scene was quite spectacular.
It was a moderately sized sounder: two female wild boars and six "yellow-hairs"—essentially two mothers keeping each other company, each leading her own offspring in search of food.
Before the ten dogs even reached them, the eight pigs were alerted and began to bolt in panic.
Dogs run by leaping through the snow, which is relatively faster. Pigs, due to their build, "wade" through the snow, pushing it aside as they run.
The resistance of the snow is significant, so in this moment, it wasn't the yellow-hairs who were faster, but the stronger sows who moved slightly quicker.
Pigs can't outrun dogs to begin with, and while pushing through the snow, they were quickly overtaken.
Da Hei barked out commands while lunging at a yellow-hair that had fallen to the rear. Da Hei's large jaws snapped shut, biting hard into the yellow-hair's anus.
With a miserable scream, the yellow-hair stopped in its tracks from the pain. Er Hei and San Hei immediately bared their teeth and stepped forward, biting the yellow-hair's ears from left and right.
Da Qing's strength was not inferior to Da Hei's, so he performed the same action simultaneously, opening his jaws wide and lunging at another lagging yellow-hair.