Chapter 231: The Law
At this moment, Wang Li's face was deathly pale, and the hand holding the box-gun was still shaking incessantly.
However, Wang Li still forced a smile and said, "Fourth Brother, do you think this thing counts as bringing us some wealth?"
Looking at Wang Li, Wang An suddenly felt that his fifth brother had grown up!
It must be said that when a person grows up, it often happens in a single instant.
Wang An turned his head to look at the pack of dogs tearing into the bear, then nodded.
"Yeah, it's bringing us wealth, but the damn thing delivered it too recklessly. Gave me a hell of a scare."
Wang Li said, "Yeah, luckily the dogs warned us, otherwise who knows what would've happened!"
In truth, Wang An was thinking about something else. The reason they hadn't seen a single roe deer or wild boar all morning was likely because of the existence of this bear.
The reason the bear had launched a surprise attack wasn't that the two brothers had attracted it, but rather the gamey scent on the red deer.
Black bears are omnivores, but for them, the meat of deer and goats is their favorite.
It seemed that wherever deer or goats stayed, a black bear would eventually be attracted to the spot; this had almost become a law!
When Wang An and Mu Xueli were gathering yellow goats, they killed a bear and got a golden gall.
When Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li hunted blue goats for the first time, regardless of the process, they killed three black bears and got three iron galls.
The second time the three of them hunted blue goats, they killed another black bear and got a golden gall.
Now, while hunting the red deer, they had killed another bear, though they didn't know what kind of gall it had yet.
Wang An finally concluded that in the future, whenever they hunted deer or goats, they must be extremely careful of their surroundings, because there was a very high probability of a black bear being nearby!
After a while, Wang An had completely recovered. He said to Wang Li, "Can you move now? If you can, let's hurry up and get the gall."
Hearing this, Wang Li said bashfully, "Yeah, my legs are a bit weak, but it's not a big deal."
"Hahaha, weak legs are normal. You think I'm perfectly fine?" Wang An laughed.
In reality, everyone is the same; facing a sudden danger, anyone would be afraid, no matter how much experience they had.
Therefore, the key was the quality of one's psychological fortitude and whether the mind could remain clear.
At the very least, one had to react quickly to figure out how to avoid being harmed.
At a distance of twenty-odd meters, if a bear started running, it would take only two or three seconds.
Despite its massive size, this thing was genuinely not slow when running; there was no way a human could outrun it.
Although the dogs were fierce, they were useless against a bear; the bear wouldn't even need to swipe at them—it could just plow straight through.
That was the nature of mountain hunting; saying that one's life hung by a thread was not an exaggeration at all.
If they hadn't had the dogs, or if Wang An's draw speed had been two or three seconds slower, the result truly would have been unpredictable.
One must realize that if a bear landed a blow, not even a tiger or leopard might be able to withstand it, let alone a human.
As they spoke, the two pulled out their hunting knives and walked toward the bear.
This bear was certainly not small, weighing around 800 jin.
Furthermore, it wasn't thin at all; it was likely a "walking lump" (a well-fed bear).
Usually, black bears that became "walking lumps" while hibernating were woken up by hunger. Those hunger-stricken bears were almost always skin and bones.
The two walked up to the bear and circled it twice, but they couldn't manage to start extracting the gall.
Mainly because the bear was currently lying prone. An 800-jin bear looked absolutely massive.
It wasn't something two people with hunting knives could simply nudge aside.
"Fourth Brother, what do we do?" Wang Li scratched his head in worry.
Wang An looked at the knife in his hand and said, "Let's go. Let's go cut some trees."
The area where they were was a sparse thicket. Although red deer liked to eat the tender shoots on shrubs, they didn't like staying in thickets for long.
Of course, red deer were unwilling to stay in thickets or areas with dense trees, likely because the antlers of the bucks were too large.
Generally speaking, the habitats of red deer were places with open visibility.
But open areas usually lacked food, so they were forced to venture into thickets or woods.
Logically, if a bear could smell a deer and be attracted to it, then with a deer's sense of smell, it should have been able to smell the bear as well.
Yet, while other animals had fled, this red deer had stayed put. This clearly showed that this red deer was very confident.
Before they had walked a few steps, they saw Mu Xueli returning.
Mu Xueli was driving Wang An's eldest horse, followed by Mu Xueli's big blue horse pulling a sledge, and finally Wang Li's big white horse pulling a sledge.
Not only had Mu Xueli returned, but the sledge was also loaded with things.
Wang An took one look and thought, *Holy crap*, it was actually nine carcasses of red dogs—dholes.
However, there was no blood on Mu Xueli, and he had a smug smile on his face, meaning he hadn't been injured.
That was mountain hunting; as long as the person was fine, nothing else mattered.
Before Wang An and Wang Li could ask what happened, Mu Xueli couldn't resist the urge to brag.
Thus, as soon as Mu Xueli stopped the sledge, he wanted to put on a one-man show.
But the bear's gall hadn't been retrieved yet; Wang An was in no mood to listen to this.
Consequently, Wang An interrupted his brother-in-law, who had already struck a pose, and said directly
"Hold your bragging for a moment. Let's get the bear's gall out first. If we wait any longer, the gall will be useless."
"Bear? You guys killed a big bear?" Mu Xueli asked in surprise.
"Yeah, we'll talk about how it happened later. Hurry up," Wang An said with some urgency.
One must know that if a bear gall isn't retrieved quickly, it will dissolve and shrink—and that would be a loss of money!
As the three of them led the horses toward the bear, Wang Li's big white horse refused to move no matter what. Having no choice, they had to tie it to the side.
Although Mu Xueli's big blue horse was clearly afraid, it continued to move forward.
Seeing this, Mu Xueli became even more smug, giving Wang Li a look of invisible contempt.
However, Wang Li ignored him completely. This was a matter for the horses, not the people; there was nothing to be smug about.
Wang An tied a rope around the bear's leg and the other end to the rear crossbeam of the sledge, then shouted "Giddy-up!" to the eldest horse.
It must be said that although the eldest horse wasn't as heavy as the bear, dragging a dead bear took very little effort.
Simply and easily, the prone bear became a bear lying on its back. Perfect.
Mu Xueli and Wang Li hurried forward with their knives and brutally sliced open the bear's belly.