After four days and nights of the tiger-catching operation, this group of people suffered some casualties during the first two days, but the latter two passed without further incident.
It was said that one by one, these people had been driven to nervous breakdowns by the tiger; some had even been scared into incontinence and were speaking in incoherent ramblings.
Of course, in the eyes of others, these claims were somewhat exaggerated.
After all, anyone chosen to go into the mountains to catch a tiger had to be someone with a fair amount of courage. Sending a coward into the mountains would be absolute nonsense!
After this group descended the mountain, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four also departed.
However, as the six of them left, their faces were full of smiles, and Wu Dong told Wang An with great certainty that they would meet again in two or three days at the most.
Wang An knew that when they met again, it would definitely be time to go hunt the tiger.
It was only then that Wang An fully understood why these six people, who clearly all had jobs, managed to find the time to hang around catching fish.
Similarly, Wang An now understood why whenever those people were mentioned—whether it was Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian, or Wu Dong, Wang Shuai, and the other two—they all wore expressions of displeasure or grumbled, yet the moment they heard there were casualties, all six of them were gloating.
By synthesizing the information he overheard while the six were chatting, Wang An felt that the whole situation was actually quite interesting.
The story went like this.
The provincial leaders believed that as fellow "second-generation" elites, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four, along with a few other scions, would have a common language with the second-generation elites from BJ.
After all, disputes were disputes, but in China's society of favors and connections, one had to maintain appearances.
Therefore, the province arranged for Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four, along with several other scions, to maintain friendly relations with the second-generation elites who had come from BJ, and to act as hosts.
To put it bluntly, they were essentially just paid companions.
But as second-generation elites themselves, who among them didn't have a bit of pride in their bones?
More importantly, regardless of their status, as long as it concerned money or their own safety, no one was going to play along!
It was one thing for those people to steal their tiger, but they were expected to accompany them into the mountains?
And they weren't going into the mountains for just anything—they were going to catch a damn tiger!
As people from the Northeast, who didn't know how terrifying tigers were? Hunting a tiger was an incredibly difficult feat; as for catching one, they could go jump in a lake.
The worst part was that there were no benefits at all, because on the surface, the operation was "catching a tiger" for the sake of the greater good.
In other words, regardless of what happened to the tiger in the end, it had absolutely nothing to do with the local scions.
Under these circumstances, unless someone was an idiot, who would go into the mountains?
What if they lost their lives in there?
Thus, while Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four had "entered the mountains" in name, they had actually just retreated to Wang An's house at the foot of the mountain.
As for delivering the bulldozer to Wang An, that was actually just a side trip.
Speaking of which, these six were actually quite resourceful.
When the six left, Wang An certainly couldn't let them go back empty-handed.
Of course, Wang An didn't have anything overly valuable, so the trunks of the two jeeps were stuffed full of various fish, meat, and forest frogs.
Even so, the stock of fish at Wang An's house didn't seem to decrease.
Mainly, there were too many fish in the river, and Wang An and his seven companions had caught several thousand catties of fish over the past few days—it was simply too much.
Unfortunately, fish in this era were not worth much; otherwise, Wang An would have made a small fortune.
Now, besides the humans, the dogs, wolves, wild boars, and lynxes at Wang An's house all ate fish every meal.
Perhaps the fishy smell stimulated the taste buds of these animals, as they preferred fish over cornmeal.
Eating fish saved grain, which was a very cost-effective arrangement for Wang Dazhu and his wife, so the couple was always beaming whenever they fed the animals fish.
After the six left, Wang An looked at the quite large pile of fish in the yard. After thinking it over, he drove his sledge and delivered a good amount of fish to his father-in-law's house and to several relatives.
Regardless of whether it was valuable or not, it was a gesture of goodwill; besides, catching the fish had required time and effort.
While delivering fish to his father-in-law's house, Wang An told the family about the tiger hunt in a few days.
It was clear that Mu Xueli was full of excitement; after all, for a hunter, being able to participate in a tiger hunt was something one could brag about for a lifetime.
However, Mu Hua and his wife were somewhat worried. As elders, tigers were practically the nightmare of their generation.
Wang An would never try to persuade them otherwise, because everything after entering the mountains was unpredictable; if something actually happened, Wang An could not shoulder such a heavy responsibility.
Therefore, until the moment Wang An left, he didn't mention a single word about whether Mu Xueli should go or not.
After declining the invitation to stay for a meal from his father-in-law's family, Wang An returned home.
After lunch, Wang An lay on the kang, feeling more and more that this tiger hunt was no joke.
Thus, in his mind, Wang An began to check for gaps in his plan over and over again.
Suddenly, Wang An thought of the dogs. Although dogs were no match for a tiger, they could provide early warnings or help track the tiger's scent.
So, if he truly went to hunt the tiger, the dogs had to come along.
But if a dog happened to clash with the tiger, it might not even be able to run away.
In that case, wouldn't the dog be doomed?
Consequently, Wang An's brow furrowed deeply.
To Wang An, these dogs were truly like family, and they had indeed achieved great merits for him.
If they died, Wang An would undoubtedly weep in grief.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit Wang An. He remembered the tracking dogs that had hindered him when he was captured in his previous life.
Although the performance of those dogs had been quite poor because Wang An's car had been carrying tiger bones and skins at the time, he remembered the clothes they wore vividly, as that was the first time he had seen dogs wearing clothes.
To be precise, those clothes wrapped the dogs quite tightly.
However, against a tiger's massive fangs, ordinary cloth or leather would be completely useless.
Therefore, if he wanted to make clothes for the dogs, he had to use something sturdy—at the very least, it had to withstand a few seconds to give someone time to fire a shot.
Thus, Wang An continued to think with a furrowed brow.
It had to be said that materials in this era were truly scarce. After racking his brain, Wang An couldn't think of anything that could withstand a tiger's bite.
At that moment, Mu Xueqing entered the room. In her hands, she held several dried cloth jackets and a large piece of yellow goat skin.
Seeing the cloth jackets, Wang An's eyes instantly lit up.
Then, Wang An jumped straight down from the bed, pulled Mu Xueqing into his arms, and gave her a fierce bout of kissing.
(End of Chapter)