Wang An suddenly stepped forward and hugged Mu Xueqing, starting to peck and nuzzle her, leaving her completely caught off guard.
Fortunately, Wang An did this often, so Mu Xueqing had grown somewhat used to it.
After a while, with her face covered in saliva from the nuzzling, Mu Xueqing said with a mix of impatience and shyness
"Oh goodness, we're talking about serious business! Are you sick? You're so clingy every single day."
Hearing this, Wang An finally reluctantly pulled his mouth away from Mu Xueqing's face.
Truth be told, with a little face like Mu Xueqing's, giving it a few pecks when there was nothing to do was actually quite satisfying—smooth, delicate, and elastic. Most importantly, there was a faint, lingering fragrance.
After Wang An let her go, Mu Xueqing wiped the saliva off her face, her cheeks flushing red as she said
"It's broad daylight; can you stop being so clingy? It would be so embarrassing if Mother and the others saw us."
Wang An smiled indifferently and said
"Don't you think doing this kind of thing during the day is exactly what makes it exciting?"
Mu Xueqing gave Wang An a flirtatious glare and said
"Just get lost! Only someone as shameless as you wouldn't care."
Seeing Mu Xueqing's expression, Wang An almost couldn't resist lunging in for another peck.
Just then, however, Wang An heard Wang Dazhu and his wife talking as they entered the house from the courtyard.
At that moment, Mu Xueqing called out
"Dad, Mom, could you two come into this room for a moment?"
After calling them, she playfully made a face at Wang An, as if to say: *Didn't get your way, did you? That's what you get for showing off every day!*
Wang An could only sullenly pull back his reaching arm.
Hearing Mu Xueqing's call, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan entered the west room from the outer room one after the other.
Liu Guilan asked, "What is it, Xueqing? What's going on?"
A second before the couple entered the room, Mu Xueqing had already returned to her normal state, and Wang An had flopped back, pretending as if nothing had happened.
After Liu Guilan spoke, Mu Xueqing pointed to the deer hide and said
"Dad, Mom, it's like this. Xiao An and I were just saying..."
Following that, Mu Xueqing recounted the discussion the two of them had just had regarding going gold prospecting.
After listening, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan looked as if they had heard something unbelievable; they were completely stunned.
After a long silence, Wang Dazhu said in disbelief
"A gold mine? A gold mine like the one in JY County?"
Wang An nodded. "Yep, it's a gold mine, but I don't know if it's as big as the one in JY County."
As soon as Wang An finished, Liu Guilan asked with some concern
"I heard things are getting really eerie over at the JY County gold mine, with a couple of people dying every day. Is this gold mine you're talking about like that too?"
Wang An shook his head. "No way. That place is just a river, and it's deep in the mountains. It seems like there isn't a soul around it."
Hearing Wang An's words, the couple visibly relaxed.
Then, Wang Dazhu pondered and said
"How about I go with Xiao An? If we two go together, we can look after each other. As they say, 'Brothers in war, father and son on the battlefield.'"
It had to be said that Wang Dazhu's point was reasonable, but how could Wang An agree?
In Wang An's view, the livestock at home were not something his mother and the pregnant Mu Xueqing could handle alone.
However, before Wang An could speak, Liu Guilan interjected
"Forget it. Your gun skills aren't even as smooth as Xueqing's. Would you be going there to help your son or just get in his way?"
Being exposed by his wife in front of his son and daughter-in-law, Wang Dazhu likely felt he had lost face.
Mainly, he had claimed yesterday that he was stronger than his son and questioned who the "father" really was; to be spoken of this way today made him flush red in the face and neck as he argued in a low voice
"My aim is actually quite decent! Don't talk nonsense if you don't know."
Liu Guilan questioned him without hesitation
"From the time you learned to shoot until now, how many bullets have you actually fired?"
It must be said that Liu Guilan's tongue was that of a true shrew; whether dealing with family or strangers, once she started arguing, she was a contender capable of debating a crowd of scholars.
But it had to be admitted that Liu Guilan was very logical.
Consequently, Wang Dazhu was not only left speechless by her question but felt even more embarrassed.
Wang An, who already didn't want his father to go, suppressed a smile and comforted his dad
"Dad, look at how big our family estate is. If there isn't a man of the house staying behind to hold down the fort, would that really work?"
Mu Xueqing also said while holding back a laugh
"That's true. With all those animals at home, Mom and I simply can't handle them."
Hearing his son and daughter-in-law, Wang Dazhu suddenly found a way to save face. He gave a dry laugh and boasted
"Exactly. I'm more useful staying at home. It takes a good man to look after those beasts."
Liu Guilan wasn't aggressive this time; she looked at Wang Dazhu and remained silent.
Perhaps at this moment, Liu Guilan was worried that saying too much would actually push Wang Dazhu to insist on following Wang An to prospect for gold.
And so, through the discussion of the four, the matter of gold prospecting was settled.
While the four were chatting, the two young girls who had been riding the roe deer in the sheep pen ran back into the house.
The youngest, Wang Xiaoli, was running and crying. Hearing the voices of the four, she ran into the west room and threw herself into Wang An's arms on the kang, whimpering as she began to complain to him.
Children crying was perfectly normal; as long as it wasn't a loud wail indicating a serious problem, the adults in the house didn't take it too seriously.
Once Wang Xiaoli finished her aggrieved tale, everyone understood what had happened.
It turned out Wang Xiaoli had been rammed by a sheep!
The sheep in Wang An's pen weren't the local large woolly sheep, but wild yellow sheep. Therefore, their aggressiveness was far greater than that of domestic sheep.
After Wang Xiaoli finished complaining, Wang Xiaomei added a few details.
Essentially, the two girls were playing happily with the roe deer when they were suddenly knocked quite a distance by a yellow sheep.
Hearing Wang Xiaomei's addition, Wang An became a bit angry!
Although in the countryside, few people had never been rammed by a sheep, Wang An could not accept his own sheep attacking people.
The main point was that with any animal, once it develops a habit of bullying people, it will inevitably do it again.
Therefore, Wang An decided to slaughter the sheep that had rammed them.
Thus, Wang An asked Wang Xiaomei directly
"Do you remember which sheep it was?"
Wang Xiaomei replied
"I remember, I remember! It's the one with the really long horns, and one of the horns isn't pointy..."
Wang An nodded. While helping Wang Xiaoli up, he said softly to his little sister
"Come on, Big Brother is going to get revenge for you!"
(End of Chapter)