Not having seen Cui Tianbing and not knowing where to look for him, Wang An drove his carriage straight toward the supply and marketing cooperative.
Since he was about to spend over a month consecutively in the mountains, life after entering the mountains would be absolutely miserable if he didn't prepare a good amount of various supplies.
The key was that gold panning required absolute concentration; he couldn't possibly run back and forth every few days.
Doing so would not only waste time but also make it easy for interested parties to keep an eye on him, which would be completely counterproductive.
Upon arriving at the cooperative, he once again encountered a young man who proactively came up to offer to watch his carriage.
This time, Wang An had learned his lesson and asked directly
"Who are you running with? Can you actually keep an eye on my carriage?"
Hearing this, the young man knew he had encountered someone who knew the ropes, so he immediately said with great bravado
"This area is currently under the control of our Seventh Master. Just mention Seventh Master, and it's guaranteed to work."
Everyone in the underworld, fearing they would be looked down upon, tried their best to inflate their own status.
This resulted in honorifics like "Master" this and "Brother" that.
It gave people the impression that the person was doing well enough to be called "Master."
In reality, they were just the leaders of a bunch of thugs—much like Wang An's previous acquaintance, essentially just a big-time thug.
To be honest, because he hadn't seen his brother and had even been looked down upon, Wang An was not in a great mood, but he didn't want to cause trouble.
So, Wang An asked directly
"How much to watch the carriage?"
Seeing an opportunity, the young man said happily
"Ten cents for under two hours, guaranteed that nothing will go missing."
Hearing the price, Wang An didn't think much of it. Finding he had no small change in cents, he pulled out a ten-cent coin and handed it over.
At the same time, he said, "Make sure you watch it. Don't make me go straight to Liu Xiaojun's house in the South Brigade."
After speaking, Wang An turned and walked into the cooperative.
He left the stunned young man behind, staring blankly at Wang An's retreating back.
Because the "Liu Xiaojun" Wang An mentioned was exactly the "Seventh Master" the young man had spoken of.
And the South Brigade Wang An mentioned was precisely the address of Liu Xiaojun's home.
After a short while, Wang An's carriage was loaded with goods.
Although there were many items, there were also many varieties: mainly rice, white flour, refined salt, biscuits, and cigarettes. He also bought several aluminum lunch boxes, flashlights and batteries, as well as kerosene, candles, matches, and so on.
Mainly because there were too many people; a small amount of supplies simply wouldn't be enough.
After tying everything down on the carriage, Wang An drove back home.
It had to be said that this carriage-watcher was quite capable, at least much better than the last one.
As Wang An entered and exited the cooperative several times, he clearly saw people approaching his carriage.
However, upon seeing the young man watching the car, they turned around and left.
That ten cents was truly not spent in vain!
Not long after leaving the county town, Wang An subconsciously felt his pocket, only to suddenly remember that the Type 54 in his pocket had already been given to Fang Xiu'e.
After a moment's thought, Wang An pulled the Type 56 semi-automatic from under the straw mat.
He thought to himself that once he got home, he must remember to put another Type 54 in his pocket.
To be honest, not having a gun in his pocket made him feel quite anxious!
The journey back went smoothly; even when passing through bends in the road, nothing happened, which improved Wang An's mood considerably.
However, as Wang An passed Yangshu Village, with just over one li remaining until Kaoshan Village, he encountered someone he didn't want to meet.
To be precise, it was someone he didn't want to meet and a familiar stranger.
The person he didn't want to meet was Niu Daming, while Wang An couldn't recall who the familiar stranger was.
It must be said that Niu Daming had some cunning to him; seeing Wang An driving toward him from a distance, he took the initiative to greet him.
Niu Daming said with a smile, "You're back, Xiao An."
One doesn't strike a smiling face, and regardless, since the other party had initiated the conversation, Wang An couldn't be rude, so he replied
"Yeah. Heading out, Brother Niu?"
Niu Daming answered, "Yeah."
It was supposed to be a simple greeting, but Wang An noticed that the familiar stranger kept his head down, with his head turned slightly to the side.
In other words, Wang An could only see the back of the man's head.
However, what the man didn't know was that when they were further apart, Wang An had already memorized his appearance.
He simply couldn't remember where he had seen this person before.
And so, after the greeting, Wang An drove toward home, while Niu Daming and the familiar stranger drove their carriage toward Yangshu Village.
By the time Wang An drove the carriage home, he finally remembered who the familiar stranger was.
He was one of the people in Duan Tiger's house during the time Wang An dealt with Duan Tiger.
To recall such an insignificant figure, even though Wang An's memory was quite good, it had truly taken him a while.
Logically, neither of these two were good people, so Wang An felt that if these two were together, they were definitely not up to anything good.
Thinking of this, Wang An decided to go and investigate.
What Wang An didn't know was that the map of Wang An's house held by those people in LQ County a few days ago had been drawn by Niu Daming and handed over through this man.
By the time Wang An wanted to chase after them to investigate, Niu Daming and the man had already driven their carriage away at speed.
Seeing his father working in the yard, Wang An immediately said
"Dad, help me unload the carriage, I have some business to attend to."
As he spoke, Wang An turned and went into the house.
Although Wang Dazhu wanted to know what was happening, he didn't ask, but instead put down his work and walked toward the horse.
Wang An entered the west room, quickly retrieved a Type 54 from the kang chest, loaded it full of bullets, and hurried out of the room.
When Wang An stepped out the door, he saw Wang Dazhu leading the big blue horse toward the stable.
Wang An stepped forward and took the reins from Wang Dazhu's hand. As he walked toward the lower room, he said to Wang Dazhu
"Dad, I need to ride this horse for a bit. You unload the other horse first."
Wang Dazhu finally couldn't help but ask
"What's going on? Why are you in such a rush?"
Wang An didn't have time to answer. He went into the lower room and took out the saddle. While saddling the big blue horse, he finally answered Wang Dazhu
"Just before I came back, I saw Niu Daming and a thug from the county heading toward Yangshu Village. I reckon they're plotting something, so I'm going to go take a look."
Wang Dazhu paused upon hearing this, then said
"How about I go with you?"
Wang An thought about it and felt that his father shouldn't be involved in this, so he refused
"No need, I'm just going to have a look."
(End of Chapter)