After feeding the three dogs and greeting his brother-in-law, Wang An turned to drive the sled.
This journey was truly quite long; if Wang An didn't hurry, he wouldn't only miss lunch, but he'd struggle to make it to dinner as well!
Wang An was very hungry and very tired, and the inside of his padded jacket was damp with sweat!
But he still walked very fast, mainly because it was already past 3:00 PM; if he didn't hurry, he wouldn't reach the sled before dark!
He took shortcuts all the way, and by the time he reached the sled, the sky had turned completely black.
After tidying up the fodder, he hitched the sled and set off. Fortunately, in the mountains, as long as it wasn't cloudy, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse!
Although the visibility couldn't compare to the daytime, as long as Da'erma wasn't affected, it would be fine!
When they reached the place where the three dogs had first surrounded the Great Bear, Wang An saw dark shadows ahead. It seemed something was moving, and it wasn't just one thing!
However, Da'erma was completely unaffected and continued walking forward!
Therefore, the prey definitely wasn't a ferocious beast or a predator, but Wang An still prepared his gun, placing his right index finger on the trigger. Having a gun in hand gave him a sense of security—a very strong sense of security!
As the sled moved forward, the dark shadows drew closer. Wang An aimed the gun directly at them; these shadows were quite something, they didn't even know how to run!
*Fuck, I don't care how tough you are, if you don't run, I'll just fire a couple of shots first!*
Before he could pull the trigger, he heard someone shouting: "Villager! Villager! Help us!"
Wang An was instantly shocked. It was pitch black, and they were deep in the mountains!
How could there be human voices out here? What the hell was going on?
In this day and age, one really didn't dare to pay attention to strangers. Mainly, the great Chinese machine hadn't started running yet; it was an era where all sorts of bastards and creeps existed! One wrong move and you could end up getting yourself killed!
Besides, killing people was a massive problem! You couldn't just fire a shot because of a misunderstanding; that definitely wouldn't do!
While Wang An was pondering, the sled arrived near the person shouting.
His eyes scanned left and right; two people were supporting another person—three people in total!
Looking at the situation, these three had encountered some danger. All three were wearing military-style padded coats, though the coats were torn open, exposing the cotton stuffing, and they were all making a fuss.
The person being supported in the middle had the pants torn open at the calf, and there seemed to be blood at the torn area; the person appeared to be semi-conscious!
Wang An called Da'erma to a halt, stepped off the sled, and asked, "What happened to you three?"
Even though he didn't know them, Wang An figured he should lend a hand if he could. Since he was already out here killing things, he might as well save some people to balance the karma! Mainly, since he had run into them, he couldn't avoid it!
They say saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda; forget the pagoda, since he ran into this, he just needed to do it for his own peace of mind!
The man on the left replied with a bitter smile, "We went into the mountains to hunt some game, but we unfortunately ran into a bear, and it even injured my friend!"
Wang An knew what was going on in his heart. He estimated these were the owners of those three leather shoe prints, but this man was lying!
Because they were following the Great Bear's tracks—meaning they were tracking it!—rather than just "unluckily running into a bear" as he claimed!
They were in such a godawful state, yet this man was still lying. Wang An, who was naturally suspicious, immediately had a bad impression of this man. How could he have peace of mind? It would be more peaceful to just ignore them.
If you treat others like fools like this, who knows what the hell you three are actually trying to do?
Wang An stopped speaking and intended to turn around and drive the sled away!
Seeing Wang An about to leave, the man grew anxious and hurriedly shouted, "Villager, why are you leaving? Please, help us!"
Without looking back, Wang An said bluntly, "Didn't your parents teach you to be honest?"
At this moment, the one on the right also spoke up, now more lucid: "Villager, please don't go, let me explain..."
Then the one on the right said to the unhappy one on the left, "What the hell time is it? Who cares about your damn pride right now!"
Immediately after, the one on the right continued, "Villager, we came from the county. My name is Wu Dong. The liar here is called He Liang, and the unconscious one is Ma Guoqiang. Please don't mind him; He Liang didn't lie on purpose, he's just obsessed with saving face! Please, help us!"
In fact, Wang An had recognized this Wu Dong at a glance, because he was the young man who had bought Wang An's live roe deer and had plenty of money!
However, the other party hadn't recognized him, and they had only dealt with each other once. Most importantly, that He Liang was a liar!
Then again, if two people were fine, couldn't they take care of one injured person? To be able to enter this deep into the mountains, they must have some level of skill!
Originally, Wang An had only stopped because he couldn't avoid them, and since there were so many "troublemakers" around, he didn't want to deal with them!
But if they were mountain hunters, they were all dressed quite sharply. Although the Great Bear had torn their clothes to shreds, those military coats weren't the ordinary green ones sold at the supply and marketing cooperatives; they looked very much like official issue, just without the shoulder straps or sleeve insignia!
Seeing that Wu Dong spoke quite openly, Wang An thought for a moment and said, "Get on the sled."
After Wu Dong and He Liang helped Ma Guoqiang onto the sled and sat down themselves, Wang An drove the sled straight toward his brother-in-law and the Great Bear.
On the way, Wu Dong explained that there was an elderly person at home who urgently needed fresh bear bile combined with other medicines for treatment, which was why the three of them had entered the mountains.
They had originally found an experienced hunter to go with them, but that hunter had something come up and didn't show, and they couldn't find a reliable hunter to go with them on short notice.
The three were so anxious that they took the risk of entering the mountains; they lost their horse, lost their gun, their steamed buns were gone, and they ended up in this mess!
As he spoke, he sighed repeatedly, looking utterly dejected!
After hearing this, Wang An didn't express any opinion, merely responding with grunts and nods, because while the words sounded true, they were also full of loopholes.
Fresh bear bile—aside from detoxifying, he had never heard of it being used to treat any specific disease. Usually, bear bile powder was used for medicine. Perhaps Wang An was just ill-informed!
Besides, if it was just bear bile, was it really worth risking a trip into the mountains? If the money was right, you could ask for whatever bile you wanted! How big?
But since it had nothing to do with him, Wang An had not the slightest interest!
On the way, the injured man regained consciousness, though he was somewhat weak, and he said "thank you" to Wang An.
Soon, the four of them arrived at Mu Xueli's location.
Mu Xueli had already finished butchering the Great Bear, and there was a large pile of meat, still cut into pieces of about 5 jin each! The Great Bear's nose, kneecaps, and four large paws were all placed together!
Furthermore, Mu Xueli had already chopped a large pile of firewood, both dry and wet, and had set up two large bonfires.
At this moment, many pieces of Great Bear meat were roasting around the fires, and Mu Xueli was eating some roasted meat, appearing to enjoy it quite a bit!
Seeing that Wang An had returned and brought three people, Mu Xueli didn't pay much mind; this kind of rescue situation in the mountains was quite normal!
Usually, it was people who had gotten lost, though it was rare for three people to get lost together—one was a pig-brain, two were pig-brains, and the third was a damn pig-brain too!
However, Mu Xueli asked nothing, merely inviting everyone to eat the roasted meat, while he went to the sled to get a pot to melt snow and boil water. This whole day, whether they were thirsty or hungry, they ate snow—all kinds of snow!
Seeing the Great Bear's skin and paws, the three men looked very happy. After eating the roasted meat for a while...
He Liang couldn't help but ask, "Villager, what kind of bile did this bear have?"
Neither Wang An nor Mu Xueli answered, and they both ignored He Liang, but their expressions darkened!
Because this He Liang was clearly being extremely tactless. Who asks such a thing in the mountains? What are you trying to do? Or rather, what are you planning to do? Even people from the same village wouldn't dare ask about taboo subjects; what the hell are you doing?