Chapter 949: Entering the Mountains to Fight Bears

The sputtering sound of the sidecar, sounding like a fart, drilled into Wang An's ears from afar, finally waking him from his afternoon nap.

By the time Wang An walked out of the house rubbing his eyes, Wang Li had already parked the sidecar under the open shed.

Wang An checked his watch; it was exactly 2:59:30 PM.

It had to be said that Wang Li's timing was incredibly precise. He said he'd be back before 3:00, and he actually returned before 3:00.

Watching Wang Li walk out of the shed humming a little tune with a look of pure bliss on his face, Wang An teased

"Look at you, you're so happy you're practically bubbling snot. You kissed her, didn't you?"

"Bubbling snot" was a local dialect expression for having a runny nose from excitement or emotion.

Wang Li shook his head, his face full of smiles as he said

"Yup, absolutely, hehehehe..."

Wang An continued to tease

"You two kissed—did your brother-in-law not give you a beating for it?"

As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li put his left hand on his hip, extended his right leg forward, flicked his head, and smoothed back his hair with his right hand, saying with an air of exaggerated coolness

"Stop bragging. Even if he had twice the courage, he wouldn't dare beat me."

At this moment, if someone called Wang Li a hoodlum or a loafer, it wouldn't be an exaggeration at all.

Seeing Wang Li acting even more pretentious than he himself had been during his own rebellious days, Wang An took two steps forward and kicked Wang Li right in the backside, though he kept a smiling face.

"Is that so? You're that awesome? You've got an attitude when you're being beaten?"

This kick immediately deflated Wang Li's smugness. He said with a beaming smile

"Fourth Brother, why did you kick me? I'm in such a good mood."

Wang An pointed to his watch and said

"I told you to be back by 3:00. Look what time it is."

The time was, without a doubt, exactly 3:01.

Wang Li craned his neck to look at Wang An's watch. Seeing that the minute hand had just passed one small notch, he said with a face full of grievance

"You're counting it just because it's been one minute?"

Wang An's eyes shifted, and he asked with a wide, gaping mouth

"So what? I'm just asking you: is this before three or after three?"

Wang Li glanced at his own watch, gave Wang An an awkward smile, and fell silent.

Seeing Wang Li stop talking, Wang An smiled inwardly. He glanced at Wang Yi, who had just come out of the house, and decided not to argue further with Wang Li.

Mainly, regardless of the situation, he had to save some face for Wang Li. After all, Wang Li was technically innocent; Wang An simply wanted to knock down his arrogant air.

Thus, Wang An said

"Alright, be more careful next time. Go hitch up the cart, let's go."

Wang Li stole a glance at Wang An and agreed cheerfully

"Aye, you got it, Fourth Brother."

With that, Wang Li went to hitch the cart.

Looking at Wang Li's happy expression, Wang An suddenly remembered a phrase from his previous life: "The person who wrongs you knows better than you do how wronged you are!"

Soon, Wang Li had the cart ready, and Wang An had mixed the cornmeal used for chumming.

Once prepared, the three young men drove the horse-drawn carriage, swaying leisurely back toward the river.

Between the travel, the chumming, and waiting for the fish to gather, forty to fifty minutes had passed. By the time Wang An cast his first hopeful net, it was already past 4:00 PM.

This time of day was precisely when the fish came out to feed.

So, when the big horse and the mule dragged the net up together, the net was, unsurprisingly, bursting full.

The reason he mentioned the horse and mule together was that Wang An had learned from the morning's lesson and brought an extra "swing pole" when entering the mountains in the afternoon.

A "swing pole" was actually a type of axle pole, but it was much thicker and longer than a normal one.

Its primary purpose was to allow the livestock to combine their strength.

The usage was very simple: the hooks on the axle pole were simply hung on the steel rings on both sides of the swing pole, and then the hooks of the swing pole were tied to the ropes.

Looking at the net full of fish, Wang Yi said to Wang An with great excitement

"Big Brother, your fishing is too savage! This one net must be six or seven hundred jin again, right?"

Wang An had grown accustomed to it and didn't feel particularly excited. Mainly, when fishing in an area where fish resources were this abundant, it had very little to do with skill.

To put it bluntly, as long as someone knew how to cast a net, anyone could catch fish here.

Seeing Wang Yi's excitement, Wang An said with a smile

"Next time we come to fish, you should follow along and learn to cast a few nets, hehehehe..."

For someone who had never cast a net, fishing could be a source of joy, but for Wang An, it had become quite boring.

Immediately after, Wang An instructed Wang Yi

"Untangle the net. I'll go with your Fifth Brother to catch the fish in that other spot."

As he spoke, Wang An and Wang Li walked toward the other fish hole.

By the time the three of them had loaded both nets of fish onto the carriage, the afternoon had passed.

Although these two nets were quite substantial—totaling about 1,200 to 1,300 jin—there weren't any exceptionally outstanding large fish.

The largest sturgeon among them was only about fifty or sixty jin.

Looking at this sturgeon, Wang An suddenly realized that he should raise more sturgeon in his own fish pond.

After all, in the future, these would become genuine protected species.

Most importantly, because they were too delicious and valuable, they were severely overfished later on, to the point where one could hardly find a single sturgeon in rivers spanning several kilometers.

Therefore, wanting to eat fresh, delicious sturgeon meat in the future would be a mere luxury.

However, the primary food for sturgeon was other fish, so the pond would still need other types of fish in it.

Thinking of this, Wang An said to Wang Li and Wang Yi

"Next time we fish, let's specifically look for places with lots of sturgeon to cast our nets. I reckon raising sturgeon is more suitable. These carp and grass carp are everywhere; they just take up space in the pond."

Wang Li and Wang Yi both nodded in agreement without saying much.

Early the next morning, while Wang An was putting armor and collars on the dogs, Wang Li and Mu Xueli arrived, carrying guns, riding horses, and leading dogs.

At this time, the dogs belonging to Wang Li and Mu Xueli were also wearing armor and collars.

To be honest, wearing armor made of coarse cloth during this season was incredibly hot.

But there was no other way; without the protection of armor, a dog might not last a single round against a blind bear.

As soon as she entered the courtyard, Mu Xueli asked Wang An with curiosity

"Brother-in-law, I heard from Old Fifth that we're going to hunt man-bears this time, is that right?"

Wang An nodded

"Yup. If not man-bears, probably something close to them."