Chapter 6: Killing Bandits, Making a Fortune

The man continued to shout, "Big brother, we have wild ginseng and lynx pelts in those bags, they’re all yours! Just please, spare my life, can you do that?"

Wang An felt that this man seemed to be getting more and more anxious! He had no idea what was wrong with this guy! Wouldn't it be better to just stay hidden quietly?

But Wang An’s attitude remained the same: let the storm rage and the coward scream! He stood his ground, unmoved, letting things be as they may.

His experiences in his past life taught Wang An that in any dangerous situation, one must remain steady! Never be greedy for success or act rashly; victory or defeat often depends on a single moment.

And so, less than 10 minutes later, the man couldn't hold back anymore. One eye peeked out from behind the red pine, then immediately retracted. Wang An didn't have a chance to fire.

A few seconds later, on the other side of the red pine, due to the angle, Wang An could only see a lock of hair, but that too vanished instantly.

Just like that, the man kept testing him, popping up high and low, left and right! His speed was incredibly fast! Wang An’s nerves, however, grew tighter and tighter! He couldn't get a clear aim!

"What kind of person is this? This is too vicious; he’s exactly like those 'Vietnamese monkeys' I dealt with in my past life!" Wang An thought, frowning, never letting his guard down.

Suddenly, Wang An sensed something was wrong. He looked carefully around the red pine and noticed a large bush about seven or eight meters away, diagonally to the right!

Wang An’s eyes lit up. He slowly shifted his muzzle. He watched as the man tested him a few more times, exposed a bit of his scalp to the left, and then immediately bolted toward the bush diagonally to the right—running in an "S" pattern!

Run however you want! "Bang!" "Bang!" Two shots rang out. The man collapsed instantly. His upper body had reached the bush, but everything below his waist remained exposed outside!

Wang An waited a few more minutes. Keeping his gun trained on the man, he stood up, never lowering his weapon, and slowly walked toward him.

He had been hit in the back and the lower-left side of his back. The fur coat blocked the blood, and Wang An could only see a small patch of black fur dampened at the bullet holes.

Humans don't have the tenacious vitality of mountain beasts! This man was dead as a doornail.

He walked over to the other two men; they were already cold. The one lying face down seemed to have been hit in the eye; the back of his head was a mess of red and white, already frozen. The one lying on his back had been hit in the left chest.

Wang An felt his body and mind relax, and his entire frame went limp in an instant!

Immediately after, he vomited—a hearty, vigorous, and earth-shaking retch!

In his past life, Wang An had shot people, but he had always run away immediately after, never knowing if they were dead or alive, so he hadn't felt much.

In this life, this kind of firsthand experience... it was simply a form of mental torture and devastation!

After he finished vomiting, it took Wang An a long while to recover and stand up. He walked over to the three sacks the men had tossed aside and dumped them all together.

He heard the sacks clatter—there was quite a lot of stuff in there.

"Whoa!" Wang An couldn't help but widen his eyes and let out an exclamation! He’d hit the jackpot!

A lynx pelt, a sable pelt, a gray fox pelt, a red fox pelt, and a brown fox pelt!

Six weasel pelts and thirteen squirrel pelts!

These pelts were all air-dried, rolled into tubes, and tied with thin hemp rope!

Two dried bear gallbladders, one grass-green and one black!

There were also two long wooden boxes, about 30 centimeters each, also tied with hemp rope! He opened one, and Wang An felt his heart skip a beat!

Inside, lying on a bed of cotton, was a dried ginseng root that looked just like a human! Its left hand hung naturally, its right hand was cradled against its belly, and its left leg was crossed over its right! Not a single hair-like root was broken!

In both his past and present lives, Wang An had never seen such a human-like ginseng root! It was truly beautiful!

He opened the other one; it was also dried ginseng. The shape was more ordinary, but it was slightly larger than the human-shaped one!

It was said that ginseng was graded by its leaves, but since these were dried, there were no leaves. Wang An really couldn't tell the grade or how much it was worth!

He just knew this stuff was a treasure of high value! In a critical moment, it could save a life!

The rest was just a pile of bullets—there must have been three or four hundred of them, just scattered on the snow without any boxes or paper packaging! There was also a flour sack filled with dried meat! That was about it!

He gathered the guns from beside the three corpses.

A double-barreled shotgun! A single-barreled shotgun! And the old rifle the last man had used—a "Water-Linked Bead," also known as a Mosin-Nagant!

This rifle was very common in the Northeast and had more power than a Type 56 semi-automatic! The chamber held five rounds, but it wasn't semi-automatic; you had to pull the bolt for every shot. It was better than the shotguns! It was also truly old!

It had to be at least fifty or sixty years old! But it was well-maintained! If he sold it, it would be worth a few hundred yuan! Counting the two shotguns, even if they didn't sell for a thousand, they’d fetch several hundred!

He searched the pockets of the three men—they were poor devils! Together, they only had ninety-some yuan, plus 15 jin of fine grain coupons and 7 feet of cloth coupons. He put it all in his own pockets.

He gathered the knives they had tucked into their belts. One was a "butcher's knife" used in the south—in the south, they didn't call them that, they called them pig-slaughtering knives or wood-chopping knives!

The other two were actually local hunting knives. Looking at the handles and blades, they seemed to have been used for a long time. He looked back at the pile of furs and ginseng!

Wang An suddenly understood something, and the anger in his heart surged to the top of his head! He wanted to whip their corpses!

These three were truly inhumane! How many "mountain dogs" had they robbed and killed for these things?

"Mountain dog" was the local term for widowers or people living alone in the mountains!

These mountain dogs were all men, usually older, often short-tempered and straightforward, unwilling to deal with others. For various reasons, they lived alone in the deep mountains, surviving on hunting and a little bit of farming!

If someone entered the mountains and got lost, or was afraid to come out at night due to danger, these mountain dogs would take you in, give you a hot meal, and let you sleep safely for the night!

To be able to live alone in the deep mountains, constantly facing wolves, tigers, and leopards, and still live well—it was obvious that these people were all quite tough!

And yet, these three animals had murdered them!

At first, Wang An hadn't thought much of it! He thought they were fur traders who had been tempted by his prey. He never expected that these three were truly animals! They couldn't even be called human!

The heavy psychological burden of killing three people vanished completely! These three deserved to die!

He packed up all the items, stuffed them into the sacks, and loaded them onto the sled!

He stripped the fur coats off the three men! Cleaning them up to sell or taking them apart to make new clothes—they were excellent material! Don't feel squeamish about the blood; fur itself is bloody!

Looking at the pile of valuables on the sled, Wang An sighed internally. It really is true that "murder and arson lead to golden belts!"

Though he still felt a sense of pity for the lives of those mountain dogs!

He gathered all the clothing from the three men and burned it in a pile.

As for the bodies, throwing them into a mountain ravine was enough; the mountain beasts would clean them up.

From ancient times to the present, the lives of ordinary people have been the least valuable!

Besides, in these vast mountains, how many people are buried every year? It’s just a normal occurrence!