Chapter 16: Never a Moment's Peace

Wang An placed the basket on the cart, and the three large dogs were tied to the crossbar at the rear! With a sharp "Giddy up!", the mule cart set off once again on the road leading home!

As Wang An drove the mule cart, his mind was in a whirl!

From the start of this day until now, the most unbelievable thing to Wang An was the matter regarding Mu Xueqing! He never expected that Mu Xueqing had been waiting for him to marry her all along!!

The missed opportunities of his past life were best left unsaid; they no longer held any meaning!

His rebirth in this life didn't seem to be because of his regrets or his remorse! It was simply because of Mu Xueqing!! He was born for her!!

But then, why was he feeling such joy and excitement? *Gaga... Hahaha!!*

Wang An suddenly remembered he still had a mountain of things to do today!

He turned to Mu Xueqing and said, "Xueqing, take all the things we bought at the supply and marketing cooperative on the cart and divide them into two portions. When we pass my house later, I'll drop these off first!"

Mu Xueqing agreed and began sorting through the items!

Then came the casual chatter between Wang An and his mother-in-law throughout the journey. Wang An informed his mother-in-law about his family situation and the ages of his family members!

The mother-in-law, in turn, told Wang An about Mu Xueqing's father and her younger siblings. Wang An learned that his brother-in-law, Mu Xueli, was 18 this year and already engaged to a girl from the same village who was 17; they would wed once the girl turned 18!

His sister-in-law, Mu Xueting, was seven years old, and they planned to send her to school next year!

Otherwise, she would end up like the eldest—already so old after graduating and still unmarried!

As he said this, Wang An happened to look back at Mu Xueqing and saw his wife playfully bickering with her mother! Wang An chuckled to himself!

When they were less than ten *li* away from Yangshu Village, Liu Ruxin suddenly said to Wang An, "Son-in-law! Look at those four riders behind us. They've been following us since the county town. Do you recognize them?"

Hearing this, Wang An's heart skipped a beat, and he looked back to observe!

In the villages near Kaoshan Village, every village had a set number of horses, and they were of various colors—mostly mules and donkeys. Where would so many uniform jujube-red horses come from!

This made Wang An furious! They had been eyeing him since the supply and marketing cooperative! Did they not know he had a gun???

And from the moment he saw Mu Xueqing, he had been grinning like an idiot, so happy he'd lost his wits! He hadn't been vigilant at all!

If he let them keep following, and they found out where his home was, or where Mu Xueqing's home was!

And then they pulled something in the middle of the night!! My god, wouldn't everything just collapse all over again!!

*Go to hell!!* Are people this brazen these days?

He remembered that in his past life, there weren't this many troubles in the countryside, and he hadn't felt much of anything!

It was only after he moved south in his previous life that he heard people chatting about things happening in other cities—things that were beyond imagination!

The son-in-law of some boss was "dealt with"! Then the boss got unhappy and consulted with other bosses! They used "big machinery" to perform "sanitation"!

They did "sanitation" together! In the second half of the third year, all over the country, they performed various types of "sanitation," cleaning everything up thoroughly, and everyone was "eating peanuts"! They ate peanuts until they vomited; so many people were eating peanuts together!

By the second half of the fourth year, the world was basically orderly again, and all the "crooked melons and split dates" had been cleaned up! It had to be said, once the great machine of China started running, whether it was good steel or hard sticks, it would crush them directly, crushing them into tiny, tiny pieces!!

Perhaps because he was too poor in his past life, no one paid him any mind??

*Damn it!* They just won't stay quiet!

Mainly, his wife and mother-in-law were on the cart; otherwise, a few shots would have finished the job!!

After turning a corner, Wang An suppressed his anger and said with a smile, "Which of you can drive? A friend of mine is following behind me! I'll go meet them. You two wait for me by the big poplar tree in Yangshu Village!"

With that, Wang An brought the mule cart to a halt, and Liu Ruxin stepped forward to take the reins! Watching the mother and daughter drive away, Wang An took the burlap sack containing the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and walked in the opposite direction!

At this moment, the more Wang An walked, the angrier he became! The more his killing intent grew!

His happy life had just begun! He hadn't even reached the "gentle land" yet! And these pieces of trash appeared again!!

But this was on a main road, not in the deep mountains! How could he kill these idiots?

Forget it, just scare them away and let them go! But things often develop in the opposite direction of one's wishes! Moreover, Wang An had miscalculated how massive a sum of two thousand yuan was in this era!

Thinking of this, Wang An ducked into the woods and found a low bush to hide behind.

Half a minute later, the four riders approached. They were still quite far, but Wang An could hear their voices.

One person said, "Big brother, do we really have to provoke that mountain man? Those types are much more ruthless than us!"

Another said, "Yeah, big brother. The gun that kid was selling was just a single-shot. He definitely has better ones; at the very least, they'd be Type 56s!"

A third person said, "It's not like we have to act today. Scout the place well, clean them up in the middle of the night, and set a fire. There won't be a trace left! That's over two thousand yuan..."

After waiting a while longer, the third person continued, "Didn't you see that little woman? She looks like a fairy! Even in a place as big as Bingcheng, we haven't seen anyone that beautiful! Don't you guys want to have a try? Hahaha..."

The fourth person remained silent...

...But Wang An couldn't hold back anymore. What "ideas" or "plans" were they talking about? When a wolf is eyeing you, you either kill the wolf or get bitten to death!

Furthermore, it sounded like these people weren't locals! They were from Bingcheng. In this day and age, there were no ID cards; everyone relied on letters of introduction to get around!

Why should I play merciful with you! At a distance of less than ten meters, I can hit whatever I aim at!

He didn't even need to aim carefully. *Bang! Bang!* Two shots rang out. The one who had been babbling nonsense was the first to be hit in the head, tumbling from his horse!

He didn't know which of the second one was! To hell with it, he just picked them off one by one; everyone got at least one "peanut"!

Since the four men weren't huddled together, the other two were further back, and from where Wang An was hiding, he couldn't see them!

Hearing the gunshots, those two stopped moving forward and shouted loudly, "Who's there? Who's in the woods? Come out!"

The voices didn't seem far. Aiming toward the general direction of the sound—*forget it!* *Bang! Bang!* Two more shots!

A scream of "Ah!" was heard from outside the woods, followed by the heavy *thud* of something hitting the ground!

This guy seemed to have fallen hard, because the sound was louder than the previous two when they hit the ground.

Then came the cries for help from the person who had fallen hard. Wang An didn't catch what he was shouting, but there were also shouts of "Giddy up! Giddy up!", the sound of a whip cracking, and the sound of galloping hooves.

The last one seemed to have started running. Is that even going to work?

Wang An immediately ran out of the woods. As he reached the road, he saw a rider galloping ahead, already over a hundred meters away. The horse was truly fast!