Chapter 962: Vivid and Lifelike

Turning his head, Wang An noticed that the burlap sack suspended in mid-air, containing the black bear meat, now had several rips in it.

However, because the sack was hung quite high and the chunks of meat were relatively large, the golden leopard had only managed to scratch a few holes in the fabric; it hadn't even tasted a scrap of meat.

Truth be told, this golden leopard was quite unlucky. Not only did it fail to get any meat, but it had also been grazed by bullets twice.

One must understand that a graze from a bullet is entirely different from a cut from a knife. A knife cut is just a slit, whereas a bullet graze plows a furrow through both skin and flesh.

In such hot weather, those two furrows would not heal quickly.

Just as Wang An intended to take down the sacks of meat and honey from the tree, Mu Xueli and Wang Li hurried over, leading their horses and carrying their guns.

From a distance, Mu Xueli asked anxiously, "What happened, Brother-in-law? I heard you fire two shots!"

Wang An glanced back at the two of them and said calmly, "A wild leopard tried to steal the meat. I fired a couple of shots to scare it off."

Upon hearing there was a wild leopard, Mu Xueli was instantly startled, while Wang Li immediately pressed, "Fourth Brother, that leopard... it couldn't be the same one we encountered before protecting the seedlings, could it?"

As they spoke, the two reached Wang An and helped him lower the meat and honey from the tree branches.

Wang An nodded. "Yep, it's that one. That thing is damn fast. I fired twice and only grazed its skin."

Mu Xueli knew exactly how impressive Wang An's marksmanship was; after all, Mu Xueli's own shooting technique had been taught by Wang An personally.

Therefore, hearing that Wang An only managed to graze the leopard, Mu Xueli asked in shock, "Brother-in-law, with your aim, you still couldn't hit the thing? Is it really that vicious?"

Wang An rolled his eyes at Mu Xueli. "What do you think? When Old Fifth and I went to protect the seedlings a while back, I gave it a shot then too, and I missed."

Wang Li suddenly smacked his lips and said, "Then even if we killed the man-eating bear, it probably won't be of much use. With a wild leopard lingering around every day, who would dare enter the mountains to dig wild vegetables or gather mushrooms?"

Wang An looked at Wang Li. "What's this? Do you have some ideas regarding this leopard?"

Wang Li shook his head hastily. "No, definitely not. We almost lost Er Huang just taking down the man-eating bear. If we go after a leopard, wouldn't we lose all the dogs?"

Wang An smiled and didn't respond to Wang Li's comment.

Mainly, the man had a healthy sense of self-awareness. In any case, during this season, Wang An didn't believe he had the strength to take down a golden leopard.

Seeing that the lowered sack was full of holes, Wang An thought for a moment and said to Mu Xueli and Wang Li, "Unload the sacks from the horses. Then distribute the meat here into those three sacks. Oh, by the way, pelts aren't worth much this time of year. Which one of you wants this little black bear skin?"

It must be said that although pelts weren't valuable in this season, the feel of this little black bear skin was quite nice.

The reason pelts weren't valuable now, and why the supply and marketing cooperatives wouldn't accept them, was that the animal hair was relatively coarse and the down was sparse.

Many people thought "down" was just a name for all animal hair.

But in the eyes of experts, hair was hair, and down was down. Only pelts with plenty of down were valuable.

As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li immediately said, "I'll take it! This black bear skin is oily and smooth, actually quite good. I'll bring it to Xiuyu one day and make her a bear-skin coat, hehehehe..."

Seeing Wang Li's lewd expression, Mu Xueli said with a face full of mockery, "Look at you, you useless brat. It's like you've never seen a woman in your life."

Unexpectedly, Wang Li didn't feel ashamed; instead, he took it as a badge of honor. "So what? I've seen plenty of women, but none of them were mine. Only Xiuyu is the one living her life with me."

It had to be admitted that Wang Li's logic was sound.

Wang An and Mu Xueli looked at each other and then burst into loud laughter.

After reloading the meat and honey onto the horses, the three of them led their mounts down the mountain.

Although they didn't linger, by the time the three arrived home, the sky was already in that half-dark, half-light state of dusk.

Seeing the three return safely, the hearts of Wang An's family and Wang Daliang's couple finally settled.

Looking at the black bear skin Wang An threw on the ground, Liu Guilan asked happily, "Xiao An, did you three actually manage to kill that man-eating bear?"

Wang An nodded with a smile. "Of course. We went into the mountains specifically for it. How could we not kill it?"

As he spoke, Wang An pulled out two bear gallbladders and handed them to Liu Guilan, saying, "Mom, these are black bear gallbladders. Please take the trouble to blanch them in a bit."

Taking the two cloth bags, Liu Guilan asked curiously, "Why are there two? Can one man-eating bear produce two gallbladders?"

Wang An wanted to tease his mother and was about to speak, but Mu Xueli showed off from the side: "I'm telling you, Auntie, our trip to the mountains today was truly great! Not only did we kill the man-eating bear, but the three of us also found a little black bear. The key is that this little black bear also produced a golden gallbladder, hehehehe..."

Hearing this, Wang Dazhu hurriedly asked, "What do you mean 'found a little black bear'? Can you actually just 'find' a black bear?"

With Wang Dazhu's question, Mu Xueli immediately unleashed his silver tongue. Like a storyteller, he recounted the process of "finding the black bear" to everyone.

"...Then, in the blink of an eye, the three of us looked up and saw a black shadow crashing down right on top of the dogs. The dogs saw things were going south and leaped over three feet high on the spot! The three of us were a bit further away, and then I heard my brother-in-law shout: 'What creature is this?!'"

It must be said that what was originally just a matter of a black bear falling to the ground and dying from the impact was somehow turned into an epic tale by Mu Xueli.

Most importantly, he spoke with great emotion and vivid imitation; it was actually quite entertaining to listen to.

Once Mu Xueli finished his rambling, Mu Xueqing, being the older sister, perhaps felt a bit embarrassed. She stepped forward and smacked Mu Xueli's arm, saying with a mix of laughter and frustration, "Why are you such a chatterbox? Everyone is just sitting here listening to you blabber."

Although Mu Xueqing was already married, this kind of bloodline suppression still made Mu Xueli quite afraid of his sister.

Hearing Mu Xueqing's words, Mu Xueli quickly apologized with a smile, "Big Sister, I was just performing the scene for you all. I thought I did a pretty good job."

After Mu Xueli spoke, Liu Guilan and Second Aunt Yao Ping both chimed in

"Exactly, Xueli spoke so well."

"Indeed, I haven't had enough of the story yet."