Chapter 863: A Terrifying and Disgusting Scene

It is no exaggeration to say that even into the early 21st century, patching clothes was still a very common occurrence.

As for now, in many decent families, the children are in a state of having nothing to wear.

Some go as far as the entire family sharing a single pair of leak-proof trousers; whoever goes out wears them.

These are the facts.

Therefore, in the wild mountains or on the streets, you will absolutely never see discarded rags or torn trousers.

Because these things, even if they are worn beyond recognition, can still be used to make cloth bags or linings; throwing them away is absolutely out of the question.

Wang An looked at a piece of a sleeve lying beside a rock and, without turning his head, said to Wang Li

"Wait a bit before eating. Pull out your pistol; let's go over and see what's the deal with that padded sleeve."

Ever since the last time Wang An fired his gun but failed to bring down that leopard, he had been pondering whenever he had a free moment how he should deal with the creature if he encountered it again.

Although Wang An's marksmanship had reached the point where he could hit exactly what he aimed at, using a long gun like the Type 56 Semi-automatic still felt too slow in terms of muzzle movement.

At the very least, compared to the leopard's agility and shifting speed, the speed at which Wang An could move the muzzle with both hands could not keep up.

The reason for this was that when a person holds a rifle, both hands are on the body of the gun, so the range of the muzzle's left-to-right swing is limited.

Consequently, to aim at the side or rear-side, the entire body, including the feet, has to turn along with it.

But comparing a human's agility and speed to a leopard's—isn't that just pure nonsense?

Thus, Wang An thought of a pistol.

While a pistol's power and range were inferior to the Type 56 Semi, it was lightweight and nimble. With Wang An's marksmanship, as long as the target was within range, a one-shot hit was guaranteed.

Hearing Wang An's call, Wang Li casually tossed his pancake into his satchel and immediately pulled out his "box cannon" (Mauser), while Wang An pulled out his Type 54.

It must be said that the moment Wang An gripped the Type 54 in his hand, he felt himself instantly become incredibly powerful.

That feeling of "with a gun in hand, the world is mine" was clear and intense.

Soon, the two of them walked up to the piece of sleeve. From the tooth marks on the fabric, it was not hard to see that the sleeve had been violently torn off.

However, in the vicinity of the sleeve, no traces of a struggle or fight were found, as if the sleeve had appeared out of thin air.

Holding his pistol and scanning the surroundings, Wang An said to Wang Li

"Look at the tooth marks on this sleeve. I reckon that either there's a wolf around here, or it's that local leopard."

Wang Li looked at the sleeve and said

"Yeah, these fang marks are pretty clear. So, Fourth Brother, do you think it's a wolf or that local leopard?"

Wang An pondered for a moment and said

"It should be that local leopard we saw the other day, and its den might be right here on this rocky mountain."

The reason Wang An said this was because their current location was just outside the perimeter of the village, on the edge of the deep mountains.

The probability of wolves appearing here was very small, and the only predator Wang An had seen recently was that elusive leopard.

Hearing this, Wang Li frowned and said

"Fourth Brother, aren't leopard dens usually in big trees? This rocky mountain only has small saplings; there aren't any big trees."

Without looking back, Wang An told Wang Li

"Is there any fixed rule for these things? Who says a leopard can't live in a cave?"

Wang Li was stunned for a moment but did not argue.

Normally speaking, leopard dens were indeed in trees.

But just as Asiatic black bears have both above-ground and below-ground dens for hibernation, the location of a leopard's den was not absolute.

As long as the leopard deemed a location safe, it was entirely possible for it to establish a den there.

After carefully observing the surroundings, Wang An said to Wang Li

"I have a feeling this sleeve belongs to Niu Qi. By the way, what kind of clothes was Niu Qi wearing at the general meeting that day?"

Wang Li thought for a long while before saying

"I didn't pay attention to what he was wearing. I think it was a dark blue short jacket, but I forgot; I can't remember clearly."

The question Wang An asked was quite bizarre; who could remember such a detail from so many days ago?

Crucially, Niu Qi wasn't a beauty, but a very annoying fellow; who would waste time observing him?

Furthermore, many days had passed; it wasn't as if the man couldn't have changed his clothes.

After scanning left and right again, Wang An felt as though a pair of eyes was spying on him and Wang Li from the surroundings, so he warned Wang Li

"Be careful. I reckon something isn't right."

With a nervous expression, Wang Li gripped his pistol tightly and said

"Yeah, don't worry, Fourth Brother, I've already chambered a round."

Wang An nodded and said

"Let's take a lap around this rocky mountain. I have a feeling Niu Qi is around here somewhere."

As they spoke, the two stood back-to-back and began to move forward cautiously.

They had no choice but to be cautious; anyone would be afraid if they came face-to-face with a leopard, especially one that might have already eaten a human.

This rocky mountain wasn't very large, so in less than twenty minutes, the two of them slowly circled more than half of it.

Just as they could see the location of the sleeve again and were beginning to relax, they witnessed a scene that was both horrifying and disgusting.

In a small gully not far from them, they saw a swarm of flies.

Dense clouds of flies—greenbottles, redbottles, and others—were buzzing frantically in the gully.

To put it bluntly, if someone with trypophobia saw this scene, they would have fainted from terror on the spot.

Vaguely, one could see that the place where the flies landed formed the shape of a human.

Wang Li swallowed hard several times, and his voice trembled as he said

"Fourth Brother, do you... do you think that's Niu Qi?"

Fighting back the nausea and the goosebumps rising and falling on his skin, Wang An said uncertainly

"I don't know. It... it probably isn't, right?"

The reason Wang An said this was because he believed that if this person were Niu Qi, the timing wouldn't add up.

After all, in total, Niu Qi had only been missing for four days.

Although it was currently the hottest time of the year, a dead body would not rot to this extent in just four days.

Moreover, after Niu Qi entered the mountains, it wasn't necessarily the case that he died the moment he arrived.

*** Thank you "Big Account Empire Emperor" for the reward, thank you, thank you! Wishing Big Brother a smooth path and that everything goes your way.

(End of Chapter)