Chapter 1067: A shocking scene

Following this, Huang Li took out another handful, still distributing them to her mother and younger brother and sister first. Each of them got two pieces, and after leaving 2 pieces for Huang Baoguo, only one piece remained in her hand.

After hesitating for a while, Huang Li handed the last piece to her younger sister, Huang Ying, and at the same time said to her younger brother, Huang Zhong:

"Give this piece to Ying. Next time Big Sister comes home, I'll make it up to you with another piece."

It had to be said, Huang Li truly had the appearance of a big sister. Although she had been at Wang An's house for so many days, she hadn't actually eaten any of them herself.

Huang Zhong, who was only 15, immediately said:

"No need, Big Sister. When I earn money from harvesting the land, I'll buy some for Ying. Besides, Big Sister, you should eat them yourself."

As soon as Huang Zhong finished speaking, Huang Ying stuffed one into Huang Li's hand and said:

"Big Sister, I only need two pieces. You eat this one."

Huang Li hurriedly said: "Oh, just take it if I give it to you. It's not like I haven't eaten them before. I eat them all the time at their house..."

In the end, Huang Li couldn't win against Huang Ying and was forced by Huang Ying to put that piece into her mouth.

Wang An saw this scene, and for some reason, suddenly felt his nose go sour.

They say that the children of the poor take charge early. These three siblings were truly sensible.

Just when Wang An was feeling emotional inside, he heard someone shouting outside the courtyard:

"Brother Baoguo, Brother Baoguo, are you home?"

Huang Baoguo replied casually:

"Yeah, I'm home."

As he spoke, Huang Baoguo stood up from the tree stump and looked outside. Of course, Wang An did the same.

Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw someone running toward them from outside the fence.

The courtyards of these drifters were all surrounded by fences woven from branches or twigs, and these fences were equivalent to courtyard walls.

It was just that the fences of every household weren't very high, about the height of an adult's chest.

Such courtyard walls were actually things that prevented gentlemen but not villains; one kick could knock them down.

Soon, this person ran in from outside the courtyard, carrying an axe, and said to Huang Baoguo, panting:

"Brother Baoguo, a bear has come into our cornfields. We're knocking on trees and basins, but it's not afraid. It just sits there eating corn. We don't dare to get close to it. Brother Baoguo, Uncle Dachuan asked me to come and call you."

"Baomi" is corn, also called "bangzi."

In the Northeast, people call it different things in different places. Anyway, no matter what they call it, the locals understand what it means.

After this person finished speaking, he nodded and smiled at Wang An, which counted as a greeting, and then looked at Huang Baoguo.

Upon hearing this, Huang Baoguo's face immediately became anxious, and he said with a face full of hatred:

"Er Gangzi, did you see clearly? Is it that same bear from last year? Didn't they say that bear was killed by Zhang Sanyan? Why is it out?"

Er Gangzi said:

"Who knows which one it is? This bear is just like the one from last year—it's not afraid of any sound. Later, even when Uncle Dachuan beat the gong, it wasn't afraid."

Animals are like that. One or two strikes can scare them away, and three or five times is no problem, but after that, they get used to it and become immune to the sound.

From this, it could be seen that this group of drifters didn't have guns. Otherwise, this big bear would have been dead long ago.

One had to know that any bear gallstone, even a grass gallstone, could easily sell for two or three hundred yuan.

In this era, two or three hundred yuan—whether it was drifters or formal employees, who wouldn't want it?

So even if there was only a ten percent chance, these drifters, who were so poor they couldn't even eat, would be willing to take the risk to kill this bear.

However, facing a large beast like a bear, without a gun, there was absolutely no way to deal with it.

Wang An felt a stir in his heart upon hearing their conversation. As a hunter, he was definitely very interested in a ready-made bear.

The main thing was that a bear that couldn't even be scared away by basin-knocking and gong-beating sounds would be so easy to hit. With Wang An's marksmanship, he could solve the battle with a simple shot.

However, in such a situation, Wang An couldn't speak actively, because there was a good old saying: "Buying is not a deal if you're too eager." Besides, how to distribute the bear after it was killed was also a big problem.

You couldn't say Wang An's help was for nothing, right?

Just when Wang An was waiting for Huang Baoguo and Er Gangzi to speak without changing his expression, sure enough, Huang Baoguo looked at Wang An.

Huang Baoguo said to Wang An with a face full of pleading:

"Young Master Little An, why don't you take the trouble and go with us, okay?"

Wang An originally wanted to talk about the distribution issue, but after thinking about it, Huang Baoguo and Er Gangzi probably couldn't make the decision. They seemed to listen to that person called Uncle Dachuan.

Consequently, Wang An nodded and said:

"Where is it? Is it far?"

After Wang An finished asking, Er Gangzi said impatiently:

"Not far, about three or four li. Cross this reed field in front, and then climb over that hill in front and you'll be there."

As he spoke, Er Gangzi pointed toward the southwest direction.

Wang An took the Type 56 assault rifle off the sidecar and checked the magazine before nodding:

"Alright, let's go. I'll go with you and see."

Seeing the Type 56 assault rifle Wang An took out, Er Gangzi was clearly a bit shocked. The main thing was that in this era, although various guns were common, the ones frequently seen were single-barrel and double-barrel shotguns, or Type 38 rifles and Mosin-Nagants. Some hunters even used Hanyang-made or Zhongzheng rifles—those old, old things.

And hunters who could afford a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle were truly few. But Wang An, on the other hand, had brought out a Type 56 assault rifle directly.

In this way, Huang Baoguo took out a spear from somewhere, Er Gangzi still carried his axe, and the three of them walked in the direction Er Gangzi pointed.

Walking on the road, Wang An discovered that the place where these drifters lived was truly clean. There were small pits left by digging wild vegetables everywhere in the village, and all the edible wild vegetables couldn't be seen at all.

And all the elm trees that could be seen along the way were left with only trunks. The leaves and tender bark on them had all been peeled clean, and even the tender branches of many willow trees had been stripped bare.

To tell the truth, this scene was truly shocking to Wang An.

Because it was very clear that the reason these elm trees became like this was that their leaves and bark had all been eaten by these drifters.

Wang An also knew that elm bark ground into powder was more hunger-resistant than mushrooms and wild vegetables, but with so many elm trees being treated like this, one could see what these drifters were living on every day.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1068 =====