Chapter 1067: Born to be a Leader

It must be said, the verbal assault from Wang Dazhu, his wife, and Mu Xueqing was truly formidable.

It wasn't until Wang An promised repeatedly that he would not easily resort to violence or guns again that the three of them let him off the hook, and the family finally cleared the table to eat.

Although he had been lectured by the three of them in turn, leaving his head buzzing, Wang An had to admit he actually felt quite happy.

Because Wang An clearly sensed that before he started practicing Wu Gong, he would at least think things through before getting into a fight, considering whether he could win and how to escape if he couldn't.

But ever since he started practicing Wu Gong, Wang An had become a bit arrogant, and he looked down on others more and more.

To be honest, this was certainly not a good sign; if he continued like this, Wang An felt he would eventually suffer a massive setback.

As the old saying goes, "When the sky is wild, there is rain; when a person is wild, there is disaster." So, Wang An decided it would be best to be more low-key and steady from now on.

The night passed without incident, and dawn arrived in the blink of an eye.

In the morning, Wang An practiced his Scorpion Climbing Technique and the Eighteen Seizing Hands for an hour and a half as usual, fed the four eagles, and then brushed his teeth and washed his face before eating breakfast with his family.

The thing about practicing is that there are no shortcuts; the only way is to be persistent and practice every single day.

Not long after breakfast, Wang Li arrived, carrying a gun, riding a horse, and leading his four yellow dogs.

Because starting today, the hunters and militia in the settlement would begin protecting the autumn harvest.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, Wang Li asked Wang An:

"Fourth Brother, are we still going to spend the night in the mountains? If not, I'll send the black bear skin back now."

The reason Wang Li asked this was because there weren't many wild boars or black bears coming down the mountain to ruin the crops this autumn, and the crop damage wasn't severe. Thus, this autumn harvest protection was just a routine clearing of potential threats to people, and it didn't hold much significance.

Therefore, staying in the mountains overnight was optional—it could be done or skipped.

In fact, according to past years' customs, the mountain animals should have come down half a month ago, and the autumn harvest protection operation should have started half a month ago as well.

The reason for this situation was that back in the spring, during the green crop protection, Wang An and Wang Li had wiped out the entire group of wild boars around the settlement in one go, leaving only a dozen or so small runts to escape.

As for how many of those dozen small runts were still alive, that was unknown. In any case, for such small creatures, surviving in the mountains was no easy task.

Wang An glanced at the bear skin bedding roll on Wang Li's horse and thought for a moment before saying:

"Bring it along. We have to stay in the mountains for at least one night to avoid people in the settlement gossiping."

Wang Li was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then laughed and said:

"Fourth Brother, since when have you been afraid of what others say? Besides, who in our settlement would dare gossip about you now? Hmph, I'd beat them to death, hehehehe."

It was clear that in Wang Li's mind, Wang An had always been the type to do as he pleased, acting recklessly regardless of the situation.

Wang Li's words also left Wang An stunned.

It was mainly because, hearing Wang Li put it that way, Wang An immediately felt like he was a local bully.

Was that the impression he had been leaving on people all along?

After a moment of hesitation, Wang An adjusted the saddle and said with a laugh:

"Look at what you're saying. Of course I'm afraid! As the saying goes, a person lives for their face, and a tree lives for its bark. Your Fourth Brother is a man who cares about his reputation too."

No sooner had Wang An finished speaking than he heard Wang Dazhu's voice from behind:

"Give it a rest. When have you ever cared about that? I think Fifth Brother is getting there too; follow him for another two years and he'll be just like you."

"Following" is a local dialect term meaning to learn from or to mess around with someone.

Wang Dazhu understood his son well.

Wang An didn't respond. He noticed Wang Dazhu holding several sickles and asked:

"Dad, what are you doing with those sickles?"

Wang Dazhu said:

"Our miscellaneous grains are ready to be harvested. Today, your mother and I are going to cut the millet and grain first."

Wang An nodded and said:

"Can it wait two days? I feel like this harvest protection will be done in two or three days. Once it's over, I'll go down to the fields with you."

Wang Dazhu was startled at first, as if it were unbelievable that a lazybones like Wang An would say such a thing. But he quickly reacted and said:

"Just go do what you need to do. You aren't needed for this little bit of land. Your mother, Little Shen, and I will be done in two days."

Wang An packed his things, untied the ropes for the dogs, and said:

"Alright Dad, Fifth Brother and I are heading out."

For this harvest protection, Wang An brought along Big Circle, Small Circle, and the four half-grown wolf cubs. Big Circle and Small Circle were mountain-driving dogs; having been at Wang An's house for so long, their health had recovered.

As for the four half-grown wolf cubs, they needed to learn to hunt now, otherwise, they would be hard to tame once they grew older, or perhaps impossible to tame at all.

As for the two old dogs, Zhao Cai and Wang Cai, they were guard dogs that had performed great service for Wang An's family, so Wang An planned to let them guard the house and keep them until they passed away.

As they talked, Wang An and Wang Li each rode their horses, followed by a large group of dogs and wolves, heading straight for the dugout they had stayed in during the green crop protection.

On the way, Wang An pointed at the four half-grown wolf cubs and said to Big Black:

"Big Black, those four little guys are under your command now. If anyone doesn't listen, you beat them. If you can't beat them, have Second Black and Little Black help you beat them. Do you hear me?"

Big Black barked at Wang An a few times, meaning it understood.

Wolves have higher intelligence than dogs, and since these four wolf cubs had been eating spirit-opening powder since they were small, Wang An wasn't worried about them being untrainable; he was only worried they wouldn't follow Big Black's lead.

The main thing was that even now, the four dogs were no match for these four half-grown wolf cubs; only the four black dogs—Big Black, Small Black, and the others—could still hold their own against them for the time being.

Especially Little White, the white wolf. Although it looked weak as a cub and still didn't look as big as the three gray wolves—Big Wolf, Second Wolf, and Third Wolf—now...

...it was truly miraculous that Big Wolf, Second Wolf, and Third Wolf all listened to Little White, as if Little White were born to be their leader.

Wang An didn't understand the world of wolves, but this situation was truly a bit magical.