Chapter 2

He set the eighty-percent-new Type 56 semi-automatic rifle and three magazine clips aside.

He wrapped everything else back up and slung it over his back, then dry-fired the bolt a dozen times to let the frozen springs inside regain their tension.

Then, he opened the magazine catch, pressed in the cartridges, tucked the empty clip into his pocket, engaged the safety, raised the rifle to his cheek, and scanned the surroundings.

The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, known as a hunting artifact, can fire continuously by holding the trigger or fire single shots; it has a 10-round magazine capacity, is 1.025 meters long, uses standard 7.62mm ammunition, is equipped with a folding bayonet, and weighs about eight jin when loaded.

This is the magazine clip.

Wang An was truly too familiar with this rifle; in his past life, nearly half of the guns he trafficked were these, though of course, his trade was primarily in single-barrel shotguns, double-barrel shotguns, and flintlocks!

Wang An didn't know the current price of a Type 56, but before he went to prison, a Type 56 on the black market was already around four thousand. In the 90s, how many "ten-thousand-yuan households" were there in the whole country?

Wang An decided to bag some meat today to take back so his family could satisfy their cravings.

Although Wang An had tinkered with guns every day in his past life and was a good shot, he really didn't know much about mountain hunting! He only had a half-baked understanding of the rules and such.

After all, before going south, Wang An mainly went into the mountains to pick mushrooms, dig wild vegetables or medicinal herbs, or gather hazelnuts, pine nuts, wild actinidia, or walnuts—it was all just for food; he was doing the work of a mountain forager.

Vigilantly watching his surroundings as he walked deeper into the mountains, after more than an hour, Wang An hadn't spotted a single piece of prey; not even a pheasant or a rabbit was in sight, leaving him more or less frustrated.

Moreover, Wang An was a bit hungry now, mainly because he hadn't eaten a single bite since morning.

After walking for another hour, just as Wang An was about to give up and head home to eat, he heard the sounds of "fen-er," "fen-er" coming from not far away.

Clearly, prey had appeared, and Wang An's little mood instantly became excited.

Fearing the prey might catch his scent, Wang An tiptoed around to the downwind side.

Then he slowly approached, trying his best not to make a sound. When he was less than a hundred meters away, Wang An hid behind a cluster of bushes and slowly poked his head out to look at the prey.

He saw a wild boar under an oak tree in front, rooting through the snow, likely looking for acorns, occasionally lifting its head to sniff around.

After a while, the boar might have felt an itch, so it leaned against the oak tree and started rubbing itself—a perfect opportunity!

Wang An disengaged the safety, slowly raised the rifle to his cheek, and when the boar's head appeared in the sights, he decisively pulled the trigger, firing two shots directly.

The boar didn't even turn its head, just charged forward, running about twenty meters before crashing to the ground. One had to admit, the vitality of this boar was quite tenacious.

Seeing this, Wang An quickly got up and ran toward the pig. When he was less than ten meters away, he fired another "bang" into the boar's forehead. In his past life, Wang An had heard plenty of stories about wild animals feigning death and then suddenly attacking people.

This was a male boar, called a "cannon-egg" by the locals, weighing about 200 jin. The first two shots: one hit below the pig's ear, the other in the neck. He hadn't touched a gun in over thirty years since his past life, and he hadn't expected his marksmanship to still be decent.

Seeing no scars on the pig, he wondered why it wasn't with a herd but was here foraging alone.

"Hahaha..." Imagining the satisfaction of his family eating meat, especially his little sister's pitiful little face!

Wang An couldn't help but laugh out loud. He pulled out his hunting knife, stabbed it directly into the boar's neck to bleed it, carefully opened the belly with the knife, and threw the internal organs onto the snow.

He dumped out the intestines and the filth from the pig's stomach, rubbed them vigorously in the snow several times, then stuffed a lot of snow into the pig's cavity and shoved the organs back in.

These intestines and organs were all meat! How could he throw them away?

He tied a makeshift sled (a tool in the Northeast, two long pieces of wood on the left and right with a wooden board across the middle) with hemp rope and laboriously moved the boar onto it. A dead pig is truly heavy!

People in this era could carry two or three hundred jin on a shoulder pole for ten or twenty li, which was quite normal, but moving a 200-plus-jin boar was no easy task.

Wang An hunched his back, dragging the sled slowly toward home, and it took a full two hours to reach the entrance of the village.

It left Wang An panting and shivering all over.

Since the Wang family lived at the very western end of the village, he didn't run into any villagers on the way, which was good—it saved him the trouble.

Otherwise, if someone opened their mouth to ask you for a piece of meat, you would have to give it to them.

Because this was the local rule—that is, "mountain wealth cannot be enjoyed alone."

Taking a deep breath, Wang An gritted his teeth and dragged the sled into the courtyard, then sat directly on the pig.

Panting heavily, he was truly tired, thirsty, and hungry!

After resting for a good while, Wang An stretched his neck and shouted toward the house:

"Dad, Mom, little brother, who's home? Get out here quickly."

The timing was good; because it was noon, the whole family was likely waiting for lunch, so everyone was inside.

Wang Dazhu, Liu Guilan, and Wang Yi heard the shouting and all ran out. Seeing Wang An and the boar under his butt, everyone was stunned!

Wang An held his legs and stood up with difficulty, saying:

"Dad, Mom, little brother, you guys clean up the pig, we'll eat meat at noon. I'm going inside to rest for a bit and drink a bowl of water, I'm exhausted."

He didn't dare say anything else, because Wang An had been carrying the gun the whole time, and he figured everyone had seen it!

And right now, he really didn't know how to explain the boar and the gun.

Oh my! It was quite urgent.

The Wang An of his past life wasn't a good bird, otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to listen to the ginseng hunters' sweet talk at 24 and run off to the south all by himself.

You have to know that at 24 in the countryside, most people's children were already old enough to run errands, but Wang An couldn't even find a girlfriend.

With a height of 1.8 meters, delicate features, a high nose bridge, a pair of large, bright eyes, and sharp, heroic eyebrows!

If you couldn't call such a figure and appearance a handsome man, you'd at least have to call him a bit of a hunk...

But Wang An was kicked home by his teacher before finishing the third year of middle school, for the reason—being a hooligan!

After quitting school, Wang An became even more like a wild horse off the leash, hitching rides on the logging camp's small train every few days to wander into the county town...

He didn't do big things, but he never stopped doing small ones! He didn't gamble big money, but he gambled plenty of small money!! He didn't break the law, just a loafer!

Most importantly, every time he went to the county town, he would definitely go to the middle school he attended to find the girl he used to be a hooligan toward—Mu Xueqing.

Mu Xueqing was two years older than Wang An and was his classmate.

She had a gentle and introverted personality, was exceptionally beautiful, with delicate features as if they had been meticulously carved, fair skin, a tall figure, and two places for raising offspring that stood tall and proud!

Although everyone wore black, gray, or blue, and baggy work clothes, it still couldn't hide Mu Xueqing's nearly S-shaped figure.

Mu Xueqing had Wang An completely infatuated. It's not to say Wang An was the only one infatuated like this, but Wang An was tall and big, and he had beaten up every young man who tried to get close to her once or twice!

This led to many classmates holding a grudge against Wang An, and finally, a little report went up... Wang An left school and returned home!

In his past life, Wang An was able to leave home for the south partly to get rich, and partly because Mu Xueqing was married off by her parents for a bride price to Wang An's classmate, Zheng Fei.

After marriage, Zheng Fei often beat and scolded Mu Xueqing. After Wang An beat Zheng Fei severely a few times, Mu Xueqing came to him crying, begging Wang An not to hit Zheng Fei anymore...!

In short, Mu Xueqing was the kind of traditional woman who would follow whoever she married.

From then on, Wang An was both heartbroken and helpless! He became listless and stopped caring about Mu Xueqing...

What excuse should he make up? Wang An, lying on the kang in the west room, pondered bitterly...!

In this era, although guns were very common, there were only a few hunters in the village, and they basically all used 16-gauge single-barrel shotguns (which could fire slugs or birdshot).

Better to just tell the truth! Lying about this kind of thing would only make his parents anxious, not worth it.

In the courtyard, the two younger sisters didn't know when they had run out, smiling so hard their big eyes were almost gone. Wang Yi was also helping to unload the pork with a face full of smiles. Only Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan looked solemn, wondering what they were thinking.

After unloading the meat, more than 20 minutes had passed. After Wang Dazhu rinsed the pig intestines in a water basin several times, Wang An couldn't help but call out:

"Dad, Mom, come to my room for a second, I have something to tell you!"

Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan looked at each other, wiped their hands with a rag, and went to the west room with Wang An. At this time, the three brothers were still looking at the meat and smiling.

Wang An pondered for a moment and said:

"Dad, Mom, I want to show you something."

As he spoke, Wang An laid everything he had dug up in the morning on the kang.

The couple was a bit scared now, especially when they saw that little gold nugget.

Because in this era, gold did not circulate among the people. Although everyone knew it was valuable, no one would buy it.

And those who had such things kept them in the form of jewelry, and they had to hide them, fearing someone would see.

Immediately after, Wang An explained the matter simply.

He just changed the news he heard in his past life to news he heard in the county town a few days ago, and changed the discovery of the guns by the sheep herder and woodcutter to the four criminals having stayed at the ruined temple behind Yangshu Village...

After finishing, Wang An looked at the couple and explained that the serial numbers on these two guns had been filed off, so they couldn't be sold.

Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan listened to Wang An's explanation as if listening to a fairy tale.

After a long while, Wang Dazhu said hesitantly:

"So you mean, these guns are ours now? And those four bandits were all shot?"

"Yeah, except for the three of us, no one knows what happened," Wang An said firmly.

"Then what am I worrying about! I thought you little brat stole them!" Wang Dazhu seemed to relax completely.

Wang An stared blankly at his old man, thinking to himself: "Am I that bad?"

Liu Guilan also relaxed, smiling as she picked up the gold nugget and said:

"Half a lifetime, first time seeing such a big piece of gold. In the past, only landlords and the rich had such things! Now our family has one too... hehehe..."

Wang An was left completely stunned by the couple's reaction!