Chapter 336

Immediately after, Zhang Shuya said something that left Wang An speechless for a moment:

"Then that's it; let's help each other, and I wish us a happy cooperation."

It must be said that this woman Zhang Shuya is truly not simple; one sentence has a bunch of meanings.

Everyone understands the surface meaning, but Wang An understood the hidden meaning:

We are both seeking something from each other this time, so don't be greedy anymore.

The corners of Wang An's mouth twitched; he thought for a long time about how to refute, and then said unwillingly: "Happy cooperation."

Immediately after, Zhang Shuya began to tell Wang An what was going on with this gang in the forbidden area.

It turned out that this gang was only a small part of a large whole, belonging to someone else, and they could only be considered as the ones doing the work below.

There was another large group of people doing other things.

Of course, the main business this whole group did was messing with "earth smoke balls."

Like this small group of people in the mountains, they were mainly responsible for recruiting and training some ladies, making the ladies obedient and work.

They would also rack their brains to recruit more people.

For this kind of work, the more people the better, so the means and methods of recruiting people were also varied and endless.

After these ladies were all trained and enough people were gathered, they would all be sent away in batches.

Zhang Shuya suspected that the main places they were sent to were big places like Bingcheng or wealthy places like JY County.

However, there was another possibility: these trained people would be sent to other places again.

It's just that Zhang Shuya didn't know about these.

Actually, Zhang Shuya also discovered such a large group of people inadvertently because of a friend.

At the same time, it was also because of this person that Zhang Shuya was sent into the big mountains.

However, what Wang An didn't expect was that Zhang Shuya wasn't caught by these people in the mountains.

But was caught by people in Bingcheng and then transferred here.

It could be seen that Zhang Shuya was very resentful of that friend; when she was narrating to Wang An, she was gnashing her teeth, and her eyes were also obviously becoming moist.

Wang An didn't pursue the questioning; asking about such things is tantamount to picking at someone's scars.

However, what Wang An could be sure of was that the friend Zhang Shuya mentioned was very likely a man.

Because he had been discussing things with Zhang Shuya and also had to observe the direction of the footprints, Wang An drove the sled very slowly.

Mu Xueli and Wang Li, who were also driving their own sleds behind, although they couldn't hear clearly what Wang An and Zhang Shuya were saying, they also knew something big had happened because of the footprints.

After Zhang Shuya finished speaking, Wang An asked with a calm expression: "Then when we catch up with this person in a while, Officer Zhang, what is your plan?"

Zhang Shuya put away those unhappy emotions and thought for a while before saying: "I want to catch him alive."

Wang An clicked his tongue and looked at Zhang Shuya, asking: "Then if he doesn't let us catch him and takes a gun to shoot at us, what should we do?"

After all, Wang An is not a real militiaman yet, and besides, even if Wang An were a militiaman, Wang An wouldn't joke with his own life.

Because whether it's prey in the mountains or bad guys, "catching" and "killing" are completely two different concepts.

Will prey stand there honestly and let you catch it? Or will a bad guy stand there honestly and wait for you to tie him up?

Zhang Shuya suddenly realized and said: "My meaning is that as long as he is alive, it's fine; anyway, he has to die sooner or later."

Hearing this, Wang An couldn't help but roll his eyes at Zhang Shuya, and then mocked sarcastically:

"I hate you people the most; you don't speak clearly and make people guess. Are all of you people like this?"

Zhang Shuya just wanted to get angry, but she suddenly realized her current situation, sighed, and said:

"Everyone has become accustomed to it; it seems it can't be changed."

Wang An rolled his eyes at Zhang Shuya again and said: "What can't be changed? You guys, one by one, are just damn afraid of getting into trouble and being blamed."

Zhang Shuya wanted to refute, but was obviously stumped by Wang An's words, because what Wang An said was correct.

After a while, Wang An felt that the distance to the person who left the footprints was getting closer and closer, because the loose snow on the footprints stepped on by leather shoes hadn't been blown away by the wind. Wang An thought for a moment, took out the big 54 from his pocket, and handed it to Zhang Shuya.

Then Wang An said: "I bought this gun for 800 yuan; remember to return it to me after we get out of the mountains."

Zhang Shuya was very happy to see the pistol; she had seen it when Wang An gave her the overcoat earlier.

But no matter how thick-skinned Zhang Shuya was, she couldn't bring herself to ask to borrow a gun.

Zhang Shuya happily took the big 54, skillfully checked the magazine, and then said with a smile:

"Look at your stingy appearance; when I go back, I'll give you a new one."

Wang An immediately seized the opportunity: "That would be great; when you really bring me a new big 54, I'll give you this gun."

Zhang Shuya said without even raising her head: "Your gun's rifling is about to be worn away; I don't want it."

Wang An smiled but didn't respond.

Because to Wang An, it's better if she doesn't want it; even a gun without rifling has unparalleled power. The key is that it can also be sold for money.

Soon, when the sled reached less than 40 li away from Kaoshan Village, Wang An found something wrong, because the footprints turned, and turned into the bushes.

And in Wang An's memory, on the other side of the bushes, there was an old mountain hunter's dugout.

It's just that the old mountain hunter had long since passed away, leaving only a dugout there; mountain-goers who couldn't return home on the day they entered the mountains would also go there to stay for the night.

And no matter which mountain-goer stayed there, they would repair the dugout or reinforce its defenses, so the condition of that dugout had always been quite good.

Wang An guessed that the person who left these footprints had ten to one gone to that dugout.

Because at a person's walking speed, it was absolutely impossible to walk out of the big mountains before dark.

But as soon as he thought of that dugout, Wang An instantly felt that the whole situation was bad.

However, Wang An still called the horse to a stop and said to Zhang Shuya: "Now we've run into big trouble."

Zhang Shuya also saw the turning footprints and immediately jumped off the sled.

Mu Xueli and Wang Li saw Wang An's actions and also hurriedly called for their sleds to stop, then walked toward Wang An at the same time.

Then Zhang Shuya said in confusion: "The sled can't pass through this place, so let's just walk over."

Before Wang An could speak, Mu Xueli looked at the direction of the footprints and said to Wang An with a frown:

"Brother-in-law, do you think this person went to that dugout?"

Hearing this, Zhang Shuya immediately asked: "Dugout? What dugout?"

Mu Xueli glanced at Wang An, and seeing Wang An nod, Mu Xueli explained the situation of that dugout.

Then immediately after, Mu Xueli said with some worry:

"It's just that the dugout is easy to defend and hard to attack, and there is a circle of fences around it to prevent wild beasts, but that fence is actually just thick logs buried one after another."

Zhang Shuya frowned and said: "Then let's just climb over."

Mu Xueli licked his dry lips and said: "The places inside the fence, right against the fence, are all 'dead-end pits'; if you're not careful, you'll fall in."

Local people basically know about these things, and they are passed down by word of mouth.

After all, this dugout is considered a temporary shelter in these big mountains, meant to protect mountain-goers, not to kill people.

Upon hearing "dead-end pits," Zhang Shuya was instantly stunned; there might not be anyone in the entire Northeast, or even the whole country, who doesn't know about this thing.

Zhang Shuya said somewhat angrily: "It's already regulated that you can't dig dead-end pits anymore; why are they still digging them?"

Wang An twisted his mouth and said with some disdain:

"The regulations also don't allow the trading of 'earth smoke,' right? Did you see that stop those people from making money? Besides, there are so many fierce beasts in these mountains; people dig pits to protect themselves, what's wrong with that?"

Hearing this, Zhang Shuya was stunned for a moment, blinked her eyes, and then glared fiercely at Wang An.

Then Zhang Shuya asked: "Then what do you say we should do?"

This chapter was finally brought out; thank you to the manual labor, thank you to the boss, thank you to the dear big bosses! I salute you!

(End of chapter)