Chapter 401: A Fierce Gnawing

After four days and nights of the tiger-hunting operation, the group had suffered no further incidents, aside from the casualties in the first two days.

It was said that these people, one by one, had been scared into a state of mental collapse by the tiger; some had even lost control of their bowels and were babbling incoherently.

Of course, in the eyes of the others, these claims were somewhat exaggerated.

Because those selected to go into the mountains to hunt tigers had to be relatively brave; for a coward to enter the mountains, that would just be asking for trouble!

After this group descended the mountain, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four also returned.

However, when these six left, their faces were full of smiles, and Wu Dong told Wang An with great certainty that they would meet again in two to three days at the latest.

Wang An knew that the next time they met, it would definitely be to hunt the tiger.

It was only then that Wang An finally understood why these six, despite all having jobs, still had time to go fishing for fun.

And Wang An also understood why, whenever that group was mentioned—whether by Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian, or by the four of Wu Dong and Wang Shuai—they all wore unhappy or grumbling expressions, yet upon hearing about their casualties, all six of them were gloating.

Through the idle chatter of these six, Wang An summarized the information he had heard and felt the whole affair was actually quite interesting.

The whole thing was actually like this.

The provincial leaders believed that, as second-generation elites, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four, along with a few others, would have common ground with the second-generation elites from Beijing.

After all, disputes were disputes, but in the human-relationship-driven society of China, one still had to maintain appearances.

So the province arranged for Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four, along with a few other second-generation elites, to maintain friendly relations with those from Beijing and, incidentally, fulfill the duties of a host.

To put it bluntly, they were actually just there to keep them company.

But as second-generation elites themselves, who didn't have a bit of pride in their bones?

The key was, second-generation or not, when it came to money and personal safety, no one was going to play along!

You guys snatching our tiger is one thing, but we have to accompany you into the mountains too?

And the point is, going into the mountains isn't for anything else—it's to hunt a damn tiger!

As people from the Northeast, who doesn't know how terrifying a tiger is? Hunting a tiger is a task of extreme difficulty, and as for catching one, forget about it.

Plus, there was no benefit in it, because they were officially "hunting the tiger," occupying the moral high ground.

In other words, no matter what happened to this tiger in the end, it had nothing to do with the local second-generation elites.

Under these circumstances, unless one was an idiot, who would still go into the mountains?

What if one lost their life in the mountains?

Therefore, Wu Dong, Zhang Shuya, and the other four went into the mountains in name, and in reality, they did go into the mountains—they just ran down to Wang An's house at the foot of the mountain.

As for the matter of delivering the bulldozer to Wang An, it was actually just an incidental favor.

Come to think of it, these six were actually quite talented.

When these six left, Wang An certainly couldn't let them go back empty-handed.

Of course, Wang An didn't have anything too valuable, so the trunks of the two jeeps were stuffed full of various fish, meat, and forest frogs.

Yet even so, the amount of fish Wang An had left didn't seem to decrease.

It was mainly because there were too many fish in the river, and Wang An's group of eight had caught several thousand jin of fish in the past few days—it was simply too much.

Unfortunately, fish in this era were really not worth much; otherwise, Wang An would have definitely made a small fortune.

Now, besides the people, Wang An's dogs, wolves, wild boars, and lynx were all eating fish at every meal.

Perhaps the fishy smell stimulated the taste buds of these animals, so compared to cornmeal, these animals actually quite liked eating fish.

Eating fish saved grain, which was a very cost-effective thing for Wang Dazhu and his wife, so every time they used fish to feed these animals, the couple was all smiles.

After the six left, Wang An looked at the huge pile of fish in the yard, thought for a moment, then drove the sled and sent quite a bit of fish to his father-in-law's house and his relatives' homes.

Whether it was valuable or not, it was a favor, and besides, catching fish took time and effort.

When he went to his father-in-law's house to deliver the fish, Wang An told his father-in-law's family about the tiger hunt in a few days.

It was clear that Mu Xueli was full of excitement; after all, for a hunter, being able to participate in a tiger hunt was definitely something to brag about for a lifetime.

However, Mu Hua and his wife were somewhat worried; as people who had lived through it, tigers were almost a nightmare for their generation.

Wang An would absolutely not try to persuade them, because everything after entering the mountains was unpredictable, and if something really happened, Wang An couldn't bear such a heavy responsibility.

So until Wang An left, he didn't even mention the question of whether Mu Xueli should go or not.

Declining the invitation from his father-in-law's family to stay for a meal, Wang An returned home.

After lunch, Wang An lay on the kang, feeling more and more that this tiger hunt was definitely not child's play.

Therefore, Wang An began to check for omissions in his mind, over and over again.

Suddenly, Wang An thought of the dogs; although dogs were no match for a tiger, they could provide early warning or help track the tiger's movements.

So if they were really going to hunt the tiger, the dogs had to be brought along.

But if the dogs happened to encounter the tiger, it was very likely they wouldn't even be able to run.

In that case, wouldn't the dogs be dead for sure?

Consequently, Wang An's brows furrowed deeply.

For Wang An, these few dogs were truly like family, and they had indeed performed great feats for him.

If they died, Wang An would inevitably cry with grief.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Wang An, and he thought of those few police dogs that had caused trouble when he was captured in his past life.

Although because Wang An's car was loaded with tiger bones and tiger skin at the time, the performance of those police dogs was actually very poor.

But he remembered the clothes they wore vividly, because that was also the first time Wang An had seen dogs wearing clothes.

To be honest, those clothes wrapped the dogs up quite securely.

However, against a tiger's large fangs, ordinary cloth or leather would certainly be of no use at all.

So if he wanted to make clothes for the dogs, he had to use something sturdy, at least enough to hold up for a few seconds to give people time to fire their guns.

Consequently, Wang An continued to think with furrowed brows.

It had to be said that materials in this era were truly scarce; after racking his brains, Wang An couldn't think of anything that could withstand a tiger's bite.

At this moment, Mu Xueqing entered the room, and what she was holding were several sheets of dried cloth backing and a large piece of yellow goat skin.

Seeing the cloth backing, Wang An's eyes lit up instantly.

Then Wang An jumped off the kang, pulled Mu Xueqing over, and gave her a fierce gnawing.

(End of chapter)