Chapter 82

These kinds of footprints can only be made by hard-soled leather shoes.

They have deep, anti-slip treads, and the heel is raised higher than the front of the sole!

Not to mention the residents of the various settlements, even in the county seat, imprints from this type of shoe are rarely seen!

Mu Xueqing might not know what's going on, but Wang An certainly does!

Because these shoes are exceptionally expensive! And not only are they expensive, they are also extremely hard to buy!

These are cowhide shoes with hard rubber soles, quite sturdy! They are mostly worn by the children of high-ranking military officials!

Because the ones they wear are issued by their units!

As for those worn by officials or their children, most are gifts from others.

The ones worn by the wealthy are the ones actually bought!

A single pair of shoes costs two months' wages for a regular employee! And even that isn't enough; you have to add a bit more!

So, how could ordinary people wear them? Given the income levels of people in the county, how could they wear them?

This is also why, when Wang An was selling the live roe deer and saw the young man buying it, he thought the man's attire was so stylish!

And why he dared to ask for such a high price; although he was mentally prepared for the other party to haggle, he undoubtedly believed the other party's financial power would be formidable!

Because that young man's attire had already told everyone: I am not short on money!

This type of leather shoe is also called a "military hook."

Note, this is a proper, legitimate military hook; in this era, there are no fake military hooks!

I've never heard of them, and "high-quality imitations" don't exist! The term "high-quality imitation" has only just begun to appear sporadically in the southern regions!

These shoes have a steel plate sandwiched between two layers of cowhide at the toe, and the shoes themselves are very heavy; they aren't actually very suitable for mountain trekking!

After examining them carefully, Mu Xueqing asked, "Brother-in-law, what kind of shoe print is this? It feels like something very high-end."

Seeing Mu Xueqing's curious expression, Wang An replied, "These are leather shoe prints. There are people in the county seat who wear these!"

Mu Xueqing nodded as if he understood, and the two continued to track and move forward.

They didn't know how much longer they had walked when Da Hei sniffed a tree that had clearly been rubbed by a large bear, leaving behind brown fur, and began to bark wildly.

Immediately after, the three dogs darted out.

The two men's expressions turned grave instantly, because neither of them had ever seen what a live large bear looked like!

They had only heard that the thing was huge, big and fierce; in these mountains, it was basically an invincible existence, and even the large claws wouldn't want to face it head-on!

The two began to sprint after the three dogs, but humans can't even outrun a wild boar, let alone keep up with dogs.

In a short while, the three dogs were out of sight, but the two men didn't dare to slow their pace at all, because for a black bear or a large bear, killing a dog is as simple as a human killing a chick or a duckling!

They didn't know how long they had been running, but both were panting heavily, breathing like the bellows of a stove, gasping for air.

And in a place the two couldn't see, the three dogs had already surrounded the large bear, but none of the dogs dared to step forward to bite; they were all barking wildly from three meters away.

On the large bear's face, it seemed to have been injured by a sharp object; three bloody marks were exceptionally conspicuous, very similar to the three scars on Sun Da's scarred face.

Five or six hundred meters away from the large bear, three people were lying on the ground, not knowing if they were dead or alive, but their heads were all intact, which was fortunate!

Two of them had their cotton-padded jackets torn open on the back, leaking a lot of cotton, and another person had blood seeping from their leg; the extent of the injuries was unclear.

And the large bear didn't even look at the three dogs, ignoring them completely, and continued to sit there eating something, which seemed to taste quite good.

Looking closely, the thing held in its front paws was clearly a common cloth bag, only it had been torn to shreds by the large bear.

And what the large bear was eating was a steamed bun, common in the city and occasionally seen in the countryside!

After a while, the large bear raised its head and sniffed the sky, seemingly having discovered something; it abandoned the cloth bag and ran off into the distance, running quite fast.

However, it was clearly visible that this large bear seemed to be quite heavily injured; its neck and body were also covered in bloodstains!

The most serious injury seemed to be on its left front leg, where a piece of skin had been torn off, leaving the flesh inside a bloody mess, and it was limping as it ran.

Injured fierce beasts are all like this; as soon as they discover danger, the first thing they do is run; they will absolutely not fight the opponent!

Otherwise, with the large bear being a top-tier combatant in these mountains, even if it smelled a human, it would simply ignore it!

Unless it was injured by a gun and managed to escape, it would know the power of a gun; as soon as it smelled a human or the scent of gunpowder, it would never engage in battle and would immediately flee!

Becoming a true "gun-dodger." Of course, this applies not only to bears and black bears, but to all other mountain animals as well!

As long as the first shot hits, a minor injury might not have much effect, but if they are seriously injured and don't die!

Then the difficulty of trying to hit them next time is indescribable; let alone hitting them, they become nearly impossible to track!

They just run, run in every way; as soon as they smell a human or gunpowder from afar, they run until they disappear!

Unless a large group of people and dogs surround it, it is really difficult to kill it!

The three dogs followed the large bear while barking wildly, looking back from time to time.

It seemed they were wondering why their master hadn't come over yet, seemingly hoping their master would come quickly so they could kill this big guy and eat its meat!

Actually, normal hunting dogs, when encountering a large bear or a black bear, would bite forward without knowing their own limits.

It's just that these three dogs, when they were with their previous master, had fought a black bear; not only did they lose, but their master was also mauled quite badly by the black bear, and two of their companions died.

It is estimated that these three dogs were also seriously injured at the time. Besides, four-year-old dogs are at their peak in every aspect, and they are also the sharpest and most cunning!

So these three dogs have become cunning now, or one could say they have become shrewd; knowing that they and their companions can't beat the opponent, they just follow along. Anyway, the large bear definitely can't catch the three of them.

If their master were by their side, they might still fight for their lives, but with their master not around, and knowing they can't win, the dogs naturally become cowardly!

"Dogs rely on their master's power"—this saying isn't just for fun. Dogs without their master by their side, no matter what kind of dog, including any breed! As long as they feel they can't beat the opponent, the dog will become cowardly, and to a certain extent, they might even pee!

The two panting men hadn't even gotten close when they heard the dogs barking. The two were overjoyed; the dogs' sounds weren't screams of pain, so the dogs were fine!

Finally, they could walk a few steps to catch their breath; this was just too damn tiring, they were almost out of breath!

Before they could rest well, the barking moved further and further away! Damn, what's the point of resting? Let's keep running!

The two continued to run, following the sound of the dogs. When they passed the place where the three dogs and the large bear had confronted each other, they ignored it and ran past, naturally not noticing the three people lying five or six hundred meters away!

Finally, the two were completely exhausted and really couldn't run anymore; their faces were pale, and sweat had soaked the inside of their cotton jackets and trousers.

Especially the crotch, which was soaked through, full of sweat; this feeling was so uncomfortable!

This made Wang An think of the day he was chopping wood. Thinking about how his crotch would soon be ice-cold, like putting a big block of ice there, that sour feeling! Wang An started to feel miserable!

The cotton hat on his head seemed to be soaked through with sweat, and sweat was dripping down from the gaps. Although it was hot as hell, no one dared to take off their hat; once the hat was off, the head would be covered in a layer of ice in no time!

If that happened, it would be absolutely impossible not to catch a cold, and it would be a severe one at that!

The two opened their mouths to gasp for air, their legs feeling like they were filled with lead, moving forward step by step!

Even if the sky were to collapse in front of them, they would have no interest in paying attention to it!

Wang An felt his current physical state and secretly pondered: "We haven't even seen the shadow of the large bear yet! We're already tired like dogs!"

The two couldn't hear the dogs barking anymore. Although they were anxious, they were physically exhausted to the extreme. Running was impossible; just being able to walk to the dogs would be quite an achievement!

Just asking for follow-up reading, just asking for follow-up reading! As long as you read it every day!

Of course, provided you are interested in this book. Thank you, thank you!

(End of chapter)