Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 1183 Mu Xueli's Exclamation

At this moment, Wang An and the other three were actually quite frustrated.

The main problem is that bears are hard to find near Daya Mountain, and other prey are also difficult to spot. It's almost noon, and the four of them haven't had a single successful hunt.

After Wang An finished speaking, the four of them, along with the pack of dogs and wolves, headed towards the direction Wang An had pointed out.

It took the four of them more than 20 minutes to reach the hill that seemed so close at hand.

As the saying goes, "Looking at a mountain makes a horse run itself to death," and in this season when heavy snow closes off the mountains, the mountain roads are really too difficult to travel, so it is normal that the speed cannot be increased.

Fortunately, as soon as the four of them reached the hilltop, they saw the tracks left by the sled on the snow, and it was clear that the sled was a makeshift one that had been temporarily tied together.

It's just that a lot of time has passed, and the mark has been largely covered by the snow blown by the wind.

Upon seeing the mark, Wang Li immediately said with a beaming smile:
"My fourth brother is truly amazing! He could even tell which way the Su brothers came down the mountain, hahaha!"

Wang An glanced at Wang Li, then said with a broad smile:

"Your flattery won't work; I'll still kick you if I want to."

Wang An noticed that, at some point, Wang Li's mouth had become just like Mu Xueli's, increasingly cheeky, making Wang An feel an urge to kick him.

After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli, always eager for drama, said:

"Yeah, brother-in-law, hurry up and kick him. I think he deserves a kick too. We've been going into the mountains together to set traps these past few days, and his lousy mouth is driving me crazy."

As soon as Mu Xueli finished speaking, Wang Li immediately retorted:
"My mouth is so sore? It's all because of you who corrupted me. Do you even know what 'one is influenced by one's surroundings' means? You've been corrupting me all along, so dark and murky."

It has to be said that Wang Li's tongue is getting smoother and smoother; he can come up with insults so easily without even thinking.

Although Wang Li's tongue was getting increasingly eloquent, it was important to know that Mu Xueli had never been one to back down when it came to witty banter. So, as soon as Wang Li finished speaking, Mu Xueli immediately retorted:
"Give me a break, you're the one who corrupted me. You're not a good person to begin with, and you have a head that deserves to be kicked."

To be honest, if these two were to get together, they'd probably be miserable if they didn't bicker for a while. It would be strange if they always had to bicker whenever they had the chance.

However, it must be admitted that the two of them have a serious and quite interesting way of bickering.

After exchanging a few more words, Wang An, seeing that neither could gain the upper hand for the time being, chuckled and said to them:
"Why don't you two have a fight here? Xiao Zhong and I are leaving now."

As he spoke, Wang An pulled Huang Zhong, who was watching the commotion, and the two of them walked together in the direction from which the sled had come. This situation is also called "pinching the trail".

Wang An and his companion had only taken two steps when Mu Xueli, chasing after them, said:

"I'm not going to fight with Lao Wu. We have a great relationship."

Wang Li immediately chimed in:
"Yeah, my brother Mu is such a good person, we can't fight."

As he spoke, Wang Li took a few quick steps forward and put his arm around Mu Xueli's shoulder.

And just like that, the two became best buddies again, leaving Wang An utterly speechless. Soon, the four of them and the pack of dogs arrived at a place with messy footsteps. It was clear that the two Su brothers had cut tree branches and tied them together to make a makeshift sled.

Looking further into the distance, you can see a row of very clear footprints. Based on the distance between the two footprints, you can tell that these were left by Su Zhansheng when he carried Su Zhanqiang on his back.

Following the footprints, they walked for another four miles before Wang An and his three companions, along with the pack of dogs, finally reached the earthen granary. In other words, Su Zhansheng carried his brother Su Zhanqiang for more than four miles through the snow before they began cutting tree branches to tie up the sled.

With that kind of perseverance, they're absolutely amazing!
As soon as Dahei and the other dogs arrived at the underground storage, they started barking at it. The barking of the whole pack of dogs gave Wang An a headache.

Fortunately, the dogs, including Dahei, did not go into the storage room, so Wang An and his companions ignored them and began to observe their surroundings.

The main reason was that the underground storage was empty, and the bear inside had long since disappeared. The reason why Dahei and the other dogs were barking was simply because they could smell the scent left by the bear during its hibernation inside the storage.

All that could be seen were the four dogs belonging to the Su brothers, now reduced to scattered dog hair and a few scraps of dog skin still covered in fur.

Based on the drag marks and animal footprints near the dog skin and fur, it was determined that the four dogs' bodies were torn apart and dragged away by a pack of red dogs, which are actually a pack of jackals.

This explains why Wang An and his three companions, along with a pack of dogs, wandered around Dayashan for so long without finding a single wild boar or roe deer.

These animals were either hunted down or scared away by the jackals.

As their gaze swept across the area, the four of them also noticed four black bear paws and two pieces of bear meat hanging from a large branch of a tree not far away.

It's clear that the bear paws and meat came from the black bear that the Su brothers killed when they raided the first warehouse. The bear had an iron will.

However, judging from the size of the bear paw, this black bear with iron gall isn't very big, weighing at most 230 or 240 pounds.

As Wang An and the others were observing the surroundings, Mu Xueli, who was squatting there, exclaimed in surprise:
"Holy crap, this bear really weighs eight or nine hundred pounds, maybe even over a thousand pounds. Look at these huge footprints, holy crap, they're bigger than my head."

Because the scene was quite messy, mainly because the jackals' footprints were too dense, most of the footprints left by Da Xiongba were covered up, which meant that Wang An and his two companions had not yet seen the footprints left by Da Xiongba.

Upon hearing Mu Xueli's exclamation, Wang An and the other two walked towards where Mu Xueli was without prior arrangement.

Wang An glanced at the clear footprint and immediately thought of the bear weighing over 1 jin that he had killed when he first led Mu Xueli into the mountains to rescue Wu Dong and the other two. The footprint was almost the same size as that bear's footprint.

At this moment, Mu Xueli asked Wang An:
"Brother-in-law, why do I feel like this big bear is almost the same size as the one we fought at Qing Shi Gang?"

Wang An looked around, then at the dogs still barking at the earthen granary, and nodded as he said:
"Yeah, I think it's about the same. Let's hurry up and catch up. If we can catch up in time, we won't have to spend the night in the mountains."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang An whistled three times at the pack of dogs.

When Dahei and the other dogs gathered around, Wang An rubbed Dahei's head and said:

"That won't do. There's nothing left inside, so what are you yelling about?"

(End of this chapter)