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

If you were to describe Xiao Hei in the local language, it would be "bouncing spirit, bouncing spirit".

The main thing is that its childlike behavior in trying to get Wang An to praise it really surprised Wang An.

After praising Xiao Hei a few more times, mainly to acknowledge Xiao Hei's abilities, Wang An finally put it down and said, as if coaxing a child:
"Alright, you've praised me and touched me, now go over there and wait to eat meat."

After landing, Xiao Hei bounced around for a while before gradually calming down.

Wang An patted Xiao Hei and Da Hei on the head again, then turned and walked towards Mu Xueli and the other two.

At this moment, the three men were finishing off the wild boar that was still kicking, while the little yellow-haired boy, who weighed only a little over 100 pounds, was simply killed with a single knife.

The main reason is that the large wild boar is more dangerous, while the small yellow-haired boar, even if it plays dead, is not very aggressive.

Approaching the scene, Wang An looked at the dead wild boars scattered on the ground and asked:

"Have you bled them all out? How many wild boars did we kill in total?"

Upon hearing this, Mu Xueli immediately smiled and said:

"There were 26 in total: 4 female wild boars, all weighing over 250 jin (125 catties), 6 old ones from the previous year, the smallest of which weighed 180 or 190 jin (50-65 kg), and the remaining 16 were all big yellow-haired boars, the largest weighing 160 or 170 jin (50-65 kg), and the smallest weighing 120 or 130 jin (60-65 kg). Hahaha, this was really exciting!"

Wang An was overjoyed to hear this. In this one hunt, he had caught a wild boar weighing 4,500 to 4,600 jin. Even after removing the head, hooves, offal, and skinning, it would still be at least 2500 jin of carcass.

If we calculate it at 3 cents per pound, it would cost about 750 yuan.

This income is in no way less than the income from killing a black bear.

Wang An nodded with a smile and said:

"Yeah, that's good. If we do this a few more times, we should have enough meat for Brother Wu and the others."

Looking at the wild boar bleeding profusely on the ground, and Huang Zhong learning from Mu Xueli how to stab and bleed a boar, Wang An suddenly asked Mu Xueli and Wang Li:

"By the way, before you went to hunt the wild boar, how many boars did you two kill?"

Mu Xueli said without even thinking:

"I killed 7 heads."

Wang Li replied without hesitation:
"I also killed 7 heads."

Wang An nodded, his mind racing with addition, because he clearly remembered that he had just killed eight wild boars.

7加7加8是22，而野猪一共是26头，也就是说，黄忠自己就打死了4头野猪。

Thinking of this, Wang An asked Huang Zhong with some surprise:

"Xiao Zhong, how many shots did you fire just now?"

Huang Zhong stood up and said:

"Brother, I fired five shots in total. One shot missed and hit the pig's ear, so I fired another shot."

As soon as Huang Zhong spoke, Wang An's gaze towards him changed, becoming one of surprise and shock.

Given that Huang Zhong achieved such a feat despite the wild boars scattering and fleeing, his marksmanship is considered quite competent for a hunter.

Seeing Huang Zhong's surprised expression for a long time, Wang An slowly nodded and gave him a thumbs up, saying, "Good, not bad, you've improved, you've really improved a lot."

Just a few months ago, Huang Zhong's marksmanship was terrible. He couldn't even hold the spear steadily, and the recoil would make him sway violently.

At that time, Wang An felt that Huang Zhong was unlikely to have much of a future in hunting.

Keeping him at home would only allow him to do odd jobs or run errands, which would probably be his greatest use.

The main reason was that Huang Zhong had always been slow to develop and suffered from malnutrition, which resulted in him being not only short in stature but also lacking in strength. In rural areas, a child like him was really not very useful.

Even after being nourished by meat at Wang An's house for so long, Huang Zhong looked much stronger, but his height still didn't increase much. With shoes on, he was only about 1.5 meters tall at most.

The key point is that Huang Zhong is already 16 years old this year!

The 16-year-old boy is less than 1.5 meters tall, which is definitely considered short in Northeast China where people are generally taller.

Hearing Wang An's praise, Huang Zhong scratched his head sheepishly and said with a wry smile:

"I used up all the bullets in my house to get this good. Am I useless?"

Wang An shook his head and said:

"To have trained to this level with just over 600 bullets, you've really done a great job, really."

As he spoke, Wang An stepped forward, patted Huang Zhong on the shoulder, and said with a smile:

"Since your marksmanship is pretty good, you can keep the money from selling one of those four pigs you shot. Consider it a reward, hahaha."

Normally, Wang An shouldn't have had to give Huang Zhong a single penny. Taking him along on hunting trips and teaching him how to set traps and snares was already a great favor to him.

The reason is simple: Huang Zhong's existence is dispensable to Wang An and the other two. They can get the same results with or without him, and they even have to take care of him.

However, Huang Zhong's performance was indeed good, and Wang An should still give him appropriate encouragement and rewards.

If Huang Zhong continues to improve and demonstrates value, then Wang An will consider giving him a larger share of the hunting spoils.

After Wang An finished speaking, Huang Zhong was naturally grateful, but he declined, saying:

“If I don’t shoot, those four wild boars can’t escape, so you don’t have to give me any money.”

Wang An patted Huang Zhong on the shoulder again, seemingly unconcerned, and said:
"Alright, if I said I'd give you the job, I'll give you the job. Get to work. In the future, you should learn from your brother Mu how to skin and butcher. Your brother Mu's knife skills are absolutely top-notch. Even your fifth brother and I are far inferior to him."

No sooner had Wang An finished speaking than Mu Xueli, in a pretentious manner, said to Huang Zhong:
"Let me tell you, Xiao Zhong, with my knife skills, if I'm ranked second in the entire DJ County, then no one would dare to challenge for first place."

As he spoke, Mu Xueli patted his chest, making a loud thud, displaying an arrogant attitude as if he were the only one who mattered in the world of swordsmanship.

Wang An hadn't intended to pay him any attention, but then he saw Mu Xueli point in the direction of Wang An and Wang Li again, and smugly say:

"The two brothers learned their swordsmanship from me, but they didn't pay attention to it and didn't learn it well. They've wasted their master."

Seeing Mu Xueli's smug look, Wang An couldn't hold back any longer. He raised his big foot and kicked Mu Xueli in the butt, saying in an annoyed tone:

"You get carried away after a couple of compliments. You'd better get back to work."

Wang Li, who was standing nearby, immediately burst into laughter, saying with schadenfreude:
"Serves you right, you got cocky. I knew you weren't one to brag, hahaha." (End of Chapter)