Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Xiazigou is located northwest of Laoyagou.

The name is unpleasant, and the place is eerie.

Years ago, this wasn't a ditch; it was a dead mine pit.

The older generation says that during the Manchukuo period, the Japanese devils who went into the mountains discovered a thin gold vein and forcibly captured hundreds of able-bodied men from the surrounding villages, forcing them to fill this deep mountain forest with bayonets to dig for soil.

The Japanese overseers were ruthless; they didn't provide enough food and drink, and if anyone stopped working even slightly, they would whip them or stab them with bayonets.

The Chinese laborers who died at the bottom of the mine didn't even have a tattered mat; they were simply kicked into the abandoned blind tunnels to be used as stepping stones.

What truly turned this place into a dead end was the melting snow that spring.

The area beneath the mountainside was filled with water, causing the permeable wooden pillars to creak and groan under the pressure.

The laborers working below knelt in the mud and water, kowtowing and begging for mercy, saying that the earth's veins had been severed and that digging any further would cause the land to collapse.

The Japanese officer in charge didn't care about human lives at all. Not only did he prevent people from retreating, he also set up machine guns at the mine entrance, forcing the laborers to continue digging to their deaths.

As a result, a muffled, earth-shaking thud was heard in the middle of the night, and half of the mountain beam cracked open.

Thousands of tons of rocks mixed with icy water crashed down, burying hundreds of laborers, along with their wooden frames, alive dozens of meters underground in an instant.

After the landslide, the Japanese soldiers, thinking it was bad luck, didn't even bother digging and simply blasted the mine entrance shut.

Hundreds of innocent souls were buried beneath, their bones never to see the light of day again.

From then on, Blind Man's Gully became a dead end.

Hunters don't like to come here. Mountain runners don't like to come here.

Even women who pick mushrooms and dig for wild vegetables would rather take a detour of more than ten miles than pass through this gully.

There are many abandoned mine shafts and collapsed pits; the ground beneath the surface has been hollowed out.

One wrong step and you could fall into a dark hole more than ten feet deep.

Those old mine shafts, where no one collected the bodies, later became snake dens, badger burrows, and fox dens.

The cave entrance reeked of a fishy, ​​foul odor; in winter, when the wind blew in, it sounded like someone was crying at the bottom of the cave.

As dawn broke, Zhao Shanhe led Qinglong and Heilong into Blind Man's Gully.

The morning mist in the mountains hadn't dissipated yet, and the ground was shrouded in a gray haze.

Zhao Shanhe was wearing an old leather coat with dark bloodstains on the chest, and he was carrying a bolt-action hunting rifle in one hand.

He walked slowly, his eyes like an eagle's, scanning the surrounding half-collapsed mine shafts and piles of rubble bit by bit.

Suddenly, the black dragon walking in front stopped.

The vicious dog, as strong as a calf, suddenly lowered its head, its nostrils flaring violently.

Its black mane stood on end, and a very low whimper was suppressed in its throat.

Qinglong also lowered his body, his cold dog eyes fixed on the third half-collapsed mine entrance ahead.

Zhao Shanhe's eyes darkened, and his thumb silently released the safety of the bolt-action shotgun.

He made a gesture, and the two dogs instantly fell silent, scattering like two gray-black shadows along the pile of rocks.

Zhao Shanhe lowered his body and crept into the mine tunnel.

Once inside the mine, the sound of the wind outside was cut off.

The cave was filled with a strong, pungent smell of fermenting bat guano, but beneath this stench, Zhao Shanhe detected a very faint trace of blood and the tar smell left by cheap tobacco.

Someone came here, and just recently.

He clung to the slippery, moss-covered rock face, carefully avoiding the loose stones that could make noise, and silently made his way deeper into the area.

After turning past an abandoned wooden wagon, the mine tunnel ahead suddenly opened up.

A faint, dim yellow light flickered in the deepest part of the mine.

Clang.

The crisp sound of iron striking rock was particularly jarring in the deathly silent mine.

Zhao Shanhe narrowed his eyes.

By the dim light of the windproof lamp, he could make out a short, stout figure wearing a thick cotton-padded coat.

That's Scarface Liu.

The town's notorious black market middleman was currently bent over, like a boar in heat, frantically digging at the frozen ground next to a rusty, broken winch.

Instead of a shovel, he gripped a broken wood-chopping knife and desperately chipped away at the ice on the ground.

"Damn... he's frozen solid like a block of iron."

While cursing and swearing, Scarface Liu used his hands to dig out the rubble, completely unaware that his fingernails were curling and bleeding.

If they can dig out the money, take it to Xishan'ao and give it to Lei Zi to buy those four men with semi-automatic rifles to kill Zhao Shanhe, his son's future will be saved.

Crack.

The machete finally hit a hard metal shell.

Scarface Liu trembled with excitement, threw down the knife, and frantically dug at the dirt with both hands like a dog.

He forcefully pulled a rusty tin box out of the frozen ground, and impatiently picked up a stone next to him and smashed it hard against the rusty lock.

Snapped.

The latch is broken.

Scarface Liu lifted the metal lid, and under the dim light, the gleaming gold bars and stacks of old banknotes inside the tin box instantly blinded his one eye.

He eagerly reached into the box, first taking out four gold bars and a thousand dollars, carefully wrapping them tightly in oiled paper, and stuffing them into the innermost pocket on the left side, closest to his skin. That was the money he had agreed upon with Lei Zi to buy his life; not a single penny could be touched.

After doing all that, his gaze was fixed on the two large yellow croakers and the thousand yuan in cash left at the bottom of the box, and his Adam's apple bobbed violently.

A morbid ecstasy burst forth from his single eye.

That old bastard Han Laowai used his son's future as leverage to force him to become the scapegoat.

But that old man hid deep in the mountains all year round and had no idea about the black market prices outside! The remaining two gold bars and one thousand yuan were the scraps that Scarface Liu managed to squeeze out of the black market by risking his life on this trip.

"We made it... This trip through the muddy waters was definitely worthwhile."

Scarface Liu plopped down in the mud covered in ice shards, clutching the two gold bars that belonged to him tightly in his hands.

He felt the heavy, icy coldness, and the fat on his face contorted violently with extreme greed and relief.

As he stuffed the gold bars into his right pocket, he muttered nervously, "Zhao Shanhe, Zhao Shanhe, don't blame me for being heartless. Blame it on you, you little beast, blocking my son Liu Jun's path to success! With this money... Zhao Shanhe, Zhao Shanhe, you little beast, you can die in peace!"

"Who do you want to die?"

A voice devoid of any warmth resounded eerily above Scarface Liu's head.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was like a cold steel knife that pierced his spine through the top of his head.

Scarface Liu's entire body of fat suddenly stiffened, and his hands, which were holding the iron box, seemed to be frozen.

He swallowed hard, his neck turning inch by inch like a rusty gear.

The edge of the dim halo.

Zhao Shanhe, holding the rapid-fire pistol in one hand, stood silently less than three meters away from him, like a god of death crawling out of hell. The dark muzzle of the gun was steadily pointed at his forehead.

On either side of Zhao Shanhe, the Azure Dragon and the Black Dragon had arched their backs, their pale fangs gleaming with a chilling ferocity under the kerosene lamp.

"Zhao Shan... Zhao Shanhe?"

Scarface Liu was so terrified he nearly fainted, collapsing onto the muddy floor. Instinctively, he hid the tin box under his padded coat, stammering, "You...how did you get here? Don't open it..."

boom!

A deafening gunshot rang out in the narrow, dead mine pit, the orange muzzle flash instantly illuminating the entire dark hole.

Zhao Shanhe didn't utter a single unnecessary word, his gaze as calm as if he were looking at a corpse, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The bullet whizzed past Scarface Liu's scalp and slammed into the rock wall behind him.

The sharp, flying pebbles pierced Scarface Liu's face like throwing knives, instantly cutting several bloody gashes.

"ah--!"

Scarface Liu let out a pig-like scream, the rest of his words were choked in his throat, and a warm, fishy liquid flowed down his crotch.

Click.

Zhao Shanhe snapped the lever downwards with one hand, and a steaming brass cartridge clattered into the cold mud.

He strode over, his muddy military boots slamming down hard on the tin box full of gold bars, and the dark muzzle of his gun was shoved directly into Scarface Liu's wide-open mouth, breaking half of his front tooth.

"Now, whatever I ask you, you answer!"

Zhao Shanhe looked down at him coldly.