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

The blinding white beam of the flashlight focused instantly.

Ma Hou stumbled forward, pushing aside the henchmen blocking his way.

He held up his flashlight and stared intently at the marks on the muddy ground. It was a deep ditch, clearly dragged out by an unconscious heavy object through the mud. There were also a few drops of dark red blood that had just dripped down and hadn't dried yet.

Looking ahead along the dragging mud ditch, the bloodstains and traces extended straight to the back of a thick red pine tree a few meters away.

With a "click".

Without hesitation, Ma Hou pulled the bolt of his rifle to fire five shots in quick succession, and a wild, savage grin burst from his originally pointed-mouthed, monkey-faced features.

"Those are the marks left by that damned eunuch's crippled leg!"

Ma Hou, gun in hand, aimed directly at the red pine tree and roared arrogantly in his hoarse voice, "Scarface! The blood's still fresh, stop hiding! I can see your tail, come out yourself, you'll suffer less!"

Behind the tree.

Scarface Liu stiffened violently, his hands gripping the rotten tree bark on the ground, his eyes filled with the panic of being driven to the brink of despair.

He was about to turn to Old Scar for help.

A flash of ferocity suddenly appeared in Old Scar's usually calm, triangular eyes. Before Scarface Liu could even open his mouth, he raised his foot, clad in a hard-soled military boot, and kicked Scarface Liu hard in the lower back.

"Ugh!"

With a piercing scream, Scarface Liu flew out from behind the tree trunk like a tattered sack, crashing heavily into the muddy water in front of Ma Hou with a "plop," splashing up a cloud of sour, foul-smelling mud.

Seven or eight dark gun barrels were suddenly pointed at Scarface Liu's head.

"Oh, who has such a big entourage? It turns out it's really my good older brother!"

Ma Hou took a step forward, his foot, clad in hard-soled rubber shoes, ruthlessly stomping on Scarface Liu's broken kneecap, grinding it twice.

"ah--!"

The excruciating pain caused Scarface Liu to let out a pig-like scream. He writhed wildly in the mud like a dried-up loach out of water, desperately clinging to Ma Hou's ankles, only to be kicked to the ground by the other man.

"You monkey...you son of a bitch!"

Scarface Liu lay sprawled in the mud, half his face smeared with foul-smelling black grime, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Ma Hou: "I picked you up from the street back then, fed you, and gave you a place to run! And you dared to sleep with my woman, steal my money, and now you've brought men to kill me!"

Ma Hou pressed the gun barrel against Scarface Liu's forehead, and ash from his cigarette fell onto Scarface Liu's face.

"Scarface, what are you saying? I'm here to see you off in your final moments."

Ma Hou squatted down and patted Scarface Liu's distorted face with the cold barrel of his gun, laughing unrestrainedly: "You're just a piece of trash now, you can't even pee on a squatting spot. What's the use of keeping all that money and women? You might as well let your little brother enjoy yourself for you."

He raised his eyelids, glanced at the lifeless red pine tree behind Scarface Liu, and raised his voice.

"Brother Liu, we're brothers, I'll give you a quick death. Just tell me which corner Old Scarface, that coward with the money, is hiding behind the tree, and I guarantee this bullet will only hit your head, not your rotten leg. How about it?"

As he spoke, his left hand, hidden behind his back, silently gestured to his subordinates to flank them.

The two henchmen who received the signal understood immediately.

Carrying their dark, five-shot shotguns, the two men hunched over, wading through the mud, barely daring to breathe, like two wild dogs drawn by the scent of blood, stealthily making their way towards the thick tree trunk from either side.

The stark white beams of the flashlight, like two sharp swords, instantly cleaved through the sticky white mist and swept directly behind the red pine tree.

Scarface Liu lay prone in the mud, closing his eyes in despair, expecting the next second to be filled with the loud noise of Old Scar suddenly killing someone or being riddled with bullets into a bloody pulp.

However, there was no sound at all in the deathly silent forest.

Two henchmen who had flanked the tree shone their flashlights back and forth three or four times through the rotten roots and muddy clumps. Under the bright light, apart from a few puddles of rotten mud still bubbling with a sour stench and trampled dead leaves, there wasn't a soul in sight.

"Monkey King".

A henchman, gun at the ready, poked his head out from behind the tree trunk, his face a picture of utter astonishment: "There's no one behind this tree! Old Scar is gone!"

"Nobody here?"

Ma Hou was stunned for a moment, then spat out the half-smoked cigarette in his mouth and shouted in a hoarse voice, "Bullshit! That bastard flew out with such force just now, it must have been that old scar son of a bitch hiding in the shadows who kicked him out to take the bullet! How could there be no one!"

He stubbornly pushed aside the henchmen blocking his way.

Ma Hou held his five-shot hunting rifle level, wading through the bottomless mud pit, and angrily circled around to the back of the thick red pine tree.

The pale beam of the flashlight swept back and forth across the rotten tree bark and muddy puddles.

Apart from a section of dead tree root that had been broken off by military boots and a series of muddy footprints that quickly disappeared into the thick white fog, the area behind the tree was empty; Old Scar had long since vanished.

"Hold!"

Enraged, Ma Hou cursed and strode back to the muddy puddle.

He abruptly raised his foot, clad in a hard-soled rubber shoe, and kicked Scarface Liu hard in the side with a whooshing sound, roaring with a ferocious expression, "I'm asking you, where the hell is Old Scar?!"

With a sickening crack of bone breaking, Scarface Liu convulsed violently in pain, writhing in agony like a boiled shrimp in the foul-smelling mud.

That kick broke his ribs, and the dull pain in his internal organs made even his breath taste bloody.

Scarface Liu gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the metallic taste churning in his throat, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the arrogant monkey.

He took a deep breath, letting out a rough, bellows-like gasp from his throat, and spat out a mouthful of thick, bloody liquid mixed with mud, sand, and broken teeth onto Ma Hou's trouser leg.

The surrounding henchmen gasped in fright, fearing that Ma Hou would pull the trigger immediately.

But Ma Hou didn't even flinch.

He wasn't intimidated at all. He just glanced down at the blood and foam dripping down his raincoat, slowly reached out, and carefully scraped off the thick blood with his fingertips.

Then, he squatted down and smeared his blood-stained fingers, bit by bit, on Scarface Liu's face, which was covered in mud.

"Brother Liu, you're in this state and you still have such a temper?"

Ma Hou patted Scarface Liu's cheek with his fingers, lowered his voice, and said with a look of mockery and disdain, "But to be honest, it was because of your fearless temper that I wholeheartedly joined your side and followed you back then."

"But look at the state you're in now? Old, useless, not only is your leg broken, but you can't even use that thing in your crotch anymore. If you weren't a useless piece of trash who can only squat to pee, would your sister-in-law be so aroused in the middle of the night, willingly crawling into my bed and begging me to pamper her?"

"Monkey!"

Scarface Liu's eyes were so red they were almost bleeding; the intense sense of humiliation instantly overcame his fear of death.

"You better fucking shoot me dead today! Otherwise, as long as I have a breath left, even if I go to hell as a vengeful ghost, I'll skin you alive, you son of a bitch!"

"Hahaha--"

Instead of getting angry, the monkey burst into extremely grating laughter.

He suddenly stood up, raised his rubber boot, and kicked Scarface Liu hard in the face, sending him rolling twice in the mud.

"Hell? Fine, I'll fucking be waiting!"

After kicking it, Ma Hou slung his five-shot shotgun over his shoulder and kicked a dead branch at his feet.

"What the hell are you all standing there for? Find a dry spot and get a fire going!"

The henchman holding the homemade gun next to him was stunned for a moment, then quickly came over, his face full of incomprehension.

"Brother Monkey, are you starting a fire here? Are we not going to chase them anymore?"

The henchman pointed to the thick fog where Old Scar had disappeared, wringing his hands anxiously: "Old Scar was carrying two hundred thousand in cash! This forest is so dense, what if that bastard sneaks out in the dark? All the suffering we've endured these past few days will have been for nothing!"

"Snapped!"

Ma Hou slapped the henchman on the back of the head, making him stagger.

He glared at his men as if they were idiots and spat heavily into the mud.

"Are you fucking an idiot?"

Ma Hou poked the thick, white miasma ahead with the barrel of his gun, his eyes filled with utter contempt: "He's running? Where can he run to! This old forest is a man-eating maze. Without this dead eunuch on the ground leading the way, Old Scar, a stranger, would never have made it out of this ghostly path!"

He glanced at his brothers around him with a cold smile, making his point clear.

"We're making a fire to give him some light; it's like waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump! If he dares to wander off on his own, he'll eventually be fed to poisonous snakes and wild boars; if he wants to leave with the money intact, he'll have to obediently follow our firelight and find this piece of junk himself!"

After saying that, Ma Hou glanced menacingly at Scarface Liu, who was half-dead in the mud.

"This place is too damp, brothers. Let's warm up by the fire. Keep a close eye on this cripple. If he gets away, you'll all be filling this mud pit!"

The henchman who was slapped was not angry at all. Instead, he covered the back of his head and nodded repeatedly with a big smile on his face.

"Brilliant! Monkey King is truly superior! What's that move called again...? Right, 'Catching a turtle in a jar'!"

The henchman gave a fawning thumbs-up, then immediately turned around, brandishing his homemade gun and barking orders at his men: "What the hell are you all standing there for! Didn't you hear Brother Monkey say something? Hurry up and gather some firewood! Make the fire burn brighter, so we can light the way for our living God of Wealth!"

The henchmen immediately scattered, frantically scavenging relatively dry dead branches and leaves from the edge of the muddy ground.

Before long, a campfire lit up in the dark, damp forest.

The orange flames licked at the thick, white sweat, crackling and burning, casting an ever-changing, unpredictable light on the monkey's pointed, monkey-like face. He sat imposingly on a withered tree stump, warming himself by the fire while enjoying the desperate gasps of his former boss beneath his feet.

However, the monkey had no idea.

It was less than ten meters directly above the campfire.

Deep within the canopy of that massive red pine tree, so thick it takes three people to encircle it, the dense pine needles and the dark miasma blended perfectly together, creating a natural blind spot.

Old Scar was like a night owl lurking in the abyss, silently perched on a thick horizontal branch.

He didn't follow the deliberately left muddy footprints into the depths of the fog at all. Instead, the instant he kicked Scarface Liu away, he nimbly climbed up to the top of the tree like a wildcat, using the blind spot to cling to the rough bark.

The glow of the campfire rising from under the tree pierced through the layers of pine branches, barely illuminating Old Scar's cold, triangular eyes.

He looked down at everything that was happening below.