Returning to the small mountain village of '86, intelligence updated daily.

Zhou Rui fired the shot calmly, his mind was at peace, and his face was expressionless.

His calm and experienced demeanor made even his father, Zhou Shiwei, feel a tremor in his heart.

"Is this still my son?"

"Hmm...like me when I was young, the real deal."

Zhou Shiwei remained prostrate on the ground, two sentences flashing through his mind.

The loud noise stunned Zhou Ming, and even Zhou Shijie was shocked. He had never seen a real gun being fired before, as he had always been in a daze.

None of the three made a move immediately. Zhou Rui slowly lowered his gun, and only then did his face regain its expression.

His gaze was intense, fixed on the distance not far away. After a short while, he took a deep breath, his lips were dry, and his voice was hoarse:

"Dad, Second Uncle, Younger Brother..."

"We hit the deer... Our family is rich now..."

Zhou Rui muttered to himself, his voice tinged with bitterness and hoarseness.

Of the three who were crawling on the ground, Zhou Ming reacted the fastest. He jumped up instantly, his tone full of excitement.

"What did we hit? What was that? A deer?!"

Zhou Ming asked himself the question and then followed Zhou Rui's gaze. Sure enough, a hornless creature, less than a meter long, was lying quietly not far away.

But Zhou Ming glanced at it and was puzzled. This was different from the deer in his memory; it had no antlers.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Zhou Ming moved closer to Zhou Rui and asked:

"Brother, what is this thing? It doesn't look like a deer. Don't deer have antlers?"

After saying that, he turned his gaze to the gray-brown hunting rifle in Zhou Rui's hand.

He couldn't hide his excitement.

Before Zhou Rui could reply, the other two elders, who were still prostrate on the ground, stood up, dusted themselves off, and Zhou Shiwei explained:

"It's a forest musk deer, an extremely rare substance. I don't know if you've ever heard of musk, but it's produced from this stuff."

Zhou Shiwei's voice was filled with undisguised excitement; he had just heard Zhou Rui say that he had hit the target.

Zhou Shijie, who was the last to get up, was still a bit confused, but seeing how happy Zhou Shiwei and his son were, he was in a good mood too.

The four stopped standing there dumbfounded. Zhou Rui took the lead, stepping over the weeds and jogging to the prey.

Zhou Rui glanced at the prey lying on the ground. Fortunately, the area where the musk sac was located was not injured.

He aimed slightly above the head, but the bullet landed not on the head, but on the back, perfectly avoiding the abdomen.

At this moment, the prey had completely died, but Zhou Rui did not just stand there dumbfounded. Zhou Shiwei, who had rushed over, also breathed a sigh of relief after glancing at the wound.

Then the two of them searched for weeds nearby.

Soon, Zhou Shiwei and his son stuffed the prey's excrement with weeds, which was the normal procedure for handling prey. Zhou Rui had done the same thing with that wild boar before.

However, he also took the extra step of burying the wild boar to avoid attracting attention.

We definitely can't leave it here now. Putting aside its value, this musk deer is much smaller than a wild boar, making it easy to take away.

After finishing all the work, the two set aside a small water bottle and carefully collected musk blood.

Musk deer blood is very valuable. It can be mixed with alcohol and has the effects of replenishing blood and qi, calming the mind and strengthening the body. It is a rare tonic.

After carefully processing the musk deer blood, we collected about 500 milliliters, which is close to one pound.

Then they carried the deer to the water's edge and washed it with the stream.

Zhou Shijie and his nephew Zhou Ming were also helping the two of them, and they finished everything in no time.

At this moment, Zhou Shiwei finally had time to give his son a thumbs up.

"Well done! You're a true son of mine. Xiaoming, learn from your brother and stop spending all your time reading martial arts novels."

Zhou Shiwei was in a good mood, not only because he had caught such a prey, but also because he was proud of his son.

Zhou Ming pursed his lips and remained silent. He then turned to Zhou Rui and said:

"Bro, can I borrow this thing to play with? I won't fire it."

Zhou Ming pointed at the dark brown hunting rifle in Zhou Rui's hand, his eyes filled with pleading.

Without much thought, Zhou Rui removed the bullet and handed it to Zhou Ming.

"Be careful, the barrel gets hot," Zhou Rui warned.

Zhou Ming nodded, then examined the hunting rifle in his hand with great care.

At this moment, Zhou Shijie finally spoke up and asked:

"Brother, nephew, I just heard you talking about forest snakes and snake incense. What are those things?"

Zhou Shijie's pronunciation wasn't standard, so Zhou Shiwei corrected him first before looking intently at the prey on the ground and saying:

"Second brother, you don't need to know the specifics. Just know that this thing is very expensive, extremely expensive!"

Zhou Shiwei emphasized the word "expensive," and upon hearing this, Zhou Shijie tentatively said:

"Very expensive? Are wild gastrodia elata expensive...?"

In his understanding, the wild gastrodia elata he harvested last time was already a very precious delicacy.

Zhou Rui picked up the conversation and said, "It's more expensive than wild gastrodia elata, much more expensive."

Upon hearing this answer, Zhou Shijie's eyes lit up, and he then tentatively asked again:

"Can it sell for 200 yuan?"

Zhou Shijie looked at the small musk deer and was already asking for a high price. The prey weighed only about ten kilograms, or even less.

He simply couldn't imagine it, which was also related to the fact that he had lived in a daze for over thirty years.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shiwei and his son exchanged a glance and shook their heads, but did not say anything more.

The two men told him there was no need to guess; it was definitely more expensive than 200 yuan...

Hearing this, even Zhou Ming, who was playing with his hunting rifle, was distracted.

......

After a while, Zhou Rui put the processed game into his basket. He was going to carry it himself, but Zhou Shiwei took it from him.

But soon, Zhou Shijie snatched the basket away again, as he always felt that he couldn't do anything right.

But recently, he has been doing what he can to help.

Zhou Shiwei was both amused and exasperated by the sight of his younger brother fighting over the basket, so he simply let his second brother carry it.

After a short rest, the four of them sat on the ground and ate a little bit of boiled potatoes that Zeng Jiamei had cooked that morning to fill their stomachs.

After filling his stomach, Zhou Shiwei looked at the sky. It was almost noon, the sun was shining brightly, and he estimated that it was around 11 o'clock.

There's still plenty of time.

Because they arrived very early and didn't linger on the way, they walked very quickly.

Therefore, both the speed and efficiency were much higher than the last time we went into the mountains, saving a lot of time.

Zhou Shiwei packed up and was about to head home when he called out to Zhou Ming twice, asking him to return the hunting rifle to Zhou Rui for self-defense.

Zhou Shiwei fully acknowledged his boss's marksmanship skills.

However, just as Zhou Shiwei was about to head back home, with Zhou Shijie and Zhou Ming following behind, Zhou Rui interrupted them.

He called out to the crowd, then pointed towards the stream and exclaimed in feigned surprise:

"Dad, Uncle, Brother, look, isn't that animal poop? Should we go further in?"