Inheriting a dilapidated ranch in North America, he became a billionaire through animal taming and t

The sound came from the woods to the west, and it wasn't too loud.

But on the ranch in the dead of night, it was as clear as a thunderclap.

Su Chen's body reacts faster than his brain.

He pushed the chair away.

He took two steps out of the study and rushed to the stairwell.

Emma had just walked halfway down from the second floor.

Su Chen grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

Press it behind the load-bearing wall in the first-floor corridor.

A second shot rang out.

This time the sound was closer.

The bullet struck the exterior wall of the main house, blasting the wooden wall into a shower of debris.

The windows in the second-floor corridor shattered into pieces.

Emma covered her ears and curled up into a ball.

Su Chen squatted down next to her, his back pressed against the wall, and quickly counted the intervals between gunshots.

Two shots.

They are all single shots, not bursts.

The gunman was aiming, not firing indiscriminately.

If it were a professional assassin, they wouldn't miss.

The impact points of the walls and windows are all on the west side of the main house.

It's roughly at the second floor level.

Su Chen's study is on the west side.

The window faces the woodland.

The gunman's target was not Emma.

It's not a herd of cattle.

It's him.

The third shot didn't come.

Instead, Black Fang's wolf howl replaced it.

The sound came from the direction of the west fence.

Its penetrating power was extremely strong, and the entire valley reverberated.

Then came the second and third tones.

The wolves howled simultaneously, not out of panic, but as a signal to attack.

Su Chen stood up, walked along the wall to the door, and looked out from the side.

Black Fang is no longer under the porch.

At the edge of the woodland on the west side, the beams of flashlights were flailing about.

Someone is running.

The sound of branches snapping and crackling echoed through the air.

Then came the cursing, very short, as if someone had tripped over something.

Da Zhuang's roar came from the direction of the livestock shed.

The sound was deeper and more muffled than a wolf's howl.

It rolled down the ground like thunder.

Su Chen could feel the floor beneath his feet vibrating.

The flashlight beam disappeared.

The cursing stopped.

Su Chen waited a few seconds before walking out of the main house.

Black Fang stood inside the western fence.

He had a dark coat dangling from his mouth.

The back of the coat was ripped open, and the fabric was covered in mud and bits of grass.

Black Fang spat his coat on the ground and wagged his tail at Su Chen.

Lingfeng swooped down from the sky and landed on the roof of the main house, letting out a long cry.

Su Chen squatted down to examine the coat.

A plain work jacket, no logo, and nothing in the pockets.

He stood up and looked towards the woodland to the west.

The flashlight beam disappeared completely.

But Su Chen knew the gunman had escaped.

Black Fang's reaction says it all.

If a wolf pack catches a person, they won't just bring back a coat.

Old Tom ran over from the tool shed, carrying a hunting rifle.

"What happened? Gunshots?"

Su Chen pointed to the woodland on the west side.

"Someone fired shots from that side."

Old Tom's expression changed drastically, and he picked up his hunting rifle and walked to the west.

Su Chen grabbed him.

"The person has already escaped."

"Did you call the police?"

Su Chen shook his head.

He first went to the west side of the main house's exterior wall to check for bullet marks.

The first shot hit below the second-floor window.

The wooden wall was blasted open, leaving a fist-sized hole, with wood chips scattered all over the ground.

The second shot hit the steel plate of the livestock shed.

It left a dented crater; it didn't penetrate.

Su Chen took out his phone and took photos as evidence.

The location, depth, and angle of the bullet hole.

Everything was photographed clearly.

Then he called Cole.

When the call connected, Cole's voice was very clear, as if he hadn't slept at all.

"Su, what's wrong?"

"Someone fired two shots from the woodland on the west side toward the main house, and then ran away."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'll be right there."

Su Chen hung up the phone and continued collecting evidence at the scene.

He found the warhead.

The first one was embedded in the wall.

The second one fell on the muddy ground next to the livestock shed.

He didn't pick it up with his hands; instead, he used a twig to push it aside as evidence.

Emma came out of the house, her face pale, but her hands were no longer trembling.

She took out her phone and filmed Su Chen's evidence collection process.

"Are you alright?" Su Chen asked.

"It's okay," Emma said.

"And you?"

"fine."

Cole arrived in fifteen minutes.

He didn't come alone; he brought three police officers and two patrol cars.

The first thing Cole did after getting out of the car wasn't to ask questions.

Instead, he went directly to the west fence and used a flashlight to look for traces on the ground.

Su Chen followed behind him and handed him the evidence photos and the bullet.

After reading it, Cole's face was even uglier than Old Tom's.

"Two shots, one to the main house, one to the livestock shed."

"right."

Cole crouched down and shone his flashlight on the footprints in the grass.

The gunman's retreat route was clear.

They climbed over the fence on the west side.

Follow the edge of the woodland until you reach a point about sixty meters from the main house.

The shot was fired behind a thick pine tree.

Su Chen shone his flashlight on the pine tree.

There were fresh scratches on the side of the tree trunk, and several bullet casings on the ground.

Cole put on gloves, picked up the spent cartridge case, and put it into the evidence bag.

"Modified rifles."

"It's not a standard-issue weapon."

"Can you trace the source?"

"It's hard to say."

Cole stood up.

"But this is not something an ordinary thug can do."

"Modifying guns, shooting at night, and running away—only experienced people can do that."

Su Chen didn't speak.

Cole looked at him.

"Su, who have you offended recently?"

"Bert Klein and Roy Hawkins."

Cole nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

He led his officers along the gunman's retreat route, chasing him for nearly a kilometer.

It goes all the way to the roadside in the woodland on the west side.

I found a glove and a mask on the road.

There was also a phone with a shattered screen.

The person escaped, but the evidence remained.

Back at the ranch, Cole registered all the evidence and made a detailed record of the scene.

"Su, I will file a case for this. Attempted murder is no longer a public order case."

Su Chen nodded.

"But you have to be mentally prepared."

Cole said.

"These kinds of cases are slow to investigate. If the gunman wasn't a local, he might have already fled the state."

"I know."

After Cole left, Su Chen stood at the entrance of the main house, looking towards the woodland to the west.

As dawn approached, the outline of the forest gradually became clear in the morning light.

Old Tom walked over and stood next to Su Chen.

"What are you planning to do?"

Su Chen thought for a moment.

"Go to sleep first."

Old Tom paused for a moment, but didn't ask any more questions, and turned to leave.

Su Chen returned to the house, did not go upstairs, and lay down on the sofa in the living room.

Emma brought a cup of hot water from the kitchen, placed it on the coffee table, and then went upstairs.

Hei Feng lay prone at the doorway, his head facing west, his eyes half-closed and half-open.

Lingfeng landed on the roof and did not fly away again.

Su Chen closed his eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

He was thinking about one thing:

What exactly do Bert and Hawkins want from him?

If it's land, the offer is too low.

If it's a ranch, the methods are too crude.

If it's not land and pasture, then what is it?

Su Chen couldn't come up with an answer.

But he knew that once the gunshot rang out, the nature of the matter would change.

First it was commercial suppression, now it's attempted murder.

Once Cole has opened a case, it won't be closed easily.

Bert and Hawkins crossed the line.