My sister broke off her engagement to marry someone richer? My older sister married me and became in

The early summer sun was already quite scorching.

The window of the innermost room on the second floor of the Hongxing Guesthouse in the county town was completely covered with several layers of old newspapers.

The stifling heat outside, mixed with the pungent smell of smoke inside, turned this small space of about ten square meters into a steamer.

On the door handle, there was an upside-down glass filled with half a cup of water.

A thin layer of white talcum powder was evenly sprinkled on the muddy ground below the threshold.

On the iron-framed bed by the window, a middle-aged man with a buzz cut was holding a Nanyang Double Happiness cigarette between his fingers.

His name was Lei Dong, but people in the underworld called him "Guo Shan Feng" (meaning "Over the Mountain Wind").

Lei Dong exhaled a puff of bluish-green smoke, his calloused index finger unconsciously rubbing his thigh.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Two short knocks and one long knock came from outside the door.

The air in the room seemed to freeze for a second.

Chenpi, who was squatting next to the radiator, bounced up like a spring.

His right hand went straight to the belt on his lower back.

"Who?" Chen Pi asked in a low voice.

"Damn it! Ah Jiu, it's so hot I could die!" A frustrated southern accent came from outside.

Lei Dongchong raised his chin.

Chen Pi carefully removed the glass from the doorknob before opening the door a crack.

Ah Jiu, nicknamed "Skinny Ghost," squeezed in sideways.

He casually ripped off the sweat-soaked white towel from his neck, picked up the cold teapot on the table, and drank it straight from his mouth.

The "glug-glug" sound was particularly loud in the cramped room.

After finishing her drink, Ajiu wiped her mouth and leaned close to Lei Dong.

"Boss, this county town in the north is so damn run-down, I couldn't even find a decent nightclub."

Yellow-toothed man was trimming his nails with a rusty pair of scissors when he heard this, and he sneered.

"I sent you to scout out the gambling dens, but all you're thinking about is finding women. You'll die on a woman's belly sooner or later."

Ajiu rolled her eyes, pulled up a broken wooden chair, and plopped down in it.

"Who said I didn't do any work? I just wandered around outside that Red Stone Forest Farm all morning."

Ah Jiu pulled a handful of crumpled sunflower seeds from his pocket and cracked them open with a loud cracking sound.

"The public security officers and officials in mainland China are a complete joke."

Lei Dong flicked his cigarette ash, signaling him to continue.

Ajiu cleared his throat, mimicking the tone he had heard outside the forest farm wall that morning, and put on an official air with his hands behind his back.

"Comrades, we must raise our awareness!"

He deliberately lowered his voice and imitated the Northeastern official accent of Li Aiguo, the head of the forest farm.

"Organizational principles are a serious matter; we must prioritize protecting capable young people like Comrade Lu Qingshan!"

Ah Jiu pointed at the void with her finger, pretending to speak earnestly.

"Anyone who dares to engage in factionalism or refuse to provide convenience for those on the front lines is undermining the overall development of our forest farm!"

After learning this passage, Ajiu spat out a mouthful of sunflower seed shells and laughed so hard he almost fell over.

"Look at these officials, when something happens, they hold a big meeting in the courtyard to talk about principles."

"The security guards in uniforms below were standing there like telephone poles, all clapping."

Chen Pi pulled a green canvas travel bag out from under the bed and zipped it up with a "rip".

A strong smell of gun oil instantly filled the room.

"These useless cowards who only know how to hold meetings and shout slogans, do they even deserve to guard the mountain?" Chen Pi spat.

He reached into the canvas bag and tore open a layer of moisture-proof greaseproof cloth.

Several blackened, blued pistols and two folding submachine guns were piled up haphazardly on the coarse cloth bed sheet.

At the very bottom of the tattered clothes were four high-explosive hand grenades with safety pins wrapped in duct tape.

"When I was eating raw snake meat in the Golden Triangle, these Northeasterners were still playing with their heated brick beds at home."

Chen Pi picked up a rag stained with machine oil and skillfully wiped the barrel of the micro-gun.

"Click".

The crisp sound of the metal striking pin returning to its original position made Huang Baoya stop clipping his nails.

"Alright, stop bragging here." Yellow-toothed man looked at Lei Dong.

"Boss, how accurate is the message from Guangzhou?"

Huang, with buck teeth, rubbed his yellowed fingers.

"They say that the Yu family, who owns some lousy food factory, has a century-old wild ginseng with purple flowers in their hands."

"We've come all the way from Guangzhou to this freezing place, what if it's just fake news?"

Lei Dong threw the cigarette butt into the yellowed enamel ashtray and crushed it with his thumb.

He touched an old, twisted scar on his neck that looked like a centipede.

This ruthless bandit leader, whose hands were stained with dozens of lives, didn't care at all whether the so-called intelligence was true or false.

"So what if it's fake news?" Lei Dong snorted through his nostrils.

He walked to the window and poked a small hole in the newspaper covering the window with his finger.

Through that small round hole, you can see the endless, dark, red rock mountains in the distance.

"You bunch of losers, broaden your horizons."

"That grove of trees, in the eyes of us brothers, was an unguarded ATM."

Lei Dong pointed in the direction of the mountains, his tone full of greed.

"If there really is a century-old ginseng, we'll go to that family's house, uproot it, and sell it to a big boss in Hong Kong."

"If not, would there be a shortage of valuable living creatures in Changbai Mountain?"

He turned around and pulled a blood-grooved military dagger from his canvas bag.

"The bones of Siberian tigers, the gallbladders of black bears, and the full beards and skins of wild leopards."

"Which of these items, once crossed the river, isn't a piece of hard currency that can be exchanged for a house?"

Chenpi whistled excitedly from the side.

"The boss is right! Forget about protected animals, in front of my bullets, they're all just breathing US dollars."

Huang Baoya still had some reservations, so he threw the scissors on the table.

"I have no problem with hunting, but this forest stretches for hundreds of miles."

"I heard that even the compass inside malfunctions."

"We're unfamiliar with this place. If we get trapped inside and can't get out, even a god would be skinned alive."

Lei Dong walked over and patted Huang Baoya on the shoulder with such force that Huang Baoya grimaced.

"Use your pig brain."

Lei Dong grinned cruelly, revealing a few teeth stained yellow by smoke.

"Do we need to find our own way?"

He lowered his voice, as if he were talking about something as commonplace as haggling over prices when buying groceries.

"Once we get into the mountains, we'll catch two local mountain runners first."

"These peasants who live off the land have noses that are sharper than dogs."

"Hold guns to the back of their heads and make them lead the way, clearing minefields."

Ah Jiu slapped his thigh and chimed in.

"That's a brilliant move! What if they lead the way? Should we give them some money to keep them quiet?"

Chen Pi looked at A Jiu as if she were an idiot, and threw the rag in his hand at her.

"Seal your mother's head!"

Chen Pi made a throat-cutting gesture with his thumb below his neck.

"In the middle of nowhere, just find a spot to bury them; you don't even need to dig a hole."

"The bones must have been gnawed clean by wolves, so no one will pay attention to the missing person report."

The thugs exchanged glances and suddenly burst into unrestrained laughter in the cramped room.

In their mouths, human life is worth less than a sunflower seed shell on the ground.

The cicadas outside the window began to chirp restlessly.

Ah Jiu finished laughing, stood up from the chair, walked to the bedside, and picked up an open bottle of soda.

"But boss, when I was asking around on the street, I overheard the locals gossiping."

Ah Jiu took a sip of soda and smacked her lips.

"There's a company called 'Xiushan Industry' in their county. I heard the boss is quite capable."

Chen Pi chuckled and continued wrapping the butter cloth around the microwave.

"What kind of bullshit industry is this? It's just a middleman dealing in timber and local specialties."

Ah Jiu waved his hand and slammed the soda bottle on the table.

"The boss's name is Lu Qingshan, and the locals say he's very strange."

"The story goes that a while ago, this kid and his grandfather encountered an adult black bear in the forest."

"And guess what? He actually beat that bear to death with his bare hands and a lousy homemade gun!"

Although Ah-Jiu told it as a joke, there was still a hint of wariness in her tone.

The room was silent for two seconds.

Chen Pi suddenly clutched his stomach and burst into exaggerated laughter.

He laughed so hard his tears were almost coming out, and he pointed at Ah Jiu and cursed loudly.

"Ah Jiu, have you lost your mind? You actually believe the nonsense spouted by some country bumpkin?"

Chen Pi slammed a heavy Black Star pistol on the table, making the soda bottle rattle.

"A black bear's claws can strike with the force of a thousand pounds. And he was fighting bare-handed?"

"Does he think he's the reincarnation of Wu Song? Or some kind of sweeping monk from Shaolin Temple?"

Huang Baoya shook his head as well, and took out a toothpick from his pocket to pick his teeth.

"Exactly. These bumpkins from the mainland have never seen anything like real fighting."

"They can exaggerate killing a pig into being a dragon slayer; it's just to scare those honest, simple villagers."

Lei Dong remained silent.

He slowly walked to the table and picked up the Black Star pistol.

His thumb skillfully pressed the magazine release button, and with a "click," the gleaming yellow bullets were ejected.

Lei Dong held a bullet in his hand, examining the luster of the metal in the dim light.

"Have you ever killed a bear?"

Lei Dong repeated the sentence to himself, his tone full of undisguised contempt.

He forcefully pushed the bullet back into the magazine and slammed the magazine into the gun handle with his other hand.

"Snap!"

The slide was pulled roughly, and the bullet was chambered directly.

Lei Dong raised the gun with one hand, the muzzle passing through the small round hole in the newspaper, and steadily aimed at the distant mountain.

"No matter how high your martial arts skills are."

Lei Dong's index finger was on the trigger, his voice as cold as a viper's hiss.

"Is it even higher than that 7.62mm armor-piercing round?"

He turned around and looked at his several menacing-looking subordinates in the room.

"Don't even mention that wild kid who's only ever killed a bear."

"Even if he's a tiger coming down from the mountain, if he bumps into us brothers, I'll personally skin him and use his skin as footrests!"

The arrogant declaration echoed in the stuffy room, carrying absolute confidence and arrogance.

In their past experience, as long as they had heavy firepower, they were invincible in places like the mainland.

Lei Dong casually tossed the loaded gun under his pillow.

"Alright, all of you, tighten your skin a bit."

He pulled up a chair, sat down, and finalized the plan.

"The beds in this guesthouse are so soft, they'll make your bones feel weak if you sleep on them too much."

"Eat and drink well, then rest for two more days."

Lei Dong glanced at the Rolex gold watch on the table, which he had somehow snatched from somewhere.

"I'll be heading into the mountains with my gear at midnight the day after tomorrow."

"After this job, I'll take you guys to the Lisboa Casino in Macau and have the whole place to myself!"

A low, greedy chorus of agreement echoed in the room.

Chen Pi hummed an off-key pop song as he continued wiping the blade in his hand.

Ah Jiu was already leaning back in her chair and snoring.

Through the thin layer of newspaper, Lei Dong stared intently in the direction of Changbai Mountain, as if he were looking into his own treasury.

Night gradually enveloped this remote little county town.

This group of self-important bandits were eagerly preparing to step into that primeval forest.

They had no idea what kind of formidable killing god was lurking in that deep, ancient forest.