Reborn at 80: From Village Scoundrel to Billionaire

Liu Bei stared at the dense forest in front of him for several seconds.

The two red dots in my field of vision have gone out and turned gray.

Gray represents death, but next to the gray dot, two white dots are faintly flashing, meaning that two people are still alive.

"Brother Bei?" Fan Ha'er leaned closer, following his gaze. "What are you staring at over there for? Did you spot some prey again?"

"Shh~"

Liu Bei raised his hand and made a shushing gesture.

Then he lowered his body and crouched low as he crept into the depths of the dense forest.

Fan Ha'er blinked, then turned to Li Dazhuang and Tan Si and said, "You two keep an eye on Donkey Head Wolf, make sure it doesn't get snatched by wild dogs. I'm going to check with Brother Bei."

After saying that, he followed.

The two walked through a patch of low bushes, and after parting a few overgrown branches, a strong smell of blood hit them.

There were two corpses lying on the ground in front of them.

Its neck was almost bitten off, its head was tilted to one side, and only a layer of skin was holding it together, with its white cervical vertebrae exposed.

The other half of his face was missing flesh, his teeth and cheekbones were completely exposed, and one eyeball was missing, its empty socket filled with congealed blood.

"Damn..." Fan Ha'er gasped and instinctively covered his mouth.

"Tick-tock~ Tick-tock~"

Suddenly, Liu Bei heard the sound of water dripping.

He slowly looked up, following the sound.

A person was perched on each of two adjacent pine trees.

The person in the tree on the left is actually Fan Xibei.

The one on the tree on the right is Zhao Liuzhi.

The two clung tightly to the tree trunk like two frightened cats, their faces pale, their lips purple, and their bodies soaked, whether from sweat or urine, it was hard to tell.

Especially Zhao Liuzhi, the color of his crotch area was obviously wrong, and it also gave off a foul odor.

"Damn it!" Fan Ha'er pinched his nose, his face scrunched up. "Zhao Liuzhi, you son of a bitch! Did you poop in your pants? This smells worse than a latrine! Are you some kind of mink? You release poison gas when you're startled?"

"..."

Zhao Liuzhi, who was in the tree, froze, his face turning from deathly pale to liver-colored.

Fan Xibei wasn't much better off.

The moment he saw Liu Bei, a complex emotion flashed in his eyes—a mixture of relief, embarrassment, and, above all, an unspeakable shame.

He, Fan Xibei, the village party secretary's nephew, a man who usually walked with an air of authority in the village, was now hanging from a tree like a coward who had been scared out of his wits.

Liu Bei, the good-for-nothing he had always looked down upon, was standing under the tree, holding a machete, looking at him calmly.

This contrast is more painful than slapping him ten times.

"Do you need any help?" Liu Bei asked.

Fan Xibei opened his mouth, but then turned his head away: "No...no need."

Zhao Liuzhi quickly shook his head, wishing he could shrink into the bark of a tree.

"Walk."

Liu Bei didn't look at them again, bent down, picked up a corpse from the ground, and slung it over his shoulder.

Fan Ha'er followed suit, gritting his teeth and carrying the other body.

Soon, the two men carried the body back the way they came.

Only after their figures completely disappeared into the dense forest did Fan Xibei release his grip on the tree trunk and slide down the tree like a lump of mud.

Zhao Liuzhi also climbed down shakily, his legs went weak as soon as they touched the ground, and he knelt down directly.

The two looked at each other, but neither spoke.

……

When Li Dazhuang and Tan Si saw Liu Bei and Fan Ha'er each carrying a corpse back, their faces immediately darkened.

"What happened?" Li Dazhuang asked.

"There are two more from our village inside, dead." Liu Bei put the bodies down and took a breath. "There are two alive, Fan Xibei and Zhao Liuzhi. They were so scared that they climbed up a tree and dared not come down. That coward Zhao Liuzhi even pooped in his pants."

"What?"

Li Dazhuang and Tan Si exchanged a glance, their expressions changing drastically.

Just then, Fan Xibei and Zhao Liuzhi also caught up.

The two men kept their heads down, not daring to look directly at Li Dazhuang and his companions.

Li Dazhuang looked at the two of them with icy eyes.

Tan Si glanced at it too, then silently turned his head away.

Both of them were thinking the same thing: they were so glad they followed Liu Bei. If they had stayed with Fan Xibei, they might be the ones lying on the ground today.

For a moment, the surroundings fell silent; no one spoke.

A while later, the group dragged the donkey-headed wolf's corpse and carried two other bodies down the mountain in silence.

……

When we got back to Fanjiacun, it was already five o'clock the next morning.

The sky was just beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn when the village rooster crowed for the first time.

But when the donkey-headed wolf was dragged into the village entrance, the first few early-rising elderly people who saw it were stunned.

"My God... what is that?"

"Look! Look! Liu Bei and his crew have brought back a monster!"

The news spread like wildfire throughout half the village.

In less than ten minutes, a large crowd of people had gathered at the village entrance, all craning their necks to squeeze in.

"Why does this thing have a head that looks like a donkey's?"

"Its body looks like a wolf's! I've lived for sixty years and never seen anything like it!"

"Was it Liu Bei who made the call?"

The villagers' murmurs rose and fell.

Village Party Secretary Fan Sanyuan was also alarmed and rushed over. When he saw the donkey-headed wolf's corpse, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Good heavens... this thing must weigh at least two hundred pounds, right?"

Liu Bei nodded: "The town probably can't handle this stuff. Dazhuang, Tan Si, you two go borrow a horse-drawn cart from Fan Laoqi and take this thing to the county town. Sell the skin, meat, and bones separately, and sell as much as you can."

"Okay!" Li Dazhuang and Tan Si agreed and left.

But at that moment, the crowd's attention shifted from the donkey-headed wolf to the two corpses on the ground nearby.

In an instant, the noisy discussion came to an abrupt halt.

"Is...is that the third son of the Fan family?"

"And there's Fan Mazi! Oh my god..."

Soon, the deceased's family members arrived after hearing the news.

When Fan Laosan's wife ran over and saw her husband's miserable state, she felt as if her bones had been removed. She collapsed to her knees with a thud and let out a heart-wrenching wail.

Fan Mazi's elderly mother was helped over. She tremblingly touched her son's cold hand, tears welling up in her cloudy old eyes, her lips trembling as she couldn't utter a single word.

The atmosphere at the village entrance instantly shifted from shock to oppression.

According to the village's old customs, people who die violently outside the village cannot enter the village to hold funerals; the mourning hall can only be set up at the village entrance.

The village party secretary's face immediately darkened.

He never imagined that his eldest nephew would lead a group of hunters up the mountain, and not only would they fail to catch anything, but...

Someone even died.

They're more trouble than they're worth!

He immediately kicked the two men to the ground, forcing them to kneel down.

"You brought this person up the mountain. Now that he's dead, you're responsible. From this moment on, kneel before the mourning hall and keep vigil. You're not allowed to get up until the burial is complete. Otherwise, I'll break both of your legs!"

"..."

Fan Xibei's face was extremely ugly, but he didn't dare to utter a word in front of his uncle and could only kneel obediently.

Needless to say, Zhao Liuzhi was terrified out of his wits; his legs were still trembling as he knelt down.

"Sigh~"

After looking at them for a moment, Liu Bei felt some sympathy for the deceased's family. He took out four ten-yuan bills from his pocket and walked up to the two families.

"Sister-in-law, aunt, this forty yuan isn't much, twenty for each family, it's just a small token of my appreciation. The person is gone, but the living still have to keep going."

Fan Laosan's wife looked up at Liu Bei with her swollen eyes from crying, paused for several seconds, and then kowtowed three times: "Brother Liu Bei... thank you... thank you for bringing Laosan back..."

Fan Mazi's elderly mother was about to kneel down, but Liu Bei stopped her.

"Sigh~"

The surrounding villagers watched this scene with mixed emotions.

Some people recalled the Liu Bei of the past, who was utterly hopeless, but looking at the Liu Bei in front of them now, covered in blood, carrying a corpse down the mountain, and even offering to pay money, they felt as if he were a completely different person.

……

Meanwhile, at Liu Bei's home.

It was noisy outside, and Zhao Da'e was awakened by the noise.

Curious, she pushed open the door and saw Aunt Zhang from next door running towards the village entrance, wearing a coat.

"Aunt Zhang! What happened? Why are you running so fast?"

Aunt Zhang turned around and shouted, "Two people from the village have died while hunting in the mountains!"

"What?"

"Going hunting in the mountains...someone died..."

Zhao Da'e's mind went blank.

Yesterday afternoon, her son went up the mountain with Fan Ha'er and the others and hasn't returned yet.

"Bang!"

Her vision went black, her body leaned back, and she fell straight down.

"mother!"

Lin Wanqiu happened to come out of the house and was so frightened by the scene that her face turned pale. She rushed over and helped Zhao Da'e up.

"Yuehe! Come quick, help! Mother has fainted!"

Su Yuehe ran out from the inner room, and the two of them together carried Zhao Da'e into the room and put her on the bed.

"Chunyan! Chunyan!" Lin Wanqiu called out.

Zhao Chunyan came out: "What's wrong?"

"Mother fainted! I heard someone in the village died while hunting in the mountains. You...you must go to the village entrance quickly and see if Liu Bei is there..."

"What?"

Before Lin Wanqiu could finish speaking, Zhao Chunyan's expression changed drastically. Without even changing her shoes, she ran towards the village entrance in her cloth slippers.

The morning breeze was still a bit chilly, and it felt cool as it seeped into her collar.

But her heart felt even colder.

That bastard... what if something really happens to him... what will I do?

Am I destined to be a widow for the rest of my life?