Guodong guessed that among the dozen or so people, there were middle-aged and young people, including Xiaxin Deputy Village Chief, several village cadres, and young men from the village, who were accompanying several leaders from higher levels.
It's said that the middle-aged leader, Section Chief Xiao, wearing a sun hat, is a relative of the village chief and was someone they had gone to great lengths to invite. During his visit to the village for this "inspection," the village had nothing good to offer, so they suggested going hunting. However, the hunting ground was chosen to be in the Shuiliangou area. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
Besides Section Chief Xiao, there were three subordinates: a young man and two others. One was a voluptuous young woman, of average looks but with a very full figure, her breasts reaching towards the sky, and her eyes sparkling like water. She had a pair of very beautiful eyes. The other was a young girl, prettier than the young woman. She had more youthful energy, a tall figure, and was probably a recent college graduate assigned here.
There were four leaders from higher up, who were said to have come with a mission.
But when Section Chief Xiao arrived, he didn't leave a good impression on anyone. That evening, at the welcome dinner, Section Chief Xiao drank too much. As soon as he left, he went into the room of the young woman next to him, and soon a symphony of sex erupted from inside. The woman's moans, the section chief's lewd curses, and the sounds of pounding and thrusting gave many villagers who hadn't yet left a good treat for their ears.
This led to... From early morning until now, the people accompanying them on the hunt have been glancing at the two women, one tall and one short, every now and then. Their eyes held a strange look. Could it be that this young lady, Chu, also had a flirtation with Section Chief Xiao? Many people were speculating like this. A beautiful flower has been wasted on cow dung!
To be honest, today's hunt seems to have been quite lucky. We've only just arrived, and we've already encountered a herd of argali sheep—that's not something you see every day. But argali sheep aren't easy to hunt either. In a herd, there are always a few argali sheep constantly on lookout duty. Their movements have been detected by the argali sheep.
This caused chaos. The herd of blue sheep scattered, and the hunters could only relentlessly pursue what appeared to be a family. Some had families to carry on their packs. Three blue sheep were easier to hunt.
However, they underestimated the speed of the argali sheep in the pebble gully; they were far faster than humans. They fired several shots in vain, and when they tried to give chase, the sheep had vanished. Even more unexpectedly, they encountered other hunters in this water curtain gully.
Section Chief Xiao, however, was impatient and had been drinking. He'd managed to hunt three argali sheep, but then found someone picking up his prey in the ditch. He hadn't caught any argali sheep, but catching a pheasant wouldn't be bad, right?
But someone tried to snatch something from him, and in a moment of panic, they opened fire. That one shot would have been better. The other person actually returned fire; a bullet grazed his head and knocked his hat off. He was so terrified he lay on the ground, too scared to get up for a long time.
Thankfully, he didn't wet himself in fright, otherwise he would have been incredibly embarrassed. But this only made him angrier.
Dozens of bullets were fired, but not a single one hit the other person. This feud might have become very serious. And they didn't even recognize who the other person was.
Unexpectedly, after a while, someone from the other side, Ju Cai, shouted out.
This shout immediately put everyone on edge. It was Zhao Wangquan, the old man from Jixing Village, leading the team! Right. Jixing Village also has two hunting seasons a year, this is terrible, they've clashed!
"Uncle Genbao, what do we do now?" someone asked, at a loss. If word got out about what happened today, things would definitely escalate. To actually fire shots at people from a neighboring village—if it got reported to the authorities, he could go to jail.
Uncle Genbao is the deputy village chief who led the team this time. His full name is Li Genbao. He is around forty years old, with wrinkles on his face and dark skin. He is rather thin.
"Sigh!" He was getting anxious too. If the other party was a stranger, it wouldn't be a problem. But since it was someone he knew, how was he supposed to handle this? He naturally knew Zhao Wangquan; they had even drunk together before, so they were old acquaintances.
"Mix and match? Let's just leave it at that! These people are lawless, they actually opened fire on us, this is murder! Find out which village these people are from, humph, let's see how they explain themselves this time!" Section Chief Xiao roared, his anger flaring.
“Section Chief Xiao, the other party is from Jixing Village, we all know them. The one who shouted just now is Zhao Wangquan, he's quite well-known in Jixing Village!” Seeing Section Chief Xiao's anger, Li Genbao immediately told the truth. In his heart, however, he thought, “Lawless! It seems like family members are the ones in charge, right?” He guessed most people felt the same way.
"Jixing Village?" Section Chief Xiao was slightly taken aback, but then said, "What's wrong with Jixing Village? Tell them to come down!"
I felt like I'd heard the name of this village somewhere before, but I couldn't remember it right now. Drinking on this road made my head feel all bloodshot.
"Alright!" Li Genbao had no choice but to comply with Section Chief Xiao's opinion. Before coming, the Party Secretary and the Village Chief had instructed him to agree to any requests and serve them well, which showed that this person attached great importance to coming to the village.
Although he disapproved of the man's character and behavior—where was the quality of a cadre or leader?—he couldn't afford to mess up the task assigned to him by the Party Secretary and the Village Chief.
Li Genbao cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, "Wangquan, it's me. Li Genbao, it was a misunderstanding just now, please come down."
The voice carried far. It really was someone I knew—from the village below!
"How can the people in this village be so shameless?"
"They've crossed the line in their hunting activities. Let's see how they explain themselves!"
"Uncle Quan is very familiar with the village chiefs here!"
"Can't we go down? What if those bastards open fire again?"
Above, everyone was angrily exchanging words, going around in circles, only to find out that it was an acquaintance who had brought them here. This is absolutely outrageous!
"Should we go down?" Zhao Wangquan heard it all clearly and was furious. "Li Genbao, you've brought people to Jixing Village's territory, and you're recklessly firing shots like this, disregarding human life. Is this still the Li Genbao I know?"
This left Zhao Wangquan with a grudge. He already harbored resentment towards Li Genbao.
"Let me discuss this with everyone!" Zhao Wangquan replied, then he and Xiao Feng countered, finally figuring out who the other party was. This matter needs to be discussed with everyone.
Although he was in charge of this hunt, his role was limited to hunting. Wasn't there also the executive deputy village head in the group? This was already a matter between villages, and it needed to be handled by the village leaders.
Zhao Wangquan is a man who has a very good sense of propriety.
Zhang Guodong and Zhao Qiang were under the shade of a tree. Their air rifles were placed aside. Unlike the others who were tense with their guns, they didn't seem nervous at all. Instead, they appeared relaxed and were chatting quietly.
The temperature under the trees was around 26 or 27 degrees Celsius, about ten degrees lower than in the direct sunlight. So no one wanted to go outside. It was so comfortable here!
When Zhao Wangquan returned, everyone looked at him. But they saw Uncle Quan walk towards Zhang Guodong.
"Guodong, you are the executive deputy village head, a village leader. Whether we go down or not is up to you to decide!" Uncle Quan said earnestly.
Zhao Qiang and the others then realized that the young man they were getting along with had another identity: the executive deputy village head. Wasn't he supposed to be the number one person after the Party Secretary and the village head? No, he should be considered the second most important person. Because Zhao Sanshun held both the positions of Party Secretary and Village Head.
He was a little reserved. Even Zhao Qiang chuckled twice. Having become familiar with Zhang Guodong, he had actually forgotten Zhang Guodong's identity in the village.
Actually, Zhang Guodong and Zhao Qiang were just talking about things in the military, but they were fully aware of the situation on the other side. Under the precise coverage of their mental energy, no action or word from either side could be hidden.
Zhang Guodong, naturally feeling obligated, stepped forward and asked, "Uncle Quan, is the other party someone you really know?"
This was obviously a pretense, a way of letting everyone know the situation.
Zhao Wangquan nodded, his face somewhat cold, and said, "Yes, this time their leader is Li Genbao, the deputy village chief of Xia Village. I know him quite well, but this time they went too far. Not only did they cross the line, but they also dared to fire indiscriminately!"
"How many of them are there this time? Uncle Quan over there must have a clearer view."
"Seventeen people, I can't be mistaken, and eight of them have guns, air rifles!" Uncle Quan said in a deep voice.
They have one more gun than our side!
Of course, Zhang Guodong wouldn't care about having one more or one less gun. To him, even if the other side had a hundred more guns, it would be child's play.
The others, however, seemed a little nervous. This extra pressure was evident in their expressions and mental state.
"That makes things easier! Li Genbao told us to go down, and if we obeyed, it would seem like we were showing weakness. I think we should do this: the two villages are neighbors; we can't make a scene."
Zhang Guodong glanced at everyone and then stated his meaning.
"So, we go down, they come up, and everyone takes a step back!"
These words drew nods of agreement from the crowd, who found them reasonable and their anger subsided somewhat. However, they were unaware that Zhang Guodong had his own plans. He was still thinking about the family of argali sheep at the bottom of the ravine. Being closer would make moving them much easier.
"That's a good idea," Uncle Quan said again. Although the other party hesitated for a moment, he agreed.
Zhang Guodong led the way, with the others following behind. On the other side, Li Genbao and his men from the village also began to emerge. When the two groups met in the ditch, the tension still lingered. Fortunately, no unexpected incidents occurred during their approach.
The lingering smell of gunpowder lingered between the villagers of Jixing Village and the angry, cold-faced middle-aged man. Clearly, this middle-aged man didn't look like someone from the village; he had the air of a leader.
Zhao Qiang immediately recognized the middle-aged man as the one whose hat had been shot off by Zhang Guodong.
"I think we should go to the pool in the Water Curtain Ditch first. It's very hot in the ditch, and it's not a good place to talk business," Li Genbao said to Zhao Wangquan, seeing the tension and awkwardness between the two sides.
Zhao Wangquan glanced at Zhang Guodong, who nodded slightly before he said, "Alright!"
The team leaders were at odds with each other. But the young men knew each other. If the atmosphere hadn't been so tense, they would have already started talking. It seemed the conflict had temporarily subsided.
Zhao Wangquan walked beside Li Genbao. He muttered under his breath, "Who are these four? They're not from your village, are they?"
That makes sense!
Li Genbao pointed bitterly to the sky, meaning "the leaders above."
Zhao Wangquan understood now.
"So the person who fired the shot just now was that bastard? And then you bunch of bastards started firing indiscriminately too?" Zhao Wangquan sneered. "I say, Comrade Li Genbao, don't you know that if a bullet hits anyone, you, as the deputy village chief, will not only be dismissed, but might also go to jail, or even pay with your life? Aren't you usually very calm? Why is your brain completely muddled today?"
Upon hearing this, Li Genbao's face turned pale. He was genuinely frightened. Normally, he might have argued back, but Zhao Wangquan's questioning made him realize he had been too lenient with the superior. Luckily, things hadn't escalated to a major crisis, or he would have been finished!
Uncle Quan's insults left him utterly defenseless. And he was truly in the wrong.
But the voice of responsibility was a bit too loud, and it was heard by Section Chief Xiao, the middle-aged leader. Instantly, he was like a powder keg about to ignite, and he seemed ready to grab the air gun in his hand.
Zhang Guodong, quick as a flash, walked up to him and said coldly, "You'd better put your gun away. Otherwise, I guarantee you won't be able to get out of these mountains!"
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