In the next room, Zhang Tiezheng lay irritably on the earthen bed, listening to his wife's low sobs beside him, his anger rising.
"Stop crying! I'm not dead yet!" he roared.
Startled by the man's shout, Tie Zheng's wife quickly covered her mouth, but tears still streamed down her face like broken beads.
Just then, Zhang Tiezheng's ears twitched, and he listened intently.
"What's going on at Uncle Zhang's house? It's so noisy, like a pig being slaughtered?"
"I...I don't know either..." Tie Zheng's wife replied timidly.
"Are you dead? If you don't know, why don't you go out and take a look?" Zhang Tiezheng cursed.
"Honey, don't be angry, I'll go right now, I'll go right now!" Tie Zheng's wife quickly got up and hurriedly walked out.
Just as he reached the door, he bumped into Tie Zheng's father, Zhang Jucai, who was pushing the door open and entering.
Zhang Jucai looked at his son on the kang with a solemn expression and said in a deep voice, "Ergouzi is probably going to have a hard time. The Li family lost a son, and Li Houcheng is leading his clansmen to block the backyard, shouting that Ergouzi should pay with his life!"
"What the heck?!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Tiezheng's eyes turned red, and he struggled to sit up.
"Damn it! Junyi was clearly killed by wolves, what does it have to do with Er Gouzi? No way! I have to take care of this!"
"Mind your own business! Your own legs are practically useless!" Zhang Jucai glared.
"Dad! You can't say that!" Zhang Tiezheng exclaimed anxiously. "If it weren't for Er Gouzi, we would all be wolf food in the mountains! Besides, Er Gouzi is a member of the Zhang family. How could we let that Li guy bully him like this?!"
Seeing that his son was still trying to put on a brave face, Zhang Jucai raised his hand and slapped him on the forehead.
"You fucking lie still! I'll take care of this for you!"
After saying that, he looked around, grabbed the sharp hunting knife standing in the corner, his eyes flashed, and he strode out of the house.
Zhang Tiezheng looked at his wife, who was standing in the doorway in a daze, and yelled again, "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and go find Big Head Brother! Go now!"
"Oh, oh, oh!" Tie Zheng's wife seemed to wake from a dream and ran out in a panic.
Watching his wife's disappearing figure, Zhang Tiezheng angrily pounded the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and cursed under his breath, "Those ingrates surnamed Li! Er Gouzi shouldn't have saved them! They should have been killed by wolves in the first place!"
He forgot that if Zhang Cheng hadn't killed the wolf king and intimidated the wolf pack, how many of them, all surnamed Zhang, would have been able to leave that mountain forest alive?
...
In Old Zhang's backyard, the cold wind howled.
Li Houcheng's eyes were bloodshot, like a mad beast, and the blade of the woodcutter's knife in his hand gleamed with a chilling light in the dim daylight.
He approached Zhang Cheng step by step, who was holding a hunting rifle and had no expression on his face.
"Zhang Ergou! You killed my Junyi! A life for a life, that's only right! No one can plead for him!"
His voice was hoarse, filled with deep-seated hatred.
"Don't worry, when you die, I'll bury you next to Junyi, so you can keep each other company underground! I'll also burn some paper money for you during festivals!"
These words almost made Zhang Cheng laugh in anger.
His eyes suddenly turned icy, and the dark muzzle of his gun moved down slightly, locking firmly onto Li Houcheng's heaving chest.
An invisible killing intent spread out.
Li Houcheng paused, his heart clenching suddenly.
Meeting Zhang Cheng's emotionless eyes felt like being stared at by a venomous snake lurking in the snow; a chill instantly shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, making every hair on his body stand on end.
But relying on his superior numbers, he forced himself to remain calm and roared, "Zhang Ergou! Don't try to scare me with that piece of junk gun! There's only one bullet in your gun, do you think it can kill all of us?!"
"Li Houcheng! Do you even have any shame left?!"
Just as Zhang Cheng was about to pull the trigger and take out the troublemaker, a loud shout came from behind the crowd.
Holding a hunting knife, Zhang Jucai parted the crowd, glaring angrily at Li Houcheng.
"If Er Gouzi hadn't risked his life to kill the wolf king, not only you, you son of a bitch, but every single one of you in the mountains would have been torn to pieces by those wolf cubs! And you still have the nerve to come looking for trouble with Er Gouzi?!"
Hearing Zhang Jucai's curses, Li Houcheng turned around abruptly and retorted viciously, "Zhang Jucai! I'm making Zhang Ergou pay for my son's life, what's it to you?! It wasn't your son who died, of course you don't care! If you dare to utter another fart, I'll chop you to death first!"
With no gun in his hand, Zhang Jucai's arrogance flared even more.
Just then, another burst of noisy footsteps sounded.
Zhang Da Nao led a group of young people in and rushed in.
Some of these people had thick strips of cloth wrapped around their arms, seeping blood, while others walked with a limp. They were the young members of the Zhang family that Zhang Cheng had rescued from the jaws of wolves.
"Li Houcheng! Are you out of your mind?!" Zhang Da Nao pointed his hunting rifle directly at the Li family group and shouted angrily, "Don't you know how Junyi died? Er Gouzi killed the Wolf King and saved all of our lives! If you dare to touch a hair on Er Gouzi's head today, you'd better ask the gun in my hand if it agrees!"
"Fine! Fine! You Zhangs are ganging up on people, aren't you?!" The Li family members also got excited and raised their weapons.
"Come on! Shoot if you dare! We're saying this right now, Zhang Ergou will pay with his life for Junyi! No one can stop us!"
"Damn it! You ungrateful wretches can't be reasoned with!" The Zhang family members were also furious.
Zhang Cheng rested his shoulder firmly against the butt of his rifle, his cold gaze sweeping over the chaotic crowd before him.
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