Under the moonlight, on a narrow path not far from the alpine grassland, the three Wang brothers were leading two pack ponies forward.
They didn't even turn on their flashlights, relying solely on the faint glow of the moon to pick their way carefully along the mountain trail.
Even the occasional shooting star streaking across the sky failed to provide them with a shred of extra light.
The second brother, Wang Jiawu, led the way, a double-barreled shotgun with its barrels sawed off slung diagonally across his back.
The eldest brother, Wang Jiawen, walked in the middle holding the ponies' reins, each animal carrying four long wooden crates strapped to its back.
The youngest brother, Wang Jiawang, brought up the rear, glancing around watchfully in all directions.
A gust of wind swept past, and Wang Jiawu fancied he heard a few spoken words carried on the breeze. He immediately raised his hand to signal a halt.
"What is it?"
Wang Jiawen quickly came to a stop. The lead pony stamped its feet uneasily, and he patted its neck to soothe it.
"Did you hear anything?"
Wang Jiawu tilted his head and listened for a moment, but the faint human voices borne on the wind had vanished.
"What sound? I didn't hear a thing!" Wang Jiawen glanced back at Wang Jiabin, having heard no commotion whatsoever.
Wang Jiabin gave a slight shake of his head; he hadn't heard any unusual sounds either.
"I thought I heard someone talking just now," Wang Jiawu said, turning back to look at Wang Jiabin.
Knowing Wang Jiawu wasn't one to talk big, Wang Jiabin said, "Go on ahead and scout it out first!"
He made a hand gesture, signaling Wang Jiawu to take the lead again.
Without a word, Wang Jiawu gripped the shotgun, pointed the muzzle toward the ground, and strode briskly forward.
After watching Wang Jiawu move more than a hundred meters away, Wang Jiabin spoke up. "Let's go!"
"Get up!" Wang Jiawen gave a soft shout and pulled on the reins to move forward.
Before setting out, Wang Jiawen had seen shooting stars falling from the sky, which had filled him with a sense of unease. Now his right eyelid was twitching, making him even more anxious.
"Third brother, shouldn't we turn back? I've got a bad feeling about this!"
"Stop scaring yourself over nothing." Wang Jiabin shooed one of the ponies back onto the path as it wandered off to graze by the roadside. He scanned his surroundings, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
Although he was the youngest, Wang Jiabin was the one calling the shots, leaving Wang Jiawen with no choice but to keep his head down and press on.
Walking alone in front, Wang Jiawu kept his gaze sharp and his fingers tightly gripping the short-barreled shotgun.
He stopped in his tracks once more as the faint sounds reaching his ears again sent his nerves skyrocketing, making him ready to react to any sudden danger.
"Stop right there! Move another step and I'll shoot!"
Following the warning, a flurry of hurried footsteps shattered the silence of the night.
Before Wang Jiawu could snap out of his daze or make a move, two figures came sprinting out of the darkness, clearly one chasing the other.
"Ah, shit!" The person running in front caught sight of the shotgun in Wang Jiawu's hands, immediately leaped down into the roadside brush, and yelled back, "Wei Ge, watch out for the gun!"
The pursuer froze in his tracks. His eyes met Wang Jiawu's in the moonlight.
Wang Jiawu squinted, cursing inwardly. *What the hell? Why is Qi Tongwei here? Are they waiting for the three of us here?*
Qi Tongwei was also momentarily stunned. *At this hour of the morning, what is Wang Jiawu doing out here with a shotgun?*
Behind them, someone was leading two pack ponies loaded with cargo, and yet another man was bringing up the rear.
His immediate thought was that the three Wang brothers showing up on a deserted mountain trail at dawn certainly meant no good!
Qi Tongwei's hand instinctively drifted toward the small of his back—a movement Wang Jiawu interpreted as reaching for a weapon.
"Bang!"
Barely two seconds after spotting Qi Tongwei, Wang Jiawu instinctively raised his shotgun, pulled the trigger, and blasted a round.
Qi Tongwei's reactions were lightning-fast. The moment Wang Jiawu raised the gun, he had already thrown himself into an evasive maneuver, tumbling down the side of the path just as Huo Ge had.
Although Qi Tongwei avoided taking the blast head-on, several lead pellets struck his right shoulder and arm, numbing his entire arm.
*Damn it, it's a pellet gun!*
Rolling down the embankment, Qi Tongwei didn't dare hesitate, scrambling on all fours into the brush below.
Wang Jiawu fired another shot into the darkness, sending leaves and twigs flying in all directions.
After firing the two shots, Wang Jiawu retreated a few paces to avoid being targeted if Qi Tongwei returned fire.
By the time Wang Jiawu finished reloading, Wang Jiawen and Wang Jiabin had rushed up from behind.
Wang Jiawen and Wang Jiabin had also seen the two figures running earlier, though they hadn't gotten a clear look at Huo Ge and Qi Tongwei's faces. Startled by the gunshots, they exchanged a glance, seeing raw terror mirrored in each other's eyes.
Wang Jiabin instantly drew a Type 92 pistol from his waistband and hurried past Wang Jiawen. "Let's go!"
Wang Jiawen snatched a shotgun from his horse's back and scrambled to keep up.
"Bang! Bang!"
Wang Jiawu fired two more consecutive shots in the direction where Qi Tongwei had tumbled down.
"What's going on? Why are you firing?"
Racing up to the spot, Wang Jiabin inspected the area for a moment, spotting scattered drops of fresh blood on the flattened foliage. "Who was that?"
"I ran into two guys just now. The first one bolted the second he saw me and jumped right down. Didn't get a good look at his face, but judging by his build, it looked like—yeah, that kid with the last name Huo!"
Holding his shotgun, Wang Jiawu scanned his surroundings. "The one behind him is that cop named Qi!"
He didn't dare leap blindly down the slope to pursue them, fearing Qi Tongwei might be armed.
Wang Jiabin's brow furrowed deep. "Hog Ge? Qi Tongwei? What are they doing out here?"
"Who knows? Whatever they're up to, one's chasing the other! Who knows, maybe Huo Ge messed up and Qi Tongwei is hunting him down!"
"What now? Should I go down there and punch a few holes in them?"
Wang Jiawu was raring to go. At a single word from Wang Jiabin, he would have charged down like an unleashed hunting hound to tear Huo Ge and the other apart.
"Let's see what's going on first!"
Wang Jiabin's face remained dark. He worried Qi Tongwei might actually be gunning for them, though he knew cell service up on this mountain was practically non-existent—it wouldn't be easy for Qi Tongwei to call the police.
"Bang!"
Seeing a patch of brush stir below, Wang Jiawu didn't hesitate to swing his gun up and blast right into it!
"Bang!"
Another bush twitched on the opposite side. This time, Wang Jiawen couldn't handle the suspense and fired a shot of his own.
"Cease fire, both of you!"
Wang Jiabin glanced toward the dark mountains in the distance. The mountain valley was vast, carrying the lingering echoes of gunfire rolling through the wind.
When the echoes finally faded, Wang Jiawen pointed toward a massive boulder twenty or thirty meters down the slope, noting how the trail of trampled brush and trees pointed straight toward it.
"Eldest brother, take the left flank. Second brother, take the right. Flank that boulder and see if anyone's hiding behind it! If you find anyone, shoot to kill!"
Wang Jiawen descended the path to the left while Wang Jiawu circled around from the right, with Wang Jiabin taking command from the high ground.
"Bang!"
After climbing down about ten meters, Wang Jiawu fired another shot near the boulder, though this time he merely blew apart a rabbit flushed out from its nest.
Wang Jiabin shouted, "Stop wasting ammo on random shots!"
Having the time of his life, Wang Jiawu grinned, gave a casual wave of his hand back at Wang Jiabin to show he understood, and kept moving.
"Get out here, or I'll blow you to pieces!"
With his gun raised, Wang Jiawu closed in on the giant boulder with an arrogant swagger.