Chapter 53: A Snipe in the Dark

"Careful!"

"Bang!"

A gunshot suddenly shattered the mountain stillness, and Chen Dabao swept Mi Nuo into his arms, rolling aside together.

Where they had stood just a moment before, a shower of iron pellets shredded the grass and foliage, snapping several saplings clean in half.

Chen Lili and the others were frozen in terror. When reality caught up to them, piercing shrieks tore from their throats.

"Ah!"

"Someone's shooting! Someone's shooting!"

The idea that someone in this remote woodland was shooting at them felt utterly insane.

"Get down!"

Chen Dabao bellowed, scanning the surroundings to pinpoint the direction of the shot. He sprang forward, intending to hunt down the ambusher.

The assailant had used a shotgun, and rural shotguns were predominantly single-barrel.

If he closed the distance immediately, the shooter wouldn't even have a chance to reload.

"Dabao, I think I've been hit!" Mi Nuo cried out weakly.

Not good!

Chen Dabao's expression shifted drastically. Ahead of him, a small tree was still swaying, revealing the shooter's line of retreat. But with Mi Nuo injured, he had no choice but to abandon the pursuit and whirl around.

"Mi Nuo's been shot! Call the police!"

"Call an ambulance! Hurry, call an ambulance!"

Chen Lili and her friends were cowering on the ground, babbling in sheer panic.

"You can call the police, but an ambulance won't make it in time!"

With a grave expression, Chen Dabao rushed to Mi Nuo's side. Peach Blossom Village was extremely isolated, sitting a dozen or two miles of rugged mountain roads away from the town. An ambulance from the city would easily take an hour or two.

Besides, the local township clinic's ambulance lacked any proper trauma care facilities.

By the time an ambulance arrived, it would be far too late.

Chen Dabao supported Mi Nuo and gently turned her over, his heart sinking instantly. A patch of her back was crimson, blood soaking right through her clothing.

Several iron pellets had struck her back.

He quickly examined the wound, feeling a slight wave of relief. Fortunately, the shotgun's power at that range was limited, and the pellets hadn't penetrated deeply, lodging only in the muscle tissue.

Mi Nuo's life was not in immediate danger.

"Mi Nuo, it's okay. It's just a flesh wound. Let me treat it right now!"

Chen Dabao produced a set of silver needles. Channeling the Heavenly Mystery Divine Art, a wisp of primordial energy flowed through his fingers into the needles, causing them to hum with tension. Locating the embedded pellets, he deftly inserted the needles and flicked them outward.

"Hnng!"

Mi Nuo let out a soft moan. Her pretty face drained of color, twisted in sudden agony. She clenched her teeth, bearing the pain in silence.

"Just a little longer!"

Repeating the process, Chen Dabao extracted the remaining three pellets from her back with the silver needles. Afterward, he gathered some anti-inflammatory and hemostatic herbs from his wicker basket, chewed them thoroughly, and applied the poultice directly to Mi Nuo's wound.

"Let's get down the mountain!"

With her wound dressed, Chen Dabao hoisted Mi Nuo onto his back, grabbed his medicine basket, and headed down the trail.

"Wait for me! Wait for me!" Chen Lili and the others scrambled to follow.

Upon descending the mountain, even before reaching the village proper, a police cruiser pulled into the back settlement. Officer Liu and two auxiliary officers stepped out, asked a few perfunctory questions, and immediately resorted to bureaucratic stalling.

If these city folks hadn't called the police themselves—and if the incident hadn't involved gunfire—they probably would have been expected to walk all the way to the precinct themselves, assuming the township station even bothered to dispatch anyone at all.

"Ahem, folks, I suspect this entire matter might just be a misunderstanding," Officer Liu coughed. "A hunter on the mountain probably mistook movement for a wild animal and fired by mistake. But don't you worry, we will investigate this thoroughly to the very end and give everyone a proper explanation."

Officer Liu cleared his throat again. "You guys head to the hospital first. I'll send someone to take your statements later. Don't delay your medical treatment."

"Officer, you haven't even investigated yet. How can you possibly know it's a misunderstanding?" Mi Nuo asked, her voice regaining some strength as she demanded answers in anger.

Someone had nearly shot her dead, and this officer was dismissing it as a misunderstanding. It was completely absurd.

"Miss Mi Nuo, I'm just offering a hypothesis. Naturally, we will conduct a detailed investigation. Rest assured, we'll get to the bottom of it. Get your injuries treated first!" Officer Liu replied evasively.

With that, he instructed the two auxiliary officers to prepare to follow them for statements before driving away.

The auxiliary officers weren't even qualified to take official statements alone, but he didn't care.

These days, being transferred to a remote rural township meant your career was essentially over unless you had powerful connections and were just passing through to pad your resume. Officer Liu couldn't be bothered with such troublesome affairs.

If an actual homicide involving firearms occurred, it would mean endless headaches. If it was treated as an accidental hunting incident, it would be much easier to manage.

Accidents like this weren't unprecedented. Besides, no one had died and there weren't even any severe injuries, so the best approach was always to turn a big problem into a small one, and a small problem into nothing at all.

"How can he act like this?" Mi Nuo gritted her teeth in frustration.

"When the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, things are run this way if nobody cares. You guys go to the hospital," Chen Dabao said, helping Mi Nuo into the ambulance.

The ambulance had been called by the police station.

Mi Nuo and her group had parked their vehicles in a neighboring village. They hadn't ascended the mountain from Peach Blossom Village, but rather from White Dragon River Village right next door.

Because Mi Nuo was injured and the others were utterly terrified, none of them dared to drive their own cars back, crowding into the ambulance instead to return to the city.

"Dabao, let's exchange WeChat!"

Lying on the stretcher, Mi Nuo produced her mobile phone and added Chen Dabao on WeChat before the vehicle finally pulled away.

Once everything settled down, he shouldered his medicine basket and walked along the field ridges toward the back village.

It was nearly midday, and the sun beat down with blistering intensity. Very few field workers remained in the back village's farmland.

Just as Chen Dabao was about to head home, he caught a rustling sound coming from a nearby cornfield.

"In the middle of the day? Could someone be sneaking around?"

A thought crossed Chen Dabao's mind as he turned his gaze toward the cornstalks. He had been pondering the shooter from earlier; the police station's claim of a "misunderstanding" was something he simply didn't believe.

Years ago, the village had possessed many hunting guns, but most had been surrendered since then. Very few hidden shotguns remained in private hands.

Furthermore, hunting on the mountain had long been banned and was entirely illegal. Why would anyone be out hunting with a shotgun, let alone nearly shooting someone in the process?

This had clearly been intentional—most likely aimed directly at him.

Chen Dabao suspected the mastermind behind it was Liu Fugui.

He simply lacked the proof at the moment.

Either way, he was determined to uncover the truth.

Hearing more movement from the cornfield, Chen Dabao glanced in the direction of the sound and prepared to ignore it. He had no interest in prying into other people's affairs.

However, just as he turned to leave, a panicked cry for help pierced the air.

"Help! Help!"

"Liu Xiaowu, I'm your sister-in-law! You can't do this!"

Muffled sounds of a struggle and desperate pleas drifted from the cornfield. Listening closely, Chen Dabao's expression shifted dramatically. Wasn't that Xiaolian's voice?

And Liu Xiaowu? Could Liu Xiaowu be trying to harm Xiaolian?

His face darkened, and without hesitation, Chen Dabao dove straight into the cornfield.

"Liu Xiaowu, let me go!"

Deep among the tall stalks, Liu Xiaowu wore a leering grin, his hands clamped tightly around Xiaolian's throat as he pinned her desperately to the earth.