In the scope of the sniper rifle, Jima, holding a flashlight, slowly approached the old building left over from the Soviet era step by step.
When he stood at the door of the building, two men with guns opened the door and faced Jima. Wei Ran, who was two hundred meters away, immediately put a scope on the chest of one of them.
Naturally, it was impossible to hear the content of the communication between the two parties at such a long distance, but within five minutes, the three of them entered the building one after another and completely disappeared from the dim sight of the scope.
"I hope there won't be any accidents..." Wei Ran muttered to himself, patiently waiting for the signal from the other party.
It wasn't until half an hour later that the smoking room on the second floor suddenly lit up with frequently flashing lights. Seeing this, Wei Ran breathed a sigh of relief. After pondering for a moment, he wrapped Jima's sniper rifle and his backpack in a canvas tent.
He got up and buried it in the snow. He only used the sledge to pull the leftover venison, deer heads and deer skins. He walked out of the dense forest along the footprints left by the horses and walked towards the building in the center of the forest clearing.
Before he could get close, Jima and a man carrying a high-pressure kerosene lamp walked out of the building and greeted him.
Seeing that Wei Ran was only using a sledge to pull the gifts he had picked up yesterday, Jima didn't say anything, but introduced him with a natural expression, "Victor, this is my friend Victor. This guy comes from the Kosiyou River."
Akeem, the hunter on the other side, is also hunting reindeer."
"You are lucky to have caught such a big prey." Akeem, who was carrying a kerosene lamp, looked at the venison on the sledge, "We have been waiting here for almost a week and only caught two wolves."
"Let's go! Let's go back and eat venison together!" Ji Ma took the rope from Wei Ran's hand, pulled the sledge himself and walked in front.
Following the two people into the building, Wei Ran discovered that there were more than a dozen lively huskies running around in the corridor on the first floor, and from the rooms on both sides of the corridor, the unpleasant roars of reindeer could be heard from time to time.
.
Then we came to the second floor. On the ceiling of the room facing the stairs, there were two wild wolves that had been skinned hanging upside down. In a large room next to the stairs, half a gasoline barrel was used to cook a fire near the window.
There was a bonfire, and four men were sitting around it playing cards.
After introducing the two parties to each other again, Ji Ma placed the venison he had carried on a clean table, took off the ax from his waist, and in a few strokes, he removed the remaining ribs and two front legs.
Chopped it up. And that Akeem also brought several bottles of vodka with remaining snow from the next room.
The gurgling cold wine was poured into the old enamel jar. Akeem was the first to pick up the glass and said, "Cheers to our meeting on this snowy night!"
"Cheers!" After hearing this, everyone raised their heads and drank from their glasses.
When the cup was refilled, Akeem picked it up again and said, "Second cup, thank you to our new friends Ji Ma and Victor for bringing us delicious venison!"
This time, Wei Ran and Ji Ma unanimously paid attention to it, and both of them only tasted it and took a small sip.
Akeem didn't care either. After filling the cup again, he said enthusiastically, "For the third cup, I hope we can catch enough reindeer this year!"
After three glasses of wine, Akeem and his four other companions were all very energetic. They each took out their knives and cut off a small strip from the frozen venison with natural expressions and stuffed it directly into their mouths. On the other hand, Ji
Ma, after the other party ate the venison, he also happily drank all the vodka in the cup.
Wei Ran couldn't eat raw venison, and he didn't want to get drunk, so he simply picked up the cup and took another sip.
Akeem and others didn't care. After swallowing the raw meat in their mouths one after another, they busily cut up the venison and placed it on the campfire.
The constantly beating flames licked the frozen venison. Whenever the outermost layer was cooked, everyone used small blades to remove it, dipped it in a little salt and put it directly into their mouths.
Such a crude way of eating is definitely not delicious, but I have to admit that it retains all the deliciousness of the venison, and it is also very drinkable. Even Wei Ran couldn't help but drink up the second glass of vodka.
After eating a wilderness barbecue for nearly two hours, everyone who was full of wine and food stopped and replaced the vodka in the cups with cheap instant coffee.
"Jima, you can sleep here tonight, or you can go to the third floor. There are two rooms with intact windows upstairs." Akeem put down his cup and pointed to the floor at his feet, "There are rooms in the hall on the first floor.
Firewood, you can make your own fire."
"We'll probably set off very early tomorrow to chase the reindeer."
Except for the first three glasses of wine, Ji Ma, who almost didn't drink at all during the whole process, stood up with a smile, "So let's go to the third floor, so as not to wake you up."
Akeem stood up to see him off, and handed Jima an unlit kerosene lamp by the way, "Good night, maybe we can go hunting together tomorrow."
Taking the other party's kerosene lamp, Wei Ran followed Jima up to the third floor, found a room farthest from the stairs, went in and put away a few luggage, then brought firewood from the first floor, and lit a pile of firewood in the corner by the window.
bonfire.
“Be alert at night”
While Ji Ma was talking, he picked up a few rusty tin cans from the corner of the room and placed them in the corridor at random intervals.
"Akeem and the others have a problem?" Wei Ran asked in a low voice.
"Even if there is no problem, be vigilant and remember to keep the gun safety on and close at hand."
Jima said as he lit the kerosene lamp and hung it on the door frame, then spread out his sleeping bag in the dark corner farthest from the kerosene lamp and the bonfire.
It was still a rotation of night duty, but this time, the first half of the night was replaced by Wei Ran, and the second half of the night, when accidents were more likely to occur, was done by Ji Ma himself.
Soon after, Ji Ma's loud grunting sounded in the room, and the sound of playing cards from downstairs continued until midnight.
Wei Ran, who was guarding the bonfire, was holding a shotgun. From time to time, he opened the window to look outside at the forest where snowflakes were starting to fall again. From time to time, he stuck his head out to look at the corridor illuminated by kerosene lamps, trying his best to fight against the surging sleepiness after drinking.
.
After holding on until three o'clock in the morning, Wei Ran shook Jima awake, then got into his sleeping bag and started snoring.
Just as Wei Ran fell asleep, in the room on the second floor, one of Akeem's companions had gently placed the canvas tent and backpack that Wei Ran had buried on the table, and then whispered, "Just now, we were surrounded by
After searching, it should be just the two of them."
Akeem nodded when he heard this, spit out the toothpick in his mouth, picked up Jima's sniper rifle and looked at it, then handed it to his companion, "Put it back first. If those two young men leave early tomorrow morning,
Let’s not cause trouble for them either.”
"Boss, should we..."
Before the companion who took the gun finished speaking, Akeem shook his head and said, "There will be more and more hunters in this forest. Should we catch them all?"
"What if they don't leave tomorrow?" asked another companion who was obviously drunk.
"What if you don't leave?"
Akeem smiled and said, "Early tomorrow morning, we will hide over there in the mine and see what they are going to do."
While Akeem was making a decision, Jima, who had no idea that he had escaped, was worrying about the bonfire. According to Principal Nicholas, the safe was in a room on the first floor, but now
But he didn't even think about how to find the mezzanine and open the safe under the noses of Akeem and others.
Looking down at the shotgun on his lap, Ji Ma shook his head. With the weapons he and Wei Ran had, it was impossible to drive each other away from here.
"It seems we can only see if there is a chance when they go hunting tomorrow." Ji Ma sighed, secretly making a decision similar to Akeem's.
In the blink of an eye, early the next morning, the coniferous forest where the wind had stopped and the snow had fallen was once again illuminated by the temperatureless sunshine. This was a good day for hunting.
After a hurried breakfast, Akeem saw that Jima and Wei Ran had no intention of leaving, so he immediately stood up and said, "Today is a good weather for hunting. Jima, Victor, which direction do you plan to go?"
"We plan to go to the west," Jima said with a burp. "Maybe there will be reindeer crossing the Kosiyu River. We plan to go there later and have a look."
"In that case, let's go to the north." Akeem said, picked up the gun, greeted everyone and walked out, "Jima, Victor, I wish you good luck."
"I also wish you a prosperous harvest." Ji Ma secretly breathed a sigh of relief and generously sent his free blessings.
Watching Akeem and others driving the reindeer away from the building and pulling the sledge out of sight, Jima immediately said, "Victor, go to the top floor and keep an eye on their movements with the binoculars. I'll go find the safe."
"no problem"
Wei Ran took the telescope handed to him, climbed the stairs to the top floor, chose a room with a good view, and stared at the surroundings for a moment.
Jima was also not idle. According to Nikolai's instructions before arriving, he found an office full of garbage based on the remaining house numbers on the wall.
He pulled away the various debris at his feet and counted the dirty floor tiles from left to right. After finding the target, he immediately took out his knife, pried it along the edge of the floor tiles little by little, and then lifted it open.
He picked up the gravel underneath and found a metal handle.
He grasped the handle with both hands and pushed upwards. Amidst the squeaking noise, a square steel plate weighing several dozen kilograms was lifted out, revealing a not-too-large safe lying flat underneath.
Perhaps it has been left here for too long, and the safe has been covered with rust. Fortunately, the keyhole and combination disk are all covered with thick paint as Nicholas said, and they do not seem to be completely rusted.
.
"Could it be gold?"
Ji Ma raised his head and looked out the window, then took out the sandpaper prepared in advance from his pocket and sanded off the protective layer of paint, then unscrewed the oil storage tank of the kerosene lamp and poured some kerosene on it, and then pulled it out from his neck.
A shiny key was smoothly inserted into the keyhole, and then the slightly sour combination disk was carefully turned.
After he finished turning the last password, the key could finally be turned smoothly with the help of a pair of pliers.
Finally, I pinned the ax to the cabinet door handle and pulled it upwards. With a soft click, the safe that had been sealed in dust for an unknown period of time was finally completely opened.
Looking inside, Jima was disappointed. There was no gold at all in this safe, which could hold up to two bricks. There were only two items vacuum-sealed with thick transparent plastic.
One of them is a plastic-covered photo album, and the other is a tin box almost the same size as the photo album.
I weighed the sealed iron box and found that it didn't feel as if it contained gold. Even when it was shaking, I didn't hear any movement at all.
Resisting the curiosity to open it and take a look, Ji Ma stuffed the two items into his backpack, then restored the safe and the floor tiles to their original state, then pulled the garbage onto the second shelf again, and then shouted to Wei Ran to hurry downstairs.
"They haven't come back, have they?" Jima asked nervously.
"No"
Wei Ran returned the telescope to the other party and said, "But after they walked around in the forest, they came out from another place and hid in the mine. Did you find anything?"
"Found it, let's leave quickly." Jima patted his backpack, "They might really be gold diggers. I don't want to deal with those lunatics."
Almost at the same time that the two of them entered the forest, Akeem, who was hiding near the mine, also put down his telescope, pondered for a moment and then said to an old man over fifty with a beard next to him, "Follow them, along the way.
Leave a mark."
The bearded man nodded silently, picked up an SVD sniper rifle wrapped in white fur and ducked into the coniferous forest not far away.
"Let's go back and see what those two young men are up to." Before he could finish his words, Akeem was already calling the reindeer and running towards the building a few hundred meters away on the sledge.
When they returned to the building, one of their companions immediately took out an action camera from the radiator in the corridor.
It was easy to find the room that Ji Ma had been to and the content of his conversation with Wei Ran. Akeem and others also found the safe hidden under the floor tiles.
"Boss, gold! It must be gold!"
The strong man who was preparing to attack Wei Ran and the two yesterday shouted excitedly, "We all know that this place used to be a gold mine, and those two little bugs must have stolen our gold!"
"Follow them!" Akeem ordered without thinking, "Inform dad to stop them! It doesn't matter if you kill them if necessary!"
As he spoke, Akeem had already waved the other two companions to run out. The distance to the left and right was only a few hundred meters, and with the reindeer sledge, he didn't worry about Wei Ran and Ji Ma running away from his hands at all.
Lose.
However, just as they ran out of the building, Ji Ma, who had already set up his gun and stared at the place, immediately put the scope on the belly of a reindeer.
A moment later, seeing that Akeem was indeed shouting at the reindeer to chase them in the direction of the two of them, Jima immediately pulled the trigger without hesitation!
"boom!"
A clear gunshot rang out, and the reindeer helping Akeem pull the sledge was shot and fell to the ground. The people on the sledge also fell to the snow in the chaos.
"Victor, it seems we are in trouble." As Jima spoke, he pushed the charging handle to load the second bullet, and pulled the trigger again against the reindeer connected to the other sledge.
