“Sister-in-law, if we go any farther, we’ll be entering the deep mountains. The regiment commander ordered us to turn back once we reached this point.”
Guard Xiao Zhang wiped the sweat from his forehead and stood breathlessly in Jiang Ning’s way. Behind him stood another soldier named Li, carrying a semi-automatic rifle and looking equally nervous.
These mountains were nothing like the flat plains. Withered grass stretched as far as the eye could see, and jagged rocks littered the ground. When the wind blew, its mournful howling sounded like ghosts and wolves crying in the night.
Jiang Ning stopped.
She leaned on a dead branch she’d broken off along the way. Although her face was slightly pale, her breathing remained steady.
“Turn back?”
She pointed toward a dense pine forest ahead.
“The wild gastrodia tubers I’m looking for grow in the shade, buried in the humus beneath those trees. If we go back now, all the walking we’ve done will have been for nothing.”
“But…”
Xiao Zhang tried to persuade her again, but Jiang Ning had already walked around him and continued deeper into the mountains.
“If you’re afraid of dying, wait here. I’ll come back once I’ve dug up what I need.”
How could that be allowed?
The regiment commander had given them a strict order. If their sister-in-law so much as lost a strand of hair, they’d be in serious trouble.
Xiao Zhang and Li exchanged a glance, gritted their teeth, and followed her.
The pine forest was dim, with a thick carpet of pine needles covering the ground. Their feet sank softly with every step. The air was filled with a damp, musty smell mixed with the faint fragrance of tree resin.
Jiang Ning walked slowly.
Every so often, she crouched to push aside the dead leaves with her branch, as though searching for something.
“Sister-in-law, are you sure there are medicinal herbs here?” Li couldn’t help asking. “The medical team usually gathers herbs on sunny slopes. What could possibly grow in a dark, damp hollow like this?”
“Sunny slopes are where you find bupleurum and licorice.”
Jiang Ning didn’t even turn her head.
“The blood stasis in Gu Ci’s brain is a stubborn condition. It requires potent medicine. Wild gastrodia tubers have the strongest medicinal properties when they grow in cold, damp places like this during this particular season. Besides…”
She suddenly stopped and picked up a small, black pellet from the ground. Holding it beneath her nose, she sniffed.
“Besides, there isn’t just medicine here. There’s meat, too.”
“Meat?” Xiao Zhang was startled.
“Wild boar droppings.”
Jiang Ning crushed the pellet between her fingers.
“Still warm. The animal passed through less than half an hour ago. This boar weighs at least three hundred pounds. It’s a solitary male.”
Xiao Zhang and Li’s expressions changed instantly.
Wild boars were the tyrants of the mountains. Their hides were thick and tough, and when they went berserk, even tigers gave them a wide berth. Solitary males were especially aggressive. Their tusks could easily tear open a person’s abdomen.
“Sister-in-law! We need to retreat!”
With a sharp click, Xiao Zhang chambered a round and raised his rifle, warily scanning the surroundings.
“These things aren’t to be trifled with! We don’t have any heavy weapons. If we run into one, someone could die!”
Jiang Ning didn’t move.
Instead, she studied the tracks on the ground, and a hint of excitement appeared in her eyes.
Three hundred pounds.
How much meat would that be? How much lard?
In an era when both meat and cooking oil were scarce, this was practically a walking gold mine.
“Retreat? Why?”
Jiang Ning pulled the Browning pistol from her waist and checked the magazine.
“This will be perfect for supplementing Gu Ci’s diet. Medicine alone won’t restore his health. He needs proper nourishment, too.”
“Sister-in-law!” Xiao Zhang was practically on the verge of tears. “That’s a wild boar, not a domestic pig! Its hide is as tough as steel plating. A little pistol like that would be no more than a tickle!”
“Who said I was going to fight it head-on?”
Jiang Ning pointed toward a crooked tree ahead.
“Li, go behind that tree and untie your puttees. Use them to make a snare. Xiao Zhang, dig a pit over there. It doesn’t need to be deep, just enough to trip it.”
“But…”
“Carry out the order.”
Jiang Ning’s voice turned cold, carrying an unmistakable authority that brooked no argument.
“I’m in command of this operation. If you want to eat meat, listen to me. If you don’t, get lost and go back.”
The two soldiers were stunned by her commanding presence.
She was a delicate-looking woman who appeared as though a strong gust of wind might knock her over, yet the way she issued orders was surprisingly similar to their regiment commander.
They had no choice but to obey.
Jiang Ning found a spot downwind and crouched among the bushes. She took a small paper packet from her pocket. Inside was the bait she’d specially prepared the previous night: leftover rice mixed with a little datura powder and high-proof liquor.
She scattered the bait across an open patch of ground ahead, then settled into a motionless crouch.
Time passed, second by second.
The forest was frighteningly quiet, with only the rustling of pine needles in the wind breaking the silence.
Xiao Zhang lay beside the pit, his palms slick with sweat. Every so often, he glanced toward Jiang Ning, only to find her sitting as motionless as a statue. He could barely even hear her breathing.
Such composure!
Even a veteran reconnaissance soldier might struggle to match it.
Suddenly—
Heavy footsteps sounded in the distance.
The ground seemed to tremble slightly.
“Snort… snort…”
The sound of heavy breathing grew closer.
A massive wild boar covered in black bristles emerged leisurely from the depths of the forest. Its pair of upward-curving tusks gleamed a ghastly white in the dim light.
It really was a monster.
Xiao Zhang swallowed hard, his finger tightening around the trigger.
The boar seemed to catch the scent of the bait. It stopped and cautiously sniffed the air, its small eyes gleaming with a vicious light.
It circled the area once. Finding nothing suspicious, it finally approached the bait and began rooting around for food.
Now.
Jiang Ning silently counted down in her mind.
The boar eagerly devoured the rice balls laced with the mixture. The sedative effects of the datura, combined with the alcohol, would soon begin to take hold.
But this was a three-hundred-pound beast. That amount of medicine would only slow its reactions at best. It certainly wouldn’t kill it.
She still needed to deliver the finishing blow.
Crack!
A sharp sound rang out.
Li was so nervous that he’d accidentally stepped on a dead branch.
The boar immediately raised its head, its bloodshot eyes fixed on the spot where Li was hiding.
“ROOOAR!”
It let out a furious bellow, dug its hind legs into the ground, and charged like a tank.
“Open fire!” Jiang Ning shouted.
Bang! Bang!
Xiao Zhang and Li fired simultaneously.
Bullets struck the boar, spraying several small bursts of blood. But instead of stopping it, the shots only drove it into a greater frenzy. Its thick hide made the superficial wounds seem insignificant, and its speed increased rather than diminished.
“Li! Run!”
Jiang Ning leaped out from the bushes and raised her pistol.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots.
Every bullet was aimed at the boar’s eyes or ears.
The animal shrieked as one eye was shot blind, blood pouring from the wound. It abruptly changed direction and charged straight at Jiang Ning.
That was exactly what she wanted.
“Sister-in-law!” Xiao Zhang cried in terror, raising his rifle and preparing to rush out to shield her.
“Stay back!”
Jiang Ning barked the order and turned to run.
She wasn’t particularly fast, but she moved with precision. She deliberately darted through densely packed trees, using the terrain to obstruct the boar’s charge.
Blinded in one eye and beginning to feel the effects of the drug, the boar stumbled slightly. Yet it still possessed enough brute strength to snap young trees as thick as a man’s forearm.
Jiang Ning felt the foul, hot breath of the beast drawing closer behind her.
Just as the boar was about to crash into her back—
She suddenly dropped low, planted a foot against the trunk of a large tree, and rolled sharply to the side.
BOOM!
Unable to stop in time, the boar slammed headfirst into an ancient pine tree so thick that two people could barely encircle it with their arms.
The trunk shook violently, sending a shower of pine needles raining down.
Dazed by the impact, the boar staggered, trying to regain its footing.
Her chance.
Jiang Ning sprang up from the ground.
She didn’t reach for her pistol. She’d emptied the magazine with those earlier shots.
Instead, she held the military dagger in a reverse grip, her eyes as cold as ice.
Before the boar could recover, she moved like an agile wildcat and leaped straight onto its back.
Her left hand clamped tightly onto its bristles. With her right hand, she gripped the dagger, aimed for the vulnerable carotid artery behind its ear, and drove the blade in with all her strength!
Squish!
The sound of steel piercing flesh rang out.
The boar thrashed violently, desperately trying to throw the person on its back. Jiang Ning was tossed around like a tiny boat caught in stormy seas, but her grip never loosened.
“Just… DIE!”
She gritted her teeth and twisted her wrist.
Blood gushed out, splattering across her face.
The boar let out a desperate squeal before its massive body crashed to the ground. Its legs twitched a few times, then went still.
Jiang Ning lay across the boar’s back, gasping for breath.
Her face and clothes were drenched in pig’s blood. She looked like a vengeful ghost dragged straight out of a blood pool.
“S-Sister-in-law…”
Xiao Zhang and Li cautiously poked their heads out from behind a tree. Their jaws nearly hit the ground.
Was this really the same sister-in-law who couldn’t even lift a bucket of water?
She’d killed a wild boar single-handedly?
With fighting skills like that, even the regiment commander might have to give her some respect!
Jiang Ning wiped the blood from her face and slid off the boar’s back. Her legs felt a little weak. She’d just pushed herself to the absolute limit, exhausting every ounce of explosive strength she had.
“What are you staring at?”
She kicked the dead boar.
“Come help me carry it. We’re having a proper pork feast tonight!”
Xiao Zhang swallowed hard and was just about to approach when—
A burst of hurried footsteps came from outside the forest.
“JIANG NING!”
A furious shout rang out, filled with unmistakable panic and anxiety.
Jiang Ning turned around.
Gu Ci came charging into the forest like a gust of wind, dressed in combat fatigues and carrying a submachine gun.
More than a dozen fully armed soldiers followed behind him, each radiating such murderous intensity that they looked as though they’d come to wipe out a band of bandits.
Gu Ci immediately spotted Jiang Ning, covered in blood from head to toe.
For one terrifying instant, his heart nearly stopped.
That familiar sensation of his vision darkening swept over him again.
“Are you injured?”
Gu Ci rushed forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her up and down. His voice trembled.
“Where are you hurt? Answer me!”
Jiang Ning felt dizzy from being shaken.
“I’m not injured.”
She pointed at the dead boar on the ground, then at the blood on her face.
“It’s pig’s blood. I just killed it. Still warm.”
Gu Ci froze.
He looked at the enormous animal lying on the ground, then at the dagger still dripping with blood in Jiang Ning’s hand.
The soldiers around them were equally stunned.
The scene was simply too shocking to process.
A slender woman holding a knife, standing over a three-hundred-pound wild boar, telling a group of fully armed elite soldiers that the blood was still warm.
Gu Ci took a deep breath.
The heart that had been lodged in his throat finally settled back into his chest.
Then an overwhelming fury surged through him.
“Jiang Ning!”
He gritted his teeth, snatched the dagger from her hand, and flung it to the ground.
“Have you completely lost your mind? Who told you to take such a stupid risk? That’s a wild boar, not a domestic pig being raised for slaughter!”
He’d been at the training grounds when he’d heard the gunshots. Then a sentry had reported that Jiang Ning had gone into the mountains, and he’d nearly lost his mind with fear.
He’d raced all the way here, his head filled with horrifying images of her being torn apart by a wild boar.
And what did he find?
Not only was she perfectly alive, but she’d even put on a one-woman pig-slaughtering performance for him!
“I wasn’t being reckless.”
Looking at his furious expression, Jiang Ning felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
Was this mad dog actually worried about her?
“I knew what I was doing.” She pointed at the boar. “I drugged it and set a trap. I used my brain. Unlike certain people who only know how to charge straight into danger.”
“You still dare to talk back?”
Gu Ci was so angry he wanted to beat some sense into her. But when he looked at her small face smeared with blood and dirt, he raised his hand only to lower it again.
“I’ll deal with you when we get back.”
He turned around and roared at the soldiers who were still staring in disbelief.
“What are you looking at? Never seen a pig slaughtered before? Carry it back!”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldiers finally snapped out of their daze and rushed forward excitedly to lift the boar.
This was meat! Three hundred pounds of it!
“Commander, Sister-in-law is incredible!”
“That knife technique was unbelievable! One strike to the throat!”
“If anyone ever calls Sister-in-law a helpless woman again, they’ll have to answer to me!”
Hearing his subordinates’ excited chatter, Gu Ci’s face darkened. He grabbed Jiang Ning by the arm.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the medical team.”
Gu Ci stared at a small abrasion on the back of her hand, caused by a branch when she’d rolled across the ground.
“You need a tetanus shot.”
“It’s just a tiny scratch—”
“Shut up.”
Gu Ci bent down and hoisted her over his shoulder again, carrying her like a sack of grain.
“Gu Ci! Put me down! I have perfectly good legs!”
Jiang Ning struggled over his shoulder.
“There are so many people watching! If you don’t care about your dignity, I still care about mine!”
“To hell with your dignity.”
Gu Ci slapped her butt once.
“You dared to ride a wild boar. Is there anything you wouldn’t dare to do? Hold still!”
Jiang Ning: “…”
She lay across Gu Ci’s broad shoulder, breathing in the reassuring scent of sweat that clung to him. Suddenly, she stopped struggling.
Fine.
If someone was willing to carry her, she might as well take advantage of it.
Besides, there was no way she was missing out on that pork feast tonight.