Volume One, Chapter Nine: The Xu and Ye Families!

Next door, Xu Ertie lay in bed, while his wife wept beside him. Irritated, he scolded, "Stop crying! I'm not dead yet!"

Startled by his outburst, Ertie’s wife quickly fell silent, though tears still streamed down her face.

Just then, Ertie pricked up his ears and asked curiously, "What's going on at Uncle Ming's? Why is it so noisy?"

"I—I don’t know!" she replied.

"Are you dead or what? If you don't know, why not go and see?"

"Husband, don’t be angry. I’ll go check right now!"

With that, Ertie’s wife rose and headed toward the door.

At that moment, Ertie’s father pushed the door open and looked at his son lying in bed. "Heizi is in trouble this time. The Ye family is shouting for Heizi’s life."

"What nonsense?" Ertie was displeased. "Gouzi was killed by a snow wolf. How does that concern Heizi? No, this matter, I have to handle."

"What can you do? You’re almost crippled yourself!"

"Father, don’t say that. If it weren’t for Heizi, all of us would have been torn apart by the wolves. Besides, Heizi’s surname is Xu; how can he be bullied by a Ye?"

Seeing Ertie struggling to get up, his father slapped him on the forehead. "You damn well stay lying down. I’ll go handle this for you!"

He glanced around, grabbed the hunting knife at the foot of the bed, and strode outside.

Ertie looked toward his wife standing by the door and snapped, "Why are you just standing there? Go find Big Head."

"Alright, alright!"

As his wife hurried out, Ertie muttered angrily, "Those Ye family members are a bunch of ungrateful wolves. Heizi shouldn’t have killed the wolf king; it would have been better if the wolf pack had torn them apart."

But Ertie failed to consider that if Xu Mo hadn’t killed the wolf king, how could any of the young men surnamed Xu have survived?

In the backyard of the Xu household, Ye Dahan stood with flushed eyes, gripping a firewood knife tightly as he approached Xu Mo, who had raised his hunting rifle.

"Heizi, you killed Gouzi. You owe your life for that. It’s only right and proper. No matter what anyone says, it won’t change that. Don’t worry, if you die, I’ll bury you beside Gouzi. You’ll have company in the grave, and every festival, I’ll burn candles and paper money for you."

Xu Mo nearly laughed from anger at Ye Dahan’s words.

He squinted his eyes, aiming the rifle at Ye Dahan’s forehead.

Ye Dahan’s heart skipped a beat, meeting Xu Mo’s icy gaze. It felt like a venomous snake had locked onto him, sending chills down his spine.

"Heizi, don’t try to scare me with your hunting rifle. You have only one bullet. You think you can kill us all?"

"Ye Dahan, have you no shame?"

Just as Xu Mo’s finger was about to pull the trigger, a voice from behind interrupted with curses from Xu Ertie’s father, Xu Zhaocai: "If it weren’t for Heizi killing the wolf king, not just your son but everyone else would have been torn apart by the wolf pack. How dare you come here to cause trouble now?"

Hearing the curses, Ye Dahan turned, raising his firewood knife and shouted, "Xu ZhaocaiI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.