A well in the southeast corner of the rabbit gang, that is the original son Xuan's father and mother spent more than half a month to dig, the depth of the well is about three meters, the diameter of the wellbore is less than one meter, the wall of the well is the broken stone stacked by Lei, four relatively flat stones are closed, the remaining square wellhead is only more than half a meter long on each side, and the narrow well hole can only accommodate the bucket up and down. Due to www.biquge.info the low terrain of the location and the proximity of the creek, the well water can not be dried for many years. It is the rainy season now, the water source below the ground is abundant, and the water level in the well has risen accordingly, less than three feet away from the wellhead, Liu Zixuan only needs to lie on the edge of the well, and reach down to catch the bait chicken carcass floating on the water, but the bucket that has sunk to the bottom of the well has to be salvaged but it takes another effort.

Liu Zixuan tied an iron hook to one end of the long bamboo pole, as long as he could see the end of the rope tied to the bucket, he could pull it up by stretching the hook. When Zixuanniang was alive, she occasionally fell the bucket into the well, and Liu Zixuan used this method to salvage.

The well water is clear, reflecting the clouds in the sky, Liu Zixuan lay on the edge of the well, covering the sky and clouds with his body, only then did he see everything at the bottom of the well, it didn't take long for him to see the bucket and the rope, so he slowly stretched out the bamboo hook and hooked the well rope. When he was pulling the bucket upward, he saw a stick-like thing at the bottom of the well, leaning against the wall of the well. How can there be a stick at the bottom of this well? Liu Zixuan was suddenly surprised, and when he took a closer look at this strange stick, the doubt on his face immediately turned into shock - it was not a stick at all, it was clearly a gun!

In a moment, a double-barreled shotgun came out of the water. With just one glance, Liu Zixuan could conclude that this gun was the one his father used when he was alive. Isn't this thing hanging on the north wall of the East Wing all the time? How could it be found in the well now?

Things came suddenly, and before he could come up with a reason, Liu Zixuan ran into the courtyard with a shotgun. The moment he opened the door of the east wing and saw that the holster was still hanging on the wall, he began to wonder if there was an identical double-barreled shotgun in the holster. Could it be that there are two guns on this rabbit hill?

When Liu Zixuan took off the holster and realized that there was nothing inside, he immediately felt like a slap on his head: how did this gun get into the well? Who threw it to the bottom of the well? Unable to find a reasonable explanation for a while, Liu Zixuan had to dry the wet shotgun first.

It was a flat-barreled double-barreled shotgun with a body of more than a meter long and an effective range of about fifty meters. Liu Zixuan once heard his father talk about the origin of this gun, the story can also be described as a hundred turns, this is after the founding of New China, imitation of the Soviet shotgun production of the first batch of domestic shotguns, it was originally a plaything of a political dignitary in the county, and then the official was affected in ****, a group of crazy people copied the gun from his house. Coincidentally, when Zi Xuan's father was in the production team often suffered from the scourge of wild beasts in the mountains, in order to hunt and ensure the harvest, the superior distributed the gun down, and then fell into the hands of Zi Xuan's father. Liu Zixuan's grandfather also supported his family by hunting, but at that time there was no such advanced steel gun, and the old-fashioned gunpowder guns were self-made, which was quite troublesome to use. Liu Zixuan also has such a powder gun at home, but it is rarely used, only before and after the annual valley rain, Zixuan's father uses it to fight pheasants, with the assistance of bait chickens, if it is close to the target, you can also use sun-dried mung beans instead of steel grit, and the same can be shot into the chest of the pheasant. Although such a homemade shotgun has a large shooting area, it is inevitably too bulky in comparison, and it is easy to fail to fire, and the safety factor of this powder gun is also small, and it cannot be fired continuously, and the effect is poor when dealing with large and ferocious beasts. Therefore, after getting a sensitive, portable and lethal double-barreled shotgun, Zixuan's father has always regarded it as a precious property and cherished it, and even his own son was easily not allowed to touch it. After years of playing, the butt of the rifle showed signs of wear and tear, but it was still in good condition, and even the animals in the woods would flee in panic when they saw it.

Rubbing the gun, Liu Zixuan carefully recalled when the last time he saw it. He clearly remembered that it was the day before his mother's death, after the old man said that he wanted to eat pheasants, at that time, he took a gun from the north wall of the east wing, and wanted to take it into the forest to hunt pheasants. Although the holster was not opened that day, its weight could be clearly felt, so Liu Zixuan was sure that the shotgun was still in the holster at that time.

So, who threw this shotgun into the well? Thinking about it, the only person who could do this was his mother, thinking of the old lady, Liu Zixuan's heart was like a light turned on - the old man must have taken the opportunity to throw the gun into the well when he went to Guniu Town to buy pheasants! When I returned to Rabbit Gang that day, I saw that the courtyard gate was open, and I originally suspected that the lame wolf arched open the wooden gate, but now that I think about it, it is more like my mother went out of the courtyard gate. If this is the case, then the old man said on his deathbed that he wanted to eat pheasants, it is likely that he had other intentions, could it be that she just wanted her son to leave the rabbit post at that time, so as to buy herself time to dispose of the gun? Moreover, before his death, the old man specially confessed that he would fill in the well after moving away from the rabbit hill, so it seems that she clearly hopes that this gun will disappear from this world forever!

I don't want things to be good, the more I think about it, the more strange I feel, and all the signs that Liu Zixuan sees and thinks of are all consolidating the possibility of this speculation. Thinking of what happened that day, Liu Zixuan seemed to have fallen into the abyss, if the whole thing is as expected, this gun has been hidden at the bottom of the well for more than two months, and the rust on the barrel can also support such speculation! For more than two months, Liu Zixuan had entered the east wing many times, but he didn't know that the holster was empty, and in the past two months, he went to the well countless times to fetch water, but he failed to discover the secret at the bottom of the well. If he had followed the old man's instructions and removed the rabbit hill and filled in the well, the double-barreled shotgun would never have been found again!

In this inference, the last thing the old man did before his death was to throw the gun into the well, why did she do it? Thinking of this, the mysteries in Liu Zixuan's heart popped up one after another: why did his father repeatedly tell him never to touch this gun before he died? Why did the mother get up from the hospital bed and throw the gun into the well before she died? What kind of mystery is hidden behind this gun, which will make the two old men obstruct him so much and prevent him from touching it? The clueless question crept into his heart for a while, and Liu Zixuan couldn't solve it even if he squeezed his brain juice dry.

However, when he was wiping the gun, a new question arose, and Liu Zixuan found that the double-barreled shotgun in his hand actually had no trigger!

When did the trigger of this gun disappear? Liu Zixuan's head was about to be blown up by these sudden questions, and he, who was already plagued by all kinds of doubts, was even more like a pins and needles this time. Running to the front of the courtyard with a shotgun, Liu Zixuan once again looked at Niutoupo, the mountain forest in front of him, which had always been silent, was still as silent as before, but in Liu Zixuan's eyes, the mountain forest at this moment was like a fierce beast with a bloody mouth, which would pounce on him and swallow it together with the rabbit gang at any time. What kind of secrets are hidden in the woods? Why did the old hunter die? The dead knots that had long been entangled in Liu Zixuan's heart were once again pulled in his heart like Mount Tai was overwhelming, making him unable to parry and making him want to stop.

“…… If you want to hunt, you must first recognize the road, the wolf has the wolf road, and the rat has the whereabouts of the rat. The lone wolf walks the ridge, the wandering fox walks the mountainside, and the badger pig walks to the bottom of the ditch...... Fight pheasants and hares and other small beasts, use gunpowder guns, fight wild boars and foxes and other big guys, use steel guns, if you want to catch them alive, you can put down a sleeve, you can dig traps......" The old hunter's words, word by word are still in his ears, Liu Zixuan has thought over and over again, his father was undoubtedly willing to let him inherit the shotgun and become an excellent hunter, if not, why did he explain the living habits of various animals so carefully? If not, why did he teach the hunting techniques in such detail? Liu Zixuan even thought that even his introverted and reserved character was deliberately cultivated by the old hunter, isn't this a necessary quality for a hunter? …… Since the hunter was willing to let his son continue to hunt for a living, but what was the reason for his sudden change of mind before he died?

Taking the shotgun back to the house, Liu Zixuan rummaged through the box to find the trigger, he wanted to find the trigger, assemble it back, and then he had to take a complete double-barreled shotgun to the woods!

Into the mountains! This wish has been coming for a long time, and now it is imminent, and Liu Zixuan can't wait for another minute.

In the chaos, Liu Zixuan clarified his mind and thought carefully, he knew that only his father would disassemble the gun, he had seen his father disassemble the shotgun more than once, and assemble the parts back one by one, so he could conclude one thing, that is, the old man had removed the trigger from the shotgun long before he passed away, and hid it somewhere in the house, the intention of this move was very clear, and he still did not let his son touch the gun, even if he disobeyed the old man's final instructions and stubbornly picked up the gun, but without the trigger, nor can you take it into the mountains to hunt.

But now, only by going to the forest with a complete shotgun can Liu Zixuan have a glimmer of possibility to solve all kinds of doubts in his heart.

From the bottom of the bed to the top of the cabinet, from the main house to the wing, and from the house to the outside of the house, Liu Zixuan searched all the suspicious corners of the entire yard, and even the jar where the salt was put was turned upside down, but in the end he found nothing.

Standing in the courtyard with a shotgun without a trigger, Liu Zixuan looked at the sky with a look of chagrin, at this moment, how much he hoped that someone could help him, how much he hoped that someone could tell him the ins and outs of the whole thing, even if it was just a small clue, it was also very important for him. Unfortunately, those who know the truth have passed away, leaving only the surviving mysteries behind.

In the darkness, Liu Zixuan's mind suddenly flashed the figure of a wolf, and the lame wolf who had been with him for two years jumped into his mind again.

For a long time before, Liu Zixuan couldn't figure out what kind of position the lame wolf would stand on to look at Rabbit Gang, although Zixuan's father had given it the grace of feeding, but he also had a hatred for breaking his leg with it, Liu Zixuan couldn't figure out how this wolf would weigh these two diametrically opposed emotions. Is it friend or foe? Is it grace or hatred? It was impossible to judge these doubts before, but since seeing the wolf's footprints on his parents' graves that day, the position of the lame wolf in his heart was extremely clear - stepping on the hunter's tomb for no reason was obviously not a kind act!

At present, as long as one of these intertwined mysteries can be solved, maybe other doubts can also be solved. Thinking of the lame wolf, Liu Zixuan vaguely realized that in order to solve the cause of his father's death, in addition to the double-barreled shotgun, the wolf was probably the most critical link.

(To be continued)