Li Long did not hesitate for a second. He raised his rifle at the gray wolves and pulled the trigger!
The pack stood at the mouth of a ravine branching off to the east of Main Ravine, forty or fifty meters from the coal seam where Li Long was standing. Main Ravine lay between them, with a stream running along its bottom. Li Long acted decisively, but his shot was rushed, and he missed.
But the gunshot echoed through the valley and startled the wolves. Ever since herders had been issued guns in the fifties and sixties, the wild animals in these mountains had learned the power of those sticks. The tremendous report was a deterrent to them too. Startled, the alpha wolf howled, and the other wolves immediately abandoned their prey, turned, and fled into the woods!
Li Long did not hesitate. After missing his first shot, he fired a second, third, and fourth in rapid succession. Bang, bang, bang! The fourth struck the rearmost wolf in the rump. It let out a miserable howl, its body sagged, and it slowed sharply, but it still struggled to flee into the ravine.
At its howl, only the wolf nearest it turned to look back, hesitating over whether to rescue its companion. All the others had already darted into the woods and vanished.
Those shots had all been extremely rushed, and landing a hit had been an unexpected stroke of luck. Now that he had wounded a wolf, Li Long immediately dropped into a half crouch, took rough aim, and fired again.
With that shot, the wolf tilted sideways and fell, silent and still.
The other wolf, which had still been hesitating, immediately bolted into the ravine with all its strength. Before Li Long could fire again, it had disappeared.
When