Once We Lived in Nanjing

The girl gently parted a thick patch of small penegrass with her hand, and her gaze landed on the curved tree trunk and the trap; the noose was cleverly hidden in the grass, hardly noticeable unless one looked closely. The bait was a piece of deer meat laced with rat poison. Ban Xia shook her head, moved back quietly, and her figure once again vanished into the dense undergrowth.

This was the third trap, and it still yielded nothing.

She had set four traps in the neighborhood to catch the unwelcome guest.

But her opponent was craftier than she expected.

This was a cunning hunter who was not easily fooled.

Ban Xia turned and headed towards the fourth trap. As she walked through the grass, her clothes rubbed against the branches and leaves, rustling. She looked up, surrounded by mottled residential buildings.

The last trap was set on the edge of the neighborhood, near the southern wall. Ban Xia judged this to be a potential animal path. Animal behavior also followed patterns, and hunters needed to learn to observe their movement patterns. Ban Xia wasn't as seasoned as her teacher, but her experience was gradually growing. She believed there was a high probability that wild animals would pass through here.

Ban Xia passed through the buildings, looking toward that tree from afar.

Sure enough.

She guessed right!

The trap had caught something. Ban Xia saw from afar that the tree trunk was upright, and the nylon rope was taut, hanging something. She excitedly dashed over, leaping over the bushes.

"Finally caught you!"

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"Just caught a wild cat, a stiff dead cat, nothing else," Ban Xia stretched her legs, resting them on the table, scratching her head while wearing headphones, "But you know, hunting is like this, nine times out of ten you catch nothing. But you mustn't get impatient; you need to be patient and just wait."

"Go on the offensive, go catch it, OVER."

"It's dangerous, it's hard to confront wild animals in the wild, even if you have weapons." Ban Xia leaned back in her chair, lazily said, creaking the legs of her chair, "If you get injured, it's a hassle to deal with. Wounds could get infected, and there are all sorts of strange diseases... All in all, a qualified hunter must learn to leverage external forces."

"BG4MSR, what if you keep failing to catch it? OVER."

"You have to keep your cool, young man." Ban Xia twirled the coin pendant around her neck on her finger, swinging it in mid-air, "You truly need to keep your cool."

"Do you need a weapon? OVER."

"I have weapons." Ban Xia said.

"Shall I send you a more powerful weapon? We can give it a try, although it might not succeed, but we can try, OVER."

"Weapons aren't about being more powerful, but more about being suitable," the girl rolled her eyes, dragging her words, "A weapon can harm others and also harm oneself, you give me a machine gun and a grenade launcher, I can't use them."

"One second you call me 'young man', the next I'm 'uncle', am I aging that fast? OVER."

"Alright, old man."

"BG4MSR, do you know what kind of animal is hidden in the neighborhood? OVER."

"It might be some type of feline, or possibly the canine family." Ban Xia replied.

"Canine? Are there wolves?" The tone in the headphones tensed up for a moment.

"There might be wolves in Nanjing City, but I haven't seen them," the girl said, "I think it might be jackals; I've seen suspicious tracks nearby."

Her gaze fell on the tabletop, where there was a small clump of tawny fur.

Ban Xia picked it up and held it up to the light for observation.

Today, Ban Xia searched around the residential area, looking for any traces that might be related, and she indeed found signs of jackal activity. Those clusters of brownish-yellow animal fur were discovered near the fourth trap site; Ban Xia determined, barring any unforeseen circumstances, that the animal previously tracking her was a jackal.

Jackals often live in packs, ferocious and formidable. Although they are not very large, they are undoubtedly dangerous predators.

It is definitely not good news to have a pack of jackals invading the nearby area.

"BG4MSR, how do we eliminate them? OVER."

Clearly, Ban Xia could not coexist peacefully with a group of wild and bold canines, which, despite facing prey much larger than themselves, would not hesitate but instead pounce forward to disembowel. Her teacher used to say that jackals are hunters who like to eviscerate their prey, enjoying the intestines and preferring them fresh, not marinated. Their tastes may be bizarre, but they are also cruel and cunning, sticking stubbornly like chewing gum, impossible to shake off.

By the side of the couch, no others may sleep soundly; Meihua Villa absolutely does not tolerate the existence of predators. If there were any, Ban Xia would have to kill them.

Kill one if there's one.

Kill two if there are two.

Kill the pack if there's a pack.

Run if there's ten packs.

"How to eliminate them is how we will eliminate them, they're just a bunch of wild dogs." Ban Xia stared at the golden coin in her hand, her eyes suddenly becoming sharp.

She is the ultimate hunter in this world.

"BG4MSR, it's going to be dangerous, right? Is there anything I can help with? OVER."

"You..." Ban Xia pondered for a few seconds, then mischievously smiled and whispered like a secret into her mike, "You, just obediently wait for me to come back tonight~"

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The next morning, the girl got up early, ate some dry food simply, tied up her hair, and stood in front of the wardrobe in her underwear.

She wrapped herself in thick pants and a sweatshirt jacket, then took an old solo carry gear from the wall, put it on, pulled tight the straps, and fastened the nylon buckles.

Picking up the Dagger, she gently pushed the sheath, and a cold gleam burst forth - it was a multifunctional military knife with a hooked tip and a serrated back. Ban Xia's thumb lightly slid down the blade's edge; she squinted, examined it for a while, then pushed it back into the sheath and strapped it to her leg.

Next was the handgun. Ban Xia expertly removed the magazine, pushing out the brass bullets one by one, clinking as they fell on the dresser, and then reloaded them, flipped on the safety, and tucked it into the holster at her waist.

Last but not least, the bow and arrow. Ban Xia faced the living room wall, removed the bow limb, tested it, then put it back.

She shook her head; today was not the day for that.

She crouched down, opening the TV cabinet where more lethal weapons were hidden.

It was wrapped in plastic sheeting, lying flat on a wooden plank. Ban Xia carried it out, weighing nearly four kilograms, heavy and thudding as she placed it on the coffee table, pulling off the plastic covering. In that moment, the pinnacle of human armed force revealed itself - 1060 mm in full length, a sturdy polymer stock, a matte black finish, using 18.4mm caliber size #12 shotgun shells - the legendary Remington 870 pump-action shotgun.

If the world were an RPG game, then undoubtedly, the girl held a legendary item in her hands. Its legendary nature stemmed not just from its origins in the 1950s and nearly decades of history, but because it was arguably the most lethal weapon in the world.

Ban Xia didn't know the origin of this gun, as the production of Remington 870s was vast, manufactured worldwide. She only knew that it packed immense power, capable of blowing a water buffalo's head off with a single shot.

A shotgun prepared with eight shells.

At this moment, fully armed, she was the last person anyone would want to mess with.

Ban Xia put on her backpack, turned around, and greeted her parents. She looked exactly like a young female soldier ready to go to the front lines.

"Mom and Dad, I'll be back soon."