As the saying goes, “live off the mountain if you’re near the mountain, live off the water if you’re near the water.” In the past, the people of Weijia Village not only went up the mountain to gather wild goods, but also often fished at the reservoir. But now, fishing with nets is no longer allowed at the reservoir. Of course, sometimes these local villagers go fishing, and the reservoir guards usually turn a blind eye and don’t interfere.

“Since that’s the case, forget it. Skipping a meal isn’t a big deal…” Ethan Foster said upon hearing that the reservoir was guarded. “Aren’t we about to go down the mountain anyway? Once we start working and earn some money, I’ll treat you guys to a meal…”

“No way, I should be the one treating…” Jack felt embarrassed in front of his two childhood friends, his face turning red as he grumbled, “Of all times, they had to set up a checkpoint right when I got here…”

“Actually, it’s not like we can’t just blow it up…”

Chad stroked his chin, a sly smile appearing on his seemingly honest, chubby face. He said, “Today’s Saturday, so the police and the joint defense team from town must have all gone home. We can sneak over, toss a couple of homemade bombs, grab the fish, and run. Shouldn’t be a problem…”

“Chad, are you sure they’ve gone home?”

Hearing Chad’s words, Jack’s eyes lit up. They were all kids who grew up in the countryside. Even though they’d served in the army for a few years, their sense of the law wasn’t very strong. They’d blown up fish plenty of times since they were young, and as long as they weren’t caught in the act, they’d never seen the police arrest anyone’s family.

“I’m sure they’ve gone. You think those guys would stay up on the mountain over the weekend?”

Chad nodded vigorously. He knew that while the stationed police were from the town, the two joint defense team members were from the village. When he brought Ethan Foster back earlier, Chad had even seen one of them carrying a bottle of liquor home.

“Alright then, let’s do one blast…” Jack said excitedly.

“You can only manage one blast, huh? I think you don’t deserve to be called Jack, hahaha…” Chad laughed mischievously.

“What does his name Jack have to do with only doing one blast?” Ethan Foster asked, confused.

“Don’t mind Chad, he’s just being a pervert…”

Jack understood what Chad meant and replied irritably, “Jack is just Jack. Anyway, once we head to the city, we won’t have a chance to come back and blow up fish again. But I only made two of those things, need to make one more…”

“That’s easy, you’ve got plenty of explosives at home. Just make another one…” Chad chuckled, not bothering to explain the difference between doing one blast and doing Jack to Ethan Foster.

“Ridiculous…” Seeing the two of them laughing so lewdly, Ethan Foster knew it couldn’t be anything good and said grumpily, “So you’re making explosives, right? Then hurry up. I’ve only heard you talk about it, never actually seen it…”

Ethan Foster grew up in the mountains. Although he’d read a few books related to the law, compared to Chad and Jack, he was even more clueless—a total legal ignoramus. He had no idea that making explosives privately was illegal.

“Then let me show you. Oh, and we don’t call these bombs, we call them homemade firecrackers…” Jack said, “You two eat first, I’ll go get the stuff ready…”

“Hurry up, we’re saving some room for fish…” Hearing this, Ethan Foster and Chad felt hungry too, so they picked up their chopsticks and started eating.

“We’re short a bottle. All the extra beer bottles at home I already traded to the convenience store…” A few minutes later, Jack came out of the inner room carrying a plastic bag, glanced around, picked up the bottle of cheap liquor on the table, and walked into the yard, pouring out all the liquor inside.

“Actually, making this stuff is really simple…”

Seeing Ethan Foster staring at him without blinking, Jack grinned proudly after returning to the house and said, “If I had an alarm clock, I could even make a timed firecracker. I didn’t spend those years in the army for nothing…”

Jack really wasn’t bragging. He’d been a combat engineer, and since childhood had been fascinated with gunpowder. When the army had missions to blast open mountains or dig tunnels, the explosives handled by Jack had never once failed to detonate.

So if Jack hadn’t insisted on leaving the army, his commanding officer was already planning to promote him to technical sergeant. Jack’s skill with explosives was what set him apart.

“Stop bragging and just get it ready. It’s still early—if we wait until midnight to blow it up, someone might notice…”

Chad grumpily grabbed a peanut and tossed it at him. He couldn’t stand Jack’s cocky attitude. He himself had been kicked out of the army by the political commissar, while Jack had left voluntarily. That was a real blow to his ego.

“Isn’t making this stuff quick?” Jack curled his lip, moved his bowl aside, and put the plastic bag and bottle on the table.

Jack glanced around, found a funnel for pouring oil from the cupboard, and stuck it into the mouth of the bottle. Then he grabbed a handful of black powder with a sulfurous smell from the plastic bag and poured it into the bottle through the funnel.

Jack was well-versed in the properties of gunpowder, but as for Ethan Foster and Chad, they were a bit recklessly ignorant. They didn’t realize that what Jack had brought out was blasting powder used for breaking rocks, which wasn’t very stable and could explode if handled carelessly.