HLM -Chapter 1304 Rookie Pecking at Rookie

To open a shooting range in New Zealand, you need a shooting range license—and these days that document is extremely hard to get approved. First, you need a sufficiently large tract of land—at least ten acres. Then you need prior experience cooperating with official departments. On top of that, you must submit various mental health clearance documents, and in the end, it still comes down to luck.

The shooting range in Sunset Town was approved proactively by the National Police Headquarters. Wang Bo had set up a training ground, and in everyday work he led the police to train there.

Thanks to the existence of the Heart of the Training Ground, training results were consistently excellent. Everyone was happy to train there, especially because there were many luxury cars inside, which made it possible to simulate street firefights.

The Police Headquarters took into account that the Sunset Town police force had repeatedly delivered outstanding performances in major and high-profile cases. And as the town’s population increased, its economic strength grew, and its fame expanded, the police force also needed to be strengthened.

So they concluded that the police couldn’t go without training. They approved an application to build a police training shooting range—and even sent over a shooting range license.

Li Xing immediately set his sights on that license. He knew very well how obsessed Chinese tourists were with firing real guns, and he also understood the market potential of this industry.

Although most of the profitable industries in Sunset Town were in Wang Bo’s hands, there was still quiet competition among them. Setting aside Juan’s company—which was the real heavyweight—there were also the department store, cafés, beverage shops, various restaurants, the Flaming Mountain Bar, and Li Xing’s Boy Scouts training group. All of them were silently vying with one another.

The moment Li Xing saw the shooting range license, he was overjoyed. This was a golden opportunity to expand his business.

He explained things to Wang Bo plainly and honestly, and Wang Bo understood. So he decided to build the shooting range.

This could be done quickly. As long as land was provided, building a shooting range was far simpler than constructing a high-rise.

Shooting ranges are divided into indoor and outdoor types. Indoor ranges are more complicated, requiring interior finishing and safety monitoring. Outdoor ranges are much simpler.

In New Zealand, outdoor ranges are more popular than indoor ones. Indoor ranges are very noisy, the space is limited, and freedom is restricted. Moreover, for safety reasons, indoor ranges don’t allow rapid fire—let alone shooting clay discs or playing with machine guns.

Therefore, at the beginning of construction, the focus was placed on the outdoor range. The indoor range wasn’t urgent and could be built gradually later.

Compared to outdoor ranges, the biggest advantage of an indoor range is shelter from wind and rain. But New Zealand had just come out of a continuous seven-day spring rain. According to the weather forecast, there wouldn’t be rain for quite a while, so there was no need to stay indoors.

That said, building an outdoor range wasn’t easy either. It would take at least ten days to half a month before it could be put into use. Wang Bo had money and spent it lavishly, and only then did the contractors manage to compress the construction schedule down to one week.

Li Xing and Hou Haibo counted the days on their fingers, waiting for the shooting range to open so they could go play with real guns.

Seeing how painfully they were enduring the wait, Wang Bo said, “Don’t waste time here. Time is precious. The spring rains have just ended—let me take you up the mountains to dig for mushrooms. This is when mushrooms taste the best.”

Hou Haibo said, “Climbing mountains again?”

Wang Bo replied, “What’s wrong? Do you climb mountains often?”

Li Xing chuckled. “This guy ate and drank like crazy back home and ended up with a beer belly. Lately I’ve been dragging him up mountains and making him ride bikes to do anaerobic training. Trained him half to death.”

Hou Haibo nodded with a bitter face. “It’s damn torture. If I’d known, I would’ve drunk less beer back home.”

Wang Bo said, “This time we’re not going to suffer—we’re going to have fun. Everyone picking mushrooms together, isn’t that great?”

He wanted to take Eva out to relax. After all, since giving birth, Eva had been shuttling only between the villa and the school. Including the ten months of pregnancy, she had been stuck in that environment for over a year.

Hou Haibo reluctantly nodded, because Wang Bo told him that stir-fried shiitake mushrooms with pork cracklings were an exceedingly rare delicacy. For the sake of good food, he felt that going up the mountain wasn’t such a bad idea.

When Eva heard that Wang Bo was taking her mountain climbing to pick mushrooms, she immediately became excited. “Okay, okay, okay! When are we going? Now? Let’s go now! I’ll change clothes and shoes, feed the baby, change her diaper—hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!”

From this, it was obvious that Eva had really been cooped up. But with Father Bo and Mother Bo around, she had to maintain the image of a virtuous wife and good mother, so she hadn’t acted spoiled at all.

Wang Bo originally planned to leave the next day, but seeing how eager Eva was—and considering that it had already been two days since the rain stopped, and that the later it got, the thinner the moisture in the air would be, causing mushrooms to wither quickly and become inedible—he changed his mind.

Thinking this through, he informed his parents that he was taking Eva out to relax.

The little baby seemed to sense that her unreliable parents were about to abandon her, and her loud trumpet blast started up again.

Mother Bo went over, picked her up, and walked around with her for a couple of turns. Little girl stared with her pitch-black eyes at the little Rottweilers playing behind them, and finally closed her mouth, no longer wailing.

Eva came out wearing a windbreaker. Looking at her daughter, she couldn’t help but sigh, “Wang, your Chinese genes are way too strong. If I weren’t here watching her grow up, I’d never believe this was my daughter.”

The baby’s hair was black, her pupils were black—exactly like Wang Bo’s, with not the slightest resemblance to Eva’s blonde hair and blue eyes. Fortunately, her skin was rosy and tender with a hint of snowy whiteness, which was closer to Eva.

After feeding her daughter and kissing her little cheek, Eva immediately slung on her hiking backpack and dashed out. After running a short distance, she shouted joyfully, “Ahhh! I’m finally free!”

Dale rode up on Little Wang and shouted, “Why didn’t you bring me along?”

Eva instantly showed a helpless expression. “My God, I’m still not completely free.”

Little Wang, Zhuang Ding, the Queen, and the Fat Cat Brothers—all the furry kids—naturally followed along. Little Wang was perfect for mountain climbing. Tall and strong, it was far more useful than any pickup truck or mountain bike. Even with its body loaded with bags and boxes, it was still full of vigor.

Little Meng circled in the sky, occasionally diving down and letting out sharp, clear cries to show off its presence.

The Commander looked at it impatiently. “Ah, squawk squawk squawk—so annoying.”

The Political Commissar shouted at it, “Ah ah ah, you stutterer!”

The Commander flew into a rage, opened its beak, and went to bite the Political Commissar. The Political Commissar refused to back down. Though the yellow-headed Amazon parrot was smaller than the African grey, its presence was stronger. The two parrots immediately got into a fight.

Their battle was extremely fierce—one slapping with its beak, the other ramming with its head. When airborne, they even used talons to claw at each other, all while never stopping their trash talk:

The Commander roared, “Ah, hit you! Ah, Commander is awesome!”

The Political Commissar shouted, “You stutterer! Beat the stutterer!”

The Commander roared even louder, “Ah, your mom blew up! Ah, Commander hits you!”

The Political Commissar kept shouting, “You stutterer! Beat the stutterer!”

The Commander grew even angrier. “Ah, yellow-haired bitch! Ah, Commander bites you!”

The Political Commissar still shouted, “You stutterer! Beat the stutterer!”

The Commander was speechless. “Ah, change the line! Ah, change the line!”

The Political Commissar raised its head to the sky and shouted, “Little Meng, come down and bite it!”