The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

BANG!

Zhao Jun’s first shot struck the brown bear in the chest. While the bullet didn’t exit, the impact forced the bear to stumble back.

The moment the brown bear reared back, Zhao Jun fired four more shots, all landing in its chest.

The brown bear collapsed onto its back. Its two right limbs pushed left as it struggled to right itself.

Just then, Zhao Jun stopped watching it. He spun his rifle around, aiming behind him.

As Li Baoyu fired, his bullet struck the mother Black Bear’s left foreleg, instantly shattering the bone.

The mother Black Bear barely had time to react before it lurched forward. After steadying itself, it roared and charged toward Li Baoyu.

’What a strange animal. A moment ago, its cub was in danger, and it didn’t risk its life to save it. Yet now, it’s charging straight at a gun.’

Li Baoyu broke open his shotgun to reload, but he lacked Zhao Jun’s dexterity. Before he could even chamber the next round, two shots rang out. The mother Black Bear staggered, collapsed to the ground, twitched a couple of times, and then fell silent.

"Baoyu, keep your sights on it!" Zhao Jun’s voice rang out next to Li Baoyu’s ear. Li Baoyu hurriedly raised his reloaded shotgun, aiming at the Black Bear on the ground.

Zhao Jun worked the bolt, ejecting the three remaining cartridges from the chamber. He pulled ten new rounds from his pocket, slammed in the magazine, closed the bolt, flipped off the safety, and advanced on the Black Bear, rifle ready.

Bears were known to play dead; he had to be cautious.

That was why Zhao Jun had reloaded a full magazine—he was afraid the Black Bear would suddenly spring up.

When he was about three meters from the Black Bear, Zhao Jun stopped, aimed for its head, and fired. BANG! Blood splattered.

Seeing no reaction from the Black Bear, Zhao Jun turned back to Li Baoyu and pointed behind him. Li Baoyu pivoted, his shotgun still raised.

Zhao Jun approached the brown bear, which lay motionless on the ground. He circled around to a spot three or four meters from its head and put another round into it for good measure.

Seeing the brown bear was also lifeless, Zhao Jun quickly lowered his rifle, turned, and shouted at Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, you field-dress that Black Bear, I’ll field-dress this Big Bear Dominator."

"You got it!" Li Baoyu replied, slinging his gun over his shoulder and running toward the Black Bear.

Reaching the Black Bear, Li Baoyu bent down, grabbed one of its forearms, and heaved it onto its back.

Unlike the Black Bear, the brown bear had died on its back, facing the sky. Zhao Jun simply drew the small knife from his waist and began to field-dress it.

Though he called it a small knife, it was about two hand-spans long and two fingers wide.

This wasn’t an Invasion Blade; it was a knife handmade for Zhao Jun by Zhang Yuanmin. The blade had been forged from the leaf spring of a Forest Farm logging cart, and Zhang Yuanmin had specially crafted the handle for him from deer hide.

For its time, the knife was absolutely exquisite.

Li Baoyu had been there when Zhao Jun received it. After seeing the knife, he had begged Zhang Yuanmin to make one for him too. But just after he’d gathered the materials, Zhang Yuanmin had fallen ill and become bedridden.

There was no denying Zhang Yuanmin’s skill. The blade was exceptionally sharp. Zhao Jun inserted it under the brown bear’s throat, and with a downward pull on the handle, it sliced open the bear’s chest cavity without any resistance.

Zhao Jun used the knife to sever the ligaments around the heart, pulled out the heart and liver, and tossed them aside. Then, he carefully removed the Bear Gall.

He then took out a white cloth pouch and placed the large Brown Bear Gall inside. When Zhao Jun turned to check on Li Baoyu, he saw that his friend had only just managed to open the Black Bear’s chest.

Zhao Jun glanced at the knife in his hand and walked over to the Little Black Bear that the brown bear had killed.

By the time Li Baoyu had removed the Black Bear Gall and walked over, Zhao Jun had already finished harvesting the gall from the Little Black Bear.

Li Baoyu handed him the cloth pouch containing the Bear Gall. Zhao Jun took it, opened it, and added the Little Black Bear’s gall to the pouch.

When Zhao Jun looked up, he saw Li Baoyu staring transfixed at the small knife in his hand.

Men love guns, and they love knives too.

Zhao Jun held the knife out to Li Baoyu, blade pointing down. He pinched the very top of the handle between his thumb and forefinger, leaving the rest exposed for Li Baoyu to take.

A delighted expression appeared on Li Baoyu’s face. He took the knife, turned, and made a couple of practice swings in the air. Then he turned back to Zhao Jun and said, "Brother, this is a seriously good knife."

Zhao Jun had just placed the two Black Bear Galls into his satchel. Hearing Li Baoyu, he chuckled. "Forget about the knife for a minute. Let’s figure out what to do with these three bears."

"We’ll leave ’em here!" Li Baoyu said with a grin. "I’ll bring the truck to pick them up tomorrow." He paused, blinked, and then asked Zhao Jun, "That Ginseng we dug up... can it keep for a few more days?"

"That won’t be a problem." Zhao Jun took the knife back from Li Baoyu, slid it into its sheath, and gestured for his friend to follow. They went to find some water to wash their hands.

On the way, Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu, "When you bring the truck tomorrow, haul those two Black Bears back. We’ll see whether to give them away or what. But don’t give away the Big Bear Dominator. When I was dressing it, I saw it has a finger-thick layer of fat. Our two families can render a few more jars of oil to store."

Just a few days ago, they had taken down a large and a small Black Bear. Today, they’d added three more, including a brown bear weighing over seven hundred pounds. The Zhao and Li families couldn’t possibly eat all this meat in ten days or even half a month.

The main problem was the warming weather; the meat wouldn’t keep for long. It would be better to skin the two Black Bears, butcher them, and give the meat to friends and family.

Bears at this time of year had just emerged from hibernation. The Black Bears had very little fat left on them, but the brown bear was massive. Even after burning through its winter reserves, it still had a finger-thick layer of fat. If they rendered that fat into oil and stored it in jars, it could last them half a year.

Li Baoyu had no objections. He was happy to go along with whatever Zhao Jun decided.

Even though it was still early—just past ten-thirty in the morning—Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu started down the mountain for home.

As they walked down the mountain, Zhao Jun said, "Baoyu, we’ve always air-dried the Bear Galls we’ve harvested, but I don’t plan on selling these just yet."

Li Baoyu heard him and replied, "Ah, Brother, it’s your call."

"Yeah." Zhao Jun nodded and explained, "You’ve heard how the price of Bear Gall changes daily. Our families aren’t short on cash right now. If we hold on to them until autumn, we can sell them for more."

He then added, "In a couple of days, we’ll go to Lingnan and sell those Miao Sixth-grade Leaves we collected. They’re worth a pretty penny."

"Yep," Li Baoyu replied with the same refrain. "Brother, you call the shots."

They continued their descent. As they were about to exit the mountain range, Li Baoyu suddenly remembered something. "Brother," he asked, "I heard from my aunt—your mom—that they’re going to build a house for you. Is there a date set for it yet?"

"It’ll have to wait until after the planting season," Zhao Jun replied.

There’s a saying, "Plant the main fields during Guyu." The corn was already in the ground, and now it was time for the busy rice-planting season.

The Rice Flower Fragrant Rice from Zhao Jun’s region was famous throughout the country, but planting rice was back-breaking work. Though Zhao Jun’s family didn’t grow it, the other villagers did, which meant few people would be free to help with construction.

So, Zhao Youcai and Wang Meilan had to wait until most people had finished their farm work before they could start organizing the construction.

Just then, Li Baoyu said, "This morning, I overheard my dad and mom talking about building a house for me, too. They want to build it at the same time as yours, so we can still be neighbors."

"Oh, that’s great news!" Zhao Jun immediately understood what Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei were planning.

Unlike the Zhao Family, the Li Family had two sons. Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei wanted to build a house for Li Baoyu so he could get married.

As for their other son, Li Ruhai, he would take over their current house when he started his own family. Barring any surprises, he would also be the one to care for Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei in their old age.

’In his past life, the Li Family was poor and couldn’t afford to build a house for Li Baoyu to get married in. The result was a cramped home filled with constant friction between the mother-in-law, daughters-in-law, and sisters-in-law.’

But now, things were different. Li Baoyu had struck it rich hunting in the mountains with him, so Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei were planning to build at the same time as Zhao Jun’s family. They could get Li Baoyu a wife and ensure the two close friends remained neighbors.

This was a wonderful development, and Zhao Jun was happy to hear it. As they chatted, their conversation grew more and more animated. They even started planning how, after they moved into their new houses and officially split from their parents’ households, they would each raise ten dogs and continue hunting in the mountains together.

By the time their conversation wound down, they had already entered the village. As they neared home, Zhao Jun spotted Wang Meilan in the distance, emerging from a neighbor’s house.

Wang Meilan seemed to be in high spirits, swinging her arms as she walked and humming a little tune, "De-la-dee-da-dum..."