The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

The hunt ended early today, so they got home sooner than yesterday.

When they got back to Zhao Jun’s house, it was just past one in the afternoon. Wang Meilan cooked them a pot of hot noodle soup. As they ate, Lin Xiangshun and Zhao Jun discussed how to merge their two packs of dogs the next day.

After they finished eating, the two of them went back to Zhao Jun’s room and took a nap. When he woke up, Lin Xiangshun lay on the kang, feeling quite emotional.

After his mother passed away, his father remarried the following year, and his stepmother couldn’t stand him.

This situation was similar to what happened to Zhao Jun in his past life. But Zhao Youcai had arranged a wife for Zhao Jun, whereas Lin Xiangshun’s father had given him nothing.

At that time, Lin Xiangshun’s older brother was already married. Lin Xiangshun went to stay at his brother’s house for a few days, but his sister-in-law wouldn’t have him either and wouldn’t even give him food to eat.

Finally, when he couldn’t bear the hunger any longer, Lin Xiangshun went to Zhao Jun’s house to ask Wang Meilan for a bite to eat.

Why didn’t he go to someone else? Why specifically Wang Meilan?

Because when Lin Xiangshun’s mother was alive, she and Wang Meilan were the best of friends. In the village’s words, they were sworn sisters.

It was just before the twelfth lunar month. Lin Xiangshun sat on the kang in the east room of Zhao Jun’s house, wearing a cotton-padded jacket with the stuffing poking out at the elbows, waiting for Wang Meilan to cook him some dumplings.

Dumplings with wild boar and pickled cabbage filling. Two plates weren’t enough, so she cooked two more. That still wasn’t enough, but Zhao Jun’s family had run out of their frozen wild boar and pickled cabbage dumplings, so Wang Meilan boiled him two plates of roe deer and daikon radish ones instead.

Just like that, Lin Xiangshun ate six plates of dumplings, about one hundred thirty or forty in total. And dumplings in the Northeast are large, almost the size of steamed dumplings from the Southern Region.

Watching him eat like that, Wang Meilan started to cry.

Wang Meilan wasn’t crying because she was upset about the dumplings, but because her heart ached for Lin Xiangshun. Wiping her tears, she murmured about Lin Xiangshun’s mother.

When Zhao Youcai came home that evening, Wang Meilan told him about Lin Xiangshun’s situation. Zhao Youcai said to let Lin Xiangshun stay, sharing a room with Zhao Jun for the time being.

From then on, Lin Xiangshun became a part of the family. At home, whatever Zhao Jun ate, he ate. Later on, even his job was arranged for him by Zhao Youcai.

Later still, when Lin Xiangshun built a house, got married, and had children, the Zhao Family helped him out. In particular, when his wife gave birth, it was Wang Meilan who looked after her during her postpartum confinement.

In Zhao Jun’s previous life, when Wang Meilan passed away, Lin Xiangshun didn’t fight Zhao Jun for the right to smash the basin, but he still wore mourning clothes and busied himself with the funeral from beginning to end.

After Wang Meilan was buried, Lin Xiangshun told Zhao Jun, "From now on, your Second Brother’s home is your home. You can come whenever you want."

And sure enough, Zhao Jun’s experience ended up being similar to Lin Xiangshun’s. After his stepmother moved in, Zhao Jun went to live at Lin Xiangshun’s house, staying there until Zhao Youcai built a house for him to get married.

Later, when Zhao Jun returned to the village down on his luck, Lin Xiangshun was already over sixty, but whenever his family had meat, he would always call Zhao Jun over.

"In the blink of an eye," Lin Xiangshun said with emotion. "It’s been many years since I’ve lain on this kang."

"Hah!" Zhao Jun said, pretending to complain. "Last fall, I told you to sleep over, but you wouldn’t do it!"

Lin Xiangshun froze for a second, but then he quickly remembered. Zhao Jun was talking about last fall, when he had gone hunting in the mountains behind Zhao Youcai and Wang Meilan’s backs and, fearing a beating, had tried to get him to stay over.

"Hey, Xiaojun!" An idea suddenly struck Lin Xiangshun, and he asked Zhao Jun, "How in the world did you get so good at hunting? I’m not even talking about shooting and all that, but I saw you gutting that animal—you’re pretty slick at it."

"Practice makes perfect," Zhao Jun fibbed, since he couldn’t tell the truth. "From last fall until now, I’ve gutted so many wild boars that I’ve gotten the hang of it."

Lin Xiangshun was a little skeptical, but then he heard Zhao Jun ask, "Second Brother, do you think there’ll be any problem merging our two packs of dogs?"

After Big Fatty and the other three dogs arrived, they were split into pairs. Flower Cat and Hua Lang went to the neighboring Baoyu’s house, interacting with Da Huang and Xiaohua every day. Meanwhile, Big Fatty and San Pang also saw Little Bear and White Dragon daily. It had been half a month now, so as far as Zhao Jun was concerned, there shouldn’t be any issues.

"It’s hard to say." But Lin Xiangshun wasn’t so optimistic. He said, "Those four new dogs are too cunning. Look at them, all fat and chunky, and yesterday they only managed to catch that tiny pig."

The two of them discussed it for a while. Zhao Jun glanced up at the large clock on the wall and saw it was almost four o’clock. He got down from the kang and set about making some wild boar for Lin Xiangshun to eat.

Hearing this, Lin Xiangshun lit up and laughed. "You know how to cook? Don’t you go ruining that good meat."

"Second Brother, just you wait," Zhao Jun said with a grin. "Once you taste the meat I make, you’ll end up drinking too much."

"Then get to it. I have to taste a meal made by my brother." As he spoke, Lin Xiangshun also got down from the kang, slipped on his shoes, and followed Zhao Jun out.

Zhao Jun went to the outer room and got busy. Lin Xiangshun stood to the side with Wang Meilan, chatting as they watched Zhao Jun prepare the meat.

They weren’t just making small talk; they were discussing building a house for Zhao Jun. Lin Xiangshun said that he sometimes traveled between Lingnan and Lingxi and passed by brick and cement factories, so he could help Zhao Jun get some bricks and cement.

As for sand, they could just dig some up from the riverbank. Since they had a vehicle, hauling it would be easy.

As for lumber, that was a given. If people living right next to the Forest Farm couldn’t get their hands on any lumber, what were they even doing here?

Hearing all this, Wang Meilan smiled and nodded repeatedly. By her calculations, this would save them a huge amount of money. When it was time for Zhao Jun to get married, they might even be able to afford a radio for him.

While they were talking, Zhao Jun had already brought a pot of water to a boil and added large cubes of wild boar belly and sections of green onion.

He added more firewood and stewed it over a high flame until the wild boar was tender enough for a chopstick to pierce it easily. Then, Zhao Jun removed all the meat and ladled out the water.

He scrubbed the pot, rinsed it, and heated it until dry. He placed brown and white sugar on the bottom, then a steaming rack made from number 8 wire on top. After brushing each piece of meat with oil, he arranged them on the rack, covered the pot, and began to smoke them.

He placed the smoked wild boar on a cutting board, sliced it into large, thin pieces, and used his chopsticks to pick up one side of a slice. He rolled the meat around the chopsticks and offered it to Wang Meilan.

After eating it, Wang Meilan’s eyes lit up instantly. She patted Lin Xiangshun beside her and said, "Shunzi, hurry and try some! It’s really delicious!"

"Is that right!" Hearing this, Lin Xiangshun hurried over to grab a piece. After one bite, he was full of praise.

"It’s good, right?" Zhao Jun asked.

"Delicious!" Lin Xiangshun nodded and said, "Xiaojun, where did you learn to do this? This is amazing."

Zhao Jun let out a hearty laugh and was just about to speak when the door was pulled open from the outside.

"Brother, did you guys get another..." Li Baoyu started to say as he entered, but the aroma of meat hit him, and his eyes went wide.

He had gotten off work early today. When he got home, he saw Da Huang and Xiaohua had returned. He went inside and saw Jin Xiaomei stewing wild boar ribs, which she said Zhao Jun had brought her at noon.

Seeing that Zhao Jun and Lin Xiangshun had brought back more game, Li Baoyu had hopped the wall to ask about it, but the moment he stepped inside, he knew he’d come at the right time.

After eating one piece of meat, Li Baoyu decided he wasn’t leaving. He joined Lin Xiangshun, crowding around the cutting board and eating piece after piece.

Meanwhile, Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan had started rolling out dough to make flatbreads!