The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Seeing the Jie Brothers remain silent, Zhao Jun said with a smile, "No need to decide right now. We can see how things go. If you’re not busy, come find me at my place. We can go foraging in the mountains and do some hunting."

When Zhao Jun mentioned foraging, Jie Zhong didn’t say much, but as soon as he brought up hunting, Jie Zhong’s eyes lit up.

Jie Zhong didn’t believe Zhao Jun had any real skill in foraging. But when it came to hunting, he was a firm believer.

It wasn’t just him, either. No one in the surrounding villages doubted it.

Capturing a Tiger and hunting the Pig God—that was a display of absolute power.

Even the old-timer Cannon Shooters, upon hearing of Zhao Jun’s accomplishments, wouldn’t dare say a bad word about him. They could only give him a thumbs-up.

Of course, with the exception of Zhao Youcai.

"That works!" Jie Zhong glanced at Jie Chen, then turned back to Zhao Jun. "When autumn comes, I’ll be busy with the harvest at home. I’ll have Xiaochen come over and hunt with you."

At this, Jie Zhong pointed to their truck. "Have Xiaochen bring the truck over then. It’ll be easier to haul whatever you catch back home."

"That won’t be necessary," Zhao Jun said. "Baoyu is on the transport team. We have access to trucks. Just have Xiaochen come."

"That belongs to the team; this is our own," Jie Zhong said. "Besides, if Xiaochen isn’t home, I can’t drive it anyway."

For Zhao Jun, getting a truck was easy. Not just a truck, either—getting fuel was easy, too.

His brother-in-law, Zhou Jianjun, was in charge of logistics. The Forest Farm’s logistics warehouse kept a special reserve of diesel for the farm’s vehicles. If he wanted to get some fuel, nothing could be simpler.

This was also why Wang Meilan was so set on buying her son a motorcycle.

Buy a motorcycle, and he’d never have to pay for gas again. He could ride it whenever he wanted. How great was that!

While Zhao Jun and Jie Zhong were chatting, Du Chunlin furtively emerged from the north side of the Log Pile Yard and headed for the Leader’s shack.

"Brother!" Du Chunlin burst into the Leader’s shack and said to Du Chunjiang, "That kid Zhao Jun is here. I saw him chatting with that old bastard Jie Zhong, and he even gave him a carton of cigarettes."

"Who gave what to whom?" Du Chunjiang was surprised, thinking his brother must have misspoken.

"Zhao Jun gave them to Jie Zhong," Du Chunlin said. "He gave Jie Zhong a carton of cigarettes, and Jie Zhong gave him four bottles of liquor."

After speaking, Du Chunlin saw that Du Chunjiang was silent and continued, "This kid eats your food, drinks your liquor, and takes your stuff, and on top of it all, he’s mixing with Jie Zhong..."

Seeing Du Chunjiang look at him, Du Chunlin paused, then continued with even more indignation, "And after all that, you’re still sucking up to him! You’re even making him Flying Dragon soup! Your sister-in-law was recovering from childbirth, and I asked you to get me two, but you wouldn’t. You insisted on giving them to *him*."

"Get outta here!" Du Chunjiang waved his hand dismissively. "He’s fucking in charge of the log scaling at our Logging Camp. If I don’t suck up to him, should I be sucking up to you?"

"Brother, have you forgotten how he dealt with you before?" Du Chunlin added, trying to stir the pot. "He showed you no respect at all that time! If you ask me, with the inspectors coming today, you should report him. Just say he took liquor from Jie Zhong. He won’t even have a chance to deny it. Just search his satchel, and you’ll find it all."

After he finished, Du Chunlin saw Du Chunjiang staring at him intently. Thinking he had persuaded his brother, he immediately grinned. "Send him packing today. And don’t bother stewing those two Flying Dragons for him."

The words had barely left Du Chunlin’s mouth when there was a dull THUD. A foot landed in his gut, sending him stumbling back two steps. He lost his balance and fell to the ground, his body slamming into a nearby shelf. The shelf swayed violently, and the liquor bottles on it went CLINKING AND CLANKING, but luckily, none fell off.

"Brother..."

"Are you a fucking idiot?!" Du Chunjiang yelled, pointing at his brother. "I’ve already spent nearly two thousand yuan trying to get his help! If I send him packing now, wasn’t all that money wasted?"

Du Chunlin suddenly understood, staring blankly at Du Chunjiang.

Du Chunjiang had been on edge for days. There was an inspector on the acceptance team, a man surnamed Zhu, with whom he had a feud. For days, Zhu had been spreading the word that he was going to take Du Chunjiang down and make sure he didn’t get the logging contract this year.

For the past few years, Du Chunjiang had relied entirely on running the Logging Camp to make a living. The work was quite profitable, and he didn’t want to let it go. That was why he was so focused on cozying up to Zhao Jun.

But he never expected his own Du Family to produce such an idiot. He was already seething, so Du Chunjiang unleashed all his anger on Du Chunlin.

Du Chunjiang pointed at Du Chunlin and cursed nonstop, "All you ever think about is that woman of yours! I give Zhao Jun Flying Dragon soup so he can help me secure the logging contract. If I give it to your woman, is she going to get me the contract? If I don’t get the contract, with your sorry ass, what Leader would ever give you work?"

Hearing this, Du Chunlin fell silent instantly. Working under Du Chunjiang, he could throw his weight around, occasionally swiping a couple of logs from the smaller teams. Out of respect for Du Chunjiang, no one dared to make an issue of it.

If he were working for any other Leader and tried something like that, he would’ve been beaten to a pulp.

At this thought, Du Chunlin obediently scrambled up from the floor. "Brother, I was wrong," he said to Du Chunjiang. "Please don’t be angry with me."

Du Chunjiang waved his hand, walked over to the edge of the heated kang bed, and sat down, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. Seeing this, Du Chunlin quickly hurried over, took out a match, and lit it for him.

Du Chunjiang took a drag from his cigarette and looked at Du Chunlin. "Don’t mess with him for now. You absolutely cannot mess with him. If we’re going to take him down, it’ll have to be later."

"Huh? Brother, what do you mean?"

Du Chunjiang was about to speak but instead raised a finger and pointed at the door. Du Chunlin understood immediately. He trotted to the door, opened it, glanced left and right, and only after seeing no one did he close it and return to his brother’s side.

Du Chunjiang whispered to Du Chunlin, "Listen, Zhao Jun’s sister’s father-in-law, that production director Zhou Chunming, is getting a promotion."

"Hanging himself?" Du Chunlin was shocked. "He’s such a high-ranking official! What could he possibly be so upset about?"

The comment made Du Chunjiang so angry he nearly blacked out. He roared, "Are you a fucking moron? A pro-mo-tion! It... it means he’s moving up in rank!"

Du Chunjiang was so mad he was stuttering.

But Du Chunlin just pursed his lips. "Brother, then you should’ve just said he was moving up in rank. Why use a fancy word like ’promotion’?"

"You little..." Du Chunjiang let out a long sigh. ’What kind of brother did I end up with?’ he thought. ’If only I had someone by my side who could actually help me scheme a little.’

But some things were weighing on his mind, and he had to get them off his chest. He could only say to Du Chunlin, "I heard that Zhou Chunming is going to become the top dog at the Forest Farm. If he moves up, the Production Director position will have to be filled. By then, Zhao Jun will have already sorted out my Logging Camp contract. I’ll see who the new Production Director is. If they don’t get along with Zhou Chunming, then I’ll expose Zhao Jun."

"Expose him how?" This time, Du Chunlin didn’t ask if he meant with a knife or a spearhead. Even he could understand something that simple. He knew Du Chunjiang meant reporting Zhao Jun to the leadership.

"He accepted a gun from me!" Du Chunjiang whispered. "It was one thousand six hundred yuan, bought at the Lingnan Supply and Marketing Cooperative."

"Sixteen hundred!" Du Chunlin’s heart ached at the number. Then he asked, "But will the leadership believe you?"

"They will," Du Chunjiang said. "I wasn’t originally thinking of this, but that kid reminded me himself yesterday. Just you watch how I’ll deal with him then! I’m going to use him to take down Zhou Chunming, too. Don’t you think the new Production Director will reward me handsomely for that?"