The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

By the time Zhang Zhanshan and his family of three went home to get the money to free their son, Zhao Jun was already asleep.

It wasn’t until nearly seven o’clock that Zhao Youcai came into his room and woke Zhao Jun up.

Zhao Jun got up, washed his face, and went into the east room to eat. They ate the same food as the neighbors who were helping out; the staple was steamed sponge cakes that Li Dayong had passed over the wall.

Wang Meilan wasn’t home at the moment. She and Jin Xiaomei had taken food to the construction site. They had to wait for the villagers to finish eating, then collect the bowls and chopsticks to bring back and wash before starting to prepare lunch.

After making lunch, they’d have to deliver it to the site, wait for everyone to finish, and then collect the dishes to bring home again.

You could say that throughout the day, Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei had almost no chance to rest. They even had to rush through their own meals.

There was nothing to be done about it. It was like this in all four hamlets of the Yongzi area. Although they existed in the form of villages, they weren’t agricultural villages; they were the residential areas for the Forest Farm families. The men went to work at the Forest Farm, so all matters, big and small, inside and outside the home, fell on the women’s shoulders.

Caring for the elderly, raising the young, laundry, cooking, farming, feeding the livestock...

It was truly a case of women holding up half the sky—and a large half at that.

This was also why women held a relatively high status in the hamlet.

It wasn’t just because of their great contributions. The key was that you couldn’t afford to cross them.

If you pushed them too far, they’d just drop everything and go back to their parents’ home. If their parents were no longer around, they’d go to their brothers’ homes. And if they had no family left to go to, they’d go to the home of the Women’s Federation director.

And the moment a woman left, the house would fall into chaos. The children would be uncared for, the livestock unfed, forcing the man to go and bring her back.

But bringing her back wasn’t as simple as showing up with a few words and a smile.

Rather than groveling to get her back, it was better to just keep her happy at home.

Since Wang Meilan wasn’t home, Zhao Jun and Zhao Youcai had to feed the two little girls first.

Just then, Zhao Jun noticed a stack of banknotes on the side, about fifty bills in all. He glanced out the window and saw that Zhang Laibao, who had been tied up in the corner of the yard, was gone. Only then did he ask Zhao Youcai, "Dad, is this the compensation money from Zhang Zhanshan for Uncle Li?"

"Yup. Your Uncle Zhao just left after dropping it off." Zhao Youcai nodded. "After we eat, you clear the bowls. I have to go, there’s something on at the farm today. You take this money over to your Uncle Li."

"Okay! I can check on Baoyu while I’m at it." Zhao Jun agreed, reaching for a piece of steamed sponge cake. Just as he was about to put it in his mouth, he paused and asked Zhao Youcai, "Dad, did we really just let them go like that?"

Zhao Youcai slurped a mouthful of radish soup, chewed on the half-eaten radish stick in his mouth, and then said, "What else were we supposed to do?"

"Didn’t you say you were going to strip Zhang Laibao and parade him through the streets?" Zhao Jun asked with a smile. "You even said you were going to make a scene at their place."

"Who’s gonna carry him? You? Or me?" Zhao Youcai mumbled indistinctly while chewing on a steamed bun. "There’s a limit to any punishment. That family of bastards was in the wrong, but if we take things too far, what will people in the hamlet say? What will my coworkers at the farm gossip about?"

"Some people, it’s easy for them to talk since they’re not involved. They don’t care who’s right or wrong. They’ll see that Zhang Laibao got the worst of it and say we were in the wrong, that we were bullying him. And there are plenty of people like that! My reputation is what it is, but you, Baoyu, and Ruhai are all still young."

Zhao Youcai had just finished speaking when Wang Meilan returned, carrying a large basin and a big bucket, both filled with used bowls and chopsticks.

Wang Meilan put the things down and came into the inner room, asking with a curious smile, "I could hear you two chatting from outside the door. What are you father and son talking about?"

Zhao Jun looked up, grinned at Wang Meilan, and said jokingly, "We were talking about why Dad has such a bad reputation."

Hearing this, Wang Meilan immediately sat down on the edge of the kang, ready to start complaining.

But Zhao Youcai didn’t give her the chance. He put the piece of sponge cake he was holding with his chopsticks down in his bowl and said to Zhao Jun, "Ever since I can remember, your uncle’s health was poor. When people bullied him, I, his younger brother, had to stand up for him. Later, for the first ten, twenty years, times were tough, and your mom..."

At this point, Zhao Youcai shot a glance at Wang Meilan and then said quickly, "...is a tyrant at home. If I weren’t a little tougher, how would I have managed?"

Her complaint cut off before it could begin, she was instead teased by Zhao Youcai. But Wang Meilan just smiled and said nothing.

In those years, Zhao Youcai had not only protected their family, but had also stood up for her maiden family a few times. Wang Meilan remembered all of this.

After the family finished eating, Zhao Youcai got dressed to catch the commuter bus. Zhao Jun picked up the five hundred yuan, went out, and hopped the wall into Li Baoyu’s yard.

By then, Li Dayong had also left. The dispatch office had a meeting today, which was why he had asked Zhao Jun to stay with Li Baoyu and watch the cornfield last night.

Zhao Jun went inside and gave all the money to Jin Xiaomei. Without even counting it, she stuffed it directly into her pocket.

Then, Zhao Jun went into the inner room to see Li Baoyu.

"How are you doing, Baoyu?"

"I’m fine," Li Baoyu said with a smile. "It’s just a little swollen and sore. It’ll be fine after a few days’ rest."

Zhao Jun picked up a cattail fan from the side and began fanning Li Baoyu. "Suffering a bit in this hot weather, huh?"

"What suffering is this?" Jin Xiaomei said from the side. "If it weren’t for you yesterday, Baoyu would have been done for."

"Hey, Auntie, let’s not talk about that." Zhao Jun put the fan down and smiled at Jin Xiaomei. "Aren’t Baoyu and I brothers?"

As he spoke, Zhao Jun looked around and asked Jin Xiaomei, "Auntie, where’s Ruhai?"

"Who knows where he ran off to?" Jin Xiaomei said, annoyed. "That kid came with your mom and me to deliver food this morning, but he disappeared as soon as we got there and hasn’t come back yet."

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu looked at each other and smiled. Just as he was about to say something, they heard the dogs in the yard start barking.

"Someone’s here?" Zhao Jun craned his neck to look out the window.

Jin Xiaomei quickly walked out of the house, shushed the dogs, and walked back toward the house while talking with someone amidst the barking.

Zhao Jun saw who it was through the window, turned back to Li Baoyu, and grinned. "Baoyu, guess who’s here to see you?"

"Huh? Who?" Li Baoyu was also curious. Lin Xiangshun had stopped by that morning to see him, telling him he would help him request leave from the farm so he could rest and recover.

Other than Lin Xiangshun and his relatives, Li Baoyu couldn’t think of anyone else who would come to visit him.

Suddenly, Li Baoyu thought of someone. His eyes lit up, and he asked Zhao Jun, "Is it Liu Mei? I..."

As he spoke, Li Baoyu started to get off the kang, but Zhao Jun pushed him back down. "Nope."

"Oh..."

Before Li Baoyu could even feel disappointed, Zhang Yuanmin walked in carrying a mesh bag with four jars of canned fruit inside.

"Baoyu, your big brother is here to see you!" Zhang Yuanmin said as he entered, greeting Li Baoyu first before turning to Zhao Jun. "You’re here too, brother."

"Yup," Zhao Jun responded, scooting over. "Brother, come on up on the kang."

Zhang Yuanmin didn’t stand on ceremony. He placed the canned fruit next to Li Baoyu, hopped onto the kang, and sat cross-legged. "How are you doing, brother?" he asked.

"I’m fine, I’ll be all better after some rest," Li Baoyu replied with a smile. "Sorry to make you come all this way, Brother."

Then, Li Baoyu added, "Brother, you should have just come. Why’d you bring anything?"

"I was worried you might feel feverish," Zhang Yuanmin said with a laugh. "I bought you a couple of jars of canned fruit to refresh your palate. Later, have my auntie put them in the cellar. They’ll be nice and cool when you take them out to eat."

"Then thank you, Brother!" Li Baoyu thanked Zhang Yuanmin from the bottom of his heart. He was still young and didn’t have many social connections in the hamlet, so very few people would come to visit him.

"Brother, what’s with the courtesy between us?" Zhang Yuanmin waved his hand dismissively, but then he remembered something and asked Li Baoyu, "So what happened? I heard it was the Zhang Family that started it. That Zhang Laibao is just asking for a beating. If I run into him one of these days, I’ll give him another one!"

"Ha!" Li Baoyu chuckled. "Brother, you’ve got good sources. You found out so quickly."

"Haha..." Zhang Yuanmin laughed. "It’s not that I’ve got good sources. It’s that your Ruhai has a big mouth."

At this, Zhang Yuanmin turned to Zhao Jun. "Early this morning, my Auntie and Aunt Li went to deliver food, and Ruhai tagged along. He gave us a whole earful. I reckon..."

At this point, Zhang Yuanmin couldn’t hold back his laughter. "Half the hamlet probably knows by now," he said with a grin.

Hearing this, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu didn’t know what to say.

They just heard Zhang Yuanmin ask again, "So how did it all get resolved in the end?"

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu exchanged a look, and Zhao Jun gave Zhang Yuanmin a brief summary.

After listening, Zhang Yuanmin glanced at Li Baoyu, then at Zhao Jun. "Brother, my uncle handled this pretty well. But I bet that Zhang Zhanshan won’t let it go!"

"That’s true!" Hearing this, Li Baoyu said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, because of the thing with Liu Mei, Zhang Laibao already wants me dead. Because of those two Little Black pups, his family also hates Brother Zhang. As for your family, that goes without saying. And now with this, I’m afraid they’ll try to stab us in the back!"

At this, Zhao Jun also fell silent. ’The grudge with Zhang Zhanshan is getting deeper and deeper, but it’s not like we can just eliminate them. The best thing to do now would be to find some trouble for the Zhang Family, something to keep them so overwhelmed they won’t have time to mess with us.’

Seeing that both Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were silent, a slight smile played on Zhang Yuanmin’s lips. He picked up the cattail fan that Zhao Jun had placed on the kang, fanned it twice with an air of profound mystery, and let his gaze drift between their faces. "My two worthy brothers, I have a plan. I guarantee it will leave the Zhang Zhanshan family utterly disgraced and their reputation in ruins!"

Zhang Yuanmin had just finished speaking when Jin Xiaomei came in with a mug of brown sugar water. She had been boiling water in the outer room. She placed the enamel mug in front of Zhang Yuanmin and smiled. "Yuanmin, have some water."

Zhang Yuanmin took the mug with both hands. He didn’t have time to reveal his brilliant plan, and could only thank Jin Xiaomei, "Thank you, Auntie."

"Go on, drink up!" Jin Xiaomei turned and walked back toward the outer room. Just as she was about to step out, she thought to herself, ’Utterly disgraced and their reputation in ruins? Since when can someone with barely three days of schooling use fancy idioms like that?’

But Jin Xiaomei slowed her steps at the doorway, pricking up her ears, eager to hear what brilliant idea Zhang Yuanmin had.