The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

A dark shadow flashed past, and a moment later, a volley of roars erupted from the woods.

"ROAR... WHIMPER... AWOOOO..."

The forest seemed to tremble, the sound echoing through the mountain valley.

With the Mountain King present, the area was already devoid of birds and beasts. After the Tiger’s roars faded, the surrounding wilderness fell utterly silent.

Tao Dabao knelt on one knee in the snow, his gun still aimed at the woods. He was as still as a statue, not moving a muscle.

By now, Zhao Jun and Li the Fifth were struggling to hold back the horse. Seeing that Li the Fifth still had it under control, Zhao Jun copied Tao Dabao and leaped from the sled.

But Zhao Jun lacked Tao Dabao’s practiced skill. He leaped rashly from the sled and nearly face-planted in the snow upon landing.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun was young and agile. He stumbled a few steps before regaining his balance.

"WHOOSH... RUSTLE..."

A mountain breeze swept through, rustling the dry, leafless branches of the trees.

Zhao Jun caught a dark shadow out of the corner of his eye. He spun around, raised his gun, and fired south.

"BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!"

Four consecutive shots!

"YELP!"

It was a sharp, sudden cry, gone in an instant.

’It’s hit!’

Before they left, Tao Dabao had told them that Brigade Secretary Yu Xuewen would call In the Town after they set out. They were to act first and ask for permission later, so they were clear to shoot.

Seeing no animal where he had fired, Zhao Jun quickly turned to look at Tao Dabao.

He saw Tao Dabao approaching him rapidly, gun in hand. He moved with incredible speed, showing no sign of his past leg injury.

Tao Dabao held his gun in one hand and made a quick gesture to Zhao Jun with the other. Though Zhao Jun didn’t recognize the specific signal, he understood the general meaning: Tao Dabao wanted him to follow.

The beast’s roars had vanished over the western slope, so the two men headed that way. Tao Dabao took the lead with Zhao Jun behind him. Tao Dabao kept his eyes fixed forward, while Zhao Jun guarded their flanks and rear.

Their situation was different from when Zhao Jun and Zhou Chengguo had been out. On that day, the two of them had been more hesitant. After all, you couldn’t just shoot one of these things whenever you wanted; you needed permission from the higher-ups.

But Tao Dabao didn’t care. Today, he had come out swinging, ready to unleash everything they had.

Ahead was an upward slope. Uphill sections were usually Qingtang Forest, where the trees were sparse. They didn’t have to worry about the Tiger hiding in a dense thicket, but since Tao Dabao and Zhao Jun were at a lower elevation, they had to worry about it attacking from above.

Tao Dabao inched forward slowly. Further up was a small, bulging knoll on the ridge. From his position below, Tao Dabao couldn’t see what was on the other side.

Tao Dabao stopped and thought for a moment. He wasn’t afraid for himself, but he worried something might happen to Zhao Jun.

So, he gestured to Zhao Jun again. Zhao Jun understood, nodded, and turned around. Now he was in the lead with Tao Dabao covering the rear as they headed back the way they came.

Once they were down the slope, Tao Dabao put two fingers in his mouth and let out a sharp whistle to call for Li the Fifth, his gun held in his other hand.

Zhao Jun, meanwhile, remained vigilant, scanning their surroundings.

Just then, Tao Dabao said to Zhao Jun, "It’s fine. I don’t think it can come down."

Tao Dabao pointed up the slope. "I was afraid it was lying in wait up there, so I didn’t dare take you any further. That was my mistake today. If I’d known, I would have brought eight or nine of the guys. We could’ve stormed the ridge, and it wouldn’t have escaped even if it grew wings."

Zhao Jun smiled at his words. After a moment of thought, he pointed in the direction he had fired. "Uncle Tao, could you come with me to check something over there?"

"What for?"

"I think I hit it," Zhao Jun said. "Come with me, I want to check the bullet trail."

Tao Dabao immediately recognized "bullet trail" as hunting jargon, which simply referred to the path of a bullet after being fired.

Tao Dabao didn’t care much about the trajectory itself, but his interest was piqued the moment he heard Zhao Jun say he’d wounded the Tiger. The two of them immediately headed south.

As they walked south, Tao Dabao kept his gun raised in alert while Zhao Jun crouched low, scanning the ground. He spotted the marks where bullets had sliced through the snowdrifts.

On one of these trails, Zhao Jun saw a speck of blood.

Zhao Jun waved Tao Dabao over. Tao Dabao came, glanced at the blood, then looked to the west. "Not a serious wound."

"Yeah," Zhao Jun nodded. "Just a graze."

"Let’s go!" Tao Dabao said, turning west.

Zhao Jun followed Tao Dabao as they ascended the western slope again. This time, they climbed right up and over the knoll.

Whether the wound was light or severe, the Tiger wouldn’t linger here for long.

Sure enough, there was no ambush on the other side of the knoll. Tao Dabao and Zhao Jun pressed on, and after a short distance, they came upon a large, bloody scene. A horse had been torn to shreds.

It was Qu the Second’s horse!

Looking further into the distance, they saw a grove of oak trees, their branches rustling in the cold wind.

"Let’s head back," Tao Dabao said to Zhao Jun, slinging his gun over his shoulder and turning to leave.

Zhao Jun followed.

When they got to the bottom of the slope, Li the Fifth had already returned with the horse-drawn sled.

"Chief, how’d it go?" Li the Fifth asked Tao Dabao.

Tao Dabao shook his head. "Let’s head back first. We’ll talk more there."

And so, Li the Fifth guided the horse-drawn sled, taking Tao Dabao and Zhao Jun back to the Yongxing Brigade.

Back at Team One, they went straight to the brigade headquarters.

A middle-aged man with glasses was pacing back and forth inside the headquarters, his hands clasped behind his back.

When he saw Tao Dabao return, he hurried over. "Da Bao, are you alright?"

This was none other than Yu Xuewen, the secretary of the Yongxing Brigade. After getting the report from the man Tao Dabao had sent, he had rushed to the brigade headquarters and immediately picked up the phone to call In the Town.

After listening, the people In the Town told him to wait for an update, and then they in turn called the county...

In truth, Yu Xuewen didn’t much care whether he heard back from In the Town. He was more concerned that Tao Dabao had gone out with only two people, one of whom he’d heard was just a greenhorn kid. He was worried there might be an accident.

In Yu Xuewen’s opinion, to hunt such a massive creature, you needed to bring more men. Maybe not a hundred, or even eighty, but at the very least you should form fireteams and just sweep through, taking out anything in your path.

"We’re fine." Tao Dabao placed his gun on the table and asked Yu Xuewen, "Elder Yu, what did the higher-ups say?"

"They approved..." Yu Xuewen started to say, but then he paused, craning his neck to look outside. "What’s this? You’re already back?"

"Not exactly." Tao Dabao quickly held up a hand to stop him. "That thing is too fast. We fired a couple of shots, and it vanished."

"That’s what everyone says," Yu Xuewen replied. "The old-timers always said it’s as fast as the wind. I was worried you’d be in danger."

"It wasn’t that bad." Tao Dabao pulled over a wooden chair and sat down heavily. He gestured for Zhao Jun to come closer, then said to Yu Xuewen, "Elder Yu, this is the young man who rescued my father from the mountains a while back."

"Hello, Secretary Yu. My name is Zhao Jun." With Tao Dabao making the introduction, Zhao Jun quickly greeted the man.

In another decade or so, a brigade secretary wouldn’t be such a big deal. But right now, in the entire Yongzhi District, you could probably count on one hand the number of people on equal footing with Yu Xuewen.

"Ah, hello." Yu Xuewen shook Zhao Jun’s hand, then turned to Tao Dabao. "This young man looks sharp." Only after saying this did he release his grip.

"He sure is." Tao Dabao praised Zhao Jun without reservation. "The other day when I was on the mountain, I couldn’t even hit the Tiger. But this young man here managed to wound it."

"Oh!" Yu Xuewen was startled to hear that Zhao Jun had wounded the Tiger. "How bad was it?" he asked quickly.

Tao Dabao wanted to build up Zhao Jun’s reputation, so he answered vaguely, "All we know is Zhao Jun’s shot connected. We don’t know how bad the wound is."

Yu Xuewen nodded at his words. After two seconds of silence, he said, "Tomorrow is the spring hunt. We’ll have people coming from In the Town and the county. Let’s focus on our official business first and deal with this after the hunt is over."

"So we’re hunting it?" Tao Dabao asked.

Yu Xuewen nodded firmly. "It killed one of our horses. We can’t just let it get away with that."