Chapter 345 - 283: Oh, Zhao Jun! Zhao Jun
That afternoon, Li Baoyu came back to report to Zhao Guofeng. When Zhao Guofeng heard that Zhao Jun, along with Li Baoyu and Zhang Yuanmin, had killed seventy or eighty wild boars in just one morning, he could hardly believe it.
But seeing Li Baoyu swearing up and down that it was true, Zhao Guofeng started making calls to borrow some vehicles.
After half an hour on the phone, Zhao Guofeng finally managed to borrow two Dongfanghong tractors from Yongfu Village.
But the Village Chief of Yongfu Village said that while they had two tractors, only one driver was available. The other had accidentally crushed his leg moving something a few days ago and was still laid up in bed.
Hearing this, Zhao Guofeng immediately said one tractor would be enough. In truth, he still didn’t believe Li Baoyu.
Li Baoyu didn’t catch his meaning. He volunteered to drive the other one himself, insisting that Zhao Guofeng borrow both tractors. He even claimed one trip wouldn’t be enough to haul everything back.
So, Zhao Guofeng took Li Baoyu and Zhao Jinshan to Yongfu Village. They borrowed one driver and two tractors, and he had Zhao Jinshan go along with them up the mountain.
All the phone calls and the trip to Yongfu Village had eaten up a lot of time, which was why Li Baoyu was only just now returning from the mountains with the boars.
As he entered the village from the west, Li Baoyu spotted a large Jiefang truck about twenty meters ahead.
What’s more, Li Baoyu recognized it at a glance—it was the very truck he usually drove.
So, without getting a clear look at who was in the passenger seat, Li Baoyu yelled "Brother Shunzi!" out his window. He knew the driver had to be Lin Xiangshun.
Then, Li Baoyu followed the lead tractor as it made a turn, heading straight for the Village Office.
But he hadn’t gone far before he noticed Lin Xiangshun’s truck was following him.
He knew Lin Xiangshun wouldn’t take this road to get home. ’If he’s following me, something must be up.’
The dead boars were already in the village; it wasn’t like they were going to run off. Li Baoyu stopped the tractor and hopped down, figuring he’d ask Lin Xiangshun what was going on.
But after the Jiefang truck stopped, the passenger-side door opened. The first person to step out was Zhao Youcai. Li Dayong followed close behind.
"Dad!" Li Baoyu called out first. Then he looked at Zhao Youcai, lowered his head, and added, "Uncle."
Neither Zhao Youcai nor Li Dayong answered. The two walked over to the tractor’s trailer, staring at the boars piled inside.
They didn’t need to count them one by one. A single glance told them there had to be at least twenty wild boars in the trailer.
’And thinking back to the tractor that had just passed... around forty more boars on that one... how in the world did they kill so many?’
Just then, Zhao Youcai turned to Li Baoyu. He didn’t say another word, just asked, "Where’s Zhao Jun?"
"My... brother... He didn’t come back."
"No kidding!" his father, Li Dayong, snapped. "Spit it out! What exactly is he doing?"
Li Baoyu could see things were getting tense. ’This is more than I can handle.’ He quickly confessed, "My brother went after the Pig God."
"The Pig God?" Zhao Youcai demanded angrily. "This morning, didn’t you say you were going to drive off that hunchback, the Big Bear Dominator?"
"This... this morning..." Li Baoyu’s eyes darted around as an idea came to him. He grinned and said, "Well, we had planned yesterday to go after Xiong Ba today, but as soon as we got up the mountain, we ran into this herd of boars."
"Cut the crap!" Li Dayong cursed his son. ’This kid is so reckless, still telling lies at a time like this.’
Li Dayong pointed at the trailer and roared at Li Baoyu, "You killed all these boars in a single day?"
"There are two more loads..."
"What?" Li Baoyu’s reply was simple, just five words, but after hearing it, Zhao Youcai had to ask, "You killed the entire herd?"
"Yeah!" Li Baoyu nodded, stretching out his arms and gesturing dramatically. "We killed seventy-five wild boars in two hours! They were all over the mountainside! It was a river of blood!"
"Oh, get out of here!" Hearing his son starting to sound like he was telling some grand epic, Li Dayong snapped at him, "What are you blathering on about?"
Li Baoyu flinched, pulled his hands back, and didn’t dare say another word.
Lin Xiangshun, who had gotten out of the truck a while ago, hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise. He finally saw his chance and asked Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, how on earth did you kill so many boars?"
Hearing Lin Xiangshun’s question, both Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong turned to look at Li Baoyu. They were just as curious.
In truth, killing the Pig God itself wasn’t the hard part. The difficulty was that the Pig God had gathered a gang of followers that always surrounded it.
If one could eliminate this herd, then hunting the Pig God wouldn’t be difficult.
But it was precisely this herd of over seventy wild boars that had left Zhao Youcai and the others completely stumped.
Li Baoyu scratched his head and grinned at the three men. "Well, it was actually pretty simple. We just used the same trick we use in the spring to chase roe deer with dogs."
"Well, I’ll be damned!" Li Dayong exclaimed. He turned to look at Zhao Youcai, but seeing that he seemed to be lost in thought, he turned to Lin Xiangshun instead.
Thankfully, Lin Xiangshun was playing along, turning to meet Li Dayong’s gaze.
Li Dayong slapped the back of his right hand into his left palm. "Shunzi," he said, "tell me, how did we never think of that?"
Lin Xiangshun just shook his head, saying nothing. Just then, Zhao Youcai turned and started walking away.
"Brother, where are you going?" Li Dayong shouted after him.
Without looking back, Zhao Youcai replied, "Home!"
"You’re not taking the truck?"
As if in a sulk, Zhao Youcai yelled back, "I’m not!"
Zhao Youcai was fuming. ’Big Claw... the Pig God... those were my life’s ambitions!’ he thought. ’Zhao Jun! That Zhao Jun!’
"Zhao Jun! Oh, Zhao Jun!" At that very moment, not far away outside the Village Office, Zhao Guofeng was muttering the very same name.
After returning from Yongfu Village, he had been waiting at the Village Office for the boars to arrive. When the first tractor pulled up to the door, Zhao Guofeng came out to take a look. The sight of the trailer piled high with wild boars was a powerful visual shock.
Zhao Guofeng called people over to unload the tractor and invited the driver inside for a drink of water, even offering to put him up at his own house for a meal and a night’s stay.
It was only after the driver went inside that Zhao Guofeng remembered Li Baoyu was driving the other tractor.
"How many boars are on that other one?" Zhao Guofeng asked the driver casually. This one load was already plenty for him to handle, but if there was another, well, that would be fine too.
So when the driver told him that Li Baoyu was indeed hauling another load of boars, Zhao Guofeng didn’t think much of it.
But what the driver said next left Zhao Guofeng utterly dumbfounded.
"Cadre Zhao, you’ve got some impressive kids in this village! Over seventy wild boars in one day. We couldn’t haul them all in one trip. That fella, Brother Li, and I have to go back for another load tomorrow."
"Sev... Sev... Seventy-plus?" Zhao Guofeng felt his head spin.
"Yep!" The driver set down the white porcelain teacup used for guests at the Village Office. "I think that fella said seventy-five, didn’t he?"
"Sev... seventy-five?"
"No, that’s not right." The driver’s correction made Zhao Guofeng’s tense heart ease for a moment, only for him to continue, "I think one got away. The biggest one, they said. Weighed over a thousand pounds. Your village’s Cannon Shooter went after it."
"Over a thousand pounds!" Zhao Guofeng nearly collapsed. According to the deal he’d struck with Zhao Jun, he was buying the boar meat at twenty cents a pound. A thousand pounds would be two hundred dollars!
And so, Zhao Guofeng thought in anguish, ’Zhao Jun, oh, Zhao Jun, are you trying to bankrupt our Village Office?!’
Meanwhile, far away in the mountains, Zhao Jun felt his ears begin to burn. He didn’t think it was because someone was talking about him; he just figured his ears had gotten a bit frostbitten after spending so long trekking through the mountains, and now they felt strange as he warmed them by the fire.
Now that he’d eaten his fill, he got up and kicked snow over the fire to extinguish it. Then, holding a burning pine branch like a torch, he set off.
He wasn’t heading home. He was heading deeper into the mountains.