Chapter 365 - 303: Spotted and Sleek
"Make a phone call?" Wu Feng said with a laugh. "I was wondering what this was all about. Quick, come on in."
Leading Zhao Jun inside, Wu Feng took him straight to the telephones. He pointed to the two sets on the desk and asked, "Who are you trying to call?"
One was an ordinary hand-crank telephone, and the other was for the internal dispatch network.
The crank phone was straightforward enough, but the Forest Farm’s internal phone was special. You just had to pick up the receiver and press a button to connect directly to the Forestry Bureau or the other farms.
"I’m calling your brigade," Zhao Jun said with a smile. "I’m looking for Director Tao."
"Alright." Wu Feng held down the switch hook on the crank phone with one hand and turned the handle clockwise with the other. He gave it half a spin, then lifted the receiver. After a moment, he spoke into it, "Connect me to the Yongxing Brigade. Brigade headquarters!"
Zhao Jun stood by, watching Wu Feng fall silent for a moment before his face suddenly broke into a wide smile. "Secretary Yu! Hello, this is Wu Feng from the Second Team—the one working dispatch at the Yong’an Forest Farm... Oh, right, it’s not for me. It’s Zhao Jun from Yong’an Village. He’s looking for our Director Tao... Huh? Director Tao isn’t home...? Oh, I see..."
As he spoke, Wu Feng suddenly turned and handed the receiver to Zhao Jun. "Secretary Yu wants to speak with you."
"Hello, Secretary Yu."
Zhao Jun took the receiver and offered a greeting, only to be met with Yu Xuewen’s hearty laughter from the other end. "Zhao Jun! Our tiger-slaying hero! Haha! What do you need from Elder Tao? If you don’t mind, just tell me. If it’s something I can handle, I’ll take care of it for you."
In this Forest Area, he could be considered a titan. There were probably no more than five people who could stand on equal footing with him.
For someone like him to offer help unprompted was already giving Zhao Jun a great deal of face.
Sometimes, favors weren’t just about helping others. Being helped was also a form of social currency.
Zhao Jun chuckled. "It’s just a small thing. I’m looking to get some potassium aluminum sulfate."
"Ah, that’s easy enough," Yu Xuewen said. "Tomorrow, I’ll have someone deliver it to Wu Feng, and he can bring it over to you."
Yu Xuewen said this so casually, as if ordering Wu Feng to run an errand was the most natural thing in the world.
Hearing this, Zhao Jun said quickly, "Oh, that’s fantastic! Thank you, Secretary Yu."
"Don’t mention it. Come visit when you have time." After he finished speaking, Yu Xuewen hung up with a sharp CLICK.
Zhao Jun handed the receiver back to Wu Feng with a smile. "Leader Wu, it looks like I’ve made some trouble for you."
"Huh?" Wu Feng’s heart skipped a beat when he heard that.
Zhao Jun looked a little sheepish. "I asked Secretary Yu to help me track something down. He said he’ll have someone deliver it to you tomorrow, so... I’ll have to trouble you to bring it over for me."
"Oh!" Wu Feng let out a long sigh of relief and laughed. "Is that all? I was wondering what it was! You call that trouble? It’s nothing. After work tomorrow, I’ll go get it from Secretary Yu and bring it over..." He glanced around and pointed to Li Dayong, who was talking with a colleague. "I’ll give it to your Uncle Li and have him take it back for you."
"Okay, okay. That’s really too much trouble, Leader Wu."
"Hah, I told you, it’s nothing."
After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Wu Feng, Zhao Jun said his goodbyes, greeting Li Dayong on his way out. But to Li Dayong’s surprise, Wu Feng actually walked Zhao Jun all the way to the door himself.
How could he have known? ’In Wu Feng’s mind, Zhao Jun was an extraordinary figure. Not only was he Zhou Jianjun’s brother-in-law, but he could also rub shoulders with the likes of Tao Dabao and Yu Xuewen from the Yongxing Brigade.’
Wu Feng had been standing right there when Zhao Jun was on the phone. Although he couldn’t hear what Yu Xuewen was saying, he could guess that the man had offered to help Zhao Jun of his own accord.
Wu Feng, who lived in the Yongxing Brigade himself, knew exactly how much clout Yu Xuewen carried in the area. ’And if a man like that would offer his help unprompted, how could Zhao Jun be an ordinary person?’
Standing at the door to the dispatch office, Wu Feng watched Zhao Jun’s retreating back and muttered, "This kid... he’s a cut above his father."
...
Zhao Jun left the dispatch office and went to the cafeteria for lunch. After eating his fill, he sat and rested for a bit before heading down the mountain and straight home.
It wasn’t even two o’clock when he arrived home. Wang Meilan was quite curious and asked why he was back so early.
"Things were slow at work, so I came back," Zhao Jun said, glancing toward the inner room. "Mom, where’d Dad go?"
"Don’t even get me started." The moment Zhao Jun mentioned Zhao Youcai, Wang Meilan sighed. "Right after you left this morning, your father got dressed to leave. He said he won’t be back today, that he’s going over to your brother-in-law’s house. Said some kind of creature showed up in the mountains over there, and he’s going to hunt it."
"When’s he coming back?"
"He didn’t say."
Zhao Jun nodded and went to his room to rest.
...
The next day, Zhao Jun went to the Logging Camp as usual to oversee the timber transport. Zhang Yuanmin, however, headed into the mountains with Chen Dalai, coils of wire snares slung across his body like the deity Nezha.
Chen Dalai was similarly equipped, and he had also brought a curved-handle saw.
In addition, each man carried a gun. Zhang Yuanmin’s was a 16-gauge shotgun someone had given him.
The gun was ancient, and the trigger mechanism was so worn it felt gritty when pulled, but Zhang Yuanmin didn’t care.
Yang Yufeng hadn’t given him money for ammunition before, but this time, with Chen Dalai backing him, he had twenty shells loaded for him.
As the two men walked deeper into the mountains, chatting along the way, Chen Dalai said, "Big Pants, I’ve gotta say, you’re a real smooth liar when it comes to your wife."
"What are you talking about?" Zhang Yuanmin retorted irritably. "If I hadn’t said that, would she have let us come out here?"
"She’s just worried about you, is all." Chen Dalai’s gaze then fell on the gun slung over Zhang Yuanmin’s back. He frowned. "Hey, are you sure that gun of yours is reliable? Don’t let it misfire on us when it counts."
Zhang Yuanmin glanced at him. "You take the first shot. I’ll cover you."
"What if that costs us the kill?" Chen Dalai pressed. "You’re so close with Zhao Jun, why didn’t you borrow a gun from him?"
"What do you know?" Zhang Yuanmin said. "My brother is just like my wife—he’d be worried about the danger. If he knew about this, he wouldn’t have let me go. Let me tell you, the people closest to you are the last ones who want to see you take risks."
"Oh?" Hearing this, Chen Dalai sneered. "So then what’s this about? You’re hunting a Black Bear, a dangerous job, and you ask me to come along. What does that make us? Since we’re not that close, you can just drag me into danger?"
"Elder Chen, that’s not..."
Zhang Yuanmin was about to speak when an "AWH, AWH" sound echoed from the hillside.
The two men instantly recognized it as the call of a roe deer. Chen Dalai quickly shrugged off his coils of wire, leveled his gun, and started running uphill.
Zhang Yuanmin did the same, following close behind with his gun at the ready.
As they scrambled up the ridge, their bodies sent the nearby branches into a RUSTLING frenzy. When they reached the top, they saw a flash of a spotted, shadowy figure.
Looking ahead, they saw a roe deer on the ground. It was struggling to prop itself up with its front legs, but its hindquarters were splayed out, motionless.
The roe deer’s hindquarters had been torn open. It was a bloody mess, its intestines spilling out onto the ground.
But right then, neither Zhang Yuanmin nor Chen Dalai paid any mind to the deer. They were both staring at the spot where the dappled shadow had vanished.
"Did you see that?" Chen Dalai asked first, turning to Zhang Yuanmin.
Zhang Yuanmin’s eyes shifted. "I saw it. Wasn’t that a Tiger cub?"
"No!" Chen Dalai said adamantly. "It wasn’t a Tiger cub. Its coat was all dappled and patterned."