Chapter 401 - 335: Zhang Shaoji
Outside Zhao Jun's family home.
Li Baoyu watched the Liberation truck disappear into the vast darkness of the night, then turned to Zhao Jun beside him. "Brother," he asked, "are we going to hunt those three bears?"
The food and wine had been excellent that night, but Li Baoyu hadn't drunk much. That was because Zhao Jun had said they were going to Lingnan first thing in the morning to sell the Ginseng and Bear Gall.
But now, Zhao Jun was telling him to bring his gun and head into the mountains in the morning. Li Baoyu instantly understood what was happening.
Just that evening at the dinner table, Jie Zhong and Jie Chen had talked about being chased by a bear that afternoon. In Li Baoyu's eyes, hunting these Black Bears in the mountains was definitely a profitable venture.
That's right. He was already thinking of the Black Bears as a gang.
Three Black Bears meant three Bear Galls. Even if two were small, that was still a lot of money.
Seeing Zhao Jun nod, Li Baoyu asked again, "We can't use the dogs to corner them, can we?"
Zhao Jun shook his head again. "We can't."
Although their two families had eight hunting dogs between them, it wasn't enough to corner three Black Bears, not even with two of them being smaller.
As Zhao Jun spoke, a mental map of the mountain terrain where he and Zhang Yuanmin had set the deer pit surfaced in his mind. After a moment of thought, he said, "Tomorrow, we'll cross over from Yellow Stone Cliff and go directly to the spot above that deer pit. I'll use the semi-automatic rifle. If a Black Bear is wounded and charges us, you open fire."
Once Zhao Jun explained it, Li Baoyu understood. Zhao Jun was proposing a stalking ambush.
'That Ma Lu weighed around five hundred pounds,' he thought. 'The three bears can't possibly finish it in one day. And they won't leave until they've eaten the whole thing.'
That meant that even if the bears had dragged the Ma Lu out of the pit, they wouldn't have gone far. As long as they crossed the mountain and crept up on them, they were guaranteed a shot.
Zhao Jun used a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle. He could fire ten shots in succession without taking the rifle from his shoulder.
Meanwhile, Li Baoyu would stand guard. If a bear was wounded and charged them, it would be his job to open fire.
With the plan set, the two went their separate ways. Zhao Jun entered his courtyard, closed the gate behind him, and went inside. In the kitchen, he saw that the large cooking pot on the stove was filled with water and piled high with used bowls and chopsticks.
Normally, dirty dishes were put in a basin to be washed. But during holidays, festivals, or banquets, when there were too many for the basin, they would be placed in the large stew pot. You washed the dishes first, then the pot.
Jin Xiaomei had originally stayed behind to help, but just as she'd helped Wang Meilan clear the table, Li Ruhai returned to tell her that Li Dayong had thrown up—all over the kang.
There was nothing for it; Jin Xiaomei had to go home and clean up. Once she left, Wang Meilan was left to do all the work by herself.
But what struck Zhao Jun as strange was that his mother, who was always so quick and efficient, had simply left the dishes piled there and disappeared instead of washing them.
Zhao Jun instinctively glanced into the inner room. He saw Wang Meilan standing at the edge of the kang, where Zhao Youcai and the two little girls were already fast asleep.
With one hand, Wang Meilan lifted Zhao Youcai's outer jacket by the collar. With the other, she reached into a pocket, and then her whole body froze for an instant.
He watched as Wang Meilan pulled a wad of cash from the pocket. She flicked through it with her thumb—it was a little over three yuan, a mix of bills and change.
Wang Meilan stuffed the money into her own pocket, then tossed Zhao Youcai's jacket aside.
Seeing this, Zhao Jun quickly slipped into his own room.
That three-odd yuan must have been what was left from the fifteen yuan Zhao Jun had given Zhao Youcai to buy canned goods. Zhao Youcai hadn't had a chance to hide it before it was confiscated by Wang Meilan.
Poor Zhao Youcai. He had thought getting drunk would save him from an interrogation, but he never imagined that drinking too much would just result in Wang Meilan picking his pockets.
「The night passed.」
Early the next morning, Zhao Jun woke to find Zhao Youcai at the stove, frying flatbreads.
For Zhao Youcai, cooking all day in the canteen was more than enough, so he rarely set foot in the kitchen at home.
Especially in the mornings. He usually just woke up and waited for a ready-made meal, relaxed for a bit after eating, and then headed off to work.
But today, Master Chef Zhao himself was in the kitchen.
Seeing this, Zhao Jun didn't dare to ask any questions. He just quietly went into the east room and sat down at the table to eat.
Last night's dinner had been very rich, so this morning's meal was light: a simple soup stewed with strips of cabbage, potato, and glass noodles.
The main course was the fried flatbreads—cornmeal cakes fried in bear fat, which made them incredibly fragrant.
Zhao Jun had three bowls of the soup and three large pieces of flatbread before returning to his room, fully satisfied.
Watching Zhao Jun's retreating back, Zhao Youcai opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately kept silent.
After resting for a while, Zhao Jun got up, changed his clothes, put on his leggings, and then retrieved thirty bullets from a stack of quilts.
He was hunting three bears today; he had to be fully prepared.
Zhao Jun stuffed all the bullets into his satchel and slung it over his shoulder. Then he took the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle down from the wall, slung it over his other shoulder, and headed outside.
"Dad, Mom, I'm heading out!"
"Okay, son, be careful." By now, Wang Meilan was used to seeing Zhao Jun leave with a gun. She no longer even bothered to ask if he was going to work or off hunting for the day.
Zhao Youcai gulped down the last of the soup in his bowl, set it on the table, and swiveled around, dropping his crossed legs to the floor. He craned his neck to look out the window and muttered, "Why's the boy going out with a gun? What's he planning to hunt? I should go ask."
As he spoke, he got up to head outside, but as he passed Wang Meilan, he heard her bark, "Stop right there!"
"Huh?" Zhao Youcai froze, his feet seemingly rooted to the spot. He looked at Wang Meilan with an expression of pure innocence.
Wang Meilan reached out, deftly stacked the bowls used by Zhao Jun, his sisters, and the two of them, then thrust the pile into Zhao Youcai's hands. "Go! Do the dishes!"
Zhao Youcai looked like he wanted to protest, but he didn't dare. He just took the bowls into the outer room to fetch water and wash them.
Zhao Jun left his house and waited outside the courtyard gate for a few minutes until Li Baoyu emerged, carrying his own gun.
The two of them walked toward the edge of the village, talking and laughing. Suddenly, a figure darted out from an alley between a row of houses to their left, shouting, "Brother! Brother!" as soon as he saw Li Baoyu.
"Hey!" Li Baoyu saw that it was none other than his younger brother, Li Ruhai.
"What's wrong?" Li Baoyu asked, startled. He immediately stepped forward, pushed Li Ruhai behind him, and looked back down the alley Li Ruhai had just run out of.
Blood is thicker than water, after all.
The fact that the two brothers argued and fought all the time was another matter entirely. This was his own flesh and blood; he couldn't just let someone else bully him!
Li Baoyu stood there with his hands on his hips, striking a dramatic pose. He held it for a good while, but no one appeared.
Just as he was about to turn and question Li Ruhai, he saw someone running toward them like a waddling duck, dragging his legs awkwardly.
Upon seeing the approaching figure, Li Baoyu broke into a smirk and deliberately shouted, "Hey Ruhai, what are you running for? Get chased by a dog?"
"What the hell... Li Baoyu, who are you calling a dog?" Zhang Laibao stopped in his tracks, not daring to get any closer when he saw the dangerous air around Li Baoyu, but he kept on yelling.
In his current condition, he knew he couldn't win a fight. The bigger problem was that he couldn't even run away.
"I'll call whoever was chasing my Ruhai a dog!" Li Baoyu shot back. "What about it? Are you the one bullying my brother?"
"Who the hell bullied him? Why don't you ask that brat what he did?" Zhang Laibao roared. "The little bastard's been spreading stories about me all over the village! Now every damn person is calling me Zhang Shaoji!"