The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

The first thing Zhao Jun did when he got home was store the three Ginseng Buns in the cellar.

When he came out of the cellar and was opening the front door to go inside, he heard Wang Meilan’s voice from the inner room: "Who is it? Who’s back?"

"Mom, I’m back," Zhao Jun replied.

"My son is back." Wang Meilan came out to greet him, but the smile on her face was a little forced, not like usual.

Zhao Jun knew Wang Meilan was worried about Zhao Youcai. He had no idea if his dad had actually managed to hunt the leopard over in Yongsheng Village.

...

At that moment, deep in the mountains, Zhao Youcai felt his ears burning. He scratched them, but the more he scratched, the itchier they got.

It was already past four in the afternoon. Zhou Jianjun tiptoed up behind Zhao Youcai, squatted down, and asked, "Dad, are we heading back?"

Zhao Youcai looked at the nanny goat lying under a tree seven or eight meters away, sighed, and shook his head. "Tie up the goat. Let’s go home."

Zhou Jianjun shook his head helplessly, walked out from behind the tree, and untied the nanny goat.

Then he knocked it down, tied its four hooves together, threaded a pole through, and the father- and son-in-law carried the goat down the mountain.

This big nanny goat wasn’t like a kid. It wouldn’t let anyone carry it on their back. Plus, it was surprisingly strong, and when it started struggling, Zhou Jianjun couldn’t control it.

There was no other way. They had to carry it like a pig.

Walking on a mountain path is different from walking on flat ground. Even though the goat only weighed about ninety pounds, it was still a real effort for the two of them to carry it.

After finally making it back to the village, the father- and son-in-law continued carrying the goat home. Someone on the road greeted them, saying to Zhou Jianjun, "Jianjun, what’s this? Carrying the goat back now?"

As luck would have it, this person had seen Zhao Youcai and Zhou Jianjun carrying the goat when he came out of his house to use the latrine that morning.

Now, as evening approached, the man came out of his house to use the latrine again, only to see the father- and son-in-law carrying the goat once more.

In the morning they were carrying it out of the village, and in the evening they were carrying it back in. It was bound to seem a little strange.

"Ah... yeah," Zhou Jianjun answered vaguely. What else could he say? There was no good explanation, and telling the truth would just make them a laughingstock.

The two carried the goat back to the Zhou home. They had just entered the courtyard and were tying the goat in the shed by the wall when Hu Sanmei and Zhao Chun came out of the house.

Hu Sanmei looked at the two men, then at the goat, and finally her gaze fell upon Zhao Chun.

Zhao Youcai was her daughter’s father, and a guest besides. What could Hu Sanmei possibly say? Some things were best left for a daughter to say to her own dad.

’Sigh!’ Zhao Chun sighed to herself. She was starting to worry about Zhao Youcai. ’That big nanny goat can’t be cheap. I wonder where Dad scrounged up the money... If Mom finds out, all hell will break loose.’

At that moment, Zhao Youcai pointed to the goat and said to Hu Sanmei, "Bring out a basin. This goat’s still got milk."

Hu Sanmei looked and saw it was true. Not only did the goat have milk, but its udders were swollen.

In early spring, there wasn’t much else for young goats to eat, so her two kids had been feeding solely on their mother’s milk.

But after Zhou Jianjun bought the two kids one after the other, there was no one left to drink the mother’s milk. The Sun Family had been planning to milk the goat this morning, but before they could, Zhou Jianjun showed up again.

As Hu Sanmei brought out the basin to milk the goat, Zhao Youcai went into the house. When Zhou Jianjun saw the unfriendly look Zhao Chun was giving him, he quickly scurried into the house after Zhao Youcai.

But they were a married couple who slept on the same kang every night. Could he really escape?

He had barely stepped into the room when Zhao Chun followed him right in.

"Let me ask you!" Zhao Chun pointed a finger at Zhou Jianjun as she entered. "Where did Dad get the money to buy that goat?"

"I... I don’t know."

Zhao Chun asked again, "Did he pull it out of his pocket?"

"No."

"Why are you hemming and hawing? Spit it out! Where did Dad get the money?"

Zhao Chun didn’t believe Zhao Youcai would carry that much money on him. She felt something fishy was going on, which was why she was grilling Zhou Jianjun.

Zhou Jianjun knew he couldn’t weasel his way out of this one. He said immediately, "Honey, you know Han Daming from our village, right?"

"Of course I know him. Isn’t he Dad’s apprentice?"

"Mhm," Zhou Jianjun nodded. "Dad went straight to his house when he left today. He got the money for the goat from Han Daming. He took sixty and spent fifty."

Seeing the look on Zhao Chun’s face, Zhou Jianjun quickly added, "It seems it was all money Dad had left with him for safekeeping."

"Hah!" Zhao Chun looked up at the south wall. Her father was just on the other side of it. Though she couldn’t see him, Zhao Chun felt a deep, sincere "admiration" for Zhao Youcai.

...

"Son, why isn’t your father back yet?"

「Back at Zhao Jun’s house.」

During dinner that evening, Wang Meilan sat at the table and muttered to Zhao Jun several times, the same sentence over and over: "Why isn’t your father back yet?"

’How would I know?’ Zhao Jun could only offer some comforting words to Wang Meilan. ’Still,’ he thought, ’Dad has been gone for several days. He really should be back by now.’

After dinner, Zhao Jun helped Wang Meilan clear the table, then went to his room to rest.

「The next morning.」

Zhao Jun left the house without his gun, carrying only a satchel over his shoulder, and headed straight for Zhang Yuanmin’s house. It was just after breakfast; Yang Yufeng was in the outer room washing the dishes, while Zhang Yuanmin was sitting on the edge of the kang, wrapping his leggings.

"Oh, little brother, you’re here!" Seeing Zhao Jun enter, Yang Yufeng quickly put down her work, wiped her wet hands on her clothes, and said, "Come on in, I’ll get you some water."

"Don’t trouble yourself, Sister-in-law," Zhao Jun said, stopping her. "My big brother and I are leaving right away."

As Zhao Jun spoke, he entered the room. But one look inside made him jump in surprise.

He saw Zhang Yuanmin with an Invasion Blade tucked into each side of his lower back, a small hand axe tied to his outer right thigh, and a hand-fork strapped to his outer left calf.

"Big Brother, what are you doing?" Zhao Jun asked, stunned for a moment. He hurried forward and said, "Are we going to check the deer pit today? It can’t be time already, can it?"

The large deer needed two days to chew its way to the bait, so it couldn’t be ready this quickly. There would be nothing at the deer pit now.

"Huh?" Zhang Yuanmin looked at Zhao Jun with a blank expression, not understanding what he was talking about.

Zhao Jun added, "If we’re going to check the deer pit, I’ll go home and get my gun. You don’t need to bring all this stuff."

Only after Zhao Jun said this did Zhang Yuanmin understand. He grinned at Zhao Jun and said, "Brother, the deer needs two days to chew to the bait. You told me that yourself. We’re going to find a ginseng buyer today. I just figured I’d bring my gear, just in case they try anything."

"Oh, give me a break," Zhao Jun said, quickly grabbing Zhang Yuanmin. "We’re not even bringing the ginseng with us today. Are you afraid they’re going to rob you? Besides, the people I’m looking for are from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. There won’t be any trouble."

As he spoke, Zhao Jun started pulling at the Invasion Blade behind Zhang Yuanmin’s back. "If we were going up the mountain, one knife would be enough. You don’t need all this."

The two left the house and walked toward the edge of the village, chatting as they went. Zhang Yuanmin asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, didn’t you say there was still a big one in that Elder Anzi? How come we only dug up three stalks and then stopped?"

Yesterday at Elder Anzi, Zhao Jun had said there was a big one, but he only dug up three ginseng stalks before bringing Zhang Yuanmin back.

"I only know the general area of that big one. We’d need to do a full sweep, and that’s too much work for just the two of us." Zhao Jun glanced to the side and saw Zhao Guofeng walking quickly toward them. He clapped Zhang Yuanmin on the shoulder and said to him, "I want to get a group of people together and dig up all the ginseng in that Elder Anzi."

Zhao Jun had barely finished speaking when he heard Zhao Guofeng calling his name.

Zhao Jun turned to meet him, smiling as he walked over. "What’s up, Uncle Zhao?"

"Jun," Zhao Guofeng said. "Come to my place after work tonight. I’ll give you the money I owe you."

Getting paid was a good thing. Hearing this, Zhao Jun smiled. "Alright, I’ll come by tonight."

"Don’t be in such a hurry to leave." Zhao Guofeng motioned for Zhao Jun to come closer. "Yesterday, Jiang the Third and Liu the Fifth from our village went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables. On their way back, they ran into something. One of them says it was a tiger cub, the other says it looked like a small tiger. They don’t know what the heck it was."

Jiang the Third and Liu the Fifth were foragers and mountain guides, but they’d never been on a hunt, so they wouldn’t recognize a leopard.

But as soon as Zhao Jun heard this, he understood. ’This must be the Northeast Leopard that Zhang Yuanmin and I were looking for before.’

Thinking of this, Zhao Jun asked Zhao Guofeng, "Uncle Zhao, where did they see it?"

"I heard it was in the stretch of woods on the way from Old Dragon King Gully to Yellow Stone Pond."