The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Tomorrow was May Day, so the Forestry Bureau was sending people down for inspections today. Of course, the bureau didn’t have enough staff to visit every single Logging Camp in the Forest Area, but there was always the fear of being chosen for a random spot check.

Arriving at No. 77 Logging Camp, Zhao Jun first stopped by the Leader’s shack to say hello to Du Chunjiang. After all, the man had spent a fair bit of money on him yesterday. Even if only for the sake of those large-denomination banknotes, Zhao Jun had to show him some respect.

After leaving the Leader’s shack, Zhao Jun headed to the Log Pile Yard. While still a good distance away, he called out to Jie Zhong, "Brother Xie!"

Jie Zhong was speaking with some workers when he heard someone call his name. He turned, saw it was Zhao Jun, and immediately grinned. "Well, look who it is! Came in to work today, brother?"

"Yep." Zhao Jun answered with a smile. He pulled a carton of cigarettes from his satchel and held it out toward Jie Zhong as he walked over.

Jie Zhong stopped short. "Whoa, brother, what’s this for?" he asked.

Zhao Jun didn’t say anything at first. He walked right up to Jie Zhong, grabbed his wrist with his left hand, and pressed the carton into Jie Zhong’s hand with his right. "I went to Lingnan and sold the Ginseng yesterday," he said with a smile. "It’s all thanks to our Brother-in-law Sun, otherwise I never would have gotten such a good price. Your brother here doesn’t smoke, so I just grabbed a carton for you at the little store."

"You don’t have to do this." Jie Zhong tried to hand the carton back to Zhao Jun. "You don’t need to be so formal with your big brother, you know."

Zhao Jun held up a hand to stop him. "Brother, just take it. I already bought it for you."

"Alright then! Thanks, brother." Jie Zhong accepted with a word of thanks. He walked over to his truck, pulled open the passenger side door, and tossed the carton inside. Then he shouted at Jie Chen, who was dozing in the passenger seat, "Wake up! Your Brother Jun is here!"

As he spoke, Jie Zhong grabbed four bottles of Xifengjiu from the passenger seat and walked back toward Zhao Jun.

"Brother! You take this liquor back with you!"

"Whoa!" Zhao Jun laughed. "Brother Xie, what is this? I give you cigarettes, and you give me liquor."

"This isn’t for you," Jie Zhong chuckled. "It’s for my uncle, your father. When I was at your house the other day, I saw he can really hold his liquor."

Recalling the scene when Jie Zhong and Jie Chen had dinner at his house, Zhao Jun couldn’t bring himself to explain the truth. ’It’s not that Zhao Youcai can hold his liquor... he was just trying to get out of washing the dishes, to escape his "labor reform."’

"Take them!" Jie Zhong bent down, placed the bottles on the ground, then grabbed Zhao Jun’s satchel with one hand. With the other, he picked up the bottles and started stuffing them into the bag one by one. "When you get home, tell my uncle I’ll come visit him again someday for another round of drinks," he said as he worked.

Hearing this, Zhao Jun recalled the sight of Zhao Youcai washing his bedsheets that morning and chuckled. "In that case, you should’ve gone today."

"Not today." Jie Zhong turned, pointed at the workers, and said to Zhao Jun, "We’re almost done hauling all this timber. I want to push them for a few more days so the men can earn a bit more. Once we’ve settled up, I’ll come find you at your place."

Zhao Jun nodded. He glanced over at the Log Pile Yard. There had been so much timber before, but now there really wasn’t much left.

Just as Zhao Jun was about to speak, he saw Jie Chen approaching.

"Brother Jun!" As Jie Chen got closer, he started pulling money from his pocket to hand to Zhao Jun.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Jun quickly put out a hand to stop him.

Jie Chen explained, "I sold the tendons, tail, and hooves from that big Ma Lu we got the other day. This is the money."

"What money?" Zhao Jun quickly pushed his hand back, stuffing the cash into Jie Chen’s pocket. "Brother, if you keep this up, I’m done hanging out with you."

"That’s not right!" Jie Zhong interjected from the side, backing up his brother. "My friend, you gave us that whole huge deer last time. We got our share of the meat, that was more than enough. How could we also keep the parts that can be sold for cash?"

"That’s right!" Jie Chen said, trying to pull the money from his pocket again.

Zhao Jun stopped him. "Don’t take it out. Take that money home and buy something nice for my aunt, your mother. Just consider it a little something from me to show my respect for your elders." As he spoke, Zhao Jun gave Jie Chen’s arm a firm squeeze. "Listen to me, and stop trying to pull it out. If anyone sees, they’ll think I’m abusing my position and shaking you down."

Hearing this, Jie Chen glanced around. He realized the Log Pile Yard really wasn’t a good place for this. It was full of workers coming and going. If they saw him handing money to Zhao Jun, it would indeed look bad.

Jie Chen glanced at his older brother. When he saw Jie Zhong give him a nod, he stopped struggling with Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun watched Jie Chen, finding the situation rather amusing. ’The Jie Chen of this era is still so naive,’ he thought. ’He believes whatever I tell him.’

Zhao Jun had only said that as an excuse to refuse the money. If he were really afraid of people gossiping, he wouldn’t have accepted the liquor from Jie Zhong moments earlier.

But looking at the guileless Jie Chen, Zhao Jun couldn’t help but remember the time Jie Chen had pranked him in his past life.

It had been Zhao Jun’s first time traveling so far from home. He had only packed a few old clothes and forty large, flat pancakes Ma Ling had made for him.

When he arrived in Rakshasa Country, the first problem Zhao Jun faced was the language barrier. The first Russian phrase Jie Chen taught him was quite long. When Zhao Jun asked what it meant, Jie Chen decided to mess with him.

Jie Chen told him that since he was abroad with so many foreign women around, he had to live a little. He claimed the phrase meant, "Hey pretty lady, can we be friends?"

Zhao Jun actually believed him and even felt a little flicker of anticipation.

But when he found a Rakshasa girl and tried it out, he earned himself a hard slap across the face.

The slap left Zhao Jun completely stunned.

’This isn’t how I imagined it would go at all!’

Zhao Jun went back to find Jie Chen, who just laughed and said his pronunciation must have been off. The girl probably didn’t understand him. He even told him to find another girl and try again.

Zhao Jun, being a fool, didn’t stop to think that even if his pronunciation was terrible, it shouldn’t have been bad enough to get him slapped.

So, after he said the phrase to a second Rakshasa girl, both of his cheeks were stinging in perfect symmetry.

This time, Zhao Jun finally realized he’d been had. But no matter how he questioned him, Jie Chen refused to admit he’d taught him the wrong thing.

Even two years later, Zhao Jun’s Russian was still terrible.

But, he had money!

It was only after a "friendly exchange" with a Rakshasa woman that he finally learned the true meaning of the phrase: "Hey beautiful, can I sleep with you?"

Thinking of the Jie Chen from back then and looking at the innocent-faced young man before him now, Zhao Jun asked, "Brother, you seem to know a lot about these parts of a deer, huh?"

"Oh, yeah!" Jie Zhong jumped in. "Back in Lingnan, our old man used to deal in Ginseng and Antler Velvet. In the fall, he’d lead men into the mountains to hunt for ginseng. In the spring, around this time of year, he’d go down into deer pits to drug them. When he brought a big one home, he’d skin it and break it down right there, and we’d all watch. So when it comes to the parts of a deer, we know them like the back of our hand."

Hearing this, Zhao Jun pretended not to know and asked, "So how come you two brothers don’t do that kind of work anymore?"

"Sigh! It’s because our father passed away so young." Jie Zhong sighed. "We never learned the really useful skills. We can butcher a deer, no problem. But trapping and drugging them? We don’t know how. You could hand us a stalk of Ginseng and we could tell you if it’s good or bad, but ask us to go into the mountains and find it ourselves? We wouldn’t know where to start."

Zhao Jun smiled at his answer and asked, "Brother Xie, so do you guys just haul timber all year round?"

"Not exactly," Jie Zhong replied. "In the spring, we come out here. When it snows in the winter and the winter hauling season starts, we go over to the Duck Frame Forest Farm and help out with odd hauling jobs."

"What about the fall?" Zhao Jun asked.

"In the fall..." Jie Zhong pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He offered one to Zhao Jun, but when Zhao Jun waved him off, he put it in his own mouth and lit it. He handed the pack to Jie Chen before continuing, "We have five mu of land at home. Once that’s tended to, there isn’t much else to do."

Zhao Jun glanced around. Seeing no one nearby, he said to Jie Zhong and Jie Chen, "In that case, why don’t you two come over around harvest time this fall and go hunting for Ginseng with me?"

The moment the words left Zhao Jun’s mouth, both Jie Zhong and Jie Chen froze in surprise.

From what they had heard from their elders, the art of hunting for ginseng was a profound skill. Finding it wasn’t a matter of luck.

Thinking of their own father, then looking back at Zhao Jun... no matter how they sized him up, the Jie Brothers just couldn’t see him as someone who knew how to hunt for Ginseng.