Chapter 447 - 379: A Thievishly Good Gulp
This situation wasn’t like yesterday, but it was just like the day before.
But the day before, it had been Big Fatty and the other three dogs. Today, it was eight dogs.
When dogs suddenly went quiet during a hunt, it meant one of three things. The first was that the dogs had subdued their prey, torn through its hide, and started to eat.
When they were eating, their mouths were full, so of course they wouldn’t bark.
The second was what happened after the New Year on Little Gu Mountain, when Huang Gui’s six dogs were gored to death or injured by a wild boar.
The moment the dogs fell silent, Huang Gui had panicked. He knew his dogs must have been injured; otherwise, they wouldn’t have all stopped barking at once.
The last possibility was what Big Fatty and his group would do: if they couldn’t win, they’d turn tail and run back.
But today’s situation was a bit more complicated. There were eight hounds in total. Even if half of them were slackers, there was still Little Bear and his group. Big Fatty and the others might run, but Little Bear and White Dragon wouldn’t.
It was also impossible that they were all injured. Little Bear and White Dragon might get hurt, but those four slackers wouldn’t.
It was just like Lin Xiangshun had said: they’d worked for their previous owner for two years without a single injury. Why would they suddenly risk their lives for you just because they were at your house?
’Could it be that four dogs were injured, and the other four ran back?’
Zhao Jun grew anxious and quickened his pace. But before he had run more than a few steps, he saw a large pack of dogs rushing toward him.
It was the very same eight dogs he had brought with him. Not a single one was missing; they had all returned.
Zhao Jun froze, staring blankly at them from where he stood.
The dogs ran up to Zhao Jun’s side, circling him, wagging their heads and tails, and pawing playfully.
Zhao Jun checked them one by one and found that none of the eight dogs were hurt. His gaze fell on Big Fatty and San Pang. ’Could it be that they’ve corrupted Little Bear and White Dragon?’ he wondered.
’If so, that’s a huge problem. I was counting on Little Bear to lead them.’
Zhao Jun turned and glanced up the slope, but there was no sign of Lin Xiangshun. Seeing that it was still early, Zhao Jun continued onward with the dogs. He had already told Lin Xiangshun that if he couldn’t keep up, he should just head home on his own.
He was confident that with Lin Xiangshun’s skills, he could make it back no matter how unwell he felt.
So, Zhao Jun led the eight dogs forward. The gully was long. After walking for nearly a mile, he came to a firewood-gathering path up ahead.
Once on the path, Zhao Jun led the dogs up the eastern slope. He stuck to his usual method: following the ridge.
But he had only taken a few steps when Little Bear, at the front, suddenly stopped and stood there, looking ahead.
"Come back!" Although Zhao Jun wasn’t far from Little Bear, he still called out, knowing someone was likely approaching.
"WOOF! WOOF!" At that moment, Big Fatty also stopped and barked a few times.
It was hard to say if dogs could understand each other’s barks. When prey was spotted, the lead dog would bark, and the pack dogs would follow.
But now, the lead dog was barking in the same way, yet the pack dogs weren’t charging forward.
"Hey! Hey!" Zhao Jun shouted, holding the dogs back and stopping them from rushing ahead.
"Woof woof woof..." Only Xiaohua trotted forward, and then a figure appeared in Zhao Jun’s line of sight.
White Dragon and Flower Cat took a step forward, then hesitated before turning and running back to Zhao Jun.
"Uncle... Uncle Zhang?" Zhao Jun squinted and realized it was a familiar face: Big Tongue Zhang, Zhang Lifu.
"Jun! Watch your dogs!" Zhang Lifu had spotted Zhao Jun too and called out as he approached.
"It’s fine, Uncle Zhang." Zhao Jun walked toward Zhang Lifu, calling out as he went, "What are you up to?"
"Digging up some greens!" Zhang Lifu said, shrugging his shoulders to adjust the wicker basket on his back.
As they spoke, Xiaohua had already reached Zhang Lifu’s side and was sniffing at his calves from behind.
When Zhao Jun got closer, he saw that the basket on Zhang Lifu’s back was more than half full of river wormwood.
River wormwood was a type of wild vegetable that could be blanched and served cold in a salad or stir-fried. But at Zhao Jun’s family home, they liked to stew it with river fish.
Leafy greens packed down easily.
A basket more than half full of river wormwood must have weighed at least ten jin. How could anyone eat all that?
"Uncle Zhang," Zhao Jun asked in surprise, "you gathered so much of this stuff. How are you going to eat it all?"
Hearing this, Zhang Lifu asked in return, "Jun, you want some? If you do, I’ll give you two jin."
"I’m good, Uncle Zhang." Zhao Jun quickly waved his hands. "I was just thinking, you went through all the trouble of gathering so much. If you can’t eat it all after hauling it back, won’t all that effort be for nothing?"
"Ah, that’s where you’re wrong." Zhang Lifu held up a finger and said to Zhao Jun with a smile, "The day before yesterday, I caught two ’striped piglets’ up in the mountains. More than half of these greens are for them."
"Whoa!" Zhao Jun was taken aback. "Uncle Zhang, that’s amazing! How’d you catch them?" he said in surprise.
What Zhang Lifu had just mentioned, ’striped piglets,’ was the Northeastern term for newborn wild boars. They were given this name because their light-yellow fur was covered in dark-brown stripes.
"The other day, I was up the mountain and saw a nest a sow had made. Then I heard piglets squealing inside." Zhang Lifu’s face was full of delight as he spoke. "I just picked ’em up and brought ’em home. I figure, come winter, Uncle here will butcher a pig and invite you all over for some pork."
"That’s a great plan," Zhao Jun said with a laugh. "I’m just worried they won’t grow big enough by then."
"They will!" Zhang Lifu said adamantly. "I checked, they’re both boars. I’ll get someone to castrate them, and then I’ll feed them well."
Boars were often castrated to make them grow faster. But even so, a wild boar raised until winter would probably only reach a hundred jin or so.
Still, it was basically a free windfall. No wonder Zhang Lifu was so happy.
After listening, Zhao Jun smiled. "Well, I guess for now it’s a diet of wild greens for them."
Given Zhang Lifu’s financial situation, what else could he feed them, no matter how well he wanted to? What he meant was that he’d have to work harder, gathering more wild vegetables and mountain goods just to keep the pigs fed.
"Your dad gave me ten jin of soybeans the other day," Zhang Lifu said. "He told me to trade them for firm and pressed tofu, but I couldn’t bear to. I fed them all to the pigs."
"What?" Zhao Jun was shocked. "Uncle Zhang, you’re really willing to part with that?"
"You bet," Zhang Lifu said with a smile. "Of these two pigs, I’ll slaughter one for the New Year for us to eat. The other one, I’ll take to the market and sell. Thanks to your Village Chief, wild pork is selling for three mao a jin at the market now."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun just smiled and didn’t reply.
But Zhang Lifu was getting more and more excited as he spoke. "Yesterday, your dad sent a message to me, and I went to the Forest Farm to bring the soybeans back. When I got home, I grabbed a handful and fed it to them. Those little striped piglets..."
At this point, Zhang Lifu was grinning from ear to ear. "They eat the soybeans, CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH, and slurp down cold water like there’s no tomorrow."
Zhao Jun froze for a second, then blurted out, "The what now?"