Chapter 412 - 346: A Good Marriage Match
Outside Han Jiang's home, beneath the window.
Ma Ling couldn't see or hear what was happening inside. She just nervously twisted the loose strands at the end of her braids.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open from the inside, which gave Ma Ling a start.
"Dear!" Han Jiang called. "Come, hurry inside."
"Yes, Uncle Han!" Ma Ling answered, her heart filled with apprehension as she followed him inside.
Upon entering the inner room, she saw Mrs. Han sitting on the heated brick bed, holding a long-stemmed pipe and smiling warmly at her.
Ma Ling immediately asked with great curiosity, "Auntie, is the Shopkeeper back?"
"He is," Mrs. Han said with a smile. "The Shopkeeper was invited for drinks by an old master from another family. He only just came back because I sent for him."
"Oh, I'm sorry to have troubled you, Auntie," Ma Ling said politely. Then, blushing, she asked in a low voice, "So… what did the Shopkeeper say?"
The old couple exchanged a glance. Steeling herself, Mrs. Han forced a smile and said, "The Shopkeeper said that you two... would be a wonderful match, dear..."
As she spoke, Mrs. Han reached out and pulled Ma Ling closer. She took Ma Ling's hand in one of hers, gently patting the back of it with the other. "You're a lucky one," she said with a smile.
Ma Ling blushed and lowered her head.
Meanwhile, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu arrived at Lin Xiangshun's home. After they called out a few times from the yard, Lin Xiangshun emerged, still chewing on a steamed cornbread bun and pulling on his jacket sleeve.
Reaching the gate, Lin Xiangshun swallowed his cornbread, pointed to the Liberation truck parked there, and said to Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, "Let's go."
"Have you finished eating, Second Brother?" Zhao Jun asked.
"I'm done," Lin Xiangshun replied, opening the truck door and climbing into the driver's seat.
Zhao Jun got in first, followed by Li Baoyu. The two of them squeezed into the passenger seat.
As he started the truck, Lin Xiangshun asked Zhao Jun, "Hey, Xiaojun, I heard my aunt is setting you up. Just before I ate, your sister-in-law mentioned it. She told me to ask if you need anything, said she'd pick it up for you at the market."
"You don't have to... wait, that's not it!" Zhao Jun suddenly realized what he was saying and asked Lin Xiangshun, "How does my sister-in-law know?"
Hearing this, Lin Xiangshun instinctively glanced toward Li Baoyu.
Li Baoyu froze. He saw Zhao Jun turn to him and ask, "How does Ruhai know?"
"I don't know," Li Baoyu whispered. "I didn't tell her."
Lin Xiangshun just smiled, started the truck, and drove out of the village into the mountains.
The three of them drove to the spot where Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu had killed the brown bear and the Black Bear the day before. When Lin Xiangshun got a closer look, he sighed and, pointing at Zhao Jun, said, "The year before last, my uncle and I were heading to work early and ran into a similar scene.
It was a Big Bear Dominator chasing a large female Black Bear leading three Little Black Bears. The four Black Bears scattered, and the Big Bear Dominator killed one of the Little Black Bears. My uncle and I stumbled upon a lucky find."
Brown bears usually just kill Black Bears; they don't often eat them.
Zhao Youcai and Lin Xiangshun were definitely unarmed on their way to work. But after the brown bear killed the Little Black Bear and left, they got a windfall, harvesting a small Bear Gall without having to fire a shot or draw a knife.
'But what made Zhao Jun wonder was why Zhao Youcai had never mentioned this incident. More importantly, after they sold the Little Black Bear's gall, Zhao Youcai probably never handed his share of the money over to Wang Meilan.'
The Little Black Bear was easy to move. The large Black Bear took a bit more effort. But the huge brown bear was a real struggle.
It took all three of them a great deal of effort to finally haul it onto the truck bed.
Then, Lin Xiangshun stood before the truck bed with his hands on his hips, panting heavily. "This big fella is pretty plump."
"Yep," Zhao Jun said, gesturing to Lin Xiangshun. "This Xiong Ba is incredible. After a whole winter of hibernation, it still has a finger's width of fat. When we get it home and skinned, take some of the fat back with you and render it down for oil."
"Alright," Lin Xiangshun nodded.
Summer was fast approaching. It wasn't just the heat; the dense foliage would block the sun and the grass would grow lush. This would obstruct a hunter's line of sight and hinder the dogs' movements. When a Black Bear or a wild boar attacked, the dogs wouldn't have room to dodge.
That's why people generally didn't hunt during the summer.
'So, this big brown bear came at the perfect time. If they brought it back, skinned it, and rendered the fat, they wouldn't be short on oil all summer.'
The truck drove all the way to Zhao Jun's family home. The moment it pulled up to the gate, the dogs in both their yard and the neighbors' erupted into chaos.
When Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu left that morning, they had told Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei they were going to bring a bear back, so the women had been waiting at home all this time.
Hearing the dogs raising a ruckus outside, the two women came out, each carrying a basin that also held knives.
Everyone worked together to move all three bears into the yard of Zhao Jun's family home, while the dogs strained against their ropes, howling and barking wildly in their direction.
Lin Xiangshun heard a sound from the storage shed. He leaned close to Zhao Jun's ear, pointed at the shed, and asked, "Are your pups in there?"
"Yeah!" Zhao Jun replied.
"Let them out," Lin Xiangshun said, opening the shed door.
The moment the door opened, Cyan Dragon shot out. He was closest to the Little Black Bear. He stopped about half a meter away and started barking at it.
Black Dragon followed, but he seemed a little afraid. He would bark a few times along with Cyan Dragon, then take a break before starting again.
"SIC 'EM! SIC 'EM!" Lin Xiangshun shouted, waving his arms at the Little Black Bear to encourage Cyan Dragon.
It would have been fine if he'd stayed quiet. The moment he made a sound, Cyan Dragon looked up, saw a stranger, and immediately abandoned the Little Black Bear, charging straight for Lin Xiangshun.
"Hey!" Zhao Jun quickly raised his right leg, using his foot to gently block the pup. He then pointed at the Little Black Bear and yelled, "SIC 'EM! SIC 'EM!"
At the command, Cyan Dragon turned and pounced on the Little Black Bear, sinking his teeth into a hind leg and tearing at it, shaking his head from side to side.
As soon as Cyan Dragon made his move, Black Dragon followed, lunging forward and biting down on the Little Black Bear's short tail.
"Baoyu!" Lin Xiangshun ordered Li Baoyu. "Hurry and cut off some meat to feed the other dogs. Keep them from making such a racket."
"Right!" Li Baoyu replied, quickly taking a sharp knife from the basin Jin Xiaomei was holding.
Just then, Zhao Jun pointed to the large female Black Bear. "Baoyu," he said, "cut from her. There's more than enough to feed the dogs."
The three bears would yield hundreds of pounds of lean meat. Since they couldn't possibly eat it all anytime soon, Zhao Jun wasn't stingy about feeding some to the dogs.
"You got it," Li Baoyu replied. He started carving meat from the large Black Bear's belly, first tossing a piece to the nearest dog, White Dragon. Then he cut more and walked over to stuff it into Big Fatty's mouth.
This was because Big Fatty and San Pang were tied up together; just tossing the meat over could easily start a fight between them. He had to go up and feed them one by one.
As Li Baoyu fed Big Fatty, San Pang glanced at Big Fatty, then back at Li Baoyu.
Li Baoyu then fed San Pang and Little Bear. As the three dogs fell quiet, the barking in the yard gradually died down.
Then, Lin Xiangshun pointed at Cyan Dragon and said to Zhao Jun, "How many months have you had this pup? He's looking great!"