Chapter 396 - 330: Checking the Deer Pitfall
Zhao Youcai blocked the courtyard gate, keeping Zhou Jianjun outside. Craning his neck to look past him, Zhou Jianjun caught sight of Wang Meilan. He froze for a second, then hastily called out, "Mom."
"Jianjun, come on in."
Hearing Wang Meilan, Zhou Jianjun quickly put a hand on Zhao Youcai’s shoulder, gently pushed him aside, and walked toward her.
Wang Meilan shot Zhou Jianjun a look, then abruptly turned her head.
The moment the couple’s eyes met, Zhao Youcai’s heart jolted. He hurriedly put on a placating smile, stepped forward, and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"This is my son-in-law’s house. Am I not allowed to come?"
Hearing this, Zhao Youcai froze. He knew his cover was blown and that saying anything more would be useless. He immediately handed the goat’s tether to Zhou Jianjun and walked into the house without a word.
Zhou Jianjun took the tether and watched his father-in-law’s determined retreat. He felt no desire to watch the drama unfold; instead, he felt a sense of shared misery.
Wang Meilan glanced at Zhou Jianjun, said nothing, and just turned to follow Zhao Youcai into the house.
After entering the house, Zhao Youcai didn’t go to the room where he usually slept. Instead, he sought out the most crowded area, occasionally picking up his young grandson and playing with him.
「Meanwhile, in Yong’an Village.」 A Jiefang truck pulled up to the gate of Zhao Jun’s house. Li Baoyu hopped out of the driver’s cab and went around to the truck bed.
Zhao Jun held a leash, trying to guide Big Fatty down, but the dog struggled, unwilling to jump. Luckily, Li Baoyu was on the ground to receive him, and he managed to wrestle Big Fatty off the truck.
Li Baoyu led Big Fatty into the courtyard at Zhao Jun’s house and tied him up securely.
The moment Big Fatty entered, Black Tiger, limp and all, started barking at the newcomer.
Big Fatty, not to be outdone, fiercely confronted Black Tiger.
The sound of Big Fatty’s barks from the yard sent San Pang, Flower Cat, and Hua Lang into an immediate frenzy in the truck bed. They all tried to leap down at once.
It was a good thing they were all on leashes, or they would have charged down and torn Black Tiger to shreds.
With great difficulty, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu hauled the three dogs into the yard one by one. The entire property, inside and out, had descended into chaos.
In the courtyard, the six dogs had split into three factions. Black Tiger was facing off against four of them, all constantly roaring at one another. Little Bear, on the other hand, was off to the side, leisurely watching the show.
And inside the house, White Dragon was pawing at the window, wanting to come out and drive away the invaders.
Zhao Jun took two steps over and smacked Black Tiger twice on the back of the head. The dog turned, tucked its tail between its legs, and scurried into its doghouse.
Once Black Tiger left, Big Fatty and the other dogs all quieted down.
These four dogs didn’t look like the fighting type, but Black Tiger was just too provocative.
Once the yard quieted down, Zhao Jun took Li Baoyu down to the cellar to put away the bag of ginseng.
Just then, Li Baoyu asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, I have work at the camp tomorrow, so I can’t go into the mountains with you."
"Mm," Zhao Jun nodded and said, "I can’t go tomorrow either. I have to go check the deer pit in the morning."
Several days had already passed, so he figured there should be a catch over at the deer pit.
Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu, "If you’re free the day after tomorrow, you drive, and we’ll go to the Lingnan Supply and Marketing Cooperative to sell the ginseng."
"Sure, I’ll go to the camp and ask Brother Shunzi. If it’s fine, I’ll go to Lingnan with you," Li Baoyu readily agreed.
Ever since Li Dayong had been appointed deputy head of the dispatch team, Li Baoyu’s official employment was a sure thing.
As long as there was no work at the camp, he dared to take the truck out.
As for the gasoline, that was managed by the materials warehouse, which was under the logistics department.
As the two of them were outside the courtyard, pulling the wild boar and the large sow Black Bear down from the truck, Jin Xiaomei came out with Li Ruhai.
Jin Xiaomei glanced into the courtyard of Zhao Jun’s house and then asked him, "I heard dogs barking and was wondering where so many dogs came from."
"A gift from the Leader at the Logging Camp," Zhao Jun replied with a smile. Then he said to Jin Xiaomei, "Auntie, my mom isn’t home and probably won’t be back tonight. Let’s drag this wild boar and Black Bear into your yard to skin them."
The two families were so close that sharing a bit of meat was a given. Jin Xiaomei didn’t object, simply motioning for Li Ruhai to help them drag the wild boar and the Black Bear into their yard.
Once the game was in the yard, Jin Xiaomei had already brought out knives from the house, ready to start skinning.
Just then, Jin Xiaomei said to Zhao Jun, "Jun, bring the two girls over to our place for dinner tonight, okay?"
"Okay, okay," Zhao Jun didn’t stand on ceremony, replying, "I’m not sure when my mom will be back tomorrow. I’ll take the girls back home for the night, but I’ll have to bring them back to you in the morning."
"No problem," Jin Xiaomei said with a smile.
At this time of year, both wild boars and Black Bears were lean. A two-hundred-and-twenty-pound sow would only yield about one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty pounds of meat.
The Black Bear was much the same, yielding a little more than half its body weight in meat.
But it wasn’t winter, so there was no way to store all this meat.
Jin Xiaomei divided the meat in two, giving half to Zhao Jun to take home.
When Zhao Jun got home, he put some of the meat in cold water to soak. Between the Black Bear and the wild boar these past two days, they were running out of basins to soak meat in.
He took out a few more pieces of meat and gave them to Little Bear and White Dragon. Then he grabbed a wild boar thigh and went out to give it to Wang Qiang.
When Wang Qiang heard that neither Wang Meilan nor Zhao Youcai were home, he insisted that Zhao Jun and his two sisters come to his house to eat and stay, but Zhao Jun politely declined.
After leaving Wang Qiang’s house, Zhao Jun went back to Baoyu’s house for dinner. Since it was almost seven o’clock by the time they finished skinning the wild boar and Black Bear, there was no time to make any elaborate dishes. Jin Xiaomei simply sliced up some boar meat and boiled it with cabbage and glass noodles.
「And now, in Yongsheng Village, at Zhou Chunming’s house.」
The old couple, Zhou Chunming and Hu Sanmei, were warmly entertaining his son’s father-in-law and mother-in-law.
What they couldn’t understand, however, was that Zhao Youcai, who was usually a measured drinker, was now downing one cup after another without stopping.
It wasn’t until he was completely drunk that Zhao Youcai collapsed unconscious on the table and was helped back to his room by Zhou Jianjun.
Wang Meilan watched this scene with cold eyes, thinking, ’You can run, but you can’t hide. You can avoid me today, but can you avoid me tomorrow? Do you plan on never coming home again?’
When Zhao Youcai woke up the next morning, he saw no one beside him. He had woken up quite early—it wasn’t even five o’clock—but Wang Meilan had woken up even earlier.
Although he was suffering a bit from his hangover, Zhao Youcai still rolled out of bed, got dressed, and left the room, heading for where the people were.
But Wang Meilan, who was chatting with Hu Sanmei in the outer room, completely ignored him, which made Zhao Youcai feel even more uneasy.
Zhao Jun was also up early that day. He got up at five, boiled a pot of water, scalded some cornmeal, mixed it with salt, and fed the ewe in the shed and the five dogs in the yard.
Then, he grabbed a handful of corn kernels and fed them to the rooster and hen that Tao Xiaobao had given him.
Just as he scattered a handful of corn, Li Baoyu hopped over the wall to find him.
"Brother, bring the two girls to my place for breakfast. My mom got some jellied tofu this morning."
Back then, you could not only take soybeans to the mill to trade for firm tofu and pressed tofu, but you could also get jellied tofu.
It was just that you could usually only get it in the morning.
"Alright, I’ll come over as soon as I feed White Dragon inside."
Ever since Black Tiger returned, Da Huang had gone back to Baoyu’s house. Now, the only one still recovering in Zhao Jun’s room was White Dragon.
Li Baoyu followed Zhao Jun inside and sat on the edge of the kang, watching him feed the dog. Suddenly, he spoke up, "Brother, why don’t you sell me two of the dogs?"
Zhao Jun was taken aback for a moment, but he instantly understood what Li Baoyu meant. Their two families had always been inseparable; no matter whose dogs they were, they used them together and always split the hunt together.
Li Baoyu was trying to help him shoulder some of the burden. ’This must be Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei’s idea as well,’ he thought.
"Sell them? Don’t be ridiculous," Zhao Jun said with a laugh. "Just take two of them back with you. Throw in some dog food and we’ll call it even."
Zhao Jun’s family now had six dogs. Once Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon were grown, that would make eight.
He could afford to raise them, sure. But taking meticulous care of each and every one wouldn’t be easy.
"Alright!" Li Baoyu stood up, went outside, and left with Flower Cat and Hua Lang on their leashes.
After feeding White Dragon, Zhao Jun woke the two little girls up, got them dressed and washed up, and then took them to Jin Xiaomei’s house.
After breakfast, Zhao Jun left Zhao Hong and Zhao Na in Jin Xiaomei’s care. He changed his clothes, wrapped his puttees, shouldered his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, and headed into the mountains, making a beeline for the deer pit.
When he got to the deer pit, he could see a beast lying there from a long way off.