The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Zhao Jun had just talked Tao Fulun out of hunting, and the old man was feeling a bit regretful. Now, after what his grandson said, he got worked up on the spot, snapping angrily at Tao Fei, "Get lost! What the hell are you talking about, you little brat?"

"You child, how can you talk to your grandpa like that?" Li Yunxiang hurried into the room and gave Tao Fei a light shove. She then turned to Tao Fulun and said, "Dad, what Zhao Jun said makes a lot of sense. From now on, if you want to take a walk, just have Xiaofei go with you up the mountain. You can hunt some gray squirrels or hazel grouse, just treat it as exercise."

Just as Li Yunxiang was speaking, she heard the outer door being pulled open.

Li Yunxiang turned her head and saw Tao Dabao had arrived. She quickly said to Tao Fulun, "Dad, Big Brother is here."

Hearing that Tao Dabao had arrived, Zhao Jun, Li Baoyu, and Tao Fei quickly stood up.

"You guys got back pretty fast." As soon as Tao Dabao came in, he smiled at Zhao Jun. "I just got home and your aunt told me you even sent a wild boar leg for me."

"Ah, haha," Zhao Jun said with a cheerful laugh. "Uncle Tao, I took down some boars today. Two small ones and a big one. I just brought back two legs. It’s enough for us. Xiaofei told the militia about the rest."

"Right, as long as we have enough to eat," Tao Dabao agreed, then said with great surprise, "Bagging three boars in a single morning... no wonder everyone says you’re an amazing hunter."

While the two were talking, Li Yunxiang had already poured water for Tao Dabao. Tao Dabao took the enamel mug and said, "Sister-in-law, don’t trouble yourself," before placing the mug on the kang table.

Just then, Tao Fulun asked him, "Dabao, about that Big Claw... have you guys figured out what to do with it yet? You need to deal with it quickly, before it hurts someone else."

"Dad, don’t worry, we’re going to hunt it," Tao Dabao said decisively. "Today is the first day of the spring hunt, isn’t it? We’ve had people coming over from the Town and the county, so we’re just too busy. Tomorrow, I’ll organize a group and we’ll take it down."

At this point, Tao Dabao suddenly smiled and looked at Zhao Jun. "You heard from Elder Yu yesterday, right? He reported it to the Town."

"Mhm." Zhao Jun didn’t know why Tao Dabao was asking him, but he nodded in acknowledgment.

Tao Dabao continued, "The people from the county who came today were asking about that Tiger."

"What did they ask, Uncle?" Tao Fei chimed in curiously.

Tao Dabao said, "The city is planning to build a zoo, and they asked if we could capture the Tiger and send it to them."

With a wave of his hand, Tao Dabao said, "Isn’t that just bullshit? How the hell are we supposed to capture that thing?"

If this were twenty years in the future, with drones and tranquilizer guns, taking down a tiger would be pretty easy.

Killing it would be easy, but capturing it? At this point in time, the difficulty was truly off the charts.

"That’s not okay!" Tao Fulun became anxious as soon as he heard this. "Dabao, you can’t agree to that."

His maternal uncle had been eaten by a tiger years ago, so Tao Fulun had a special fear of them.

"Don’t worry, Dad," Tao Dabao said. "I told them right then and there that it’s impossible, that we can’t capture it. Whoever wants to capture it can come do it themselves. I’m not going to capture it for them. That would be asking our local folks to risk their lives for nothing, wouldn’t it?"

"Right, Dabao, you did the right thing," Tao Fulun said, nodding in agreement.

Tao Dabao spoke a few more words with everyone and then got up to leave.

He had come over today just to check on Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu. He was the one who had invited these two young men, after all. If something had happened to them, he wouldn’t have been able to face their families.

After Tao Dabao left, Li Baoyu finally mentioned that he had discovered the Black Bear’s Den while relieving himself in the mountains earlier today.

After hearing this, Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu and Tao Fei, "Get up early tomorrow. We’ll set out at dawn."

...

A little after five in the evening, just as it was getting dark, Tao Xiaobao returned.

By this time, the food was ready.

The staple food was steamed cornmeal cakes, and the dishes were cabbage with wood ear mushrooms and red-braised wild boar knuckle.

A large boar leg had been stewed until it was cooked through. The bone was then removed, and the meat was cut into large chunks and simmered in soy sauce.

The food was brought to the table, and everyone picked up their bowls and chopsticks. Just as Tao Fei finished pouring drinks for Tao Fulun and Tao Xiaobao, the sound of the outer door opening was heard, followed by Li Yunxiang’s voice.

"Big Brother, you’re here? You haven’t eaten, have you? Quick, come on in."

Tao Dabao was back!

After Tao Dabao entered the room, everyone urged him to come up on the kang and eat, but Tao Dabao just waved his hand, indicating he wouldn’t be eating. Then he looked toward Zhao Jun and asked, "Those dogs of yours... can they find the Tiger?"

"What?" At Tao Dabao’s words, everyone in the room was startled.

Although Tao Dabao hadn’t explained, Zhao Jun knew there was most likely a new problem. So he said to Tao Dabao, "Uncle Tao, I really don’t know. I’ve never used my dogs to hunt a Tiger before."

"Mmm." Tao Dabao mulled it over for a moment. He said to Zhao Jun, "I don’t need you to have the dogs fight the Tiger. I just need you to... in your hunter’s terms, ’encircle’ it."

"That’s not possible either." Hearing this, Zhao Jun just shook his head. "Uncle, let me tell you, that thing can leave whenever it wants. Who could possibly stop it? Even if you had eighty tough dogs, you wouldn’t be able to surround it."

"Then we won’t encircle it." When Tao Dabao heard Zhao Jun say it was impossible, he was quick to adapt. "Just being able to catch up to it is enough. Once we catch up, our men can move in."

Zhao Jun shook his head. "Can’t catch up to it."

’It wasn’t that he was unwilling to help Tao Dabao, but the risk was just too great. If things went wrong, his own dogs might not make it back.’

It’s said that in the Northeast, there’s a long-standing legend: if a person carries tiger bones, dogs won’t dare to approach.

Is it true? Or false?

No one knows for sure.

But Zhao Jun knew that as soon as a dog caught the scent of a tiger, or even the smell of its urine, it would absolutely retreat a great distance.

"What’s going on?" Tao Fulun asked Tao Dabao. "What are you guys trying to do? This afternoon, didn’t you say you’d just take a bunch of men and finish it off?"

Tao Dabao sighed. "Alright, Dad, just eat your dinner."

After speaking to Tao Fulun, Tao Dabao said to the others, "You all go on and eat. I’m heading back."

Tao Dabao had just finished speaking and was about to get up when Zhao Jun grabbed him.

Zhao Jun was heard saying to him, "Uncle Tao, no matter what you do, you have to force that Tiger down from the stone cliff."

"Why is that?" Tao Dabao asked. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him; he just genuinely didn’t understand what to do.

Zhao Jun explained, "If it’s on a stone cliff, it can leap a dozen meters in a single bound. Where would you even go to find it then?"

At this point, Zhao Jun added, "Uncle Tao, take a lot of men with you. Form a line and sweep across the area to flush it out first."

"And then?" Tao Dabao pressed.

Zhao Jun said, "And then... is there a place nearby with deep snow? Somewhere without any big stone cliffs, and no Jumping Stone Pond or Huashi Pond."

Tao Dabao’s eyes lit up. "Actually, there is a place."

As he spoke, Tao Dabao gestured to Zhao Jun. He raised his arm, holding his hand flat, palm down, to indicate the height of his chest. Then he said, "Up on West Mountain’s Master Peak, the snow is this deep right now."

"There’s still that much snow this time of year?" Zhao Jun asked, very curious.

"Mhm," Tao Xiaobao chimed in from the side. "It’s just that cold over there. Even in June, you can still find blocks of ice in the gullies and ponds. It’s too cold over there. The Elder Mountain Dogs can’t even get crops to grow in that place."

After Tao Xiaobao finished, Zhao Jun leaned forward and whispered in Tao Dabao’s ear, "Uncle Tao, are you trying to capture it alive?"

"Yes!" Tao Dabao’s attitude was now completely different from this afternoon.

Zhao Jun nodded, then said to Tao Dabao with a smile, "In that case, tomorrow morning, I’ll go up the mountain with you. Take me to that Master Peak so I can take a look. If it looks doable, I’ll help you capture this Tiger."