The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

That night, Zhao Hong and Zhao Na both stayed in Zhao Jun’s room. They slept under the bedding Zhao Chun used before she got married and a set left by their grandmother.

This was all clean. Wang Meilan had washed it and put it in the kang cabinet, waiting for her eldest daughter to use it whenever she came back to visit.

But when he got up in the morning, Zhao Jun stripped both sets of bedding.

It wasn’t because he found money hidden inside, but because the two little girls had wet the bed.

As for the reason they wet the bed, it was probably from drinking Jianlibao.

Every night around eight o’clock, the two of them should have been asleep.

But yesterday at dinner, Zhao Hong had asked why her older brother hadn’t come back to eat. After hearing that Zhao Jun had gone to Lingnan, the two little girls refused to sleep, insisting on waiting for Zhao Jun to bring them back some tasty treats.

And their older brother certainly hadn’t disappointed them.

Not only did he bring back tasty treats, he also brought back tasty drinks.

All that drinking resulted in a wet bed.

According to Zhao Hong, she had a dream before she woke up. She dreamed she was at school and wanted to go to the bathroom during break. After going to the bathroom with Li Xiaoqiao, she relieved herself.

She woke up right after relieving herself in the dream, and upon waking for real, she discovered she had indeed relieved herself—only it was in the bed.

What else could she do? She couldn’t sleep in a wet spot. So, Zhao Hong pushed Zhao Jun awake.

Zhao Jun woke up, turned on the light, and saw—well, what do you know—not only had Zhao Hong wet the bed, but Zhao Na, who was sleeping on his other side, had too.

Zhao Jun hurried to get a towel, a basin, and a thermos. He mixed some warm water and had Zhao Hong wipe herself and Zhao Na clean.

Then, the two little sisters squeezed into Zhao Jun’s bed to sleep, while Zhao Jun started cleaning up the mess.

But as he was going out to empty the water, he carelessly knocked the washbasin against the doorframe, making a LOUD CLANG that woke up Wang Meilan.

Wang Meilan came over from the east room to look, torn between anger and exasperation.

But then she remembered someone had said last night that he would take on the task of washing the bedding. Wang Meilan immediately turned around, went back to her room, dragged Zhao Youcai—who was dreaming of getting rich—out of bed, and made him wash the bedding by lamplight.

It was just after three in the morning. Zhao Youcai was still groggy. He sat on a small stool in front of a large washbasin, with a mountain-like pile of sheets and duvet covers next to him. He asked, "Lan, can I wash these when I get back tonight?"

Hearing Zhao Youcai trying to bargain, Wang Meilan snapped, "If you wash them tonight, what are we going to sleep under? Are we not sleeping?" Pointing at the sheets and duvet covers, she ordered, "Hurry up and wash them. Hang them up when you’re done, and they’ll be dry by evening!"

After scolding Zhao Youcai, Wang Meilan went to scrub the pot and start breakfast.

After such a restless night, Zhao Jun couldn’t get back to sleep. He came out of his room, ignored Zhao Youcai’s pleading gaze, went outside, and used the toilet.

When he came back, he didn’t return to his room. Instead, he let Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon out of the storage shed.

Then, Zhao Jun took the two of them out and wandered aimlessly around the village.

That’s right, just wandering.

Zhao Jun walked at a leisurely pace while the two puppies ran and played, roughhousing and occasionally darting into someone else’s yard to provoke their big dogs.

The morning air in the mountain village was fresh but also very cold. Zhao Jun pulled his cotton-padded jacket tighter around him. Just as he was about to take Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon home, he saw the two puppies yelping and running forward.

Zhao Jun saw this and thought, ’They look like they’ve spotted prey. But what could there be in the village? Are they chasing a big rat?’

"Whose dogs are these? Whose dogs?" A voice called out, first in a panic, but it quickly grew calm and then sharp. "Go on, shoo! Get away!"

Hearing the voice, Zhao Jun quickly ran forward. He had already recognized who it was.

From a distance, he could see a person who seemed to be leading some kind of animal. The person kept turning around while Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon appeared to be circling and barking at him.

The person tried to lift his foot to kick Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon, but his leg movements seemed clumsy, and the kick was a bit slow.

"Cyan Dragon! Black Dragon!" Zhao Jun shouted. The two puppies turned and bolted toward Zhao Jun like a pair of rabbits.

Cyan Dragon’s ears were perky, which was fine, but Black Dragon had floppy ears that flapped up and down as he ran, which was especially amusing.

"Zhao Jun!" a voice called from across the way. "Can’t you keep an eye on your own dogs?"

Zhao Jun didn’t like the sound of that at all. He shouted, "Zhang Laibao, have I been too easy on you? Are you looking for a beating?"

That’s right, the person was none other than Zhang Laibao, also known as Zhang Shaoji, who had recently become infamous in Yong’an Village.

It had to be said, what Zhang Laibao did a while back was truly despicable. It was true that his family and the Zhao Family had a feud. But what he did that day brought shame and disgrace to the entire Yong’an Village.

After all, Jie Zhong and Jie Chen were outsiders and didn’t know about the feud between the two families. After what Zhang Laibao pulled, they would probably think everyone in the village was like that.

If word of this got out and people in the surrounding villages all started saying the people of Yong’an Village were no good, then what would happen? Girls from other villages wouldn’t marry in, and the girls from their own village wouldn’t be able to marry out.

So for the past few days, no one in the village liked to see Zhang Laibao. Young or old, man or woman, everyone called him Zhang Shaoji when they saw him.

He had incurred public wrath.

Zhang Zhanshan could do nothing about it. He had gone to Zhao Guofeng for help, but not only did Zhao Guofeng refuse to give him the time of day, he even gave him a lecture.

Helpless, Zhang Zhanshan told Zhang Laibao not to wander around outside for a while. He was to stay quietly at home for ten days to half a month until the matter blew over and the gossip died down.

In any case, his potential marriage had fallen through, so it was fine for Zhang Laibao to stay inside. But the two Little Black Bears had to go out.

While Zhang Laibao was recuperating on the kang, he slept with these two Little Black Bears every day, personally feeding them and giving them water. As a result, the two Little Black Bears became attached to Zhang Laibao.

With no other choice, Zhang Laibao could only wake up early to walk them, heading out before dawn and before the villagers went to the fields.

As luck would have it, today was the day.

Zhang Laibao ran into Zhao Jun. In the past, whenever Zhang Laibao saw Zhao Jun, he would always call him "Brother Jun, Brother Jun." But today, he didn’t. He called him by his full name.

This was because Zhang Laibao had nothing to ask of Zhao Jun anymore. He used to want Zhao Jun’s help with his dogs, but now that he had two Little Black Bears and two dogs that could track wild boars, Zhang Laibao had it all figured out. In the future, he would hunt wild boars, not bears. That way, he wouldn’t need Zhao Jun’s help.

Since he needed no favors, why bother being polite?

Besides, Zhang Laibao believed his injury and his breakup were all Zhao Jun’s fault.

With new and old grudges combined, why would he still call him Brother Jun?

But when Zhao Jun shouted at him, Zhang Laibao chickened out again. He was afraid Zhao Jun would beat him up, so he didn’t dare make a sound.

"Let’s go, Cyan Dragon." Seeing that Cyan Dragon still wanted to run toward Zhang Laibao, Zhao Jun called him back, then turned and left with the two puppies.

The day before yesterday, after bringing back the black bear and the brown bear, Zhao Jun had cut open the hide on the black bear’s thigh and pulled out two strips of meat, one for Cyan Dragon and one for Black Dragon.

At that time, the two puppies’ teeth hadn’t fully grown in, so they couldn’t chew the bear meat. But they held the finger-thick strips of meat in their mouths, sucking and gnawing on them, savoring the taste.

They gnawed on them like that for a whole afternoon. The next morning, when the two puppies came out of the storage shed for a walk, they were carrying the meat strips to hide them somewhere when they passed by Black Tiger.

At first, Black Tiger didn’t move. But then he suddenly lunged forward and barked at the two puppies, scaring Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon so much that they dropped the meat and ran. Then, Black Tiger happily helped himself to the two strips of meat.

Even so, Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon now recognized the scent of a Black Bear and knew it was something edible. This morning, smelling the scent from a distance, they had charged over, but they were too small to actually bite.

As for the two Little Black Bears Zhang Laibao was raising, they had played with dogs since they were cubs. After arriving at Zhang Laibao’s house, they even played with two big dogs that didn’t see black bears as enemies.

As a result, the two Little Black Bears didn’t know that dogs were their enemies. When Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon circled and barked at them, they thought the puppies were just playing with them.

Zhao Jun walked a few steps forward with Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon, then suddenly had a thought. He turned to look back at Zhang Laibao—or more accurately, at the two Little Black Bears at Zhang Laibao’s feet.

No, those weren’t Little Black Bears. In Zhao Jun’s eyes, they were two Bear Galls.

Meanwhile, Zhang Laibao was also looking at Zhao Jun, grinding his teeth. He thought to himself, ’Zhao Jun, just you wait until my Big Bear and Second Bear grow up. I’ll fucking kill you!’