Chapter 460 - 392: Thank Your Dad
"Hurry up!"
Zhao Youcai and Zhao Jun left the house, one after the other. Zhao Youcai rushed ahead, calling back to urge Zhao Jun to keep up.
"What’s the rush!" Zhao Jun said. "I was halfway through my meal. If I walk too fast, my stomach will get upset."
"Always making a fuss!" Zhao Youcai retorted irritably. But when he saw Zhao Jun wasn’t keeping up, he had no choice but to turn back and wait for him.
Then Zhao Youcai grabbed Zhao Jun’s wrist. "Son, in a bit when you get the call at the Village Office, if they ask you to go, you just say yes, got it?"
Zhao Jun glanced at Zhao Youcai and replied flatly, "I’m afraid Mom won’t agree."
"Your mom... If your mom doesn’t agree, can’t you talk to her?" Zhao Youcai said irritably. "Do you have any idea how much a Leopard Skin goes for?" As he spoke, Zhao Youcai held up one hand, palm open, waving it in front of Zhao Jun. "Five thousand! And that’s if you can even find one!"
Zhao Jun nodded. Northeast Leopards were truly rare; it was true that they were incredibly rare and essentially priceless.
The father and son chatted as they made their way to the Village Office. As soon as Zhao Guofeng saw them enter, he quickly gestured them over. "Come on in, I’m starving!"
"Uncle Zhao!" Zhao Jun hurried forward, picked up the receiver from the desk, and said "Hello." He then heard Tao Dabao’s voice on the other end. "Zhao Jun, how’d your blind date go?"
"It went well, Uncle Tao," Zhao Jun replied. "How’s the leopard hunt going on your end?"
"We got the leopard!"
"You got it?" As Zhao Jun spoke, he glanced at Zhao Youcai beside him. He saw the invisible flame of hope in his father’s eyes instantly extinguish.
"How’d you get it?" Zhao Jun was curious, but also wanted to learn something. After all, he didn’t have any good methods for hunting leopards himself. He figured if the Yongxing Brigade had a clever trick, he could learn from their experience.
"Well," Tao Dabao laughed. "speaking of which, we actually have your dad to thank for this."
"Who?" Zhao Jun was taken aback. He glanced at Zhao Youcai again, then asked Tao Dabao, "What’s my dad got to do with this?"
Hearing himself mentioned, Zhao Youcai’s spirits lifted, and he quickly leaned his ear closer to the receiver.
He heard Tao Dabao say from the other end of the line, "This thing... our Hunter Team just couldn’t handle it. Then it turned out the husband of our Third Team’s accountant works in logistics at your Forest Farm. He said he heard that..."
At this point, Tao Dabao paused, seeming to think for a moment before saying, "He’s your brother-in-law, right?"
Although he hadn’t mentioned a name, Tao Dabao’s words made Zhao Jun realize immediately. "Right, Zhou Jianjun from the Forest Farm’s logistics department is my brother-in-law."
Then, Zhao Jun asked in return, "Uncle Tao, my brother-in-law gave you the idea?"
"Yup," Tao Dabao laughed. "A few of them were drinking and shootin’ the... well, chatting. Your brother-in-law said that he and your dad, the two of them, used to tie up a goat on the mountain to bait the leopard. Did it a few times, he said."
"Well... all right then..." Zhao Jun chuckled, not knowing what to say. But then, remembering the leopard he had seen the other day, he asked casually, "Uncle Tao, after you got the leopard, did you weigh it? How many jin was it?"
As soon as Zhao Jun asked this, there was a moment of silence from Tao Dabao’s end. Then he said, "We don’t know. Our Cannon Shooter caught a glimpse of it and fired two shots. We went over to check the trail, saw some blood, but didn’t find a body."
"Then you should’ve used dogs to track it!"
"We did!" Tao Dabao said. "I went too. We tracked it over the ridge but couldn’t find it. All we saw was some purplish-black blood, and it was sticky to the touch."
"Like thick saliva, you mean."
"Exactly!" Hearing Zhao Jun say this, Tao Dabao immediately agreed. "Our Hunter Team’s Leader said it’s a serious wound. It won’t live past tomorrow."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun nodded on his end of the line. The Hunter Team’s Leader was right. When a wild animal’s blood was purplish-black and sticky, it meant the wound was severe.
An injury that serious was fatal. Especially now, with it being mid-May. In this hot weather, an infected and inflamed wound was a death sentence.
But Zhao Jun still offered a piece of advice, "Uncle Tao, you should lead your men and search along the river bend."
"I know that."
This was common knowledge in the mountains. After a wild animal was injured and in pain, it would go to a river and submerge its wound in the water.
The cold river water had a pain-relieving effect.
Tao Dabao continued, "I sent out all the brigade’s militia today. We have to find it one way or another. That skin is worth a cool ten thousand, you know."
"How much?" Zhao Jun was stunned. He subconsciously looked at Zhao Youcai next to him. Zhao Youcai had vaguely overheard and immediately rushed away from Zhao Jun, heading out of the Village Office.
Seeing him leave, Zhao Guofeng called out, "Youcai, heading home?"
Zhao Jun glanced at Zhao Youcai’s retreating back, then asked Tao Dabao, "Uncle Tao, is there anything else you called me for?"
’Tao Dabao was a busy man, with a whole brigade to manage. He wouldn’t have called just to ask about my marriage, nor would he call just to announce they’d shot a leopard.’
"There is!" Hearing that Zhao Jun seemed to want to hang up, Tao Dabao quickly said, "The corn will be sprouting any day now. Come July or August, when the silks turn red and the kernels fill out, the wild boars and Black Bears will start coming down the mountain. I was thinking, if things aren’t busy at the Forest Farm and you have time, you could come over and help us guard the crops. We’ll pay you two yuan a day."
Two yuan a day was sixty a month. Honestly, that was excellent pay.
But after thanking Tao Dabao for his kind offer, Zhao Jun politely declined.
’Guard the crops? His own family had land, and it was quite close to the mountains. Wild boars and Black Bears were a problem for them every year. He could barely manage to protect his own fields, so how could he possibly go so far away to guard someone else’s?’
When Zhao Jun got home, Wang Meilan, Zhao Hong, and Zhao Na had already finished eating. Only Zhao Youcai was left at the table, shoveling food into his mouth. Seeing Zhao Jun return, Zhao Youcai didn’t say a word, just kept his head buried in his bowl, eating furiously.
Just then, Wang Meilan came in from the outer room and said to Zhao Youcai, "See which day you get off work early. Invite Ma Daifu over for a meal and set the date."
"Alright!"
The two families had met today and agreed to the marriage between Zhao Jun and Ma Ling, but the specific date for the wedding hadn’t been decided. For that, Zhao Youcai had to host a meal and invite Ma Daifu over.
Moreover, only Ma Daifu could be invited; even Wang Cuihua couldn’t come. Likewise, no one else was needed to keep them company. Just Zhao Youcai and Ma Daifu, the two of them, would settle the date over drinks.
But given the specific situations of the two families, the two of them would probably just be acting as messengers.
Seeing Zhao Youcai agree, Wang Meilan smiled faintly. She pulled a small, worn notebook from the Kang cabinet, raised her right hand, licked her index finger, and then flipped open the notebook to look at it carefully.
Zhao Jun leaned in and tilted his head to look. He saw that it was filled with records of the family’s income and expenses from the past few years.
Wang Meilan shot Zhao Jun a sidelong glance, then closed the notebook. She said to Zhao Youcai, "I’ll give you some money in a bit. Go buy two bottles of wine and go see Guofeng."
"See him for what?" Hearing Wang Meilan say she was giving him money, Zhao Youcai’s heart leaped with joy. But when he heard her tell him to use that money to buy wine and visit Zhao Guofeng, his brow furrowed.
"For what?" Wang Meilan said. "To get him to approve a plot of land for our son, of course! Once spring comes and things get busy in the fields, we can start planning to build the house!"