Chapter 373 - 309: Sacrificing Another Sheep
"Going up the mountain again..." Zhou Chunming didn’t think much of it. He knew Zhao Youcai loved to hunt and thought, ’He probably spotted some tracks in the mountains again.’ But he turned and asked Hu Sanmei, "Hey, Elder Kua, where’s the leopard?"
"What?"
"The Wild Leopard!" Zhou Chunming walked to the east room and peered inside. Seeing nothing, he came back out and said to Hu Sanmei, "Where’s the Wild Leopard you shot? Let me see it. I’ve lived this long and I’ve never seen a Wild Leopard before."
Leopards were rare in the Northeast, even rarer than Tigers. Many people had only heard of them but had never actually seen one.
"Keep your voice down." Hu Sanmei shot Zhou Chunming a look, frowning. "Why do you have to bring up a sore subject? The leopard got away; they didn’t get it. I think our in-law is a bit upset about it, so just pretend you don’t know. Don’t say anything, and don’t ask anything."
"Huh!" Zhou Chunming was taken aback. He turned to look at the large, fragrant pot and then asked Hu Sanmei, "If they didn’t get the leopard, why’d they kill the sheep? Don’t they still need it for tomorrow?"
"The leopard’s the one that killed this sheep. Just stop asking so many questions, alright?"
"Sigh." Hearing this, Zhou Chunming sighed. He shook his head and walked toward the inner room, muttering to himself, "Tonight, I’d better have a few good drinks with Youcai. Otherwise, he’s just going to bottle up all that anger."
At dinnertime, four dishes were laid out on the kang-table: braised mutton, Aralia sprout omelet, stir-fried aromatic cucumber, and firm tofu stewed with potatoes.
Since they were all family, Hu Sanmei and Zhao Chun also sat around the kang-table to eat. You could tell Zhou Chunming was worried Zhao Youcai was upset; he kept raising his cup and urging him to drink. But Zhao Youcai acted as if nothing was wrong, drinking his alcohol and eating plenty of food.
On the other hand, Zhou Jianjun seemed even more sullen than Zhao Youcai. He held his cup, downing one drink after another, and Zhao Chun couldn’t stop him.
When he woke up the next morning, Zhou Jianjun had sobered up, but his body felt awful.
But there was no choice. After breakfast, he had to go out with his father-in-law. They first went to the Sun Family’s place and bought the remaining lamb they had.
"Look, just look." Elder Sun pointed at the departing figures of the father-in-law and son-in-law and said to his wife, "That father-in-law is sure living the good life. He stays with his in-laws for a couple of days, and his son-in-law slaughters a sheep for him to eat every day."
"Mhm," Mrs. Elder Sun agreed, her eyes filled with envy.
The father-in-law and son-in-law headed into the mountains. At first, Zhou Jianjun carried the sheep, but halfway there, he felt so sick he couldn’t carry it anymore.
With no other choice, Zhao Youcai had to take the sheep from him and carry it up the mountain himself.
They finally reached the spot. Zhao Youcai tied the sheep to a tree, then poured out the soybean cakes he’d brought from home in front of it. The sheep could sense a leopard’s approach sooner than a person, so he couldn’t let it get hungry and start bleating randomly.
After settling the sheep, Zhao Youcai turned back to look at Zhou Jianjun. He saw Zhou Jianjun hunched uncomfortably behind a tree, his eyes half-closed and looking drowsy.
A son-in-law is half a son. Zhao Youcai’s heart ached a little seeing him like this, but fathers of that era were mostly unable to express their feelings. No matter what they felt in their hearts, it always came out as a scolding.
All Zhao Youcai said was, "If you can’t handle your liquor, why try to show off?"
Leaning his shoulder against the tree with his eyes still closed, Zhou Jianjun just mumbled, "My heart hurts."
"What?" Zhou Jianjun’s words gave Zhao Youcai a fright. He quickly crouched down, grabbing Zhou Jianjun’s shoulder. "What’s wrong? Jianjun! Is it your heart? Are you having chest pains?"
"No... I’m heartsick over my twenty yuan."
"Well, I’ll be..." Zhao Youcai curled his lip in anger, stood straight up, and walked away. If Zhou Jianjun weren’t feeling so unwell, he would’ve been tempted to smack the kid with the butt of his rifle.
After Zhao Youcai stood up, he instinctively glanced ahead and saw a roe deer dart out from the woods.
About ten meters away, the roe deer froze. It stared at Zhao Youcai for a moment, then turned and fled.
"Jianjun!" Zhao Youcai called out. "You stay here and keep watch. I’m going after that roe deer!" With his rifle already in hand, he immediately took off in pursuit.
It had to be said, Zhao Youcai was an experienced hunter. He had scouted the entire area on his first day. Even without any tracks on the ground, he knew this ridge was a frequent haunt for roe deer.
More roe deer naturally meant leopards.
This was the very reason Zhao Youcai had set up his ambush here.
More than ten minutes after Zhao Youcai left, Zhou Jianjun, still huddled behind the tree, reached out a hand. He used the tree to struggle to his feet and started heading back the way they came.
He wasn’t going home; he was looking for a place to relieve himself. It was probably because of the drinking last night; Zhou Jianjun’s stomach was feeling very upset.
But he remembered what Zhao Youcai had said: whether it was smoking or relieving oneself, you couldn’t do it anywhere near the ambush site. Otherwise, if the leopard came and caught an unusual scent, it might be scared off.
Zhou Jianjun forced himself to walk four or five hundred meters away. After relieving himself in the woods, he started back.
It wasn’t even nine-thirty yet. Neither he nor Zhao Youcai ever expected the leopard to actually show up.
When he was still twenty or thirty meters from the spot where they had left the bait, Zhou Jianjun immediately sensed something was wrong.
Even with food, the sheep should have been bleating from time to time. It might let out a cry after a few bites of soybean cake, or just bleat out of boredom.
Only when it sensed danger would its bleats become especially frantic.
But now, the area ahead was dead silent. There hadn’t been a single bleat in a long time.
’This is bad!’ Zhou Jianjun’s heart leaped into his throat. A sudden surge of adrenaline hit him, and he forced his aching body to run uphill. But when he reached the spot, all he saw was a rope. One end was tied to the tree; the other ended in nothing but a chewed-through knot.
On the ground nearby lay the sheep’s head, its neck still attached. The rest of the body, from the neck down, was gone.