The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

As Minister Li fell unconscious, his thoughts were of Zhang Yuanmin.

Coincidentally, Zhang Yuanmin was not far from Minister Li at that very moment.

If you went down the slope from where Minister Li had just been picking spikenard shoots, headed west into the gully, then climbed the ridge, crossed the mountain, and descended into the gully on the other side, you would run right into the couple, Zhang Yuanmin and Yang Yufeng.

In other words, a single mountain separated them.

At that moment, Zhang Yuanmin and his wife were out gathering "cucumber fragrance," their wicker baskets strapped to their backs.

"Cucumber fragrance" resembled bracken, but it carried the fresh scent of cucumber and had a similar clean, sweet taste, hence the name.

This wild vegetable grew only in the Northeast, but people from Guangdong were particularly fond of it, so in the Southern Region, it was also known as "Guangdong vegetable."

The "cucumber fragrance" grew in tufts and clusters throughout the gully, and Yang Yufeng gathered it with gusto. Before they had left home, she and Zhang Yuanmin had agreed to set aside half of whatever they picked today to give to Zhao Jun’s family.

But as she continued to pick, she noticed Zhang Yuanmin kept wandering off toward the ridge.

Seeing this, Yang Yufeng grew annoyed. ’Wild vegetables love moisture,’ she thought. ’They usually grow in damp places, mostly along the gully, rarely up on the ridge.’

The surrounding hundred meters of mountainside was all large ridges and deep gullies. This gully stretched from south to north, full of wild vegetables. ’Why on earth is he going up the ridge?’

Yang Yufeng called out to Zhang Yuanmin twice, but he paid her no mind. The third time, she finally snapped and gave him a real tongue-lashing.

After the scolding, Zhang Yuanmin sidled up to Yang Yufeng and explained, "Honey, don’t you smell that?"

"Smell what?" Yang Yufeng said. "You know my nose is always stuffed up, don’t you?"

The Northeast was frigid, which meant many a Northeasterner suffered from respiratory issues. Rhinitis and bronchitis were exceedingly common there.

Yang Yufeng had rhinitis, so her nose was often congested. She couldn’t detect most ordinary smells.

But after Zhang Yuanmin spoke, she lifted her head and sniffed hard. This time, she caught a faint, foul odor.

Yang Yufeng’s brow furrowed. "Did someone take a dump up here?"

A call of nature was a perfectly normal thing, after all.

But Zhang Yuanmin said, "You silly woman! You think a person could stink that bad?"

"Then what is it?"

"See? This is what you don’t get," Zhang Yuanmin said, smiling as he explained to Yang Yufeng. "Someone must’ve set snares up there. They probably caught a wild boar or a roe deer and never came back to check them. The mountain beast died in the trap and started to rot."

"Oh!" Yang Yufeng exclaimed, realization dawning. But just as Zhang Yuanmin was looking pleased with himself, she asked, "So what does that have to do with you?"

"Me...? What do you mean, what does it have to do with me?" Zhang Yuanmin gestured excitedly. "Honey, you stay here and keep picking. I’m going up to take a look. If someone’s setting snares, they never just set one; they’ll have a whole line of them. I’ll see if there’s any fresh catch, and I’ll just help myself to some meat..."

"Oh, give me a break!" Yang Yufeng cut him off before he could finish. "You tried that last time and got a big slap across the face from Zhang Mengliu for it. Have you forgotten?"

Zhang Yuanmin froze for a second, but then argued, "That was because I didn’t know the rules last time! I know better now, so I won’t do it like that. I’ll just take a couple of haunches—one for us, and one for our brother. It’ll be perfect. We can go home with the cucumber fragrance and make dumplings tonight."

Blanched, then minced as a filling for dumplings, "cucumber fragrance" was absolutely divine.

Hearing this, Yang Yufeng considered it. ’He’s got a point,’ she thought. ’If the prey in the traps up there has already started to rot, the trapper probably hasn’t been back in a long time. Maybe it’s fine for him to go take a look, just like he said. What if he can scavenge some meat?’

With that thought, Yang Yufeng waved a hand. "Fine, go on," she said, before turning back to gathering wild vegetables in the gully.

"Honey," Zhang Yuanmin called out just then.

"Now what?"

Zhang Yuanmin came over and told her not to look back. He then emptied the "cucumber fragrance" from his own basket into hers. "If I really do get a haunch of meat," he said, "I’ll need my basket to carry it down."

’He hasn’t even seen any prey yet and he’s already planning how to carry the meat home.’ Yang Yufeng had to admit, her husband’s mind worked in mysterious ways.

But as she watched Zhang Yuanmin march up the ridge on his short legs, Yang Yufeng could only sigh and get back to picking "cucumber fragrance."

After reaching the ridge, Zhang Yuanmin kept climbing. The higher he went, the stronger the stench became.

When he was about halfway up the mountainside at Shan Erlie, Zhang Yuanmin saw a fallen tree blocking his path.

The path was blocked by a large linden tree, snapped by the wind. Anyone else might have simply tiptoed or lifted a leg high to get over it, but Zhang Yuanmin’s legs were too short. He reached the trunk, placed both hands on the fallen log for support, and swung his right leg up onto it.

As Zhang Yuanmin straddled the trunk, about to cross to the other side, he saw a large Black Bear not far off, gnawing on a wild boar.

It turned out someone had set a snare during the winter and caught a wild boar of over two hundred pounds. But the trapper never came back to check his line. When the boar died, a heavy snow fell, freezing the carcass solid.

When the snow melted in spring, the boar was exposed. After a few days, its belly had bloated, and its body was emitting a putrid stench.

Black Bears have an excellent sense of smell; they could catch the scent of the rotting boar from miles downwind. Being omnivores, they also have a taste for carrion. How could a starving Black Bear, fresh out of hibernation, possibly pass up such a delicacy?

In fact, the mother Black Bear that had dealt with Minister Li on the mountain to the east had also been drawn over by the scent of this dead boar.

However, halfway there with her cub, she caught the scent of another male Black Bear and dared not go any further.

There was a simple reason for this: she had given birth over the winter and wouldn’t be ready to mate again for three years, at which point she would rejoin the other adults.

And in order to bring the female back into season sooner, a male Black Bear would kill her Little Bear on sight.

So, the mother Black Bear hadn’t dared to venture any closer, contenting herself with digging for ants in her own patch of forest.

The moment he saw the Black Bear, Zhang Yuanmin scrambled back off the fallen log. He didn’t dare run, terrified that any noise would bring the beast charging after him.

He tiptoed a dozen or so steps before breaking into a frantic scramble down the ridge. His feet slipped several times along the way, sending him tumbling, but each time he scrambled back up and kept running.

"Honey, honey!" Zhang Yuanmin yelled for Yang Yufeng as he neared the gully.

Yang Yufeng looked up to see Zhang Yuanmin barreling down the slope. Her heart leaped into her throat, and she rushed to meet him. "What is it? Did someone beat you up again?"

"What are you talking about? Let’s go, now!" Without another word, Zhang Yuanmin grabbed Yang Yufeng and started pulling her south.

"What are you doing?" Yang Yufeng resisted. They hadn’t gathered enough wild vegetables yet. With just this little, what would they give to Zhao Jun’s family?

"What am I doing?" Zhang Yuanmin pointed up the slope. "There’s a Black Bear up there! If we don’t leave, what happens if it comes down here?"

"Oh, god!" Yang Yufeng gasped. A Black Bear was no laughing matter. She instantly forgot all about the wild vegetables and hurried along with Zhang Yuanmin.

The two of them made their way out of the gully. They were just about to climb the ridge to check the mountain to the east for wild vegetables...

But just then, a series of moans and groans—"UUUUH... AHHH..."—drifted down from the ridge.

"Run!" Zhang Yuanmin cried in a panic, pulling Yang Yufeng to run back the way they came. But just as he turned, he froze, his head snapping up to look at the slope.