The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Li Baoyu took money out of his pocket, stepped forward, and handed it to Xu Changlin.

Xu Changlin took the money, his gaze passing over Li Baoyu to land on Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun smiled faintly and gave the old man a nod.

Xu Changlin said to Li Baoyu, "Son, if you’re not in a hurry, wait a bit. I’ll get the dogs for you once I’m free."

"Master Xu, we’re not in a rush," Li Baoyu replied, then returned to Zhao Jun’s side.

No matter how fierce a dog was, as long as you were holding its leash, it would go with you.

However, there was a condition: the dog’s owner had to personally hand the leash to you. If you just went up and grabbed the leash yourself, you’d be lucky not to get bitten.

At this point, among the young men in Xu Changlin’s yard, it was clear that Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were definitely not going to buy his three dogs.

Just a moment ago, Wang Dalong had tried to negotiate with Xu Changlin, offering two hundred and sixty yuan for his pick of the dogs, but Xu Changlin had flatly refused.

And you had to understand, two hundred and sixty yuan was already a premium price.

Just then, the young man with the handlebar mustache, who hadn’t spoken a word, finally spoke up.

He said, "Master Xu, would two hundred and eighty be enough to take my pick?"

"Son, you want to buy a dog?" Hearing the young man’s offer, Xu Changlin seemed somewhat incredulous.

This young man’s name was Zhang Laibao.

Why did he have this name?

Because he also had an unreliable father, one who was even less reliable than Li Dayong. The worst thing about Li Dayong was his love for comic books, whereas Zhang Laibao’s father loved to play mahjong.

Every day, he’d be playing for bonus tiles and self-drawn wins, but he still usually ended up letting someone else win. So, he gave his son a name like that.

The key thing was, Zhang Laibao’s father, his grandfather, and even his ancestors for generations back had never produced a Hunter. What did this kid want with dogs?

So Xu Changlin was puzzled. ’Is this kid pulling my leg?’ he thought.

In fact, it wasn’t just Xu Changlin who was confused; even Wang Dalong and Li Baoyu couldn’t figure it out.

Hunting with dogs wasn’t something you could just do on a whim.

Not only did you need to understand the mountain terrain, but you also had to know the habits of all kinds of prey.

Then there was coordinating with the dogs. A hunter had to know how to work with them for both knife hunting and gun hunting.

But Zhang Laibao? His family had never been in this line of work. The kid didn’t even know how to shoot a gun.

Now he wanted to spend two hundred and eighty yuan on dogs. Wasn’t this a joke?

"Wait, Zhang Baozi, do you even know how to hunt?" Li Baoyu spoke up, asking Zhang Laibao.

Zhang Baozi was Zhang Laibao’s nickname.

Zhang Laibao shot Li Baoyu a look and said, "If even someone like you can hunt, why can’t I?"

"You..." Hearing this, Li Baoyu clenched his fists, glaring angrily at Zhang Laibao.

Zhang Laibao ignored him, turning to Zhao Jun with a smile. "Brother Jun, I hear you’ve been incredible lately, so I want to learn to hunt. Once I buy these dogs, you have to take me under your wing."

"Heh." Zhao Jun just chuckled without a word and turned his face away.

Others might not know what was up with this Zhang Laibao, but Zhao Jun knew perfectly well.

He and Zhang Laibao had been mortal enemies in his past life. Otherwise, the moment he saw Zhang Laibao walk into the yard, Zhao Jun wouldn’t have thought to himself, ’Enemies are always bound to cross paths.’

Besides, their two families had a long-standing feud. The feud wasn’t ancient history; it had started with Zhao Youcai and Zhang Laibao’s father, Zhang Zhanshan.

Zhao Youcai had the nickname Zhao Ergudong, but as long as you didn’t cross him, he wouldn’t cause you any trouble.

But Zhang Zhanshan was different. The man was a treacherous schemer who had been at odds with Zhao Youcai for years. The two of them were always at each other’s throats.

Coincidentally, Zhang Zhanshan also worked at the Forest Farm and was also a cook. Although he couldn’t be called a master chef, he was in charge of the Forest Farm’s Mess Hall No. 2.

So, not only were they rivals, they were also in the same profession.

Over the years, Zhao Youcai and Zhang Zhanshan had competed both openly and secretly, constantly trying to one-up each other in private.

Of course, you couldn’t flaunt your wealth in those days.

So, they first competed in culinary skill.

There was no contest in that department. Zhao Youcai won, hands down.

Later, they competed over whose wife was prettier. At first, Zhang Zhanshan was actually winning.

But one spring, Zhang Laibao’s mother, Xu Meihua, went into the mountains to pick schisandra berries and was mauled by a large brown bear. Although she survived, her face was disfigured.

So, in the wife competition, Zhao Youcai won again.

Then it came to their children. Both families had three daughters and one son, but Zhao Youcai’s eldest daughter married the son of the production head.

Zhang Zhanshan’s daughter, on the other hand, married an ordinary Gui Ling worker.

And so it went. From small things to big, Zhang Zhanshan had never once beaten Zhao Youcai.

Ever since Zhao Chun married Zhou Jianjun, Zhang Zhanshan felt like he couldn’t even hold his head up high whenever he ran into Zhao Youcai at the farm.

Recently, Zhao Jun had made a name for himself hunting. He had taken down several Black Bears in a single winter, and that was a lot of money.

Zhang Zhanshan thought to himself, ’I’ve been competing with Zhao Youcai for half my life, and I’ve been losing for half my life. Even at the mahjong table, always letting others win, I’ve never lost this badly.’

So, Zhang Zhanshan had a sudden whim and became determined to have his son learn to hunt too.

In his previous life, Zhao Jun had started hunting relatively late, only after he got married.

Even so, as soon as Zhao Jun made a name for himself, Zhang Zhanshan still made Zhang Laibao buy dogs, buy a gun, and learn to hunt.

So, who did Zhang Laibao learn from?

The answer was surprising: he had actually learned from Zhao Jun!

Zhang Laibao had cozied up to Zhao Jun, saying something like, "Our fathers may have a grudge, but that shouldn’t affect our friendship. We brothers should get along well, just to show those old guys."

Because at that time, Wang Meilan had already been dead for several years, and Zhao Jun was still resentful about Zhao Youcai taking a new, younger wife.

When he heard Zhang Laibao say that, he immediately hit it off with him.