The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

By this time, Wang Meilan was not only already up, but she had also finished preparing the rice broth.

"Mom, why are you up so early?" Zhao Jun reached out and touched the bowl of rice broth. Feeling the temperature was about right, he held it in front of the little Qing Gou to feed it.

Wang Meilan said, "We’re having guests over the day after tomorrow. I got up to figure out what we’re missing so your dad can bring it all back from work."

As the head chef of the cafeteria, Zhao Youcai’s family certainly didn’t need to buy basic condiments like salt and soy sauce. Otherwise, people would laugh at them.

"Mom, if there’s anything else we need, save yourself the trip. Just tell me, and I’ll go get it for you."

"Alright." This morning, Wang Meilan’s attitude was completely different from last night. She just advised Zhao Jun, "It’s still so early. Son, go back to sleep for a little while."

Zhao Jun agreed, and after the little Qing Gou finished its rice broth, he carried it back to the room to sleep.

Zhao Jun slept until almost seven o’clock, when he was woken up by Li Baoyu’s loud voice.

Knowing Li Baoyu would be barging in any second, Zhao Jun simply got out of bed and started getting dressed.

Before he could finish, Li Baoyu pushed the door open and came in. Zhao Jun looked up and saw Li Baoyu holding a pair of skis made from wild boar hide.

These types of skis were passed down from the Oroqen people. Their design was roughly the same as modern skis, with the hairy side of the boar hide facing down and the grain of the hair pointing forward.

Zhao Jun got off the heated platform bed, took the skis, and looked them over. "They’re finally done," he said.

Li Baoyu said, "Yeah, I kept rushing him."

"Have you eaten?" Zhao Jun asked Li Baoyu.

"I have." Li Baoyu moved closer to the edge of the heated platform bed and glanced at the little Qing Gou sleeping in a dog-skin hat. He turned back to Zhao Jun and said, "If I’d known my uncle’s goat was producing milk, I would’ve bought one too."

Wang Meilan had just told Li Baoyu this news.

Zhao Jun just smiled and said to Li Baoyu, "Brother, hurry home and find all the hard-jaw traps. Grab as many as you can find."

"What for?" Li Baoyu asked curiously. "What do you need those for?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Zhao Jun raised the boar-hide skis in his hand and said to him, "To go up the mountain and trap Galls, of course."

"Now?" Li Baoyu was stunned. This was so sudden, just up and going like that.

"Yes, now." Zhao Jun nodded. "We’ll set off after I eat. We’ll make it a quick trip. If we go up the mountain now, we’ll be back by this afternoon for sure."

"Brother, but... isn’t the New Year almost here?"

"Do you have something to do today?" Zhao Jun asked.

"No, nothing."

Zhao Jun said, "We’re not hunting anything today. We’ll just set the traps and come back. We can go check the traps after the fifteenth."

You can’t eat a Sable’s meat; you just want the pelt. Once it’s caught in a trap, the fur won’t be damaged by the cold, so it doesn’t matter how many days pass before you go up.

Hearing this, Li Baoyu felt that what Zhao Jun said made sense. The key thing was that the price for Galls had gone up again this year, and it was a steep hike.

Right now, the state-run store down the mountain was paying around six hundred yuan for a single Gall, even for one in poor condition.

"Brother, you eat first. I’m going home to get my stuff." The thought of earning so much money was enough for Li Baoyu to just toss that sentence at Zhao Jun before turning and leaving.

Zhao Jun came out of his room and called for Wang Meilan to serve him his meal. After he devoured two bowls of coarse-ground corn porridge, four sticky bean buns, and a side of pickled mustard tubers, he returned to his room. He found Zhao Hong and Zhao Na teasing the little Qing Gou and instructed them, "I’m heading out for a bit. You two take good care of Cyan Dragon while I’m gone."

His sisters, Zhao Hong and Zhao Na, were very unhappy with the name Zhao Jun had given the little Qing Gou, but they couldn’t argue with the dog’s owner and could only reluctantly accept it.

After instructing the two youngsters, Zhao Jun went out to tell Wang Meilan. She didn’t object. After all, there was nothing at home that absolutely required his presence, so she might as well let him go up the mountain to trap Galls.

However, Wang Meilan repeatedly warned him. Her warnings were all about the upcoming New Year and how he shouldn’t go hunting Black Bears or anything like that. It wasn’t worth getting into trouble.

Zhao Jun sincerely agreed. He was determined this time. Even if he passed right by a Black Bear’s Den, he absolutely would not kill one.

But, as Zhao Jun was about to leave, he still took the gun from behind the door and slung it over his shoulder.

It was for self-defense.

Zhao Jun left his house and hopped the wall into Li Baoyu’s yard. He saw Li Baoyu rush out the door, a wooden board trap in his hand, stuffing it into the satchel slung across his body.

"How many do you have?" Zhao Jun asked him.

"Eight." Li Baoyu patted the satchel on his front and said to Zhao Jun, "This bag is full of traps. I didn’t even bring any rope."

"Don’t need it," Zhao Jun said. "We’re not hunting anything today. Quick trip."

Li Baoyu nodded, grabbed the boar-hide skis leaning in the corner, and followed Zhao Jun out of the house.

The two of them left the village and headed into the mountains. They avoided the flat and gentle slopes, making their way step by step toward the High Mountain.

Nearing High Mountain Foot, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu cut four long, thin Fraxinus mandschurica Sticks nearby. Then, they each slipped their feet into the foot bindings on their boar-hide skis.

Thin ropes were sewn to both sides of the foot bindings on the skis. They wrapped these around their lower legs to secure them more firmly.

The two of them stood on their skis, pushing themselves along with the Fraxinus mandschurica Sticks as they headed up the slope.

The High Mountain was buried in snow.

Here at High Mountain Foot, the snow was already deep enough to reach Zhao Jun’s chest.

At first, both of them felt a bit awkward on the skis, but as kids who grew up in the Northeast, they had been around ice and snow from a young age. Even without ice skates or rollerblades, spending winter after winter sliding around on the ice had given them an excellent sense of balance.