The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

It wasn’t a full pouch’s worth, not even half, but it was enough for the three little girls to play with.

Looking at the boiled galaha beside him, Zhao Jun picked one up, grabbed a small knife from the stovetop, and gently scraped its surface.

Just then, Jin Xiaomei came out with a string of dried red chili peppers. She placed them on the stovetop and said to Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, roast these peppers in a bit. Mom’s going to make some chili oil for our dumplings tonight."

"You got it!" Li Baoyu immediately agreed.

That evening, the two families gathered together. Zhao Youcai, Wang Meilan, Li Dayong, and Jin Xiaomei started a game of mahjong, while the three little girls played galaha on the kang.

Meanwhile, Li Baoyu was trying to rope Zhao Jun into playing cards with him and Li Ruhai.

Seeing Li Ruhai’s eager expression, Zhao Jun shook his head to himself. ’Silly kid,’ he thought, ’your brother is just waiting to trick you out of the thirty-odd yuan in your pocket.’

In the end, Li Baoyu’s plan fell through. Zhao Jun refused to play, and without him, the two brothers couldn’t get a game going.

Zhao Jun didn’t refuse out of pity for Li Ruhai. After he was reborn, he had secretly sworn to never touch cards again in this life, win or lose.

The two families spent the next few days like this: eating, drinking, and playing mahjong, galaha, and cards.

On the fourth day of the New Year, Li Baoyu, Li Ruhai, and Jin Xiaomei played three rounds of cards. The game ended with Li Baoyu losing fifteen yuan and Li Ruhai losing twenty.

After that, Li Baoyu settled down.

On the fifth day, the Li Family went to visit relatives at Jin Xiaomei’s parents’ home, while Zhao Jun’s family had a meal with Wang Qiang’s family.

On the seventh day, Li Baoyu returned from Shang Gully Town and immediately found Zhao Jun, who was strolling through the village. "Brother," he said, "when my dad went to Shang Gully this time, he asked my grandpa what kind of snare could trap a pig that weighs over a thousand jin."

It seemed Zhao Youcai wasn’t the only one who was obsessed.

"A steel wire snare?" Zhao Jun shook his head. "For a pig that big? A steel wire rope the thickness of a finger won’t hold it. It would just snap."

"That’s what my grandpa said, too," Li Baoyu said. "Sounds like this big pig is going to be tough to catch."

Just as Zhao Jun was about to speak, he heard a familiar voice call out, "Brother!"

"Brother," Zhao Jun said, turning to see Zhang Yuanmin jogging over with a grin.

"Brother Zhang."

"Baoyu."

Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu exchanged greetings. Then Zhang Yuanmin walked up to Zhao Jun and said, "Brother, I’ve got good news for you."

Before Zhang Yuanmin could say more, Zhao Jun cut in, "Is it about the dog?"

"Smart kid!" Zhang Yuanmin laughed and clapped Zhao Jun on the arm. "I went to my wife’s family home on the third and just got back, so I came looking for you right away. Man Tang’s dog really is pregnant! She should give birth sometime after the fifteenth. If you’re free, we can go after the second day of the second month."

Newborn puppies had to nurse for at least half a month before they could be taken from their mother. Otherwise, their eyes wouldn’t even be open, and they’d be impossible to feed.

Hearing this, Zhao Jun looked troubled. "Brother, any time after the second of the second month won’t work for me. I have to report for duty at the Forest Farm on the third."

"You’re starting the job?" Zhang Yuanmin’s face lit up, genuinely happy for Zhao Jun.

"Mhm," Zhao Jun replied. "Brother, could we go two days earlier?"

"Sure," Zhang Yuanmin agreed without a second thought. "It’s up to you, brother. Just name the day, and we’ll go."

"How about the first of the second month, then?"

"Done."

...

「In the blink of an eye, it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month—the Lantern Festival.」

In those days, the small village store still sold yuanxiao, but only with one kind of filling: red bean paste.

And they weren’t pre-packaged; they were sold loose by the jin.

On the fourteenth day of the first month, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu went to the small shop and each bought two jin of yuanxiao. They cooked them at home that evening, and the family devoured every last one, broth and all.

Life was harsh for people in the mountains back then. They rarely got more than a few days of rest all year, especially the men at the Forest Farm who did the Gui Ling and sled-pulling. Their work was strenuous manual labor, year in and year out.

So for the New Year, the Forest Farm gave its workers a long holiday, from the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month all the way through the Lantern Festival.

Even so, in the period between the Lantern Festival and the second day of the second month, only the administrative and logistics staff at the Forest Farm returned to work. The laborers’ holiday continued; they wouldn’t get properly back to work until the first lunar month was over.

Normally, as long as anyone was working at the Forest Farm, the Number One Canteen was supposed to be open.

But as the canteen’s master chef, Zhao Youcai was his own boss, unless a leader specifically ordered him to be there.

So, back on the day of the pig butchering feast, Zhao Youcai had already made arrangements with Han Dachun. He’d asked Han Dachun to keep an eye on the canteen for him for a few days. He figured with a good friend like that watching over things, nothing could go wrong.

As for what Zhao Youcai planned to do, there was no doubt: he was going into the mountains to hunt.

Ever since seeing the massive wild boar’s tracks on the twenty-seventh of the twelfth month, Zhao Youcai had been unable to contain himself.

The New Year holiday had left him so antsy it was driving him crazy. For several nights in a row, Zhao Youcai dreamed of landing a perfect headshot, taking down that thousand-jin wild boar among the vast, snow-covered mountains.

He finally made it past the fifteenth of the first month.

On the sixteenth, Zhao Youcai was up bright and early. In a rare move, he personally cooked breakfast, stewing up a large pot of cabbage and glass noodles with frozen tofu. He also sliced up a generous amount of pork belly and threw it in.

While the dish was stewing, he placed a steamer rack on top and steamed a full tray of sticky bean buns.

Zhao Jun was up early that day, too. The moment he woke, he smelled the fragrant aroma of food. When he crossed over to the east room, he saw Wang Meilan already eating with the two little girls.