The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

When Zhao Jun got home, Wang Meilan was in the outer room by the stove, chopping pickled cabbage. A glance at the wild boar meat thawing in a nearby basin of cold water told Zhao Jun they were making dumplings again.

Wang Meilan stopped chopping, looked at Zhao Jun, and said, "Go on inside. Your dad wants to talk to you."

"Huh?" Zhao Jun was taken aback.

Zhao Jun entered the east room and saw Zhao Youcai wrapped in a thick cotton quilt, sitting cross-legged on the heated brick bed. He was holding a large, steaming enamel mug, blowing on it as he took small sips of water.

"Dad, are you feeling any better?"

Zhao Youcai put down his mug and looked up at Zhao Jun. Instead of answering, he asked a question of his own. "Your mom said that kid, Zhang Laibao, has been hanging around our house the past couple of days. Is he here for you?"

"Yeah," Zhao Jun replied. "He bought a few dogs in Lingnan and wants me to help him train them."

"Son." As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, he heard Wang Meilan’s voice from behind him. He turned to see her standing in the doorway, cleaver in hand. "You stay away from the Zhang family’s kids," she said. "Zhang Zhanshan and your father don’t get along. His son is definitely trying to cause you trouble."

Zhao Youcai had been about to say something himself, but he suddenly realized Wang Meilan had said everything he wanted to.

"Mom, don’t worry. I know what I’m doing."

"What could you possibly know?!" Hearing this, Zhao Youcai’s temper flared. "There isn’t a single good person in that entire Zhang family!" he snapped. "You’d better watch out, or one of these days he’ll come and steal your dogs."

"Isn’t that the truth," Wang Meilan chimed in. "The year your older sister was born, your dad was with me at the hospital. No one was home, so that Zhang Zhanshan came over to steal our dog."

"I know about that," Zhao Jun said with a laugh. "I heard Uncle Li caught him. He nearly beat him to death."

"And you’re laughing," Zhao Youcai said. "If you catch him in the act, you can beat him all you want. But if you don’t? He’ll secretly take your dog up into the mountains, hide it in some shack, and then we’ll see if you can ever find it."

"Actually, I could find it," Zhao Jun said with a smile.

"Oh?" Zhao Youcai’s eyes lit up, and he scooted closer to Zhao Jun.

But to his surprise, Zhao Jun held up a hand to stop him. "Dad, you have a cold. Don’t give it to me."

"You little brat!"

Zhao Jun laughed and asked, "Dad, do you know the Leader from No. 42 Logging Camp, the one with the surname Jiang?"

Zhao Youcai shook his head.

Zhao Jun said, "He’s the brother of Zhang Zhanshan’s maternal cousin’s wife."

"Ah!" With that, Zhao Youcai understood. He narrowed his eyes, a grin spreading wider and wider across his face as if he’d just thought of something delightful.

...

「The next day.」

Zhao Jun was once again woken up early by Zhao Hong.

"Brother, get up! The dumplings are already in the pot."

Zhao Jun wanted to laze around a little longer, but he suddenly remembered his arrangement with Zhang Laibao. He hurried out of the heated brick bed, threw on his cotton-padded jacket, and went to wash up and eat.

Because Zhao Youcai’s cold hadn’t improved, the low kang table had to be set up in Zhao Jun’s room.

Three plates of steaming hot dumplings were placed on the table. Wang Meilan ladled a bowl of the dumpling cooking water for each of the three siblings, muttering to Zhao Na, who was sitting on the heated bed, "The original broth helps digest the original food, you know."

But Zhao Na was still little and didn’t seem to understand. She just held a chopstick in each hand, waving them through the air.

Wang Meilan turned just in time to see Zhao Jun walk in with the soy sauce and vinegar bottles. "Son," she said, "help your sister out a bit."

"Okay, Mom, I got it," Zhao Jun replied. But seeing Wang Meilan head for the outer room, he hurried to the doorway and asked, "Mom, what are you and Dad going to eat?"

"Your dad says he has no appetite," Wang Meilan said. "I’m going to use the leftover dumpling water to make him some cornmeal porridge. You kids hurry up and eat while it’s hot."

Zhao Jun knew that his mother always ate whatever his father ate. Realizing he couldn’t change her mind, he went back inside to help his two younger sisters with their meal.

The freshly boiled dumplings were steaming. Zhao Jun picked up a plate of them with one hand and gave its base a sharp tap against the palm of his other.

The plate jolted against his palm, and the dumplings inside shook with the impact, instantly separating any that were stuck together.

This was to keep the dumplings from clumping together.

After a few sharp taps, Zhao Jun put the plate down and repeated the process with the other two plates.

Then, Zhao Jun took Zhao Na’s little bowl, placed a dumpling in it, and used his chopsticks to pinch it in the middle, splitting it into two halves.

Zhao Jun did this for six dumplings in a row, covering the bottom of Zhao Na’s bowl.

Zhao Jun handed the bowl back to her. Zhao Na awkwardly fumbled with the chopsticks in one hand, managed to separate them, and picked up a piece of dumpling to pop into her mouth.

Since Zhao Jun had split them open, the dumpling pieces had cooled down. Zhao Na popped one half in her mouth, eating happily.

Just then, Zhao Jun looked up and saw Zhao Hong staring at him expectantly.

Zhao Jun quickly took Zhao Hong’s bowl and split ten dumplings for her as well.

Taking her bowl back, Zhao Hong grinned at Zhao Jun. With some effort, she picked up a whole dumpling from the plate and placed it in his bowl.

Zhao Jun picked up the dumpling and popped it into his mouth.

Wild boar and pickled cabbage filling.

This time, Wang Meilan had used soybean oil to mix the filling. Even though they had plenty of wild boar meat, the filling was still half pickled cabbage and half meat.

The homemade pickled cabbage retained a pleasant crunch even after being cooked, and its subtle, tangy fragrance mingled with the savory scent of the meat, whetting the appetite.

After finishing his meal, Zhao Jun glanced at the wall clock. It was just past seven. He got up and started changing.

He had just finished changing and was sitting on the edge of the heated bed wrapping his leg bindings when Li Baoyu arrived.

Li Baoyu came into the room and asked, "Brother, since we’re going after Xiong Ba today, does that mean we’re not bringing the lynx traps?"

Zhao Jun looked up at Li Baoyu, confused. "Who told you we were going after Xiong Ba?"

Li Baoyu was puzzled. "But... isn’t that what you told Zhang Laibao yesterday?"

Zhao Jun laughed. "You actually believe the things I say to him?"

Li Baoyu scratched his head. Then, as understanding dawned, he grinned. "Oh, I get it! You’re messing with him, right? You’re going to make him wait at the East of the Village all day long!"

"Do you really think he’s that stupid?" Zhao Jun chuckled. "He won’t wait an hour before he takes off."

"An hour is still good!" Li Baoyu said, thinking he’d guessed correctly. "I’ll go grab the lynx traps."

"Hold on," Zhao Jun said, stopping him. "Don’t bother. We’ll set the traps another day."

"Huh? Then what are we doing today?"

Zhao Jun said, "In a minute, grab a rope and put Daqing on a leash. No matter what happens, don’t you let him off it."

The more Li Baoyu listened, the more confused he became. ’We’re not hunting Xiong Ba, and we’re not setting lynx traps, but we’re still taking the dogs? What in the world are we doing?’

Utterly bewildered, Li Baoyu followed Zhao Jun out of the house. As instructed, he put only Daqing on a rope leash. The other three dogs remained unleashed as they left the house.

Once outside, Li Baoyu saw that Zhao Jun was still heading toward the East of the Village, which confused him even more.

He grew anxious. "Brother, are you really going to help Zhang Laibao train his dogs?" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Of course not."

"Then why are we going this way? We’re going to run into him."

Zhao Jun grinned. "Running into him is the whole point. If we don’t, how are we supposed to ruin those two dogs of his?"