The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Tiny white crystals, each a size smaller than a soybean, were about the size of an adzuki bean.

"Medicinal Beans!" Zhao Youcai’s face fell. He narrowed his eyes, a cold light glinting from between his lids.

Having been a Mountain Runner for many years, Zhao Youcai recognized it at a glance.

Mountain Runners just called this stuff Medicinal Beans.

Every year around April and May, some Hunters would set up bait stations in places where deer passed through. They would then fill them with coarse salt mixed with Medicinal Beans to lure the deer in to lick it.

The substance had a scientific name: aluminum potassium cyanide.

It was a deadly poison that killed on contact with blood.

These days, aluminum potassium cyanide was hard to come by. Only steel mills had it, so it wasn’t something an ordinary person could get their hands on.

At that moment, Zhao Youcai suddenly remembered the dogs Zhao Jun had locked up. Realizing his son must know something, he asked Zhao Jun, "Who did this?"

"Zhang Zhanshan!"

Hearing Zhao Jun say the name, Zhao Youcai slowly got up and paced a few steps around the room. When he turned back, he saw that Zhao Jun had already wrapped the mutton fat, Medicinal Beans and all, in Butter Paper.

"How did you know it was him?" Zhao Youcai asked.

The moment Zhao Jun had said Zhang Zhanshan’s name, Zhao Youcai was already convinced. His question was merely to find out how Zhao Jun had discovered it.

Zhao Jun said, "He got a block of mutton fat from Wang Fu’s place today. ’He doesn’t make blasting charges,’ I thought, ’so what’s he need mutton fat for?’ Plus, our dogs wrecked his son’s dog yesterday, so I figured he’d try to get back at us."

Zhao Youcai nodded. "Wang Fu is on better terms with me than with that Zhang Wangba. He definitely didn’t tell Zhang Wangba that he was hitching up the sled early to go with you to haul Xiong Ba."

Zhang Wangba was a nickname Zhao Youcai had given Zhang Zhanshan. Back when their feud was at its worst, Zhao Youcai had spread rumors everywhere that Xu Meihua had cheated on Zhang Zhanshan, making him a cuckold.

After that, he never missed a chance to call Zhang Zhanshan "Zhang Wangba".

Zhao Jun thought it over. His dad had a point. If Wang Fu had told Zhang Zhanshan from the start that he was going up the mountain with him today to haul Xiong Ba, Zhang Zhanshan might not have asked for Wang Fu’s mutton fat.

Or even if he had, he probably wouldn’t have made his move tonight.

But if that were the case, things would be troublesome.

After all, as the saying goes, a thief can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can’t guard against a thief for a thousand days. He couldn’t watch the dogs around the clock.

Seeing Zhao Youcai roll a cigarette and smoke it in silence, Zhao Jun said, "Dad, you don’t have to worry about this. I’ll handle him." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Oh?" Zhao Youcai was actually curious. He chuckled. "That cuckold is a venomous bastard. He’s not easy to deal with."

Zhao Jun grinned. "I’ll feel him out first. If I can’t handle it, then you can step in, Dad."

"Alright."

The father and son went back to their own rooms to sleep. Early the next morning, Zhao Jun was pawed awake by the three dogs. He opened the door to let them out and saw Wang Meilan in the kitchen, whisking eggs.

"Mom, what are you making?"

"Steamed egg custard for you." Wang Meilan reached back to close the door that Hua Xiao’Er had nudged open, then said to Zhao Jun, "I heard what your father said. Son, you be careful now."

Zhao Jun smiled at her words, finding it quite strange. His mother had always taught him to be kind to others, but she made a clear exception for Zhang Zhanshan’s family.

Wang Meilan sprinkled chopped scallions into the egg mixture, then placed the small basin of egg into a large pot.

After putting the lid on the pot, Wang Meilan turned back to Zhao Jun and said, "That year, his wife tried to lure me into Black Bear Gully."

"What?" Hearing this, Zhao Jun’s eyes instantly turned red. In his past life, his mother had died young, and that heartless father of his had found a new wife the very next year. This was the first time Zhao Jun had ever heard this story.

Wang Meilan said, "One autumn, she went up the mountain to gather schisandra berries and got scratched by Xiong Ba. So your dad went around the Forest Area saying that Zhang Zhanshan’s wife had a Sandao Gully on her scalp. The next year, that Xu Meihua tried to lure me into Black Bear Gully."

In the Northeast, whether you believe it or not, there are always some strange, ominous things that happen.

In the Yong’an Forest Area, there was a place that, to use a modern phrase, was a forbidden land.

This was Black Bear Gully.

This gully was full of hickory trees. Before Liberation, mountain folk would come here every autumn to gather hickory nuts.

But starting in ’59, crop yields fell, and logging in the mountains was halted, leaving the wild animals without enough to eat.

That very autumn, a Black Bear attack occurred in the gully. A single Black Bear mauled eight people in one month.

Of those eight people, one was killed and seven were injured. It got to the point where people gathering mountain goods didn’t dare enter the gully anymore.

And so, the gully got its name: Black Bear Gully.

That very Black Bear was eventually killed by Zhao Youcai’s gun, but ever since then, there have been Black Bear attacks in Black Bear Gully every single year.

Wang Meilan said to Zhao Jun, "I remember it was ’66. You weren’t born yet. Your grandma was at home looking after your big sister. The old lady’s teeth were bad, so I thought I’d go up the mountain to pick some hardy kiwis for her to eat. I went out with a basket on my back and ran into Xu Meihua on the path. She told me, ’Our husbands don’t get along, but that’s their business. We sisters can still be friends.’"

Hearing this, Zhao Jun’s lip twitched. In his past life, that was exactly how Zhang Laibao had suckered him.

Wang Meilan continued, "I was a fool. I believed her and followed her. Halfway there, she said she had a stomachache and told me to go on ahead down into the gully by myself."

"And then what?" Zhao Jun asked.

"Then I ran into your uncle." Wang Meilan smiled. "Your uncle had gone to Pine Tree Ridge early to hunt squirrels. He was coming down from the ridge around nine and happened to see me. He asked what I was doing heading into Black Bear Gully. As soon as I heard that, I realized what was going on. I told your uncle, and he flew into a rage right then and there. He chased after Xu Meihua and shot at her."

"My God!" Zhao Jun was stunned. He quickly asked, "Where did he hit her? She seems perfectly fine to me."

Wang Meilan burst out laughing. "A shotgun! Your uncle was carrying a shotgun loaded with birdshot. He fired from a long way off, so it didn’t really hurt her, but it scared her so bad she was screaming her head off and wet her pants."

Zhao Jun chuckled at that, but his expression darkened in the next instant.

If Zhang Laibao hadn’t tried to scheme against him first, he wouldn’t have set a trap for him and injured his dog.

Because of that, Zhang Zhanshan had tried to poison his dogs yesterday. Zhao Jun felt he had to retaliate, but he had never considered doing something lethal.

But now, upon learning that Xu Meihua had once tried to harm his mother, Zhao Jun decided to hit the Zhang Family with something vicious.

Just then, Wang Meilan, sitting before the stove, began to mutter softly. She was speaking to Zhao Jun, but her voice was so low it sounded like she was talking to herself.

Zhao Jun heard her clearly. "Your father has a bad temper," Wang Meilan said, "but he’s not a bad person at heart. That Zhang Zhanshan is different, though. He’s insidious and cruel."

Zhao Jun didn’t say anything. He turned, went back to his room, and sat in silence on the edge of his kang bed.

A little over half an hour later, Wang Meilan called Zhao Jun from the east room to eat. After Zhao Jun finished breakfast, he went next door to find Li Baoyu.

"Brother, are we going to set traps today?"

"Nope," Zhao Jun said. "Come with me. We’ll talk when we get to the mountains."

The two of them went without the dogs, heading straight for the mountain logging area. On the way up, Zhao Jun told him about Zhang Zhanshan trying to poison Hua Xiao’Er the night before. Li Baoyu got so angry he turned to go back and settle the score with Zhang Zhanshan.

But Zhao Jun grabbed him, saying, "That would look like our two families ganging up on his one. If we’re going to deal with him, we have to make him suffer in silence. Make him like a turtle in a stove pit—stifled and seething."

Hearing this, Li Baoyu’s interest was suddenly piqued. He quickly asked, "Brother, what’s the plan then?"

Zhao Jun let out a soft chuckle. "Since Zhang Laibao wants to be a Mountain Runner with us, we’ll deal with him using the ways of the mountains."