The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

When they went into the mountains today, Zhao Jun specifically led Li Baoyu toward the sunny side.

Once they reached a sunny slope, they began carefully searching in places sheltered from the wind.

"Brother, are you trying to dig out badgers?" Seeing Zhao Jun’s approach, Li Baoyu knew he was looking for a badger den. After a moment’s thought, he added, "But it’s the middle of winter. This isn’t the right time for it."

"Less talk!" Zhao Jun scanned the area and gestured around. "Just get searching."

After busying themselves for most of the morning, the two finally discovered a den under a birch tree.

The entrance wasn’t large; a dog wouldn’t be able to squeeze through.

Li Baoyu bent down and peered into the opening. Seeing white frost around the entrance, he stood up and said to Zhao Jun, "There’s something in here, but I don’t know if it’s a badger."

Zhao Jun glanced left and right. Noticing a small snowdrift nearby, he walked over and kicked the snow away, revealing a small mound of earth.

Zhao Jun pointed at the mound and grinned at Li Baoyu. "No doubt about it. It’s badgers!"

"Yep." Li Baoyu came over for a look and nodded in agreement.

In reality, every wild animal tidies up its den before hibernating.

Black Bears, for instance, will clean out any rotten spots in the tree hollows they inhabit.

As for badgers, they expand and deepen their dens, carrying the excavated dirt outside.

Only a whole sett of badgers, working together, could dig out this much earth.

Now that they had confirmed badgers were inside, Li Baoyu found himself in a difficult spot. He couldn’t figure out what Zhao Jun was thinking.

’If we’re going to dig out badgers, we can’t do it bare-handed. We need tools.’

’It’s winter, for crying out loud. Even the loose dirt the badgers dug out is frozen solid. To break open a badger den, we’d need a pickaxe at least.’

Just then, Zhao Jun spoke to Li Baoyu again. "Let’s search the area and see if there are any other entrances."

A crafty rabbit has three warrens.

And a badger’s den is far more elaborate than a rabbit’s burrow.

In winter, badgers enter a state of semi-hibernation. They don’t sleep completely through it; they wake up periodically to eat small amounts of food and to relieve themselves.

Thus, inside a badger’s den, there are designated latrines, food storage chambers, and sleeping quarters.

A sett this intricate and complex would surely have more than one entrance.

To dig out badgers, you have to find all the exits to their den. When it’s time to dig, you pick the easiest entrance to work on and block off all the others.

Then, you only have to dig at that one entrance. Once you reach a badger, you use an iron hook to pull it out and kill it.

A short while later, about seven or eight meters away, Li Baoyu found another entrance behind a large rock. Not far from it was another mound of earth covered in snow.

Zhao Jun stood before the rock and sized it up for a moment before telling Li Baoyu, "Let’s go. We’re heading home."

Li Baoyu was speechless.

Li Baoyu was growing more and more confused about Zhao Jun’s plan. ’If you’re going to dig out a badger den, you have to find all the entrances first. We’ve only found the second one and now we’re going home? What kind of move is that?’

But on the way home, Zhao Jun explained his plan to Li Baoyu.

As Li Baoyu listened to Zhao Jun’s explanation, he sucked in several sharp breaths of cold air. But as he continued to listen, a wicked grin spread across his face.

Upon returning to Yong’an Village, the two went their separate ways. The moment Zhao Jun stepped into his own yard, he froze.

He saw Daqing and White Dragon in the yard, but in front of the doghouse belonging to Hua Xiao’Er, there was no sign of the little dog.

Zhao Jun rushed into the house, but as soon as he opened the door, Hua Xiao’Er leaped on him.

"What the..."

"Son, you’re back?" Wang Meilan asked. "Where’d you run off to again? Gallivanting all morning."

Zhao Jun pushed Hua Xiao’Er away and asked, "Mom, who brought him into the house?"

"I did." The door behind Zhao Jun opened. Zhao Youcai had just returned from outside, the father and son arriving one right after the other.

Zhao Youcai walked into the house. Seeing Zhao Jun’s confusion, he turned back and said, "Whatever trick you’re planning, you can’t let that Zhang Wangba get his guard up."

Hearing this, Zhao Jun instantly understood. He gave Zhao Youcai a thumbs-up and said, "Dad, I guess there’s no substitute for experience."

"Get outta here!"

...

The next morning, Zhao Jun was up early again, which was unusual for him. He let Hua Xiao’Er out for a quick run, then shut him back inside the house.

After breakfast, Zhao Jun went back to his room to change his clothes and wrap his leggings.

When Hua Xiao’Er saw Zhao Jun wrapping his leggings, he seemed to know his master was heading for the mountains and began pacing anxiously around him.

Once Zhao Jun was ready, he stood up and shouldered his shotgun. Hua Xiao’Er was already waiting by the bedroom door for him to open it.

Zhao Jun walked over to Hua Xiao’Er, squatted down, and patted his head. "I can’t take you with me today." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Hua Xiao’Er didn’t seem to understand, even lifting a paw to pat at the door.

Zhao Jun chuckled, scooped Hua Xiao’Er up with both hands, and tossed him back into the room. He immediately turned, opened the door, and shut it behind him.

Immediately, he heard a string of whimpers and scratching sounds from the other side of the door.

Wang Meilan, who was clearing the dishes in the outer room, shot Zhao Jun a glare. "If you don’t get going, he’s going to scratch that door to pieces."

"I’m leaving, Mom."

"Go on, and be careful."

Zhao Jun stepped out into the yard and saw Li Baoyu in the neighboring yard, leashing his dogs. Zhao Jun first went to the storeroom, grabbed something, and tucked it into his satchel. Only then did he take out some ropes and leash Daqing and White Dragon.

By the time Zhao Jun came out leading his dogs, Li Baoyu was already waiting for him at the gate with Da Huang and Xiaohua, the little dog he had bought from Xu Changlin’s family.

The two of them headed south, leading the four dogs. As they walked, Li Baoyu whispered to Zhao Jun, "Brother, what if we don’t run into him today?"

Zhao Jun said, "If we don’t, we’ll just take the dogs for a walk and come back. We’ll try again tomorrow."

"Well..." Li Baoyu hesitated. "How about we take the dogs up the mountain and hunt something along the way?"

"No," Zhao Jun refused flatly without a second thought. "If one of the dogs gets hurt, it’ll complicate things. We’re just going to run into him. Whenever that happens, our job is done."

"Alright, then."

They kept walking. As they were about to pass Zhang Laibao’s house, Li Baoyu stood on his tiptoes to peer at it from a distance.

A glance revealed that the door to Zhang Laibao’s house was shut tight, which made Li Baoyu a little disappointed. "Brother... huh?"

But what a coincidence!

Zhang Laibao didn’t emerge from his house; instead, he was walking over from the east.

When Zhang Laibao saw Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, he stopped in his tracks and froze for two seconds. But after his gaze swept over the four dogs, the corner of his mouth curled up in a barely perceptible smirk.

"Brother Jun!" Zhang Laibao ignored Li Baoyu, who was glaring at him, and greeted Zhao Jun directly.

Zhao Jun laughed inwardly but kept his expression perfectly normal, asking simply, "Where’ve you been?"

"Just went to the latrine," Zhang Laibao answered. Then he pointed at the four dogs and asked, "Brother Jun, where’s that big brindle dog of yours?"

As soon as Zhang Laibao said this, Zhao Jun’s face darkened. "Looks like he ate a poisoned rat. He’s been half-dead for the past two days."

Hearing this, Zhang Laibao didn’t think much of it. He knew his father had laid the poison, but he assumed Zhao Jun didn’t know.

After all, it was a common occurrence for a dog to get poisoned from eating a dead rat.

If Hua Xiao’Er had died, Zhao Jun might have cut the dog open to see what it had eaten. But since the dog wasn’t dead, he certainly wouldn’t do that, and thus wouldn’t be able to find out it was poisoned by a person.

’This was what Zhang Laibao was thinking. As for why Hua Xiao’Er hadn’t died, he wasn’t suspicious at all. In fact, he felt a little relieved. ’If the dog didn’t die,’ he thought, ’maybe I’ll still have a chance to get it to help me with a dog-pull later on.’

But regardless of his inner thoughts, Zhang Laibao had to pretend to be completely clueless in front of Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu. "Oh no, how did that happen? It shouldn’t be eating dead rats..."

"Alright, alright." Li Baoyu held up a hand to stop Zhang Laibao. "Don’t just stand here dawdling. We have to go hunting in the mountains. You don’t even have a dog anymore, so you should just hurry home and stay there."

"Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?" This Zhang Laibao fellow was a strange one. He had always been polite and respectful to Zhao Jun ever since they were kids, but with his classmate Li Baoyu, they bickered the moment they saw each other.

Zhang Laibao sidled up to Zhao Jun and said, "Brother Jun, you’re going hunting. Can I come with you?"

"Oh, give me a break." Before Zhao Jun could speak, Li Baoyu cut in. He looked at Zhang Laibao with disdain and said, "With your so-called skills? You should just hurry on home."

"I wasn’t talking to you!" Zhang Laibao retorted, then turned his head back to Zhao Jun. "Brother Jun, can I go with you or not?"

Zhao Jun said, "We’re holding the dogs, so we can’t wait for you." At this, Zhao Jun pointed ahead and added, "We’ll walk slowly. You hurry back and get your gear. Once you’re ready, you can catch up to us."

"You got it, you got it!" Zhang Laibao agreed eagerly as he ran toward his house.

"Hurry up!" Zhao Jun called after him. Watching Zhang Laibao open the door and go inside, he finally turned to Li Baoyu and said, "He took the bait."