The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Who knows what Li Ruhai said on his way home.

By the time Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu carried the stretcher to within a couple of houses of Zhang Laibao’s home, a crowd of curious villagers had already gathered.

Just then, someone shouted, "The Zhang Family is here!"

Zhao Jun looked toward the sound and saw it was Chen Dalai. Zhao Jun knew perfectly well that Chen Dalai was giving him a heads-up.

"Baoyu, let’s put him down."

Hearing this, Li Baoyu and Zhao Jun placed the stretcher on the ground. They took the badger off the ends of the stretcher, then stood to the side and placed the animal at their feet.

"Move aside, move aside!" Zhang Zhanshan shoved his way through the crowd, pulling Xu Meihua and Zhang Laifa along with him.

"My son!" As soon as Xu Meihua saw Zhang Laibao lying on the stretcher, his crotch covered in mud, she let out a piercing shriek. She threw herself down in front of the stretcher, collapsing onto Zhang Laibao’s body and wailing uncontrollably.

The moment he saw Xu Meihua, Zhang Laibao finally felt like he was with family, and tears immediately streamed down his face.

"You little bastard!" The moment Zhang Zhanshan saw Zhao Jun, he forgot all about his own son. He charged directly at Zhao Jun and swung a fist at his face.

"Agh, ah..." But in the next second, it was Zhang Zhanshan who cried out.

Li Baoyu had stepped in front of Zhao Jun. His large hand was clamped around Zhang Zhanshan’s wrist like an iron pincer, twisting it aside.

"Li Baoyu!" Zhang Laifa charged over in a rage, only to be shoved aside by Zhao Jun.

With his left hand caught, Zhang Zhanshan swung his right fist at Li Baoyu’s face.

Li Baoyu raised a hand to block the punch and, using the momentum, shoved Zhang Zhanshan down to the ground.

Years ago, Zhang Zhanshan had tried to steal a dog raised by Zhao Youcai. Li Dayong caught him and gave him a sound beating. Since then, the Zhang and Li families had been enemies.

Zhang Zhanshan’s hatred for Li Baoyu was every bit as strong as his hatred for Zhao Jun. The only difference was that Li Baoyu was tall and sturdy; Zhang Zhanshan couldn’t take him on alone.

Just then, more shouting erupted from the edge of the crowd. The onlookers parted as a group of people pushed their way in.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu exchanged a look, both inwardly cursing Li Ruhai. ’That damned Li Ruhai.’

This group was made up of Zhang family relatives. There was Zhang Zhanshan’s younger brother—Zhang Laibao’s second uncle, Zhang Zhanhe—and his wife, Zhao Hui. Also present were Xu Meihua’s younger brother, Xu Guohua, and his wife, Wang Chunli.

When these newcomers got closer and saw Zhang Laibao on the stretcher, Xu Meihua crying over his body, and Zhang Zhanshan sitting on the ground, they flew into a collective rage. All at once, they lunged for Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu.

If it were just the men, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu wouldn’t have been afraid. But with two women in the mix, they had to dodge. Getting your face scratched up was no joke.

In that moment, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu abandoned the badger and scrambled to dodge out of the way.

"What do you think you’re doing?!" Suddenly, the crowd parted again. Zhao Guofeng rushed in with his son, Zhao Jinshan. He grabbed Wang Chunli by the collar of her padded jacket and shoved her toward Xu Guohua.

"Village Chief, why are you taking their side?" Zhang Zhanhe immediately protested, berating Zhao Guofeng. "My nephew went up the mountain with this brat from the Zhao family, and they crippled him! I’m not done with their family over this!"

"Who the fuck crippled your nephew!" Li Baoyu roared. "A badger bit him! How can you blame that on us?"

"It was you!" Zhao Hui tried to charge forward but was blocked by Zhao Jinshan. Still, she refused to back down, pointing at Li Baoyu and shouting, "Your own Li Ruhai said so! Would he lie?"

Li Baoyu sputtered, "I..."

"Motherfucker, kill him!" Zhang Zhanshan had gotten back on his feet. He glared at Zhao Jun with pure venom, let out a roar, and led the charge toward him.

Suddenly, someone rushed out from the crowd and shoved back Zhang Zhanshan, who was at the front of the charge.

"Second Brother! Big Brother!" Zhao Jun looked and saw that the one who had pushed Zhang Zhanshan back was Lin Xiangshun. Beside him stood his older brother, Lin Xiangsheng.

"Zhang Zhanshan!" a voice roared. Wang Qiang appeared, pointing a finger at Zhang Zhanshan and cursing, "If any of you dare touch my nephew, I’ll fucking end you!"

At Wang Qiang’s words, Zhao Hui and Wang Chunli were struck with fear. They knew Wang Qiang was a real loose cannon. When he got hot-headed, there was no telling what he was capable of.

Unlike Zhang Zhanhe and Xu Guohua, these two women were not blood relatives of the Zhang Family. They were more worried about their own husbands than they were about Zhang Laibao.

Zhao Hui grabbed Zhang Zhanhe’s arm. When he felt his wife squeeze, Zhang Zhanhe instantly got the message.

Although he was Zhang Zhanshan’s biological brother, Zhang Zhanhe had no deep-seated grudge against Zhao Jun. When their families saw each other, they would at most ignore one another. The crucial point was that his relationship with his brother, Zhang Zhanshan, wasn’t that great to begin with.

Xu Guohua was a different story, however. Xu Meihua always took good care of her younger brother, so even with Wang Chunli holding him back, Xu Guohua still lunged forward. He pointed at Wang Qiang and yelled, "Your nephew screwed mine over this badly, and you think I’m afraid of you—"

"Who hurt your nephew?!" Zhao Jun suddenly shouted, his voice drowning out everyone else in the crowd.

Then, in a hoarse voice, Zhao Jun continued, "Zhang Laibao isn’t dead yet! Why don’t you ask him if Baoyu and I harmed him?"

With that, Zhao Jun pointed at Zhang Laibao on the stretcher. "Zhang Laibao! In front of all these people, say it yourself! Did Li Baoyu and I set you up? If you say we did, then tell everyone how we did it!"

Xu Meihua was right beside Zhang Laibao. She leaned down and said, "Son, tell Mom. Did they do this to you?"

Zhang Laibao desperately wanted to pin the blame on Zhao Jun. ’But,’ he thought, ’it really had nothing to do with him. In front of this huge crowd, even if I falsely accused him, I wouldn’t be able to explain how.’

Left with no other choice, Zhang Laibao could only shake his head and whisper, "It had nothing to do with them."

"See!" Seeing Zhang Laibao shake his head, Zhao Jun pointed at him and said to the Zhang Family, "Look! He said it himself! It wasn’t us who hurt him."

"I don’t fucking believe it!" Xu Guohua shouted. "You’d be kind enough to take my nephew hunting?" Although it was an accusation, his tone had already lost its edge.

There was nothing he could do. Zhang Laibao himself had denied it. If they kept making a scene in front of so many people, they would lose any ground they had.

"Who the fuck are you asking?" Zhao Jun wasn’t about to take it anymore. He shot back, "It’s not like I invited him! Your nephew was the one who insisted on coming with us!"

Zhao Jun’s words were like a starting gun. In the next second, countless pairs of eyes turned toward Zhang Zhanshan.

Zhang Zhanshan was both furious and frustrated.

Zhao Jun continued, "We were just digging out a badger, not doing anything crazy. Who would’ve thought Zhang Laibao was such a damn idiot? My two dogs caught a badger, and he goes over, grabs it by its hind legs, and tries to kick my dogs. When my dogs dodged, they let go of the badger. He was left holding it upside down, and it bit him right in the crotch! How can you blame us for that?"

Hearing Zhao Jun’s explanation, the onlookers nodded and began to mutter among themselves. If it was really as Zhao Jun said, then he and Li Baoyu hadn’t done anything wrong.

They were all mountain folk. They lived off the land, and when they craved meat, they went into the mountains to find it.

Those who could hunt, hunted. Those who could fish, fished. If you couldn’t do either, you dug for badgers.

Digging for badgers didn’t require much skill, even less than setting snares for rabbits. You just dug with a pickaxe, and that was it. You couldn’t even call it a proper hunt.

Especially during the three most difficult years, was there any man in all of Yong’an Village who hadn’t dug for badgers?

People had been bitten and scratched by badgers before, but no one had ever been mauled so badly they were crippled.

But what did that prove? It didn’t prove that Zhao Jun had intended to harm Zhang Laibao. It only meant that Zhang Laibao’s luck was terrible.

Zhao Jun pointed at Zhang Laibao again. "Ask him! When he grabbed that badger, did Baoyu and I even touch it? We were far away from him, so how could we have harmed him? When I saw the badger bite him, I was the one who saved him."

At this point, Zhao Jun became agitated. He shifted his finger to point at Zhang Zhanshan. "We went through all the trouble of carrying him back down, and you still fucking try to fight us? Are you an animal?"

"I..." Zhang Zhanshan was speechless. Truthfully, given his personality, even if Zhao Jun really had saved Zhang Laibao’s life, he would never have been grateful.

But in front of so many people, he could no longer keep making unreasonable accusations against Zhao Jun.

Just then, Zhao Guofeng spoke up. "Alright, that’s enough arguing. Zhang Zhanshan, hurry up and find someone to hitch a cart. And you, his uncles, hurry and carry the boy to the clinic. Let Xiaohan take a look at him first."

"You useless oaf!" Xu Meihua screamed, pointing at Zhang Zhanshan. "Get your son down the mountain already!"

Only then did Zhang Zhanshan snap back to reality. He had been so focused on fighting with Zhao Jun that he had completely forgotten he should be taking care of Zhang Laibao first.

Zhang Zhanshan looked around and spotted a man in an army-green padded jacket. He immediately rushed over, grabbed the man’s hand, and said, "Jiang Hua, I’m begging you, brother. Go back and hitch your cart. Help me get my boy down the mountain."

"Ah, alright," Jiang Hua agreed, then turned and headed out of the crowd.

Zhang Zhanhe and Xu Guoshan had already stepped forward and lifted the makeshift stretcher. They planned to head to the clinic first to let Han Shang provide some initial treatment.

But just then, a loud voice boomed, "Everyone, stop right there! Nobody move!"

Zhao Youcai had arrived!