The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

"Baoyu! Baoyu!"

Li Baoyu hadn’t gone far before Zhao Jun called him back again.

"What is it?" Li Baoyu shouted from the base of the tree.

Zhao Jun answered, "Empty one of the gunny sacks and bring it up to me."

"What do you need a gunny sack for now?" Though Li Baoyu didn’t understand, he still emptied the rabbit sack, climbed the tree, and passed it to Zhao Jun through the opening of the den.

Zhao Jun pulled the sack in through the opening, tossed it into the tree hollow, and then said to Li Baoyu, "Give me the bear cub first. It’ll be hard for you to work otherwise."

He figured it would take at least an hour or two for Li Baoyu to check all the snares and dismantle them.

’I can’t just hang here at the entrance for that long, can I?’ So he wanted to climb down to the bottom of the den to lie down for a bit. He could tolerate it, even if it smelled awful down there.

The mother bear didn’t eat or drink while hibernating, but the little cubs drank milk and then relieved themselves, leaving the bottom of the den full of filth. That was why Zhao Jun wanted a gunny sack to lay down as a mat.

Li Baoyu was hugging the tree with one arm while unbuttoning his padded jacket with the other. He suddenly looked up and asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, instead of taking apart the snares, can’t we just use our leg wrappings?"

"Huh!" Zhao Jun blinked, speechless.

Seeing Zhao Jun’s silence, Li Baoyu continued, "That branch fork is only about half a meter from here. Between the two of us, we have four leg wrappings. If we drape them over that fork, we’ll have eight strands. That’ll be more than strong enough to hold you."

"Alright, go on down and get the leg wrappings," Zhao Jun said. He didn’t take the cub anymore, just braced himself against the tree trunk and slowly lowered himself into the den.

Once at the bottom of the hollow, Zhao Jun stood on the gunny sack and started untying his leg wrappings, thinking, ’My brain hasn’t been sharp lately.’

Zhao Jun untied his wrappings, stuffed them into the pocket of his padded jacket, and climbed back to the entrance.

Li Baoyu had already been waiting for some time. It was much easier for him to climb up and down the outside of the tree than it was for Zhao Jun.

Li Baoyu took the wrappings from Zhao Jun, climbed higher, and draped all four strips over the tree fork. He didn’t bother tying them, just pulled the ends even so that eight strands hung down.

The cloth strips were over four meters long, so when they were draped over the fork, each side hung down more than two meters, easily reaching past the den’s entrance.

After Li Baoyu climbed down, Zhao Jun grabbed the ends of the eight-stranded rope, and holding on tight, began to climb up.

Once he was out of the den, Zhao Jun gripped the trunk with his legs, pressed his body against the tree, and wrapped his left arm around it for support. With his right hand, he pulled the leg wrappings off the branch one by one.

Then, he climbed down to the ground.

Once on the ground, Zhao Jun picked up his wrappings and began winding them up from his ankles. Beside him, Li Baoyu was doing the same and asked, "Brother, is the gunny sack still in the den?"

"Ah..." Zhao Jun only then remembered he’d left the gunny sack inside. But the thought of going in and out again was too much trouble, so he immediately said, "The bottom of that den is full of all sorts of filth. It’s disgusting. Just leave the sack."

"Leave it...?" Li Baoyu was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "If we leave the sack, what are we going to use to carry the rabbits?"

"Don’t we still have this one?" Zhao Jun pointed to the other gunny sack. He walked over and started picking up the three rabbits scattered on the ground, putting them inside.

There were originally four rabbits in the sack, all of which Zhao Jun had collected. The three scattered on the ground were the ones Li Baoyu had found.

As he stuffed the rabbits into the sack, Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu, "We’re not checking the rest of the snares today. Let’s hurry home so the bear cubs don’t freeze."

"Well... alright," Li Baoyu said with a moment’s hesitation. ’He’s right,’ he thought. ’We can’t let the little bear cubs get sick from the cold.’

Li Baoyu walked in front, carrying the rifle on his back with the little bear cubs tucked inside his jacket. Zhao Jun followed behind, shouldering the gunny sack.

As for the mother bear, she was left behind on the mountain.

By the time the two made it back to the village, it was already past two in the afternoon. Upon reaching Zhao Jun’s home, they didn’t go inside the house but headed straight for the storeroom and pulled the door open.

The moment the door opened, the smell from inside nearly knocked Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu off their feet.

Pinching their noses, they stepped inside and saw a structure resembling a Mongolian yurt in the center of the storeroom.

It was made of thin bamboo strips bent with their ends stuck in the ground. They were crisscrossed to form a frame, which was then covered with a tattered cotton quilt. It was sealed on three sides, with an opening only on the side facing the wall.

A thick layer of hay was spread inside, and on top of it lay a large ewe. Tucked beneath her were two lambs and a small Cyan Dragon puppy.

Li Baoyu walked over, squatted down, took the two little bear cubs out from his jacket, and tucked them in with the ewe one by one.

Cyan Dragon, nestled against the ewe, opened his eyes. Seeing it was just Li Baoyu, he started to close them and go back to sleep.

But when he saw a little black thing snuggle in against the ewe and latch onto a teat to start suckling, Cyan Dragon craned his neck and snapped, biting the little bear cub on its hind paw.

The little cub let out a muffled whimper. It couldn’t cry out properly because its mouth was full, but it kicked its hind legs repeatedly, trying to shove Cyan Dragon away.

"Brother, come look! Cyan Dragon’s just a pup, but he already knows a Black Bear when he sees one," Li Baoyu said, placing the second cub with the ewe.

Cyan Dragon let go of the first cub and nipped the newcomer. This cub, however, clearly had a worse temper. It whipped its head around and yelped right at Cyan Dragon.

Zhao Jun laughed at the scene. ’There’s no way Cyan Dragon recognizes what a Black Bear is,’ he thought. ’He’s just mad there are two new rivals competing for milk.’

Because of these little ones, the storeroom was sealed up tight, causing the air inside to be thick with the gamey smell of sheep and the stench of urine.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu couldn’t stand it for more than a few minutes before they pinched their noses and left. Once outside, Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu, "Don’t bother taking your share of the rabbits. I’ll have my dad smoke the whole batch tonight, then I’ll bring you the finished ones."

"Sounds good." Hearing this, Li Baoyu headed home with a grin.

Zhao Jun picked up the gunny sack and started walking toward the house, but before he even reached the door, it swung open and Wang Meilan came out.

"Mom."

"You’re back, son." Wang Meilan came over to greet him. Seeing the gunny sack in his hand, her face lit up with a smile. "Half a sack full! Looks like you caught a good number, huh?"

"This is for our family and Baoyu’s," Zhao Jun said with a smile. "Have Dad smoke them all tonight."

Wang Meilan didn’t respond to that. Instead, she grabbed Zhao Jun’s arm and said, "Son, your Brother Dalong is here."

Zhao Jun froze, then frowned. "Why is he here again? Does he still want to buy a dog?"

Zhao Jun’s first thought was that Wang Dalong had come to try and buy White Dragon again.

But that was absolutely impossible. White Dragon and Daqing were an incredible pair for pinning down wild boars, one on each flank. They were just too useful.

Besides, his mother had already made their position clear last time. Wang Dalong should have known to give up.

"No," Wang Meilan said in a low voice. "Something happened to his dog."

"Something happened to his dog?"