The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Although all four of his hunting dogs had died at the claws of a lynx, Wang Dalong didn’t feel much grief.

Three of the four dogs he’d had for less than a month. The remaining one, the Qing Gou, had been with him for just about a year.

So Wang Dalong wasn’t sad for the dogs, but it did sting a little. After all, he’d paid good money for them.

Beyond that, what filled Wang Dalong’s heart was mostly greed.

A Lynx Fur!

He’d heard the price had gone up after the New Year. The shop up on the mountain was paying about one thousand five hundred yuan for a single one now.

So, Wang Dalong composed himself and called out to Wei Jin and Li Mingliang to head home.

This morning, he had gotten up even earlier than Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, who were out checking their traps. He’d gone into the mountains alone with his gun, heading to the spot where he’d buried the dogs yesterday. From there, he followed the direction the lynx had gone, heading steadily uphill.

And wouldn’t you know it, after two hours of walking, he actually managed to track it down.

But the lynx was like a shadow. Before Wang Dalong could even raise his gun to take aim, it vanished into the vast, snow-covered mountains.

Unwilling to give up, Wang Dalong searched all over the mountains for another two-plus hours before finally heading back down to the village in defeat.

When he returned from the mountains, Wang Dalong didn’t even go to his own house. Instead, he went straight to Zhao Jun’s family home to find Zhao Youcai and ask him to team up to hunt the lynx.

It wasn’t that Wang Dalong didn’t know other hunters; he just felt their marksmanship wasn’t even as good as his own.

Wang Dalong thought, ’If I go with someone else, I might get the short end of the stick. But if I go with Zhao Youcai, there’s a good chance he’ll take down the lynx, sell the pelt, and give me half the money.’

Sitting on the kang at the Zhao family home, Wang Dalong said to Zhao Youcai, "Uncle, I’m only telling you about this. If you’re free, we can go tomorrow morning, just the two of us. If you don’t have time, I’ll find someone else."

"Alright, I’ll go with you." Zhao Youcai knew exactly what Wang Dalong was getting at. By saying it would be just the two of them, Wang Dalong meant he didn’t want Zhao Youcai to bring Li Dayong along. Otherwise, if they bagged the lynx, there’d be one more person to split the money with. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But this suited Zhao Youcai just fine. Even if Wang Dalong had been willing, Li Dayong couldn’t go tomorrow anyway.

More importantly, with Wang Dalong phrasing it like that, Zhao Jun couldn’t even ask to tag along for the excitement.

That’s right. Wang Dalong wanted to exclude Li Dayong, but Zhao Youcai wanted to exclude his own son.

But Zhao Youcai’s reasons were different. He didn’t care about the Lynx Fur; he cared about his pride.

Last fall, Zhao Youcai had gone after a lynx, even lying in ambush for a whole morning at Jumping Stone Pond.

But in the end, as Li Baoyu put it, all Zhao Youcai had managed to do was shoot the tail off a lynx.

This was a huge blow to Zhao Youcai’s pride.

’Of the four great Cannon Shooters of the Yong’an Forest Area,’ he thought, ’two have vanished without a trace, one never recovered from a serious injury, and now I’m the only one left.’

It was just that lately, Zhao Youcai felt that when it came to hunting, he was being completely outshined by some kid.

What was even more infuriating was that this kid was none other than his own son.

On top of that, after making a big production of hunting that Pig God a while back, he’d come back without so much as a scratch on it. This left Zhao Youcai simmering with a frustration he couldn’t vent.

After seeing Wang Dalong off, the family of three went back inside and sat down on the kang. Zhao Youcai glanced at Zhao Jun, who was sitting cross-legged to the side, and asked casually, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Checking my traps," Zhao Jun said. As he spoke, he pulled a Bear Gall from inside his padded jacket and handed it to Wang Meilan. "Mom, hurry and get some water boiling. We need to blanch this."

"Oh my!" Wang Meilan took the Bear Gall, which was wrapped in a piece of fabric torn from a tank top. Her eyes were fixed on her son. She looked at his tank top, now missing its entire front panel, and was about to scold him for being wasteful. But then she remembered the value of the Bear Gall—what was a tank top in comparison?

And so, the scolding on the tip of her tongue turned into praise. "My son killed another Black Bear! You’re so capable!"

Hearing Wang Meilan praise Zhao Jun, Zhao Youcai’s expression soured. He climbed off the kang, slipped on his cotton-padded shoes, and went to grab his padded jacket from the wall.

"Dad, where are you going?"

"To the Village Office," Zhao Youcai said. "Going to find your Uncle Zhao and borrow a gun."

He’d have to borrow a semi-automatic rifle for the lynx hunt.

"Dad, wait a second." Zhao Jun also climbed off the kang. "Guess what else I got today," he said to Zhao Youcai.

Zhao Youcai was just slipping his arm into the sleeve of his jacket when he heard the question. He looked at his son, then at the dark green Bear Gall that Wang Meilan had placed by the stove.

Zhao Youcai’s brow furrowed. His gaze snapped back to Zhao Jun. "Don’t tell me you pulled some cubs out of the den?"

"What?" Wang Meilan, who was ladling water into the large wok, heard the father and son talking. Her interest piqued, she hurried back into the room. "What is it? What did you get?" she asked Zhao Jun.

"Wow, Dad, sharp guess." Zhao Jun first praised his father, then turned to Wang Meilan. "I didn’t get a chance to say it when Brother Dalong was here, but I cleared out a Black Bear’s den today and brought back two cubs."

"How big are they?" Wang Meilan asked.

"About this big," Zhao Jun said, holding his index fingers apart in front of him to show her.

"Oh!" Wang Meilan beamed. "They must be full-term, then."

Zhao Jun nodded with a smile. "Yep, their eyes are open. Little round beads, darting all over."

Zhao Youcai suddenly cut in. "Good thing I brought that goat home, huh?"

"Yes, yes, you’re brilliant," Wang Meilan said distractedly, before pushing the door open and running toward the storage shed.

Zhao Youcai followed resignedly. While the couple went to look in the storage shed, Zhao Jun entered his own room. He found Zhao Hong and Zhao Na lying on his kang, with Hua Xiao’Er sprawled on the floor.

As soon as Zhao Jun came in, Hua Xiao’Er pounced on him. Zhao Hong asked, "Brother, is Brother Dalong gone?"

"He’s gone."

Hearing that Wang Dalong had left, Zhao Hong took Zhao Na back to the east room.

Just then, Zhao Youcai and Wang Meilan came back.

Wang Meilan seemed to be in high spirits. "I haven’t seen one of these little critters in years," she said as soon as she came in.

At this, she tugged on Zhao Youcai’s arm. "I remember, it must have been the year we got married. Your father pulled one out of a den in a tree. That one was tiny, probably not even a month old."

"That’s right," Zhao Youcai nodded. "We didn’t have anything to feed it back then, so we sent it over to Elder Qin’s place. His ewe had just given birth, so we figured he could have it nurse for a few days."

"Which Elder Qin?" Zhao Jun called out from the other room, rubbing Hua Xiao’Er’s neck.

"Qin Qiang’s father," Wang Meilan said. "No idea what happened to that cub. In any case, they never brought it back to us."

As she spoke, Wang Meilan nudged a gunny sack from the corner with her foot. She grabbed the bottom with both hands, and with a sharp tug, emptied all the rabbits inside onto the floor.

Seven rabbits, large and small, tumbled out. They were all frozen solid, so there was no eating them today.

Wang Meilan said to Zhao Youcai, "Try to come back early tomorrow and smoke these rabbits."

"You expect me to do everything," Zhao Youcai grumbled. "You’re home all day. You can boil them, then smoke them yourself."

"But you always say mine doesn’t taste good."

Zhao Youcai pushed the door open. Just as he was about to step outside, he said, "I have a big battle to fight tomorrow. Who knows what time I’ll be back."

"I..." Wang Meilan started to say, but Zhao Youcai quickly shut the door and was gone.

Wang Meilan tossed the empty sack aside and muttered, "There he goes, off to show off again!"