The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu walked slowly toward Xu Changlin’s house. On the way, Zhao Jun recounted everything the old man had told him yesterday.

After hearing the story, Li Baoyu also grew suspicious of the old man’s intentions.

After a moment of thought, Li Baoyu suddenly stopped and said to Zhao Jun with a suspicious look, "Brother, Elder Xu isn’t planning to lure us into the mountains to rob and kill us, is he?"

"What are you talking about?" Zhao Jun couldn’t help but laugh. "Been reading too many comic books? How much money do you even have on you? Enough for someone to rob and murder you over?"

"What about the tiger cub pelt?" Li Baoyu countered.

Zhao Jun shook his head. "If these four dogs manage to surround it, they’ll tear it to shreds in an instant. What pelt would be left?"

The two continued talking as they walked to Xu Changlin’s house. When they arrived, they decided it would be too much trouble to bring the dogs inside, so they just stood outside and called for him.

After they called out twice, the door opened, and the old man walked out with a gun slung over his back. He was also holding a burlap roll in his hand.

"Master Xu!" Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu greeted Xu Changlin in unison.

Xu Changlin walked up to Zhao Jun and tossed the gray cloth roll to him.

Zhao Jun caught the roll and opened one end. Peeking inside, he confirmed it was indeed a Lynx fur.

"Baoyu, hold on to this." Zhao Jun tossed it to Li Baoyu, who stuffed the cloth roll into his satchel.

Now that they had the fur, it was time to accompany Xu Changlin into the mountains.

The three men and four dogs left the village, heading deep into the mountains.

On the way, Zhao Jun asked Xu Changlin, "Master Xu, how many families in our village still seriously hunt with dog packs?"

Xu Changlin thought for a moment before answering, "Besides Qin Qiang, Zhang Laibao, and you two, there’s only Yang Liang and Chen Zhuzi left."

There should have been Wang Dalong, too, but all of his hunting dogs had died a couple of days ago, so Elder Xu didn’t count him.

"No wonder," Zhao Jun said. "Yesterday, when Baoyu and I dragged the Black Bear back, not a single dog barked along the way."

Elder Xu chuckled. "Yang Liang’s dogs won’t go after Black Bears. Chen Zhuzi’s dogs will, but his dogs stick close. If you were new to hunting with him, you’d think they were useless..."

The three of them talked as they walked toward the place where the Lynx had killed the dogs the other day. As they drew near, the snow became littered with messy human footprints.

"That tiger cub... It wasn’t killed by someone else, was it?" Li Baoyu asked.

"Don’t you worry, son," Elder Xu said. "I guarantee they can’t find it."

Hearing this, Zhao Jun sensed there was more to it. Gazing at a distant mountain peak, he asked, "Master Xu, is there something special about this stretch of mountain?"

The old man smiled at his words. "Don’t be in such a hurry. I’ll take you there in a little while."

The three walked further, only to find that in addition to the human footprints, there were also tracks left by a sled in the snow.

They had now reached the approximate location Li Mingliang had mentioned. As they passed a Pine Tree, Elder Xu suddenly stopped.

There should have been a snow mound there where someone had buried something, but it had recently been dug up. Whatever was inside had been dragged away, leaving only a pit.

At first, Zhao Jun and the others didn’t think much of it. But after taking a few more steps, Elder Xu suddenly spun around. He looked back, and his expression instantly changed.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu exchanged a glance, then led their dogs over to see. There was blood in the pit.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Elder Xu roared, breaking into a run.

The old man had stopped to rest eight times on their way up the mountain that morning, but now he was running incredibly fast.

"Baoyu! Hurry, go!" Zhao Jun didn’t know what else to say. He grabbed the leashes for Da Huang and White Dragon, taking all four dogs himself so Li Baoyu could run after Elder Xu.

But he watched as Li Baoyu ran twenty or thirty meters and then skidded to a halt.

When Zhao Jun caught up, he saw two men under a Pine Tree, digging in the snow with a shovel.

Zhao Jun knew both of them. One was Liu Hanshan, a hooligan from Yong’an Village. The other was Du Chunlin; though an outsider, he worked as a hauler at the mountain Logging Camp.

Under a poplar tree not far away, a horse was tied to a sled. Lying on the sled was a dog.

The dog was already dead, frozen solid.

It was a large Yellow Dog. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu had seen it once before, at Elder Xu’s house.

At the time, Elder Xu had introduced him as Ah Li.

He watched as Liu Hanshan and Du Chunlin finished digging open the snow mound. They bent down and lifted a Qing Gou from inside.

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu recognized this dog, too. It was Elder Xu’s former "Big-headed Dog," Cyan Wolf.

BARK!

BARK!

Suddenly, Hua Xiao’Er barked twice at the two men.

At Hua Xiao’Er’s barks, Daqing, Da Huang, and White Dragon all started barking ferociously in the same direction.

Suddenly, Zhao Jun saw Elder Xu, who was standing a short distance ahead, move. With a flick of his shoulder, he swung the 16-gauge shotgun slung over his back into his hands.

Elder Xu’s left hand caught the gun, his right gripped the stock, and he snapped it to his shoulder, sighting down the barrel in an instant.

"Master Xu!" Zhao Jun yelled.

Beside Elder Xu, Li Baoyu reacted in a flash, reaching out and shoving him hard.

BANG! 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

A gunshot cracked through the forest.

In that life-or-death moment, Li Baoyu’s shove made Elder Xu stagger, causing the shot to go wide.

"Master Xu!" Li Baoyu rushed forward to restrain him, but the old man sidestepped and stuck out a leg, tripping Li Baoyu flat on his face.

The fall in the snow didn’t hurt, but by the time Li Baoyu got up, Elder Xu had already broken open the shotgun, reloaded, and was aiming at Liu Hanshan, who was still holding Cyan Wolf’s two hind legs.

Liu Hanshan was completely stunned, frozen to the spot while still clutching the dog’s legs.

"GET DOWN!" Zhao Jun screamed at the top of his lungs.

When the dogs had barked, Liu Hanshan and Du Chunlin had both looked over. But in the next second, Elder Xu raised his gun and fired, scaring them out of their wits.

The old man’s shot had petrified them.

’That was a real gun. This was no joke!’

Thankfully, Li Baoyu had acted in time and they were spared, but now they were both stunned with fear.

It wasn’t until Elder Xu shouldered the gun again that Liu Hanshan finally reacted. But all he felt was terror, and he had no idea what to do.

But when he heard Zhao Jun’s shout, Liu Hanshan’s mind went blank. He obeyed the command and instantly dropped to his knees.

BANG!

The shot whizzed four inches above Liu Hanshan’s head.

"Master Xu!" Li Baoyu scrambled to his feet, throwing his arms around Elder Xu from behind and getting a death grip on the shotgun.

"Get off me!" The old man’s eyes were bloodshot as he roared, "I’m gonna blast those two sons of bitches!"