The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

"Really? Are you serious?" Li Baoyu perked up the moment he heard Wang Dalong mention a Big Cannon Egg of nearly six hundred pounds.

"That’s the rumor, anyway." Wang Dalong didn’t dare make any promises. "We haven’t seen the tracks ourselves yet. I heard it’s down below the fork up ahead, at Gangcha. Why don’t you two come with us and take a look?"

"Sure!" Li Baoyu agreed without a second thought, ready to tag along.

These days, the mountains were teeming with wild animals. Wild boars and Black Bears were plentiful, but exceptionally large ones were still a rare sight.

"Then let’s go have a look," Zhao Jun agreed. He and Li Baoyu were heading toward Gangcha anyway. Since they had run into each other, they might as well walk together.

But the farther they walked, the more Zhao Jun felt something was off.

It wasn’t the people, it was the dogs.

The Yellow Dog that Wang Dalong had just disciplined was sticking close to his side, matching him step for step.

The other four dogs, however, were running up ahead. But after every forty or fifty meters, they would double back.

They’d stop once they were seven or eight meters away from the men, then turn and dash forward again, only to repeat the process after another forty or fifty meters.

They went back and forth like this, over and over.

Seeing this, Zhao Jun knew something was wrong. He made a decision.

When they reached Gangcha, the dogs in the lead spotted the boar tracks in the snow. They immediately swarmed around them, noses to the ground, sniffing intently.

Just then, the Yellow Dog that had been sticking to Wang Dalong’s side suddenly darted over. It sniffed the snow on the ground, then raised its head to scent the air before taking off at a dead run toward the south.

The Yellow Dog barked as it ran.

At its call, the other four dogs immediately followed.

"Whoa, look at ’em go!" Li Baoyu exclaimed in admiration.

Hearing this, the gloom that had settled on Wang Dalong’s face vanished. He laughed. "What do you think? This Yellow Dog of mine is the pack leader."

As he spoke, the men gathered around the boar tracks. One look at the prints and Wang Dalong’s expression turned serious. He nodded. "It really is close to six hundred pounds."

"Yep, at least," someone beside him chimed in.

Another man added, "We need to get after it, quick."

Five dogs could never hold down a boar this big on their own. The men had to catch up quickly.

Wang Dalong looked at Zhao Jun. "Xiaojun, Baoyu, you two coming with us?"

"I..." Li Baoyu started to say, but Zhao Jun gave him a discreet tug. Baoyu instantly got the message. Though confused, he didn’t say another word.

Zhao Jun said, "You guys have strong men, tough dogs, and two rifles. You don’t need the two of us, so we won’t tag along."

"You don’t have to do any of the work," Bai Qiangmin, who was from the same village, chimed in. "Just come along for the excitement."

"No thanks, Brother Bai," Zhao Jun said. "I came up the mountain with Baoyu today to find a deserted spot for him to get some shooting practice. You guys are heading south, so the two of us will head north and check out the area around Ginseng Immortal Cave."

"All right, then. You two take care, Xiaojun." Hearing the firmness in Zhao Jun’s voice, Wang Dalong didn’t insist. He and his three companions took off, following the sound of the barking dogs.

Watching them leave, Li Baoyu whispered to Zhao Jun, "Brother, we don’t have anything better to do. Why didn’t we go with them?"

Zhao Jun withdrew his gaze and shook his head. He turned to Li Baoyu, his expression serious. "Baoyu, remember this. When you’re out hunting, if your dogs start acting abnormally, you turn around and go straight home!"

"I don’t care how big the boar is—even if it’s made of solid gold—you take your dogs and get off the mountain right away."

"Huh?" Li Baoyu was completely baffled. ’What is he even talking about?’

Seeing his confusion, Zhao Jun knew he couldn’t really explain it.

In truth, an old man had told him this in his previous life. Unfortunately, the Zhao Jun of that time hadn’t understood either.

But later, after he had put down his rifle and given up the hunt, Zhao Jun looked back on his life as a hunter and realized that if he had only listened to that old man, he could have avoided a great deal of trouble.

Wang Dalong’s Dog Gang had a bit of a reputation throughout the entire Forest Area.

Aside from his white dog, which was just over a year old, his other four dogs were all seasoned hunting hounds with over three years of experience.

They might not have been the absolute toughest, but they were more than capable of getting the job done.

A Dog Gang like that, with their master following behind with a rifle, would never hesitate and refuse to advance, no matter how tired they were.

Therefore, this hunt was bound to end badly.

Zhao Jun had no intention of investigating the reason, nor did he want to "watch the excitement."

The reason was simple: Wang Dalong was not an easy man to be around. He might have been all smiles and jokes just now, but he’d show a completely different face the moment trouble started.

The two of them followed the north fork toward the far side of the mountain. Before long, they came across a set of tracks.

Li Baoyu went ahead to scout for a moment before returning to Zhao Jun’s side. "Brother, roe deer!"

"Yeah. Keep your voice down," Zhao Jun said. "Let’s follow them, slowly."

"Okay!" Li Baoyu whispered, then added, "Brother, can I take a couple of shots today?"

"I’ll take the first shot," Zhao Jun said. "We can’t come all this way for nothing. Let’s get a roe deer to take home for dumplings. If another chance comes up, you can shoot then."

"I guess that’s fair."

With the plan settled, they fell silent and began to stealthily follow the tracks.

The farther they went, the more cautious they became, their footsteps growing ever lighter.

Because even without laying eyes on the deer, they knew they were getting close.

How could they tell?

Experience.

To be a successful hunter, you must understand the lay of the land and the habits of your prey.

Ahead of them was a patch of forest, one that had been logged.

Mountain logging is done in one of two ways.

The first is clear-cutting, where every single tree within a designated plot is felled, leaving none behind.

The other is selective logging which, as the name implies, is a more selective approach.

Within a plot, only trees thick enough are cut down, while the smaller ones are left to keep growing.

This particular patch of forest ahead had been clear-cut the winter before last, leaving behind a field of stumps. The following year, new shoots had sprung up from those stumps, covered in tender buds and leaves.

Roe deer love to eat these tender buds and leaves.

Seeing the tracks lead straight there, they knew without even looking that the herd of roe deer was inside, foraging on those tender shoots and leaves.

When they were just over five hundred meters from the clear-cut area, Zhao Jun suddenly raised a hand, signaling Li Baoyu to stop. Rifle in hand, he crouched low and began to slowly inch his way forward alone.

At about four hundred meters, Zhao Jun could faintly make out something moving among the saplings.

Zhao Jun crept forward again. When he reached the three-hundred-meter mark, he dropped to one knee in the snow, brought up his rifle, and took aim.

A herd of roe deer. Five of them.

The largest one’s coat had a bluish sheen on its back, and it had to weigh over one hundred and twenty pounds.

In the Northeast, this type of roe deer is called a Large Green Chestnut or a "Green-Cap."

’You’re the one!’ Zhao Jun thought. ’If I’m going to shoot one, I’ll take the biggest.’ He immediately aimed at the Large Green Chestnut and pulled the trigger. BANG!