The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

In ancient times, Zhangsun Sheng left behind the legendary story of felling two eagles with one arrow.

But in a group hunt, when a single shot goes through two targets, it’s called "skewering candied haws."

It’s like using one skewer to pierce two hawthorn berries.

Today, Wang Dalong also "skewered candied haws." The only difference was that his skewer went through not just his quarry, but his own hunting dog as well.

While Wang Dalong was wailing and cradling his dog, Zhao Jun grabbed Li Baoyu, and they quickly retraced their steps, hurrying away.

They didn’t stop until they reached the second roe deer Zhao Jun had killed. There, he and Li Baoyu flipped the animal onto its back, all four hooves in the air, and began to gut and bleed it.

They had been rushing the whole time, so Li Baoyu hadn’t had a chance to ask. Now, as Zhao Jun explained his reasoning, Li Baoyu finally understood.

Li Baoyu thought carefully about Wang Dalong’s usual character and said to Zhao Jun with some lingering fear, "Brother, you know what? You might be right. Brother Dalong really might have tried to pin that on me."

"What do you mean, ’might have’?" Zhao Jun teased. "He definitely would have."

At this, the two exchanged a smile. Zhao Jun then explained, "After all, he and I are related. I don’t want to get into an argument with him."

"Right, right." Li Baoyu understood Zhao Jun’s meaning. "I get it. I won’t tell a soul."

"Especially not Ruhai," Zhao Jun added worriedly. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"I know." Thinking of his younger brother, Li Baoyu nodded heavily.

Even though Li Ruhai would only be fourteen after the New Year, that mouth of his... As they say in the Northeast, it was as loose as the waistband on a pair of cotton trousers.

To put it more harshly, he was worse than a gossipy old woman.

After the roe deer’s blood had been drained, Zhao Jun pulled the intestines from its belly and hung them on a tree. Then he grabbed the carcass and prepared to continue up the mountain.

After all, there was still another one farther up.

"Brother, let me," Li Baoyu said, hurrying forward. He wanted to take the roe deer from Zhao Jun and drag it himself.

Zhao Jun said, "No need. When we get up there, you can drag the big one."

"Deal!"

Zhao Jun started walking, dragging the roe deer. The way he did it was just like pulling a rickshaw.

He had the roe deer’s rear facing forward and its head back, pulling it along by its two hind legs.

The two of them reached the grove of tree stumps, bled the Large Green Chestnut as well, and had Li Baoyu drag it on the way back.

On the way home, the two of them chatted idly while dragging the deer.

The main topic of their conversation was Wang Dalong’s dogs.

To be precise, it was about the two dogs that had died. Speaking of them, both Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu couldn’t help but feel it was a great shame.

After they finished talking about that, they moved on to guns. Li Baoyu asked Zhao Jun, "That gun Brother Dalong uses, is it the same kind as Uncle Wang Qiang’s?"

Hearing this, Zhao Jun nodded. "That’s right. A sleeved 16-gauge."

Li Baoyu nodded. "That’s even more powerful than a semi-auto, then."

"You bet," Zhao Jun said. "With that gun, forget about one pig and one dog. It could probably shoot clean through three pigs."

The "sleeved 16-gauge" Zhao Jun mentioned was a modified 16-gauge shotgun. Its barrel had been replaced with one from a semi-automatic rifle to fire 7.62mm rounds.

But while the barrel had been swapped for a semi-automatic’s and fired the same 7.62mm rounds, the body of the sleeved gun was still that of a break-action 16-gauge, so it couldn’t fire in semi-auto.

Furthermore, the gun had an extractor claw, so the semi-automatic rifle cartridges had to be put on a lathe to have a piece of the base shaved off before they could be used.

"What a waste of his two dogs," Li Baoyu said suddenly, his tone full of regret as his thoughts returned to the hounds.

Zhao Jun shook his head. "They’d been on the mountain for three straight days. Today made it the fourth. To keep pushing that hard is just asking to get your dogs killed."

"Sigh. It would’ve been great if he’d given those good dogs to me. Getting shot to death is such a waste," Li Baoyu said, shaking his head and sighing.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. "The two dogs he lost," he said, "were both lead dogs."

"Yellow Dog was a lead dog," Li Baoyu said, but then he quickly remembered something. "Oh, right, the black one was too. Wasn’t that Wang Dalong’s Black Tiger? A famous lead dog."

"Mhm," Zhao Jun nodded. "That dog had three years of hunting experience. It must be five or six years old by now."

"Brother, why are you bringing this up?"

Zhao Jun said, "With his first and second lead dogs dead, his Dog Gang isn’t far from falling apart."

You have to read between the lines. Hearing Zhao Jun say this, Li Baoyu instantly perked up. "What’s up? Brother, you have an idea?"

"Mhm." Zhao Jun never hid things from Li Baoyu. He just said, "I’ve got my eye on his white dog."

"The Mengxi mix?"

Zhao Jun nodded. In his past life, he had gone hunting in the mountains with Wang Dalong. He knew just how incredible that white dog was when it was put to work.

"He won’t sell it!" Before Zhao Jun could even speak, Li Baoyu said with absolute certainty, "He’s a hunter year-round. He doesn’t sell his dogs."

Hearing this, Zhao Jun laughed. "Then you’ve misjudged him. That guy, he folds as soon as he meets real pressure. Just you wait."

As they spoke, it was already noon. The two of them gathered some firewood and roasted the sticky bean buns they had brought with them.

While roasting the buns, Li Baoyu sized up the two dead roe deer lying nearby.

"What are you staring at? You wanna roast one?"

Li Baoyu shook his head. "Nah, it won’t have any flavor. It’d be better to make dumplings at home."

"That’s true." Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "Next time we come out, let’s bring some soybean paste. Whatever we catch, we can just smear some on and roast it."

"Sounds like a plan," Li Baoyu said, gnawing on a roasted sticky bean bun. The area around his mouth was all black from the char.

Then, the two foodies stopped talking and focused on devouring their buns.

After finishing the last bun, Li Baoyu looked up at Zhao Jun. "Brother, all your talk just now... now I’m craving roasted *huishuzi*."

Zhao Jun froze for a second, blinked, and pursed his lips. "You know, now that you mention it, I could go for some of that too."

A *huishuzi* is a squirrel.

If you were to ask Zhao Jun what meat tasted the best...

...he would tell you it was squirrel. You catch one, rip off the skin, smear it with soybean paste, and grill it on both sides. Nothing was more delicious.

"So when are we gonna go get some?" Li Baoyu asked.

Zhao Jun thought for a second. "We’ll have to set traps for those."

"Then let’s set some," Li Baoyu, who would do anything for a good meal, urged Zhao Jun. "Besides, the gray pelts are worth a good bit of money."

...

The two of them dragged the roe deer home. As they entered the village, they gave away a few cuts of venison. Everyone lived in the same hamlet, and as long as you weren’t enemies, if someone wasn’t too proud to ask, you had to give them a little something.

When they got home, they dragged the deer into the courtyard. Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu, "Gut them and set aside some meat for the three dogs to have a taste.

Once they remember the scent, we’ll go chase roe deer in the spring."

"Yeah!" Li Baoyu was overjoyed. "You and me, brother, hunting pigs and killing bears, trapping for squirrel pelts and Gall, chasing roe deer... life is going to be so much fun!"

With that, Li Baoyu squatted down, took out his Invasion Blade, and cut off the two hind legs of the Large Green Chestnut.

He then tossed one of the legs into his own yard next door before saying to Zhao Jun, "Brother, wait for me a minute. I’m gonna go have my mom start mincing the meat for dumplings."

As he spoke, Li Baoyu put a hand on the wall, vaulted over it, bent down to pick up the roe deer leg, and headed into his house.