The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1684 Passing the torch to daughters-in-law, not daughters

Chapter 1684 Passing the torch to daughters-in-law, not daughters

"Listen..." A plume of white smoke propelled half a firecracker into the sky!

"Bang!" The half of the firecracker, which had been in mid-air, exploded, sending paper scraps flying everywhere!

"Listen... boom!"

Firecrackers rang out one after another over Yong'an Village. Li Baoyu, who was eating at home, grabbed a steamed bun, stuffed it into his mouth, and then moved off the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Hey? Brother, wait for me, I'm coming too!" Li Ruhai put down his chopsticks and called out to Li Baoyu, then picked up his bowl and drank the rice soup in one gulp.

Just as Li Ruhai got off the kang (a heated brick bed), Li Xiaoqiao's voice came from behind him: "Mom, I want to go too."

"Where are you going!" Jin Xiaomei glared at Li Xiaoqiao and shouted, "I'll leave you the bun wrappers!"

A jeep stopped beside Zhang Laibao, who was taking a stroll after eating. Chen Weiyi, who was in the passenger seat, got out and asked, "Young man, how do I get to Zhao Jun's house?"

Zhang Laibao instinctively pointed in the direction of the Zhao family's old house, but when he saw the pistol on Chen Weiyi's waist, Zhang Laibao smiled and pointed in the direction of the Zhao family compound, saying, "Just follow the firecrackers, that's their house."

Chen Weiyi was taken aback by Zhang Laibao's words. Why set off firecrackers when it's neither a holiday nor a festival?

Chen Weiyi got into the jeep, and it headed towards the Zhao family compound. They didn't drive too fast in the village, but the speed wasn't slow either.

Just then, a figure swept past the car like a whirlwind, startling everyone inside.

After setting off a bundle of firecrackers, Zhao Jun turned and went through the gate. The gate was quite far from the front of the house, and as Zhao Jun walked towards the house, he could see Ma Ling drawing water from the well from a distance.

The bucket seemed to be full, so Ma Ling stopped pumping water from the well, picked up the bucket, and walked to the backyard.

The large water shovel, filled with more than 30 kilograms of water, was quite difficult for Ma Ling to carry.

"What's going on here?" Zhao Jun asked, jogging after her. When he got to the backyard, he saw Ma Ling carrying a bucket of water toward Zhao Youcai.

"Dad, is one bucket of water enough?" Ma Ling asked. Zhao Youcai replied, "It's enough, my dear."

As he spoke, Zhao Youcai beckoned to Ma Ling and said, "Come here, Dad will teach you how to make this cornmeal."

Ma Ling carried the bucket over and watched Zhao Youcai pour cornmeal into the boiling pot of potatoes.

"Just blanch it briefly, then scoop it out," Zhao Youcai instructed Ma Ling. "Don't let it burn at the bottom of the pot."

“Dad, I can do that!” Ma Ling said with a smile. “I also cook at home.”

“Okay.” Zhao Youcai said, scooping dog food into the empty bucket with a large spoon, and said to Ma Ling, “Remember, for big dogs, eight potatoes per meal. For small dogs, like the size of a dragon, four are enough. After that, put two spoonfuls of cornmeal in each dog. Prepare it like this before you start feeding them.”

"Why is my wife feeding the dog?" Zhao Jun sensed something was wrong and quickly walked over to Zhao Youcai and Ma Ling.

Seeing Zhao Jun arrive, Black Tiger, Green Dragon, and Black Dragon, who were sitting by the pot waiting for food, all came towards Zhao Jun, while only Erhei remained sitting next to Zhao Youcai.

These are the only four dogs we have at home; the other dogs have been taken away by other families to guard their homes and property.

Erhei was closest to Zhao Youcai. It didn't move, and Zhao Youcai didn't notice that Heihu and Sangou had left.

At this moment, Zhao Youcai said to Ma Ling, "My dear, I've got nothing to do these past few days, so Dad will teach you how to cook."

“Dad, I can cook, right?” Ma Ling said. Zhao Youcai replied, “My dear daughter, the dishes you know are all everyday fare. The dishes I’ll teach you are the real specialties.”

As he spoke, Zhao Youcai stopped serving the dog food, looked up at Ma Ling and said, "You read that book your uncle brought yesterday, right? Dad knows more than that, and Dad will teach you everything."

Zhao Jun stood behind the two without saying a word, wanting to see how Ergudong would fool his wife.

“Alright then, Dad…” Ma Ling seemed reluctant, and then she heard Zhao Youcai say, “My dear daughter, in the old saying, this skill of mine is passed down to the daughter-in-law but not to the daughter. Do you know what that means?”

Ma Ling shook her head, but Zhao Youcai continued to bluff, saying, "It's just that when it comes to skills, passing them on to a daughter-in-law means they stay in the family. But if you pass them on to a daughter, she gets married and belongs to another family, so the skill goes to that family, right?"

"Ah!" Hearing Zhao Youcai say that, Ma Ling felt that learning Zhao Youcai's cooking skills was a great thing.

Zhao Jun glared at the back of Zhao Youcai's head, wishing he could push him into the bubbling dog food pot. This idiot is just lying; back when his older sister Zhao Chun wanted to learn a trade from Zhao Youcai, he didn't say that.

Zhao Jun remembers clearly that Zhao Youcai earnestly told Zhao Chun, "What you're good at, you'll have to work hard for. Just knowing how to cook some simple home-cooked meals is enough. If you cook too well, you'll have to cook every day from now on." As for Ma Ling, the tradition of passing on skills to daughters-in-law but not daughters continued.

“Let me tell you something, my dear daughter,” Zhao Youcai continued serving the dog food, “What does it mean to have many skills? Once you learn this skill, you’ll be able to do anything without any trouble. To put it bluntly, if one day we can’t stay in this forest area anymore, we can go to the city and open a small restaurant with this skill. We won’t starve, right?”

“Yes, yes!” Ma Ling nodded repeatedly, agreeing with her father-in-law’s words.

At this point, Zhao Jun could no longer hold back. If Ergudong continued to fool him like this, wouldn't his wife become his maid?

"Dad!" Zhao Jun's voice came from behind, startling Zhao Youcai, who was up to no good.

When Ma Ling saw Zhao Jun, she walked towards him and said with a smile, "Dad taught me how to feed the dog. From now on, I'll be the one feeding the dog in our house."

"What the heck?" Zhao Jun stared wide-eyed at Zhao Youcai upon hearing this. It hadn't been long, and his wife already had the job of feeding the dog.

"Ah, isn't this it?" Zhao Youcai pointed at Ma Ling and said to Zhao Jun, "I got up early to feed them, which disturbed your rest. If we had to eat first, the dog would still be howling with hunger."

Zhao Jun glared at Zhao Youcai with a pout, and then Zhao Youcai said, "My daughter said that from now on, whatever time she gets up in the morning, that's what she'll do. How about that, it won't interfere with her rest."

Zhao Jun looked at Ma Ling, who nodded repeatedly. Her father-in-law, worried about disturbing her rest, hadn't gotten up early to feed the dogs, making Qinglong and Heilong howl in hunger, and Heihu even lunged at the door with a bowl in its mouth. This made Ma Ling feel a little guilty.

Moreover, ever since she married into the family, her mother-in-law hasn't let her do any chores. Just now, after the family finished eating, Ma Ling tried to pick up the bowls to wash them, but Wang Meilan chased her back into the house.

When Zhao Youcai went inside to husk cornmeal, Ma Ling went to help and was easily tricked into joining him with just a few words.

Just as Zhao Jun was about to say something, Black Tiger, Green Dragon, Black Dragon, and Erhei who was sticking to Zhao Youcai all ran to the front yard.

Zhao Jun knew immediately that someone had come to the front yard. He glared at Zhao Youcai, then took Ma Ling's hand and walked towards the front yard.

As soon as the young couple arrived in the front yard, they saw Li Baoyu run to the front of the house.

"Baoyu," Zhao Jun said with a smile, "you came very quickly."

As they were talking, they saw Black Tiger and the four dogs run towards the gate. At that moment, the police station's jeep was parked at the gate. The gate was too far from the house, and the car didn't honk its horn, so no one knew a car was coming.

Zhao Jun let Ma Ling into the house, and then led Li Baoyu towards the door. When they reached the door, they saw Sun Xueshan and Chen Weiyi, along with two police officers, being blocked outside by four dogs.

"Come back!" Zhao Jun shouted, and the four dogs turned around and ran back in unison.

"Director Sun, Director Chen!" Zhao Jun clasped his hands in greeting to the two men and said, "Quickly, we're home. Let's go inside and rest for a while."

“No more rest, Team Leader Zhao,” Sun Xueshan said. “We’re pressed for time and have a heavy workload, let’s hurry up and visit each household.”

"Okay," Zhao Jun replied, then asked, "Whose house should we go to first?"

As he spoke, Zhao Jun raised his hand to Li Baoyu, signaling him to go back inside and not get involved in the matter.

“Team Leader Zhao, you’re from this village, you know the situation well, you decide this.” Chen Weiyi said, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to Zhao Jun, saying, “There are three families in your village, all related to Xu Changming and Song Laowai. One is Xu Guangyi’s family, one is Song Zhuzi’s family, and the other is Liu Shunhai’s family. Which one do you think we should go to first?”

"Huh? Liu Shunhai too?" Zhao Jun looked at the paper suspiciously. Chen Weiyi said, "Liu Shunhai's mother's surname is Xu, and she's almost a fifth degree of kinship with Xu Changming."

"Really? I really didn't know." Since they lived in the same village, Zhao Jun naturally knew Liu Shunhai's family, but he usually just greeted the old lady by calling her "Liu Niang" and that was it. He really didn't know the old lady's surname, let alone that she was related to Xu Changming.

However, looking at these three families, Zhao Jun felt that none of them were likely to be involved. Just as Zhao Youcai had said, all three families had members working for the forestry farm. As long as they met this condition, they wouldn't be driven to desperation by money, and they wouldn't have to resort to digging up people and stealing their hides from the mountains.

But Zhao Jun's intuition wasn't enough; besides, the forestry security team was only assisting the police in their investigation. The specifics of how to proceed were entirely up to them.

"Let's go to Liu Shunhai's house first," Zhao Jun said to Sun Xueshan and Chen Weiyi. "Because there's a problem now. We're about to start our shift at the forest farm."

Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Chen Weiyi said, "It's alright, Team Leader Zhao. Secretary Zhou and Director Yan both said that all forestry workers will fully cooperate in solving the case, and those involved in the case don't need to come to work for now."

“Yes, I know, Director Chen.” Zhao Jun said, “The Song family and Xu Guangyi’s family should be able to handle the funeral arrangements for Grandpa Xu and Grandpa Song in the shack. So after we get there, Song Tiemin and Xu Fengnian will be unable to go to work once they find out about this.”

So what I mean is, I'll deliver this to Liu Shunhai's house. Then you can go in and chat with Liu Shunhai first. After that, if he's done, he can go to work. As for me, I'll go to Old Song's and Old Xu's houses and tell them not to go out, just stay home and wait.”

“Okay! That works!” Zhao Jun’s suggestion was agreed upon by Chen Weiyi and Sun Xueshan.

"Let's get in the car and leave!" Zhao Jun said, and Chen Weiyi and the others turned around to get in the car.

Just then, their eyes met those of Li Ruhai, who was jogging towards them.

Upon seeing Chen Weiyi, Li Ruhai's eyes lit up instantly, and he clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "Director Chen, you're doing well, aren't you?"

During the last raid on Yangjia Village, Chen Weiyi had met Li Ruhai. Li Ruhai's reputation had also reached Chen Weiyi through word of mouth from many people.

"That's good." Chen Weiyi smiled and nodded at Li Ruhai before getting into the car.

As Sun Xueshan got into the car, he glanced out the window at Li Ruhai, who was dressed in a Zhongshan suit and leather shoes, and asked, "This man doesn't look very old."

“You don’t need to pay him any attention, Director Sun,” Chen Weiyi said with a smile. “That will happen soon.”

"Ah!" Sun Xueshan understood after hearing Chen Weiyi's words. But looking at Li Ruhai, Sun Xueshan couldn't help but frown and say, "So young and already capable?"

"Brother, are you busy?" Li Ruhai said to Zhao Jun while reaching for the back door of the car.

Zhao Jun pushed Li Ruhai's hand away and said, "Go inside right now!"

Li Ruhai puffed out his cheeks and sullenly entered the Zhao family compound.

Two jeeps left the Zhao family home one after the other. By the time Zhao Jun returned, it was already eleven o'clock.

That morning, they visited three families, but found no clues. None of the three families had been to Qing Shi La Zi, and they all had alibis. Moreover, they didn't know which of their relatives or friends had been there.

There were several relatives of the Song and Xu families in the village, and others had already gone to investigate them that morning. Chen Weiyi and Sun Xueshan were anxious to return and hear the report, so they politely declined Zhao Jun's offer to stay for dinner and hurriedly returned to the police station.

When Zhao Jun returned home, everyone in the family except those who were at work or school was there.

Upon seeing Zhao Jun return, everyone bombarded him with questions about the investigation. When they learned that there were still no leads, Li Ruhai said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, if all else fails, I'll take a walk around the forest area for you."

"You'd better stay quiet," Zhao Jun refused without hesitation, saying, "Don't get involved in this!"

Li Ruhai is skilled at gathering intelligence, but his entire skill lies in his mouth. He can't even beat Ma Yang or Zhang Laifa, so he's practically defenseless. What if he gets targeted and killed by bad guys while he's busy gathering information?

Even if the bad guys are caught by then, Zhao Jun will feel guilty for the rest of his life.

As Zhao Jun rejected Li Ruhai, Li Ruhai was slapped twice by Jin Xiaomei.

"I'm telling you, you better behave yourself!" Jin Xiaomei glared at Li Ruhai and said sternly, "You're not allowed to go anywhere these next few days, and you're not allowed to gossip anywhere!"

"What kind of talk is that?" Li Ruhai hated it when people said he was being a gossip, so he immediately corrected them: "Mom, I called it socializing, connecting with friends."

"Go to hell!" When a mother uses the word "mother" to curse her child, it means she is about to get angry.

Li Ruhai quickly backed down, and at that moment Wang Meilan, holding the account book, said to Zhao Jun, "Son, around nine o'clock just now, someone came to sell yellow leaves."

"Who is it? Let me see." Zhao Jun asked. Zhao Youcai replied, "Don't worry about that. That's Hu the Cripple from the North Third Class's shed. He also sets traps to knock down yellow leaves."

Zhao Youcai meant that you can't be suspicious just because someone comes along selling yellow leaves. This cripple Hu is someone who picks yellow leaves; there's nothing wrong with him selling them.

Zhao Jun didn't take Zhao Youcai's words seriously, thinking that Zhao Youcai made sense.

But just then, Xing San suddenly said, "Something's not right!"

"What's wrong, Uncle?" Zhao Jun asked. Xing San replied, "I remember now. Before the New Year, when I was collecting leather leaves, Hu the Cripple came by and sold more than twenty yellow leaves."

As he spoke, Xing San pointed at Wang Meilan and said, "Sister-in-law, it turns out that our account book has accounts from Ruhaiji."

After saying this, Xing San looked at Li Ruhai and said, "Ruhai, do you remember? That day we were collecting hides, his right leg wasn't working well, and you can imagine how strong the smell was on him."

"Ah, ah!" Li Ruhai responded twice, but seeing that he didn't continue, it was clear that Li Ruhai hadn't remembered.

At this moment, Xing San looked at Zhao Youcai and asked, "How many tickets did he sell today?"

"Sell twenty-two tickets," Zhao Youcai said. Xing San slammed his hand on the table and said, "That's not right!"

(End of this chapter)