The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1718 The Zhao Family Hunting Gang Challenges the Zhao Family Gang

Chapter 1718 The Zhao Family Hunting Gang Challenges the Zhao Family Gang

It's better to be lucky than early.

Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong returned from the east, while Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi came from the west. The four met in front of the Zhao family compound.

"Big brother..." Upon seeing the person coming from the other side, Li Dayong gently nudged Zhao Youcai, but Zhao Youcai didn't even lift his eyelids.

Of the fifty-seven households and more than two hundred people in Xishantun, Zhao Youcai only recognized three. One was Zhang Xinglong, who was quite old but still noisy; the second was Tong Youfeng, who talked about him behind his back; and the third was the sycophantic Wu Dalin.

Zhao Youcai was a gunner, and he had sharp eyes. He had seen Wu Dalin long ago, but he just didn't like to talk about it.

Zhao Youcai remained silent, but Qin Hongzhi across from him spoke up, saying, "Hey, village chief, is the young master at home?"

As soon as Qin Hongzhi said this, Zhao Youcai's face darkened instantly. His mood, which had just been cheered up by Li Dayong, was ruined again.

Zhao Youcai didn't say a word, and walked into the courtyard with his hands behind his back. As soon as he stepped through the gate, he heard Wu Dalin shout, "Master Zhao, we are from Xishantun."

Zhao Youcai initially didn't want to pay attention to the two men, but when Wu Dalin addressed him as "Master Zhao," Zhao Youcai thought that if he didn't respond, the people of Xishantun wouldn't address him properly anymore. By ignoring Qin Hongzhi but responding to Wu Dalin, he could at least let people know how to address him.

So Zhao Youcai stopped, turned around and nodded slightly to Wu Dalin, saying, "Ah, you're here."

It was just a polite remark, but after Zhao Youcai finished speaking, he sensed something was wrong and hurriedly asked Wu Dalin, "Where have you two been? What's going on?"

"Oh dear! Master Zhao, don't even mention it!" Wu Dalin said, but then added, "We were chased around by Black Bear for quite a while."

"Huh?" Zhao Youcai's small eyes widened upon hearing this. At this moment, Wu Dalin, panting heavily, raised his hand and gestured, "Two big black bears, they almost got kicked by my two brothers!"

"Two big black bears?" Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai's first reaction was that it was a large female black bear with a sub-adult cub.

"Yeah!" Qin Hongzhi nodded emphatically from the side, saying, "They both look to be over 300 pounds each, and they came hurtling towards us!"

"Both of them weigh over 300 jin?" Zhao Youcai frowned and said, "That can't be right."

Zhao Youcai firmly believed in his judgment: if it was a large female black bear with a sub-adult cub, even if the sub-adult cub was male, it couldn't possibly weigh more than 300 jin (150 kg).

“Really, the village chief…” Wu Dalin started to say, but seeing Zhao Youcai’s face change color, he quickly changed his words and said, “Master Zhao, they really are two big black bears!”

"How could that be?" Li Dayong didn't believe it either, but then Wu Dalin gestured and said, "It's true! It looks like a herd of black bears has appeared!"

"That's utter bullshit!" Zhao Youcai retorted without hesitation upon hearing Wu Dalin's words, "Which father told you that black bears started a herd the other day?"

The phrases "bears herding," "wild boars circling," and "dogs scrambling" all describe animals in heat.

Black bears gather in groups every summer. At that time, black bears in the mountains flock together, and the males display their charm to attract female bears by fighting or showing off their physique.

It's only April, far from the right time.

"What happened?" Wu Dalin asked with a bitter face. "First, a big black bear chased us. We finally managed to escape, but as soon as we caught our breath, another one jumped out."

"Can you say it's just one?" Li Dayong asked. Qin Hongzhi replied, "Not one! The first one went down the slope; the second one jumped down from above."

“You two are just lucky,” Zhao Youcai said with a laugh. “You two are really unlucky.”

As he spoke, Zhao Youcai gestured towards the yard and said, "Let's go upstairs and talk. Let's tell you where we met, what happened, and then I'll tidy up and go with you two."

"What?" Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi were both stunned. Zhao Youcai, who had entered the courtyard, waited for a long time but no one came up. When he turned around, he saw that the two people were still standing outside the courtyard.

"Come in!" Zhao Youcai beckoned to the two men. Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi walked up to Zhao Youcai somewhat reluctantly, and then Wu Dalin asked, "Master Zhao, isn't the young master home?"

"I'm at home," Zhao Youcai said, then countered, "You two came here just to find someone to go hunt bears with you, right?"

Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi both nodded. Although Qin Guangquan was in Xinlengchang and Tong Youfeng was in Xishantun, both of them used No. 16 rifles. No. 16 rifles were not as good as over-barreled pistols; they had a slow rate of fire and short range. They were okay for dealing with wild boars, but not reliable for dealing with bears.

Most importantly, Qin Guangquan and Tong Youfeng had never fought a bear before, so Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi didn't dare to approach them because they lacked experience.

Seeing the two nod, Zhao Youcai laughed and said, "Isn't that settled then? It's safer for me to go with you two than for him to go with you."

Hearing Zhao Youcai's words, Wu and Qin looked at each other without saying a word.

Seeing that the two men did not trust Zhao Youcai, Li Dayong laughed and said, "My older brother is a low-key person, you don't know that."

As he spoke, Li Dayong pointed up the mountain before continuing, "In this forest area, my older brother hunts here!"

When he said the word "this," Li Dayong put down his hand and gave a thumbs up, while Zhao Youcai stood up and straightened his back, striking a pose of superiority.

At this point, Li Dayong added, "My eldest nephew is the young master you're talking about. He's good at hunting, but not as good as my older brother."

As he spoke, Li Dayong gestured towards Zhao Youcai and said, "My elder brother is known in the underworld as the 'Tiger-Slaying King.' Just this past winter, my elder brother killed three big claws!"

"Huh?" Upon hearing Li Dayong's words, Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi both looked at Zhao Youcai with surprise.

"What?" Zhao Youcai glanced at the two of them and said nonchalantly, "Don't believe me?"

To Zhao Youcai's surprise, the two men nodded in unison.

"No?" Before Zhao Youcai could react, Li Dayong was the first to object. He yelled at the two of them, "Why don't you believe me when I'm talking?"

When questioned by Li Dayong, Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi remained silent, only shaking their heads. This infuriated Zhao Youcai, who snapped, "What's wrong with you two? Don't you know what's good for you?"

Wu Dalin hadn't spoken earlier, out of respect for Wang Meilan. Now, looking at Zhao Youcai, Wu Dalin had only one thought in his mind: Which of us really knows who's right and who's wrong?

“Master Zhao,” Wu Dalin said, his already bitter face growing even more pained. “I’m not letting you go for your own good.”

"How can you do this for my own good?" Zhao Youcai pressed. Wu Dalin sighed, didn't speak, but glanced at Li Dayong beside him.

"Say something!" Li Dayong urged. "Just say what you have to say. Why is it so difficult to say something?"

"He's getting impatient?" Wu Dalin sighed helplessly and said to Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong, "Master Zhao has this master. I don't know your surname, but what my brother and I have heard is that Master Zhao fought three tigers in one winter."

"Huh?" Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong were taken aback. Zhao Youcai stared at Wu Dalin with his small eyes and asked, "So what have you heard?"

Wu Dalin glanced at Zhao Youcai, then lowered his head and whispered, "They all say you killed three old oxen in one winter."

boom!

Zhao Youcai felt his head explode and stumbled back two steps, but was fortunately caught by the quick-thinking Li Dayong.

This is a classic case of good news not traveling far, but bad news traveling a thousand miles!

"Fuck you!" Zhao Youcai roared, his eyes bloodshot. "Who the hell yelled at me?"

"What are you doing?" At this moment, Wang Meilan ran out of the house. They had heard a dog barking in the backyard, but it stopped quickly, so the people inside knew that their family had returned.

After waiting for a while without anyone entering the house, Wang Meilan looked out the window and saw several people standing at the door. She decided to go out and see what was going on. As soon as she stepped out of the house, she heard Zhao Youcai cursing loudly. Fearing that Zhao Youcai would cause trouble again, she hurriedly ran towards the courtyard gate.

"Village Chief!"

"Village Chief!"

When Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi saw Wang Meilan, it was as if they had met a relative, and they both went to greet her.

Seeing the disheveled state of the two, Wang Meilan frowned and asked, "How did you two get into this state?"

"Village Chief!" Wu Dalin shouted, "You must stand up for us!"

"What's wrong?" Wang Meilan asked again, "Who bullied you? What's going on?"

"Village chief, we were chased by Black Bear," Qin Hongzhi said. "We almost didn't make it back."

"Aren't you two working in the yard?" Wang Meilan asked. Qin Hongzhi was about to speak when a voice came from the courtyard gate: "What's all this noise about?"

Wang Meilan turned her head and saw Zhang Yuanmin and Lin Xiangshun enter the courtyard first, followed by their wives and children.

"What's wrong, Second Uncle?" Lin Xiangshun asked Zhao Youcai with concern as he entered the courtyard. "Why do I hear you cursing? Who offended us?"

These are our own people. Regardless of whether Zhao Youcai's cursing is right or wrong, Lin Xiangshun only asks one question: "Who has offended us?"

Zhao Youcai remained silent, still fuming. Zhang Yuanmin looked at Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi and said, "Hey, aren't these the two guys from Xishantun?"

Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi both nodded to Zhang Yuanmin, and then Zhang Yuanmin asked, "What's going on? You have scratches all over your face. What chased you up the mountain?"

Look, Zhang Yuanmin has experience. He could tell at a glance that the injuries on Wu and Qin's faces were not from being scratched by wild animals, but from being chased by them and, in their panic, tumbling and crawling, being scraped by tree branches.

"We were chased by black bears." Qin Hongzhi raised his hand in a peace sign and said, "Two big black bears, we almost got kicked around by them."

"Black Bear?" Upon hearing these three words, Zhang Yuanmin's eyes lit up. He was about to say something when Yang Yufeng tugged at his arm. Zhang Yuanmin was startled, and then Yang Yufeng gave him a whack.

Yang Yufeng's behavior shows a complete lack of respect for her husband.

But Yang Yufeng had no choice; between saving face and her life, she had to choose life!

Just as Zhang Yuanmin was about to speak, Xiao Lingdang tugged at him again. Xiao Lingdang certainly couldn't hit her father, but seeing that Xiao Lingdang was pouting and had red eyes, looking like she was about to cry, Zhang Yuanmin pursed his lips and didn't say anything more.

"Alright, let's go!" At this moment, Wang Meilan called to everyone, saying, "Let's go upstairs and talk."

"Village Chief, we're not going inside." Wu Dalin looked down at his tattered cotton-padded coat and said, "We're both covered in dirt. Let the young master come out; we want to say a few words to him..."

"What are you saying, Dalin?" Wang Meilan interrupted Wu Dalin, saying, "We're home now, how can we not come inside? If I did that, I wouldn't be your village chief."

With that, Wang Meilan tossed her hand in front of the house and said, "Come on, come inside, sit for a while, and have some water!"

The group rushed into the house. Wu Dalin and Qin Hongzhi refused to go into the inner room, so Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang accompanied them to sit in the outer room. Zhao Youcai sat on a four-legged stool to the side.

Wu Dalin took a couple of sips of warm water, held the teacup in both hands, and said to Zhao Jun with a sob in his voice, "Young Master, we were almost scared to death today. I almost didn't make it back."

"It's alright, Master Wu." Zhao Jun smiled gently. "Tell me what happened. We ran into a black bear. We'll go up the mountain to hunt black bears. If we catch one, we'll get some meat to eat. We'll sell the gallbladder for money. We'll make a good living."

"Hmm!" Wu Dalin nodded and said, "That's how it is. Yesterday, my brother Qin hunted a wild boar, and the two of us dug it up on the mountain. After we dug out the meat, we carried it back and sold it to that foreman Huang. There were some lanterns and other things left, so we put them in a sack, thinking we'd go get them today and take them home for the kids to enjoy."

We left early today, around seven o'clock before dawn, and went upstairs. When we got there, we saw that the sack we'd been working on yesterday had been torn open by something. We were wondering which scoundrel had done it, when suddenly a big black bear jumped out from the side and almost pinned us down.

Luckily, we had lit torches with pine torches for light, and in my fear, I threw one at it. The fire stopped for a moment, and I ran away. The big black bear chased after me, howling, and I ran around the trees. But the trees were so thin; it caught up with me after only a few steps.”

At this point, Wu Dalin pointed to Qin Hongzhi beside him and said, "This is my brother. He saw that Hei Xiazi was going to mess with me, so he went over and used a torch to scare Hei Xiazi. Hei Xiazi chased him away, and he jumped to the side. Hei Xiazi couldn't stop in time and rolled down the slope."

After that, we didn't even bother to light a fire, we just ran down the slope in the dark. We ran until we reached that... one after another, what was that thing called?

"Strip clearing." Zhao Jun reacted quickly. Strip clearing refers to clearing away miscellaneous trees and branches in the forest, turning it into terraced fields, hence the name strip clearing.

“Yes, yes!” Wu Dalin nodded repeatedly, then said, “I had just run there when I heard a howling sound again. I looked in the dark and saw a big guy come down with a thud.”

Wu Dalin was brought to Northeast China by his parents when he was a child, and has lived here for more than 20 years. He speaks fluent Northeastern dialect.

"Another big black bear?" Zhao Jun asked. Wu Dalin nodded and said, "Ah! We were scared to death at the time. Luckily, we were both lucky. The black bear was just groping around and tripped over some tree stump. Then it panicked and rolled down too."

"You two are really lucky to be alive," Wang Qiang chimed in, when Qin Hongzhi said, "Oh my god, that big black bear just grazed past my backside and tripped me up."

Even as he said this, Qin Hongzhi felt a lingering fear.

"You two are truly lucky!" Li Baoyu, who had been standing behind Zhao Jun, exclaimed, "How dangerous that was!"

"Oh dear!" Zhao Jun sighed softly, looking at the disheveled Wu and Qin, and asked, "Master Wu, Master Qin, you two called me here because you want me to go and fight those two bears?"

"Ah!" Wu Dalin nodded emphatically, then glanced at Li Ruhai before saying, "When Master Li came to our village last time, he told us to keep an eye out for black bears, Siberian leopards, and lynxes. I'll come and tell you. If you catch any, you'll be richly rewarded."

Li Ruhai, who was standing next to him, smiled, and Zhao Jun said, "Alright, Master Wu, you two sit for a while, I'll pack up and head over!"

After speaking with Wu Dalin, Zhao Jun glanced at Wang Qiang, then turned back to Li Baoyu and said, "Uncle, Baoyu, let's put on our leg wraps and lead the dog away!"

"Brother (Jun Ge)..." Just as Zhang Yuanmin and Zhao Jinhui opened their mouths, they heard someone shout, "We're going too!"

"Huh?" Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zhao Youcai standing tall and shouting, "Dayong, Shunzi, let's put on leg wraps too, let's lead the dogs away!"

After speaking, Zhao Youcai looked at Zhao Jun. When the father and son's eyes met, there was a faint spark between them!

(End of this chapter)