After entering Yongsheng Village, Zhao Jun didn't walk far before arriving in front of a fenced yard.
As soon as Zhao Jun stood at the gate, the dog inside the yard immediately started barking.
The barking seemed to startle a sleeping child inside, and soon the sound of a baby crying mingled with the noise from the dog.
Instead of barging in, Zhao Jun stood at the gate and called out, "Auntie, are you home?"
Just as Zhao Jun finished speaking, a door creaked open, and a rural woman who looked to be in her fifties came jogging out of the house. As she approached the gate, she kept wiping her wet hands on her coat.
This woman was Zhao Chun's mother-in-law, Hu Sanmei.
"Well, if it isn't the big guy." Seeing it was Zhao Jun, Hu Sanmei reached out and gave his arm a Big Palm, laughing. "Standing on ceremony? Why didn't you just come in?"
Hu Sanmei didn't actually mean to hit Zhao Jun, and she hadn't used much force, but the spot her Big Palm had landed was exactly where Zhao Youcai had punched him twice the night before.
Zhao Jun winced in pain but forced himself not to show it, managing a tight smile without saying a word.
Zhao Jun concealed it well, so Hu Sanmei didn't notice anything was amiss. She just gestured for him to enter. "Come on, dear, get in the house." With that, she ushered Zhao Jun inside.
Upon entering the yard, Zhao Jun's gaze immediately fell to the base of the left wall, on the leashed Qing Gou.
'What a fine dog!' Zhao Jun thought with admiration, watching the Qing Gou strain against its iron chain, trying to lunge at him.
In those days, few people kept dogs as pets. You might find some in the cities, but in the countryside, dogs were kept to guard the home.
Furthermore, there were very few foreign breeds. Most were what people called Chinese Rural Dogs. In the Southern Region, they were known as native dogs.
But in the Northeast, people liked to call their homegrown animals "stupid" something. For instance, pigs were "stupid pigs." Chickens were "stupid chickens," and the eggs laid by "stupid chickens" were "stupid chicken eggs."
In the famous skit *Not Short of Money* by Uncle Benshan, he points to the eggs he brought to a restaurant and shouts "Idiot!" at Xiao Shenyang—a pun on "stupid eggs."
And so, dogs in the Northeast are called stupid dogs.
Due to factors like the natural environment, the stupid dogs of the Northeast are all large and sturdy. Dogs weighing seventy or eighty pounds were very common, and plenty weighed around a hundred and ten pounds. The heaviest could even exceed one hundred and thirty pounds.
This big Qing Gou weighed over a hundred and ten pounds. It was built like a tank, with the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear. Its blocky head gave it an imposing, vigorous look.
As it barked WOOF WOOF at Zhao Jun, its eyes glinted with ferocity.
Far from being afraid, Zhao Jun was delighted. 'If I could take this dog hunting,' he thought, 'it would definitely be a first-class hound.'
Besides, there was a saying among Hunters: Qing Gou make the best lead dogs.
If he could get his hands on this big Qing Gou and pair it with his own Hua Xiao, Zhao Jun would be practically invincible in these mountains.
'Maybe I won't just get a gun today. I might get a dog out of this too.' The more the plain-looking Zhao Jun thought about it, the more excited he became.
He followed Hu Sanmei into the house and into the east room. There, he saw his older sister, Zhao Chun, sitting cross-legged on the kang, rocking a baby in her arms and humming a tune.
Hearing someone enter, Zhao Chun assumed it was her mother-in-law returning. But when she looked up and saw Zhao Jun, she froze for a moment.
Zhao Chun was about to speak, but she saw Zhao Jun put a finger to his lips in a "shush" gesture. He then pointed to the baby in her arms. Zhao Chun nodded and focused her attention back on the child.
Just then, Hu Sanmei gestured for Zhao Jun to sit on the kang before heading out of the room herself.
Zhao Jun set the burlap sack down by his feet and sat casually on the edge of the kang. He scooted closer to his sister and looked down at his nephew, whose eyes were closed and mouth agape. A smile crept onto Zhao Jun's face.
A couple of minutes later, Hu Sanmei returned with a cup of brown sugar water for Zhao Jun. He quickly accepted it with both hands, saying softly, "Thank you, Auntie," and placed the cup on the low table on the kang.
After another moment, the baby in Zhao Chun's arms was sound asleep. She carefully laid him down on the kang, tucked a small blanket around him, and only then turned to ask Zhao Jun, "Jun, what brings you here?"
Before Zhao Jun could answer, Hu Sanmei, who was sitting on Zhao Chun's other side, chimed in. "Big fella, are you worried about that job? Don't you worry now. Your uncle already said that as soon as Elder Li retires next year, you can take over his position right away."
"That's right, Jun, don't worry," Zhao Chun added. "My father-in-law could get you a job right now, but isn't being a timber scaler a good gig?"
"I'm not worried, I'm not worried," Zhao Jun said as he hopped off the kang. He picked up the burlap sack, carried it over to Hu Sanmei's feet, and said, "I went into the mountains yesterday and got a wild boar. I brought you some of the meat."
"What?" At his words, both Zhao Chun and Hu Sanmei stared at him, stunned.
When she snapped out of it, Zhao Chun's face flushed red. She swung her legs over to stand up, raising her arm as if to strike him.
Seeing this, Zhao Jun quickly threw up his hands in surrender, whispering urgently, "Sis, sis, be careful! Don't strain yourself!"
Hu Sanmei, who was beside them, also came to her senses and quickly stopped Zhao Chun. "Don't, my dear," she urged quietly. "You're still in your confinement period."
Zhao Chun sat back down, but continued to glare resentfully at Zhao Jun.
She had doted on Zhao Jun ever since they were children. In the blink of an eye, her little brother had grown taller than her, but he was still the one she worried about the most.
Zhao Jun felt a pang of guilt. He remembered in his past life, whenever he got into trouble, his sister would get furious and scold him endlessly, but she was always the one who helped him the most.
One fuming with anger, the other wracked with guilt, the siblings fell silent.
Hu Sanmei, who didn't know the full story, saw this and assumed the siblings were just having a tiff. 'The whole Zhao family is a stubborn bunch,' she thought. She quickly pointed at Zhao Jun and asked, "Big fella, did you happen upon a boar caught in someone else's snare?"
Hearing this, Zhao Jun immediately seized the excuse she'd offered. He smiled and said, "Auntie's right. The day before yesterday, Baoyu was on the mountain hauling firewood when he saw a wild boar caught in someone's snare. The two of us went up there yesterday. By the time we arrived, the boar didn't have much fight left in it, so we finished it off."
"That's still not okay! How old are you? Already running off into the mountains like the hunters. What if..." Zhao Chun continued to lecture him, though her tone had softened slightly, and she wasn't quite as angry anymore.
Zhao Jun chuckled, opened the burlap sack, and started pulling out wild boar trotters. Their surfaces were blackened where Wang Meilan had singed off the hair. He lined them up one by one on the edge of the kang.
Zhao Jun grinned at his sister. "Sis, I heard that trotter soup is good for milk production, so I brought them all for you."
"Oh, you..." Hearing this, Zhao Chun's expression immediately brightened into a wide smile. It wasn't about the food itself, but the fact that her little brother was being so thoughtful. She felt incredibly gratified, and even a little proud.
Zhao Jun picked up the sack again and said to Hu Sanmei, "Auntie, there's some more boar meat in here for you and Uncle."
"Alright, alright." Hu Sanmei smiled as well. Her husband was the director of a large factory, so their family wasn't short on food, but she was always happy to receive such a thoughtful gesture from the younger generation.
Zhao Jun helped Hu Sanmei pack the boar trotters back into the sack. As she carried it off to the kitchen, Zhao Chun pulled Zhao Jun over by the hand and asked, "Jun, about finding that animal in someone else's snare... did you leave anything for the owner?"