For animals and humans alike, the private parts are the most vulnerable areas.
A dog that goes for the rear would give a wild boar a world of pain, whether it bit its rump or its anus.
When dealing with a sow, its anus is exposed. A rear-attacking hound will act just like an African hyena from a nature documentary, sometimes even managing to pull out the sow's intestines.
And boars? They're even more terrified of these dogs.
In the Northeast Mountain Villages, a male wild boar is called by a rather crude name.
The name is a direct, physiological reference to its testicles—a meaning I'm sure everyone can understand.
This just goes to show how incredibly effective these dogs are against wild boars.
Of course, they're also the rarest, and the odds of a lead dog having this trait are extremely low.
That's because most lead dogs charge straight ahead. They're "head-on dogs" that intercept the prey, and very few attack from the rear.
This is precisely why Hua Gou, the big dog from Zhao Jun's family, was revered by all the villages for miles around as the number one lead dog of Great Summit Mountain.
First, Hua Gou had a great nose. It could hunt by following tracks in the snow or by the sound of rustling leaves.
Second, it had great stamina and endurance. Some dogs would give up the chase after about a mile. But Hua Gou was different. The farthest it ever chased a wild boar was over two and a half miles.
And the final factor was where it chose to bite a wild boar.
A boar would be running ahead with Hua Gou in pursuit. The dog wouldn't try to intercept it or attack it head-on. But if it managed to land a single bite from behind, the boar—male or female—would be forced to stop.
The reason was simple: it was just too painful.
So, whenever Hua Gou set its sights on a boar, as long as the other dogs provided a little support and the hunter wasn't completely useless, that boar had virtually no chance of escape.
Now that he had Yellow Dog and Hua Gou, Zhao Jun wanted to train Qing Gou to be a "pincer" hound—one that would latch onto the prey's head and hold on.
Just as Zhao Jun was mulling these things over, Li Baoyu returned with two pig ears.
Zhao Jun looked at the pig ears, which Jin Xiaomei had cleaned spotless, and couldn't help but worry. "Bro," he said, "if you feed both of these to the dogs, isn't your mom going to be furious with you when she gets back?"
"Hah." With a flick of his wrist, Li Baoyu tossed one of the pig's ears into the woodshed. It landed at Qing Gou's feet. "You gotta give some to get some," he said with a completely unconcerned expression.
Zhao Jun was left speechless. 'My friend here really has it all figured out. No wonder he's read so many comic books.'
'Oh well. He already got a sound thrashing from Li Dayong yesterday. After all, even a vicious tiger won't eat its own cubs. There's no way he'll get another beating today.'
However, Zhao Jun suddenly remembered something and asked Li Baoyu, "Why were you chasing Ruhai just now?"
As soon as Zhao Jun said this, Li Baoyu's expression changed. He said indignantly, "Damn it, that little bastard! He blabbed to everyone about me getting beaten up yesterday."
Zhao Jun burst out laughing. 'Li Ruhai is a master at getting his brother into trouble,' he thought.
Li Baoyu had spent the morning spinning a wild tale, and Li Ruhai, fresh home from school, had instantly poked a hole in it.
All the people who had heard Li Baoyu's story that morning started making fun of him.
"So all that flowery nonsense you were spouting about the wild boar sending you tumbling a dozen times—it was all a lie?"
"And those cuts on your face? Turns out your dad gave them to you!"
"Going by your story, I guess that makes your dad the wild boar, huh?"
Zhao Jun didn't have to hear it to imagine how utterly humiliated Li Baoyu must have been in the village. No wonder he'd wanted to chase Li Ruhai down with a stick.
'Younger brothers just don't know how to look out for you like a younger sister does.'
Just as he was thinking this, Zhao Jun's two younger sisters returned. He had no idea where the two of them had been playing, but they were covered in dust.
Zhao Jun pulled Zhao Na over, and as he was brushing the dust from her knees, he heard Zhao Hong say, "Big Brother, I saw that Qin the Third hanging around our front gate."
Here in the Northeast, the birth order of boys and girls is counted separately.
For example, Zhao Jun was the second child in the family, but since he was the eldest son, his two younger sisters called him "Big Brother." They called his older sister, Zhao Chun, "Big Sister."
Zhao Hong was the second daughter, making her a younger sister to Zhao Chun and Zhao Jun, and an older sister to Zhao Na.
Hearing Zhao Hong's words, Zhao Jun's face immediately darkened. Li Baoyu, seeing this from the side, was a bit confused and asked, "What's wrong, brother? Did that Qin the Third mess with you?"
"It's nothing." Zhao Jun shook his head, glanced back at Hua Gou who was wagging its tail at them, then turned and walked out of the yard.
Don't be fooled by Li Baoyu's big and burly appearance; he was extremely perceptive. Seeing this, even if he didn't know the reason, he knew that his brother and that Qin the Third had bad blood.
Li Baoyu immediately tossed the remaining wild boar ear in his hand into the woodshed, then said to Zhao Hong, "Take Xiaona inside." After that, he jogged to catch up with Zhao Jun.
When Zhao Jun reached the courtyard gate, he glanced to the south and saw a person's retreating back.
Zhao Jun spat on the ground, his expression growing even more grim.
"Brother, did he mess with you?" Li Baoyu asked.
"No."
Hearing Zhao Jun's denial, Li Baoyu didn't believe him. He said, "Brother, if he dares to mess with you, the two of us will go pound him."
When Li Baoyu said this, Zhao Jun snorted with laughter. His expression immediately brightened. He turned and put an arm around Li Baoyu's shoulders, saying, "Come on, brother. Let's go inside and chat."
...
「The night passed peacefully.」
Zhao Jun was up bright and early the next morning, which took Wang Meilan by surprise.
Wang Meilan asked him why, but Zhao Jun didn't answer. He just hastily shoveled down some food. After eating, instead of going back to his room to lie down, he moved a stool and sat down in the courtyard.
Although she found Zhao Jun's behavior a bit strange, seeing that he was eating and drinking just fine, Wang Meilan didn't think too much of it.
She had already made plans with Jin Xiaomei the day before. They were going into the mountains to gather things like wood ear mushrooms, other fungi, and schisandra berries. After cleaning them, they could sell them to the state-run store.
Before she left, Wang Meilan told Zhao Jun, "My eldest, after a bit, get some of that pork from the cellar and take it over to your uncle."
"Got it, Mom. You and Auntie be careful on the mountain paths," Zhao Jun replied, remaining seated in the courtyard.
Not long after Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei left, Li Baoyu appeared, a large flatbread dangling from his mouth and another in his left hand, as he hopped over the wall into Zhao Jun's yard.
"Here, brother. Eat." Li Baoyu offered the flatbread in his hand to Zhao Jun.
"I'm not eating." Zhao Jun seemed to be thinking about something, his mind elsewhere. But he quickly came to his senses and said to Li Baoyu, "There's porridge in the pot and some stir-fried pickled vegetables on the stove. Go eat inside. You'll get heartburn otherwise."
Li Baoyu didn't stand on ceremony with Zhao Jun and went into the house with the flatbread.
But just as Li Baoyu stepped inside, a voice called out from outside the courtyard.
"Anyone home?"
Zhao Jun sneered, but he didn't get up or answer.
"Is anybody home?" the voice called out again, and then a man walked in from outside the courtyard.
The man was dressed for the mountains, with leggings wrapped around his calves and a hunting rifle slung over his back. It was clear he was heading out to hunt.
"Well now, my brother's home." As the man entered the yard, Qing Gou, who was shut in the woodshed, started to bark.
Hua Gou, on the other hand, seemed to know this person well. It even wagged its tail at him a few times, looking excited.