"The Shopkeeper is back!"
As soon as Bai Xiuyun got home, his wife, Xu Guifang, hurried to pour him some tea from a thermos.
Her use of the title "Shopkeeper" wasn't because their family owned a business. In the Northeast, it was common in some families for a wife to call the head of the household "Shopkeeper."
Bai Xiuyun stuck his hand in his pocket, pulled out the yellow paper-wrapped package, and tossed it onto the kang table.
"What's this?" Xu Guifang unwrapped the package, saw two strange objects inside, and asked Bai Xiuyun what they were.
Bai Xiuyun took a sip of water and said, "Bear kneecaps."
"What'd you get these things for?" Xu Guifang tossed them back on the table, unimpressed.
"Hey, this is good stuff." Bai Xiuyun picked up the package and carefully rewrapped it. He said to Xu Guifang, "I'll get ten jin of Kaoliang liquor later and soak these in it. It'll treat your leg pain."
Xu Guifang's heart warmed at his words, but she said, "But I don't drink."
"It's fine. Just drink a little each day."
"You'll probably drink it all before I even get a chance."
"Get out of here. It's for you. Would I really drink it?"
After the couple exchanged a few playful remarks, Xu Guifang suddenly remembered something and asked, "Shopkeeper, what did Qin Qiang say?"
At this, Bai Xiuyun's expression changed, his face turning cold and grim. "That Qin the Third doesn't know what's good for him. Let him go and stir up trouble with Zhao Youcai himself."
"But Tao Hehua has her family to back her up."
"Hmph." Bai Xiuyun snorted, a strange look in his eyes. "When you have time, go home and ask my father-in-law what kind of man Zhao Youcai is. That Qin the Third... he's just asking for trouble."
...
At that very moment, the Zhao Youcai whom Bai Xiuyun had mentioned was deep in the mountains, in the area known as Jumping Stone Pond, staring at the dead Black Bear.
Having hunted for many years, Zhao Youcai could naturally distinguish between the different bullet holes on the Black Bear. A shot from the day before yesterday would certainly look different from one made yesterday.
"Good Spear Technique." Looking at the bullet hole on the Black Bear's forehead, Zhao Youcai's heart skipped a beat. He could tell that Qin Qiang's shot from the day before yesterday had wounded the Black Bear severely, but not enough to take away its ability to fight.
Even the three stab wounds from the Tao Brothers wouldn't have been enough.
"Little bastard!" Zhao Youcai cursed fiercely, a wave of fear washing over him in hindsight. If his own son had really been the one to take down the bear, it would have been incredibly dangerous.
This was a Black Bear, after all.
A wild boar might knock you over a few times. One with tusks could injure you, but a sow without them would only cause some scrapes and bruises.
But a Black Bear was different. These things could kill a person.
At this thought, Zhao Youcai grew furious, wanting nothing more than to go home and give Zhao Jun a sound beating.
But remembering the reason he had come into the mountains today, Zhao Youcai forced himself to calm down. He walked away from the Black Bear's corpse.
As the saying goes: An old tiger still possesses its majesty.
Even after death, the Black Bear's scent would drive away smaller animals.
Even scavengers like crows and yellow foxes wouldn't dare approach for two or three days.
But the Lynx was different. This animal was extremely intelligent; it could even tell if the Black Bear was dead or alive.
If it were alive, the Lynx certainly wouldn't return. But faced with a dead Black Bear, the Lynx would not be so polite.
Besides, this Jumping Stone Pond was its home. Even if it wasn't here right now, it couldn't have gone far.
Zhao Youcai moved slowly to the side until he was behind a Big Stone Cliff.
Taller than a man, the Big Stone Cliff hid Zhao Youcai completely. He leaned his back against it, his Type 56 semi-automatic rifle resting against his arm.
He held his rifle like that, carefully moving his head to silently survey his surroundings.
Zhao Youcai waited like this for two hours. He had already told Li Dayong not to bring Elder Niu from the Forest Farm until he returned.
So, for those two hours, he was all alone, waiting quietly in Jumping Stone Pond.
But after two hours, on the ridge behind him, on the ground of Tuo Yaosi, two figures crept into a Turtle Pit and lay down inside.
These two were none other than Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu.
"Brother, will this distance work?" Li Baoyu asked in a hushed whisper.
Zhao Jun raised his rifle, using the Gun Star to scan Jumping Stone Pond for any sign of his father. After searching for a long time without spotting Zhao Youcai, he couldn't help but sigh, "Experience really does count for something."
"Brother, what are you talking about?"
Zhao Jun shot Li Baoyu a look and said, "Whether we can hit anything or not will come down to luck."
"Then... then... we won't get a beating when we go home, will we?" Li Baoyu asked weakly. He knew he was in trouble now. He blamed his younger brother, Li Ruhai, for his loose lips, and he blamed himself for not being able to keep a secret.
Zhao Jun shook his head slightly and sighed. "We're definitely not getting out of a good thrashing."
"Huh?" Li Baoyu's face fell, his heart pounding with even more anxiety.
"Alright, stop worrying about it," Zhao Jun said. "Since we can't escape it anyway, let's us two brothers take down that Lynx today and show them what we're made of."
"We'll still get a beating even if we show 'em what we're made of," Li Baoyu muttered.
"What do you know?" Zhao Jun said irritably. "Once they see that we two can shoot, they won't restrict us from hunting anymore. We take this beating now so we don't have to get beaten in the future."
Li Baoyu's eyes lit up at Zhao Jun's words.
For them, hunting was just too much fun. If they could hunt without restrictions in the future, then taking a beating today didn't seem so bad.
'They're our own fathers, after all. It's not like they'd beat us to death. Especially in Zhao Jun's family—he's the only son. If they killed him, wouldn't that be the end of the family line?'
Thinking this, Li Baoyu quickly shook his head as if to fling out all the bad thoughts he was having about Zhao Jun.
Gradually, the sun shifted west, hanging high in the sky.
Whether it was Zhao Youcai in the Chaotic Stone Pond or Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu on the ridge, they were all enduring their hunger, holding on.
Suddenly, Zhao Youcai's ears twitched. He heard a faint, almost imperceptible sound carried on the wind.
Zhao Youcai was instantly alert. He looked in the direction the wind was coming from, and the rifle resting on his shoulder dropped forward, brought up silently into a ready position.
At the same time, Zhao Jun, on the ridge, suddenly started.
That's right—he had finally spotted Zhao Youcai.
The moment he saw Zhao Youcai raise his rifle, he quickly got up from the Turtle Pit and looked in the direction his father's rifle was pointing.
From his high vantage point, he could see far.
Zhao Jun vaguely saw a yellow shadow darting through the woods on the opposite ridge. The two ridges were more than four hundred meters apart.
Aiming at a shadow-like creature from this distance was truly difficult. Zhao Jun moved forward slowly, careful not to make a single sound.
He was waiting. Waiting for the Lynx to move down toward Jumping Stone Pond below. That way, it would be within his range.
Zhao Youcai was also waiting. He stood as still as a statue, rifle raised, until a yellow shadow shot out of the woods, heading downward. It seemed to be carrying something in its mouth. From a distance, it looked like a drab gray lump—probably a wild rabbit.
But right now, the attention of the Zhao father and son was entirely focused on that yellow shadow.
BANG! BANG!
Suddenly, gunshots rang out. The two reports were so close together that they sounded like a single shot.
Through his Gun Star, Zhao Youcai saw a flash of blood, and then something seemed to fall.
He quickly shifted his rifle forward, only to see the yellow shadow rapidly disappear from his line of sight.
"I missed!" Zhao Youcai lowered his rifle. Before he could even sigh, another gunshot echoed from the ridge behind him.
BANG!