As Zhao Jun was speaking with Yang Yufeng, Zhang Yuanmin ran out from the courtyard, holding a 16-gauge shotgun in both hands.
When he reached Zhao Jun, Zhang Yuanmin shoved the shotgun toward him. "Here, brother."
At this moment, Zhao Jun couldn't be bothered with Black Tiger anymore. He let it go, and once Black Tiger's front legs hit the ground, Zhao Jun gave its rump a light kick. "Go on, get back home!"
With its tail between its legs, Black Tiger trotted toward home, but after only two or three meters, it stopped and looked back at Zhao Jun.
Zhao Jun wasn't paying attention to it. He just raised the gun and aimed into the distance.
There are two types of 16-gauge shotguns: long-barreled and short-barreled.
Zhang Yuanmin's was a long-barreled model. It had some issues before, but after Zhao Jun recalibrated it for him, he also replaced the firing pin and spring. Now, aside from being old, there was nothing wrong with the gun.
"Where are the shells?" Zhao Jun slung the gun over his shoulder. When he turned to ask Zhang Yuanmin for ammunition, he found that Zhang Yuanmin was no longer beside him.
The next moment, he saw Zhang Yuanmin run out of the courtyard carrying a Large Axe. When he was back in front of Zhao Jun, Zhang Yuanmin pulled a handful of shells from his pocket, handed them to Zhao Jun, and said, "Brother, I'm going with you!"
Zhao Jun took the shells and asked, "You're not scared anymore, brother?"
"I am!" Zhang Yuanmin swallowed hard, but then he jutted out his chin and said, "But I still have to go with you!"
"That's right, brother!" Yang Yufeng chimed in from the side. "Let him go with you. You can watch each other's backs."
Zhao Jun glanced at Zhang Yuanmin. Seeing him nod with determination, he immediately agreed.
No matter how skilled you were, you rarely hunted a bear alone. Having a partner meant you could watch each other's backs in a crisis.
Without a dog by his side today, Zhao Jun was also worried about the danger. Besides, Zhao Jun trusted Zhang Yuanmin's character. So, since Zhang Yuanmin insisted on coming, Zhao Jun let him.
And so, Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin headed for the South Land. Yang Yufeng was also going to the South Land to pick corn, but she walked slowly and followed them from a distance.
Zhao Jun hadn't gone far when he heard Yang Yufeng shout from behind him, "Brother! Your dog is following you!"
Hearing her, Zhao Jun started to turn and look. But just as he turned, Black Tiger had already run past him.
Zhao Jun turned back around to see Black Tiger in front of him, hopping and bounding about, looking very excited.
"Go on! Go home!" Zhao Jun raised his hand, feigning a strike, but he really just wanted to shoo Black Tiger home.
But Black Tiger didn't listen to Zhao Jun. Instead, it took off running. It was incredibly fast, covering three or four meters in the blink of an eye.
'Damn it...' Zhao Jun was frustrated. But even with only three legs, he couldn't catch Black Tiger. Helpless, he had no choice but to let it tag along.
They made their way to the South Land, where Zhao Jun headed straight for his uncle Wang Qiang's cornfield. When they got there, they saw that patches of the cornfield had been flattened. They had no idea where to even start looking for the Black Bear.
Suddenly, Black Tiger barked twice toward the south, then started trotting in that direction with its distinctive gait.
At that moment, Zhang Yuanmin, carrying the Large Axe, asked from behind Zhao Jun, "Brother, has your dog opened up?"
"I don't know." Watching Black Tiger's head-bobbing, butt-wiggling gait, Zhao Jun was speechless. If you said the dog had opened up, it wasn't acting like other dogs. As soon as other dogs gave voice, they would tear off at a dead run. But if you said it hadn't, well, it *had* barked.
Helpless, Zhao Jun could only point south and say to Zhang Yuanmin, "Let's go, brother. We'll follow it that way and see what's going on."
With that, Zhao Jun took the gun off his shoulder and held it at the ready, quickening his pace. But as Black Tiger dove into the dense corn, Zhao Jun lost sight of it.
After passing through a patch of corn, they found that the stalks ahead were all knocked down again. Zhao Jun went closer to look and saw corn stalks lying haphazardly all over the ground. And on the ground, on the corn leaves, on the stalks—everywhere—there was runny green shit!
Zhao Jun pointed at the filth all around them and said to Zhang Yuanmin, "The Black Bear... it wasn't killed by the poison!"
"How's that possible!" Zhang Yuanmin came forward for a look, completely baffled. "From what I heard of Gu Yang's... 'strategy' yesterday, the Black Bear should have been a goner for sure!"
Zhao Jun didn't answer at first. He just waved Zhang Yuanmin forward, signaling for him to keep following, then whispered, "Black Bears aren't like other mountain beasts. A Big Claw or any other large animal would drop after eating those Medicinal Beans, but not a Black Bear."
Seeing Zhang Yuanmin's look of disbelief, Zhao Jun added, "Brother, let me tell you, Black Bear Gall is even more potent than Bear Dominator's Gall."
Zhao Jun wasn't wrong. When the state-run store down the mountain bought Bear Gall, the price per gram for Black Bear Gall was higher than for Brown Bear Gall. However, Brown Bear Gall usually had the advantage of being bigger and heavier; many weighed over a catty right after being harvested.
The reason Black Bear Gall was so expensive was its medicinal properties. For treating children's rashes or eyes matted shut with discharge, it was a near-certain cure.
Moreover, it had detoxifying properties. That aluminum potassium cyanide was a "seals the throat upon touching blood" poison, but to take down a 300-catty Black Bear, you'd need double the dose required for a 600-catty Ma Lu.
For the mountain folk, Bear Gall was mostly used for children's rashes and eye ailments. Over time, few of them still remembered that Bear Gall could also be an antidote.
Just like Gu Yang and Zhang Yuanmin. They only knew Bear Gall was valuable, but they were ignorant of its true properties.
And that's why Gu Yang was suffering.
At that very moment, about two li south of Zhao Jun's position, Gu Yang was running for his life around a large tree.
And behind him, a Black Bear was chasing him with staggering steps.
Yesterday at noon, after leaving Zhang Yuanmin's house, Gu Yang had taken a dead pheasant to the South Land and stuffed the Medicinal Beans into its belly. Then, as if wiring a bundle of explosives, he had tied the pheasant to a wooden stick about a meter off the ground.
At ten o'clock that night, Gu Yang, carrying a thick-handled Invasion Blade, had slipped out of the thatched hut where he was keeping watch and crept to the area adjacent to Wang Qiang's cornfield. Then, faintly, Gu Yang heard the roars of a Black Bear in the distance.
Gu Yang had been shocked at the time, because he'd heard people say that when a large animal ate the Medicinal Beans, it died instantly. So he couldn't understand why the Black Bear didn't die after eating them.
But Gu Yang could tell from the Black Bear's cries that it was in extreme pain. He immediately decided to stay, hiding in the corn stalks, waiting for the Black Bear to breathe its last.
But he waited, and waited, until almost three in the morning.
Only when he could no longer hear the Black Bear's cries did Gu Yang finally relax. But to be safe, he waited in place for another ten minutes or so before setting off toward where the sounds had come from.
When he reached the clearing, Gu Yang saw that the Black Bear had flattened a large area of corn all around, and the ground was covered in runny shit.
Gu Yang figured the Black Bear must have been thrashing about in its death throes and was probably dead somewhere nearby. So, Gu Yang followed the path the Black Bear had trampled through the cornfield, heading south.
Gu Yang continued south. Not long after leaving the South Land, he could see the mountain forest ahead.
Gu Yang hesitated; he didn't dare enter the mountains. He figured the Black Bear must have died somewhere around here, so he began to slash through the tall grass with his Invasion Blade.
He wasn't wrong. The Black Bear was lying right there in the grass. But it wasn't dead!
Just as Gu Yang was three or four meters away, the Black Bear suddenly revealed itself and charged straight at him.
The moment he saw the Black Bear, Gu Yang was terrified, but he instinctively raised his blade and stabbed.
But the Black Bear swung a Big Palm, slapping the Invasion Blade away and sending Gu Yang tumbling.
The young man was in good shape. Gu Yang rolled on the ground, scrambled back to his feet, and took off running around a large tree.
He ran, and the Black Bear chased!
Gu Yang ran slower and slower, but because the Black Bear was weakened, it wasn't very fast either. Even so, the Black Bear's stamina was far greater than Gu Yang's.
Because he hadn't cleared a path beforehand, the area around the tree was full of new branches sprouting from the roots. Gu Yang's foot got tangled, and he fell heavily to the ground, scraping up his face.
But Gu Yang had no time to think. A foul stench washed over him, and he quickly rolled on the ground, ending up in front of the same large tree he had been circling to escape. The Black Bear, having just missed its pounce, was turning back toward him.
In this moment of crisis, Gu Yang remembered what he'd heard yesterday at Zhang Yuanmin's house: Zhang Yuanmin's story about how he had turned a disaster into safety the first time he failed to take a Black Bear's Den.
At this thought, Gu Yang hugged the tree and started climbing. He wanted to get five meters off the ground to lure the Black Bear up the tree after him.
'Then I'll jump back down,' he thought. 'After all, a Black Bear climbs down butt-first, head up, inching its way down. If I jump down quickly, by the time I've landed safely, the bear will still be up in the tree.'
'That's how I'll escape with my life, right?'
But Gu Yang had just started climbing when he glanced down and saw the Black Bear had already reached the base of the tree. Its front paws were on the trunk, ready to climb.
Gu Yang didn't even have time to feel relieved before his eyes swept over the ground and he suddenly remembered something. When Zhang Yuanmin did it, it was winter. The mountains were covered in a thick layer of snow, so a five-meter jump wouldn't have hurt him.
'But it's autumn now! If I jump from five or six meters up, even if I don't die from the fall, I'll be crippled!'
Instantly, the joy in Gu Yang's heart vanished, replaced by only misery and helplessness. A wave of sorrow washed over him, and he could only think, 'I haven't even gotten married yet, and I'm going to die like this? I might as well have just married into some girl's family!'
"AWOO! AWOO! AWOO! AWOO! AWOO!"
Just then, a series of strange cries caught Gu Yang's attention. He looked toward the sound and saw a large black dog running in his direction.
The sun, just cresting the horizon, cast the first rays of morning light onto Black Tiger, making its well-fed, glossy coat shine.
At that moment, the Black Bear also stopped trying to climb the tree and turned to look at Black Tiger.
Suddenly, Gu Yang saw his savior, he saw hope. Clinging to the tree, he shouted, "Doggy, save me—"
Gu Yang's cry was cut short. Before he could even finish, he saw Black Tiger turn around and run back the way it came.
"AWOO! AWOO! AWOO! AWOO! AWOO..." It was the same cry as before, but this time it was different. Now, it brought Gu Yang nothing but profound despair.