Inside Song Tiemin's shack.
As the three of them ate, Zhao Jun took the opportunity to ask Song Tiemin about the suspended sheep.
The previous night, Elder Yang had mentioned that the Suspended Sheep Blood in the wine jug had come from Song the Crooked.
And since Song the Crooked had no children, Zhao Jun wanted to ask Song Tiemin if he knew anything about the suspended sheep.
The moment Zhao Jun asked, Song Tiemin slapped his chopsticks down, swallowing the piece of meat he'd just put in his mouth after only two chews.
Then, he said to Zhao Jun, "Now that you mention it, I have actually heard my uncle talk about this."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun and Zhang Xuefeng both put down their chopsticks in unison. Song Tiemin continued, "If you go up past our Class 55 area, all the way to the top, there's a Bluestone Cliff. You can find suspended sheep there."
"I know that part," Zhao Jun cut in. "Brother Song, tell me something I don't know."
Song Tiemin said, "The suspended sheep, both of its horns curve backward. When it sleeps at night, it leaps up into a tree and hangs from a branch by its horns, dangling as it sleeps."
"Then how does it get down?" Zhang Xuefeng couldn't help but ask from the side.
"It swings itself down." Song Tiemin gestured with his hands to show Zhang Xuefeng. "It hangs from the same branch to sleep every day. Over time, that branch gets worn completely smooth. Not only are there no leaves, but even the bark is gone. It's polished slick."
At this point, Song Tiemin picked up a chopstick and held it horizontally for them to see. "A mountain ridge as thin as this chopstick, a suspended sheep can walk right across it. Sixty, seventy meters, it just scampers over!"
"Brother Song!" Zhao Jun asked, "I heard you have to use a 'spring-pole' to catch a suspended sheep?"
A spring-pole was a type of small-scale trap, but it was much more obscure than setting snares or deadfalls.
You select a small, living tree without uprooting it or disturbing the soil. You trim off all its branches, forks, and its top, then bend the treetop down into an arc.
Where the top touches the ground, a trigger is set. If an animal steps on it, the treetop snaps up. In the instant the trunk straightens, it yanks the animal up by its leg, leaving it hanging upside down.
Setting a spring-pole was easy in the initial steps, but the difficulty lay in creating the trigger mechanism.
Hearing Zhao Jun's question, Song Tiemin looked surprised. "How do you know about that?" he asked, astonished.
Zhao Jun smiled, not answering directly. Instead, he countered, "Brother Song, I heard your uncle makes a lot of money every year catching suspended sheep in the mountains."
"Yup!" Song Tiemin jutted his chin out and nodded. "Beats me why that stuff is so valuable."
Here, Song Tiemin paused for a moment before continuing, "I heard my uncle say that after the suspended sheep is hung up, all the blood flows down. Then you slit its throat, and the blood just HISSES out into a jar. After that, you let the blood dry and break off a small piece."
As he spoke, Song Tiemin showed Zhao Jun and Zhang Xuefeng a piece the size of a fingernail. "That year, my uncle gave my dad a piece. My dad happened to be drunk and just casually tossed that little piece of blood into the big wine barrel. And then, you should've seen it—a single line of blood, straight down, SWOOSH, right to the bottom!"
"For real?!"
Zhang Xuefeng stared at Song Tiemin in astonishment. Song Tiemin picked up his chopsticks and nodded while he resumed eating.
But Zhao Jun, sitting beside them, didn't move his chopsticks. 'I remember in my past life,' he thought, 'I once looked up stuff about suspended sheep online. There was a legend that in his early years of conquest, the old Manzu khan Nuerhachi suffered countless wounds, and his health was failing.'
'One day, however, he hunted a suspended sheep in the Changbai Mountains. After drinking its blood, his internal injuries healed completely. He then led his troops to invade Liaodong again, only to be unexpectedly blasted by Yuan Chonghuan's Red Coat Cannons.'
'There was another legend, too, that the former Northeast King once hunted a suspended sheep. His son drank the Suspended Sheep Blood with him. Afterward, despite indulging in every vice, the son was still able to live to be a hundred.'
Zhao Jun knew these were just legends. But southeast of here, under the jurisdiction of the Double Horse Rack Forest Farm, there was a tiny Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
In this cooperative, there were two employees, both equipped with semi-automatics. The crucial thing was, they didn't sell anything there. They only bought one thing.
And what they bought was Suspended Sheep Blood!
Just then, Zhao Jun smiled at Song Tiemin and said, "Brother Song, next time you go to Uncle Song's place, take me with you, okay?"
"Sure, no problem," Song Tiemin replied, then urged Zhao Jun, "Quick, eat up."
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Zhao Jun and Zhang Xuefeng prepared to head back to Elder Yang's shack to sleep. Before they left, Song Tiemin saw them to the door and then suddenly grabbed Zhao Jun.
Zhao Jun glanced at the hand Song Tiemin had on his arm. Song Tiemin quickly let go. Then Zhao Jun asked, "What is it, Brother Song?"
Song Tiemin asked in a low voice, "Xiaojun, we're fellow villagers, practically family, plus there's the connection with my master. You see, your Brother Song is just a team leader..."
The moment Song Tiemin opened his mouth, Zhao Jun knew what he was going to say. He cut him off before he could finish. "And a team leader who has made a mistake, at that!"
"I..." Song Tiemin's expression froze. He choked back the words that were already on the tip of his tongue.
He looked at Zhao Jun with a pitiful expression, but Zhao Jun just said, "Brother Song, if your men hadn't thrown away that timber, you wouldn't be involved in this. But now you've got mud on your trousers. It's not going to be so easy to pull yourself out."
After saying his piece, Zhao Jun clasped his hands behind his back and walked away.
Song Tiemin's face was bitter. He knew he had no choice but to follow Zhao Jun's lead all the way to the end. But as he watched Zhao Jun's retreating figure, he was suddenly reminded of Zhao Youcai, who used to shuffle around the village with his hands clasped behind his back.
In that instant, Song Tiemin had an epiphany: 'This kid is a real Xiaogudong!'
After the midday break, Zhao Jun returned to the Log Pile Yard to work. And as soon as he arrived, he saw Zhao Qingzhu personally guarding that linden log.