Chapter 561: Chapter 432: The 700-800 Jin Black Bear
But just then, Jin Xiaomei ran out of the house. The moment she saw Li Dayong, she asked, “Where’s Ruhai?”
“Hm?” Li Dayong froze, and Li Baoyu’s gaze shifted over as well.
Li Dayong said, “He came back this afternoon.” As he spoke, Li Dayong looked over the wall at Li Baoyu before adding, “Secretary Zhou specifically sent a car to bring him back.”
“Auntie!” Zhao Jun quickly called out to Jin Xiaomei. “Don’t worry, I saw Ruhai on my way back.”
“What was he doing?” Li Baoyu asked, grinding his teeth.
“He…” Seeing Li Baoyu’s expression, Zhao Jun had no idea what had happened. He just said, “He was at the entrance of the little convenience store, chatting with a few of the old ladies.”
Hearing this, Jin Xiaomei turned and went back inside. Meanwhile, the father-son duo of Li Dayong and Li Baoyu, without another word, both rushed out of the yard.
“What’s going on with them?” Zhao Jun asked Zhao Youcai, looking bewildered.
Zhao Youcai, who usually loved to gloat over others’ misfortunes, now had his brow furrowed in a frown. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know what that kid Ruhai said to your Uncle Zhou, but Uncle Zhou seems to really like him. He wants to recruit him to work at the farm.”
“What?” Zhao Jun couldn’t believe his ears. He immediately said, “How old is Ruhai? What could he possibly do at the farm? Even my job as a timber scaler is easy, and he couldn’t handle that.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai gave Zhao Jun a deep look and walked straight into the house.
That night, no one knew what happened at the Li family’s house. In any case, the next day, Li Dayong got up extra early to personally escort Li Ruhai to school. He even pleaded with Li Ruhai’s homeroom teacher, Teacher Xiao Nan, asking her to put in extra effort to watch Li Ruhai and make sure he didn’t arrive late, leave early, or skip class.
Although Teacher Xiao Nan was young, she was extremely caring and responsible toward her students. But today, when Teacher Xiao heard what Li Dayong said, she immediately flew into a rage.
According to Teacher Xiao, the parents had asked for leave for their child, lying about a relative’s wedding, only for them to let the boy go to the Forest Farm to be a storyteller.
“What’s the deal? Did your relative hold their wedding banquet in the Forest Farm cafeteria or something?
That was bad enough, but now you turn around and ask us teachers to keep him in line. What are you even thinking?”
Li Dayong was completely stunned by Teacher Xiao’s tirade. But what he was thinking about more was how his son’s “glorious” exploits had already reached the school.
But on second thought, Li Dayong remembered. Teacher Xiao Nan’s husband, Li Ge, was an electrician at the Forest Farm. He must have been eating in the cafeteria these past two days right when the young storyteller, Li Ruhai, was performing his short story series: *Zhao Jun Causes Chaos at the New Logging Camp*.
After figuring out the cause and effect, Li Dayong was overcome with shame and indignation. Still, he had to apologize to Teacher Xiao. It wasn’t until he received Xiao Nan’s forgiveness that Li Dayong trudged home in disgrace.
When Li Dayong got home, Li Baoyu, who was shouldering his bag and getting ready for work, was in the yard with Zhao Jun, discussing their plans to go hunting in the mountains tomorrow.
Today was the day Dou Baoguo would go “shine and contribute his talents” at the Forest Farm, so the great mountain weighing down on everyone had been toppled. From now on, if Li Baoyu wanted to ask for leave, it would only take a single word from Lin Xiangshun.
“Go to work like normal in a bit, and ask for leave before you get off,” Zhao Jun told Li Baoyu. “I’ll go to Gu Yang’s place and ask him where he saw that Big Bear Dominator. Once I get a clear location, we’ll go tomorrow.”
“Alright!” Li Baoyu’s gaze swept across the yard and landed on Black Dragon, who was busy hiding flatbreads everywhere. He then asked Zhao Jun, “Brother, can the two little ones come with us to the mountains now?”
“Yeah, they can,” Zhao Jun first confirmed, but then immediately added, “But not for hunting a Xiong Ba. If it’s a Black Bear, we can take them along to get some experience.”
Compared to a Xiong Ba, a Black Bear was certainly much weaker. The key difference was that in the fall, black bears were too lazy to fight. If they got cornered by dogs, they’d just climb a tree.
And once it was up a tree, a black bear was a sitting duck.
That’s why during the “rustling leaves” season in autumn, hunting a black bear was even easier than hunting a wild boar.
Brown bears, however, were different. They were massive and never climbed trees.
Li Baoyu understood all this, but something else occurred to him. He asked Zhao Jun, “Brother, shouldn’t we bring Brother Dalong?”
The moment the words left Li Baoyu’s mouth, Zhao Jun shook his head without a second thought and said, “No.”
“Huh?” Li Baoyu was taken aback. “Why not? Didn’t you promise to help him train his dogs?” he asked quickly.
Zhao Jun frowned and shook his head again. “Sister-in-law Xiaojuan is such a good person, but he doesn’t live a decent life. If we give him the bear meat, who knows which woman he’ll run off and give it to.”
“Exactly!” Li Dayong, who had just walked in through the yard gate, overheard Zhao Jun and said indignantly, “You should hunt with that kind of person as little as possible.”
“What kind of person?” Just then, Zhao Youcai came out of the house. When he heard Li Dayong mention Wang Dalong going to Jiang Xiaolan’s house, his brow furrowed. He asked Li Dayong, “Dayong, is that true? Who did you hear it from?”
Zhao Youcai actually had a pretty good impression of Wang Dalong. He felt the young man knew how to get things done and had often helped his own family out. Crucially, he was also a relative—family ties run deep.
“It’s true!” Li Dayong raised a hand and pointed outside. “The whole village is talking about it!”
“Sigh…” Zhao Youcai sighed, pointed toward the gate, and said, “Let’s go. Time for work.”
As Zhao Jun walked Zhao Youcai to the gate, he said, “Dad, Uncle Li, take care!”
But Li Baoyu waved to Zhao Jun and said, “Brother, we’re off!”
“Alright!” Zhao Jun waved back at Li Baoyu, then went back inside to say a word to Wang Meilan before leaving the house.
Zhao Jun had just stepped out of his house when he saw Gu Yang walking toward him. Zhao Jun paused. ‘I was just about to look for him, and here he is.’
“Brother Jun!” Gu Yang called out a greeting to Zhao Jun while still a good distance away.
“Hey!” Zhao Jun answered, smiling. “I was just about to look for you, and here you are.”
Gu Yang paused when he heard that, but he didn’t ask what Zhao Jun wanted him for. He just pointed toward the Li Family’s house and said, “I’m looking for Li Ruhai.”
Zhao Jun smiled and shook his head. “Ruhai’s gone to school!”
“I’ll go find him at school then!” Gu Yang said and turned to leave.
Seeing how angry he was, Zhao Jun quickly stopped Gu Yang and tried to soothe him. “Alright, brother, calm down. Ruhai… he’s just a kid. Besides, the thing about you having a… physical problem… Ruhai wasn’t the one who said it, it was that…”
“I know!” Gu Yang cut Zhao Jun off, his face a mask of grief and fury. “But he still shouldn’t have… blabbed about Third Sister-in-law Jiang asking me to be her live-in lover!”
With that, Gu Yang angrily turned to leave again, determined to go to Li Ruhai’s school to settle the score. Seeing this, Zhao Jun quickly pulled Gu Yang into his own house.
Zhao Jun led Gu Yang into his family’s storeroom and pointed to a row of Bear Galls hanging from a beam. His finger stopped at the one closest to the window. “This is the gall from the Black Bear we hunted the other day. It’s not dry yet. When it is, I’ll sell it and give you your share, just like we agreed.”
“Thanks, Brother Jun!” Hearing there was money involved, Gu Yang’s expression softened slightly. It wasn’t that he was greedy; he was just desperate for money.
Zhao Jun lifted his foot to nudge away Cyan Dragon, who was pouncing on Gu Yang. “Brother,” he said, “I can’t promise a huge amount for this Bear Gall, but you’ll definitely get five hundred yuan out of it.”
“Five hundred!” Gu Yang’s eyes lit up. Then he heard Zhao Jun add, “Five hundred at least! I know you’ve saved up a bit from working these past few years. Add this money to it, and it’ll be enough for you to get married.”
“Yeah, yeah.” A joyful expression appeared on Gu Yang’s face. He grabbed Zhao Jun’s hand and said gratefully, “Thanks, Brother Jun! Thank you, Brother Jun!”
Zhao Jun nodded, then finally asked Gu Yang, “I heard… you saw a Big Bear Dominator yesterday?”
Hearing this, Gu Yang’s face fell again. The story of how he had been so scared he’d wet his pants for the second time had also become common knowledge.
“Ahem!” Zhao Jun cleared his throat. “Brother, I’m thinking of taking a trip up the mountain in the next couple of days. If you come with me and we take it down, you’ll get a share of this Bear Gall. If you don’t come, and I get this Xiong Ba, I’ll bring you back some meat.”
“I’m not going!” Gu Yang refused Zhao Jun’s kind offer without a moment’s hesitation. He needed money, but he didn’t have the courage to face a bear. He was afraid that the moment the bear roared, he’d wet his pants again. If that happened, it wouldn’t be right for him to take a share of the Bear Gall.
“Brother Jun,” Gu Yang said to Zhao Jun, “That Black Bear is below 42 Forest Class, at the foot of Zhaoshu Ridge.”
“A Black Bear?” Zhao Jun was surprised. “I thought you said it was a Big Bear Dominator?” he quickly asked.
Hearing Zhao Jun’s words, it was Gu Yang’s turn to be stunned. Blinking and frowning, he said in confusion, “I never said it was a Big Bear Dominator.”
Zhao Jun looked at Gu Yang and asked, “Brother, how big did that Black Bear look to you?”
Recalling the black bear he had seen yesterday, Gu Yang swallowed hard and said with difficulty, “It must have been seven or eight hundred pounds!”
“What?” Hearing this, Zhao Jun let out a cry of surprise. “That’s bullshit,” he said in disbelief. “There’s no such thing as a Black Bear that big.”