Chapter 572: Chapter 438: The Zhao Father and Son’s Overt and Covert Struggles
That evening, Zhao Jun, Li Baoyu, and Jie Chen went to Zhang Yuanmin’s house for dinner.
Because they were braising a Bear’s Paw, the inside of Zhang Yuanmin’s house was as hot as a steamer.
So, Zhang Yuanmin set up a table in the courtyard, and they all ate there together.
There were three meat dishes: braised Bear’s Paw, stir-fried bear meat with peppers, and miscellaneous fish stewed in soybean paste.
Zhang Yuanmin had set the nets for these fish the day before yesterday and had gone to the river specifically to retrieve them this afternoon.
The nets brought in all sorts of small, miscellaneous fish, which Yang Yufeng gutted and scaled. After a quick fry, she stewed them in a thick soybean paste.
This cooking method made the small fish so tender that even the heads and bones could be eaten.
There’s an old saying: radishes in the first heat, cabbage in the second.
The cabbage in the fields hadn’t formed heads yet; they were all crisp, watery, large leaves.
You’d tear off a large cabbage leaf, place a scoop of rice on it, top the rice with a small, sauce-coated fish, and then sprinkle on some torn scallion greens and cilantro.
Then, you’d roll up the cabbage leaf and take a big bite. This kind of wrap had both meat and vegetables, and its aroma was truly indescribable.
Zhao Jun didn’t drink, so he focused on heartily eating the wraps. Little Lingdang, who had already finished her meal, made three trips to the vegetable garden, picking only the largest cabbage leaves and tearing them off for Zhao Jun.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yuanmin, Li Baoyu, and Jie Chen were enthusiastically toasting each other, drinking with great cheer.
It wasn’t until they were tipsy that Zhao Jun stopped them. After all, they still had to hunt Fragrant Musk Deer tomorrow, and drinking too much would mess things up.
The three of them listened to Zhao Jun. After he spoke, the pace of their drinking slowed down.
Jie Chen loved the Bear’s Paw. According to him, he’d always wanted to try it but never had the chance.
Hearing this, Zhao Jun and the others urged him to eat more. In truth, once cooked, it tasted a lot like pig’s trotters. Compared to the Bear’s Paw, Zhao Jun and his friends preferred the stir-fried bear meat with peppers.
By the time everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, the sky had already grown dark. But the group’s conversation was growing more and more animated, so Yang Yufeng hung a kerosene lamp in the courtyard and brewed some tea for the four men.
When the tea was also finished, Zhao Jun prepared to take Li Baoyu and Jie Chen home. Before leaving, Zhao Jun said to Zhang Yuanmin, “Big Brother, we’re not taking the dogs tomorrow, so you don’t need to come to my place. Jie Chen and I will come to pick you up at six-thirty.”
“Alright,” Zhang Yuanmin replied. But then Li Baoyu sighed and said, “I have to work tomorrow, so I can’t join the Fragrant Musk Deer hunt.” As he spoke, he slapped his thigh in frustration. “I’ve never even hunted a Fragrant Musk Deer before.”
Hearing this, Zhao Jun laughed. “Brother, there are plenty of things we’ve never hunted.”
“That’s true!” Li Baoyu nodded and began counting on his fingers. “Big Claw… we’ve trapped one, but never hunted one. Wild Leopards, Red Dogs… we’ve never hunted those either.”
As soon as Li Baoyu finished speaking, Zhao Jun added, “We’ve never hunted a suspended sheep, either.”
“A suspended sheep?” Li Baoyu was taken aback. He had heard the same childhood stories about them as Zhao Jun, but neither of them had ever seen one.
Just then, Zhang Yuanmin, who was fanning himself with a cattail fan, let out a hearty laugh. After capturing everyone’s attention, he pointed his fan toward the distant mountains.
“Brother!” Zhang Yuanmin said to Zhao Jun. “If you want to hunt a suspended sheep, you have to go to Bluestone Cliff.”
“Whoa!” Zhao Jun exclaimed, and quickly asked, “Big Brother, you know about it too?”
“Mhm!” Zhang Yuanmin lowered his fan and nodded. “When my dad was alive, he trapped a suspended sheep.”
“What?” Zhao Jun was instantly energized. “Uncle Zhang knew how to set up pole traps?”
“He did.” Zhang Yuanmin blinked a couple of times, recalling. “When my old man was alive, he trapped deer, live ones. He even went up to Xing’an Ridge and trapped an Anta Han. Hmmm…”
Zhang Yuanmin frowned in thought for a moment before saying, “I can’t remember which year it was… my head’s a little fuzzy after drinking. But I do know the production team over at Double Horse Rack asked my dad to help them trap a suspended sheep.”
“Double Horse Rack?” Hearing the name, understanding dawned on Zhao Jun. He asked Zhang Yuanmin, “So, did Uncle Zhang manage to trap one for them?”
Zhang Yuanmin shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?” Li Baoyu asked. “Either he trapped one, or he didn’t. It’s that simple.”
Zhang Yuanmin glanced at Li Baoyu, then picked up his large enamel mug and took a sip of tea before saying, “When my old man came back, my old lady and I both asked him, but he wouldn’t say. He just told us not to ask.”
Hearing this, Zhao Jun understood even more clearly. Fearing Li Baoyu would press the issue, he asked Zhang Yuanmin, “Big Brother, do you know how to set those pole traps?”
Then, afraid Zhang Yuanmin might not have understood clearly after drinking, he added, “The kind for trapping suspended sheep.”
“I do!”
As Zhang Yuanmin nodded, Zhao Jun’s face lit up. He grinned and said, “Big Brother, you’re amazing! You even know how to do that.”
“Yeah,” Li Baoyu added. “Big Brother, you’ve really been holding out on us!”
The praise for his hidden talents hit the spot. Zhang Yuanmin chuckled, but then Zhao Jun asked, “So, Big Brother, how come you’ve never trapped one of those things? I heard trapping a suspended sheep earns a lot more money than harvesting deer for medicine.”
“Sigh.” Zhang Yuanmin let out a breath. “Those things are tough to get. Sometimes you can wait a whole year and barely get one. If I relied solely on trapping them, my family would starve.”
“Big Brother,” Zhao Jun asked again, “what if we gave you a hand?”
“Not now,” Zhang Yuanmin said. “For hunting suspended sheep, the season of rustling leaves is no good; the slightest sound and they vanish. The snowy season is no good either. Roe deer can fly across the snow, let alone one of them.”
Hearing this, Zhao Jun instantly understood and finished the thought, “So we’d have to wait until the grass hides the ankles?”
“Right!” Zhang Yuanmin nodded. “You have to wait until the grass hides the ankles, when it grows as tall as a man. You can set any trap you want then, and the suspended sheep won’t see it. That’s the only time you can snare one.”