Rumination, also known as chewing the cud.
It's a behavioral trait unique to herbivores like cattle and roe deer. Essentially, after eating for a while, they bring up partially digested food from their stomachs, chew it again, and then swallow it.
The reason Zhao Jun accused Black Tiger of "chewing the cud" was because of what happened earlier when they were eating bear meat in the mountains. The dog had gulped down four pieces of bear meat, then run off to a spot away from the other dogs, where it spat all the meat back out to savor it slowly.
Zhao Jun knew this had nothing to do with actual rumination. Black Tiger was just being greedy and possessive of its food.
In his two lifetimes, Zhao Jun had never seen such a character.
Unlike Black Tiger, who was stuffed to the gills, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu hadn't eaten lunch in the mountains. So, after Wang Meilan finished boiling the water and preparing the Bear Gall, she heated up some leftovers for them. She wanted them to have a little something to tide them over, since it was already three in the afternoon and dinnertime wasn't far off.
After they ate, Li Baoyu went home, and Zhao Jun went to his room to sleep. 'If I'm not mistaken,' he thought, 'Zhao Guofeng probably asked Han Shang to check on Mrs. Elder Jiang. Even if I go find him now, he won't be able to come. Better to wait until tonight to get him to give the dogs their shots.'
Zhao Jun hadn't been asleep for long when he was startled awake by barking dogs. He sat up on his bed and glanced out the window, then heard a noise from the outer room. It was Wang Meilan heading outside.
Seeing that his mother had gone to handle it, Zhao Jun lay back down, hoping to fall asleep again while he was still drowsy.
But just as Zhao Jun was drifting off, Wang Meilan entered his room. She came to the edge of his bed and called softly, "Son, son!"
"Mom, what is it?"
Zhao Jun opened his eyes to see Wang Meilan beaming at him. In her hand was a thick stack of banknotes, about forty or fifty of them.
Zhao Jun immediately understood. "Did Uncle Zhao send the money?" he asked.
"Yep," Wang Meilan said with a smile. "He had Jinshan deliver it."
Zhao Jun threw off the thin blanket, got out of bed, and said to Wang Meilan, "Mom, please split the money. Keep one share for our family, send one to Uncle Li's family, and give the last share to me. I'll take it to Brother Long."
"You got it!" This was something Wang Meilan excelled at. After a quick mental calculation, she counted out sixteen of the banknotes and placed them by Zhao Jun's pillow. Then, she pulled a five-yuan bill and a two-yuan bill from her pocket, adding them to the sixteen ten-yuan notes she had just set aside.
Zhao Jun took the money, put on a cloth shirt, slipped into his cloth shoes, and left the house.
It was almost four-thirty. A cool breeze swept through the logging village as the sun began its slow descent.
Zhao Jun strolled leisurely toward Wang Dalong's house, but he stopped abruptly just after making a right turn.
Tucked away between the Sun Family's earthen wall and a large willow tree, right around the corner, were two people.
A man and a woman. The woman was Jiang Xiaolan, the widow of Sun Big Chin, who lived right there. And the man was none other than Wang Dalong, the very person Zhao Jun was on his way to find.
The wall formed a sharp corner, with Zhao Jun on one side and the pair on the other. Leaning against the wall, Zhao Jun could hear them muttering to each other.
"My dear," he heard Wang Dalong say, "I have to apologize. I couldn't get that Black Bear paw for you."
"Oh?" The moment Jiang Xiaolan spoke, the sound of her voice made Zhao Jun frown. It was all put-on and affected. In modern terms, you'd call it cutesy and coquettish.
Jiang Xiaolan said, "You promised me yesterday, so why the change of heart today? Did you give it to some other girl? Some pretty young wife, perhaps?"
"Heh heh…" Wang Dalong chuckled appeasingly. "Now, what are you talking about, my dear? There's no young wife. Let me tell you, I was at the Village Office today and saw Mrs. Elder Jiang. She looked so pitiful… my heart went out to her. I just couldn't bear it, so I told Zhao Jun and Baoyu to leave all the Black Bear paws for the old woman."
'Unbelievable,' Zhao Jun thought. 'He's taking all the credit for my good deed.'
"Oh, my!" Jiang Xiaolan gave Wang Dalong a playful pat on the chest and said with a laugh, "You're quite the softie, aren't you?"
"Heh heh…" Wang Dalong chuckled. "Well, you know I've always been good to you, right?"
Jiang Xiaolan shot him a look, her eyes darting thoughtfully. "Well, if you put it that way… if I needed something, would you have to help me too?"
Hearing this, Wang Dalong leaned in closer to Jiang Xiaolan until their shoulders were touching. With a sly grin, he asked, "And how would you like me to help you?"
Jiang Xiaolan nudged him with her shoulder, creating a little space between them. She glanced left and right, and seeing they were alone, she said, "My son's about to start junior high. A growing boy like that will eat you out of house and home, and his father… well, he's been dead a long time. I was hoping you could lend me a hand."
"Say no more," Wang Dalong laughed. "Your son is my son, isn't he? When Sun Big Chin was alive, we were as close as brothers. Now that he's gone, it's my duty to help him by taking care of you and the boy!"
As he spoke, Wang Dalong edged closer and closer to Jiang Xiaolan. This time, she didn't pull away. In a low voice, she asked, "If you help me, will your wife be okay with it?"
"I'm a grown man. You think I'm afraid of her?" Wang Dalong cocked an eyebrow and gave a crooked smirk. He made a promise: "The village is giving me a reward for killing that Black Bear. When I get it, I'll give you fifty yuan. You and our son can use it for now."
"Oh, that's wonderful."
"Wonderful, is it?" Wang Dalong gave a smarmy grin, bringing his face close to hers. "I'm being so good to you, and you won't even invite me in for a drink of water?"
"Not today," Jiang Xiaolan said. "My son's home. Wait until he leaves for school tomorrow morning. You can come then."