Then, Black Tiger clamped its jaws shut, tilted its head back, and with a single movement of its throat, the meat was gone.
Seeing Lin Xiangshun staring at it, Black Tiger wagged its tail vigorously, as if cheering him on to cut more meat faster.
Lin Xiangshun stopped cutting. Instead, he turned his head in astonishment to look at Zhao Jun. "This dog doesn't chew its meat?" he asked.
"Heh!" Zhao Jun let out a cold laugh. He took two steps to stand before Black Tiger and gave it the piece of meat he had just cut for San Pang. Then, he turned to Lin Xiangshun. "Second Brother, let me show you something truly incredible!"
Lin Xiangshun was still a bit baffled. He watched as Black Tiger gulped down the meat in two bites, then trotted off, tail wagging, back to its doghouse.
It stopped in front of the doghouse, stood still, and lowered its head until its muzzle was near the ground. Then, with no visible effort, its throat simply twitched. One, two, three, four—four palm-sized, finger-thick pieces of bear meat slid out of its mouth one after another.
Lin Xiangshun, Zhao Youcai, Wang Meilan, Zhang Yuanmin: "..."
Just then, Li Dayong, having just delivered a small basin of bear meat to the neighbors, hopped back over the wall. He found the yard full of people, all staring dumbfounded at Black Tiger as it slowly and deliberately chewed its food in front of the Zhao family home.
Li Dayong asked, "What's everyone looking at?"
The first to snap out of it was Wang Meilan. She had heard Zhao Jun mention once that this dog could regurgitate. Seeing it today, she thought, 'It seems even more incredible than an old ox.'
Zhang Yuanmin wasn't a hunter, so he just found it peculiar. But Zhao Youcai and Lin Xiangshun, both seasoned hunters, were utterly dumbfounded and speechless for a long time.
'This is terrifying!'
In all their years of hunting, neither of them had ever seen a dog like this.
Zhao Jun, on the other hand, was unfazed. He cut off two pieces of meat for White Dragon and Little Bear, then two smaller pieces for Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon.
Many hands make light work. After the Black Bear was skinned and butchered, Zhao Youcai started distributing the meat among the families.
Just then, Zhang Yuanmin whispered to Zhao Jun, "Brother, do you think Gu Yang is too embarrassed to come get his share of the meat?"
"Yeah." Zhao Jun nodded, then said to Zhao Youcai, "Dad, set aside a share for Gu Yang. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have gotten this Black Bear today."
Hearing this, Zhao Youcai immediately replied, "I won't forget. I've already set his share aside. I'm even giving him a Bear's Paw."
Earlier, while everyone was working, the conversation turned to how Zhao Jun had managed to take down the Black Bear so early in the morning. Zhao Jun had started to recount Gu Yang's "glorious deeds."
But he was only halfway through the story when Zhang Yuanmin stopped him. Zhang Yuanmin argued that Gu Yang's actions were the fruit of their collective wisdom. Although Gu Yang had failed, he represented the unyielding spirit of generations of Mountain Runners and their fearless courage in challenging the overlords of the forest.
Therefore, in Zhang Yuanmin's eyes, Gu Yang's image should be a positive and inspiring one.
So, Zhang Yuanmin began to vividly embellish the tale, emphasizing Gu Yang's cleverness and wisdom.
After a while, Zhao Youcai couldn't take it anymore. With a wave of his hand, he cut Zhang Yuanmin off. "Oh, give me a break! When we were skinning the Black Bear just now, its head reeked of piss. Did he piss himself from fright? Did he get piss all over the bear's head?"
As soon as Zhao Youcai said this, Zhang Yuanmin instantly fell silent. Zhao Jun, standing nearby, grinned and gave his old man a thumbs-up.
Seeing this, Lin Xiangshun, Li Dayong, and Li Baoyu, along with Li Ruhai who was peeking over the wall to listen in on the fun, all roared with laughter.
Just then, Wang Meilan came out of the house and called out, "Everything's cleaned up! Everyone hurry inside and eat! Nobody's leaving, you're all eating here. We're having chicken!"
"Auntie, such a great meal?" Lin Xiangshun didn't stand on ceremony, grinning as he walked toward the house. "Killing a chicken this early in the morning, too," he added.
"Great, my ass!" Zhao Youcai grumbled. "The black dog killed the chicken. It'd be a waste not to eat it, wouldn't it?"
"Heh heh!" Lin Xiangshun laughed. "So, we have the dog to thank for this chicken dinner, do we?"
Everyone roared with laughter.
With even the father-son duo, Li Dayong and Li Baoyu, joining them, one chicken definitely wouldn't be enough. Fortunately, Wang Meilan had thought ahead. While the men were skinning the Black Bear, she had added mushrooms and glass noodles to the chicken stew.
The glass noodles had been soaked overnight, originally intended for a cabbage soup this morning. Now, there was no cabbage soup, but the noodles had found their purpose.
The chicken stewed in a large pot with white rice steaming in a rack above it. Wang Meilan also prepared a smashed cucumber salad. Then, she dished out some food and took the two little girls to eat in Zhao Jun's room.
As she passed through the outer room, Wang Meilan glanced casually out the door and saw Li Ruhai jogging away from his house.
'That boy, why isn't he eating?' Wang Meilan muttered to herself before heading to the west room to eat with her two daughters.
In the east room, Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong sat on the heated kang, with Lin Xiangshun and Zhang Yuanmin seated at the low table on either side. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu sat on stools on the floor below.
Since it was still morning, no one was drinking. They just ate and chatted.
Then, Lin Xiangshun brought up the earlier topic again, but this time he addressed Zhao Youcai and Li Dayong.
He said, "Second Uncle, Uncle Li, this new Farm Director Dou... he's not going to be easy to deal with."
Hearing this, Zhao Youcai's hand, which was stirring the glass noodles with his chopsticks, paused. Beside him, Li Dayong shook his head slightly. "Whoever comes with such fanfare rarely comes with good intentions."
Li Dayong was an "educated man" and now a cadre with real authority, so he knew more than Zhao Youcai. He looked at Zhao Jun and said, "Xiaojun, tomorrow's Monday. He's calling a meeting with your inspection team and our dispatch team. No telling what kind of stunt he's planning to pull."
"I know." Zhao Jun had the same feeling. Normally, if the Forest Farm had some new work arrangement, all sorts of rumors would be flying around long before any official announcement was made.
That gave everyone time to prepare.
But this Farm Director Dou was posturing like he was about to make a big move, yet not a single rumor had leaked.
'Now that's impressive.'
The problem was, Zhao Jun didn't know anything about this Farm Director Dou either.
In his past life, after Secretary Zhang retired, Zhou Chunming had remained the production director, while the top position was filled by someone "parachuted in" from the outside.
But now, things had changed. Zhou Chunming had been promoted to the top spot, and the role of production director was being filled by this Farm Director Dou, an appointee from the Forestry Bureau.
This was something that hadn't happened in his previous life, so even Zhao Jun couldn't figure out this man's game.
...
It was Sunday, a day off for the Forest Farm. After the meal, everyone headed home. As Zhang Yuanmin was leaving, Zhao Jun gave him two portions of bear meat. One was for him, and the other, which included the Bear's Paw, was for Gu Yang.
But as Zhang Yuanmin was carrying the bear meat, before he even reached Gu Yang's house, he could hear people in the village gossiping. They were saying that Gu Yang had tried to mess with the Black Bear that morning, got chased up a tree, and was so scared he'd pissed his pants.
When Zhang Yuanmin arrived at Gu Yang's house, he saw Gu Yang running out from the outhouse in the southwest corner. Zhang Yuanmin called out to him from a distance.
"Gu Yang!"
"Brother Zhang!" Gu Yang seemed to be in low spirits, looking completely dejected.
Zhang Yuanmin was in a hurry to get home, so he put the burlap sack with the bear meat down at Gu Yang's feet. "This is the Black Bear meat Brother Jun set aside for you," he said. "There's a Bear's Paw in there, too."
Then Zhang Yuanmin added, "Your Brother Jun gave you a generous portion. There must be over thirty pounds of meat."
"Okay, thank Brother Jun," Gu Yang said. "And thank you, Brother Zhang!"
Seeing Gu Yang's lack of enthusiasm, Zhang Yuanmin thought for a moment, then quickly added, "That Bear Gall has to be air-dried in the shade before the big shops will buy it; otherwise, they can't weigh it properly. You can have Liu Tiezui help you find a buyer. If that doesn't work out and you need cash in a hurry, I've got some. You can take what you need from me for now."
'Such is the mutual admiration between great minds!'
But upon hearing this, Gu Yang's face crumpled. "What's the point of an introduction?" he said miserably. "I don't know how it happened, but the whole village knows I got so scared by the Black Bear this morning that I pissed my pants. Now there are even rumors that I have some kind of medical problem and wet myself all the time."
Zhang Yuanmin: "..."
Zhao Jun heard about these rumors himself that afternoon when he was on a date with Ma Ling by the river. He just smiled and didn't say anything.
The next day, Zhao Jun went to work as usual. But just as Li Dayong had predicted, the new Farm Director Dou was, indeed, up to something.