The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1920 Dew River Calls to Invite You to Hunt Wolves
Wang Qiang walked hurriedly, and the sounds of his body scraping against tree branches and his footsteps sliding down the slope as he went downhill prompted Erhei and Bailong to both shout.

Upon hearing the dog bark, Xie Chen, Zhao Jinhui, Li Ruhai, and Ma Yang, who were chatting, all jumped up and, carrying sticks, quickly moved toward Xing San.

At this moment, Xing San looked serious, his gray eyebrows furrowed, staring at the direction of the slope.

Just as everyone was on high alert, Wang Qiang appeared in their sight.

"Qiangzi?" Xing San's heart skipped a beat when he saw it was Wang Qiang. Although it wasn't an outsider, seeing how anxious Wang Qiang was, Xing San assumed something serious had happened.

Xie Chen and the other three thought the same thing, and they hurriedly stepped forward.

At this moment, Xing San had already helped Wang Qiang up, ignoring Wang Qiang's shortness of breath, and asked, "What's wrong, Qiangzi?"

"Brother... Brother..." Wang Qiang's chest heaved, and before he could catch his breath, he grabbed Xie Chen's arm and said, "Xiao... Xiao Chen, hurry up and get the tools."

"Uncle," Xie Chen said, lifting his semi-automatic rifle, "is this thing not working properly?"

"No..." Wang Qiang couldn't catch his breath, and he shook his head anxiously.

Seeing Wang Qiang shake his head, Zhao Jinhui, who was holding a gun in one hand and a stick in the other, shouted, "Uncle, there are only five of them! We're not afraid of them even if they come!"

Zhao Jinhui got more and more excited as he spoke, shouting, "Isn't his name Bai Sanzhi? Today I'll break off the three fingers he has left!"

Zhao Jinhui has never had a valuable position within the Zhao family gang. He's not good at hunting, he's not good at scavenging, and he's usually not given the chance to drive.

Although no one said anything, Zhao Jinhui always felt that he was a burden and a freeloader in the small group.

It wasn't until the Pang and Wang gangs raided the Zhao gang's shack at night that Zhao Jinhui suddenly realized his value within the team.

That night, he swung his big stick like a tiger descending a mountain, and no one could withstand a blow from his staff.

So when they learned that there might be a conflict with the Bai family gang today, everyone else was worried, but Zhao Jinhui's fat face was full of excitement.

At this moment, Wang Qiang completely ignored Zhao Jinhui. After catching his breath, he said to Xie Chen, "I'll tell you to get the tools for scavenging in the mountains."

"Huh?" Xie Chen was taken aback and asked, puzzled, "What would you do with that thing?"

“The Bai family has opened their eyes again…” Wang Qiang was interrupted by Xing San before he could finish speaking: “Qiangzi, there are rules for climbing the mountain. We can’t just steal their clubs.”

"No, brother," Wang Qiang said, "The Bai family gang has left, leaving those bastards behind. We're not going to do anything wrong by going over there to carry them out, are we?"

“That’s not wrong,” Xing San replied, but then sensed something was amiss and quickly asked, “Wait, why did they leave after watching the club?”

"They're not just eyeing the club, they're eyeing the bear too," Wang Qiang said. "It seems to be Big Bear, what does that White Three-Fingers' second son call... what was it again?"

“Bai Zhian,” Li Ruhai replied. Wang Qiang nodded and said, “Yes, it was him. He was so scared by the big bear that he ran away. When he stepped over the fallen tree, he didn’t step properly and the branch that was sticking up scraped his testicles.”

"Huh?" Everyone found Wang Qiang's words quite absurd, except for Li Ruhai who laughed and said, "It's over."

Upon hearing Li Ruhai's words, everyone looked at him suspiciously. Ma Yang asked directly, "What did you say? What's over?"

Li Ruhai chuckled and said, "I said Bai Zhian is finished. His wife wanted to have another child with him, but she won't be able to this time."

Hearing Li Ruhai's words, Ma Yang curled his lip, finding these trivial family matters quite boring.

"You know everything." Wang Qiang smiled and glanced at Li Ruhai, then said to Xiao Chen, "Hurry up, Xiao Chen, grab the tools and let's go!"

Jie Chen agreed and ran back to the shack, which was only a dozen meters away from them. Jie Chen quickly came out with a gray cloth cover.

"Let's go!" Wang Qiang called out with great enthusiasm, and Xie Chen, Zhao Jinhui, Li Ruhai, and Ma Yang followed him.

"Hey? You all should leave!" Seeing that the situation was not right, Xing San decisively stopped the group, and then left Xie Chen and Zhao Jinhui to guard Zhao Jun and protect Qipin Ye with him.

After working until after 6 p.m., Wang Qiang, Li Ruhai, and Ma Yang returned with steamed buns.

At this point, Zhao Jun also finished his work. This seventh-grade ginseng king only had two main rootlets. Zhao Jun had carried out one yesterday, and hadn't finished carrying the other one today, but he would be done by tomorrow.

Inside the shack, Wang Qiang opened the hammer-shaped steamed bun and showed Zhao Jun the fifth-grade ginseng they had brought.

This ginseng has a three-section stem and an ingot-shaped body; its condition is truly excellent.

Zhao Jun didn't have any particular thoughts about who owned the ginseng seedling.

That's how things are with Shan Cai. Even though the Bai family gang was just one step away from taking the ginseng seedling with a deer antler key, if they suddenly withdrew, the ginseng would no longer belong to them.

Zhao Jun waved his hand, signaling Wang Qiang to rewrap the ginseng, and then laughed, "Uncle, when Bai Sanzhi and the others come tomorrow and don't see this ginseng, they'll scold you."

"Who are you cursing?" Wang Qiang laughed. "Before leaving, Ru Hai filled all the soil back up, and then dug up some grass with soil from quite a distance and covered it up. When Bai Sanzhi comes tomorrow, he'll think that this long-legged idiot has run away."

"Hahaha..." Everyone burst into laughter upon hearing this. Zhao Jun looked at Ru Hai and said, "Ru Hai, what... how is your brain structured?"

Zhao Jun wanted to say that Li Ruhai was quite gudu (a derogatory term for someone who is unreliable), but then he thought, who in the entire Yong'an forest area could be more gudu than him and Zhao Youcai? So, Zhao Jun changed his approach.

"Hehe..." Li Ruhai grinned and said, "Brother, I've thought about it. When they come tomorrow, if they want to see which piece has been poked or dug up, they'll have to guess that we're nearby, and they might have to look for this piece."

I restored that place to its original state, making it look like nothing had been disturbed. Except for the rice seedlings planted next to Old Bai's, which had been pulled up, I replanted them exactly as they were.

Upon hearing Li Ruhai's words, Zhao Jun couldn't help but give him a thumbs up and laughed, "You really are a leader."

"Hahaha..." Amidst Li Ruhai's laughter, Ma Yang raised a question, saying, "Brother-in-law, can a stick really run?"

When Ma Yang asked him about this, Zhao Jun frowned slightly. He had never encountered a runaway bandit in his two lifetimes of hunting, but he had heard people say that they had personally experienced such a thing more than once.

Just then, Xing San came in carrying a small basin of willow shoots and confidently interjected, "They really can run; I've seen them run."

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Xing San, and then they heard Lao Shan Gouzi say, "I was about the same age as Xiao Hong back then. My dad, my mom, my second brother and I went up the mountain to pick autumn pine cones and stuff."

My dad and my second brother were in the ditch, and my mom and I were on the edge of the ditch. Then my mom was watching the corn stalks. She pulled me over and told me to watch them. Then she called my dad over.

I was little then, and I was obedient. I stood there motionless, the corn stalks right in front of my big toe. When they came over, I heard a noise, turned around, glanced at them, and in that short time, the corn stalks were gone.

As he spoke, Xing San placed the small basin he was holding on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and then continued, "From the moment my mother saw that stalk of grass until they came over, we stood there without moving an inch, and the stalk of grass was gone. Can you believe how frightening that was!"

After listening to Xing San's words, Li Ruhai nodded and said, "I've heard Old Xu from our village say that the club has long legs and can run away, and if you don't keep an eye on it, it will disappear without a trace."

"Huh?" At this moment, Wang Qiang waved his hand, drawing everyone's attention to him, and then said, "Before the meeting in Lingnan, I heard the Wu family gang talk about it. They said that about twenty years ago, Old Wu sent his leader to the mountains to watch over a large, seven-leafed sapling."

He hurriedly led the men to kowtow, and then the frame was set up and the club and locks were tied up. When they were pulled apart, the big club looked like a damn white radish.

Just then, one of the ginseng gang's youngest members said, "This ginseng has become an immortal, he's bound to run away!" Upon hearing this, Old Wu, the gang leader, jumped up and slapped the youngest member across the face.

When he turned around and picked up the club again, something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Uncle?" Ma Yang asked. Wang Qiang continued, "He wasn't paying attention when he touched that stick and felt it was bulging. Then he touched it with his hand and oh my, the stick was just a layer of skin!"

Wang Qiang's story sounded even more mysterious, and Xing San said upon hearing this, "So that idiot just ran away?"

"Yeah, right." Wang Qiang nodded, then Zhao Jinhui pressed on, "And then what?"

“That guy’s done for. More than ten of them from the ginseng gang got a beating from that kid. They almost beat the shit out of him.” After saying something rather unserious, Wang Qiang continued, “Later I heard that Old Wu took the head of the ginseng and the skin down the mountain to sell, and he got eight hundred yuan for it.”

At this point, Wang Qiang grinned and said, "Eight hundred yuan twenty years ago, that was a lot of money!"

"Oh my god!" Hearing Wang Qiang's words, Ma Yang blinked and muttered, "I have to be more careful in the future and not talk nonsense when I go up the mountain."

"Just say it." As soon as Ma Yang finished speaking, Li Ruhai pointed at him and laughed, "If you're going to spout nonsense, we'll beat the shit out of you, and we'll consider it a clean slate."

"Get the hell out of here!" Ma Yang glared at Li Ruhai and raised his fist, saying, "I'll beat the shit out of you first."

"Wang! Wang!"

Suddenly, two barks from a dog interrupted the conversation.

The dog barked twice, and everyone guessed that Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu had returned.

Sure enough, not long after, Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu each carried a basin into the shack.

As soon as he came in, Zhang Yuanmin asked, "Brothers, have you eaten yet?"

"We haven't eaten yet, we're waiting for you two," Zhao Jun said. "Uncle San hasn't cooked any dishes."

"What are you cooking?" Zhang Yuanmin craned his neck to look at the willow shoots in the small helmet, then put the basin he was holding on the kang (a heated brick bed) and said, "My aunt made these buns. She insisted that I bring them here, otherwise Baoyu and I would have come back long ago."

As he spoke, Zhang Yuanmin lifted the lid, revealing a series of large steamed buns.

“Here’s another one.” Li Baoyu stepped forward, put down the basin he was carrying, and lifted the lid, saying, “Mine is made with wild boar and scallions, and Brother Zhang’s is made with chives and eggs.”

Seeing the steamed buns, everyone eagerly grabbed some. Even though they were cold, they ate them without a second thought.

After eating one steamed bun, Xing San started cooking vegetables.

I cut up the wild boar meat I had saved in the morning and stir-fried it with willow shoots. I cooked most of it and filled two small bowls.

This dish is simple, but it has both meat and vegetables and is very flavorful. It's absolutely delicious when you roll it up in a pancake with scallions and soybean paste!

Xing San and his group sat around the makeshift table that Zhang Yuanmin had nailed together, drinking and eating meat, while Zhao Jun ate a pancake by himself.

"Brother Zhang," Xie Chen said to Zhang Yuanmin, "Shall we go to the pillbox again tonight? We can take down Big Bear today."

"What?" Zhang Yuanmin was taken aback upon hearing this, then laughed and asked Xie Chen, "How did you know you could take down Da Xiong Ba? Are you a fortune teller?"

"I can't predict the future," Xie Chen said with a smile, recounting the Bai family gang's ordeal to Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu.

Upon hearing this, Zhang and Li's eyes lit up simultaneously. Just as Jie Chen had said, they might actually encounter Big Bear tonight.

But their joy lasted only five seconds before Zhao Jun said, "Alright, nobody's going tonight, let's just leave it at that."

"Huh?" Zhang Yuanmin and the others were all taken aback, and they looked at Zhao Jun in confusion.

Zhao Jun put down his chopsticks and said, "I'll be done by noon tomorrow. We've gathered enough meat to last us a few days. Let's just stay calm tonight, don't cause any trouble, and go home as soon as we're done tomorrow."

Under normal circumstances, as long as Zhao Jun speaks, no one within the Zhao family gang will have any objections.

Having had his fill of bear meat yesterday, Zhang Yuanmin was now thinking about killing a bear again. He immediately volunteered to Zhao Jun, saying, "Brother, we don't lack meat, but that big bear has bear gallbladders. How much does one bear gallbladder cost?"

After saying this, Zhang Yuanmin noticed Zhao Jun frowning and assumed Zhao Jun was worried about their safety, so he quickly added, "Brother, don't worry, we're in the shack, quite far from that den. Even if Big Bear comes with a rifle, Bao Yu and I, with our two semi-automatic rifles, can easily take it down with our bare hands..."

As soon as Zhang Yuanmin uttered the words "hands-on" (meaning to grab or pinch), Li Baoyu next to him immediately nudged him with his elbow.

Zhang Yuanmin looked at Li Baoyu, puzzled, only to see Li Baoyu wink at him. Li Baoyu meant, "If you say that, my brother won't let us go."

Sure enough, Zhao Jun put down the pancake in his hand and said to Zhang Yuanmin with a serious expression, "Brother, no one is allowed to go today. Everyone stay in the shack and sleep."

"Ah..." Seeing Zhao Jun's serious expression, Zhang Yuanmin fell silent. At this moment, Zhao Jun said, "The ginseng we're carrying now is too old. All the messy tendrils have fallen off, leaving only two main tendrils, one on each side. Its quality is unparalleled. This one ginseng seedling is enough for all of us families. Let's not take any unnecessary risks; it's not worth it!"

"Brother, I know." At this moment, Zhang Yuanmin realized that he had said the wrong thing. Knowing that Zhao Jun would definitely not let him go to the garrison again, Zhang Yuanmin immediately said, "You decide, we will all listen to you."

With Zhao Jun's prestige, he could easily suppress all discordant voices within the Zhao family gang, but he couldn't suppress his father's restless heart.

Yong'an Village, Zhao Family Compound.

Tonight's dinner was quite sumptuous: braised wild boar ribs, boneless meat stir-fried with scallions, stir-fried mixed vegetables, stir-fried wild boar heart with garlic sprouts, as well as scrambled eggs, peanuts, and stir-fried cabbage with wood ear mushrooms.

Despite the delicious food on the table, Zhao Youcai had no appetite. He ate only a few peanuts before drinking alone. Every two or three sips, he would look out the window at the distant mountains.

When he heard Xu Chunyan and the others at the woman's table discussing the venison, bear meat, and wild boar meat that the Zhao family had brought back in the past few days, Zhao Youcai's restless heart became even more agitated.

Just then, the telephone rang in the west cabin.

The phone at the Zhao family's house is answered by Zhao Jun if he's home, and by Wang Meilan if he's not. Only when neither mother nor daughter is home does Zhao Youcai get a call.

Wang Meilan put down her chopsticks, walked to the west hut, answered the phone, and said, "This is the Xishantun headquarters."

After Wang Meilan finished speaking, she heard someone on the other end of the phone say, "Ah, hello, this is Zhang Xudong, the head of the security team at Lushuihe Forest Farm. My comrade-in-arms Zhou Chengguo asked me to call here, saying that I can find Team Leader Zhao Jun."