Reborn in 80: Starting with hunting in the mountains to get rich

Laughter filled the Li family's kang table. Li Ju'an made a steaming cup of malted milk powder for his mother, Song Lanhua, his sister, Li Xiao, and himself.

Malted milk powder is the ultimate luxury item. Even the Lu family in the village had to have their malted milk powder diluted with water and eaten with spoons under the watchful eye of their uncle. This left Lu Zhiqiang feeling unsatisfied, so every time his uncle wasn't looking, he and Lu Jinyang would secretly scoop out pieces of malted milk powder and eat them dry with spoons.

It tastes so good when you chew it dry!

Now, the three members of the Li family each have a steaming cup of thick malted milk powder, filling the air with its delicious aroma. Li Xiao smiles, taking small sips while blowing on it, sweetly calling out, "Brother."

Li Ju'an was so happy and delighted.

Song Lanhua, the mother, was reluctant to eat it. She only tasted a few bites and was about to give it to Li Ju'an when Li Ju'an frowned and called out to her.

"Mom, your son isn't going south. As long as your son is here, your skills will remain. From now on, during holidays, don't envy the Zhang and Wang families for having meat to eat. Our family will have meat at every meal from now on."

When Song Lanhua, the mother, smiled, Li Xiao smiled too.

Song Lanhua felt sorry for her son, so she kept the canned food and biscuits, giving only a little to Li Xiao and saving the rest for Li Ju'an to eat when he came back from hunting.

Before the opium firecrackers had fully started, Li Ju'an called out to his family, then wrapped himself tightly in a thick cotton coat and went to the mud house behind the old Taoist temple, the most remote place in the village.

That's the old house of Old Tao, the "eccentric" man in the village.

When Li Ju'an arrived at the Tao family's old house, the large smoke cannon had already appeared.

A whiteout occurred, snow accumulated in the village, and the strong winds swirled up the snow on the ground and the snow falling from the clouds, turning the ground and sky into a white expanse with extremely low visibility.

Braving the almost invisible blizzard, trudging through the deep snow, he finally found the hidden Tao family's old house by feeling his way to the back door of the old Taoist temple.

People in the Xingan Mountains all know the saying, "The wind lasts three days, then it stops." Winter winds don't blow for more than three days; they always stop after that.

After a "big smoke bubble" (a period of heavy snowfall), it's the best time for hunters to go up the mountain for winter hunting. If they're lucky, they might encounter wolves and bears, which will make things quite lively.

Li Ju'an was invited in by the widow of the Chen family. He was slightly taken aback when he saw her, and hadn't quite reacted yet.

The widow Chen lost her husband early in life and raised her two sons alone without remarrying. Now that her mother-in-law has passed away, her two sons have each married and moved to the county town. After taking care of her grandson in the county town for a few years, she found that she didn't get along with her eldest daughter-in-law and couldn't get used to living with her younger daughter-in-law, so she had to move back to the village to live alone.

But why would the widow of the Chen family be in the Tao family's old house?

The widow of the Chen family was old, kind-hearted, plump, very warm and talkative. Seeing the blizzard outside, she quickly called Li Ju'an inside to warm himself by the fire.

"You're looking for Old Tao? He's gone out to find a mule. This mule is honest, strong, fast, and can even walk on dark roads, but it's disobedient. It gets scared and runs away as soon as Big Smoke Cannon comes."

Li Ju'an warmed himself by the fire and looked around.

The Tao family's old house was just a mud house, not big but very clean and orderly. The silly roe deer had already been led into the house, leaving him speechless, so he just licked the deer's lips.

"Let me touch you, then I'll stew you."

The widow of the Chen family laughed and said, "You can mess with whoever you want, just don't mess with Old Tao's dogs, they're really fierce."

Li Ju'an looked around but couldn't find Lao Tao's dog. He only saw dog sleds.

In the Xingan Mountains, almost every household owns a sled, differing only in size. The basic design of a sled consists of four pieces of wood arranged in pairs in a grid pattern. Sleds are usually pulled by horses, dogs, sheep, or people. Horse-drawn sleds are larger and have shafts, and are typically used collectively by production teams to haul firewood, grain, manure, and people.

There are fewer sheep-drawn sleds and more human-drawn sleds. Human-drawn sleds are medium-sized, about one meter wide and one and a half meters long. A person pulls on a rope in front, making it very convenient to pull something.

But it seems that only Old Tao's family owns a dog-drawn sled.

The sled wasn't big, but it was wide enough that several dogs could pull it together, straining in one direction.

The widow of the Chen family was busy, and she kept talking.

"When Old Tao comes in later, young man, don't mention inviting him into the mountains. Old Tao is very averse to that."

"After he bombed Heixiazi, he retired from the business and stopped going into the mountains. He just became a dog commander and focused on training dogs every day. If anyone asked him to go into the mountains and be a gunner again, he would probably be so angry that he would jump up."

Li Ju'an drank the coarse tea handed to him by the widow of the Chen family. It was steaming hot and could warm the stomach, which surprised him.

"Aunt Chen, why did Master Tao retire from his life of crime?"

The widow of the Chen family was very talkative and briefly recounted what happened back then.

The last time Lao Tao went hunting in the mountains was ten years ago. He discovered a nest of black bears in a cave deep in the mountains. Early that morning, he took explosives and headed straight for the cave.

He carefully climbed up to the cave entrance, took out the prepared explosives, and carefully lit the fuse. Just then, an old black bear spotted him.

He was startled. Oh no! He had to run!

He tumbled and crawled down to the foot of the mountain, but unexpectedly, he brought the explosives down with him, and Old Black Bear also tumbled down.

Perhaps it was Old Tao's fate to survive. Old Black Bear had never seen smoking explosives before. Curious, he poked at the smoking explosives a couple of times, then grabbed them and ran into the cave.

boom!

As soon as it entered the cave, a loud explosion occurred, and the poor old black bear and its three children, a family of four, were all killed.

When Lao Tao looked at the blood-soaked Black Bear Cave and the groaning little black bear, tears streamed down his face. He was filled with regret, sadness, and guilt.

From then on, he retired from hunting and focused solely on training Qingchuan dogs, producing the renowned mountain-chasing dog, Dahu.

Then he focused on being a dog commander, gradually expanding his reputation as a dog trainer, and made a living by training hunting dogs.

Li Ju'an listened, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Old hunters have always had a rule in their trade: they don't kill fawns or pregnant doe deer about to give birth. This is to ensure an inexhaustible supply of fish; otherwise, depleting the pond would anger the mountain god.

Old Tao was an eccentric person who didn't communicate with others. If the widow of the Chen family hadn't brought it up, no one in the village would have known about it.

Later, many people still asked Lao Tao to hunt and act as a hunter, but he coldly refused them all. This led to Lao Tao's eccentric personality being described as something almost mythical by the villagers.

The villagers only knew that Old Tao was good at hunting, but they could no longer see his spirited appearance.

The widow of the Chen family sighed and warmed her hands by the kang (a heated brick bed): "The older Old Tao gets, the more he cries when he talks about these things from the past, and he smokes one pipe after another."

Li Ju'an also fell silent, imagining the remorse on Old Tao's face. It seemed that Old Tao was still immersed in the tragic scene of the hunt back then and was filled with regret.

At that moment, the door was opened.

Old Master Tao, with a dark and sullen face, entered the door.