Chapter 188 Past Events

“Kill Xiong Cangzi? Do you know where Xiong Cangzi is?”

Hearing what Uncle Zhao said, Xiao Tao next to him couldn’t help but asked excitedly without waiting for Yue Feng to respond.

To be honest, Yue Feng has killed quite a few bears this year since he got a gun. He still has at least several hundred kilograms of bear meat in reserve in the cellar at home, and this is after he sold some of it and distributed the rest.

However, these bears were not killed by Yue Feng and his team. Instead, they were brought back by Yue Feng after he heard the news or encountered them accidentally after others failed to kill the bears.

How to say this, there is some difference between killing an iceberg and actively killing a bear. In addition to hunting for valuable things such as bear meat and bear bile, the experience of hunting is also what hunters pursue.

He has never killed a serious murderer, so judging from his resume, he is indeed a little lacking in this respect.

However, Xiongcangzi is not like the jumping cat in the vegetable garden at the village entrance. As long as you want to find one, you can always catch a few in a day.

This thing was either encountered by chance due to good luck, or the person had been walking in the mountains and forests for many years and had a certain understanding of the large mountain animals in this area.

You don’t need to ask to know that Uncle Zhao definitely belongs to the latter category.

“You’re asking this question. I know better than the mountain god where there are animals within a radius of thirty miles!
It’s just a bear warehouse, but it’s still three hands holding the snails, steady and stable!” Uncle Zhao said with some pride.

“Well…you also have guns and dogs, and you knew it a long time ago, why didn’t you go and fight?” Xiaowu also came over and asked.

Uncle Zhao curled his lips and said, “I’m an old man. I live in the mountains on weekdays. It’s enough to have enough food and water. Why do I have to hunt so many preys?”

“To make money! A bear is worth a lot of money. Even if we only sell the gallbladder, we can get several hundred dollars! If…”

Xiaowu didn’t think there was anything wrong with the first half of his words, but he suddenly stopped halfway through.

The old man is alone in the mountain and never goes down the mountain. He rarely interacts with people living down the mountain. In this situation, it seems that there is no point in saving more money.

Uncle Zhao saw that Xiaowu had come to his senses and smiled: “Thinking it through? Then you have a pretty good understanding!

This mountain is not your mountain, nor is it my mountain, but a wealth shared by all living beings!

Hunters rely on hunting these wild animals for a living, which is really a helpless act. What’s the point of hunting these wild animals when I can have enough food and warm clothes?
I don’t have any children, no matter how much money I save, after a hundred years, I will just be a handful of dirt!”

Hearing this, Yue Feng nodded and said, “No wonder you are friends with Uncle Chen. Uncle Chen only hunts black-haired animals when he goes up the mountain to hunt. He never touches deer or roe deer!
I also heard him tell the story of hunting red deer during the famine in winter when he was young!”

“It seems that Chen Erguai treats you as his own child. We two old brothers haven’t mentioned these old things in more than ten years!
In previous years, he would come up the mountain to drink with me twice around the Qingming Festival and the National Day. This year, I waited for him for several days during the National Day, but he didn’t come. It turned out that he had an accident and the children at home were not allowed to go into the mountains!

It’s better not to go into the mountains. There’s food and drink at home. Why come and suffer this?”

“Uncle Chen has not forgotten you, my old brother. Otherwise, I would not know about your underground cellar in Woniu Mountain. We young people are agile and can carry any supplies you need when we go into the mountain!”

“That’s great! I’m getting older and my legs are getting lazier. When I was ten years younger, it only took me half a day to go down the mountain and back. Now I’m old!”

“You don’t look old at all. You can carry a wild boar weighing more than 100 kilograms and walk through the forest as if it were flat ground! We are young now, but it’s not that easy either!” Yue Feng complimented him sincerely again.

“There’s nothing wrong with what you said. When it comes to strength, I, Zhao Dashan, have been the strongest person in the village since I was young. There are hundreds of strong laborers in the whole village. I have never had an opponent in arm wrestling!”

“So… you used to live in the village, why did you go up the mountain? Although there are many wild animals in the deep mountains, life is not as convenient as in the village!”

When Xiao Tao heard Uncle Zhao talking about past events, he asked a question casually.

Yue Feng knew something was wrong when he heard this, so he immediately pulled Xiao Tao and said, “Xiao Tao, what are you asking about?”

Uncle Zhao was rarely angry, and waved his hand, saying, “It’s okay, this happened decades ago, there’s nothing to hide in front of you youngsters!
At that time, our Zhao family was considered an old family in Xinghuatun. Later, I fell in love with a girl from Fang’an Village.

In those days, hunters were poor and had many mouths to feed at home, so life was difficult.

The girl’s family thought that we were poor and that we were all butchers, so they refused to agree to the marriage.

My family didn’t want me to continue to be entangled with the Li family, and later my father beat me up because of this.

Not long after, the woman hanged herself. In a fit of rage, I stole her thin coffin and carried it up the mountain.

Once I went up the mountain, I have stayed there until now, except for a few days when my parents passed away and I went home to stay there. “

Hearing this, Yue Feng and the others were somewhat touched. For the sake of a beloved woman, he stayed away from family for his entire life. This Uncle Zhao was definitely a responsible man. “Is there no one else at home?” After a pause of a few seconds, Yue Feng asked again.

“Yes, my two older sisters and one younger sister are all married, and I have an older brother and two nephews!
When I was young, I would send back the skins and other goods I collected from hunting in the mountains twice a year.

But gradually, things changed. My nephew would go up the mountain on a specific date and always ask for the things I saved from hunting. Later on, he even felt that it was my natural duty to support the family.

One year, that little bastard actually said that when I died in the future I would have to rely on him to send me off (funeral), because of this I had a big fight with my eldest brother.

After that, my nephew stopped coming!

Later on, I became more open-minded. I could live in the mountains as long as I had enough food and water. Instead of working hard to collect mountain wealth to feed the ungrateful wolves, I might as well let them live freely in the mountains!
Once a person becomes obsessed with money, family affection and friendship are no longer a thing!

In the future, when I feel I am about to die, I will dig up your mother’s grave, lie in it, bury some explosives, and be done with it. I won’t have to rely on anyone to send it off for me!”

After hearing Uncle Zhao’s self-destructive words, the atmosphere in the room became much heavier.

Love is regrettable, family affection has deteriorated, and Grandpa Chen lives alone in the mountains with all these things on his back. No wonder people outside say that this old mountain dog has a weird temper. No one would be able to take these experiences lightly and have no reaction.

In addition, Yue Feng, who was naturally smart, felt a little scared when he heard this.

Fortunately, I took the initiative to mention Chen Pao and Grandpa, otherwise Uncle Zhao would definitely not have received me so politely.

These ten kilograms of loose white meat were not worth much, but they were a token of his concern, and the old man must have taken it very seriously. In addition, he promised to help him train an eagle, so the old man took the initiative to mention that he would take them to kill Xiong Cangzi tomorrow as a reward.

Having lived in the mountains for a lifetime, the old man knows every tree and blade of grass around him. If he doesn’t need them, he lets them live. When he needs them, he can take them at any time. This level of hunter is much higher than that of Yue Feng and his gang of young people.

“There’s no need to be so pessimistic! You’re not that old now, and you’re still strong. The air in the mountains is good, and you don’t have to worry about food and drink. You can live another fifty years without any problem!”

“Haha, you little kid really know how to comfort people! I’m already 66 this year. If I live another years, I’ll become an old monster!”

……

It gets dark early in winter. The sun sets around four in the afternoon and the sky gradually darkens.

Uncle Zhao dug out the roe deer he had hunted earlier from the snow pile behind the house, and used the snow water to soak the wild vegetables he had dried in the spring. He then cut apart the ribs and elbows of the wild boar he had just hunted today and stewed a large pot of solid meat.

Yue Feng also took out the meat buns he brought up the mountain as food, put them in the pot, and ate them together after heating them up.

There are limited cooking utensils in the cellar, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s wild boar or roe deer meat, just a big stew, making a full pot.

Even though life at home has gotten better recently and the four brothers are no longer short of food, they were still stunned by the aroma when they opened the lid of the pot after the meat was cooked.

Uncle Zhao took down two enamel cups from the wall and rinsed them with snow water: “There are only two cups for drinking on the mountain. The conditions are limited, so take turns!
When you get to the old man’s house, don’t pretend. Eat some meat, drink some wine, and rest early. This is the first time you’ve walked from the bottom of the mountain to my place, and the road is not short. If you don’t rest well at night, you’ll have cramps tomorrow!”

There was firewood stuffed under the stove in the cellar, and the crackling sound of burning came one after another. The flames licked the fire wall, and more warmth spread from the fire wall to the entire cabin.

There were not enough cups to hold the wine, so the brothers took turns. There were also not enough chopsticks to eat with, so they temporarily used a knife to cut pine branches instead. The brothers either sat on wooden benches or moved a wooden block to use as seats. Under such difficult conditions, they had an unforgettable meal on the mountain.

Uncle Zhao could drink a lot, and he drank the first two glasses of wine without much joking. As he got drunker, he talked more and more, pouring out more experiences and details from his youth.

Yue Feng and several other young men acted as listeners, allowing the lonely old hunter to talk about his past youth.

The meal lasted from dusk until half past eight. Uncle Zhao, who had been chattering not long ago, gradually became silent. When Yue Feng reacted and went up to check, he found that Uncle Zhao was drunk and fell asleep while holding the table.

Yue Feng and Xiao Tao helped Uncle Zhao onto the kang, then covered him with a quilt, and soon he began to hear even snoring.

After arranging things for the old man, the brothers also got busy. They cleaned the dining table, washed the dishes, and put everything away, and then prepared a place to sleep.

The kang is a half kang, just right for one person to lie on, a little crowded for two people, but doable.

Yue Feng didn’t want to sleep on the kang, so he simply spread the bear skin and other things he brought with him to spend the night on the floor of the cellar.

The brothers closed the door, checked the fire in the stove, and left the windows ajar to ensure they would not get carbon monoxide poisoning in the middle of the night. Then they lay down to rest with their bags as pillows and their clothes on.

Under the influence of alcohol, the fatigue from walking in the mountain for most of the day set in, and the brothers soon fell asleep.

(End of this chapter)