Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

"Yata, stop the car."

Seeing Xiao Yuan from Kuandian Village walking towards them, Uncle Zhou frowned slightly and raised his hand to signal.

"it is good."

Li Baotian stopped the tractor, but didn't turn off the engine.

In those days, to start a tractor, you had to get off the vehicle with the big key and crank the engine hard. You really couldn't do the job of a tractor driver without some strength.

Another reason for not turning off the engine is to prepare for certain emergencies, such as encountering highway robbers blocking the road, so as to facilitate escape.

Of course, although Xiao Yuan, the hunter from Kuandian Village, wasn't a highwayman or a bandit, one should always be wary of others, even if one doesn't intend to harm them.

"Hey Friday, how have you been?"

Xiao Yuan walked up, glanced at the rattan baskets on the tractor's trailer, and greeted Uncle Zhou.

"Hehe, not bad, not bad."

Uncle Zhou responded with a chuckle. He glanced at the young men behind Xiao Yuan and, judging from the hunters' attire, knew they were preparing to go hunting in the mountains. But Uncle Zhou still asked knowingly, "Xiao Yuan, are the hunters from Kuandian Village preparing to go hunting in the mountains again?"

"Yeah, we sold the wild boars we caught a few days ago, but nobody was really satisfied. So we thought we'd take advantage of the time before the Lunar New Year to go into the mountains and hunt some more game to have a good year. Hehe, Brother Zhou, what kind of game did your Guapigou Village catch this time?"

Xiao Yuan smiled and nodded, but seeing that the tractor bed in Guapigou Village was fully loaded and covered with cloth, he still curiously inquired.

"Hehe, it's nothing valuable. It can't compare to the hunters in your Kuandian Village who managed to hunt seven wild boars. Those guys in our village were so envious back then. By the way, did you sell all the wild boars you hunted? You must have made quite a bit of money, right?"

Seeing Xiao Yuan's eagerness to know what kind of game was in the trailer of their tractor, Uncle Zhou was secretly pleased, but he also understood the principle of not flaunting wealth. So he took the initiative and asked Xiao Yuan how much money they had made from the wild boars they had hunted in Kuandian Village.

"Hehe, I don't earn much, just enough to cover the cost of salt and oil for the New Year."

Sure enough, when Uncle Zhou asked, Xiao Yuan also gave a vague answer.

Uncle Zhou wasn't annoyed when he couldn't get the answer, since he was just joking around. After a few more words, he ran out of things to say and said goodbye, "Hehe, Xiao Yuan, we have something to do and need to get to the county town. We won't keep you from going hunting in the mountains."

"Hehe, Brother Friday, let's chat again when we have time."

Xiao Yuan also made polite remarks.

"Basuda, let's go."

Uncle Zhou sat back on the tractor and said to Li Baotian.

Li Baotian didn't say anything. He skillfully shifted the tractor into gear, and the tractor chugged along the country road toward Xiangyang Commune.

"Uncle Xiao Yuan, what kind of game did they hunt in Guapigou Village?"

Not long after the people from Guapigou Village left, several young hunters from Kuandiantun gathered around Xiao Yuan and asked him questions.

"The cargo bed was covered with a cloth, so we couldn't tell what it was, but judging from how full it was, they obviously had a bigger catch than we did on that hunting trip."

Xiao Yuan squinted as he watched the tractor drive away, then shook his head.

Last time, they had just hunted those seven wild boars deep in the mountains when the hunters from Guapigou Village arrived.

As an experienced hunter, Xiao Yuan knew that the hunters from Guapigou Village had followed the tracks left by wild boars in the snow. However, they were unlucky; the wild boars ran into their guns first and were killed by them. The remaining wild boars were too much for the group to handle and scattered and fled.

They had just finished dealing with the wild boars when the hunters from Guapigou Village arrived.

At that time, when they saw the hunters from Guapigou Village, they knew that they had gotten there first and intercepted the hunters' beaks.

But according to the hunters' custom, there was nothing wrong with what they did.

Even after the hunters from Guapigou Village turned and left, the hunters from Kuandian Village were still quite smug, and asserted that the hunters from Guapigou Village had been outmaneuvered by them and would probably return empty-handed from their mountain adventure.

As experienced hunters, they all understand that finding a large group of prey in the deep mountains and forests is like finding a needle in a haystack. In most cases, if they encounter a large group of prey but miss it for some reason, it is very difficult to find another large group of prey in a short period of time.

However, to their surprise, on their way back to the mountains to hunt today, they encountered hunters from Guapigou Village.

The trailer of a tractor was fully loaded and covered with a cloth.

The hunters of Guapigou Village all set out, some by tractor, others by bicycle, escorting the tractors toward Xiangyang Commune.

With such a large entourage, and the cargo box covered with cloth to conceal its contents, it was clear that the hunters from Guapigou Village had had a successful trip into the mountains. This piqued Xiao Yuan's curiosity, as did the young hunters from Kuandian Village.

If the hunters in Guapigou Village hadn't outnumbered them and hadn't been so wary of them, they might have lifted the cloth still on the tractor's trailer to see what was inside.

"We thought we were lucky to have caught those few wild boars, but we didn't expect that the hunters in Guapigou Village had caught more game than us."

"Judging from their cautious manner, the prey they hunted must be very valuable, otherwise they wouldn't need so many people to escort it."

"Of course they're cautious. Didn't you notice the shotgun hidden in the tractor's trailer?"

"Well... I didn't notice."

"Which of those people is Li Yunshan?"

"The one riding that brand new bicycle."

"Him? He doesn't look like much, yet he can kill tigers and bears!"

"You can't judge a book by its cover, but it's true that he made a lot of money by killing tigers and bears."

"He got off too easy."

"He used to be a lazy, good-for-nothing street urchin. Killing a tiger and a bear was just pure luck. He didn't have any real skills. He might have gotten himself killed in the mountains sometime."

"..."

Several young hunters from Kuandian Village were discussing the matter animatedly, each of them talking at once.

It's easy to hear their disdain for the hunters in Guapigou Village from their words, especially Li Yunshan.

Listening to the words of the young hunters in the village, Xiao Yuan narrowed his eyes and said, "Alright, stop making a fuss and hurry up into the mountains. Let's try to catch a few decent animals this time, sell them for a good price, and have a prosperous New Year."

……

"Judging from Xiao Yuan's expression, he wants to see what's loaded on our tractor. Luckily, we covered the trailer with a cloth, otherwise, if they found out how many deer we hunted, they would be so agitated that their eyes would turn red like rabbits."

The tractor chugged along towards Xiangyang Commune, and Li Baotian chatted with Uncle Zhou while driving it.

"The news that we caught a deer during our hunting trip will eventually spread to other places. But it's no use if they're envious. Catching a deer is a testament to our skill and luck."

Uncle Zhou smiled faintly.

"They're just jealous, yet they still dare to steal it?"

Cai Er said from the side.

"Do you think the people of Kuandian Village wouldn't dare?"

Uncle Zhou glanced at Cai Er and said, "Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old, it was a time of war and chaos. One winter, a hunter from our village went into the mountains and hunted a big wild boar. On the way back from the mountains, it was stolen by a hunter from Kuandian Village."

"Back then, your father, Youlian's father, and Shuanzhu's father were badly beaten by the hunters of Kuandian Village in order to protect that big wild boar. Shuanzhu's father even developed a slight limp as a result."

"However, good and evil will eventually be rewarded. Later, in order to replenish their troops, the bandits conscripted men from the villages. Almost all the hunters in Kuandian Village were conscripted and never returned. Our village hunters, because they were fast, led the villagers to hide in the mountains and escaped conscription. They eventually ushered in liberation."

"Why haven't I heard my dad mention that?"

Cai Er asked, puzzled.

Since the hunters of Kuandian Village had beaten his father and stolen the game they had worked so hard to catch, his father should have hated the hunters of Kuandian Village to the core.

But he had never heard his father mention it before, not even when he was a child.

"Yes, I've never heard my dad mention it either."

"I've never heard of it either."

Peng Youlian and Zhao Shuanzhu also spoke.

"The original hunters of Kuandian Village were all conscripted by the bandits before liberation and never returned. The hunters of Kuandian Village now are probably villagers who escaped that time and went back to the mountains to hunt for survival, gradually forming a new group of hunters."

Li Yunshan said from the side.

"Hehe, Yunshan is right. The hunters in Kuandian Village now are not the descendants of the original hunters. They all came to the mountains to hunt after the founding of the People's Republic of China and became hunters. That's why your fathers never mentioned the past. However, in my opinion, we should be cautious when dealing with hunters from other villages, even if we don't have the heart to harm others."

Uncle Zhou smiled and said.

"Especially when we have a lot of prey, we must not give ourselves away."

Li Baotian added a comment from the side.

"hehe."

Cai Er, Zhao Shuanzhu, and the others awkwardly scratched the back of their heads, remembering what they had said not long ago.

"Let's hurry up and get to the county town as soon as possible so we can sell all the venison on the tractor and go home."

Uncle Zhou didn't say a single serious word to Cai Er and the others. Some things, once told to them, they would naturally understand on their own.

As Uncle Zhou finished speaking, Li Baotian shifted the tractor to a different gear, and the speed increased.