Actually, the scientific name for the Human Bear is "Bear," which is different from a regular bear. The "Bear" is yellowish-white all over, and not only is its neck long, but its hind legs are also taller than those of the common black bear. It possesses immense strength, capable of uprooting an old tree as thick as a man. When it encounters people, it stands on its hind legs and fiercely charges, and its posture and features resemble a human. Being fierce and powerful, it can prey on cattle and horses, hence the name "Human Bear." Mountain hunters dare not easily provoke a Human Bear, let alone think of hunting one. However, Human Bears are not impossible to catch, but the risk involved is extremely high; one mistake and you lose your life. This is because Human Bears are fierce beasts, fat and strong, with thick skin and tough flesh. Even if a bullet pierces its chest or abdomen, causing blood to flow and intestines to spill out, it can still dig up soil and pine resin to plug the wound and then fight back fiercely to fatally injure a person. Therefore, even with superb marksmanship and sharp firearms, taking one down by force is extremely difficult.
There is a saying: "When facing the strong, use strategy; when facing the weak, capture them alive." Since ancient times, there have been many legends about hunters killing Human Bears, most of which involved winning through wit. The most widely circulated one roughly tells that Human Bears prefer to use the tree hollows of thousand-year-old trees as their dens. The air inside the hollow tree is hot and steamy, melting the ice and snow. After eating their fill, the Human Bears sit inside. When hunters find the bear cave, they drop wooden blocks into the tree hollow. The Human Bear is inherently dull; seeing a wooden block fall, it will reach out to catch it and place it under its rear end. As more and more blocks are dropped, the Human Bear keeps picking them up and sitting on them, getting higher and higher. When the Human Bear’s sitting position is level with the entrance of the tree hollow, the hunters seize the opportunity to fiercely chop at its head with a large felling axe, or stab it to death with a spear through the crevices of the old tree.
There was an experienced hunter in the village before. He encountered a Human Bear crossing a river in the mountains and hid to observe. The one crossing the river was a huge female Human Bear leading two small Human Bears. The mother Human Bear first pushed one cub onto its head to cross the water. After swimming ashore, fearing the cub would run around, she pinned the cub down with a large Stone. Then she swam back to fetch the other cub. The lurking hunter seized this opportunity to capture the small Human Bear pinned by the Stone. The mother Human Bear became furious like thunder, and on the opposite bank, she grabbed the other cub by its two legs and tore it in half. Its fierce and dull nature can be seen from this.
We heard many such legends after entering the mountains, but legends are just legends. If we truly acted according to them, they might not work. Moreover, the Human Bears on Tuan Shanzi have fixed habits; they would never come down the mountain or cross the river to the vicinity of the Forest Farm, only moving in the deep, dense parts of the ridges. We discussed several plans, but none seemed feasible. While we were feeling anxious, Yanzi slapped the large jar containing the Yellow Millet Flour Sticky Bean Buns: "I wondered why Old Man Qiao Shan prepared so many bean buns; it turns out he planned to use Sticky Bean Buns to catch Human Bears. This method hasn't been used for many years; I wonder if it still works."
Fatty and I were bewildered. After Yanzi explained it clearly to us, we both felt that using Sticky Bean Buns to hunt Human Bears was a good idea. However, although feasible, it was still a very old and dangerous method. Finally, we decided to risk trying it. When setting traps for Yellow Weasels at night, we heard the roar of a Human Bear from Tuan Shanzi, which saved us a lot of trouble. We could roughly determine the location of the bear cave. Catching a Human Bear to take its Eastern Gallbladder—this Affair was definitely exciting enough. Furthermore, the Eastern Gallbladder could cure Old Man Qiao Shan's granddaughter's illness. The two Bear Paws and the Human Bear meat, taken to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, could cover more than half a year's Work Points for Fatty and me. Back then, we only earned five Work Points a day, which translated to about fifteen cents in Renminbi. After working ourselves to death for several months, we couldn't even afford a train ticket to visit relatives back home. Considering everything, it was absolutely worth risking a venture.
The daily life of us Educated Youth sent to the deep mountains and old forests can be summarized simply as: "Look up at the wood, look down at the Stone, chew on cold steamed buns, and dream of warm kang beds." We were eager to find something new and exciting to do. This time, having a legitimate excuse to go hunt Human Bears in the mountains made us too excited to sleep. Since it was almost dawn anyway, we rested briefly inside the house.
As soon as it was light, we took a sack of the Yellow Millet Flour Sticky Bean Buns left over by Old Man Qiao Shan, and also found several Birch Wood Sleeves—these were sections of hollowed-out logs—plus a long-handled axe used for logging. These were essential tools for hunting Human Bears. In comparison, the Hunting Rifle seemed somewhat superfluous. However, to guard against other fierce beasts on Tuan Shanzi, we couldn't leave the Hunting Rifle and Hunting Fork behind.
By dawn, the Yellow Weasel hadn't caused any more trouble, but locking the "Yellow Immortal Aunt" in the small wooden house might have allowed it to escape. So, Fatty found a wooden cage that a logging worker once used to hold squirrels. He bound the "Yellow Immortal Aunt" with wire, stuffed her mouth with Muggles, and packed her anus with yellow wax, then put her in the cage and carried her on his back. Once we cut off the Bear Paws and extracted the "Eastern Gallbladder," we would take the pelt to the Cooperative for settlement and exchange it for good food and drink.
It didn't snow all night, but the residual snow on the Ground and the tips of the trees hadn't melted. When illuminated by the morning sun, the mountains and the area below were entirely covered in silver. Human Bears are extremely fond of eating Sticky Bean Buns. Since we brought so many Sticky Bean Buns, we didn't have to worry about running into a Human Bear directly in the forest like we did last night. After crossing the river, the three of us still walked the "Yellow Weasel Grave" route to search for the bear cave on the mountain.
Along the way, we climbed rocks and crossed gullies; the forest grew denser, gradually obscuring the sunlight. Starting from the latter half of the afternoon, the sky turned gloomy; it looked like it was going to snow soon. Yanzi, naturally passionate, thought, since the Eastern Gallbladder can cure illness and save people, what is there to hesitate about? Let's do it! But having grown up in the mountains, she always knew how formidable Human Bears were. Seeing Fatty and me acting completely unconcerned, she couldn't help but ask me strangely if I wasn't afraid of Human Bears. I took the opportunity to boast: What's so scary about Human Bears? I heard that the American imperialists like to use Giant Bears to symbolize the Soviet Revisionists. Are we afraid of the Soviet Revisionists? Those sons of bitches from the Soviet Revisionists have not given up their ambition to destroy us and reform us too! As far as I'm concerned, I won't let them succeed. There are so many of us; we are determined to fight them to the end to see who makes whom collapse. I heard that some Brezhnev over there eats cream bread every day, but what about the working people? They can't even gnaw on black bread! Doesn't that necessitate reform? To liberate all the suffering people under the heavens from deep water and fierce fire, we must set more Yellow Weasels and dig up more Bear Galls to contribute our strength to the World Revolution.
Hearing me boasting to Yanzi up front, Fatty took the opportunity to mock me. He said to Yanzi: "Don't listen to his nonsense. Yesterday, after catching one Yellow Weasel, he forgot his own name and elevated the matter to supporting the World Revolution. Yanzi, let me tell you, the great revolutionary teacher Comrade Lenin once taught us: 'Some bastards are undisciplined, using a grand banner as a quilt, deceiving themselves while trying to fool others.' Yanzi, do you know who among us fits that description?"
I was about to retort, but at that moment, we had arrived at the foot of a towering tree. This Old Tree must have been thousands of years old, spreading its canopy wide enough to shelter an ox. But the tree was dead, and a huge Hole was exposed on its trunk, emitting wisps of black gas. The "Yellow Immortal Aunt" in the wooden cage also became extremely restless and agitated at this moment, as if greatly frightened. I thought this Hole was large enough to fit a large bull, so it was highly likely to be a bear cave. The roar of the Human Bear we heard while trapping Yellow Weasels the night before seemed to have come from here. The three of us immediately stopped and braced ourselves to hunt the bear. But upon stopping to observe closely, we saw that the rock crevices and tree gaps were piled high with plump, thick Matsutake mushrooms, covered with exotic flowers and fruits whose names we didn't know, looking very strange, and there was none of the musty smell of a bear cave. If this wasn't a bear cave, what kind of hole was beneath the tree hollow?
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