As they got acquainted with the rules of mountain hunting, Liu Dashan glanced at the old muzzleloader Li Xiangdong had tossed aside.
He smiled and nodded. “You’re right, this one really won’t do. It’s almost older than you are. If you want to take down something big like a wild boar, you’ll need to get yourself a break-action shotgun!”
That went without saying. How could Li Xiangdong not want a good gun? But at the moment, he was as broke as a hunchback climbing a mountain.
How much would a single-barreled break-action hunting shotgun cost? At least a hundred yuan. Where was he supposed to get that kind of money?
He could only sigh. “Sigh, I just don’t have the money. I can’t afford a new one, and I don’t know where to find a used one, so I’ll just have to use this for now. If I can’t take down a wild boar, then a roe deer or rabbit will do!”
“It’s all right. You’ll get one eventually. I’m out and about in this area all the time, but I’ve never seen you before. Are you new to hunting?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Hunting can earn me a little extra money. Work points alone aren’t enough to eat on!”
Liu Dashan nodded. “That’s true. The grain you get from work points is barely enough to eat. If you want to buy anything, you need some other way to earn money. You seem like you’ll do fine. With your drive, you can definitely become a good hunter. If we get the chance, how about we go hunting in the mountains together sometime?”
Li Xiangdong didn’t know Liu Dashan well, but it would be rude to refuse his invitation. He smiled and replied politely, “Sure. If we get the chance, let’s go together. Just don’t think I’ll be a burden, Brother Liu!”
“How could I? An extra person means an extra pair of hands. All right, let’s clean up this pig and divide it between us!”
By the time they finished chatting, they had smoked a whole cigarette. Liu Dashan tossed the butt to the ground and stamped it out, then drew his knife from his waist and prepared to butcher the wild boar.
Li Xiangdong couldn’t just stand around either. He stepped forward and pulled out his long gun, then joined in to help.
Liu Dashan was quite efficient at butchering the wild boar. First, he slit it open and pulled out the intestines, guts, and other scraps, tossing them aside.
Then he cut off all four trotters and the pig’s head and tossed them on top of the entrails.
Only then did he cut the wild boar in half crosswise. “You take one half, younger brother. The rest is mine!”
“No, no, Brother Liu. I couldn’t have taken it down without your shot. You choose first, and I’ll take what’s left!” Li Xiangdong was just as polite.
They went back and forth for a while, but in the end Liu Dashan chose first. He took the half with the front legs, leaving the half with the hind legs to Li Xiangdong.
After all, Li Xiangdong had been the one to bring down the wild boar, so he ought to get a bigger share. Liu Dashan understood that too.
After dividing it up, Liu Dashan stuffed his half into a bag, then sat down again and pulled out his tobacco pouch.
Looking at the scraps on the ground, Li Xiangdong asked, “Brother Liu, are we leaving all this behind?”
With a cigarette dangling from his lips, Liu Dashan gave Li Xiangdong a couple of looks. From his expression, it was clear that he now truly believed Li Xiangdong was a complete novice.
“We can’t take this stuff with us. We have to leave some for the animals in the mountains. We’re making a living on their land. If we kill too much and take it all away, the wolves and other animals in the mountains will have nothing to eat. Then they’ll come into the village and prey on people or livestock. You understand?”
Li Xiangdong thought it over and realized it made sense. The wolves couldn’t go hungry forever; if they had nothing to eat in the mountains, they would definitely come into the village. “You’re right, Brother Liu. We can’t take everything and leave nothing behind!”
“That’s right. That’s the idea. So there are rules to mountain hunting. When you catch game, you have to leave some for them. There’s another reason, too. Can you guess what it is?”
There was another reason? Li Xiangdong furrowed his brow and thought carefully. “Could it be disease?”
Liu Dashan looked at Li Xiangdong in surprise. “You know about that?”
“I know a little. Looks like I guessed right!”
“You did. After you catch an animal, check its organs. If it’s diseased or has a lot of parasites, you can’t eat any of the meat. It could cause problems.”
“People have died from eating it before, so people passed down the rule not to take those parts. You’ll have to watch out for that when you hunt, too,” Liu Dashan reminded him.
Li Xiangdong hadn’t expected hunters in the past to have already discovered this. He remembered that wild animals could transmit diseases to people, sometimes with deadly consequences.
“Got it. I’ll remember. Thanks, Brother Liu!”
“Don’t mention it. Hunters are all brothers. We met by chance, and that’s fate. Even if I didn’t tell you, someone would have sooner or later,” Liu Dashan said with a smile, waving his hand.
Then he continued, “All right, we’ve had a good catch today. Time to head home. My wife and kids are waiting for me. Younger brother, if you ever pass through Nantai Village, come by my place. It’s the third house at the east end of the village!”
“Sure, no problem. If you ever make it to Shuangjing Village, come see me too. Our village is small; just ask around and you’ll find me!” Li Xiangdong replied with a smile.
The two men shouldered their respective shares, said goodbye, then turned and headed toward their own homes.
Feeling the weight on his shoulder, Li Xiangdong’s spirits lifted.
After so many days out hunting, he had finally made a bit of a catch.
Although he had to split the wild boar with Liu Dashan and ended up with only a little more than half, it was still a good haul—sixty or seventy jin of meat.
More importantly, it had boosted Li Xiangdong’s confidence in hunting.
The sixty or seventy jin of pork on Li Xiangdong’s shoulder wasn’t too heavy, and home wasn’t especially far away.
For the first ten days or so, he had only wandered through the woods around the village, afraid he might not make it home that night and run into danger.
As someone with no hunting experience and no experience spending the night outdoors in bitterly cold weather, Li Xiangdong didn’t dare gamble with his life.
Even back in his Shandong hometown, the winter nights outside could be cold enough to make him miserable.
And the cold here was even worse.
The two places differed by around twenty degrees. In Shandong, unless the weather was exceptionally severe, it was almost never colder than minus ten degrees in winter.
But here, it could easily be minus twenty or thirty degrees, and at night in the mountains, it could drop to minus thirty or forty.
Even a freezer couldn’t get that cold.
There’s a saying about winters in Northeast China: if you’re eating at a restaurant and the waiter asks whether you want a room-temperature drink or a chilled one—
you should definitely choose the chilled one, because that will still be liquid, while the room-temperature one will be a solid block of ice.
That was why he hadn’t gone far these past few days. Today, he had only ventured deeper into the woods because he couldn’t find any game near the village.
In the end, the results had been pretty good.
However, carrying half a carcass of pork home had slowed him down. By the time he was four or five li from home, night had already fallen.
Once it grew dark, he could no longer make out his surroundings, and Li Xiangdong felt uneasy.
That was only natural. He wasn’t a hunter who spent all year hunting in the mountains.
It was different from being on a main road or out in the fields near the village. On a road or in the village, he felt more at ease, knowing there were sure to be people nearby. He could even encourage himself.
But deep in the mountains and woods, it was different. The snow reflected a little light, but the layers of trees and the wild grass and shrubbery covering the ground were all a dark, shadowy mass.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something in the woods was watching him.