Chapter 43: Lazy Doggy and Zhu Erhai

Since they were going to train the hawks to call from a distance later, Xiao Tao and his father did not return home after securing the hawks.

Yue Feng had returned early to prepare the food for the hawks. The group stayed in the courtyard, taking turns training the birds to call. Starting with jumping punches, they practiced until the hawks could call all the way from the perch to the base of the south wall, at which point they finally finished by feeding them until their crops were full.

At the courtyard gate, a group of children were peeking through the cracks in the door to watch the excitement. Every time a hawk trained for calling spread its wings and flew into the falconer's hands, it would trigger a round of excited whispers from the kids.

The Zhang brothers were the last to return; today, both Xiaowen and Xiaowu had also gained significant progress.

By the time the hawks in Xiaowen and Xiaowu's hands had finished their calling training, the sky had gradually darkened.

Seeing that there was no more excitement to witness, the children watching the spectacle slowly dispersed and headed back to their own homes.

In this era, there were few things worth talking about, so the news of the Yue family securing several hawks to go into the mountains to catch junglefowl quickly spread through the children's chatter to the neighbors.

In the eyes of the vast majority of villagers, it was merely a curiosity, but a small number of people realized the potential profit involved.

Zhu Erhai, the older brother of Zhu Sanhai, was one of them.

Zhu Erhai was 21 years old this year. He had dropped out of primary school before finishing. Aside from working with his parents during the busy farming seasons, he was idle the rest of the time—either gathering with a few local loafers to play small-stakes cards and gamble, or plotting how to steal someone's chickens to stew for a heavy drinking session.

At this age, children from good families were already married with kids, but the three sons of the Zhu family lived quite difficult lives. Zhu Erhai, in particular, had a terrible reputation in the village; he was lazy, shiftless, and even bullied Grandma Li, a family of a martyr. His character was bad to a certain extent, earning him the nickname "Scoundrel Dog."

When Zhu Sanhai went home for dinner, he told his brother about how Yue Feng's family had trained hawks to catch many junglefowl.

Zhu Erhai didn't necessarily think about selling them in the city for money; instead, he was thinking that if he could train a hawk himself to go into the mountains and catch junglefowl or pheasants, he could eat meat every few days. Then, his group of fair-weather friends would be constantly catering to him.

Living in a village at the foot of the Changbai Mountains, every village had hunters, and some larger settlements even had trained hounds and marksmen with guns.

However, even though mountain hunters were common, for the vast majority of villagers, hunting in the mountains was still a dangerous endeavor.

Most people's understanding of hunting was limited to setting traps at the foot of the mountain near their doorstep, hoping to catch a few jumping cats or wild chickens by luck. Being able to go into the mountains with a shovel and a pickaxe to dig up a few badgers was considered quite skilled.

The act of hunting wasn't difficult to learn, but the difficulty lay in what one didn't know. Without anyone to teach them, ordinary people had no way of knowing how to track or find animal paths; even if they set a trap, nine times out of ten, they wouldn't catch anything.

Zhu Erhai was a complete novice who understood nothing of the trade.

After brooding over it all night, Zhu Erhai went to Yue Feng's house first thing the next morning after breakfast.

However, Yue Feng and the others had already headed up the mountain with their hawks after breakfast, so Zhu Erhai arrived to find no one there.

Given this fellow's despicable character, both Yue Lei and Meng Yulan disliked him. They gave him a few vague, dismissive responses in the courtyard, and Zhu Erhai took the hint and left.

After exiting the Yue family gate, Zhu Erhai went home. Despite being rebuffed, he had no intention of giving up.

Around three in the afternoon, Zhu Erhai arrived at the Xing'an Village "Intelligence Center"—the village corner grocery store. The old women gathered there to gossip didn't care about his character; they would chat about anything from worldly matters to lewd jokes, making the time pass quickly.

Around four o'clock, Yue Feng returned from the village entrance with a large blue goshawk that had a full crop. From a distance, Zhu Erhai rushed to meet him.

"Brother Yue Feng, you're back from the mountain!!!"

Yue Feng was slightly startled to see Zhu Erhai running toward him to strike up a conversation, but he quickly realized why the man was looking for him.

"Huh? Just took a stroll up the mountain! Is something the matter?"

"Actually, there is. Are you free tonight? I'll invite you to my place for dinner; let's have a few drinks together, brothers!"

Zhu Erhai still treated Yue Feng like that ignorant kid he used to be. He didn't mention his true purpose, instead offering to host a dinner.

"Sorry, I don't drink! Besides, we aren't that close. I won't accept a reward without merit; your food probably isn't that good anyway!" Yue Feng didn't give Zhu Erhai any face, refusing him directly with a blunt tone.

"Look at you! We're all from the same village, and I'm kindly inviting you for a drink, yet you're insulting me!" Zhu Erhai was a decent actor, intentionally picking fault with Yue Feng's words after hearing the refusal.

"If you have something to say, say it. If not, get out of my way, I have work to do!" Yue Feng had to go to the city to deliver goods. Today was his first evening delivery, so he had no time for idle chatter with Zhu Erhai.

"I heard you trained a lot of hawks. Can you give me one?" Seeing that his roundabout tactics weren't working, Zhu Erhai decided to get straight to the point!

"I can't. The number of hawks in the family is limited!" Yue Feng shook his head and walked past him.

"I'll pay! You can just sell me one!"

"I told you, the hawks are limited. If you want one, go find Li Mingtao. If Xiao Tao is willing to sell you one, negotiate with him!" Yue Feng used a direct move to shift the trouble elsewhere, having no desire to entangle himself with Zhu Erhai.

Zhu Erhai didn't dare act cocky with Xiao Tao. Even though he was a few years older than Xiao Tao, when Xiao Tao got aggressive, he really wouldn't tolerate him.

During last year's autumn harvest, they had argued over tractor work, and the large, sturdy Xiao Tao had pinned him down and given him a beating.

Since things had come to this, Zhu Erhai lost the will to continue pestering him and watched Yue Feng walk away.

Returning home, Yue Feng inventoried and organized all the wild game they had gathered but hadn't yet delivered. He then hitched his sled and left the village via a small path, circling halfway before hitting the main road leading out of the village, heading straight for the Second Canteen.

The wild game being delivered today was the harvest from the five men yesterday, plus the grey dog (wild dog) Yue Feng had caught during the day. Xiao Tao and the Zhang brothers had not yet returned.

The total number of junglefowl delivered today surpassed eighty. After completing the handover of all the wild game, Yue Feng also collected the grey dog skin from Niu Fusheng.

To be fair, Chef Niu Fusheng's skinning skills were quite excellent. A complete grey dog skin had been slit from the jawline, and everything from the head and face to the limbs and even the difficult tail had been cleaned up neatly.

Today's goods earned another eighty-plus yuan. Yue Feng stuffed the grey dog skin into his backpack and hurried home with the empty sled.

The collection stations wouldn't accept unworked grey dog skins; they had to be taken home, stretched with simple wooden strips, and dried in a cool place before they could be sold.

As the hunting proficiency of the five-man hawk hunting team increased, the daily amount of game brought home was steadily rising. For the past two days, Yue Feng had spent most of his time catching grey dogs in the red pine forest, but the number of junglefowl had not been affected.

At this point, even if Yue Feng just lay on his heated kang bed every day without going into the mountains, his fixed share of the income would be quite substantial. However, he couldn't bear to rest even for a day, constantly calculating in his heart when his disposable money would be enough to buy a bicycle.

On the other side, Zhu Erhai, who had been rebuffed by Yue Feng, had not given up. He returned to the intelligence station to wait for Li Mingtao to return from the mountains.