Why did the old generation of Mountain Runners always stress to their juniors that when hunting in the mountains, you and your partners must be of one mind?

It was precisely so that when the most dangerous moments came, companions could save each other and survive the peril.

If you don’t save him this time, no one will save you next time.

Including Zhao Jun, the Zhao Family had been Hunters for three generations. How could Zhao Youcai not understand the unwritten rules?

He was instantly furious.

Hitting his own son was one thing, but Zhao Youcai would never let outsiders try to screw Zhao Jun over.

Fortunately, Wang Meilan was there to keep the peace and quickly pulled Zhao Youcai back.

"The nerve!" Li Baoyu, standing by the side, finally processed what had happened and exploded. "They dared to harm my big brother! Let’s go take them on!"

"You settle down!" Jin Xiaomei went up and slapped him, extinguishing Li Baoyu’s fiery rage. "Instead of helping, you’re just making things worse!"

Li Baoyu flinched and retreated to the side, not daring to say another word. But he held a grudge, thinking to himself that he’d make the Li Brothers pay for this someday.

After dealing with Li Baoyu, Jin Xiaomei said to Wang Meilan, "Meilan, those Li Brothers really crossed the line. We should go confront them."

Wang Meilan sighed. "Back in ’74, when Zhao Jun was catching fish in the gully, he got bitten by a snake. It was Minister Li’s older sister who saved him."

"That happened?" Zhao Jun asked in surprise.

"How would you remember?" Wang Meilan snapped, then turned back to Jin Xiaomei. "That Minister Li and Li Erchen... they’re orphans, and neither of them has managed to find a wife yet. We..."

At this, Wang Meilan glanced at Zhao Jun, sighed again, and said, "Zhao Jun is fine. Let’s just drop it. After this, our family doesn’t owe them anything anymore."

Hearing Wang Meilan’s decision, Zhao Youcai plopped down on the edge of the kang, picked up his mug, and chugged a large gulp of water before slamming it back down on the table.

That evening, saying it was to help Zhao Jun calm his nerves, Wang Meilan cooked four dishes. The family of five had a hearty meal. Afterward, Zhao Hong played with Zhao Na off to the side while Wang Meilan cleaned up in the outer room.

Zhao Jun sat at the kang table, keeping his drinking father, Zhao Youcai, company.

Zhao Youcai seemed a little drunk, fumbling with his chopsticks at the last few peanuts on the plate.

These last few peanuts had been shelled, and their smooth surfaces made them difficult for a drunk person to pick up with chopsticks.

Zhao Youcai tried a few times before giving up, tossing his chopsticks aside, and just grabbing the peanuts with his fingers.

He tried to stuff them in his mouth, but fumbled. He instinctively pursed his lips, trapping the peanuts there before a second motion got them into his mouth.

Zhao Youcai took another sip of alcohol, put down his cup, and suddenly said loudly to Zhao Jun, "Remember this. From now on, don’t go on a group hunt with people you don’t know well!"

"Yes, Dad," Zhao Jun hurriedly agreed. This was not the time to talk back; otherwise, he’d get more than just a good beating.

Zhao Youcai took another bite and a drink, then tilted his head, his drunken eyes filled with confusion as he asked Zhao Jun, "You didn’t even know that Li Dalian had saved you. So why did you decide to help those two?"

Li Dalian was the Li Brothers’ older sister, the one Wang Meilan mentioned had saved Zhao Jun twelve years ago.

He definitely couldn’t tell Zhao Youcai about his rebirth. That was something you couldn’t even tell your own father.

Zhao Jun just gave a faint smile and replied, "I just wanted to watch the show, but when I saw that Li Erchen was about to get mauled, I acted on impulse and rushed in."

"Sigh..." Zhao Youcai let out a low sigh and reached out to tap Zhao Jun’s forehead with his chopsticks. But because he was so drunk, the tip of the chopsticks slipped down, nearly poking Zhao Jun in the eye.

Zhao Jun quickly dodged back and pleaded, "Dad, you should drink a little less."

Zhao Youcai ignored him, took another drink for himself, and then said, "Son, you really cheated death today!"

Hearing this, Zhao Jun fell silent.

’He’s right. I really did escape with my life today! If that axe hadn’t dazed the Black Bear, I wouldn’t be sitting at home having dinner right now. It’s more likely I would have been the Black Bear’s dinner.’

"Roll me a cigarette," Zhao Youcai suddenly ordered, interrupting Zhao Jun’s thoughts.

Zhao Jun acknowledged the request, half-turning to grab a small basket and place it on his crossed legs.

The small basket contained loose tobacco shreds, with a stack of old calendar pages set to one side. Zhao Jun picked up a page and skillfully pinched a bit of shredded tobacco, spreading it out in a line.

Then, he rolled the paper around the tobacco, forming a cigarette. The tobacco only filled the middle section, leaving both ends empty.

Zhao Jun twisted both ends shut with his hands and stuck one end in his mouth. He then took a box of matches from the tobacco basket, struck one, and lit the other end of the cigarette.

Zhao Jun took a deep drag before handing it to Zhao Youcai. He had been craving a smoke for a long time, but his post-rebirth persona was that of a non-smoker and non-drinker, so he had been forcing himself to pretend.

Zhao Youcai must have been really drunk, as he didn’t notice anything unusual. He just took the cigarette and stuck it in his mouth.

Zhao Youcai smoked his cigarette, and Zhao Jun was lost in thought. The father and son sat around the kang table in a long silence.

After a while, Zhao Jun suddenly spoke up. "Dad, how do you decide if something should be done or not?"

Zhao Youcai replied, "You do the things you’re supposed to do, and you don’t do the things you’re not supposed to do."

Zhao Jun nodded, thinking, ’That’s a load of nonsense.’

There was no point in having a serious discussion with a drunk man, so Zhao Jun changed the subject. "Dad, look, I’ve brought back two Bear Galls already. Do you think you could get me a gun?"

Zhao Youcai said, "That falls into the ’not supposed to do’ category."

Zhao Jun was speechless.

Zhao Jun suddenly felt like he had shot himself in the foot. His two questions were completely unrelated, yet he never expected Zhao Youcai to use one to shut down the other.

"It doesn’t have to be a semi-automatic! A single-shot would be fine!" Zhao Jun pressed, hoping his father would make an exception, seeing as he had survived such a close call that day.

Zhao Youcai shook his head. "Those two Bear Galls aren’t all yours. Half of one belongs to Baoyu."

"Ah, but one and a half is still more than enough," Zhao Jun said. "The one from today was a Copper Gall. Even if I bought a semi-automatic, there’d still be two or three hundred yuan left over."

Zhao Youcai still shook his head, then jutted his chin toward the outer room. "Go talk to your mother. If she agrees to buy you one, then you can buy one."

"Then drink by yourself." Hearing that, Zhao Jun knew it was hopeless. He swung his legs off the kang, slipped on his shoes, and went back to his own room.

...

「In the blink of an eye, it was the twelfth lunar month.」

On this day, Zhao Jun got up at six in the morning. He hastily shoveled down a mouthful of food and began preparing to go up the mountain.

Once he was dressed and ready, he pulled a sheet of newspaper from the kang-side cabinet, went to the outer room, and started taking large flatbreads from the big wok to wrap in the paper.

Before he could finish wrapping them, the door to the house was pushed open from the outside.

"Big brother, don’t pack those. I brought you some sticky buns!" Li Baoyu came in holding a basin with one hand, the other hand keeping the lid on, and kicked the door shut behind him.

"Oh, nice!"

These "sticky dry rations," as they were called, were the famous sticky buns of the Northeast.

Sticky buns came in two varieties: yellow and white. The yellow ones were made with yellow broomcorn millet, though some families liked to mix in corn flour. Either way, they were yellow.

The white sticky buns were made from glutinous rice.

As for the filling, it was always red bean paste. Those who had adzuki beans used them; those who didn’t used red soybeans.

The beans were washed, stewed in a pot with water until mushy, and then, once cooled, shaped into small balls and taken outside to freeze solid.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that mountain folk didn’t have refrigerators back then. This was the Northeast; in winter, the entire outdoors was a freezer.

Once the bean paste balls were frozen firm, it was time to prepare the millet.

Northeasterners loved the taste of yellow broomcorn millet. They would wash it, soak it in clear water overnight, and then drain it the next day. After that, it was put into a sack and carried to the mill to be ground into flour.

Back home, the flour was placed in a large basin and scalded with boiling water, then kneaded into a dough. The basin was then placed on the kang and covered with a thick cotton quilt to let the millet dough ferment naturally.

When making the dough for these, you had to use very little water. This made the fermented dough especially firm, ensuring the sticky buns would hold their shape after being steamed.

Finally, you would pinch off pieces of dough and wrap them around the frozen bean paste balls.

Northeasterners loved these buns. Every household would make at least several dozen pounds of dough, producing hundreds of buns. They’d be left outside to freeze, then stored in large crocks to be steamed whenever they were needed.

Of course, some people steamed them all at once before freezing them for storage.

For a hunter, no food was better than sticky buns, because they were incredibly filling.

An average man would be completely full after eating just four or five of them.

The key was that they were small and didn’t take up much space.

With sticky buns, there was no need for the large flatbreads.

Zhao Jun put the flatbreads back in the wok, wrapped up ten sticky buns, and added two large pieces of pickled radish he had prepared earlier.

"Let’s go!" Zhao Jun said. Li Baoyu left the house first, hopped the wall into his own yard, and led Da Huang out.

Zhao Jun went outside, untied Hua Gou and Qing Gou, and left home with his dogs.