By the time Zhao Jun had finished eating, gotten dressed, slung his rifle over his back, and walked out the door with his skis, the four of them—Zhao Youcai, Li Dayong, Wang Qiang, and Lin Xiangshun—had already taken a truck deep into the mountains.

Zhao Jun waited at the door for Li Baoyu to come out, and the two of them walked out of the village together, carrying their skis.

All along the way, Li Baoyu was sighing, as if silently protesting the regret of not being able to see the Pig God get butchered.

Zhao Jun ignored him and just said, "I heard from my brother-in-law that the state-run store In the Town raised its price for Galls again."

"How much are they now?" Li Baoyu asked distractedly, his mind still on that thousand-pound wild boar.

Zhao Jun said, "Someone from their village went to sell one before the New Year. They got one thousand yuan for a single one."

"How much?" Li Baoyu’s voice jumped an octave.

His "how much" wasn’t because he hadn’t heard clearly, but because he was so shocked.

One thousand yuan!

What kind of price was that?

You have to understand, as the head chef at the Forest Farm’s cafeteria, Zhao Youcai’s monthly salary, plus subsidies and overtime, all added up, only amounted to one hundred yuan and fifty cents.

Li Dayong earned a bit more. He did piece-work, so he got more overtime and subsidies, but his total for a month was still only a hundred sixty-five yuan and fifty cents.

A single Gall for one thousand yuan... that was more than Li Dayong’s salary for half a year.

"When did they get so expensive?"

Zhao Jun shook his head. "It was just last year. Who knows why the price shot up like that."

"Then if we check the traps today and catch eight, we’ll have hit the jackpot!" At this, Li Baoyu instantly forgot all about the thousand-pound wild boar.

"Heh." Zhao Jun chuckled when he heard that. "What are you dreaming about? If we can even catch one, we can count ourselves lucky."

"Huh?"

Zhao Jun said, "Those things are smart. And they’re getting rarer. Otherwise, why do you think the big stores would pay one thousand yuan for a single skin?"

As they spoke, the two had already entered the mountains. They used a knife to cut some Fraxinus mandschurica sticks, strapped the skis to their feet, and used the sticks to propel themselves toward the high peaks.

They followed the path to where they had set the traps last time, found the Sable tracks they had seen before, and followed them until they reached a large red pine far to the south. Only then did Zhao Jun shake his head at Li Baoyu.

This was where they’d set the first trap, but the tracks looked the same, and there didn’t seem to be any new ones.

A sly rabbit has three burrows.

The Sable didn’t just use this one path. It seemed this particular one hadn’t passed this way in nearly half a month.

Since that was the case, they decided not to touch the trap buried in the snow here. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu headed for the next spot.

When they got to the second trap site, they could see from a distance that the snow ahead was uneven, with what looked like a slight depression.

They quickly skied closer and saw that the snow’s surface had indeed collapsed slightly. The snow here showed signs of a struggle.

Zhao Jun thrust his Fraxinus mandschurica Stick into that spot and pried upwards. As he unearthed the trap from the snow, he brought something up with it.

From head to tail, it was no more than half a meter long, and its fluffy tail made up almost half that length.

It had short limbs, a slender head, and small, round ears. Its whole body was covered in brownish-black fur, interspersed with a few white guard hairs.

"Haha..." Li Baoyu suddenly burst out laughing, startling Zhao Jun.

"What are you doing!" Zhao Jun asked, annoyed.

"Brother, it’s a Gall!" Li Baoyu slapped Zhao Jun hard on the back, ecstatically pointing at the little creature dangling from the end of the Fraxinus mandschurica Stick.

"I see it!" Zhao Jun shrugged Li Baoyu’s hand off his shoulder, then flicked the stick back, tossing the Sable, trap and all, into Li Baoyu’s arms.

Li Baoyu hugged them, grinning from ear to ear.

He removed the dead Sable from the trap, stuffed the trap into his satchel, and handed the Sable to Zhao Jun.

It turned out Zhao Jun had also brought a bag today. He took the Sable and put it in.

This Sable weighed over a jin. Its body was frozen stiff, but its fur from head to tail was still soft. Just holding it, feeling the texture, was a pleasure.

The two used their Fraxinus mandschurica Sticks to continue higher up. This was what checking the traps meant; they had to go over every single trap they had previously set.

When they arrived at the third location, they followed the tracks and looked ahead. The snow up front looked disturbed. Li Baoyu hurriedly skied over and used his Fraxinus mandschurica stick to pry at it.

With a flick, the trap came out, but it was empty.

Li Baoyu instinctively dropped his stick and the trap, knelt in the snow, and started digging at the spot with his hands.

"Stop digging!" Zhao Jun skied over and said to him, "If it was caught, it couldn’t have gotten out of the trap."

"How could it have escaped?" Li Baoyu’s face was full of frustration.

"Why couldn’t it?" Zhao Jun gave him a push. "Hurry up, let’s go to the next spot."

"But this trap..."

"What about the trap? Just take it with you." Zhao Jun looked around. "These things are extremely clever. Spook it once, and it’ll abandon its own den."

The two continued upward. By now, it was noon. Li Baoyu said he’d eaten breakfast early and was hungry now.

So they found a spot sheltered from the wind, gathered some dry branches to start a fire, and roasted the sticky bean buns they had brought from home.

After eating, they couldn’t leave right away. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu sat leaning against a tree, talking. After a few words, Li Baoyu pulled Zhao Jun’s bag over, took out the Sable, and started fiddling with it.

"Brother, why is this thing so valuable?" Li Baoyu knew it was expensive—it had always been expensive.

But Li Baoyu didn’t understand why this little thing was worth so much. It didn’t look much different from a yellow fox or a gray dog.

Seeing that Li Baoyu didn’t get it, Zhao Jun reached out, took the Sable, and said to him, "Don’t blink."

"Huh?" Li Baoyu replied.

Zhao Jun took the Sable’s tail and poked it toward Li Baoyu’s eye. To be precise, he used the guard hairs on the Sable’s body to touch Li Baoyu’s eyeball.

"How does that feel?" Zhao Jun asked him.

"Hey?" Li Baoyu, surprised, took the Sable and tentatively poked its fur against his own eye.

The Sable’s whole body, from head to toe, was covered in short, brownish-black fur, mixed with long, white guard hairs.

But neither the short fur nor the guard hairs pricked the eye when they touched the eyeball.

"Now you know why it’s so expensive, right?" Zhao Jun said to Li Baoyu. "Try it with a yellow fox or a gray dog and see if it doesn’t poke you."

"This is amazing stuff," Li Baoyu exclaimed with genuine admiration.

After resting for a while, they continued on toward the location of the next trap.

Last time, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu had set eight traps in total. They had just checked three. Of the remaining five, four were untouched, and one had been sprung but hadn’t caught a Sable.

"Sigh!" Li Baoyu let out a long sigh and shook his head. "Eight traps, and we only caught one!"

"That’s already pretty good," Zhao Jun said with a smile. "Don’t be ungrateful. Come on, let’s go set those three traps."

The two of them again searched the surrounding hills for Sable tracks. When they found some, they set traps below them. Zhao Jun had just finished setting one trap and covering it with snow when he suddenly heard Li Baoyu shouting as he skied over from a distance.

"Brother, come quick! Something big has happened!"