After breakfast, Zhao Jun went into the yard and pulled a section of a brown bear’s leg out of the large vat by the corner of the house.

It had been sawed off from the thigh, was about three handspans long, and weighed more than ten pounds.

Zhao Jun also took a long strip of meat from the Black Bear he’d hunted last time, packed everything into a burlap sack, and prepared to head out to see Zhang Yuanmin.

The last time he’d visited Zhang Yuanmin was the day he returned from Yongsheng Village, and it had been a hurried one.

When he left Zhang Yuanmin’s house that day, Zhao Jun had promised to visit again soon, but he’d simply been too busy.

Killing Xiong Ba, trapping wildcats, killing a Black Bear, hunting a Lynx—oh, and in the middle of all that, he’d also put Zhang Laibao in his place.

With the second day of the second lunar month just two days away, Zhao Jun wanted to visit Zhang Yuanmin and also ask about getting a dog from the Yang Family in Yongfu Village.

Just as Zhao Jun stepped out of his house, he saw Li Ruhai strolling out of his own yard, looking mighty pleased with himself.

"Ruhai!"

"Brother Jun."

Zhao Jun said to him, "Go get your brother for me."

"You got it."

Li Ruhai turned and went home to get Li Baoyu. Zhao Jun let out a long sigh. ’I was so focused on getting the bear meat for Zhang Yuanmin that I completely forgot about this little menace.’

Not two minutes later, the Li Brothers emerged from the yard.

"Where are you off to?" Li Baoyu asked as soon as he saw Zhao Jun carrying the burlap sack.

"Come over here, I need to talk to you," Zhao Jun said, waving Li Baoyu over. He then turned to Li Ruhai. "Ruhai, you go on and play now."

A wide smile on his face, Li Ruhai nodded at Zhao Jun and skipped away happily.

"What’s up?" Li Baoyu asked, a little curious. But then he remembered something. "Funny you came looking for me, I was just about to go find you."

"Hold that thought," Zhao Jun quickly interrupted Li Baoyu. "Listen to me..."

Zhao Jun quickly explained the situation in a few words. When he finished, Li Baoyu’s eyes went wide. "No way," he muttered.

"What do you mean, ’no way’!" Zhao Jun said, pointing at Li Ruhai’s rapidly vanishing figure. "Go catch up to him and you’ll see for yourself!"

Hearing this, Li Baoyu didn’t say another word to Zhao Jun and immediately took off after Li Ruhai.

As Li Ruhai walked, he looked all around but didn’t see a soul.

Suddenly, a middle-aged woman in a floral-print, cotton-padded jacket emerged from a roadside outhouse.

"Aunt Liu!"

Li Ruhai’s shout made the woman jump.

"Oh, Ruhai." The woman’s surname was Liu, her full name Liu Shulan. Her family lived in the front row of houses. She had just stepped out to relieve herself and was in a hurry to get home and cook.

So, even though she heard Li Ruhai call out to her, Liu Shulan didn’t want to chat for long.

But her reluctance to talk was no match for Li Ruhai’s eagerness to.

"Aunt Liu, I’m going to the village store. Need me to pick anything up for you?" Li Ruhai asked.

"No, I’m fine," Liu Shulan said, continuing on her way.

Seeing that Liu Shulan wasn’t taking the bait, Li Ruhai tried again. "My mom gave me money to buy lots of tasty snacks to bring home."

"Then you’d better buy plenty."

’This woman is so dense,’ Li Ruhai thought to himself, but what he said was, "My mom gave me twenty yuan today and told me to spend it all."

"What?" Liu Shulan was stunned. Her family of five—herself, her husband, two children, and an elderly mother—might not even spend twenty yuan in an entire month. ’And Jin Xiaomei just gave it to Li Ruhai? Just like that?’

Liu Shulan gave Li Ruhai a long, hard look, then continued walking.

Seeing that Liu Shulan was about to turn left at the corner, Li Ruhai hurriedly said, "It’s a reward from my mom."

"A reward?" Liu Shulan’s curiosity was finally piqued. "What did you do for Xiaomei to give you such a big reward?"

"I was rewarded for reporting someone yesterday! Aunt Liu, let me tell you..."

Before Li Ruhai could finish, he was sent flying forward, landing headfirst in a snowdrift by the side of the path.

This startled Liu Shulan. She turned to look, only relaxing when she saw who it was. "Baoyu, what are you doing? Why are you hitting your little brother?"

Li Baoyu glanced at Liu Shulan and said, "Aunt Liu, don’t listen to his nonsense. My mom didn’t give him any money. He stole it from home. She sent me to drag him back."

"What?" A shocked cry came from the snowdrift. Li Ruhai, his head covered in snow, scrambled up and yelled at Li Baoyu, "Who says I stole it? When Mom gave me money yesterday, didn’t she also give you... You..."

Li Baoyu lunged forward, hooking an arm around Li Ruhai’s neck and clamping his other hand over his mouth. He then said to Liu Shulan, "It’s nothing, Aunt Liu. You should get back home."

"Oh." Liu Shulan started to leave, but stopped after only a single step. She turned back to look at Li Ruhai. "Ruhai, it’s not my place to say anything, but how could you steal from your own family?"

With his mouth covered, Li Ruhai couldn’t defend himself and was simply dragged home by Li Baoyu.

Inside the Li’s house, the atmosphere was exceptionally strange.

Li Dayong, married for twenty years, was washing the dishes at home for the first time in two decades.

Just as he finished the dishes and was about to go inside to rest, Li Dayong heard a commotion in the yard. It was the sound of his two sons squabbling.

Li Dayong had been looking for someone to take his frustration out on, and hearing his boys carrying on like this, the thought of a good thrashing immediately entered his mind. He glanced around, grabbed the very same broom Jin Xiaomei had used to beat him with the day before, and held it aloft.

Just then, Li Baoyu dragged Li Ruhai inside. The moment he saw Li Dayong, he asked, "Where’s Mom?"

Li Dayong snapped, "Never mind your mother. Let me ask you, why are you always picking on your little brother? You’re the older one, can’t you go easy on him for once?"

"Go easy on him?" Li Baoyu immediately recounted everything he had just seen and heard to Li Dayong.

Li Baoyu had barely begun his story when Jin Xiaomei stormed out of her room. A few sentences more, and a mixed-doubles beatdown commenced.

"I’ll teach you to run your mouth! I’ll teach you to run your mouth!" Li Ruhai dodged a strike from Jin Xiaomei, only to be taken down by a blow from his own dear brother.

...

When Zhao Jun arrived at Zhang Yuanmin’s home, he received a warm welcome from the family. Zhang Yuanmin told Yang Yufeng to prepare a meal, insisting that Zhao Jun stay for lunch.

While Yang Yufeng went out to buy groceries, Zhao Jun sat and chatted with Zhang Yuanmin, telling him about what he’d been up to the last few days.

When Zhang Yuanmin heard Zhao Jun say he had pulled two Black Bear cubs out of a tree den, he asked, "Brother, what are you going to do with two bear cubs?"

"Well..." At Zhang Yuanmin’s question, Zhao Jun felt a bit conflicted.

’Black Bears have strong stomachs and are omnivores. They aren’t hard to raise—in fact, you could say they’re even easier than dogs.’

’But they’re still wild animals, with sharp claws and fangs. You can’t let them get too big, or they’ll become uncontrollable.’

’Besides, with an appetite like that, raising one for too long could be the death of you.’

So, there were two ways to deal with the two cubs. One was to raise them until they were over a hundred pounds, then kill them for their meat and sell the Bear Gall. The other was to wait for an opportunity to sell them to a zoo.

Zhao Jun couldn’t bring himself to kill animals he had raised himself. But selling the bears? That would take a stroke of luck.

Suddenly, Zhang Yuanmin rolled over and sat up bolt upright on the kang. "Brother," he said to Zhao Jun, "I’ve got an idea. I guarantee it’ll help you sell those cubs."

He paused, a wide grin spreading across his face. "If you don’t believe me, just you watch!"