At Zhang Yuanmin’s house.

Zhang Yuanmin was boasting animatedly when Yang Yufeng happened to walk in after grocery shopping. The moment she heard him say, "Just you watch me," she was so startled she almost dropped the can of Spam in her hand.

Yang Yufeng quickly set down her string bag and demanded of Zhang Yuanmin, "What are you telling our brother?"

"Our brother got two black bear cubs. I was saying I’d help him... help him sell them."

Yang Yufeng’s eyes went wide when she heard that. "Are you drunk or something?" she said. "What nonsense are you spewing to our brother? You’re going to help him sell black bear cubs? Where are you going to sell them? Who are you going to sell them to?"

"Who am I going to sell them to?" Zhang Yuanmin smirked, a sight that made Yang Yufeng even more uneasy. As his wife, she knew that whenever he cooked up some brilliant scheme, this was the exact smile that would appear on his face.

Zhang Yuanmin shot Yang Yufeng a look, then ignored her and turned back to Zhao Jun. "Brother," he said, "trust me. Not only will I sell them for you, I’ll get you a high price."

Zhao Jun glanced to the side. He and Yang Yufeng met each other’s eyes, and they both looked at each other, utterly bewildered.

At noon, Zhao Jun stayed at Zhang Yuanmin’s for lunch.

After the meal, Zhao Jun and Yang Yufeng left together, heading for the Village Office.

The day after tomorrow was the first day of the second lunar month. Originally, Zhang Yuanmin was supposed to take Zhao Jun to Yongfu Village on that day to get a puppy from Yang Mantang’s house.

But Zhang Yuanmin still couldn’t leave his house, so he couldn’t take Zhao Jun.

But they couldn’t just not get the dog, and Yang Yufeng couldn’t leave home. So, Zhao Jun had to go by himself.

However, Zhao Jun didn’t know Yang Mantang. He only knew from what Hu Dajiang had said in his past life that Black Dragon had been a gift from Yang Mantang of Yongfu Village.

Therefore, before he went, Yang Yufeng needed to call Yongfu Village first to give Yang Mantang a heads-up. Only then could Zhao Jun go.

Zhao Jun and Yang Yufeng went to the Village Office and explained the situation to Zhao Guofeng. Zhao Guofeng made a call to Yongfu Village, and after waiting five or six minutes, someone called back.

"Hello! Seventh Brother!" Yang Yufeng answered the phone, shouting at the top of her lungs. "Last time, Lingdang’s dad talked to you about getting a puppy... Ah, he can’t make it now... Don’t even ask, he got mauled by Xiong Ba... Anyway, never mind all that. Tomorrow, my brother is going over... He’s one of us, yes, yes, you’d better treat him well..."

After hanging up, Yang Yufeng smiled at Zhao Jun. "Brother, it’s all arranged. You can just go straight there tomorrow."

"Thanks, Sister-in-law."

"Don’t be so formal."

Zhao Jun thanked Zhao Guofeng again, then left the Village Office with Yang Yufeng, and they both went their separate ways home.

Just as he was about to reach his house, he saw Li Baoyu coming out of the latrine not far away, holding a chamber pot.

"Baoyu!"

"Brother! You’re back?"

"Yeah." Zhao Jun walked closer and asked, "What are you up to?"

Yong’an Village was originally a residential area for workers’ families, so many of the houses were public housing. This meant that most of the toilets were also public, unlike in many rural areas where every household had its own.

But regardless of whether the toilets were public, it was inconvenient to go out at night. So, people used chamber pots and urine buckets at home in the evening, emptying them the next morning.

But it was already afternoon, so Zhao Jun found it a little strange that Li Baoyu was only just now emptying the chamber pot.

Li Baoyu burst out laughing and said, "It’s because of Ruhai, ha ha ha..."

He started laughing again before he could even finish his sentence.

Zhao Jun shook his head. ’No need to ask any more.’ He was sure Li Ruhai had been beaten so badly he couldn’t get out of bed again.

But this was a good thing. If he couldn’t leave the house, he couldn’t run his mouth. After all, that incident didn’t just involve the Li Family; Zhao Youcai had been hiding money too.

Yesterday, Li Ruhai had been at home, listening with his ears wide open, and had heard everything clearly. And with a mouth like his, it would be a miracle if he didn’t drag Zhao Youcai into it when he got excited telling the story.

Li Ruhai might not care about the embarrassment, but Zhao Jun couldn’t stand it.

"Baoyu."

"Yeah?"

Zhao Jun said, "Tell Ruhai that if he wants to leave the house, he has to forget that whole thing completely. Otherwise, he won’t be getting out of bed even when school starts."

"Right!" Li Baoyu nodded emphatically. He wanted Li Dayong to suffer a bit to get revenge for the nineteen years of beatings he’d endured, but he didn’t want his family to become the laughingstock of the whole village.

"Sigh!" Thinking of his brother’s reckless energy that morning, Li Baoyu felt helpless. Liu Shumei hadn’t even asked, but he was eagerly trying to draw her in and tell her the story.

’Who does that?’

Li Baoyu said helplessly to Zhao Jun, "Tell me, why is that kid Ruhai’s mouth like that?"

"Heh." Zhao Jun chuckled. "The mouth is a good mouth. It’s the tongue that’s the problem."

Hearing this, Li Baoyu laughed too. He said, "After my mom gave birth to Ruhai, my dad was reading *Dream of the Red Chamber* and named him after Lin Daiyu’s father. But that Lin Ruhai wasn’t like this, was he?"

Zhao Jun heard this and replied with a smile, "Well, you’re not exactly like Jia Baoyu, are you?"

Li Baoyu roared with laughter. The two of them went into Zhao Jun’s family courtyard and over to the storeroom to check on Cyan Dragon and the two bear cubs.

"Brother," Li Baoyu asked, looking at the two little black bears, "can we just raise these two cubs?"

"What do you think?" Zhao Jun retorted, then added, "All day long, Hua Xiao’er is straining to get over here. Once they get a little bigger, won’t our dogs try to kill them?"

Li Baoyu thought about it and realized he was right. It would be one thing if their dogs didn’t recognize the bears, but if they did, that would be a whole different story.

Right now, the little black bears were still small and nestled against the ewe, their scent masked by the smell of the sheep.

But even so, Hua Xiao’er was constantly pulling on his chain, trying to get to the storeroom.

If they waited until the bears got bigger, the storeroom wouldn’t be able to hold them, and then things at home would really get chaotic.

"What are we going to do?" Li Baoyu also knew that if they could just raise the cubs until they were eighty or ninety catties, they could be traded for a lot of money. But the dogs wouldn’t let them grow that big.

Zhao Jun suddenly remembered something and smiled. "I went to see our Brother Zhang today. He said he can help us sell these two bear cubs."

"Him?" Li Baoyu scoffed. "Brother, give me a break. You actually listen to him? Last time, he said he’d give me a share of the Bear Gall after he blew up Xiong Ba. And what happened? My family ended up wasting several sticks of dynamite."

Speaking of which, Li Baoyu remembered something else and asked Zhao Jun, "Brother, what did he say about getting the puppy?"

As they spoke, they reached the wall. Zhao Jun said, "Come with me tomorrow morning. We’ll go get the dog together."

"Alright." After saying that, Li Baoyu hopped over the wall and went home.

Zhao Jun opened the door and went inside. As soon as he entered, he saw Zhao Youcai sitting in the outer room, washing clothes.

Zhao Jun was dumbfounded!

This was a scene Zhao Jun had never witnessed in his two lifetimes.

In his memory, it was always his mother who handled the washing and cleaning. At home, Zhao Youcai had always been a hands-off "shopkeeper." If he came home early, he might cook a nice meal for his wife and son. If he came home late, it meant he’d already eaten at the Forest Farm, and he would probably just flop onto the kang and go straight to sleep.

This was truly the first time he’d ever seen him wash clothes.

In truth, Zhao Jun had been very restrained. After he’d lit the fuse, he had tried his best to keep a low profile and not attract any resentment.

But at this moment, he couldn’t help but walk over to Zhao Youcai.

Zhao Youcai was sitting on a small stool with a large iron washbasin between his feet. A washboard was propped against the basin’s rim, and he was gripping a piece of cotton cloth with both hands, scrubbing it hard against the board.

The cotton cloth he was washing was the very lining he had removed from his cotton-padded jacket and pants the day before. Zhao Jun remembered asking about it that morning, and Wang Meilan’s reaction at the time had been very telling—a mixture of sighs and smiles.

He never expected that the one washing the clothes wouldn’t be Wang Meilan, but Zhao Youcai.

"Dad!" Zhao Jun said in astonishment. "How could Mom let you wash clothes? You’ve lived this long and you’ve never done this kind of work in your life!"