The whole mountain is my hunting ground

In Yong'an Tun under the cover of night, sporadic sounds of firecrackers could still be heard.

Under the big red lanterns, wintersweet flowers are in full bloom on the wicker tent.

Under the walls on both sides of the courtyard, in doghouses, the hunting dogs huddled together to minimize calorie consumption.

The Zhao family's house was brightly lit, with lights on in all three rooms.

In the outer room, some people were washing dishes, and some were collecting leftovers.

Wang Meilan put the remaining boxes in a small basin and counted them. There were still eighteen boxes left. She couldn't help but laugh and said, "Sister Sun and Xiaochen want to be here. None of these boxes will be left."

There were 25 people eating at the Zhao family's house, not including Li's mother and son. If Li Ruhai was included in the group of adults, there would be 18 adults and 7 children.

For dinner that night, Wang Meilan baked 160 boxes, each of which was as big as Zhao Jun's palm.

Now there are eighteen left, which means this group of people created one hundred and forty-two.

This is really edible.

After listening to Wang Meilan's words, Jin Xiaomei agreed: "Well, Sister Sun eats ten, and Xiaochen eats eight, which is about right."

The women laughed. Since Xie Sun had been away for these days, they really missed her a little.

"Sister." At this time, Zhao Ling said to Wang Meilan, "The mung bean sprouts at my house are ready. I will water them tomorrow morning and then bring them here."

"My baby is fine too." Yang Yufeng said so, and Xu Chunyan also said: "My baby is fine too."

Tomorrow is the fourth day of the New Year. In some places, there is a custom of eating Zheluo.

The so-called folding basket means folding the leftovers together.

The Zhao family cooks a lot of dishes every day, but whenever there is leftover food, Wang Meilan shares it with everyone.

Take the leftovers home and cook dumplings in the morning, and you can have a bite of the food. Or if you are hungry at night, you can heat it up and have a bite.

In other words, these people have food to eat every day.

But in Yong'antun, there is no custom of eating zheluo on the fourth day of the New Year. People are accustomed to making pancakes and scrambled eggs on this day.

Eating dumplings and wraps is a big deal here, just like eating noodles with soybean paste in some places.

These families like to stir-fry shredded potatoes and bean sprouts when rolling pancakes. These two vegetables are soft, unlike stir-fried garlic sprouts which are hard and difficult to roll into pancakes.

Speaking of mung bean sprouts, Yang Yufeng added: "When my daughter Lingdang's father was in prison, I didn't use the whole pot, I just scattered coriander seeds."

As she spoke, Yang Yufeng pinched her right index finger and thumb together and gestured, "The coriander that guy has is so thin, almost as thin as a hair."

"How tall is it?" Xu Chunyan asked. Yang Yufeng gestured and said, "It's about two fingers high. I'll cut it off tomorrow and bring it here."

When making rolls, in addition to stir-fried vegetables, you also need egg sauce and green onions. If it is not winter, it would be even better to have pickled vegetables to dip.

"Come on." Wang Meilan said with a smile, "Is that enough for one person?"

"Chop it up, chop it up, and mix it with cold dishes." Zhao Ling added, and then Yang Yufeng said, "I was thinking, if we put a few layers of plastic sheeting on it like the shed where we raise geese, it won't be cold, right?"

Yang Yufeng meant to build a plastic shed to grow vegetables.

Hearing her say this, Jin Xiaomei said, "We were watching TV the other day, wasn't it talking about greenhouses and stuff? Look at what they've built, isn't that pretty nice?"

"Yes!" Wang Meilan agreed after hearing this: "I was thinking, after the New Year we will move over there to free up this yard, and then we can build two more sheds."

"What are you going to do?" Wang Meilan was interrupted before she could finish her words. Zhao Youcai, who came out from the east room, glanced at Wang Meilan and said, "After I clear out the yard, I will raise a few more dogs."

"Just stop it now." Wang Meilan frowned, gestured towards Jin Xiaomei, and said, "How many dogs do we have? Are you still raising one? Count it up, Dayong's family has seven dogs, and we have thirteen!"

That’s right, with the return of Little Bear, Green Tiger, and Bald Tail, there are thirteen dogs in the Zhao family’s front yard.

With the addition of two stoves, the courtyard, which was originally quite spacious, is now almost too crowded to move around.

As for the seven dogs in Li Dayong's family, in addition to the four hunting dogs and Hua Niuniu, there are also two dogs left after Xing Zhiyong's death.

The two dogs have been at home for some time now, and are now almost familiar with the Zhao Family Gang and the Zhao Family Dog Gang. They are just waiting to go up the mountain to join forces after the New Year.

Twenty dogs, not counting the two dogs from Zhang Yuanmin's family. If they were counted, the number would be even more terrible.

Such a large-scale dog gang is enough. Too many dogs is not necessarily a good thing. Especially since the Zhao family has too many dogs, if they go up the mountain to dismantle the gang, it will easily cause trouble.

For example, when Zhao Jun went to Yongxing Brigade to participate in the spring hunt last year, a little bear suddenly appeared, causing the hunting dogs to split up. In the end, Daqing was killed, and the little bear and Dahuang were injured.

Zhao Youcai knew how many dogs there were in the family, after all, he was not blind. But Zhao Youcai had his own ideas, he always wanted to have a dog gang that belonged to him completely.

But it was ok for him to say this to Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan, but Zhao Youcai felt a little embarrassed to say it in front of others, because he felt that such words would make people think that the father and son were not getting along, as if they were trying to split up.

But Zhao Youcai was unwilling to give up this idea. Since Zhao Jun got engaged, Zhao Youcai had been thinking about using this yard to develop his dog gang.

Seeing that Zhao Jun was going to get married after the Chinese New Year, how could Zhao Youcai be willing to give up at this time?

"Well..." Zhao Youcai rolled his eyes and said immediately, "You want to grow vegetables, but can it be the same as raising geese? It's okay during the day, but can it be done at night?"

The Northeast, especially Heilongjiang Province, is extremely cold in winter. The temperature in the forest area is nearly minus 40 degrees Celsius at night, and it is not an exaggeration to say that water turns into ice when poured on it.

The plastic shed built in winter is pretty good when there is plenty of sunlight during the day, and the temperature in the shed can reach above zero degrees.

But at night, the shed is not much warmer than outside. If you raise poultry in the shed, they can survive. But if you grow vegetables, it will be a problem. They will all freeze to death overnight.

"Don't be afraid, uncle." Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind Zhao Youcai, almost making Zhao Youcai angry to death.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zhang Yuanmin squeezed out of the east room door and said, "Let's go inside the shed. Build a stove on the west side and a chimney on the east side. In the middle, put stones to build a chimney. When that thing lights a fire, it will be hot inside."

Zhao Youcai gritted his teeth when he heard this, and the group of women instantly became interested.

Chinese women love to grow small vegetable gardens. In his previous life, Zhao Jun watched short videos and saw that many old Chinese ladies turned their nice flower gardens into vegetable gardens once they arrived abroad.

There are also some people who grow vegetables on their balconies or at home, using soil or hydroponics, with a wide variety of methods.

"Yuanmin!" Wang Meilan praised Zhang Yuanmin generously and said, "This job depends on you. It will all depend on you when the time comes."

"Haha..." Zhang Yuanmin laughed. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Yang Yufeng say, "Don't worry, old lady. He is very good at this job."

"Hahaha..." Zhang Yuanmin was even happier. He laughed loudly, turned around, raised his hand and gestured outside the window, and said to Wang Meilan, "Aunt, I've figured it out. When the time comes, we'll rip out all those doghouses."

"What?" Zhao Youcai's eyes widened, but Zhang Yuanmin only pointed his head at him and said to Wang Meilan, "Build two rows of houses."

"What the hell?" Zhao Youcai couldn't help himself. He stretched out his hand to grab Zhang Yuanmin's shoulder and asked, "Are you still building a house?"

"It's a house stub." Zhang Yuanmin answered, and then asked Zhao Youcai, "Uncle, whose house is the wall between us and Old Song's in the East Courtyard?"

"I don't know." Zhao Youcai responded unhappily. Wang Meilan stretched out her hand to pull it away and said to Zhang Yuanmin, "That's ours."

Then Wang Meilan turned back to find Jin Xiaomei and said, "The wall on the west side belongs to your uncle Li."

"That's easy to say." Jin Xiaomei waved her hand and then said to Zhang Yuanmin: "Yuanmin, just tell me what you want to do."

"Both of these walls are ours, so we have one side of the house?" Zhang Yuanmin said, "As for the house, we can put up beams instead of tiles, put up a frame on top, and install glass."

"Hey? That's fine too!" Wang Meilan's eyes lit up when she heard that, "There's no need to keep changing the plastic sheet when setting up the glass."

"What a mess." Zhao Youcai said, "If they use glass on top, how much will that cost? How many vegetables can they buy with that?"

"Oh!" At this time, Lin Xue came over and said, "What's the money, sister? Dazhi and his family have light-transmitting cultivation in the forestry business, so what do they have?"

"Huh?" Wang Meilan's eyes became brighter. At this time, the outer room had been cleaned up. A group of women went to the east room talking in a buzz, leaving only Zhao Youcai gritting his teeth.

…

The "News Broadcast" ended and the diners went home.

Wang Meilan and the old lady warmed the quilts in the east room and coaxed the two little girls to sleep.

In the west room, Zhao Jun was sitting on the edge of the kang washing his feet, while Zhao Youcai and Xing San were sitting cross-legged on the kang smoking. Neither of them was warming themselves under the quilt, as they were both waiting for Zhao Jun.

"Brother, do you think this day is just a mess?" Zhao Youcai pointed out the window and said to Xing San, "How can you live like this?"

Xing San smiled when he heard this, but he didn't say anything. The old man was embarrassed to say in front of Zhao Youcai that he actually supported Wang Meilan.

"That's enough, Dad." At this time, Zhao Jun wiped his feet and said, "Where are our dogs? Why don't you fence them in enough?"

"That's right, second brother." Xing San hurriedly helped Zhao Jun persuade Zhao Youcai, saying, "We have plenty of food and drink at home, so why are you working so hard?"

Zhao Youcai sighed heavily and said, "Brother, I am happy to go up the mountain. I feel good when I go up the mountain. I feel uncomfortable staying at home all the time."

Xing San didn't quite agree with what Zhao Youcai said. The old man had lived in the mountains for decades, and he had had enough.

Zhao Jun, on the other hand, agreed with Zhao Youcai's words. He had been at home for the New Year, and was free but also bored.

But before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, few people go to the mountains. If you bump into something during the New Year, it is not a good sign.

…

The next morning, Zhao Jun went to the next door to find Li Baoyu after dinner. Then the two brothers started to work, taking shovels, pickaxes and hoes from the warehouse.

"Jun!" Li Dayong came out of his house and asked Zhao Jun, "Where are you two going?"

"Let's go fish, uncle." Zhao Jun said with a smile, "Let's go to Dongdagou and dig a hole in the ice to see if we can find some old men, wheat ears, boat nails, etc. After that, we can fry some fish paste tomorrow, and also fry some frozen cabbage and dried radish."

"Oh my! That's great!" Li Dayong's eyes lit up instantly after hearing that, and he said, "Simmer some rice, and it will be so delicious!"

Zhao Jun laughed when he heard what Li Dayong said. Li Baoyu said, "Dad, can you go for a walk with us?"

Catching fish is different from setting a net. There is not much work to do, and Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu are just idle.

"I'm not going, you guys go." Unlike the other guys, as a 40-year-old man, Li Dayong is a bit lazy. Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu can't stay at home, but Li Dayong is willing to stay at home quietly, watch TV and drink tea.

At this time, Li Ruhai ran out of Li's house.

"Brother, I'll go with you." Li Ruhai said so, and Zhao Jun said, "Let's go, we can call Brother Zhang on the way."

Li Baoyu handed the two shovels to Li Ruhai. He was carrying a shovel and a pickaxe, but Zhao Jun had nothing in his hands.

When the three of them were walking towards Zhang Yuanmin's house, they passed by Wang Fu's grocery store.

Wang Fu and his wife closed the shop for the afternoon on the 29th day of the lunar year and resumed normal business on the first day of the new year.

"Brother, you two go first." Li Ruhai smiled at Zhao Jun and said, "I'm going to buy a bunch of double-bang biscuits."

The twenty bundles of double-barreled firecrackers that Zhao Jun had bought before were all destroyed by them.

"Go ahead." No matter what Li Ruhai wanted to do, Zhao Jun didn't stop him.

It’s the New Year, so have fun if you want, as long as it doesn’t get dangerous.

Li Ruhai quickly returned to the team, with two bundles of double-barreled guns in two stacked feeding trucks.

When passing by Zhang Yuanmin's house, they called Zhang Yuanmin, and the four of them talked and laughed as they left the village and headed towards Dongdagou.

"Brother, are you going to my sister-in-law's house tomorrow?" Li Baoyu asked Zhao Jun. Zhao Jun said, "Well, tomorrow is the fifth day of the first lunar month. I'll go over to visit her."

The custom here is to visit relatives and friends on the fifth day of the New Year.

"Ha!" As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, he heard Li Ruhai's cold sneer.

Zhao Jun, Li Baoyu, and Zhang Yuanmin all looked at Li Ruhai, only to see Li Ruhai walking and looking ahead, saying to the air: "Just say you want to go, why are you asking others?"

"Fuck..." Li Baoyu almost committed treason, Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin laughed.

Li Ruhai didn't even look at Li Baoyu when he spoke, but just spoke to the air in front of him: "He's been in a daze since the 29th day of the lunar year, thinking about visiting his father-in-law's house. This guy is like a dog with stomach upset."

"Fuck!" It was inconvenient for Li Baoyu to take action while carrying the shovel and pickaxe, but by the time he put down the shovel and pickaxe, Li Ruhai had already run ahead.

Li Baoyu chased after him dragging a shovel and a pickaxe backwards, Li Ruhai ran away carrying the feeding rope, and Zhao Jun and Zhang Yuanmin watched the fun.

"Bang! Bang!"

Just then, the sound of firecrackers exploding was heard from the front.

"Who is setting off firecrackers in Dongdagou?" Zhang Yuanmin saw this and said, "It doesn't sound like they are blasting fish or ice."

The four of them walked forward and arrived at the Dongdagou area. They walked onto the ice and tried to find a deep water place to dig holes in the ice and catch fish.

But at this moment, Li Baoyu, who was walking in front, turned around and shouted, "Brother."

"Hmm?" Zhao Jun was stunned, and then he heard Li Baoyu say, "Your brother-in-law."

"What?" Zhao Jun took a few steps forward and saw Ma Yang and Dong San, a boy next door to the Ma family, setting off firecrackers on the ice.

As Zhao Jun approached, he saw Dong San lighting the fuse of the firecrackers while Ma Yang rushed over holding a basin.

Then, Ma Yang used a basin to knock over the firecrackers that had not yet exploded. Then the naughty kid turned around and sat directly on the basin.

"Oh my god!" Zhao Jun's eyes widened and he blurted out, "This idiot!"

"Bang!" There was a muffled sound, and Ma Yang, who was sitting on the basin, did not move at all.

Zhao Jun yelled at the top of his lungs: "Xiaoyang, get up quickly!"

"Bang!" With the second explosion, Ma Yang was lifted up along with the basin.

But it was not lifted too high and fell less than ten centimeters from the ice surface.

The explosion drowned out Zhao Jun's shouts. Ma Yang, who hadn't heard anything, laughed with his friends and said, "This thing is pretty powerful!"

"Xiaoyang, hide there quickly!" Zhao Jun shouted again, and this time Ma Yang finally heard Zhao Jun's voice.

But at the same time, with the basin under Ma Yang's butt as the center, circles of cracks appeared on the ice surface and spread outward!