Chapter 43: Lazy Dogzi Zhu Erhai
They were going to train the eagles for calling far later, so Xiao Tao and his father didn't go home after securing the eagles.
Yue Feng had returned early and prepared food for the eagles in advance. The few of them took turns practicing calling far with the eagles in the yard, starting from jumping onto the fist, gradually increasing the distance until they could call from the perch all the way to the base of the south wall before taking a break and feeding the eagles until their crops were full.
At the entrance of the yard, the children peeked through the crack in the door to watch the excitement. Each time the trained eagle for calling far spread its wings and flew to the Hawk Keeper's hand, it would cause the children to let out excited hushed cries.
The Zhang family brothers were still the last to return. Today, Brother Xiao Wen and Brother Xiao Wu also had a bountiful harvest.
By the time the eagles in Brother Xiao Wen and Brother Xiao Wu's hands had also finished calling far training, the sky had gradually darkened.
Seeing that there was no more excitement to watch, the children who were watching slowly dispersed and went back to their own homes.
In this era, there were few things to talk about, so the news that the Yue Family had secured several eagles and gone into the mountains to catch chickens quickly spread among the neighbors through the children's mouths.
In the eyes of most villagers, it was just a novelty, but a small number of people realized the potential benefits.
Zhu Erhai, Zhu Sanhai's older brother, was one of them.
Zhu Erhai is 21 this year and dropped out before finishing primary school. Besides helping his parents with farm work during the busy season, he is idle at other times, either getting together with a few loafers to play cards and gamble, or thinking about stealing someone's chicken to stew and drink heavily.
At this age, children from good families were already married with children, but the Zhu family's three sons had a difficult life. Zhu Erhai, furthermore, had a terrible reputation in the village. He was lazy, idle, and even bullied Li Nainai, a martyr's family member. His temper and character were bad to a certain extent, earning him the nickname Lazy Dogzi.
When Zhu Sanhai went home for dinner, he told his older brother about the Yue Family training eagles and catching many Sand Grouse.
Zhu Erhai didn't think about selling these things in the city for money. Instead, he figured that if he could also train an eagle and occasionally go into the mountains to catch some Sand Grouse or Flying Dragon, wouldn't he be able to eat meat every few days? At that time, his group of hangers-on would surely fawn over him every day.
In the villages at the foot of Changbai Mountain, every village had hunters who knew how to hunt. Some larger villages even had people who raised hunting dogs and gunners who used guns.
However, even though mountain hunters were common, going into the mountains to hunt was still a dangerous thing for most villagers.
Most ordinary people's understanding of hunting only stayed at the level of setting traps at the foot of the mountain near their homes, hoping to catch a few wildcats and pheasants by chance. Being able to take a shovel and pickaxe into the mountains to dig out a few badgers to bring home was already considered capable.
Hunting is not difficult if you know how, but it is difficult if you don't. Without someone to teach them, ordinary people wouldn't know how to track, find animal trails, or even if they set traps, they would most likely not catch any prey.
Zhu Erhai was a complete novice who knew nothing about this line of work.
Zhu Erhai, who had pondered all night at home, came to the Yue Family's house the next morning after breakfast.
However, Yue Feng and the others had already finished breakfast and gone up the mountain with their eagles, so Zhu Erhai found no one.
Given this guy's despicable character, Yue Lei and Meng Yulan both disliked him. After vaguely dealing with him for a few sentences in the yard, Zhu Erhai wisely left.
After leaving the Yue Family's front door, Zhu Erhai went back home. Although he had been politely rebuffed, he didn't intend to give up.
Around 3 p.m., Zhu Erhai came to the Xing'an Village Information Center, the small shop at the head of the village. The old women gathered here to chat idly didn't care about his character, gossiping about all sorts of things, both decent and indecent, which made the time pass quickly.
Around 4 p.m., Yue Feng returned from the head of the village, carrying a Northern Goshawk with a full crop. Zhu Erhai went up to greet him from a distance.
"Brother Yue Feng, you're back from the mountain!!!"
Yue Feng was slightly taken aback to see Zhu Erhai coming towards him to talk, but he quickly figured out what this guy wanted from him.
"Huh? Just strolling around on the mountain! Something wrong?"
"There is something, actually. Are you free tonight? I'll treat you to dinner at my place, let's have a drink together, brother!"
Zhu Erhai treated Yue Feng as if he was still a clueless young kid. He didn't mention his purpose but instead invited Yue Feng to his house for dinner.
"Sorry, I don't drink! We're not close normally, and I don't accept favors for nothing. Your family's meal isn't that easy to eat!" Yue Feng didn't spare Zhu Erhai any face and directly refused with a stiff tone.
"Look at you, we're all fellow villagers and relatives! I'm kindly inviting you for a drink, why are you badmouthing me!" Zhu Erhai's acting was quite good; after hearing it, he deliberately picked fault with Yue Feng's words.
"If you have something to say, say it. If not, get out of my way, I still have work to do!" Yue Feng still had to deliver goods to the city. This was the first evening he was going to deliver, so he didn't have time to chat idly with Zhu Erhai.
"I heard you trained a lot of eagles, can you give me one?" Seeing that his indirect tactics weren't working, Zhu Erhai simply got straight to the point!
"I can't give you one. The eagles at home are all accounted for!" Yue Feng shook his head and walked around Zhu Erhai.
"I'll pay, you can sell me one!"
"I already said, the eagles are all accounted for. If you want one, go find Li Mingtao. If Xiao Tao is willing to sell you one, you can discuss it with him!" Yue Feng directly employed a tactic to deflect the trouble, not wanting to get entangled with Zhu Erhai.
Zhu Erhai didn't dare to act tough with Xiao Tao. Even though he was a few years older than Xiao Tao, when Xiao Tao got worked up, he really didn't tolerate him.
During the autumn harvest last year, the two of them got into an argument over tractor work, and the tall and strong Xiao Tao pinned him down and gave him a beating.
With the conversation reaching this point, Zhu Erhai no longer had the inclination to keep bothering him and watched Yue Feng leave.
Yue Feng returned home, counted and organized all the wild game that had accumulated and hadn't been sent out yet. Then, he pulled the sled, left the village via a small path, went around in a semicircle before getting onto the main road leading out of the village, and headed straight for the Second Canteen.
The wild game delivered today was the harvest of five people from yesterday, plus the Gray Dog Yue Feng caught during the day today. Xiao Tao and the Zhang family brothers hadn't returned yet.
The total number of small chickens delivered today exceeded eighty. After Yue Feng handed over all the wild game, he retrieved the Gray Dog skin from Niu Fusheng.
It must be said that the chef Niu Fusheng's skinning technique was quite good. A complete Gray Dog skin was slit open from the lower jaw. Whether it was the head, face, limbs, or the tail which was the hardest to deal with, everything was handled neatly.
Today's goods sold for over eighty yuan again. Yue Feng stuffed the Gray Dog skin into his backpack and then pulled the empty sled back home.
The un-dried Gray Dog skins weren't accepted by the purchasing station. He had to take them home, stretch them with simple wooden strips, and dry them in a cool place before they could be sold.
As the hunting proficiency of the Hunting Eagles in the hands of the five-person Falconry team improved, the number of prey brought home each day also steadily increased. Yue Feng had spent most of the last two days catching Gray Dog in the Red Pine Forest, but the number of small chickens was not affected.
At this time, even if Yue Feng stayed on the heated brick bed every day and didn't go into the mountains, his fixed income share would be quite substantial. However, he was reluctant to rest even for a day, and he was constantly calculating in his mind when he would have enough money at his disposal to buy a bicycle.
On the other side, Zhu Erhai, who had been rebuffed by Yue Feng, did not give up. He continued to return to the information station, waiting for Li Mingtao to come back from the mountain.
This is the first of three chapters today. Please vote, please support! Mwah!!