Yong’an Village, in Zhang Yuanmin’s home.

Today, it was just the father and daughter at home.

As usual, Little Lingdang was lying over the kang table, studying, while Zhang Yuanmin packed his things nearby.

A stack of nearly twenty comic books. These weren’t borrowed; Little Lingdang had bought them from her classmates.

After all, Zhang Yuanmin was going into the mountains to set traps, and there was no telling how long he’d be gone.

Before he left, Zhang Yuanmin had begged Yang Yufeng for thirty cents, telling her he wanted Little Lingdang to buy all the *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* comic books her classmates had.

Then, Zhang Yuanmin gave Little Lingdang twenty cents. Little Lingdang pocketed five cents for herself and spent only fifteen cents to buy nineteen comic books.

Ordinarily, these comic books would have cost more than that. But her classmates had already read them countless times, and there was no point in keeping them around. Better to sell them than have people borrowing them all the time.

Besides, fifteen cents was a huge sum of money for an elementary school student.

Zhang Yuanmin carefully took a sheet of Butter Paper, wrapped the stack of comic books up neatly, and placed it at the very bottom of a burlap sack.

Then, Zhang Yuanmin took a pile of clothes from the kang cabinet. They were all old clothes that Yang Yufeng had mended for him, most of them covered in patches.

But Zhang Yuanmin was going to set traps, so there was no point in wearing nice clothes. These old clothes were perfect for him to rough up. It wouldn’t hurt to ruin them.

Just as Zhang Yuanmin was about to stuff the clothes into the burlap sack, he suddenly remembered something. He glanced out the window, didn’t see Yang Yufeng, and immediately reached under the standing wardrobe nearby to pull out a black cloth bundle.

Zhang Yuanmin unwrapped the long, black bundle, revealing the Invasion Blade inside. He re-wrapped the Invasion Blade in the black cloth, tucked it securely between the clothes, and only then stuffed the bundle into the burlap sack.

After furtively completing his task, Zhang Yuanmin looked up and met Little Lingdang’s dark, black eyes.

Zhang Yuanmin grinned. "Don’t you dare tell your mom. When Dad comes back with money, I’ll buy you some tasty treats."

Little Lingdang didn’t say a word, just nodded.

Zhang Yuanmin smiled in satisfaction. When he looked back, he saw Yang Yufeng hurrying in from the courtyard gate.

Zhang Yuanmin quickly placed the burlap sack under the kang, then leaped onto it, seating himself firmly. He crossed his legs and rested his hands on his knees.

He’d learned this pose from an illustration in the comic book about "Borrowing the East Wind," which showed Kongming meditating before performing his ritual.

"Yuanmin!" Yang Yufeng said as she came in. "He’s out."

Hearing this, Zhang Yuanmin raised a hand and declared, "I shall go and meet with him." With that, he hopped off the kang again. Little Lingdang, watching from the side, furrowed her brow, having no idea what her dad was up to.

Yang Yufeng watched Zhang Yuanmin’s retreating back, thinking about how he was leaving for the Logging Camp tomorrow and wouldn’t be back for a long time.

A wave of reluctance washed over her.

Just then, she heard Little Lingdang say, "Mom, how could you listen to Dad again?"

That’s right. Yang Yufeng had been persuaded by Zhang Yuanmin once again. She had even willingly acted as his scout, gathering intelligence for him.

"My dear daughter," Yang Yufeng said to Little Lingdang, "your dad’s got a good head on his shoulders. That trick he came up with? It actually works."

Little Lingdang pouted and fell silent. ’She clearly remembered her mom saying something completely different just yesterday.’

"What are you pouting for? Your lip’s sticking out a mile." Yang Yufeng seemed to remember something herself just then, and to cover her own embarrassment, she could only take it out on her daughter.

She said, "The fact that you get first place in school every time? You get that brain from your dad."

"I..." For a moment, Little Lingdang was overcome with the urge to never study hard again.

「Meanwhile, in front of the Zhang Family’s house.」

A young man was walking down the road, but his gait was rather odd.

His legs were spread wide apart, knees slightly bent. His hips were lowered. He shuffled forward slowly, one leg crossing in front of the other.

This was none other than Zhang Laibao, the man who’d had his crotch mauled by a badger over twenty days ago.

Zhang Laibao had been discharged from the hospital just yesterday. As for his injury... how to put it?

It was definitely serious, but not life-threatening.

The day he arrived at the hospital, they disinfected, stitched, and gave him anti-inflammatories and painkillers. Every day after that was just more anti-inflammatories and painkillers.

As for his... equipment, the doctor said it would definitely still be usable. Whether it would be *enjoyable* to use, however, was another question entirely.

But regardless of its performance, that was a problem for the future. The most important thing now was to rest and recover slowly.

In a way, it was just a superficial wound; he just had to wait for it to heal. But the pain... there was definitely going to be pain.

Fortunately, it didn’t affect his ability to urinate, but moving around was quite difficult.

After returning from the hospital yesterday, Zhang Laibao had been using a bedpan indoors to relieve himself. But today, he had decided to go out.

He hadn’t gone out for just any reason. He’d gone out for Liu Mei from the Liu Family at the east end of the village. Even before his injury, Zhang Laibao had his eye on the young woman. They had even snuck out for a few strolls by the river, but they’d never made their relationship official.

Now that Zhang Laibao was injured, and in *that* particular place, he felt insecure, worried that Liu Mei would no longer want to be with him.

So, even if he had to grit his teeth and bear the pain, Zhang Laibao was determined to take a walk past Liu Mei’s house to let his sweetheart know that his body was still fine.

But he had only taken a few steps when he heard someone call out his nickname from behind him.

"Zhang Baozi!"

Zhang Laibao turned to see Zhang Yuanmin and asked, "Big Pants, what are you calling me for?"

Zhang Yuanmin wasn’t offended at being called by his nickname. He got straight to the point: "How’s your... thing doing?"

"It’s fine," Zhang Laibao said, glaring at Zhang Yuanmin. "You need something?"

"Ah, no, just asking." Zhang Yuanmin had just said this when he saw Zhang Laibao turn to leave. He quickly caught up and said, "Look at you, all injured, walking with your legs all spread apart. I guess you won’t be able to go hunting anymore, huh?"

"Who says?" Zhang Laibao was immediately displeased. He was very sensitive right now and hated it when people said he wasn’t well. He retorted at once, "This is just a flesh wound, barely skin deep! Once I’m better, I’m still going up the mountain to hunt."

"You still have dogs for that?" Zhang Yuanmin asked. "I heard the ones you bought over the ridge last time all died."

"Who says? I’ve still got two dogs left at home." Zhang Laibao said this, but he felt a little uneasy.

It was true that he had bought four dogs, but two had died in a single fight, leaving him with only two. And one of those didn’t even know what a Black Bear was.

But the Zhang Family people were all stubborn. Zhang Laibao said firmly, "When I’m healed, I’ll buy more dogs. I’m going hunting no matter what."

Hearing this, Zhang Yuanmin chuckled. "If I were you, I wouldn’t buy more dogs. What’s the use? No matter how tough a dog is, it can’t beat a wild boar or a Black Bear. If it gets injured, you have to nurse it back to health. If it gets killed, it’s an even bigger waste."

"You’re talking nonsense!" Zhang Laibao snapped back irritably. "Who goes on a big hunt without dogs? If you don’t raise dogs, what are you going to raise, a Tiger?"

"A Tiger, no." As soon as Zhang Laibao took the bait, Zhang Yuanmin smoothly continued, "You can’t raise a Tiger, but you can raise a bear."

"What?" Zhang Laibao froze, thinking he must have misheard.

But Zhang Yuanmin immediately followed up, "You don’t know? While you were in the hospital, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu took out a Black Bear’s Den up on the mountain and pulled out two Black Bear cubs."

"For real?"

"Of course it’s real!" Zhang Yuanmin said. "My family just doesn’t have the money. If I were you, I’d buy those two Black Bear cubs from them, raise them from when they’re little, and once they’re tame, you can take them up the mountain to hunt. Wouldn’t catching a boar be a piece of cake?

"You’re full of shit," Zhang Laibao cursed. "If I get two of those things, how the hell am I supposed to teach them to hunt?"

"You use the dogs to train them, of course! You even have to ask?"

"Get lost," Zhang Laibao said angrily. "You’re trying to fool me. If I use my dogs to train a Black Bear, won’t the dogs just attack the bear before we even start?"

"Didn’t you say your dogs don’t know what a Black Bear is?"

This question from Zhang Yuanmin left Zhang Laibao stunned. He had lied that day, claiming both his dogs didn’t recognize Black Bears so that Zhao Jun would help train them. In reality, one of those dogs belonged to Qin Qiang.

But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was that if the dogs didn’t recognize Black Bears, they naturally wouldn’t attack them.

’In that case, I could use the two dogs to train these two Black Bears to hunt wild boars!’

Seeing Zhang Laibao fall silent, Zhang Yuanmin quickly pressed on. "It’s not like the old days. You can sell wild boar meat at the market now. Think about it. You get two Black Bear cubs, raise them up, pair them with two dogs, and take them out to hunt wild boar. You’d catch one every single time, wouldn’t you?"

When Zhang Laibao heard this, his eyes lit up, and he started to feel tempted.

What Zhang Yuanmin said actually made sense. If he could raise two Big Black Bears and train them to hunt wild boar, that would be incredible.

A Black Bear’s sense of smell was far superior to a dog’s. If he really managed to train them, they’d be even better than a lead hound.

It would be just as Zhang Yuanmin said: pair two Black Bears with two hunting dogs, go up the mountain in the early morning, and ambush a wild boar in its lair.

Even if they startled the boar and the Black Bears couldn’t catch up, he’d still have the dogs. The dogs would cut off the boar’s escape, and the Black Bears could just pounce.

As Zhang Laibao pictured this scene, a smile involuntarily appeared on his face. But then another thought occurred to him, and the smile vanished without a trace.

"Are you trying to screw me over?" Zhang Laibao looked at Zhang Yuanmin and sneered. "How much would two Black Bears eat? I couldn’t afford to feed them even if I sold my own bones!"

"You, you!" Zhang Yuanmin wagged a finger at Zhang Laibao. "What’s the point of having a head on your shoulders? Let me tell you what to do. In the spring, you go into the mountains, find a walnut ridge with jujube vines, and build a dugout nearby. Chain them there with a big iron chain and just let them eat what they find in the mountains."

"Whoa!" Zhang Laibao exclaimed upon hearing this. "You know, that might actually work."

"See?" Zhang Yuanmin was thinking ahead. Before Zhang Laibao could find a flaw in the plan, he offered a solution. "When winter comes, you drag a couple of hollow logs into that dugout, let the two Black Bears crawl inside, then you lock up the dugout and let them hibernate in there. You can let them out again the next spring."

"Whoa!"

Zhang Laibao couldn’t help but let out another cry of amazement as Zhang Yuanmin continued, "Once they’re grown, whenever you want to harvest their gall, you just feed them some medicine, and out comes the gall. Do you know how much a Bear Gall goes for these days? Over a thousand yuan!"

Zhang Laibao stared at Zhang Yuanmin in astonishment and exclaimed, "Big Pants... ah, no, I mean, Brother Zhang, you’ve really got a brain on you."