With several new guests, the bus was obviously too crowded.
You couldn’t just have his wife and child sleep on the floor. Feng Mountain offered up his small bedroom and decided to sleep on the floor with Tom, which made Zhang Kai feel even more embarrassed.
As for Nash, he absolutely refused to sleep inside. He’d rather wrap himself in a bearskin coat and sleep in the work shed.
Feng Mountain felt helpless about it.
The Indian man was quiet, avoided crowds, and preferred not to eat at the table with everyone. He had an extrely strong sense of personal space. Aside from offering a small smile to little Liangliang, he ignored everyone else completely.
That evening, a bitter cold wind once again swept across the Far North Tundra. Snowflakes slamd against the windows with a rattling sound. Feng Mountain added plenty of wood to the stove, making the inside of the bus toasty warm.
Everyone said their goodnights and drifted off to sleep.
「Early Morning.」
A CLANGING and BANGING echoed through the bus.
Awakened by the noise, Zhang Kai gently moved his wife and child from his arms. He groggily got dressed and pulled back the curtain to see only Tom still snoring away on the living room floor.
A delicious aroma wafted out from the kitchen.
"Ti to get up. There’s hot water on the stove, go wash your face. The camp’s conditions are a bit rough, so you’ll have to make do." Feng Mountain erged from the kitchen carrying a small basin piled high with at.
"Getting to wash my face is already a luxury. I once spent over half a month deep in the mountains in the northwest scouting tourist routes, and I couldn’t even get a sip of hot water," Zhang Kai said with a smile and a wave of his hand.
"Wash up and have breakfast. There are noodles and at sauce in the kitchen. I’m going to take so food to Nash."
Feng Mountain pulled open the bus door, basin in hand, and a frigid wind instantly swirled into the cabin. Zhang Kai, wearing only a thin jacket, shivered. The warmth from just having woken up had made him forget he was in the freezing Arctic Circle.
Tom, still snoring on the floor, felt the chill. He mumbled so slang and curled into a ball.
When Feng Mountain stepped out of the bus, he found that Nash was already up. He had even moved the bear, reindeer, and fish at from the work shed and hung it back on the drying rack.
Nash himself was using a Wanta Card to clean the reindeer and fox pelts they hadn’t had ti to deal with after the last hunt.
Hearing a noise behind him, the ever-vigilant Nash grabbed his Wanta Card and spun around, assuming a defensive stance. When he saw it was Feng Mountain, the ferocity in his eyes vanished, and he beca as docile as a kitten.
He knelt, stretched out his arms, and bowed low to the ground, crying out.
"Khilla!!"
Feng Mountain felt ntally exhausted. No matter how he explained it, Nash wouldn’t listen. This salutation ritual was a mandatory part of every morning.
’This kid is so stubborn. You can just tell he got a few whoopings when he was young.’
"Ti to eat. I told you to sleep inside, but you insisted on the work shed. Weren’t you cold last night?"
In response to Feng Mountain’s nagging, Nash just gave a simple smile, took the food basin, and walked over to the wooden shelter to eat heartily.
Sigh!
’What a headache. He’s as stubborn as Black Egg.’
At the thought of that na, a dark, tanned face appeared in Feng Mountain’s mind.
Black Egg was another kid from the orphanage. Along with Black Hide and the others, he had followed Feng Mountain around since they were little.
’That ti when things went wrong, I got eight years for excessive self-defense, with my sentence reduced by one. Black Egg chased after them, so he got an even longer sentence.’
’If I’m counting right, he still has three years left before he can get out.’
’Now that I have money, I should be able to pull so strings and get him released early.’
The thought filled Feng Mountain with hope.
Back on the bus, Zhang Kai’s family of three had already finished breakfast. Zhang Kai, in particular, was bundled up from head to toe like a mummy, his face alight with excitent.
"Brother, I’m all set. When are we heading out?"
"Let get things sorted first." Feng Mountain gently kicked the still-sleeping Tom. "Get up."
Tom mumbled again, grabbed the reindeer-hide blanket, and pulled it over his head, fully committed to sleeping until he woke up on his own.
Seeing this, Feng Mountain took a deep breath, leaned close to Tom’s head, and yelled, "Run! A brown bear’s here!"
Tom, who had been fast asleep, shot up and charged toward the door with his eyes still closed.
BANG!
The door shook violently from the impact, and Tom himself was thrown back onto the floor. He stared blankly at Feng Mountain and Zhang Kai’s family, then instinctively clutched his head and howled in pain.
...
"Sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose," Feng Mountain apologized, trying to hold back his laughter.
A lump the size of a fist had ford on Tom’s head, making him look like the God of Longevity from old myths. He winced and sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, looking speechlessly at the apologetic Feng Mountain.
"Feng, you should thank God I didn’t have my rifle next to , or you’d be dead."
"Never ntion brown bears to a sleeping Alaskan."
"Sorry, I’ll be more careful next ti!" Feng Mountain genuinely felt guilty about Tom’s injury. It was supposed to be a harmless joke; who knew the consequences would be this severe.
Song Rou, who was a nurse, offered so smiling reassurance.
"Shanzi, I’ve checked Mr. Tom. His head is fine, it’s just a hematoma. It’ll go away after a couple of days of rest."
"Thanks, Sister-in-law," Feng Mountain said. "Tom, I’m taking Brother Kai to hunt reindeer. You keep an eye on the camp for . If anything happens, talk to Nash. I’ll take you bear hunting next ti."
’Hunting... I want to go too!’
Tom gave Feng Mountain a disgruntled look. If it weren’t for his prank, he wouldn’t be stuck on camp duty. Still, Feng Mountain had promised to take him bear hunting next ti, which made the giant lump on his head feel worth it.
"Fine, I’ll stay and watch the camp."
With matters at the camp settled, Feng Mountain led Zhang Kai into the bedroom to pick out a hunting rifle.
When Zhang Kai saw more than a dozen gun cases and boxes upon boxes of ammunition in the closet, he was so excited he almost cried out.
’These are all real guns!’
’The last ti I touched a gun was during military training in college, and I only fired five rounds.’
"Brother, can I use a gun too?"
Feng Mountain glanced at him sideways without a word. He took three 10-round stripper clips for a Type 56 carbine from an ammo box and stuffed them into his pocket.
Then he pulled out an unopened Hunting Knife and handed it to Zhang Kai.
"Here, you use this!"
"!!!" Zhang Kai’s spirit instantly shattered.
’You get a gun, and I just get a knife?’
"Brother, just let have a gun to play with. I’ll be happy just to carry it on my back to get the feel of it. I’m dying to handle a gun."
"I’m begging you, brother, just give one."
"I’ll really just carry it for fun." Feng Mountain wasn’t being stingy; his main concern was that Zhang Kai had never fired a gun before and it might go off by accident.
"Really!"
Zhang Kai’s expression was utterly sincere, more sincere than any he’d ever used when lying to his wife about going to the bar with friends.
"Alright then." Feng Mountain nodded, pulling a long plastic case from the closet. He opened it to reveal a hunting rifle with a simple, clean design.
"This is a Winchester Model 70 rifle. It’s equipped with a standard 6x scope. It’s easy to handle, perfect for a beginner."
"But you can only have the empty gun. I’m not giving you any bullets!"
"Deal, deal, deal! An empty gun is perfect!" Zhang Kai nodded repeatedly as he took the hunting rifle, grinning from ear to ear.
Back in the living room, when Liangliang saw the gun in his father’s hands, he started jumping up and down with excitent. Father and son took the gun outside the bus and had Song Rou take all sorts of pictures.
"Buddy, do you guys in Hua Country not play with guns?" Tom asked, completely baffled. Guns were so commonplace in the United States that even kids could buy children’s versions of hunting rifles.
"Not every country is like the United States, where you can buy guns in a supermarket," Feng Mountain replied quietly.
Tom nodded in agreent.
"True. The right to bear arms is sacred and inviolable. Even the president guaranteed that as long as he’s president, he’ll support everyone having a gun. How are you supposed to protect yourself without one?"
...
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