Volume 1, Chapter 9: Chinese Rural Dog

Wang Dong had only walked a few dozen paces up the mountain when he froze.

Under an old tree nearby lay a pile of excrement.

It was a dark, grayish-red color, mixed with undigested bone fragments and bits of nuts. It looked substantial—certainly too large to be held in one hand.

Of course, the key wasn't the droppings, but the few hairs scattered around them. They were... bear fur.

"You've got to be kidding me, man..." Wang Dong frowned.

In his previous life, when he had visited the vicinity of Erdaowan, he had encountered wolves and bears, but always deep in the heart of the wilderness. He had never seen them this close to the village.

What was going on?

Was it simply because he had arrived a few years earlier? Had the bears and wolves been hunted so aggressively in just a few years that they were forced to retreat into the deep mountains?

No... that didn't seem right.

According to Old Man Wu, while humans feared bears and wolves, the reverse was also true. The noise generated by human activity was a significant threat to these animals, which was why they generally kept their distance from human settlements.

So how could this be explained?

He had encountered a wolf not long ago, and now a bear? Was his luck incredibly good, or catastrophically bad?

What should he do now?

Should he keep heading into the mountains, or call it a day and wait until tomorrow when it might be safer?

Just as Wang Dong hesitated, a new development occurred.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Faint barking echoed from the woods nearby, followed by the indistinct, guttural roar of a bear.

Could someone be hunting a bear?

Hearing this, Wang Dong felt a sudden surge of excitement.

If he could help out, maybe he would get a bear paw to taste?

He crept toward the sound. He didn't see any dogs at first, but he saw the bear.

Hanging from a thick fir tree was a ragged, tattered beehive. A bear, its body stained with blood and its belly gaunt, was desperately clutching the trunk with one front paw while clawing at the honey with the other.

As it ate, the bear kept glancing around.

Fortunately, it was looking behind itself and didn't notice the human hiding in the bushes in front of it.

Every part of a bear is a treasure. The hide is high-quality leather, the meat is decent, and the four paws are a delicacy. But the most precious part is undoubtedly the gall bladder.

Bear gall bladders are classified into three types: grass, iron, and gold.

Bears that have just emerged from hibernation are the most likely to have a "gold" gall bladder. A high-quality one could fetch hundreds of yuan—enough to equal a year's wages for an adult!

As time passes, the quality of the gall bladder declines. By the time spring turns into summer—the current season—only grass or iron gall bladders are found, and their value is lower.

But for Wang Dong, that would be more than enough.

Looking at the droplets of blood on the bear and the streaks of blood on the tree trunk, it was clear the animal was already injured—likely by a hunter or a dog.

However, the bear was up in the tree, making its fur impossible to inspect, let alone its wounds.

Even while on the run, the beast hadn't forgotten to indulge itself—or perhaps it was simply too starved to resist, so it had climbed the tree to feast on the honey.

Clearly, that wasn't a bright idea.

"Mountain-runners" in the Northeast also harvest wild honey, but they always prepare thoroughly. They wear protective old clothes and smoke the entire hive before digging, either stunning the bees or forcing them to flee.

The bear, however, lacked that kind of intelligence.

It used its free paw to shovel honey into its mouth, shaking its head and swatting at the bees with that same paw.

This only smeared more honey onto its massive head, inciting the already agitated bees to attack it even more ferociously!

And these were Northeast black bees!

There are three main types of bees in the Northeast: Italian honeybees, Chinese honeybees, and Northeast black bees. Italian bees produce the most honey and are the favorite of beekeepers, but their quality is inferior to the others.

Moreover, bees are prone to stealing honey. Italian bees are the worst offenders, followed by Chinese bees. Northeast black bees are smaller and have the weakest combat capability. If another species invades their hive, the black bees are either wiped out or starve to death after their stores are stolen.

But! Of the three, the Northeast black bee has the most painful sting!

Wang Dong knew this from bitter experience.

Even if the bear were already dead, he wouldn't dare approach. The swarming mass of black bees alone would be enough to finish him off!

The bear, however, was tougher than Wang Dong. If he had been attacked by so many bees, he would have collapsed long ago. Yet, even with both eyelids swollen shut, the bear continued to claw at the hive, a true testament to its endurance.

But it wouldn't be enjoying its meal for much longer.

"Woof! Woo... woof!"

A steady bark came from the other side of the slope. A black-and-tan mongrel emerged from the woods.

It shook the burrs and leaves from its coat and began barking at the black bear in the tree.

The dog's muzzle was stained with blood, but it had no visible wounds, meaning the blood belonged to the bear.

Daring to take on a bear, this mongrel was clearly a fine hunting dog trained by an experienced woodsman.

This black-and-tan dog was a "ben-gou," or "stupid dog," as the locals called them—the Chinese rural dog.

But despite the name, they weren't stupid at all.

Northeast rural dogs are large; seventy or eighty pounds is standard, and purebreds can grow to over a hundred. They are clever, loyal, and don't destroy the house, making them excellent companions.

It was a pity that people in this region hadn't initially valued the qualities of these dogs. Through constant crossbreeding, the intelligence and size of the breed had declined in later generations, and purebreds had become rare.

Clearly, this dog was a purebred. It was as smart as Wang Dong and equally wary of the Northeast black bees.

It only dared to bark from a distance, refusing to get any closer. It seemed that, in the dog's eyes, the bees were even more terrifying than the bear.

But just because the dog wouldn't approach didn't mean someone else wouldn't.