Chapter 2 – Tragedy must not happen again

Feng Yu woke up in the morning and found a 10 RMB New Year’s money under his pillow. In this era, a popsicle only cost two cents and an ice cream only cost three cents. This was a huge sum of money!

Feng Yu wished his parents a happy new year and ate a few dumplings. He then made a call to Wen Dongjun and went to his home for the New Year visit.

Wen Dongjun, with a joss stick, merrily walked in front. From time to time, he would light a firecracker and toss around. Feng Yu was not a bit interested. He felt this was too childish.

“Dongjun, we had walked around half the village and the rest is more or less the same. Let’s go back and play poker with Brother Liang.”

Although the village was small and has less than a hundred households, Feng Yu could not stand walking around in this cold winter. Especially when he was wearing heavy cotton-padded jacket and trousers. He missed the thermal underwear and down jacket in his previous life.

“OK, let’s go to brother Liang.”

“Dongjun, Xiaoyu, where did the two of you go?” A 17-year-old boy came to greet them. Feng Yu eyes narrowed. He had deliberately avoided this household but the village was too small.

” Brother Chuan, we are looking for brother Liang to play poker, you want to join?”

“Poker can be played anytime. This afternoon, I am going to hunt. Want to join?” Liu Jichuan invited.

Hearing the word hunt, Wen Dongjun eyes lit up. Usually, his father did not let him touch the shotgun. But now it was Lunar New Year and his father was going out. He can secretly “borrow” it?

“Yes, I want to go!”

“No!”

Both Wen Dongjun and Feng Yu shouted at the same time. Feng Yu absolutely cannot let Wen Dongjun go. He will break one leg and regret forever! In his previous life, the reason Dongjun loses contact with him was because of this hunting incident.

“Xiaoyu you don’t want to go? Then Dongjun, get your shotgun and come over to my house in the afternoon. We will go to the duck ditch at the north side. Even we can’t hunt foxes, we can at least find pheasant and ducks. I will go back and clean up the shotgun first. Come early in the afternoon. ”

When Liu Jichuan turned around, Feng Yu saw a trace of resentment in Jichuan eyes. He suddenly realized that incident was not an accident, but premeditated.

After Liu Jichuan left, Wen Dongjun looked eagerly at Feng Yu: “Let’s go hunt together, don’t you always want to touch the shotgun?”

“DongJun, you listen to me. Let’s go play poker and not go hunting. Hunting during the New Year is unlucky.”

“There are lesser people during this time. If it was before the New Year, there will be a lot more people and nothing will be left for us to hunt. Come, let’s go together. It will be fun.” Wen Dongjun now had a vision of bringing back a number of trophies from the hunt and showing them to his father.

“I really do not want to go and you don’t go too. Usually, you also don’t mix with himand we are also close to him.”

“What are you talking about? We lived in the same village and although we are not familiar, we are not strangers. Furthermore, my dad is the leader of the village and his family still need to seek my dad’s approval if want to borrow the village’s tractor to develop wasteland. ”

Now Feng Yu understands why Liu Jichuan had resentment against Dongjun. It was because Dongjun’s father, the village leader Wen Deguang, did not agree to lend the village’s tractor to Liu Jichuan’s family.

“DongJun, let’s not play poker now. I’m thirsty. Let’s go to your house and drink your father’s good tea.”

“No problem, we have lunch at my house too. I will also show you my dad’s shotgun.

Along the way, Dong Wenjun was talking non-stop but Feng Yu was not paying attention. In his head, he was thinking of how to tell DongJun’s father, Uncle Wen.

Opening Wen Dongjun’s door, a gust of warm air welcomed him. They threw their dog’s fur hat and rabbit fur gloves on the table. Wen Dongjun then ran off to find his dad’s tea leaves.

“Xiaoyu, have some sweets. There are pine nuts and melon seeds too.” DongJun’s mother Tang Jing is at home. Seeing Feng Yu came to visit, she happily offered these New Year goodies to him.

“Happy New Year Auntie. Where’s Uncle Wen?”

“Ah, he went to visit Secretary Zhao and will be back in a while.”

Feng Yu sat on the chair and casually asked: “Auntie, we met Liu Jichuan just now. His family would like to borrow a company tractor to go to wasteland outside the dam. Did Uncle Wen agree to it?”

Tang Jing smiled and shook his head: “Of course not. Although the village does not regulate about the development of private lands, the village’s tractor was not for personal use. This morning, old Liu came and had an argument with your Uncle Wen.”

Feng Yu’s heart sank. This was the reason why Liu Jichuan deliberately wanted to bring DongJun along to hunt. He would then deliberately make Dongjun step into a bear trap, causing him to become crippled. To others, it may seem to bean accident. Even Wen Dongjun himself, also thought it was an accident. But was it really an accident?

“Come, try this black tea. Look at the beautiful red color.” Wen Dongjun proudly poured Feng Yu a cup of black tea. Tang Jing only smiled and did not say anything.

“Mom, you go to Auntie Wang’s place and chat with her. Leave the house to me. Someone will be coming over to play poker.” Wen Dongjun said loudly.

“Fine, I will go visit Auntie Wang’s place. There are dumplings in the pot, help yourself.”

After sending his mother out, Wen Dongjun quickly looked under the bed and dragged a wooden box out. A shotgun and a dozen round of bullets.

“Dongjun, don’t go. Didn’t you hear what auntie just said? Liu Jichuan’s dad had just quarreled with Uncle Wen. I’m afraid that Jichuan is up to no good!” Feng Yu grabbed Wen Dongjun’s hand tryig to stop him. He did not want the past tragedy to repeat.

“Many people had quarreled with my father before. The last time, Grandpa Lee used his crutches to hit my dad because of some arguments over seeds. But what happened later? During harvesting, my dad sent people to harvest Grandpa Lee’s land first and he cooled down.” Wen Dongjun replied nonchalantly and push Feng Yu’s hand away. He then took the shotgun out and put six bullets into his pocket.

“DongJun, listen to me, don’t go. All Liu Jichuan did when he go to school was to fight. I’m afraid he will have bad intentions towards you this time.”

“I’m not afraid of him. Look at what is in my hand? See if he dares to play punk with me. My gun is not for show!”

Feng Yu was at a loss. DongJun still insisted to go. He was not afraid of Liu Jichuan because, even though, that guy got into fights frequently, he does not use weapons. If it comes to blows, Dongjun was not afraid of him.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Wen Dongjun stood up: “OK, it’s about time. You head home first. I am going to look for Liu Jichuan.”

Feng Yu remembered in the past life, Liu Ji-Chuan did not used any gun till he became a soldier and left the village. If Feng Yu followed along, he should be able to help DongJun to escape the bear trap.

“Wait a second, DongJun. I’ll go with you!”

“Really? I knew you wanted to go. Hurry back and go steal your house’s shotgun. Remember to use a sack to wrap it up and tell your mom that you are going to catch peasant.” Wen Dong looked at Feng Yu eagerly, giving him an “I knew you wanted to go” look.

Feng Yu sighed and hurriedly ran back home. Hope that it was really just an accident. And this time, there must be absolutely no accident.