After a reluctant lunch back home, Jiang Hai and his group left the deep forest.
Their luck was decent; they encountered another herd of deer. Of the other four groups, only one encountered deer, but it was a small herd of less than ten, all white-tailed deer.
They wanted white-tailed deer too, but the problem was, they were the hardest to hit.
These deer are small, jump high, run fast, and have an extremely keen sense of danger. Even
experienced hunters wouldn't consider hunting them a sure thing, let alone these novices.
So they fired a lot of bullets, but to no avail. On the way back, Zhao Zhan and the other older men fired a shot every now and then.
This was to vent their frustration and also to burn off some bullets; after all, the point of coming into the mountains was to fire bullets. Although they were more expensive than at the shooting range, they didn't care. The gunshots echoed continuously through the forest, and before they knew it, they were back outside the mountains.
Around 3 PM, they returned to Winthrop in their respective cars, along with twelve other teams.
This time, every team had some deer heads, more or less. One team, with twenty members aged 20 to 35, won eight. These twenty were enthusiasts from a military forum back home, who came to Winthrop specifically to practice shooting. Their scores at the range were quite high. For older men like Zhao Zhan, hitting the target was enough; a seven-ring score was considered good. But these guys aimed for eight, nine, and sometimes even ten rings. They had a thorough understanding of gun recoil. Even so, real combat is real combat. While their target shooting was good, they only managed eight hits on deer.
They also encountered three waves of deer. It has to be said, skill and luck coexist!
Some teams fared much worse, with some only managing to hit one deer head, others two. Jiang Hai's team, with only three heads, still managed to rank fifth from the bottom. It's undeniable that these newbies are far behind.
After their return, Jiang Hai held a meeting with the team leaders. Meanwhile, the other police officers took the owners of the deer heads to a shop run by Native Americans. There, the Native Americans would use traditional methods to preserve the deer heads as specimens. The owners could choose to look at them, or if they didn't like them, they could come back later to pick them up, or leave a domestic address so they could be mailed back—all guaranteed authentic…
Regardless of how the deer heads were distributed, Jiang Hai and the team leaders discussed what to do after entering the mountains.
It must be admitted that most Chinese people are very observant of local order, contracts, and regulations, but there are always some who, in a somewhat childish way, believe themselves to be different. Of course, there are more such people in America, but they also exist in China.
Not everyone is as moderate as Jiang Hai. In Jiang Hai's team, for example, if Jiang Hai hadn't been watching, several older men would have gone into the forest to smoke. Smoking is strictly prohibited in the forest, especially in late autumn. The other teams all had their share of problems.
The enthusiast team was the only one without issues; the others had problems too. Some people left the group to take pictures, some wanted to smoke, some fired their guns indiscriminately after entering the mountains, and so on. These unsightly acts were all filmed, and the translator showed them the footage before they went to bed that night, after putting away their guns, explaining that these actions would result in fines.
Only then did they remember their deposits. Some people immediately offered to change their ways, but it was no use; the footage was recorded. Seeing no way to get their money back, some even started arguing, but that was useless too. This was deep in the mountains; if they had the guts, they'd leave on their own. They didn't have the courage to fight these policemen. That was a joke!
In the United States, if you dare to attack the police, they can shoot you dead. Although these tourists are Chinese, this is American soil, and they must abide by American law. While no tourists were killed in Winthrop, some drunkards caused trouble and were shot in the hands and feet by the police.
These incidents have deterred the tourists, so some returned looking visibly upset and swearing.
Jiang Hai could only chuckle at these people; there was nothing he could do. This is also why he didn't open his ranch to the public.
You can't expect all tourists to be saints; there will always be some scoundrels. If it weren't for the development of Winthrop, Jiang Hai wouldn't even want to start a tourism business. If he had 3 billion instead of 300 million, he might have actually bought an island in Australia, New Zealand, or Hawaii.
However, there is a very important issue: if he bought an island, the initial security would be the biggest problem.
"Deduct money where it's due, ignore those who shouldn't be ignored. We'll handle everything according to the contract they signed. Although there were some minor issues, overall it was quite successful. The second round of recruitment starts tomorrow, and I won't be coming then. But during your training, you must strengthen your education in these areas!" Looking at the people in front of him, and also at Roga DeCarter who had come over, Jiang Hai said earnestly. Hearing Jiang Hai's words, it was a perfect ending to this trip into the mountains! After everything was arranged, Jiang Hai returned to his manor.
Back home, Jiang Hai naturally took a good bath, then enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Qi Ya, before going to bed with his beautiful wives and concubines. In this paradise-like life, he couldn't be bothered with anything else.
Nothing happened that night, and early the next morning, news of the hunting trip reached the tourists in Winthrop.
This immediately caused an explosive effect. Half of those who hadn't gone yet, those who had been observing, signed up first thing that morning. They didn't care about the small amount of money; what they cared about was the sense of honor of hunting a deer.
Of course, most of them didn't hunt a deer, but they grandly ignored that, because they had heard from those who hadn't hunted any deer that there were plenty in the mountains, so they believed they could definitely hunt one themselves.
That's how people are; they always have their own foresight, or in simpler terms, they tend to think positively. No matter what others do, as long as they do it, they're sure to succeed, especially when someone around them has succeeded.
So, the day after these people returned, as many as 730 people in the town signed up for the training.
However, some of them couldn't be accepted because many of them had just gone into the mountains but hadn't caught anything. They were unwilling to give up, so they came back wanting to go into the mountains again, but these people were all persuaded to go back, because they needed to rest after just going into the mountains. If they wanted to participate, they could only do so in the next registration period.
Excluding these people, there were probably more than 500 participants, including young people, middle-aged people, and men in their fifties.
Mayor Wallis was pleased with the situation. His other instructors, whom he had prepared beforehand, were also in position. The second training session began, and a penalty system was implemented: acting without authorization in the mountains, including firing weapons indiscriminately, wandering around, or acting alone in the forest, would result in a $100 fine per offense. Smoking in the mountains would incur a $1,000 fine, and cigarettes would be searched before entering the mountains; bringing cigarettes up was strictly prohibited. Disobeying orders, arbitrarily arguing with instructors, or even resorting to violence would result in a $2,000 fine and deportation back to town.
These regulations were strict, and it was estimated that not many people would break the rules in the second wave…
However, none of this concerned Jiang Hai, as he wouldn't be joining the second wave. He was back at home, back to his old ways. Frankly, Jiang Hai really enjoyed lounging at home with nothing to do. What could be more comfortable than that? Regardless of what others thought, Jiang Hai was quite content with his lifestyle.
Before they knew it, the days passed slowly. Then one morning, when Jiang Hai woke up, he found the grass in his pasture covered with a layer of white frost. Seeing this frost, Jiang Hai knew winter was coming.
Meanwhile, Robbins-Garcia and his crew were also working hard to harvest hay. Some of the hay was for Dufamen, some for Luke-Sean, and some for themselves—all to be finished before the snow.
Although Jiang Hai wasn't particularly wealthy, this was his home, so he had been helping out these past few days.
Last year, with only five cowboys, Jiang Hai and his crew managed, but now with eight, their pace was naturally faster, trying to store as much hay as possible. And so, before they knew it, Winthrop's first snowfall, carried by the cold Siberian air, began to fall slowly.
It snowed, and the townspeople were a mix of joy and sorrow. Those who were happy were mostly tourists from far south, as they rarely saw such heavy snow. Perhaps due to better environmental protection in Winthrop, the snowflakes were large and white, somewhat reminiscent of the snow that fell in Harbin when Jiang Hai was young. Now, the snow in Harbin is mostly gray, a result of severe environmental pollution.
Those who were sorrowful were naturally the tourists who wanted to go hunting in the mountains. They knew that the instructors had repeatedly said that as soon as it snowed, the activity would be over, because heavy snow closing the mountains was no joke! (To be continued.)