Jiang Zhou was wondering where the straw roof came from, a kind of tree appeared in his mind. There was a palm tree in the mountain around their village. Because there was another person traveled inside his body, now there were some memories that didn’t belong to him. It was too complicated and mixed with many things so he couldn’t understand. He needed time to adjust slowly, sometimes those memories would pop out and made him a little confused.

The palm tree was one of them, in the memory, the traveler once went to a certain place to play and saw many people gathered palm leaves to make fans and palm fruits were extracted to make oil. The palm leaves were flexible and strong, he should get some and repaired his roof to shield him from wind and rain.

As soon as this thought came out, he decided to do it. He went out with a basket, took some rope and machete. Then went up to the mountain. On the way, I ran into Liu Sanlang, a hunter from the village. When Liu Sanlang saw, he was going to the mountain, he was a little surprise. Jiang Zhou didn’t say anything just smiled at him. Neither of them was a talkative person, so they both went up in silence.

Jiang Zhou stopped when he saw the palm tree but Liu Sanlang wanted to go deeper. It was autumn, the hares and pheasants were all fat preparing for winter. This was best season to hunt.

The palm tree leaves were still green and there were bunch of palm fruits hanging in the middle of the leaves. Some were still green, others already yellow. Jiang Zhou swung the rope over the tree and tied it around his waist; rubbed his hand together and climbed up quickly. This was a skill he got since a child.

When Jiang Zhou still a child, he liked to jump up and down when his parents didn’t pay attention. He did countless things like climbing trees, went to the mountain and fishing in the river. Every time he did this, Wen Yan would follow him obediently and watched out for him. He was gentle and well-behaved and would always tell him to slow down in cute voice.

He thought of Wen Yan, Jiang Zhou paused his climbing, after the house was finished. He must go to Wen Yan and told him that he wasn’t the one who made him angry.

He climbed to the top, cut the leaves using a machete and let it fell down with rustling sounds. Not only that, he also picked some ripe palm fruits; it was like a little nut so he filled the basket with enough fruits then climbed down.

It would be troublesome to take the untied palm leaves down the mountain like this. So he would tie them up before carrying it all back. The sun wasn’t too much, so he found a shade and pierced the palm tree to tie them together. It wasn’t for delicate people, the palm leaves spine was hard and thick, so you have to be careful while piercing them. It could scratch the hand, luckily, he got thick and rough skin so he wasn’t afraid at all.

Just as he was going down, he suddenly heard a tragic howl deep in the mountain. It wasn’t human, more like a wild boar. Jiang Zhou immediately thought of Liu Sanlang who went deep inside. He was a good hunter but it was hard to deal with wild boar alone.

This animal was wild and unruly, they had great strength and sharp teeth. Last year, four hunters in their village spent a lot of effort to bring back one. He listened to the sounds; Liu Sanlang probably bumped into the wild boar while he was moving around. At this moment, it seemed like the wild boar was hurt but it might not be certain who will win.

He took his machete and walked inside; he couldn’t let Liu Sanlang faced the wild boar alone while he was here. He followed the howling and saw Liu Sanlang panted heavily while confronting the wild boar. The wild boar was scratching the ground with his feet to gather energy. Jiang Zhou didn’t make a sound and thought hard about killing this wild boar.

While Liu Sanlang was dealing with the animal, his eyes fell into his rope; it was extra strong and could handle his weight. He looked on tree around them and had an idea.

Liu Sanlang rolled on his side, narrowly dodged the wild boar attacks. He had seen the messy footprints on the ground, he thought he wouldn’t be so lucky to meet one. Just when he walked a little deeper, he saw this wild boar drank a water. The animal also saw him then chased him madly without letting him go. Now he was exhausted, it seemed like he was doomed.

He saw the wild boar rushed toward him again, he closed his eyes in despair but he heard a loud shout. Then the wild boar let out tragic howl. When he opened his eyes, the animal had moved away from him. He turned his head around and saw Jiang Zhou under a tree. For a second, he didn’t know how to respond.

He wasn’t familiar with Jiang Zhou; he had heard about absurd things Jiang Zhou done and he looked down on such man. When he met him, he didn’t want to talk at all. Just now, his life was threatened and the one who saved him actually Jiang Zhou. He knew Jiang Zhou must hear all the noises, if he didn’t want to save him, Jiang Zhou could just leave quietly. But he actually came here and helped him.

He was grateful but right now, after all the fight he done, he felt it would be in vain if he didn’t finish this wild boar. He picked up his hunting knife and prepared to fight the wild boar so Jiang Zhou could at least escape. But he saw Jiang Zhou jumping and running around leading the wild boar away, he hurriedly followed them.

The tree in this mountain was thick and tall, it could restrain the wild boar movement. But the animal seemed to be angrier and more impatient, it moved faster to Jiang Zhou which made Liu Sanlang nervous.

Suddenly a big tree appeared in front of Jiang Zhou, Liu Sanlang was worried if Jiang Zhou bumped into it with the wild boar chasing behind, his life might be lost, “Jiang Zhou, be careful!” he also raised his knife, reading to throw it at the wild boar.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Zhou dodged and hid behind the tree, the wild boar was tripped by something and hit the tree so hard; his body was twitching. Jiang Zhou quickly got his machete and slashed the wild boar. The animal let out a wail then fell completely still.

Liu Sanlang who saw everything was speechless.

After a long time, Liu Sanlang said, “This wild boar is too heavy for us, why don’t we ask other villagers to help?”

Jiang Zhou nodded.

They rested for a while, Liu Sanlang felt his energy was a little better and went down alone to find other people. Jiang Zhou didn’t refuse either, he sat down on the ground and saw the stupid wild boar, “It’s pig waiting for another pig.”

Jiang Zhou stopped being idle and took the leaves from a big tree, he filled them with water to wash the surrounding area from the wild boar’s blood. He made sure no other beast would come, then he removed his rope which was tied between two trees which tripped the wild boar.

This rope was the one who saved his life.

It took long time for the villagers to come up, so he went back and moved all his palm leaves. He was humming out-of-tune song while waiting for the villagers.

When everyone came up, they were all surprised to see the wild boar and Jiang Zhou sat beside it. Even some one laughed and said, “This wild boar looks heavy, probably four hundred kg. It has sharp fangs and really fierce, if you got hit, you will smash to the ground. You can catch it today; this means you already recover from your illness.”

Apparently, Liu Sanlang told everyone about their battle with wild boar. Most people in the village were honest and simple, they said what they wanted to say. They saw Jiang Zhou behaved so badly last year, but now he seemed to be improved, of course they were happy for him. They tied the wild boar together and carried it down with thick woods.

Liu Sanlang was in low spirit but he helped Jiang Zhou carried his palm leaves. The group went down the mountain in lively manner.