“Cousin brought it,” Guan Xiaorou said with a blush, “She said it’s a wedding gift for us.”
Jin Feng immediately understood. Cousin must have been afraid that Guan Xiaorou would go hungry after marrying him.
“Have you thanked Cousin?”
“You’re not angry?” Guan Xiaorou asked tentatively.
She had heard in Guan Family Bay that Jin Feng prided himself on being a scholar, very concerned about his dignity, and worried that he might think Cousin was humiliating him.
“Why would I be angry?”
Jin Feng smiled, “No matter what, Cousin is looking out for you, caring for you. I’m grateful to her, not to mention she sent such a generous gift.”
Lin Yunfang’s husband, Zhang Liang, had joined the army a few years ago and lost an arm on the battlefield. He couldn’t do much work. Zhang Manchuang had broken his leg falling in the mountains as a child and became lame, only able to make a living by chopping wood and making charcoal.
The family was already struggling, rarely eating full meals throughout the year.
For Lin Yunfang to send a bag of wild vegetables was indeed a significant gift.
Given the conditions at Jin Feng’s home, they wouldn’t eat lunch either, but hearing that Jin Feng was going hunting in the mountains that afternoon, Guan Xiaorou still cooked some wheat porridge.
This time, no matter what Jin Feng said, even if he scolded her like yesterday, it was useless. She stubbornly squatted in the courtyard, examining the crossbow.
Although the Great Kang already had crossbows, due to backward craftsmanship, the produced crossbows were complicated to operate and not very practical. So, they were rarely seen among the common people. Hunters still preferred the simpler longbows.
“Hubby, is this a bow? How is it different from the bow and arrows of the hunter uncle in our village?”
It was Guan Xiaorou’s first time seeing a crossbow, and she asked curiously.
“This is called a crossbow!”
Jin Feng took the crossbow, drew the string, loaded an arrow, and aimed at a large tree over twenty metres away, pulling the trigger.
Whoosh!
The arrow shot out, nailing into the tree. The arrowhead embedded in the trunk, the tail vibrating with a buzz.
“So… so powerful!” Guan Xiaorou was startled, “Hubby, did you make this?”
“Who else but me?”
Looking at Guan Xiaorou’s sparkling eyes, Jin Feng felt quite proud.
After explaining the use of the crossbow to Guan Xiaorou for a while, Jin Feng slung the quiver on his back and walked out of the small courtyard.
Just as he stepped out, he encountered a group of women heading to the back mountain to dig wild vegetables.
“Jin Feng, why aren’t you at home with your new bride? Where are you off to?”
A girl with two pigtails asked with a wink.
She was the village chief’s daughter, lively in性格, and the unmarried girls and some young wives in the village all followed her lead.
“Going to the back mountain to hunt!” Jin Feng replied casually.
“You’re going hunting?” Xiaoyu laughed, “When did you learn to hunt?”
“Mind your own business?”
Jin Feng couldn’t be bothered to argue with a group of women and quickened his pace, head down.
Some women were curious about the crossbow in Jin Feng’s hand, but before they could ask, he was gone.
“Don’t get lost in the mountains!” Xiaoyu shouted from behind, “If you don’t catch anything, come back quickly. Don’t make your new bride anxious!”
The other women laughed even harder.
The area near the back mountain was often frequented by people, with few prey. To catch something, one had to cross another ridge and go deeper into the old forest.
In his previous life, Jin Feng was a mountain village child, hunting in the mountains with his grandfather from a young age. He was no stranger to the mountains. Carrying the loaded crossbow, he nimbly shuttled through the jungle, searching for traces left by animals.
It was late spring, the mountains lush with green, the canopy overhead blocking the sky. It was also the season when animals were most active.
Before long, Jin Feng spotted a grey rabbit drinking at a small puddle.
Wild rabbits were extremely vigilant. Even while drinking, their eyes constantly scanned the surroundings.
Patience was a basic quality for a hunter. The rabbit was within the crossbow’s range, but Jin Feng didn’t shoot. Instead, he held the crossbow steadily and waited patiently.
When the rabbit finished drinking and turned to leave, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The arrow crossed the distance in the blink of an eye, nailing the grey rabbit to the ground. By the time Jin Feng reached it, it was completely dead.
“Not bad, quite fat.”
Jin Feng stuffed the rabbit into the cloth bag at his waist, retrieved the arrow, and continued searching for the next prey.
…
The sun was setting in the west, and the women digging wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain were preparing to return.
“Hey, have any of you seen Jin Feng come back?”
Village chief’s daughter Xiaoyu asked the others.
“No.”
“I haven’t seen him either.”
“He couldn’t have really gotten lost, could he?”
“Maybe he encountered a wolf?”
“If he met a wolf, he could still run. If he met mountain bandits, he’s done for!”
“I heard there’s a mountain ghost on Old Ox Ridge. He just married a jinx. What if he ran into evil?”
The village women were ignorant and spoke harshly, but most were simple and kind. They usually teased Jin Feng eagerly, yet no one truly wanted him dead.
Seeing the sun almost set and Jin Feng still not back, they started to worry.
Xiaoyu looked at the hunter’s concubine, “Cuihua, your hubby knows the mountains well. Why not have him go take a look?”
“My hubby went to town to repair his bow today. He’ll be back tonight.”
“You all wait here. I’ll go back and get my dad to call some people to search the mountains.” Xiaoyu was getting anxious.
“Look over there, is that someone? Is it Jin Feng?”
The hunter’s concubine pointed to the back mountain.
In the sunset, a figure crossed the ridge and was descending the mountain.
“If not him, who else!”
Xiaoyu muttered, clearly relieved.
“Do you think he caught anything?”
“My hubby says the rabbits and pheasants in the mountains are smarter than people. One slip, and they’re gone.”
The hunter’s concubine said, “Jin Feng has never hunted in the mountains before. Not getting lost is already good.”
“Yeah, if prey were that easy to catch, everyone would go hunting.”
Some women agreed.
But as Jin Feng got closer, many noticed the bulging cloth bag at his waist, dripping with blood.
“Jin Feng, did you catch something?”
As Jin Feng approached, the women crowded around.
“Of course!” Jin Feng proudly threw the two rabbits on the ground.
“Such big rabbits, and two of them!”
“This big one must be six or seven jin, right?”
“I think so. These two rabbits could trade for at least forty jin of grain in town.”
No one teased Jin Feng anymore. Each face was full of envy.
During slack farming seasons, many villagers tried their luck in the mountains, but ordinary families lacked bows and arrows. With just two legs, who could chase a rabbit in the mountains?
Most times, they returned empty handed.
Unexpectedly, Jin Feng’s first hunt yielded such a big harvest.
Forty jin of grain, mixed with wild vegetables to make porridge, enough for two people through winter.
“Jin Feng, did you use this thing to catch the rabbits?”
Xiaoyu pointed curiously at the crossbow, “Let me see.”
“Yes.”
They were all from the same village, so Jin Feng didn’t hide it and generously handed the crossbow for them to look at.
“Can I try it?” Xiaoyu fiddled with the crossbow, eager to give it a go.
