"My cousin brought it," Guan Xiaorou said with a blush, "She said it was a wedding gift for us."
Jin Feng understood immediately that his cousin must be afraid that Guan Xiaorou would starve if she married him.
"Then thank you, cousin?"
"Aren't you angry?" Guan Xiaorou asked tentatively.
She had heard in Guanjiawan that Jin Feng regarded himself as a scholar and cared about face very much, and was worried that Jin Feng would think that his cousin was humiliating him.
"Why should I be angry?"
Jin Feng smiled and said: "In any case, my cousin is doing it for your own good and feels sorry for you. It's too late for me to thank her, not to mention that my cousin gave you such a big gift."
Lin Yunfang's man, Zhang Liang, joined the army a few years ago and lost his arm on the battlefield. He was unable to do many jobs. Zhang Mancang broke his leg in the mountains when he was a child. He has been lame since then and can only make a living by chopping firewood and burning charcoal.
The family was already living a difficult life and could not afford a few full meals a year.
Lin Yunfang's gift of a pack of wild vegetables is indeed a great gift.
Given the current conditions of the Jin Feng family, they would not eat at noon, but when they heard that Jin Feng was going to go hunting in the mountains in the afternoon, Guan Xiaorou cooked some wheat porridge.
This time, no matter what Jin Feng said, it was useless even if she was as fierce as yesterday. She just refused to eat and squatted stubbornly in the yard, looking at the crossbow.
Although Dakang already has crossbows, due to backward technology, the crossbows produced are complex to operate and not very practical, so they are rare among the people. Orions still prefer to use simpler longbows.
"Master, is this a bow? Why is it different from the bow and arrow of the hunter uncle in our village?"
Guan Xiaorou saw the crossbow for the first time and asked curiously.
"This is called a crossbow!"
Jin Feng took the crossbow, pulled the string and loaded the arrow, then pointed at a big tree more than 20 meters away and pulled the trigger.
Whoosh!
The arrow flew out and hit the tree. The arrowhead sank into the tree trunk and its tail buzzed and trembled.
"So...so awesome!" Guan Xiaorou was startled: "Master, did you do this?"
"Who else but me?"
Looking at Guan Xiaorou's shining eyes, Jin Feng was quite proud.
After explaining to Guan Xiaorou how to use a crossbow, Jin Feng put his quiver on his back and walked out of the courtyard.
As soon as I went out, I met a group of women who were digging wild vegetables in the mountains behind.
"Jin Feng, if you are not at home with the bride, what are you doing?"
A girl with two braids asked with a wink.
She is the daughter of the village chief's family, with a lively personality. The unmarried girls and some young wives in the village all look up to her.
"Go hunting in the back mountains!" Jin Feng replied casually.
"Are you going hunting?" Xiaoyu said with a smile, "When did you learn to hunt?"
"I want you to take care of it?"
Jin Feng was too lazy to contend with a group of women, so he kept his head down and quickened his pace.
Some women were also curious about the crossbow in Jin Feng's hand, but before they could ask, Jin Feng left.
"Don't get lost when you go into the mountain!" Xiaoyu shouted from behind: "If you can't find something, come back quickly. Don't let the bride wait in a hurry!"
The other women laughed even harder.
There are often people moving around the back mountain, and there are not many prey. If you want to hunt something, you have to climb over the mountain and go deeper into the old forest.
In his previous life, Jin Feng was a child from a mountain village. He followed his grandfather hunting in the mountains since he was a child. He was no stranger to the mountains. Carrying a strung crossbow, he dexterously shuttled through the jungle, looking for clues left by animals.
This is the end of spring, when the mountains are green and the canopy of trees overhead blocks out the sun. It is also the season when animal activities are most frequent.
Not long after, Jin Feng found a gray rabbit drinking water next to a small puddle.
Rabbits are extremely vigilant. Even when drinking water, their eyes are constantly scanning their surroundings.
Patience is the basic quality of a hunter. At this time, the rabbit was already within the range of the crossbow, but Jin Feng did not take action, but waited patiently with the crossbow.
When the rabbit finished drinking water and turned to leave, he did not hesitate to pull the trigger.
The arrow flew across the distance between the two in the blink of an eye, pinning the gray rabbit to the ground. By the time Jin Feng rushed over, it was already dead.
"Not bad, quite fat."
Jin Feng stuffed the rabbit into the bag on his waist, put away the arrows, and continued to look for the next prey.
…
The sun is setting in the west, and the women digging wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain are getting ready to go back.
"Hey, have you seen Jin Feng come back?"
Xiaoyu, the village chief's daughter, asked others.
"No."
"I haven't seen it either."
"You're not really lost, are you?"
"Did you encounter a wolf?"
"You can run away when you encounter a wolf, but you're done when you encounter a bandit!"
"I heard that there is a mountain ghost in Lao Niuling, so he married a disaster star. What should I do if he encounters a ghost?"
The village women are ignorant and mean in speech, but most of them are simple and honest. They usually rush to Jin Feng, but no one really wants him to die.
Seeing that the sun was almost setting and Jin Feng hadn't come back yet, I became a little worried.
Xiaoyu looked at the concubine of Orion's family: "Cuihua, your master is familiar with me in the mountains, why don't you let him go and have a look."
"The master went to town to repair his bow today and won't be back until tonight."
"You guys wait here, I'll go back and ask my father to call someone to search in the mountains." Xiaoyu was a little anxious.
"Look, there's someone over there, is it Jin Feng?"
Orion's concubine pointed to the back mountain.
In the setting sun, a figure crossed the ridge and was descending the mountain.
"It's not who he is!"
Xiaoyu muttered, obviously relieved.
"Do you think he hit anything?"
"I heard from the boss that the rabbits and pheasants in the mountains are smarter than humans, and they will run away without paying attention."
Orion's concubine said: "Jin Feng has never gone hunting in the mountains before, so it's good that he didn't get lost."
"Yes, if the prey were so easy to hunt, everyone would go to the mountains to hunt."
A woman agreed.
But as Jin Feng got closer and closer, many people saw that the bag around his waist was bulging and dripping with blood.
"Jin Feng, did you hit something?"
When Jin Feng approached, the women gathered around him.
"Of course!" Jin Feng threw the two rabbits on the ground quite proudly.
"What a big rabbit, two more!"
"This big one must weigh six or seven pounds, right?"
"I think it's almost the same. These two rabbits can exchange for at least forty pounds of millet in town."
No one made fun of Jin Feng anymore, everyone was envious.
During the off-season, many people in the village would go to the mountains to try their luck, but most people don't have bows and arrows. How can anyone catch a rabbit in the mountains with just two legs?
Most of the time, we come back empty-handed.
I didn't expect that Jin Feng would gain so much when he went hunting in the mountains for the first time.
Forty pounds of millet, mixed with wild vegetables to make porridge, is enough for two people to survive the winter.
"Jin Feng, is this the rabbit you used to hit?"
Xiaoyu pointed at the crossbow and asked curiously: "Show me."
"Yes."
They were all from the same village, and Jin Feng did not hide it, but openly took out the crossbow and showed it to them.
"Can I try it?" Xiaoyu fiddled with the crossbow, eager to try it.