Lin Jinyue quickly stopped him: "Third Granduncle, you mustn't kneel—this would shorten my lifespan…"
Lin Jinyue was flustered and overwhelmed. One after another, family members took turns kneeling before her. With only two hands and being just eight years old, she struggled to pull one person up only for another to kneel down.
She grew so anxious that she nearly knelt back in return.
Lin Jinyue hurriedly jogged back, thinking to herself how these people were so quick to kneel.
After returning, Lin Jinyue wanted to recall the famine relief methods she had read about, but Lin Xueqing called out to stop her.
Lin Xueqing: "Yueyue, didn't you make a crossbow before? It had quite the killing power. Do you still remember the blueprint? If we come across any wild rabbits or pheasants on the road, we won't starve to death. And if we encounter wolves or tigers, we might even be able to fight them off."
Lin Jinyue nodded: "I remember, but…"
She had a photographic memory. By carefully recalling, she could remember even the details of those blueprints. That wasn't the problem—she doubted whether her father and brother could craft those small components properly, especially since tools were scarce here.
Nevertheless, Lin Jinyue picked up a branch and began drawing on the ground.
The ground was covered in messy, scribbled lines that looked like ghostly symbols.
Without paper, pens, or rulers, Lin Jinyue used a branch to sketch a series of diagrams on the ground. Triangles were recognizable, but what were those crooked, tangled lines?
Lin Jinyue knew her drawings weren't great. The soil was uneven—some parts soft, others hard and lumpy—making it difficult to draw. So, as she sketched, she explained to her brother.
Lin Xueqing stared at these soulful sketches.
He hesitated, wanting to say something.
But in the end, he said: "We can make it. The diagram is good, but it's a shame there's no paper to preserve it."
Lin Jinyue smiled: "It's fine. I can just redraw it when needed."
Lin Jinyue hadn't expected that her hobby from her past life would prove useful now—even life-saving.
After graduating with a master's degree, she struggled to find a job due to her major. Since she had occasionally written novels during her studies, she decided to become a full-time writer at home. She enjoyed post-apocalyptic and farming genres and had researched extensively for her stories. Not only crossbows, but even firearms could be figured out.
Moreover, she had a small quirk: while writing, she would try to see if she could actually make the things she described. Back then, with Lin Shucheng's support, she had tried her hand at papermaking, Zhuge crossbows… and more.
That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Lin Jinyue pulled her brother and father into the Farm System to work on carpentry. They worked through the night and produced two simple, crude crossbows.
Crude, because their killing power was limited—they might not hold up against fierce beasts. But time was short. After inspecting them, Lin Jinyue concluded that while they weren't finely crafted, they would suffice for hunting for now.
The next day, the night watch reported that the outside was temporarily safe. The village chief then organized the villagers to take turns foraging in the forest to prepare for the upcoming famine escape.
They were now running out of food and supplies. Without gathering more provisions for the journey, they would likely starve sooner or later.
Lin Xueqing and Lin Shucheng also went out.
Their family wasn't short on food, but their little daughter craved meat. The two of them hoped to bring back some game.
Lin Xueqing carried the homemade crossbow—one for him and one for Lin Shucheng.
The villagers watched in stunned silence as Lin Lao San aimed the crossbow at a pheasant. With a "whoosh," the wooden arrow flew out, pinning the pheasant directly to a tree.
They watched with bated hearts, finally understanding why Lin Lao San's family dared to flee the famine alone—it turned out they had means of self-defense.
Lin Xueqing carried the crossbow for two reasons: one was for hunting, and the other was to deliberately show it off, lest Lin Youliang's family come looking for trouble again.
He said to the crowd, "Let's split up and act separately."
Lin Shucheng, eyeing the particularly fast rabbits, remembered that his son had practiced shooting before and was quite accurate. He remarked, "Yueyue's Farm System has a fivefold time flow, right? I was thinking, if we could put these wild rabbits and pheasants alive into the farm, wouldn't we soon be able to eat meat freely?"
After discussing it together, father and son decided that Lin Shucheng would immediately make a fish trap to see if they could catch some fry to raise.
Lin Xueqing, meanwhile, went around searching for anything else they could raise.
Meanwhile, in the cave.
Lin Jinyue's mind kept ringing with the System's notifications:
[System: Congratulations, host, for obtaining wild rabbit*1]
[System: Congratulations, host, for obtaining grass carp*1]
[System: Congratulations, host, for obtaining…]
[System: Detected that two wild rabbits are about to die from excessive blood loss. If the host intends to raise them, please bandage them as soon as possible.]
Lin Jinyue could barely contain her excitement.
They finally had meat to eat!
Without caring about so many people watching, she pulled Jiang Yun and ran outside, saying to the village chief, "I'm taking my mother to look for some herbs. Please keep an eye on our things, Grandpa Chief."
Lin Youcai chuckled happily, "Alright, alright, I'll definitely watch them for you."
Lin Jinyue wasn't worried. Inside were just some inexpensive mixed-grain cakes and a few scraps of cloth—anything valuable was stored in the Farm System's Storage Space.
Once outside, she found a hidden spot and pulled Jiang Yun inside.
Although Jiang Yun had studied traditional Chinese medicine, she also knew a bit about treating animals.
Jiang Yun cut a small piece from a box of expensive fabric she had recently exchanged, disinfected it, tore it into strips, applied medicine to the rabbits, and bandaged them.
"Hey, this rabbit is pregnant. If we raise it well, we'll be able to eat rabbit meat in a few months."
"Ah, can these newly hatched chicks survive?"