Chu Xun slept until the next morning.
After all, he had taken quite a loss last night.
At home, there was once again only him.
Chu Qing and Second Aunt had gone to dig wild vegetables.
Second Uncle Chu had gone to the neighboring village to help build houses, earning fifteen wen a day.
After eating a few steamed buns, he picked up his bow again and headed for the mountain forest.
Not far from the foot of the mountain, Chu Xun looked at the deep, silent mountain forest and paused slightly.
The deer carcass he had found the day before yesterday was definitely no coincidence.
There had to be something in the depths of the old forest. It would be better not to venture in too far.
Just as he reached a spot not far from the forest, he saw a group of women digging wild vegetables nearby.
Among them were Chu Qing and Second Aunt.
Chu Xun even saw Old Village Head’s granddaughter, Bai Jiaojiao, among them.
But she could not tell wild vegetables from weeds at all and just shoved everything into a basket.
One sharp-eyed woman spotted Chu Xun from far away.
There was no helping it. His one-meter-eighty height, handsome face, and heroic bearing as he carried a bow and arrows really were quite eye-catching.
“Hey, hey, Aunt Chu, that’s your eldest son, isn’t it? He’s going into the mountains to hunt again?”
When Second Aunt and Chu Qing heard it was Chu Xun.
They quickly looked up and indeed saw that figure in the distance.
The two of them hurried over.
Chu Qing said with concern, “Big brother, are you going hunting again?”
Second Aunt was also a little worried. In recent years, too many villagers had run into danger when going into the mountains.
She advised, “Xunzi, how about you don’t go? Go with your Second Uncle to build houses in the next village. You can still earn some money.”
Chu Xun shook his head and smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere too dangerous. I’ll just hunt a few hares and wild chickens and come back.”
Seeing how firm he was, Second Aunt and Chu Qing sighed.
They gave Chu Xun all the steamed buns they had brought and told him to be careful when he entered the mountain forest.
Chu Xun nodded and said he would not go too deep into the woods.
When they saw the white flour buns, the nearby women’s eyes went wide.
One of them teased, “Eldest son of the Chu family, you still haven’t taken a wife yet, have you? Want your aunt to introduce someone? With your hunting skills, there are definitely plenty of girls willing.”
“Go on, go on. You’re definitely talking about your own daughter, aren’t you? She’s dark as coal. Who would like that? Better look at my Erniu. She’s fair-skinned and hardworking.”
“Look at mine, my daughter…”
The women’s chatter gave Chu Xun a headache.
It was Chu Qing, her little face flushed red, who loudly said, “My big brother isn’t getting married right now! If he is going to look for someone, it’ll be someone beautiful and capable!”
Her playmate Bai Jiaojiao quickly came over.
With a grin, she said, “How about considering me as your sister-in-law? Then we can live together and play every day.”
Ever since Chu Xun had given her and her grandparents chicken meat last time.
Bai Jiaojiao had felt that Chu Xun was the best person in the village.
He was handsome and would give her meat to eat.
If she married him, she would definitely be able to eat her fill every day.
When her good friend spoke, Chu Qing blushed even more. “Go on, get out of here. What are you stirring things up for? You can’t even cook.”
While shooing away her good friend, she secretly glanced at Chu Xun.
Seeing that he had no interest in asking about any girl, she finally relaxed.
As for Chu Xun, he slipped past one wave of women and walked straight into the woods.
He believed that if he dared to stop.
He would definitely be dragged home by these aunts one by one to meet their daughters.
He walked about two li into the woods.
Suddenly, two clucking sounds drew his attention.
A colorful wild chicken was strolling leisurely on a branch.
This chicken sure was bold, coming all the way out to the edge of the woods?
Chu Xun directly summoned his recurve bow, aimed, drew it, and nocked an arrow.
Whoosh!
The wild chicken was hit right in the chest and belly and fell straight from the tree.
He skillfully tied its legs and hung it at his waist.
Chu Xun continued searching around the area.
He was not going deep into the woods; it would be enough to wander around the edge and make some gains.
But he had not expected his luck to be this good today.
In just about half a shichen.
Chu Xun had already hunted four more hares and two wild chickens.
But there was not a trace of joy on his face. Instead, he frowned and carefully looked around the woods.
Something was off. It was not like some game with a loot drop rate, was it? Wasn’t this a little too high?
Last time, when he had gone deep into the old forest for so long, he had only come back with about the same harvest.
Normally, hares and wild chickens would not linger at the edge of the woods.
But today, the number of both was really unusual.
It was almost as if they were deliberately running out of the woods.
When this sort of thing happened, it was usually either some natural disaster like an earthquake or a flash flood.
Or else… there was a large beast patrolling around inside the woods, scaring them into fleeing to the edge.
A beast that patrolled its territory…
Could it be a tiger?
Thinking of this, Chu Xun took a deep breath and slowly backed away.
Tigers would not easily leave the dense forest.
But the wolf packs and jackal packs that it saw as threats would be violently driven out and might very well come to the edge of the woods.
With so much prey here, it really did seem unsafe.
After retreating to the edge of the woods where he had come in.
He picked up the hidden old bow and quickly headed down the mountain.
Before long, Chu Xun saw the women busily digging wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain.
A sharp-eyed aunt spotted Chu Xun coming down from far away and shouted, “Look, why is he coming down so soon?”
The women who had been working with their heads down all looked up and started chattering.
Among the crowd, a plump aunt with a bulky figure curled her lip and said:
“He probably didn’t catch any prey, so that’s why he came down so fast. I told you, last time he only got that much prey because he was lucky. This time he won’t be so lucky.”
A few other women chimed in as well. That was just how villagers gossiped.
They envied you for being capable, living well, and getting help.
But they also feared you were doing a little too well, which made them very jealous.
However, as Chu Xun’s figure gradually came closer.
The spoils hanging from his body clearly came into the women’s eyes.
“You caught so much game! Three wild chickens, four hares!”
“Oh my, the Mountain God has given gifts! So much game came out of the old forest!”
“He’s only been in there for less than a shichen at most, and he already brought back so much game. No, I need to tell my man to go hunt in the old forest too.”
“That’s right. If Chu Xun can catch prey, there’s no reason our men can’t.”
The women were all green with envy, talking all at once.
If before they had only envied Chu Xun for being capable enough to hunt prey and exchange it for money.
Then now they were full of envy, jealousy, and resentment.
We’re here digging wild vegetables, exhausted half to death, and still not full.
And you just take a bow, wander around the mountain for a shichen.
And get so much meat?
How are we supposed to live?
Almost as soon as Chu Xun reached the flat ground, he was surrounded by a group of women.
They all chattered at once: “Chu Xun, did you get all this from the old forest?”
“Chu Xun, aunt watched you grow up. You have to tell aunt which area you hunted in. I’ll send the wild vegetables I dug today to your house.”
“My man wants to go hunting in the woods too. Xunzi, give us some advice.”
“…”
A crowd instantly swallowed Chu Xun up, surrounding him tightly inside and out.
Chu Xun finally managed to squeeze out of the crowd.
He looked around, but did not see Chu Qing or Second Aunt.
By rights, Qing’er and Second Aunt should not have gone home until their baskets were full of wild vegetables.
Could it be that…