After planting all the medicinal herbs she had gathered into the black soil of her space, Pei Luo watered them with spiritual spring water before continuing deeper inside.
Although some villagers occasionally entered the deep mountains, none of them recognized medicinal herbs. That was why she could find so many just after entering the deeper forest.
She didn’t know if it was because she was too focused on searching for herbs, but Pei Luo noticed that along the way she hadn’t seen any prey at all.
Because she had the space with her, her courage naturally grew much greater. After all, if she encountered danger, she could enter the space at any time. Otherwise, she would never dare to walk forward so boldly.
Fortunately, after walking for a while, Pei Luo finally encountered a wild rabbit.
Now she could finally eat meat.
She swiftly drew her bow and shot an arrow.
Whoosh!
The arrow tore through the air and shot straight toward the rabbit. The rabbit struggled for a few moments before losing its life.
She walked over, tossed the rabbit into her basket, and continued forward.
Not long after, she spotted another rabbit. She drew her bow again and aimed. But before her arrow could be released, a red fox with glossy fur suddenly leapt out from somewhere unknown, pounced on the rabbit, and killed it with a few bites.
“What a beautiful fox,” Pei Luo exclaimed.
At that instant, the arrow in her hand shot out.
The fox was struck in the hind leg and cried out in pain. Since the arrow hadn’t hit a vital spot, it dragged its injured leg and tried to escape, even abandoning the rabbit it had just killed.
Pei Luo didn’t dare shoot at its body again because she didn’t want to damage the fur. But with its movement restricted, capturing it wasn’t difficult.
She picked up the rabbit the fox had abandoned and chased after it.
After chasing for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the fox finally collapsed from excessive blood loss.
Pei Luo walked over, snapped the fox’s neck cleanly, and tossed it into her basket.
The fox weighed more than ten kilograms. As soon as it entered the basket, Pei Luo immediately felt the weight increase significantly.
Feeling that today’s harvest was already enough, she prepared to head back.
But the moment she turned around, she saw a wild boar charging straight toward her from behind.
Startled, Pei Luo spun around and narrowly dodged the boar’s attack.
“Again?”
The boar quickly turned and charged at her once more.
Pei Luo suddenly felt as if fate was forcing food into her hands. She had been about to leave, yet now a wild boar had come delivering itself to her.
She pulled out the machete from her basket.
After more than ten rounds of fierce fighting, she finally managed to kill the boar.
The boar had thick skin and tough flesh. She had to stab it again and again until it looked like a sieve before it finally collapsed from blood loss. In the process, she herself became covered in blood.
After storing the dead boar and the basket into her space, Pei Luo prepared to head down the mountain.
She had spent most of the day in the mountains, and it was already afternoon.
She wondered whether the two children had eaten yet.
Because she was covered in blood, she only took out the bow and basket again when she was near the foot of the mountain.
For some reason, news of her going up the mountain had spread throughout the village. At that moment, many people were standing at the village entrance, as if waiting to see whether she would return alive.
“Ah! The third daughter-in-law of the Lu family actually came back alive!”
“That’s right! Look at all the blood on her body. She must have encountered some fierce beast in the mountains and escaped death.”
A group of villagers discussed among themselves, but none of them stepped forward.
Finally, Fat Auntie from the village walked up with a smile and greeted her.
“Third daughter-in-law of the Lu family, I heard you went into the mountains. Are you alright? Why are you covered in blood? Did you run into danger?”
Pei Luo saw that Fat Auntie was greeting her kindly, so she naturally didn’t respond coldly.
“Auntie, I’m fine. It was my first time hunting in the mountains, and I didn’t expect rabbits to be so hard to catch. I got splashed with blood while dealing with one. Luckily my luck was good. On my way back I ran into an injured fox. I chased it for nearly an hour before it collapsed. I was lucky to pick up such a bargain.”
Fat Auntie looked at the fox and rabbit in her basket with envy.
“Third daughter-in-law, I didn’t expect you to know how to hunt! Not only did you catch a rabbit, you even picked up a fox. That’s amazing! The fur on that fox is so good—it’s worth quite a bit of money. When you skin it later, ride your Third Uncle’s ox cart to the county town and sell it. You’ll get a good price. The rabbit skin is also worth something. They’re all good things.”
After hearing Fat Auntie’s words, many villagers gathered around to look.
Seeing that Pei Luo had really caught prey, their eyes turned red with envy.
After all, even the village hunters rarely brought back so many animals at once, yet a woman had managed to do it.
“Thank you, Auntie,” Pei Luo replied with a smile. “My father was also a hunter in the village. Before I got married, I learned a little from him. My aim isn’t very good. I shot for a long time before finally catching a rabbit. Today was just good luck. I’m afraid I won’t be this lucky again.”
After all, Pei Luo was a woman. If she claimed she was truly skilled at hunting, few people would believe her. Saying it was luck was safer.
It would also prevent others from becoming too jealous.
The reason she allowed the villagers to see her prey was partly to give an explanation for the money she would spend in the future. The other reason was to let everyone know she had at least some ability to hunt.
After all, she would certainly go into the mountains often in the future. She couldn’t keep doing it secretly forever.
The villagers were surprised that Pei Luo was so easy to talk to today and that she kept smiling. Perhaps it was because she had gained something unexpectedly.
“Third daughter-in-law of the Lu family, are you selling the fox meat?” someone suddenly asked.
It was Carpenter Wang from the village.
“My children have been craving meat these days, but pork is too expensive. None of us can afford it. Fox meat smells strong, but it’s still meat. If you’re willing to sell it, why not sell it to me?”
Carpenter Wang’s family was considered one of the wealthier households in the village. If even he said he couldn’t afford pork, then others certainly couldn’t either.
The price of pork had already risen to thirty copper coins per jin. Ordinary families simply couldn’t afford it.
Although fox fur was valuable, fox meat had a strong smell, so few people liked eating it.
But during times of famine, even rat meat was eaten. After all, meat was meat.
Since someone wanted it, Pei Luo was willing to sell it as a favor.