Bai Muban felt extremely depressed.
For so many years, the Old Bai family had never been able to save any silver; they had always lived a life of constant penny-pinching.
When he was seven or eight years old, his family had received help from the descendants of his great-grandfather’s sworn brother.
That sworn brother and his great-grandfather had taken the imperial examinations together and shared a clan name. While the great-grandfather failed the exams, the sworn brother placed high and became part of a prominent and wealthy family. When he was young, Bai Muban had followed his grandmother to seek their patronage. The family had given them one hundred and fifty taels of silver, along with clothes, food, and gold and silver ornaments. They even hired a carriage for them when they left.
The Old Bai family used that one hundred and fifty taels to buy prime land. The annual harvests from that land were excellent, and the silver earned from selling the produce was used to build a large courtyard and a house with green tiled roofs. Life was full of vitality back then.
Unexpectedly, after only a few years of good life, the descendants of that sworn brother fell into disaster. The men were exiled or executed, and the female relatives were sold into slavery or prostitution.
The Old Bai family was not the kind of people to forget a kindness. To save those who were still alive in the wake of the disaster, they sold their land and pawned everything they owned.
After that ordeal, the Old Bai family returned to a state of abject poverty in a single stroke. They never managed to rise again after that. Only the large courtyard and the few rooms with green tiled roofs remained as evidence of those prosperous years.
Walking along the path from his doorstep through the thick snow, Bai Muban pondered as he went.
Without realizing it, he had wandered to the riverbank at the edge of the village. This was the same river where Bai Erzhuang had taken Bai Zhaomei, Dalang, and Sanlang to catch fish.
The villagers had grown envious when they saw the Bai family catch large fish, and for those few days, people were breaking the ice to fish every day. However, none of them caught a thing, and the practice only stopped after someone fell into an ice hole.
The holes broken in the river surface had quickly frozen over again, the ice shimmering brilliantly under the setting sun.
He couldn’t possibly break the ice to fish again; he didn’t believe that such good luck would strike twice.
Bai Muban looked around. Under the cover of snow, the riverbank was a vast expanse of white. Large patches of withered yellow reeds swayed and leaned in the wind under the sunset, with clusters of snowy white reed catkins being blown about.
He walked toward the reed marsh, intending to pull some reed strips and catkins to weave a pair of Mao Wo for his youngest son and three grandsons. Of course, he wouldn’t forget his little daughter.
Mao Wo were popular winter shoes in the villages of the Nanguan mountainous area. The villagers were too poor to afford cotton-padded shoes, so they invented the Mao Wo as a substitute. The soles were wooden clogs, and the tops were woven with reeds and catkins. They didn’t slip or get wet when walking in the snow, and their warmth was no less than that of cotton-padded shoes. Most importantly, the materials were easier to obtain than cotton; one could simply gather them for free in the reed marsh by the river.
Bai Muban had a great talent for weaving Mao Wo; he had taught many families in the village how to make them.
Thinking about how his second daughter-in-law had complained that Sanlang had no new clothes to wear, his heart felt heavy. As a grandfather who couldn’t afford new clothes, he would at least weave a pair of warm shoes for his grandson.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck…”
Just as Bai Muban reached out to pull some reed catkins, there was a sudden rustling not far ahead in the marsh. He let go and took a few steps deeper into the reeds.
A pheasant jumped out—and it was a colorful one, too.
Bai Muban’s eyes lit up. He traversed the reed marsh every winter, but this was the first time he had ever encountered a pheasant. He leaned down to pick up a stone behind him and raised his hand to throw it at the bird.
Startled by the falling stone, the pheasant panicked and fled blindly. The reed marsh was too dense, with a few willow trees scattered within; the pheasant circled around with a series of frantic clucks before slamming its head straight into a large willow tree and falling unconscious.
Bai Muban’s heart blossomed with joy. He had actually run into such a stupid bird! He picked up the pheasant and pulled a reed to tie its legs together. Just as he finished tying the knot, more sounds came from nearby.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck…”
“Caw, caw…”
Three or four more pheasants were flapping their wings rapidly in the reed marsh.
Bai Muban’s eyes widened in shock. It must have been his stone from earlier that startled the other nesting pheasants, causing them to start flapping about.
Bai Muban continued picking up stones to throw at them, but unexpectedly, the pheasants didn’t even try to dodge. As if they were blind, they flapped around in a circle and flew straight into the large willow tree, falling unconscious in the marsh one after another.
As one wave settled, another began. Before he could even pick up those pheasants, several more followed, flapping their wings as they crashed into the willow tree.
Bai Muban was stunned. His heart pounded with excitement as he pressed his hands together and called out to the Heavens.
This was all free meat!
The scene from the river where the large carp jumped toward them hadn’t even faded from memory, and now a flock of “idiot” pheasants was crashing into a tree before his eyes. Once they knocked themselves out, they piled up on top of the previous batch.
After waiting a while and seeing no more silly birds appear, Bai Muban finally stepped forward to collect his “spoils of war.”
Good heavens!
Bai Muban counted them; there were at least ten pheasants.
It was incredible. He had grown up in Shenshu Village, and never mind this reed marsh by the river—he had never seen or heard of anyone catching so many pheasants at once in any other mountain village or even on the mountains themselves.
The Old Bai family was even more of an exception; their luck had always been poor, and not even a single pheasant feather had been found since his grandfather’s generation. Most importantly, these pheasants weren’t caught through painstaking hunting; they had literally delivered themselves to his door. He didn’t even have to lift a finger.
This luck was truly unparalleled.
It was all thanks to his little daughter! If it hadn’t been for his worries over the one-month feast for her, he wouldn’t have come out to clear his head, and he certainly wouldn’t have stumbled upon so many pheasants like a blind cat hitting a dead mouse.
Bai Muban credited this entire stroke of luck to Xiao Fuyuan.
Beaming with joy, Bai Muban used reeds to tie the birds together. Just as he was about to turn and leave the marsh, he suddenly discovered a pile of eggs not far ahead.
Pheasant eggs!
He counted them; there were thirty in total.
This harvest was truly a blessing from the Heavens.
Back at the Bai family courtyard, Xie Chuntao was cooking while Bai Sanzhuang helped tend the fire. When Bai Muban appeared at the kitchen door, Xie Chuntao and Bai Sanzhuang cried out in shock.
Old Lady Bai, Lady Zhen, and the second son’s couple were drawn into the courtyard by the cries. Seeing Bai Muban’s comical appearance, they were all left speechless with shock.
They saw Bai Muban with a string of pheasants tied with reeds hanging around his neck, while he held one still-breathing bird in his arms. His belly was bulging—it was unclear what he was carrying inside his clothes.
“Uh, Eldest Daughter-in-law, hurry and get a basin. I have pheasant eggs tucked in my shirt. I’m exhausted after this walk!” Bai Muban chuckled with delight, instructing Xie Chuntao, who was cutting vegetables in the kitchen, to get a basin for the eggs.
He had truly been exhausted on the way back. Fearing the eggs would break, he had tucked them carefully into his robes, leaving him with no hands to carry the pheasants, so he had to hang them around his neck. After the snow had accumulated on the road, he had practically shuffled home step by step.
Old Lady Bai was quick to act. She walked up to Bai Muban, untied the pheasants, and tossed them into the courtyard.
There were so many pheasants, each one plump and healthy with sleek, glossy feathers. It was the first time anyone in the Bai family had seen such quality birds.
“Where did all these pheasants come from?” Old Lady Bai asked.
“I picked them up in the reed marsh,” Bai Muban said, looking relaxed as he unloaded the eggs.
“You can pick up that many chickens in the marsh? Father, you must be lying,” Bai Sanzhuang said from the kitchen door, his face full of disbelief.
Bai Erzhuang also thought his father was joking.
“You brat, why would I lie to you? I really just picked them up. As soon as I reached the marsh, these birds just knocked themselves out one by one right in front of me. I couldn’t even stop them,” Bai Muban described honestly.
Bai Erzhuang and Bai Sanzhuang looked at each other, still skeptical. This was simply too bizarre. In all their lives, they had never heard a story of pheasants committing mass self-sacrifice.
One couldn’t blame them, as they hadn’t witnessed the scene at the river where the fish literally jumped into people’s arms.
Old Lady Bai and Lady Zhen, however, remained very calm. Having experienced the fishing incident, they no longer held any doubts about pheasants knocking themselves unconscious.
Nevertheless, they still felt it was incredible. This was the second time the Old Bai family had struck great luck since Xiao Fuyuan had arrived at their home.