“The knife is here.”
Tang Shiyi quickly ran into the house and brought out the only kitchen cleaver they had at home.
With everyone working together, they quickly untied the vines binding Qiu Huang.
“Sigh, I’m dying of thirst.”
Qiu Huang sat down on the ground, finally feeling completely relaxed.
“Husband, here’s water.”
Murong Shiyun immediately handed him a bowl of clean water.
“Thanks.”
Qiu Huang didn’t stand on ceremony. He picked it up and drank it all in one go.
“Husband, what do you plan to do with all these things?”
The women all looked at him. As the head of the household, he had absolute authority.
“The fish and other things that can’t be stored should be eaten tonight. The rest should be roasted first, then hung up and stored for later.”
“Not sold?”
Qiu Huang pointed at the giant bear.
“Isn’t this exactly something to sell?”
The women suddenly understood.
They had heard that meat from wild beasts was not very tasty—much tougher compared to wild chickens and rabbits.
“Go to Sister Cuiflower’s house and borrow a knife. Also invite her over. Tonight she’ll eat dinner with us.”
…
At this time of famine, everyone was already eating grass roots and tree bark. If they found a corpse, as long as it wasn’t a human body, even if it was rotten and crawling with maggots, they would still find a way to bring it back and eat it.
“Are these wild chickens and rabbits also something you picked up?”
Qiu Huang said, “You mean these? We hunted them ourselves.”
“You hunted them? Where did you hunt them?”
The villagers were skeptical.
They had set out early in the morning to search the forests, but hadn’t found a single feather. Yet Qiu Huang’s group had hunted so much. How could they believe it?
“Didn’t I already say it? We went into the deep mountains. These were all found in the deep mountains.”
The deep mountains?
The villagers exchanged looks, seeing shock in each other’s eyes.
They knew there was good prey in the deep mountains, but the risks were also enormous. As they had said before, several villagers had gone into the deep mountains this year and never returned.
“Young people really are different—full of courage and energy, daring to go into the deep mountains.”
A newborn calf fears no tiger.
In truth, none of them had the courage to enter the deep mountains. Compared to prey, they valued their lives more.
“If there’s nothing else, we’ll head back first. This thing is too heavy. I’m exhausted—I had to stop dozens of times on the way just to bring it back.”
Qiu Huang gritted his teeth and pretended to be extremely tired.
The villagers made way. Although they were envious of the harvest, they did not dare to rob them in public. The authorities would not let them off.
“Let’s go.”
Seeing the path cleared, Qiu Huang and the others did not stay any longer and walked straight into the village.
…
After they had gone further away from the crowd, Song Yuwei couldn’t help but ask softly:
“Husband, why didn’t you tell them that the giant bear was killed by us?”
“Silly. Husband is hiding his strength. Think about it—if people knew he could kill a giant bear, what would they think of us?” Song Yufei said.
Wanyan Meiling also nodded.
“Yes, we should keep a low profile now. We must absolutely not tell others that we killed the giant bear.”
“I understand now.”
After their explanation, Song Yuwei immediately understood.
As the saying goes, one should not intend to harm others, but must guard against harm from others. Staying low-key was the way to survive.
…
At the village edge, Qiu Huang’s home.
Yan Roujun and the others had returned.
“You’re back. How was the harvest?”
Tang Shiyi, Su Yuexue, and Shan Feng immediately came out to greet them.
Yan Roujun said, “Wild vegetables are too hard to find. We worked all afternoon and only gathered this little.”
They placed down their baskets and bamboo containers.
The three women took a look and immediately felt disappointed. There were far too few wild vegetables. For their eleven-person household, it would only last one day.
“There are too many people picking wild vegetables now. And it’s a famine year. The vegetables can’t even grow before they’re picked. There’s really nothing we can do,” Yan Roujiao explained.
“Yes,” Murong Shiyun nodded. It truly wasn’t their fault—they had already tried their best.
Tang Shiyi and the others were not blaming them. They had also searched for wild vegetables before, so they knew how difficult it was. Being able to find this much was already decent.
“Where are Husband and the others? Haven’t they returned yet?” Chen Yuan asked.
“They haven’t,” Shan Feng replied.
Su Yuexue said, “Now we can only hope Husband and the others have better luck and bring back more game.”
At that moment, Tang Shiyi noticed something.
“They’re back.”
Everyone turned around and immediately became happy.
A man and three women were walking toward them.
“Husband!”
The women quickly gathered around.
When they saw the bamboo baskets, their eyes lit up.
“Yuwei, did you hunt all of these?”
“Yes.”
Song Yuwei set the basket down.
The women looked inside and saw wild chickens, rabbits, fish, and other items—quite a large amount.
“Great! We won’t go hungry anymore!”
Everyone became excited, and their earlier disappointment disappeared completely.
“Shiyi, where’s the knife? Bring it out and help Husband remove the vines,” Wanyan Meiling said.
Only then did everyone turn their attention to Qiu Huang—and their expressions changed instantly.
Their mouths opened wide, and their pupils shrank sharply.
“Is… is that a giant bear?”
They had all heard of or seen giant bears before. This creature was terrifying—brutally strong, thick-skinned, and extremely heavy. Ordinary people simply could not handle it.