"Can these things actually train?" Liu Tieshan still couldn't quite believe it.
"Big brother, don't worry. You'll see the results soon enough."
"By the way, I've got four yuan left. If Second Uncle brings the dog tomorrow, we can't let him take a loss."
Liu Tiezhu pulled the money from his pocket, turned around, and started tinkering with the compound bow parts.
There were enough parts to assemble two compound crossbows, but the bamboo arrows he'd bought still needed modification. The bamboo arrows were meant for the longbows old hunters used, not suitable for compound crossbows.
Liu Tiezhu fiddled around for over two hours before finishing one.
He checked the time—it was already past ten at night.
Outside the window, goose-feather snowflakes drifted down, and the temperature had dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius.
Liu Tiezhu shrank into himself, added a few pieces of dry firewood to the stove, and pondered how to keep his family safe through this snowstorm.
He remembered that in three days, the temperature would warm up. The mountain snow would melt, and many animals would come out looking for food. Plenty of hunters would head into the mountains.
He had to get ahead of those hunters, stock up on more game first.
Because after those three days, ten straight days of fierce winds and heavy snow would follow, with every household staying indoors.
He worked until the early hours of the morning before finally assembling two compound crossbows and modifying fifty bamboo arrows.
Barring any accidents, fifty arrows should last a month.
He added a few more logs to the stove, wrapped himself in his quilt, and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, when Liu Tiezhu woke up, his sister-in-law had already prepared a full table of breakfast.
In the yard, Yaoyao was playing happily with two puppies.
Just then, Liu Ergou showed up, carrying a big net bag, a machete tucked at his waist, and a few roasted sweet potatoes in his other hand.
"Ergou, come eat."
Liu Tieshan called out, and Huang Xiumei set out the bowls and chopsticks.
After breakfast, Liu Tiezhu handed a compound crossbow to Liu Ergou and led him toward the bamboo grove behind the house.
"Brother Zhu, we're not going into the mountains?"
Ergou asked excitedly, holding the compound crossbow.
When they'd come back from town yesterday, Liu Tiezhu had told him the newly assembled crossbow could easily pierce a roe deer from five meters away. He was itching to show off in the mountains.
Liu Tiezhu shot Ergou a glare. "The mountains are sealed off by snow. If an avalanche hits, we'll be lying flat on our backs."
"Going into the mountains now—you want the whole village to come to our funeral feast?"
Ergou thought it over and wisely shut his mouth.
It took them an hour to reach the bamboo grove.
Liu Tiezhu took out the crossbow, demonstrated how to use it once for Liu Ergou, then pointed to the right side of the grove.
"Let's split up and hunt bamboo chickens. Meet back at the grove entrance in two hours."
After Ergou left, Liu Tiezhu didn't waste time. He headed deeper into the left edge of the grove.
After walking a few hundred meters, he stopped and slowly crouched down.
In the cornfield next to the bamboo grove, two plump, brightly colored pheasants were scratching through a pile of corn stalks, searching for food.
Those two pheasants looked to be five or six jin each.
Pheasants that big were rare.
Liu Tiezhu didn't rush to shoot. Instead, he slowly adjusted the crossbow, aiming for a double kill with one arrow.
The distance between them was less than six meters, and the angle was right. It should be easy to take both down with one shot.
But the two pheasants kept hopping around. Liu Tiezhu adjusted several times but couldn't find the right angle.
Just as he was about to lose patience, the pheasants scratched out a dried corncob and lowered their heads to peck at it.
Liu Tiezhu seized the moment and pulled the trigger. The bamboo arrow pierced straight through both pheasants.
A flurry of flapping sounds erupted, and a dozen more pheasants burst out from the other corn stalks.
Liu Tiezhu froze, then broke into a grin.
Those fleeing pheasants were all several jin each, landing in a pile of corn stalks less than three meters away.
In this heavy snow, the pheasants couldn't fly far—perfect hunting opportunity for him.
A dozen pheasants meant another few dozen jin of meat.
After stashing the two pheasants, Liu Tiezhu continued creeping toward the flock.
An hour passed quickly...
Liu Tiezhu leaned against a pile of corn stalks, tallying his haul.
He'd wiped out the entire flock of eighteen pheasants, each averaging four jin—that was seventy jin of meat.
And that was just one hour's work.
After resting for a dozen minutes, Liu Tiezhu kept searching the cornfield.
If there was one flock of pheasants, there had to be more.
He walked another few dozen meters and heard movement ahead.
This time, it wasn't pheasants—it was wild ducks, bigger than the pheasants.
Two wild ducks huddled tightly together, their bodies hidden in the corn stalks, only their heads poking out.
Liu Tiezhu got excited. This was meat delivered right to his doorstep.
He aimed the crossbow and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
From five meters away, the bamboo arrow easily pierced both ducks' heads.
As Liu Tiezhu picked up the ducks, he noticed six ducklings in the corn stalks.
These ducklings were fist-sized, just starting to grow new feathers.
Liu Tiezhu quickly placed the ducklings next to the two adult ducks to keep warm.
These young wild ducks could be tamed.
Raising them to lay eggs would be a good plan.
The ducklings, probably freezing, burrowed into the adult ducks' feathers and stayed still.
Liu Tiezhu kept searching nearby and found another nest of wild ducks.
Over the next hour, his harvest was bountiful.
He killed twelve adult wild ducks and captured twenty-one ducklings molting their feathers.
Liu Tiezhu checked the sky, figuring it was about time.
He packed the spoils into a burlap sack, layered thick corn stalk leaves on top, and placed the ducklings on that.
When he returned to the meeting spot, Ergou was already there, his net bag stuffed with all sorts of mixed game.
Besides bamboo chickens, there were bamboo rats and weasels, adding up to over a hundred jin.
"Brother Zhu, this bamboo grove is a real goldmine! So much game!"
Ergou dropped the net bag and said excitedly.
Liu Tiezhu replied, "If it weren't a good spot, would I have brought you here?"
"It's getting late. We need to head back."
The colder the weather, the shorter the daylight.
It was already four in the afternoon, and the sky was starting to dim.
They'd left home around ten in the morning.
It took over an hour to reach the grove, two hours to hunt, and another two hours to get back.
They had to make it back to the village before dark, or it would be dangerous once night fell.
"Brother Zhu, what did you catch? I hear duck calls?"
Ergou craned his neck, curious.
"Pheasants and wild ducks. Picked up twenty-one ducklings on the side."
"Tomorrow, we're skipping the bamboo grove. We'll stick to that cornfield."
"I figure there are plenty more pheasants and ducks."
The two chatted and laughed, arriving home as darkness fell.
When Liu Tiezhu opened the yard gate, he immediately sensed something was off.
His big brother's face was bruised purple and blue, and his clothes had several tears.
Sitting nearby, Second Uncle was also battered, his face swollen, fists clenched tightly.
His sister-in-law kept sobbing uncontrollably, tears streaming down.
In her arms, Yaoyao curled up tightly, wailing loudly.