Chapter (2) "The Capable Hunter and The Little Pheasants"
After Bai Li ate, he noticed the little kids were curled up next to Xiao Han again, who was currently asleep.
Since it wasn't even midday yet, Bai Li started heading toward the Village Elder's house with a thoughtful look.
In Bai Li's previous life, his family was quite wealthy. He loved physical activities: he had learned archery. He had even gone hunting with his friends a few times. While hunting was heavily restricted in his original life, but he was now in ancient era with abundant forests and mountains, meaning there seemed to be no restrictions at all. So why shouldn't he go hunting?
However, weapons were rare in this ancient era, and there were no bows and arrows in the original owner's house. According to the memories, the Village Elder and his sons often went hunting in the mountains when they weren't farming, so they probably had a bow. He decided to try and borrow one.
Bai Li was tracing the memories when he arrived at the Village Elder's front yard and bumped into the Elder's wife, Tu Xi. He gave her a little smile and greeted her, "Auntie jiang ....."
According to the memories, the original owner also used to smile at everyone like this. The difference was that Bai Li's smile was genuine, whereas the original owner's was always full of deceit and malice. But the Elder's wife honestly didn't care whether the smile of someone she despised was real or not. The moment she saw the Bai family's trash, she instantly frowned and snapped: "Who is your auntie?! What are you doing here!"
The hostility was so obvious that Bai Li felt a little ashamed. He rubbed his nose, looked past the Elder's wife into the house, and spoke a bit louder, "I need to talk business! I came to see the Elder!"
Tu Xi wanted to chase Bai Li away, but since her husband had heard the trash's voice, she had to clench her teeth and let it go. Bai Li didn't dare look at Tu Xi either. He knew she'd just chase him off, and since he knew the Village Elder was the only one who might listen to reason, he had wanted to talk to the Elder all along.
Just as he expected, the Village Elder's voice came from inside the house: "Who is it? Come in, why are you standing at the gate?"
As soon as he heard that voice, Bai Li quickly ran into the house without looking at Tu Xi's face again.
Even though it was the busy autumn harvest season, the Elder was home for lunch. In this ancient era, people usually only ate two main meals a day—once around ten in the morning and once around four in the afternoon. They would only have small snacks in between if they got hungry.
That's when Bai Li got it. Tu Xi was probably worried that he'd shown up at lunchtime and would try to sneak a meal.
Realizing this, Bai Li walked toward the Village Elder with a little smile. He glanced at the table and saw yellowish rice, stir-fried cabbage, and vegetable soup. He couldn't help but sigh. This was a farming village,even the Village Elder couldn't eat well. Being able to eat actual rice instead of just porridge was already considered quite good.
The Village Elder and his sons' expressions changed when they saw who it was. The Elder was confused and couldn't figure out why Bai Li was here.
"Ah, it's the second son of the Bai family. What's about deal?"
Though the Elder didn't like this young man, he was the Village Elder, and he had to listen to the concerns of the villagers.
Bai Li sat down without being asked and quickly got to the point: "It's like this, Elder. My ge'er is sick, and I don't have money for medicine. So I was thinking of going hunting in the mountains. I was wondering if I could possibly borrow your bow."
He had to state his purpose quickly. Tu Xi had walked out holding a bowl, likely to give some food to a neighbor, but she would be back soon.
If Tu Xi came back, it would be impossible to borrow the bow.
The Village Elder and his sons, upon hearing his request, looked at Bai Li with total disbelief.
The worst reaction came from the Elder's eldest son, who had been the one to drag the original owner to marry Xiao Han. Then, he yelled in outrage.
"How dare you spew such nonsense! We'd rather believe a paralyzed person in the village would go hunting than you!"
Bai Li: "...."
"Hey, that's going too far" Bai Li thought to himself.
Just as the Elder's other sons were preparing to voice their own contempt, Bai Li looked seriously at the Village Elder and spoke first.
"Elder, I admit I was foolish and behaved badly before, but I now genuinely regret. I have so many days left to live, right? Elder, why not give a young man one chance to correct his path? It's not like I'm going to misuse your bow since I'm not afraid of the magistrate. Please, just lend it to me this one time. I promise I'll return it this evening."
Ancient people often said that young people make mistakes, but they appreciated it even more when a foolish person changed their ways. The Village Elder was naturally a kind and reasonable man. When he heard Bai Li's sincere-sounding words and saw his earnest gaze, he began to agree.
Seeing their father's reaction, the sons couldn't accept it.
"Father! That guy's mouth is no better than a dog's mouth! Why would you believe anything he says? What change? What regret? Trash like him will be trash until he dies! Even if he does go to the mountains, how could he possibly know how to shoot an arrow? He'll just lose the arrows!"
"That's right, Father! This is the only bow we have in the house. We rely on it to hunt when we're not farming. How can we lend it to a guy like him?"
They wanted to say more, but the Village Elder raised a hand, signaling them to stop, and they didn't dare speak further.
The Village Elder looked closely at Bai Li with a calm expression.
"You are right. Young people often make mistakes, but if you're always making mistakes, it will become too much. You are not young anymore; you have two sons now. If you genuinely want to change, it's not too late. Just seriously think about your future."
Bai Li calmly accepted the Elder's lecture.
"I understand, Elder. Starting today, I will try my best to change."
The Village Elder seemed to have a slightly better opinion of Bai Li due to his polite attitude. He had lectured the second son of the Bai family a few times before as the Village Elder, but the boy, far from respecting him, would only smirk and say insulting things like, "Am I using your family's money?" "Old man, are you jealous that you can't have fun like me?" or "Want to come to the brothel? I'll pay for you." After that, the Elder had simply ignored the young man.
He just mentally sighed that this young man was the Bai family's misfortune for three lifetimes and could only feel sorry for them.
However, the young man in front of him today seemed subtly different from before, so he decided to trust him one more time.
"Xiao Qing, go get the bow for the Bai family boy."
Jiang Qing was the Elder's youngest son. He wanted to object when he heard his father, but seeing his father's stern look, he immediately went to fetch the bow. His father was the Village Elder and carried considerable authority, and since he was extremely strict with his sons, Jiang Qing didn't dare disobey.
As soon as Bai Li received the bow, he immediately stood up.
"Elder, Bai Li won't forget your kindness today! Even if I don't get anything for my own family today, I promise I will hunt a pheasant for you!"
The Elder wasn't used to such grand claims from Bai Li, so he just waved his hand.
"What are you rambling about? It's almost midday. If you're going up the mountain, go quickly!"
Bai Li smiled, took the bow, and walked away, overhearing the Elder's sons talking in the background.
"What a boastful idiot. He probably won't even be able to draw the bowstring."
"If he ends up as tiger food on the mountain, the Bai family will finally be rid of their curse. Come on, let's eat."
"I don't care if he becomes tiger food. But if anything happens to the bow, I'll beat him to death!"
Bai Li couldn't help but sigh repeatedly at those comments. He felt truly helpless because not only the adults and peers but even the children in this village were afraid of him and despised him.
Even though his heart was heavy with helplessness, his steps were quick, and Tu Xi was far away by the time she got back to her house.
In his previous life, Bai Li liked physical activities and was a very active young man. So, even though he wasn't fully used to this body yet, his steps were fast. After reaching the mountain, he found many pheasant nests and many eggs, and he also managed to catch five pheasants.
He didn't plan to go deep into the forest today, as he only wanted to survey the mountain's condition. After getting five pheasants and some pheasant eggs, he looked around a bit more. He then discovered a small hollow containing wild apple and pear trees. Since the trees weren't very big, he picked some, thinking of the little kids at home, and marked the spot so he could move the trees home on a later date.
Speaking of the little kids and Xiao Han, Bai Li felt responsible for taking care of his family after transmigrating into the original owner's body. In his previous life, he knew he was gay in terms of sexual orientation, but due to his conservative family, he hadn't dared to act on it. So, he didn't yet know whether he liked someone like Xiao Han, and for now, he had no feelings for him. But for the two little kids, Bai Li figured it would be fine since he naturally liked children, and he thought all of their bad luck should stop now.
Whether he liked Xiao Han or not didn't matter. Whether he could acknowledge the two little kids as his sons or not didn't matter either. What mattered was that he had to take care of them.
On his way back to the village from the mountain, Bai Li spotted the Village Elder's family busy working in the fields. Before Tu Xi could start cursing him, he yelled out to them.
"Elder! Auntie Jiang! I'm back from the mountain! Look, just like I said, I caught a pheasant for you, Auntie!"
Bai Li was a naturally active person. He tried to imitate the original owner's detached behavior, but he just couldn't control himself.
The Village Elder and his family looked up at the sound, only to see the young man with the bamboo basket on his back. In one hand, he was holding four pheasants tied together by the feet, and in the other, he was swinging a fifth pheasant by its foot.
"...."
Tu Xi had wanted to yell the moment she saw Bai Li. She hadn't believed that a piece of trash like him would go hunting; she thought he would just sell their family's bow. Don't blame her; a single bow was worth a lot of silver, and she just couldn't believe it because Bai Li was such a terrible person.
But now, looking at the pheasants in Bai Li's hand, she couldn't utter a single sound.
............
* Ge'er - a male who is capable of pregnancy
* Xi - a woman from the family (Example: Tu Xi , a woman from the Tu family)
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