Chapter (2) The Capable Hunter and the Little Pheasants
After Bai Li finished eating, he saw the little ones had clustered around Xiao Han again, who had fallen back asleep.
Since it was not yet midday, Bai Li pondered for a moment and then headed toward the village elder's house.
In Bai Li's previous life, his family was quite wealthy. He was very fond of physical activity and had learned archery. He had even gone hunting with his friends a few times. Although there were many restrictions on hunting in his former life, the current era was extremely ancient and rich with mountains and forests, suggesting no such restrictions existed. So, why should he refrain from going hunting?
However, weapons were extremely scarce in this ancient time, and the original body's home did not have a bow and arrows. According to his memories, the village elder and his sons would often go hunting in the mountains when they weren't busy with farm work, so they likely had a bow. Therefore, he decided to try and borrow one.
Bai Li followed his memories vaguely, and when he reached the village elder's house, he ran straight into the elder's wife, a Madam Tu. He gave her a small smile and greeted her, "Auntie Jiang."
According to the memories, the original body used to smile like this at everyone, too. The difference was that Bai Li's smile was simple and sincere, while the original body's was always full of cunning and malice. However, the village elder's wife didn't care whether the smile of a person she despised was honest or wicked. The moment she saw the Bai family's trash, she immediately frowned and snapped, "Who's your auntie! What are you doing here?"
The hostility was so obvious that Bai Li couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. He rubbed his nose and, ignoring the village elder's wife, looked toward the house entrance. Raising his voice slightly, he announced, "I have something I need! I came to see the Elder!"
Although Madam Tu wanted to drive Bai Li away, her husband, the head of the household, had already heard the trash's voice, so she could only clench her teeth. Bai Li also dared not look at Madam Tu anymore. He knew that she would certainly drive him out, and since he knew the Elder was the only one he could reason with, he had intended to speak with the Elder from the very beginning.
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 no longer dared to look at Madam Tu and immediately rushed into the house.
Although this was the autumn harvest and everyone was extremely busy, the Village Elder had returned home for lunch. In this ancient time, people only ate two main meals a day: one around ten in the morning and another around four in the afternoon. Any other time, they would only eat small snacks if they were hungry.
It was then that Bai Li realized why. Madam Tu might have been worried that he had come at mealtime to try and sneak a meal.
Once Bai Li realized this, he gave a wry smile and walked toward the Village Elder. He glanced over at the table and saw rice with a yellowish tinge, stir-fried cabbage, and a vegetable stew. He couldn't help but sigh. This was a village of farmers, and even the Village Elder couldn't eat well. The fact that they were eating rice instead of thin gruel was already considered good.
When the Village Elder and his sons saw who had arrived, their expressions immediately changed. The Elder felt utterly perplexed and could not for the life of him figure out why Bai Li had come looking for him.
"So, it's the second son of the Bai family. What business do you have here?"
The Elder did not like this young man, but as he was the Village Elder, he had to listen to the villagers' concerns.
Even though no one invited him to sit, Bai Li simply walked in and sat down, quickly getting straight to the point.
"Elder, it's like this: my ge'er at home is sick, and I don't have money for medicine. I was thinking of going to the mountain to hunt, so I wanted to know if I could possibly borrow your bow?"
He had to get straight to the point quickly. Madam Tu had just left, carrying a bowl, likely to give some food to a neighbor, but she could return at any moment.
It would be impossible to borrow the bow if Madam Tu returned.
However, the Village Elder and his sons looked at Bai Li with deep disbelief because of those words.
Worst of all was the Village Elder's eldest son, the very person who had dragged Bai Li and Xiao Han into marriage, who shouted in fury:
"How dare you talk such nonsense! We would rather believe that a man paralyzed from the waist down went hunting than believe you would!"
Bai Li: "...."
"Hey, this is too much!" Bai Li thought to himself.
Just as the rest of the Village Elder's sons were preparing to voice their own contempt, Bai Li stared earnestly at the Village Elder and spoke first:
"Elder, I was foolish and ignorant before. Now, I truly regret it. I still have many days ahead of me, don't I, Elder? Why not give a young man a single chance to reform? Since I even fear the local court, how could I possibly misuse your bow? Please, just lend it to me this once. I will bring it back this evening."
Old people often say that young people make mistakes, and they especially appreciate a fool who turns over a new leaf. The Village Elder was a kind and reasonable man to begin with, and when he heard Bai Li's earnest gaze and seemingly sincere words, he finally nodded.
Seeing their father's reaction, the sons could not accept it.
"Father! That guy's mouth is no better than a dog's mouth! Why would you believe what he says? What change? What regret? A piece of trash like him will remain trash until he dies! Even if he does go to the mountain, how could he possibly know how to shoot a bow? He'll probably just lose the arrows!"
"Exactly, Father! This is the only bow we have at home. We rely on this very bow to hunt during breaks from farm work. How could we lend it to a person like him?"
Though they wanted to say more, the Village Elder motioned for them to stop, and his sons immediately fell silent.
The Village Elder looked closely at Bai Li with a composed expression and said:
"What you said is true—young people make mistakes, but always making mistakes would be going too far. You're not young anymore; you already have two children. If you truly want to change, it's not too late. You should properly think about your future, my boy."
Bai Li calmly accepted the Village Elder's admonishment.
"I understand, Elder. Starting today, I will try my best to change."
Bai Li's courtesy seemed to make the Village Elder a little more optimistic. In the past, the Elder, acting in his capacity as village head, had tried to admonish the Bai family's second son a few times. However, that young man, far from showing respect, would only reply with a look of disdain and some sarcastic, insulting remarks like, "Am I using your family's money?" "Old man, are you jealous because you can't have as much fun as I do?" or "Want to come to the brothel? I'll pay for you." Because of this, the Elder eventually gave up on the young man.
He just mentally thought that this young man must have brought three lifetimes' worth of bad luck upon the Bai family and could do nothing but pity them.
However, the young man standing before him today seemed somewhat different from before, so the Elder decided to trust him one more time.
"Ah Qing, go and fetch the bow for the Bai family's boy."
Jiang Qing was the Village Elder's youngest son. When he heard his father's command, he wanted to object, but seeing the look in his father's eyes, he immediately went to fetch the bow. His father was the Village Elder and had a certain authority; he was also very strict with his sons, so Jiang Qing dared not disobey him.
As soon as he got the bow, Bai Li immediately stood up.
"Elder, Bai Li will not forget your kindness today. Even if I don't catch anything for my own family today, I will surely hunt a pheasant for you!"
The Elder was unaccustomed to such unctuous words from Bai Li, so he just waved his hand.
"What are you talking about? It's almost noon. If you're going up the mountain, go quickly!"
Bai Li smiled slightly and turned around with the bow in his arms, hearing the Village Elder's sons talking amongst themselves:
"What a braggart! He probably can't even draw the bowstring."
"If he ends up as tiger food on the mountain, the Bai family will finally be freed from their karma. Come on, let's eat."
"I don't care if he becomes tiger food; if anything happens to that bow, I'll beat him to death!"
Bai Li sighed repeatedly because of those words. It was truly helpless—not only the Village Elder and the adults but even the children in the village were afraid of and despised him.
Even though his heart felt so helpless, his steps were extremely quick. By the time Madam Tu returned to her house, Bai Li was already far away.
In his previous life, Bai Li was a very active young man who enjoyed physical activity. Therefore, even though he was not yet fully accustomed to this body, his steps were extremely quick. After arriving on the mountain, he found many eggs from several pheasant nests and also managed to catch five pheasants.
Bai Li had no intention of venturing deep into the forest today; his purpose was simply to assess the condition of the mountain. After getting five pheasants and many eggs, he continued to look around. He then discovered some wild apples and pear trees in a small valley. Since the trees weren't very large, he thought of his little ones at home and picked some of the fruit. He then marked the location so he could transplant the trees home on a later day.
Speaking of the little ones and Xiao Han, after taking over the original owner's body, Bai Li felt he was responsible for taking care of this family. Although he knew he was gay in his previous life, he never dared to act on it due to his conservative family. Therefore, he did not yet know if he liked someone like Xiao Han and currently had no feelings for him. However, since Bai Li liked children, he figured he would be fine with the two little ones, believing their collective bad luck should end here.
It didn't matter if he liked Xiao Han or not. It didn't matter if he could truly accept the little ones as his sons or not. What mattered was that he had to take care of them.
On the way back to the village from the mountain, Bai Li spotted the Village Elder's family busy working in the fields. To prevent Madam Tu from starting to curse at him, he called out loudly:
"Elder! Auntie Jiang! I'm back from the mountain! Look, just as I promised, I brought back a pheasant for you both!"
Bai Li was an extremely active person. Though he tried to imitate the original owner's demeanor, he couldn't control his own nature.
The Village Elder and his family members looked up at the sound and saw the young man with a bamboo basket slung over his back. In one hand, he held four pheasants gathered by their feet, and with the other hand, he held one single pheasant by its foot and swung it as he showed it off.
"......."
The moment Madam Tu saw Bai Li, she wanted to start shouting. She never believed that a piece of trash like Bai Li would actually go hunting on the mountain; she was sure he would simply sell their bow. Don't blame her; a single bow was worth several silver taels, and Bai Li was such an awful person that her disbelief was understandable.
But now, looking at the pheasants in Bai Li's hand, not a single sound escaped her.