The dawn of the fourth day arrived with a bone-deep ache that was both a punishment and a badge of honor. Every muscle in Lin Yan's body protested as he pushed himself upright on his pallet. Beside him, Lin Xiaoshan groaned theatrically, clutching his arms. "I feel like I've been trampled by Old Man Chen's ox."
A low chuckle rumbled from Lin Gang's pallet. "That's called work, little brother. You'll get used to it." But even the sturdy eldest brother moved with a careful stiffness.
The previous day's labor—the emotional wringer of the debt negotiation followed by the physical ordeal of felling, dragging, and setting fence posts—had left its mark on everyone. Lin Yan saw it in the way his father Lin Dashan knelt by the hearth, taking an extra moment to rise. He saw it in the careful way his mother Wang Shi stretched her back after fetching water. But he also saw something new: a shared, weary pride. They had faced down the village's power and then physically fought back against the wilderness. They were sore, but they were united.
The morning routine with the chicks was becoming a stabilizing ritual. Lin Yan and Xiaoshan performed it together. The five chicks had visibly changed in just three days. Their down was being replaced by the sleek sheen of proper juvenile feathers—a mix of brown, gold, and black that marked them as robust, healthy birds. They were no longer timid fluffballs; they were curious, voracious mini-dinosaurs, rushing the door when it opened, cheeping demandingly.
"They're getting so big!" Xiaoshan exclaimed, carefully scattering a mixture of finely chopped dandelion greens and the previous evening's haul of woodlice and beetle larvae.
"They're growing fast," Lin Yan agreed, checking their water. "Which means they'll need more protein, more everything." The foraging efforts were already straining the local area. They needed a more sustainable solution, and soon.
[Daily Quest: 'Morning Vigil' completed. 5 System Points awarded. Total: 25/100.]
As they finished, Er Niu arrived, his cheerful face a burst of energy in the tired morning. He carried a small cloth bundle. "Morning, Lin family! Brought you something." He unwrapped it to reveal a half-dozen small, wizened apples from his family's storeroom. "Last of the season. A bit shriveled, but the chickens might peck at them. My ma said to give them to you."
It was a gesture of profound generosity. Fresh fruit, even shriveled, was a luxury. Wang Shi's eyes grew moist as she accepted the bundle. "Thank your mother for us, Er Niu. Please, come in and have some porridge."
Er Niu waved her off. "Ate already! Came to help with the fence. A line of posts is just an invitation unless you weave it tight!" He was already striding toward the field, examining yesterday's work.
Fueled by Er Niu's indefatigable energy and the subtle boost of the apples (which Lin Yan knew would provide valuable vitamins), the Lin family mobilized again. Today's task was the weaving. Using the bundles of tough, flexible wild grapevine and honeysuckle stem that Xiaoshan had gathered, they began to create the fence walls.
Lin Yan, his body still screaming, directed the work. He showed them how to weave the vines horizontally between the vertical posts, pulling them taut, creating a dense, cross-hatched barrier. "We need it tight enough at the bottom that a fox can't squeeze under, and high enough it can't easily jump over," he instructed. It was slow, meticulous, hand-shredding work. The vines were tough, cutting into their palms despite their calluses.
Lin Qiang, ever the pragmatist, found a way to improve the process. He used a hot nail from the fire to burn small holes through the harder wooden posts, allowing the vines to be threaded through for greater stability. It was a simple innovation, but it made a significant difference. Lin Yan made a mental note: his second brother had a clever, practical mind. He should be leveraged for tool and process improvement.
By mid-morning, they had completed one full side of the square mu, about twenty-five meters of dense, woven barrier. It looked primitive, rustic, but undeniably solid. It transformed the space. No longer was it just a patch of barren earth open to the world; it was an enclosure. A defined territory.
Standing back to look at it, Lin Dashan rubbed his sore hands, a complex expression on his face. "It's a good fence," he said simply. It was high praise.
It was then that Old Man Chen hobbled by again on his daily walk. He stopped, leaning heavily on his stick, and squinted at the fence, then at the Lin men covered in dirt and sweat, at Er Niu cheerfully wrestling with a stubborn vine. His wrinkled face was a mask of disbelief.
"Dashan… you've built a prison for your dirt?" he cackled, a dry, rasping sound.
Before Lin Dashan could reply, Lin Yan stepped forward. "Not a prison, Grandfather Chen. A foundation. You keep the wolves out before you bring the sheep in."
The old man's laughter died. He peered at Lin Yan, his milky eyes sharper than they seemed. "Wolves, is it? I see only one scrawny fox and a lot of foolish hope." But his tone lacked its previous outright dismissal. The sheer physicality of their effort commanded a grudging respect, even from a cynic. He shuffled on, muttering about youth and wasted sweat, but he looked back at the fence once more before turning the corner.
The encounter was a minor victory. They were no longer just pitiable; they were puzzling, and therefore potentially formidable.
At noon, they took a break, eating a simple meal of boiled turnips (a precious store vegetable) and the last of the thin millet porridge. Er Niu joined them, devouring his portion with gusto and entertaining the children with exaggerated stories of his (mostly fictional) wrestling matches with river monsters.
As they ate, Lin Yan's mind was working. The fence was progress, but passive defense wasn't enough. He needed active deterrence. The 'Simple Snare Blueprint' knowledge was itching in his mind. He needed to implement it.
After the meal, he gathered Xiaoshan. "Come. I need your sharp eyes. We're going to set some traps."
"Traps? For the fox?" Xiaoshan's eyes widened with a mix of apprehension and excitement.
"For anything that wants to treat our chickens as a meal."
Using more of the tough vine, Lin Yan, guided by the system's clear, image-based instructions, began to fashion a series of simple loop snares. He focused on the "figure-four" deadfall snare for smaller game like rabbits (which would also provide meat and fur), and a more robust, anchored loop snare designed to catch the leg of a predator like a fox or weasel.
He chose the locations carefully, using his nascent understanding of animal tracks from the system's peripheral knowledge. He placed the rabbit snares along faint runs in the grass at the wood's edge, baited with a few precious apple seeds from Er Niu's gift. The predator snares he set at two vulnerable points: where the new fence met the older, rickety woodline fence, and near a spot under the coop where the earth was soft, suggesting a potential digging point.
Xiaoshan watched, utterly fascinated, as his second brother's hands, once clumsy and weak, worked with a deft, certain purpose. "The dream showed you this too?"
"The dream showed me how to protect what's ours," Lin Yan said, tying off the final knot with a secure yank. He showed Xiaoshan how the trigger mechanism worked. "Remember these spots. We check them twice a day, at dawn and dusk. If we catch something, we deal with it quickly and humanely. And we never, ever touch a snare without knowing it's disarmed. Understood?"
Xiaoshan nodded, his face serious. This was important, adult work.
The afternoon was spent weaving the second side of the fence. The work was slightly faster now that they had the technique down, a rhythm established. Lin Qiang and Lin Gang worked as a team, one holding tension, the other weaving. Lin Dashan and Er Niu processed more vines. Lin Yan and Xiaoshan continued snare production, setting a few more in a wider perimeter.
As the sun began to sink, painting the sky in fiery hues, they had completed two full sides of the square. Their mu was now half-enclosed, a palpable sense of security growing with each woven length.
It was time for the evening check. Lin Yan's heart thumped with a mix of dread and anticipation as he and Xiaoshan approached the first predator snare near the fence junction.
It was empty. A small part of him was disappointed, a larger part relieved.
The rabbit snares were also empty. But as they approached the snare set near the soft earth under the coop, Xiaoshan grabbed his arm. "Second Brother! Look!"
The snare was sprung. The vine loop was pulled taut, and attached to it was not a fox, but a large, brownish rat with a long, naked tail. It was dead, its neck broken by the snare's quick jerk.
Lin Yan felt a surge of triumph, immediately followed by disgust. But this was the reality. Pests were a threat to grain stores and could also attack chicks. This was a victory.
"Ugh, a rat," Xiaoshan said, nose wrinkling.
"A rat that won't be stealing our future grain or bothering the chickens," Lin Yan said firmly. "This is good. This means the snares work." He carefully disarmed the mechanism and removed the carcass. He wouldn't waste it. The chickens would appreciate the meat. He carried it by the tail back to the work area.
The family gathered around, their reactions mixed. Wang Shi shuddered. Lin Qiang nodded appreciatively. "Big one. Good catch."
[Hidden Milestone: 'First Harvest (Pest Control).' Host has successfully protected assets using crafted tools.]
[Reward: 10 System Points. Knowledge: 'Basic Tanning (Small Hides)' unlocked.]
[Total System Points: 35/100.]
Tanning? A rat skin was useless. But the knowledge was for the future—for rabbit pelts, maybe fox or weasel fur. The system was playing the long game, building his skill set piece by piece.
As dusk settled, after feeding the chickens (Lin Yan added tiny shreds of the rat meat to their mash, which they devoured with gusto), the family stood inside their half-fenced domain. The air was cold, their bodies exhausted, but a new feeling was coalescing.
Lin Dashan looked at the sturdy woven wall, at the healthy chicks safely shut in their reinforced coop, at the compost pile silently working, and at his sons—the frail one now directing with quiet authority, the strong ones following with renewed purpose, the young one learning vital skills. He put a hand on Lin Yan's shoulder, the grip firm. "You've done well, son. The ancestors… they chose wisely."
It was acceptance. It was trust.
That night, as Lin lay aching on his pallet, the system chimed with a new notification, different from the quest completions.
[System Alert: Host's consistent effort and incremental success have generated a minor 'Pioneer Aura.']
[Effect: Slightly increased likelihood of favorable outcomes within defined territory (e.g., predator avoidance, plant vitality). Radius: 50 meters.]
[Note: Aura strength is tied to Host's resolve, family cohesion, and tangible progress. It is a subtle influence, not a guarantee.]
An aura? It sounded mystical, but the system had been ruthlessly practical so far. Perhaps it was a statistical nudge, a way of quantifying luck earned through hard work. He'd take it.
Just before sleep claimed him, he heard it—a sharp, startled yelp from the direction of the woods, followed by the sound of something thrashing briefly in the underbrush, then silence.
He sat up, every sense alert. Had a snare caught something else? Something bigger?
He waited, but no further sound came. The 'Pioneer Aura' glowed softly in his interface. He lay back down, a hard, cold smile touching his lips in the dark.
The line had been drawn. The first warning had been issued—not just with a gesture, but with vine and trigger and consequence.
The message to the wild was clear: The Lin family's land was now defended territory. Trespass at your peril.
The ranch was taking root, not just in the soil, but in the very fabric of the frontier. And its young master, once a frail boy, was learning to think like a farmer, fight like a frontiersman, and build like an emperor of one single, precious mu of earth.
[System Note: Territory secured. Deterrence established. The foundation solidifies. Host may now consider the next phase: Expansion of Livelihood.]
The blue dot pulsed, a steady, approving eye in the night. Outside, the wind carried the scent of turned earth, green vines, and a faint, coppery tang of victory from the shadows of the wood.