I left Lin Anyu's room.
Chen Yang felt very uncomfortable.
In the first half of his life, he had owed almost everyone around him a debt. Therefore, he could not afford to waste any more time.
He went to the kitchen, intending to knead the remaining coarse flour into steamed buns to fill his stomach and give him the energy to go hunting in the mountains.
On the other side, after comforting Lin Anyu, Liu Shufang wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and went into the kitchen.
"Oh, you didn't eat the chicken you caught yourself, but you want to eat coarse flour buns instead. Who are you trying to impress?"
"I was thinking of saving it for you to eat."
Chen Yang scratched his head. He knew his mother was in a bad mood, so he did not dare to do anything rash.
Liu Shufang rolled her eyes and slammed the bowl of chicken soup that Lin Anyu had not eaten onto the stove.
"If your dad doesn't eat, I can't eat this much either. If you don't eat, I'll throw it out to feed the dogs!"
After saying that, Liu Shufang walked out of the kitchen without looking back.
Seeing this, Chen Yang did not want to be coy, so he immediately picked up the bowl and ate all the chicken.
After eating, before his mother could even lift a finger, Chen Yang took the initiative to clean the kitchen.
There was still quite a bit of pheasant meat left in the pot. Chen Yang found a large basin, poured everything into it, and saved it for his family to eat at noon.
After doing all this, Chen Yang put down the slingshot and called out to Liu Shufang, who was drying corn in the yard, "Mom, I'm going up the back mountain."
Liu Shufang fiddled with the corn in the winnowing basket and ignored him.
Chen Yang carefully grabbed a handful of corn, put it in his pocket, then took a basket and carried it on his back. Just before leaving the house, he pulled out a rusty sickle and a small hoe from a corner of the yard.
The medicinal hoe had a rather complicated history.
Niujiawan was too poor. Two years ago, the village's production team had a sudden inspiration and called on the villagers to plant honeysuckle. They said that if this plant grew successfully, people in the city would want to buy it at a higher price than ordinary crops. The villagers were naturally delighted to hear this, so every household planted honeysuckle. When harvest time came, someone from the neighboring village reported them. People from the higher authorities came, confiscated all the honeysuckle, and arrested the production team leader — who had not been released yet.
That was why the medicinal hoe had been sitting idle in a corner of the Chen family's courtyard.
Chen Yang thought that if he came across any medicinal herbs while hunting in the back mountains, he could dig them up and sell them in the city for money.
After throwing the hoe and sickle into the basket, Chen Yang left his house and headed straight for the back mountain, under Liu Shufang's probing gaze.
The weather was nice that day, with a clear blue sky. In the woods behind the mountain, patches of sunlight peeked through the leaves, and wild birds chirped all around.
With a basket on his back, Chen Yang strode quickly into the depths of the mountains and forests. Visibility was good during the day — even the slightest rustle or movement in the grass was easily noticeable. Therefore, Chen Yang was full of confidence. He believed that day's gains would be even greater than the previous night's.
Take pheasants, for example. Although they were wild animals, they were not very intelligent. They hid in the bushes but always liked to make noise — either cooing or flapping their wings, and these sounds were very distinctive.
Soon, Chen Yang discovered movement from a pheasant in a clump of bushes. This time, he had come prepared.
He first placed the basket under a tree, then took the corn kernels out of his pants pocket. For pheasants, this was not as delicious as goat's milk fruit, but it was still a rare treat.
Chen Yang cautiously took a few steps forward, then scattered the corn kernels into the open space outside the bushes, just like he had done before. After that, he returned to the tree and waited quietly for the pheasant to take the bait.
Soon, the pheasant in the bushes was attracted by the corn kernels. It clucked and poked its head out from a pile of weeds.
Chen Yang immediately raised his slingshot. When it came to hunting, one had to stay calm. Unlike livestock, wild animals did not lunge straight at food. The pheasant was no different — it only peeked out, making small noises and looking around, but never easily stuck its body out.
But Chen Yang had lived two lifetimes. Although he was only in his early twenties, he was already very calm and composed. He held up his slingshot and waited patiently for the right moment.
After a few minutes, the pheasant took a step forward and exposed its neck. The timing was perfect!
Whoosh! The slingshot launched the stone, which pierced the air like a bullet and hit the pheasant precisely on the neck. The pheasant flapped its wings twice and then collapsed to the ground.
The slingshot in Chen Yang's hand was not very powerful, so to make sure he could stun the pheasant, he always aimed for its head or neck. The result was clearly good.
Chen Yang immediately grabbed a branch from the nearby haystack, ran quickly to the bushes, tied the unconscious pheasant securely, and threw it into his basket. As he had thought before, this pheasant was not worth much, but it could be used as food.
Chen Yang remained neither arrogant nor discouraged. Taking advantage of the good weather, he continued deeper into the mountains and forests.
The mountain behind Niujiawan was part of the southwestern mountain range and was called Niuxin Mountain. It covered an area of several hundred square kilometers, with its main peak resembling a cow's heart and reaching an altitude of approximately two thousand meters. It was rich in various kinds of wild flora and fauna.
Besides various wild birds, medium-sized wild animals such as mountain antelopes and Malayan sun bears were also found there. However, if Chen Yang wanted to encounter such animals, he would have to travel at least several dozen kilometers into the mountains and forests. By then, his slingshot would not be enough — he would need at least a homemade hunting rifle, also known as a "homemade cannon." This weapon had a range of about 60 or 70 meters, and it required bullets loaded with iron pellets to penetrate the fur of medium-sized wild animals.
Of course, this was only true for the area within a few dozen kilometers of Niuxin Mountain. If one ventured further in, they were more likely to encounter ferocious beasts like clouded leopards, wild boars, and black bears — and even homemade cannons would no longer be effective. Professional hunters often carried modified Winchester shotguns, whose steel balls could easily break the bones of wild beasts, making it a top-notch hunting weapon.
That was why Chen Yang, who only had a slingshot, was just dabbling and had not even touched the threshold of a real hunter. He was well aware of this.
He walked a few hundred meters deeper into the woods and stopped when he reached a ditch. This ditch was about seven or eight meters deep and two or three meters wide, lying across the mountainside. Chen Yang estimated that he had walked about one kilometer into the back mountain. He was afraid of encountering danger if he crossed the ditch and went further. It was not just wild animals he had to worry about — the deep mountains of the southwest had a damp and hot climate, which made them prone to poisonous miasma. In unfamiliar environments, people could easily wander into miasma and die.
Therefore, Chen Yang used this ditch as a boundary. He planned his hunting area to be within a one-kilometer radius of the outermost edge of the back mountain. On the outskirts of the back mountain, encountering valuable wild animals was purely a matter of luck.