Scheming

"Xiao Chen, what are you doing standing here with a brush knife?"

Second Grandfather Lu Wei looked a little puzzled.

"Nothing. Second Grandfather, what brings you here?"

Lu Chen hurriedly led Second Grandfather into the courtyard and called into the house, "Xiao Ming, Xiao Tang, come out! Second Grandfather is here!"

Lu Wei looked Lu Chen up and down. Seeing that he was in fairly good spirits, he figured his injuries were nearly healed.

He was healing quite quickly. The medicine the doctor had given him was probably good.

Thank goodness Xiao Chen was all right. Otherwise, how would the two little ones have carried on by themselves?

"Xiao Chen, how are you feeling? I heard from Xian De that you went into the water to save someone yesterday? You were too reckless. You haven't recovered yet. You have to think of Xiao Ming and Xiao Tang. They're still young. If something happened to you, what would they do?"

There was a note of reproach in Lu Wei's voice.

Although the person he had saved was his older male cousin's grandson, Xiao Chen was still more closely related to him.

He glanced at the two small, skinny children behind Lu Chen and sighed. "You've had a hard time! Uncle Ting caught this half a pheasant in the mountains yesterday. Cook it and eat it to build up your strength. A Zhen's wife picked these mushrooms in the mountains with a few of the children. They're still fresh. There's also a bag of brown rice here. Make it last."

Looking at the half pheasant, basket of mushrooms, and bag of brown rice in his hands, weighing seven or eight jin altogether, Lu Chen felt his eyes grow warm. He hurriedly bowed to Second Grandfather. "Thank you, Second Grandfather!"

"Thank you, Second Grandfather!"

Lu Ming and Lu Tang also bowed in thanks.

Lu Wei nodded. "On my way here, I heard people say that those beasts Lu San and the others came looking for you. What was it about?"

"It was nothing. They just came to have a look and have already left!"

Lu Chen did not tell Second Grandfather about Lu San and the others.

"All right. If anything happens, remember to come to Second Grandfather. While these old bones are still around, I can give you a little help."

With that, he patted Lu Chen on the shoulder, turned, and left.

Lu Chen waited until Second Grandfather was far away, then closed the door.

"Brother, that Lu San..."

Lu Chen shook his head, looked at Lu Ming and Lu Tang, and smiled. "All right, don't think about them anymore. Everything's fine now!"

Seeing that Lu Tang and Lu Ming still wanted to say something, he immediately grew serious. "I said there's no need to worry. Stay home for the next few days and don't run around. There's no hurry to go to the fields for now, understand? If anything happens, shout for help."

"Mm!" Lu Ming and Lu Tang knew they couldn't cause their big brother more trouble, and immediately said they understood.

Lu Chen actually already had an idea.

When he saw those mushrooms earlier, a thought had popped into his head.

Perhaps he could use mushrooms to achieve his goal, killing those men without a sound and making it hard to trace their deaths back to him.

With that in mind, he immediately found a bamboo basket and said to his younger brother and sister, "Go inside. Don't open the door before I come back. I'm going out for a bit."

"Brother, what are you going to do? I can help too!"

Lu Ming called.

"If you come with me, what about our little sister? Stay home. If you get bored, practice the throwing I taught you inside the house! Just don't break anything."

Lu Chen ushered them both inside, put away the carrying-pole load of gifts Uncle Huaiyi had brought to thank him, and closed the courtyard gate. He took his brush knife, put plenty of stones in the basket, and headed for Great Green Mountain behind the village.

Second Grandfather had said that Second Aunt had picked those mushrooms in the mountains. It was early summer, and it had rained a few days ago—just the time for mushrooms to come up.

Back on Earth, he'd had a colleague from southern Yunnan who was exceptionally fond of all kinds of mushrooms, and Lu Chen had tried quite a few himself as a result.

He was especially familiar with the various poisonous mushrooms that couldn't be eaten.

He might not have been very clear on which ones were safe, but he knew a great deal about the poisonous ones and had even read books introducing mushrooms.

Among the mushrooms Second Grandfather had brought over, he had spotted grass chicken fir mushrooms.

There was another mushroom that looked remarkably similar to the grass chicken fir, but was poisonous.

After searching in the mountains until sweat soaked his back from the heat, he found that very mushroom, just as he had expected.

A whole patch of them was growing nearby.

They were all Amanita pseudoporphyria.

Quite a few amanitas were deadly poisonous.

The mushroom before him looked extremely similar to the grass chicken fir, and anyone who ate it was highly likely to die.

Someone who wasn't particularly familiar with mushrooms would find them almost impossible to tell apart.

He picked a basketful, slipped in some other poisonous mushrooms he recognized, and mixed in a few common local mushrooms that weren't poisonous.

The basket was full to the brim.

"How do I get them to eat these?"

Carrying the mushrooms, Lu Chen suddenly heard a sound in the bushes.

"Was that a pheasant calling?"

Lu Chen wasn't sure.

He stopped, took out two stones, and scanned back and forth in the direction of the sound.

The trees were a little dense, and bushes blocked his view. He saw nothing.

He took a few steps forward and suddenly saw the trees' shadows stir. His eyes sharpened, and a stone shot from his hand.

Whoosh!

The stone struck some branches and leaves, startling a brightly feathered pheasant in the bushes. It flapped forward, trying to escape.

Lu Chen ran forward two quick steps and threw the stone in his hand.

With a dull thud, the stone struck the pheasant squarely.

"Nice. A feast of pheasant stewed with mushrooms. You can't catch a wolf if you're unwilling to sacrifice a child. I'll give them a last meal!"

Lu Chen went over, picked up the pheasant, and twisted its neck.

He carried everything down the mountain and picked some wild vegetables, using them to cover the pheasant underneath. He deliberately left its feathers showing, as though he hadn't hidden it well.

Then he carried the bamboo basket full of mushrooms to Teng Jun's house and looked around.

Perhaps it was because everyone, even dogs, hated that bunch, or perhaps everyone had gone to work in the fields, but there was surprisingly no one around.

And Lu Chen really would pass this way going to and from the mountain.

He crouched low and listened around the wall for a while. Once he was sure all four men were in the house, he picked up a stone and tossed it into the courtyard, then pretended he had just come down from the mountain.

"Ah! Fuck!" someone screamed.

"Damn it, who the fuck threw that stone?"

Someone shouted from the courtyard and rushed out in a fury, just in time to see Lu Chen passing along the road beside it.

"You brat, are you looking to die? How dare you throw a stone at your grandpa?"

There was a red bump on Lu San's forehead. Apparently, the stone had hit him squarely.

Lu Chen hadn't aimed at all. He had thrown it at random, without even putting much force into it, just to attract the attention of the people inside. He had never expected it to hit someone squarely.

He put on a somewhat frightened expression and backed away a few steps.

"I didn't throw it. I just came down from the mountain after picking mushrooms."

As he spoke, he also pretended to try to hide the pheasant in a fluster.

Lu San spotted the pheasant at once, half its backside sticking out. His eyes lit up, and, forgetting the injury on his forehead, he rushed over in three strides that took the place of two.

"You brat, you still dare say it wasn't you? You were holding a grudge and wanted to sneak attack me just now, weren't you?"

Lu San viciously grabbed Lu Chen by the collar as he spoke, his eyes full of the pheasant and mushrooms.

Lu Si, Teng Jun, and Luo Yong also rushed out. When they saw Lu Chen, they immediately flew into a rage.

Since when could the lot of them be bullied by a little bastard?

"There's no one else around here. Who else could it have been?"

"Exactly! Those mushrooms look pretty good. Did you catch that pheasant?"

Luo Yong looked at the pheasant in the basket with some longing.

"I picked it up. I was going to take the mushrooms home to eat," Lu Chen said quietly, his hand already gripping the brush knife. "I told you, I didn't throw the stone. If there's nothing else, I'll go home now."

Looking at the brush knife in Lu Chen's hand, Lu San grew a little afraid. He let go of Lu Chen and stepped back.

"Stop! Who said you could leave? Leave the mushrooms and pheasant as an apology to us! You even wanted to hack at me with a knife earlier. Since you're from the same village as me, I didn't hold it against you, but don't think you're taking these things away!"

Lu Si grabbed the bamboo basket.

"No!"

Lu Chen was furious. He tightened his grip on the brush knife and stared at Lu Si, then glanced at the others and took a deep breath, a look of unwillingness appearing on his face.

"My younger brother and sister haven't had meat in a long time. I was going to stew the pheasant and mushrooms for them to build up their strength. Don't go too far!"

After thinking it over, Lu Chen spoke with some anger and helplessness. "How about this? You can have the pheasant, and I'll take the mushrooms."

Seeing that Lu Chen seemed inclined to back down, the hooligans immediately laughed.

People like them knew all about taking an inch and demanding a mile, bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

It seemed Lu Chen was nothing more than tough on the outside and weak on the inside, putting on a reckless act. He wasn't really unafraid of death.

Looking utterly domineering, Lu San snatched the bamboo basket. "We want the pheasant, and we want the mushrooms too! Get lost, or don't blame us for getting nasty!"

He spoke viciously, his gaze cold.

Lu Chen flinched and forcibly held back his anger. His fists clenched and unclenched. He gave the bamboo basket a reluctant look, his eyes reddening, then turned and left without a word.

"Hahahaha! Pah, what a piece of trash. You dared to get angry with your grandpa!"

The men roared with laughter, slung their arms over one another's shoulders, and headed back with the bamboo basket.

"Brothers, we're eating pheasant stewed with mushrooms today! Hahahaha!"

With his back to them, Lu Chen let a smile curl at the corners of his mouth.

If he had brought the mushrooms to their door himself, they would instead have worried that they were poisoned.

But since they had snatched them from his hands, they certainly wouldn't worry about being poisoned.

Besides, if there had only been mushrooms, they might not have been willing to cook them, but add a pheasant and they would definitely have the motivation.

Still, that was only his conjecture.

Whether they would eat them, how long it would take them to be poisoned and croak after eating them, and whether they would find a doctor who could cure them were all open questions.

If they really didn't die, he could only choose to send them on their way himself.

As soon as he got home, Lu Chen heard a system notification.

[Under the host's guidance and influence, the destinies of Lu San, Lu Si, Teng Jun, and Luo Yong have changed]

[Estimated Fate Value gain: pending settlement]

"The compass of destiny has begun to turn!"

Lu Chen's gaze was icy.