A hunter came running back, wailing that he had encountered a black bear.
Li Tugen and Jiang Huagou, who had gone with him, were dead. Their bodies hadn't been brought back.
To pay the tax, some people truly risked their lives, while others took advantage of the chaos to rob them.
When Zhou Menghu heard Jiang Huagou was dead, his eyes lit up. Jiang Huagou's daughter was fourteen. He could snatch her for himself.
"Xiao Haozi, Brother Zhou's only looking out for you," Zhou Menghu said at last. "Don't be ungrateful."
"Yes, Brother Zhou. I understand."
In a hurry to seize the dead man's property, Zhou Menghu didn't bother to persuade him further. He beckoned to his two underlings and left in high spirits.
"Boss," one of the hooligans suggested, "why not just take her by force? What's the point of being polite?"
"Idiot!" Zhou Menghu smacked the hooligan on the head. "You think the big shots in town will let us do whatever we want? We also have to watch out for those self-righteous knights."
"Then what do we do?"
"Three taels of silver aren't easy to come by. Maybe, when the time comes, all it'll take is three taels to get Su Yun."
Cui Hao shut the firewood gate and decided to go to the market to buy some glue. He could use the daylight to maintain his old bow.
Tomorrow morning, he'd practice archery at the edge of Second Mountain, and within seven days, he'd send Zhou Menghu packing.
"Brother Hao," Su Yun cautiously came out of the kitchen. "Has Zhou Menghu left?"
"He has."
"What are people saying outside?"
"They encountered a black bear. Li Tugen and Jiang Huagou didn't come back."
"Ah!" Su Yun cried in shock. "Uncle Jiang is dead?"
Cui Hao nodded. "Zhou Menghu's gone to seize the dead man's property."
"Brother Hao..." Su Yun thought of Lingdang, Jiang Huagou's fourteen-year-old daughter. "Do you think... we could possibly... help Aunt Hua and Lingdang?"
Cui Hao shook his head gently. "Just looking after ourselves is already hard enough."
That was true. They still had no idea where they'd get the silver for their own tax. Worry was written all over Su Yun's face.
At dawn the next day, Cui Hao slung his bow and arrows over his back, strapped a woodcutting knife to his waist, and took a shoulder pole in his hand. A bundle of straw rope hung from it.
It'd be best if he caught some game. If not, he'd bring back two bundles of firewood. Either way, he couldn't come home empty-handed.
He took the water gourd and dry rations from his wife, then strode out into the darkness.
Su Yun latched the courtyard gate from inside and braced it with two sturdy sticks. With her husband away, all she could do was keep herself safe and try not to hold him back.
By sunrise, the sun was peeking over the horizon. Cui Hao returned to the stream. Second Mountain stood on the other side, and as soon as he arrived, a pheasant startled into flight.
Unlike domestic chickens, wild pheasants were small and scrawny, with almost no meat. They flew even faster than wild ducks, so they weren't worth wasting his strength on.
He took off his shoes and waded across. Late autumn was in full swing, and the stream was icy cold.
Two squirrels were fighting in a camphor tree by the riverbank, screeching and squabbling fiercely. Cui Hao only glanced at them; he didn't waste an arrow on them either.
He followed the stream, heading in the opposite direction this time.
Before he encountered any game, he came across a thin, undersized man. The other man held a wooden fork and was quietly fishing by the stream.
The thin man stared intently at Cui Hao, afraid he might shoot him with an arrow and steal the only clothes his family had left.
Cui Hao, meanwhile, worried the man might use his wooden fork like a spear, thrust it across the narrow stream to kill him, and steal his bow and arrows.
Only after they'd put some distance between them did both men relax.
By a stroke of luck, before he'd gone even a thousand meters, Cui Hao spotted a beautiful pheasant more than twenty meters away. It was leading a brood of chicks as they foraged in a clearing between the stream and the woods in the early morning.
He took his bow and an arrow, nocked it, and fired.
The arrow whistled through the air. In an instant, the pheasant dropped.
The pheasant had been alert, and it leapt up in fright. The arrow struck beneath its wing. It didn't die immediately, and it flapped, trying to escape. But with an arrow sticking out of its body, it could barely run straight, and Cui Hao caught it.
The chicks didn't scatter.
He tied the pheasant's legs and wings with straw rope and slung it over his back. He planned to take the seven or eight chicks home and sell them.
After catching his prey, the panel updated.
[Archery: Beginner]
[Progress: 25/300]
[Effect: soreness -5, arm strength +5, accuracy +5]
His progress had been 20, and this time it had risen to 25. Compared with the gains before reaching the beginner level, the increase now was clearly much smaller. Still, Cui Hao was satisfied. As long as he kept practicing and grinding away, sooner or later he'd reach minor mastery, then major mastery, and eventually perfection.
He continued onward. The wounded pheasant clucked all the way, and just as Cui Hao was getting annoyed that the stupid bird was ruining his hunt, a large snake the color of corn, with a girth as thick as an adult's arm, dropped from a tree ahead.
Cui Hao hadn't expected this. He hadn't thought the chicken's cries would draw in prey, but then again, it made perfect sense!
He drew his bow and nocked an arrow. Whoosh!
From ten meters away, the wooden arrow pierced the golden snake's body.
Struck hard, the golden snake abruptly recoiled, its body springing back like a coil.
Worried it might escape, Cui Hao hurried two or three steps closer and fired a second arrow at close range. It hit again.
With a smack, the snake fell from the tree trunk, revealing its entire body.
It was about three and a half meters long. That counted as a big snake.
Afraid it might crush him to death, but also worried the prey might die, he shot two more arrows below its waist.
With four arrows in its body and badly wounded, the snake instinctively coiled into a ball, snapping three of the arrows. Yet it didn't flee; it stayed where it was.
Cui Hao didn't approach either. He held his ground and watched it.
After about a quarter of an hour, the snake's body gradually loosened.
Cui Hao lowered his bow and opened up a piece of blue cloth. He shook it out over the snake's head.
The weakened snake struggled, trying to shake the cloth off. Cui Hao sprang forward at just the right moment and used straw rope to bind the snake's head and the cloth together, wrapping it three times to make sure it wouldn't come loose.
He didn't want the snake to die, so he smeared mud over its wounds.
He secured the snake's head and tail to opposite ends of the shoulder pole, then cut some dead branches and dry grass to disguise it. It looked like a load of firewood—enough to bury a person.
He hoisted the pole onto his shoulder. The load weighed about thirty kilograms, a little more than a sack of rice.
That was no problem for Cui Hao. He hadn't neglected himself, and though he wasn't especially muscular, he wasn't skinny either.
With arm strength +5 and physique +5, carrying twenty kilograms was still easy.
"Physique" was an effect he'd gained from reaching beginner level in the bedroom arts.
[Bedroom Arts: Beginner]
[Progress: 50/300]
[Effect: physique +5, assignable progress points +20]
No wonder he'd started out with a child bride. She was quite useful.
Cui Hao walked in front with the pole on his shoulder. The chicks followed behind, wobbling along. After an hour together, they'd gradually grown used to him, and he easily caught all eight.
He bundled them up, leaving an opening for air, and carried them with him.
He stopped once along the way to eat his dry rations and drink some water. After ten li, he reached Qingyuan County.
He went into Xu's Pharmacy, the one closest to the north gate.
"We don't buy firewood." The shop assistant started shoving Cui Hao out without so much as asking. "Go on, get out!"
After walking ten li, Cui Hao's clothes were soaked with sweat. He no longer looked like a scholar and seemed more like a refugee. He couldn't blame the assistant for looking down on him, so he explained, "I'm here to sell snake gallbladders."
"We don't buy them! Hurry up and leave."
Medicine shops all bought snake gallbladders. If this one didn't want his, he could go to the next. But just as he was about to leave, someone else inside the shop called out to him. "Wait."
Before you continue