A change

By the time Zhao Feng returned to the village entrance, night had fallen. The weather was growing colder, and there was less farmwork to do. Some villagers who had finished their chores were gathered there, chatting.

Zhao Feng spotted a few familiar villagers and greeted them.

"Uncle Chen."

"Aunt Ruan, have you eaten?"

Hearing his voice, they turned and saw Zhao Feng. All of them immediately took a step back, as though avoiding a plague god.

"Hasn't this boy gone simple-minded? Out running wild again, is he?"

"A dog can't stop eating shit."

"Poor Youlin's family is about to be ruined by him. They used to do so well, all before this wastrel brought them down."

"Stay away from him. He's not right in the head."

Hearing their remarks, Zhao Feng lowered his head awkwardly and walked around them. He knew the body's previous owner had been the village scourge. Though the blame belonged to his predecessor, he still had to carry it.

None of them noticed the bulging cloth bag at his waist.

Zhao Feng entered the village and ran into his cousin, Zhao Sheng, his eldest uncle's younger son.

According to his predecessor's memories, his uncle's family was far better off than theirs. The elder son, Zhao Xing, worked for wealthy young men in the inner city, while the younger son, Zhao Sheng, had apparently just been sent to a Martial Arts School in town.

His predecessor and Zhao Sheng had been playmates as children, but had grown apart as they got older. More precisely, his predecessor kept pressing his warm face against a cold backside, trying to curry favor, while Zhao Sheng ignored him entirely.

His predecessor had not seen Zhao Sheng in a long time either. The young man before him was much sturdier than he remembered, with a touch of martial spirit in his features, clearly the result of training.

Zhao Sheng spotted Zhao Feng from a distance. Disdain crossed his face, and he turned his head, pretending not to see him.

Normally, his predecessor would have rushed over to ingratiate himself, but the current Zhao Feng had no interest in that. He watched coldly as Zhao Sheng strode grandly back to his home in the western part of the village.

Zhao Feng headed toward his own home at the village's eastern end. From a distance, he saw a tiny glow flickering in front of the gate.

Tap! Tap!

Zhao Youlin sat on the threshold, silently taking puff after puff from his tobacco pipe.

Zhao Feng remembered that whenever his predecessor stayed out late running wild, his father would sit silently on this same threshold, smoking and waiting for him to return. That flickering glow reflected his father's mood.

Warmth stirred in his heart, and he stepped forward.

"Dad, I'm back!"

Zhao Youlin looked up at him, failing to notice the bulging cloth bag at his waist.

"You're back. Good. Let's eat," he said hoarsely.

Zhao Feng entered the house. The atmosphere in the courtyard was subdued, and his mother and sister-in-law were both wiping away tears with their heads lowered.

"Second Uncle, you went out running wild again! You made Mother and Grandma cry!" Zhao Bao'er and Zhao Zihuai jumped out, pouting.

Over the past month, their formerly hateful second uncle had become friendly and kind, and Zhao Bao'er and Zhao Zihuai were no longer so afraid of him.

"I wasn't running wild. Look what I brought you." As he spoke, Zhao Feng pulled a plump rabbit from the cloth bag.

Today, he had searched for rabbit burrows using the method his father had taught him. By good fortune, he had struck a fleeing rabbit with an arrow. His archery minor mastery had shown its worth.

"Is that... a rabbit?" By the faint lamplight from the main room, Zhao Bao'er recognized it first and cried out in delight.

"What?" His mother, Yang Shi, and his sister-in-law, Tian Cuihua, forgot their tears and hurried over to look.

"It really is a rabbit!" Yang Shi exclaimed delightedly.

"Feng'er, where did this rabbit come from?" Zhao Youlin asked sternly. The whole family immediately looked at Zhao Feng with concern. Had he stolen it somewhere again?

"I hunted it, of course. Shot it with an arrow." Zhao Feng pointed to the quiver on his back.

It was his first hunt. Though he had learned a great deal from Zhao Youlin, he lacked practical experience. Catching a single rabbit after more than half a day was already lucky.

"You really hunted it yourself?" Surprise and delight appeared on Zhao Youlin's face. His second son had indeed been asking him about hunting experience and techniques lately, but where had this Archery come from?

He was an old hunter and knew how hard it was to hit a running rabbit. "Swift as a fleeing hare" was no idle saying.

"Of course I did. I got lucky." Zhao Feng had no intention of revealing his Archery, and he could not disclose even the slightest thing about the panel, not even to his closest family.

"Mother, take it and clean it with Sister-in-law. We're eating meat tonight!"

"Hooray, meat!" Zhao Bao'er and Zhao Zihuai leaped three feet into the air.

"Second Brother, perhaps we should trade this rabbit for some coarse rice," Tian Cuihua said. Winter was coming, and the family had little grain stored.

"Sister-in-law, look how thin Bao'er and Zihuai are. And Dad won't recover properly without meat. I'll figure something out for the grain," Zhao Feng said.

"Cuihua, Feng'er caught this rabbit. Let him decide what to do with it," Zhao Youlin said.

"All right, then." Her father-in-law was the head of the household. Now that he had spoken, Tian Cuihua could hardly keep objecting.

Zhao Bao'er and Zhao Zihuai, whose eyes had already dimmed, once again leaped three feet into the air.

By the time Yang Shi and Tian Cuihua brought out the rabbit and coarse-rice porridge, the two little ones were so hungry their bellies clung to their backbones, and their mouths were watering.

"Mother, why is there only half?" Zhao Feng asked.

"Your sister-in-law said to salt the other half and save it," Yang Shi said.

Zhao Feng could only let them have their way. He took the rabbit-leg meat from his bowl and divided it between Bao'er and Zihuai. Bao'er picked up a piece and carefully put it into his mouth. His eyes immediately lit up.

"It smells so good! Delicious!"

He and Zihuai scrambled for the food, feasting eagerly.

Zhao Feng ate a piece too, tasting meat for the first time in ages. Though this body's previous owner had often stolen things from home to trade for wine and meat, Zhao Feng had not tasted meat in the several months since his transmigration.

He felt his taste buds dancing with joy as every cell in his body erupted with a craving for protein. Before long, he had emptied his bowl of rabbit porridge.

"Here, Feng'er." His mother, Yang Shi, and his father both picked the rabbit meat from their bowls and offered it to him.

"Dad, Mother, I really am full. You both need nourishment, especially you, Dad. Your leg still needs to heal." Zhao Feng's eyes grew hot. His parents' indulgence had been a major reason his predecessor became a spoiled wastrel. On Earth, he had been an orphan. Here, though they were poor and could not even eat their fill, he had tasted the warmth of family.

With meat on the table, there was more life in the household. The dark cloud that had hung over the Zhao Family for months lifted a little, and everyone became more talkative.

Before long, the earthenware basin had been scraped clean of meat and coarse-rice porridge. Even the little bit of rabbit offal was gone.

"Dad, Mother, Sister-in-law, I want to learn martial arts." Zhao Feng seized the opportunity to raise the subject. The moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere around the square table froze.

Tian Cuihua anxiously looked from her mother-in-law to her father-in-law, hoping they would speak up and stop him.

"You want to learn martial arts? Son, I've heard it isn't easy, and it costs a great deal," Yang Shi said. They could barely feed themselves. Where would they get the silver for him to train?

More importantly, her son had always been an unreliable wastrel. Even if he had changed somewhat, could he endure the hardship of martial training?

Zhao Youlin said nothing. He merely lit another bowl of tobacco and began puffing away.

"Bao'er, Zihuai, go play in the courtyard. Children shouldn't breathe secondhand smoke." Zhao Feng sent the two little ones outside.

"Dad, martial arts are the only way to change our family's circumstances," Zhao Feng said.

"But Feng'er, now that you can hunt, you could become a hunter like me and make a living. Why learn martial arts?" Zhao Youlin asked.

"Dad, times are growing harder, and there are more and more oppressive taxes and levies. Even hunting can barely keep us fed. If I pass the exam to become a Martial Scholar, our family will be exempt from government taxes and corvée labor. Then we can keep everything we harvest, and neither you, my brother, nor I will have to perform that damned forced labor again," Zhao Feng said.

The three of them immediately began breathing faster. Keeping their entire harvest and being exempt from corvée labor was an enormous temptation for a farming household like theirs.

After a year of backbreaking toil, more than seventy percent of their earnings and grain went toward various taxes. They had heard that the authorities would raise taxes again next year.

Then there were the two annual rounds of corvée labor, a mountain pressing down on their heads. The thought of it made Zhao Youlin shudder. Every stint was an ordeal; returning alive was already a blessing.

Even now, there was still no word from his eldest son, who had gone to perform corvée labor.

"If I pass the Martial Examination and gain even a measure of official standing, finding my brother will be much easier too," Zhao Feng said gravely.

Tian Cuihua's eyes immediately lit up. Though she disliked the expense of her brother-in-law's martial training, she was naturally tempted if it could help bring her husband home.

"Even if I don't become a Martial Scholar, I can still help the family as long as I become a Martial Master."

"All right!" Zhao Youlin gritted his teeth and knocked his tobacco pipe against the sole of his foot.

"But learning martial arts means going to a Martial Arts School in the county town. The apprenticeship fee... Last time I heard Old Ding from the village mention it, it was nearly ten taels of silver."

"Ten taels..." Yang Shi's face went pale. Even when the family had been doing well, ten taels had been two years' income.

Now, they had no money at all.

"If we'd known you wanted to learn martial arts, we should have sold the rabbit instead of eating it," Tian Cuihua said.

Only the rabbit skin remained to exchange for a little money.

Even if she swallowed her pride and borrowed more from her natal family, it would still fall far short of ten taels.

"When your grandfather divided the household, he gave your eldest uncle the old house and most of the land. I received only five taels of silver and three mu of good farmland. But your eldest aunt has held on to those five taels all along. She never gave them to me, saying she was keeping them safe for me. She's been 'keeping them safe' for decades now," Zhao Youlin said slowly.

Zhao Feng remembered that his predecessor's grandfather had always favored the eldest uncle and treated his second son, Zhao Youlin, with little affection. Perhaps that was part of the reason Zhao Youlin later favored his own younger son.

"It's time to get it back," Zhao Youlin said.

With those five taels, they could scrape together another few and come close enough.

Zhao Feng frowned slightly. Judging by the way his eldest uncle behaved in his predecessor's memories, there was probably little hope of recovering that silver.

"Dad, I'll go with you."