Prey

Long'er worked on his bow and arrows with his head lowered. The materials were nothing special, but they were better than trying to catch prey empty-handed. Before he had finished, everyone had returned.

Judging by their happy faces, they must all have found something. At least no one would go hungry that night.

The youngsters had also caught quite a few fish and shrimp by hand. Long'er's mother and several other women, along with the women who had gone out earlier, had all brought back food.

It was quite a hearty meal, and they even saved more than half the food for the next day.

After eating, Long'er went back to making his bow and arrows. Once he had finished, he tested them and decided they were barely serviceable.

Still, they're far better than empty hands. Shooting a rabbit or a pheasant shouldn't be a problem, right?

He also made plenty of snares, which were especially good for catching pheasants. He asked Shitou to take the other youngsters out and bring back more bamboo and wild vines.

He wanted to make as many bows and arrows as possible. That way, they would not all have to hunt bare-handed, with no way to bring down any prey.

Before darkness fell, Long'er took Shitou with him to set pheasant snares in the wild ground near the mountains.

On their way back, he shot a wild rabbit with his bow and brought it home. The process had been far from perfect, but he had brought the rabbit down with an arrow. With this experience under his belt, things would surely turn out differently next time.

Back in the cave, he saw that the older men had all been treated with medicinal herbs, and their complexions had improved considerably.

Only his own father remained unconscious. Long'er's mother could not help knitting her brows. If this continued, her husband's life might be beyond saving.

Linzi's mother, who knew a little about herbal medicine, also wore a helpless expression. The herbs had been applied for most of the day without the slightest response. There was nothing more she could do.

In the middle of the night, Long'er's father developed a high fever and began babbling deliriously. Wenlong was truly starting to panic.

Wenlong knew that if his father could not weather this ordeal, he would probably have no choice but to go up the mountain and keep watch over its summit forever.

He would only be able to pay his respects to his father at the Qingming Festival. Wenlong did not dare leave him to pull through on his own. He brought cold water in a roof tile and kept wiping the parts of his father's body that would help bring down the fever, cooling him physically.

Long'er's mother and Linzi's mother looked astonished. They had no idea how Long'er knew so much.

Watching Wenlong bustle about, neither dared ask too many questions. He kept working until dawn was about to break, then fell into a groggy sleep beside his father.

After daybreak, a large hand kept gently stroking Wenlong's head. He startled awake and realized someone was touching him. Overjoyed, he immediately cried, "Father, you're awake?"

Everyone was startled awake. When they saw that Long'er's father had come around, they were overjoyed.

Long'er's mother burst into tears. "If you hadn't woken up soon, I really couldn't have held on any longer."

Everyone shed tears in silence. Over the past few days, they had all come to regard Long'er's mother as their pillar of strength. She alone had made sure every member of the clan was properly looked after.

They all knew how hard it had been on her. At that critical moment, she had calmly shaken off their pursuers and led the clan out of danger, all while not even knowing whether her husband would live or die. The weight on her shoulders was unimaginable.

Thankfully, Long'er's father had finally awakened. Otherwise, they truly did not know how they could have carried on.

Of course, Wenlong knew that even though his father was awake, the nine grown men still could not work. He would have to help shoulder some of his mother's burden.

So many clan members needed food every day, and winter was approaching. They did not even have winter clothing to keep out the cold.

He could not spare a thought for his lack of rest. Taking Shitou and Linzi along, he went to check the snares they had set the night before to see whether any pheasants had been caught.

If this method did not work, hunting would become much harder once the depths of winter arrived.

Fortunately, heaven never barred every path. The twenty-odd snares they had set had actually caught eight pheasants. Shitou and Linzi jumped for joy.

Without the snares, catching pheasants with nothing but their bare hands would have been out of the question.

The three returned happily to the cave. Everyone was delighted beyond expectation to see so many pheasants.

Wenlong did not sit idle. Taking a dagger, he went with the other youngsters to clear away thorny brush and weeds at the old site of the Ancestral Grounds. Amid the ruins, they found some badly damaged cooking utensils.

Even such battered things made everyone happy. At last, they had something they could use to cook food or boil water.

He had someone take them back first so the others could cook something for the children and the wounded. Then they continued searching for useful things, hoping to make life a little easier for everyone.