He was truly terrified!
His youngest son had only just gotten a little better yesterday.
He had even slept much more soundly last night.
How had the boy gone back to his old ways overnight?
Li Xuan turned around to face his family's worried, frightened, and bewildered gazes.
The exaggerated earnestness and "devotion" instantly vanished from his face.
His expression became calm again, even carrying a faint trace of mockery.
"Father, big brother, sister-in-law, don't worry."
His voice was steady, yet carried an unquestionable resolve.
"I won't give them a single copper of those thirty taels. What I just said was only meant for that greedy matchmaker and the Xu Family to hear."
Seeing their puzzled looks, he explained:
"Doesn't the Xu Family want to save face and outshine everyone else? Then I'll prop their pride right up to the heavens! A hundred taels, gold, jade, and brocade-they'll be delighted to hear it, and the matchmaker will run herself ragged with joy. As for those betrothal gifts..."
A cold smile curled his lips.
"Let them wait. When they realize I'm making fools of them, or when I 'never' manage to save enough money, they'll be the ones anxious and humiliated, not us."
"At least for a while, they won't bother us with 'small sums' like twenty or thirty taels anymore. That'll keep the matchmaker from coming over every few days to squawk at us."
He paused, sweeping his gaze over their dilapidated home, and his voice lowered.
"I was a bastard before. Lard had clouded my heart, and I wrecked our home for a woman who wasn't worth it. It won't happen again."
He picked up the battered Mulberry Wood Bow leaning against the wall and hefted it.
"There's only one thing on my mind now-how to use these hands to put enough food on our table, help Father recover, give Xiuer new clothes, and keep you and sister-in-law from worrying about your next mouthful every day."
Li Zhong opened his mouth. Looking at his younger brother's calm yet resolute profile, he suddenly felt his eyes grow hot.
Wang was stunned too. As she looked at Li Xuan, for the first time, she felt that this younger brother-in-law of hers...
Seemed to truly have some of the responsibility of a man who could shoulder a household.
"R-really?"
Li Shan said nothing. He merely looked deeply at Li Xuan, his grip on his walking stick loosening a little.
Deep in his eyes, that bewilderment gradually melted away.
In its place came a weighty tangle of emotions, mingling relief with disbelief.
Only after a long while did he grumble,
"You little brat... quite the actor. You even fooled your father."
Li Xiuer poked her little head out from behind her sister-in-law and quietly asked her third brother:
"Third brother, then... will we have meat today too?"
Li Xuan laughed at her question and ruffled her hair.
"Just wait. I'll go into the mountains and have a look right now. Big brother, shall we?"
Li Zhong abruptly snapped out of his daze and nodded hard. "Yes! Let's go!"
He picked up the axe from the ground, feeling strength surge through his entire body.
Li Xuan slung the bow across his back and hung his knife at his waist, no longer looking at his family's complicated expressions.
He strode out through the courtyard gate.
A hundred taels in betrothal gifts?
Miss Xu? That was already nothing more than the obsession of the fool from his previous life.
Morning mist wrapped the woods behind the village like a thin veil.
Dew weighed down the tips of the grass. The air was thick with the smell of earth and rotting leaves, its chill slipping down their collars.
Li Xuan stepped over slippery moss, yet his footing was far steadier than it had been yesterday.
His physique, strengthened by the point he had added, felt as though lead had been poured into his bones-heavy and reassuringly solid.
The "wild rabbit agility" trait also lent his steps an indescribable lightness; even the sound he made when treading on dry branches had grown softer.
His elder brother, Li Zhong, walked ahead, glancing back at him from time to time.
Some of the shock and doubt from that morning's "betrothal gift uproar" still lingered on his honest face, but anticipation for today's haul outweighed them.
Besides his chopping knife, he also carried several coils of hemp rope and a small pouch of shriveled grain.
After Li Xuan had mentioned them in passing last night, his sister-in-law, Wang, had rummaged through their chests and cupboards to find them.
"Third brother, will this really work?"
Li Zhong asked in a hushed voice, pointing at a slightly open patch among the trees where sandy soil lay exposed.
"Right here? Would there be mountain pheasants here?"
"Let's give it a try, big brother."
Li Xuan crouched down, scooped up a handful of slightly damp sandy soil, and rubbed it between his fingers.
"Look at this sand. There are claw marks. The dew has blurred them, but you can still see traces. Mountain pheasants like taking dust baths in places like this to get rid of dirt and bugs."
This knowledge had inexplicably become clear in his mind last night as he pondered the words "mountain pheasant/pheasant," as though the original owner's scattered scraps of hunting knowledge, which he had never paid attention to, had been quietly awakened and organized by the system.
The brothers got to work briskly.
Li Zhong was strong, so he was responsible for cutting forked branches and sharpening them.
Li Xuan used the hemp rope, following the diagrams in his mind, to begin making "foot snares."
His fingers were far more nimble than before. Tying knots, winding loops, setting triggers-although his first attempt was a little clumsy, there was a strange fluidity to it, as though he had done it thousands of times.
This was probably a benefit of "Archery Mastery: proficient": his fine control over his body had improved.
Soon, several simple but effective snares had been set around the dust-bathing patch, cleverly concealed with dead leaves and loose sand.
Li Xuan then had his elder brother move a little farther away, to a spot downwind screened by bushes.
Using branches and a larger loop of hemp rope, he fashioned an extremely crude prototype of a "drop-basket trap" and scattered some shriveled grain beneath it.
"This basket stands out too much, and it's heavy. I doubt it'll catch anything." Li Zhong shook his head, unconvinced.
"No rush. It's something to pin our hopes on."
Li Xuan smiled without explaining further.
He had another method in mind: an ambush with his bow.
But every extra trap meant another chance. That was the hunter's way of thinking the system's knowledge had given him.
Once everything was ready, they withdrew behind a thick clump of bushes upwind and quietly settled into hiding.
Waiting was the most grueling part. There was nothing in the woods but the sound of wind and the occasional birdcall.
Li Zhong grew restless and kept shifting around.
"Big brother, be patient."
Hearing Li Xuan's reassurance, Li Zhong felt something he could not quite describe.
His third brother had changed so much lately that he could barely recognize him.
Take his familiarity with hunting alone-had he possessed that kind of skill before? Bullshit!
Li Xuan breathed softly and evenly.
His body was relaxed, yet poised to burst into action at any moment, his sharp gaze sweeping the area around the traps.
The increase in his physique from 0.9 to 1.0 allowed him to sustain this concentration longer.
Time passed little by little. The sun climbed higher, and the mist among the trees dispersed.
Just as Li Zhong was about to give up, the bushes diagonally ahead suddenly rustled!
A brilliantly colored shape shot out like an arrow and landed at the edge of the dust-bathing patch.
It was a robust male mountain pheasant!
It held its neck high, the dark red fleshy crest on its head trembling. Its neck feathers shimmered with a metallic green-and-purple sheen, and its long tail feathers trailed behind as it warily surveyed its surroundings.
Li Zhong grabbed Li Xuan's arm in excitement, not daring to breathe.
The mountain pheasant seemed to notice nothing amiss. It cautiously stepped onto the sand and began scratching with its claws, sending up clouds of dust. Then it settled down comfortably, fluttering its wings to toss sand over its body.
It was only a few steps from the nearest snare!
Li Xuan's heart rose into his throat, but the mountain pheasant's chosen bathing spot happened to avoid every trap perfectly.
After fluttering around for a while, it actually stood up and shook out its feathers, seemingly ready to leave.
Was all their work about to go to waste?
Before you continue