Chapter 57: Wild Rabbit

Walking mountain paths was more exhausting, so Yan Huaiwen changed the daily walking time to six *shichen* (twelve hours).

The schedule remained divided into morning and afternoon sessions.

Compared to walking eight full *shichen* every day on the official highway alongside a massive crowd of refugees, everyone suddenly felt much more relieved.

They didn't know exactly how many miles they covered each day.

Yan Er was the one who knew.

At noon and dusk, he would take Sanbao out under the guise of scouting the path, but in reality, he was determining the daily mileage to calculate how much further they had to go to exit these desolate mountains and reach that lush, green mountainland his daughter constantly dreamed of.

As usual, after listening to Sanbao's "moo," he began practicing his archery.

He unlocked the safety mechanism, aimed at a large tree, and fired!

He had become very proficient in this sequence of movements.

But today, as soon as his arrow flew out, he felt something was wrong.

What was that gray thing under the tree?

A rabbit?!

By the time he reacted, it was too late.

The gray rabbit was startled and hopped away in the blink of an eye.

Yan Er felt an incomparable sense of regret.

A plate of meat had once been right in front of him, and he had missed it! Argh!

Consequently, when he returned to the group, everyone could see that Yan Er was in a foul mood, looking dejected and crestfallen.

"Dad! What's wrong?" Yan Yu, acting like a thoughtful "little cotton jacket," stepped in.

"Daughter! Your father has sinned! I finally encountered a rabbit, but before I could even see it clearly, my arrow scared it off."

Yan Yu gasped, "A rabbit?!"

She asked repeatedly, "Dad, you saw a wild rabbit? For real? In these desolate mountains, there are actually living creatures? You couldn't have misseen it, could you?"

Yan Er said indignantly, "I saw it clearly. Gray fur, crouching right under the tree. I let an arrow fly, and it just hopped away—not even in a straight line, it was zig-zagging."

"Rabbits usually come in litters. Dad, let's look for it." Yan Yu was unwilling to give up on the meat that had once been so close to her father.

Yan Er thought about it; he didn't know how to catch them, but perhaps someone in the village did.

It was better to go and ask.

San Tie's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"What? There are rabbits here?"

Great, another skeptic.

"There really are. I saw it. It just got scared and ran off. It was gray."

"Hey! Uncle, wait for me! I'll go find a few people and grab some things." San Tie bolted away in a flash.

When he returned, he brought a gang of adolescent boys.

None of them were empty-handed.

Yan Er saw that two were carrying slingshots, while the rest held very crude small bows.

To be fair, they even had somewhat decent-looking small wooden arrows.

Why did this feel like taking children to play a game...

Yan Er looked at the sky; it was still early before the afternoon departure.

The newly minted "king of the kids" led the group to the tree where he had just seen the rabbit.

This group of kids looked quite professional.

Each of them was hunched over, searching the ground.

"Found it!" one youth cried out.

His companions all crowded around.

Yan Er also approached and took a closer look.

It turned out to be rabbit droppings...

The youths were invigorated, and more people continuously found rabbit footprints and other droppings nearby.

They discussed possible directions for the rabbit warren and searched separately.

Finally...

They found it!

Yan Er: "..."

Watching this series of operations, he felt like he had lived his whole life in vain.

San Tie lit a bundle of dry grass and tossed it into the rabbit hole.

The companions quickly took their positions.

Seeing this, Yan Er thought he couldn't just stand idle.

He unlocked his crossbow, held it steady, and widened his eyes, refusing to let a single inch of the surrounding land escape his gaze.

It was said that a cunning rabbit has three burrows; who knew which hole it would emerge from?

A rabbit appeared!

*Whoosh! Whoosh!*

Two pebbles flew out.

The slingshot users struck, and a rabbit was hit.

No one moved.

Soon, another rabbit ran out.

Several arrows were fired in succession, but likely because they were just practicing, their aim and strength were lacking, leaving the rabbit unscathed.

Then came the slingshots, which knocked down another one.

The little ones jumped with excitement, following the trail of smoke to the hole where it emerged and blocking the exit.

They were accurate with every catch, capturing three small rabbits alive.

San Tie stuffed a small rabbit toward Yan Er's second uncle and said with a grin, "Give this to Sister Erya to play with."

Yan Er instinctively took it; it was a soft little ball, still trembling uncontrollably.

The little rabbit was scared.

"This little rabbit doesn't have much meat; just let it go," Yan Er said.

San Tie laughed, "These little things are so popular with young girls. Let them play with it for a while, and once they've had their fill, then release it."

If they were at home, they could feed this rabbit for a few days to see if it would eat; if it did, they would raise it a bit larger before slaughtering it for meat.

They didn't have those conditions now; letting the little girl see something novel would suffice.

The youths carried two somewhat thin rabbits, looking like generals who had won a great battle, extremely proud!

They decided to give one rabbit to Yan Er and divide the other among themselves.

After a bit of whispering, the two boys with slingshots had effective weapons, so they naturally took more, while the rest were divided equally among the others.

To ensure fairness, they specifically sought out the Luo family's third uncle. They had heard he used to help people slaughter pigs, so dividing rabbits would be easy for him.

Luo the Third helped skin them and remove the entrails; his teeth ached just looking at the meat while dividing it.

With just one scrawny rabbit, they had to chop it up and still insist on dividing it evenly.

Since these were adolescent boys in a stage of being very particular, he didn't waste words.

It was just a matter of a few extra knife strokes.

...

Yan Yu never expected to receive a cute little rabbit.

She looked at the rabbit, and the rabbit looked at her.

She didn't dare reach out to touch it randomly; she had heard rabbits were timid, and if this giant creature like her extended her "sinful" large claws, she might scare it to death.

This thing couldn't be eaten or touched—was she hosting an ancestor?

"Dad! I don't want to raise a rabbit!" Yan Yu protested.

Cats are cute, dogs are obedient; if she were to raise a pet, it certainly wouldn't be a rabbit.

"I'm just letting you look at it, and we'll release it in a bit. How about that? Your dad is amazing, right? Now he can even catch rabbits." Yan Er thick-skinnedly claimed the credit for catching the rabbit.

"Amazing, amazing!" Yan Yu acted spoiled, "Dad, I want to eat roasted rabbit. Roasted rabbit is even more amazing."

She couldn't even think about it; just thinking made her mouth water.

"We ate our snakes, and they sent back a rabbit. Haha, these boys are quite thoughtful." Yan Er pushed the little rabbit forward again and asked his daughter, "Do you want to touch it? If you don't, I'll release it, okay?"

Yan Yu couldn't help herself and poked the fluffy fur a few times with her finger.

Mmm! It felt so good.

The little rabbit's breathing became rapid.

She quickly said, "Release it! Release it!"

Yan Er walked away, released the little rabbit, and came back to pick up the large rabbit.

"I'll go find Luo the Third and have him help clean it up." Since they were already handling it, there was no need to trouble anyone else.

Yan Yu ran to find her mother: "Mom, there's rabbit to eat! Dad caught a rabbit!"

Li Xuemei was currently discussing making cloth bags with the village women—essentially simplified versions of handbags.

Several women shook their heads, saying that with such long straps, one couldn't feel secure carrying the bag; someone could steal it without them even knowing.

It was better to use the previous two-strap design; it could be held in front for security and capacity, or worn on the back to free up hands for work.

They repeatedly urged Li Xuemei to make them quickly so they could see the finished product.