Why on earth did I go and provoke someone like this?
The mere thought of how he had wanted to pick a fight with Zhou Yang back when he first saw him coming down the mountain with Xue Bingbing sent a chill down Zhang Laoliu's spine. He might have been a rascal, but he certainly wasn't an idiot!
"You've really done it this time, kid!"
When Zhou Daniu first saw the giant tiger lying silently on the ground, he had been struck dumb for a long moment. But when he turned to look at Zhou Yang and saw his son's calm expression, his surprise was replaced by a surge of joy. Zhou Daniu stepped forward and patted Zhou Yang on the shoulder.
"Hahahaha! You’ve really done it! This is the pride of our Zhou family! We’ve finally got a tiger-slaying hero in our family!"
Zhou Daniu’s eyes welled up with emotion. He looked up at the sky and shouted with pride. Zhou Yang didn’t stop his father; instead, he cleared the weeds away from the tiger's body and pulled their cart over. After a moment of thought, he hauled the tiger onto the cart. Once Zhou Daniu was done cheering, he saw that Zhou Yang was busy, so he set his excitement aside for the moment and stepped in to help.
Both of them had experience transporting large game, and while a tiger was a first, the method remained the same. Within ten minutes, the Siberian tiger was successfully loaded onto the cart.
"Let’s go, Dad!"
After Zhou Yang gave the word, Zhou Daniu, a bright smile on his face, called out, "Let’s go! My son is a tiger-slaying hero, hahahaha!"
Perhaps infected by his father's high spirits, Zhou Yang looked up to see the orange glow of the sunset, and his own heart felt much lighter. In this life, he had sworn to make up for everything he had failed to do in the last. It seemed that everything was moving in a positive direction!
On the way back, Zhou Yang used the System’s random scan to locate a patch of wild yams. In those days, such wild yams were quite rare, and finding them earned him over a hundred points. Looking at the substantial balance on the System panel, he saw that the hunting rifle in the armory had been unlocked.
The System’s hunting rifle was, of course, no ordinary tool. Without hesitation, Zhou Yang spent four hundred and fifty points to redeem it. Because Zhou Daniu was nearby, Zhou Yang didn't rush to take it out of the System storage. All the way back, Zhou Daniu pushed the cart with the tiger, singing off-key mountain folk songs. A profound sense of happiness welled up, enveloping Zhou Yang.
Soon, they reached the foot of the mountain with the tiger. Back home, Zhou Yang hurried straight into his room. He took the hunting rifle out of the System. The dark metal finish gleamed, and the sturdy wooden grip felt perfect in his hands as he gave it a quick weigh. He loaded the ammunition, chambered a round, and took aim; he was delighted.
With this hunting rifle, he felt confident that if he encountered another Siberian tiger while out as a Mountain Forager, he would be able to hold his own. The gun provided by the System was far more refined than the homemade musket he had used before, and its power was naturally much greater.
Zhou Yang stepped out of his room after checking it over. Zhou Daniu was inside, wiping sweat from his face with a dark-colored rag. Seeing Zhou Yang holding the brand-new hunting rifle, his gaze froze.
"Dad, I traded the things I’ve gathered in the mountains over the past few days for this. Now, if we run into a beast like that again, we’ll be much better prepared." Zhou Yang grinned and handed the gun to Zhou Daniu.
Zhou Daniu’s eyes went round. He handled the rifle with such affection, examining it from every angle before reluctantly handing it back to Zhou Yang. To a Mountain Forager, a hunting rifle was as important as a second child.
Just then, Zhou Yang's mother, having seen the massive Siberian tiger lying dead on the cart outside, hurried into the house in shock.
"Good heavens! You two really are something! How on earth did you manage to take down such a big catch?"
Zhou Yang's mother looked back and forth between Zhou Yang and Zhou Daniu, glowing with pride as if she were admiring two precious treasures. Zhou Daniu blushed slightly, but he waved his hand. "Mother of my child, don't misunderstand. This was all the work of our boy here. I just went up with him to help transport it down. As for slaying the tiger, I might have been up for it in my youth, but not anymore."
Seeing that Zhou Daniu was trying to downplay his own involvement, Zhou Yang's mother rolled her eyes at him and poked his arm. "Listen to you, old man! ‘In your youth,’ you say? Even in your prime, I doubt you were even one-percent as capable as our son!"
With that, she went over to Zhou Yang, her eyes wide, examining him from head to toe, terrified he might have suffered some serious injury. But Zhou Yang shook his head with a smile. "Mom, I'm fine. Dad has already checked me over. Your son is perfectly intact!"
Even after hearing this, his mother wasn't fully at ease. She circled him a few times, and only when she was certain he was truly unhurt did she let out a sigh of relief. More than the tiger they had brought home, she cared about whether her son had been harmed.
"But Dad isn't entirely right—I didn't take this tiger down alone."
As soon as Zhou Yang said this, both parents turned their full attention to him. Zhou Yang smiled, a glint in his eyes. "This tiger was taken down by Bingbing and me together, so it's not all my credit."
"You boy, that girl is just a young woman, how could she possibly..." Zhou Daniu frowned, seemingly about to argue, but was promptly pushed aside by Zhou Yang's mother.
"Go, go! What do you know, old man? We’re out of firewood—go get some."
Then, Zhou Yang’s mother stepped close to her son and whispered, "Son, I know how you feel about Bingbing. Your mother doesn't object. Why don't you go see her in a little while, and take something with you?"
Before Zhou Yang could respond, she turned and hurried into her own room. After some clattering about, she came back out and pressed a gleaming silver bracelet into Zhou Yang's hand.
"Mom, isn't this your..." Zhou Yang started, his brow furrowing, but his mother cut him off.
"You silly boy, just go. Girls like these kinds of things. As for your mother, I’m old, and keeping these things is useless."
Unable to refuse his mother, Zhou Yang grabbed a leg of wild boar and headed toward Xue Bingbing’s house. As he reached the entrance of her courtyard, he saw a familiar figure walking away. He squinted—it was Zhang Laoliu’s mother!
What was Zhang Laoliu’s mother doing here?
Zhou Yang’s heart tightened with a sense of foreboding, and he hurried toward the house. As soon as he reached the door, he heard the sound of sobbing from within.