Chapter 38: The Family Home Is Burglarized; Chu Feng Cuts Ties with His Relatives for Good

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“There’s about a hundred pounds of meat left. What about the grain?”

“There’s a hundred pounds of grain too,” Zhou Xiaoxiao said, somewhat delighted.

Seeing the sincere smile on his wife’s face, Chu Feng smiled as well.

Wasn’t that the reason he risked his life in the mountains—to bring smiles to his family’s faces?

“The oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and everything else we bought in town these past few days should last us quite a while. At the very least, we’ll have no trouble getting through the New Year,” Zhou Xiaoxiao said.

The Great Qian also celebrated the New Year.

They had the Spring Festival here as well, and it was the most important holiday of the year.

Not only did the Great Qian celebrate it—even the Great Xia did too.

During the month of the New Year, the two nations would cease fighting.

That alone showed how solemn and grand the festival was.

With the New Year fast approaching, Chu Feng had been taking stock of what remained in their home.

The wild boar meat was completely gone.

It had been the first meat Chu Feng finished.

Wild boar meat simply did not taste very good, especially after eating lamb and roe deer.

After that, Chu Feng could hardly bring himself to touch it.

He was not the only one. Whenever Chu Miaomiao heard that the day’s meal was wild boar, her face would crumple like a bitter melon.

Fortunately, even so, Chu Miaomiao never became a picky eater.

After all, who in an era like this dared to be picky about food?

Still, Chu Feng wanted to give his family better choices.

They could not eat the wild boar meat, but people in town and in the village would gladly eat it.

It was not that they liked it. They simply had no choice.

The meat remaining at home—nearly a hundred pounds—consisted of blue sheep and roe deer.

Chu Feng had stored it in the woodshed.

While Chu Feng was away, Zhou Xiaoxiao had used a large vat to make an ice chest.

The ice chest was enormous, and it had been quite a challenge for one woman to build.

Fortunately, Widow Wang had come over to help.

Once it was finished, they no longer had to worry about Benben and Huahua stealing food.

Both creatures were growing rapidly now, and Huahua’s milk teeth were nearly replaced by sharp fangs.

These days, if there was no meat in her rice porridge, Huahua refused to eat.

Once that creature fully developed the ability to hunt, Chu Feng absolutely would not keep her at home.

She consumed far too much grain.

“There are also oil toads and crayfish. Those should last us for a while.”

“We’re just short of some chickens, ducks, and fish,” Chu Feng said.

“We can buy those in town.” Zhou Xiaoxiao hurriedly took the money from her bosom.

The three wolf pelts had been sold.

As expected, they had fetched only one tael of silver.

Together with what they had saved before, the family now had a little more than one tael of silver.

That would be more than enough to buy some chickens, ducks, and fish.

But Chu Feng shook his head.

“We need to save the silver for emergencies.”

He was not sure about ducks, but as for chickens and fish, Chu Feng had his own means of obtaining them.

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Upstream from Peach Blossom Village, there was a stream where they could catch fish.

But Chu Feng had no intention of taking the path through the dense forest again.

If he encountered another brown bear, who would be there to save him?

The other route followed the outer edge of Jade Dragon Mountain in a wide circle.

It was farther, but safe.

As for pheasants, Jade Dragon Mountain had no shortage of them.

Chu Feng had seen a nest before.

But at the time, all he had was a bow and arrows.

Pheasants could fly, and they were extraordinarily sensitive.

At the slightest hint of danger, they would shoot up into trees dozens of yards high.

The village chief’s bow simply did not have the range.

But now, Chu Feng had a musket.

He planned to sneak up the mountain late at night, when everyone was asleep.

Perhaps he could shoot a few with the musket.

It was already deep into the night. After the couple finished tallying their possessions, they were preparing to rest.

Suddenly, Benben began barking furiously.

Chu Feng seized an axe and opened the door at once.

Two dark figures could be seen scrambling away from the house.

“Stop!”

Without a second thought, Chu Feng hurled the axe in his hand as if it were a dart.

It flew straight into the back of one of the men.

The man let out a terrible scream and fell to the ground.

As a hunter, Chu Feng naturally possessed a wide variety of weapons.

Not just an axe.

He also had a woodcutter’s knife.

After throwing the axe, he immediately snatched up the knife in his hand.

Benben barked even more excitedly.

Zhou Xiaoxiao lit a torch fueled by rendered lard and hurried forward as well.

“Someone’s stealing from us! Shout as loudly as you can!” Chu Feng ordered.

A woman’s voice was far sharper than a man’s.

The moment Zhou Xiaoxiao heard that someone was stealing, she began shouting at the top of her lungs.

Her cries roused everyone in the village.

During a famine, theft was common.

But it usually happened in towns and cities.

There were rarely thieves in villages.

Most villagers were neighbors and relatives. Once caught, a thief would not only lose face—the entire village would have no place for him.

Besides, this was the Great Qian, an ancient world.

Once a thief was caught with conclusive evidence, Chu Feng would not fear punishment even if he killed the man.

Chu Feng’s home stood some distance from the surrounding neighbors.

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After hearing Zhou Xiaoxiao’s cries, it took them quite a while to arrive.

“A thief? Where is he? Brother Feng, we’re here! Where is the thief?”

Wang Wei was the first to rush over, followed by Sun Can.

Then came Du Dahai, who had only managed to pull his coat halfway on.

The other villagers arrived as well.

Everyone gathered outside Chu Feng’s home.

Chu Feng had done the entire village a great service.

Naturally, when his family was robbed, the others were indignant.

But once they reached the entrance, they noticed that something was wrong with Chu Feng’s expression.

Two men were kneeling outside his door.

One of them had an axe buried in his back.

Fortunately, people wore thick clothing in winter.

The blow had somehow failed to kill him.

Had it gone in any deeper, the outcome might have been different.

But when the villagers realized who the thieves were, they fell silent.

“Chu Feng, how can you be so heartless? He’s your elder brother!”

“We’re all members of the Chu family. What’s wrong with taking a little of your food? You’ve injured your elder brother like this. Without a hundred pounds of meat, don’t even think about earning our forgiveness!”

The two thieves turned out to be Chu Tian and Chu Long.

Both were relatives of Chu Feng.

Chu Long was sprawled on his knees, groaning repeatedly.

His injuries were clearly severe.

Du Dahai stepped forward and asked, “Little Feng, what are you planning to do?”

Du Dahai was showing him respect. Otherwise, without waiting for Chu Feng to say a word, the two men could simply have been thrown out.

After stealing in the village, they could never expect to be accepted by the villagers again.

“Report them to the authorities,” Chu Feng said quietly.

“Report us? No, Chu Feng, you can’t be so cruel! We only stole a little meat from you. We’ll give it back! No matter what, we’re family! If you report us, we’ll be finished!” Chu Tian immediately burst into tears.

But his sobbing pleas won no sympathy from Chu Feng.

On the contrary, Chu Feng became even colder.

“You were willing to come steal from me today. Tomorrow, you might be willing to kill me. The fact that I didn’t kill you myself is already the only consideration I’ve shown for this so-called family bond. Don’t forget that my branch and the Chu family separated long ago. And Chu Long was driven out of the village a long time ago.”

“No, Chu Feng! I’m your father! How can you treat your own father this way? We know we were wrong!”

“You don’t know that you were wrong. You’re only afraid of going to prison,” Chu Feng said without the slightest change in expression.

After all the commotion, dawn had begun to break.

Wang Wei strode forward, grabbed Chu Tian by the shoulder, and said without hesitation, “He’s right. Report them!”

The other villagers also supported reporting them to the authorities.

Du Dahai said, “Since that’s your decision, we’ll go and report it at once.”

“Who’s reporting someone to the authorities?”

A voice came from nearby.

Liao Ziang could be seen approaching slowly with a group of men.

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