Chapter 8: Uncle, Why Not Consider Letting Me Marry Xiaowan?

The anger on Zhao Guixiang’s face had long since vanished, replaced by a look of sheer contentment and pride. She gazed at Lin Yang with eyes full of pride. “I knew it. My son is bound to make something of himself!”

Then she turned to Lin Dahai and shouted, “Dahai, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and weave some more traps! If we can catch a few more big turtles, that’ll earn us more than farming the whole year.”

“I’m on it, I’m on it!” Lin Dahai perked up immediately, his steps lightened as he turned to gather materials for the traps.

Watching his parents so delighted, Lin Yang sensed a good opportunity and seized it. “Mom, I’m thinking about using some money to trade for some oil coupons. We’re almost out of oil.”

“And also, we don’t have much rice or flour left either. I’d like to buy some, but we don’t have grain coupons.”

At once, Zhao Guixiang’s expression changed sharply. Frowning, she scolded, “Oil coupons and grain coupons are expensive! It’s not like we don’t have any grain. Why would we need to buy coupons?”

“You’re such a child. Whenever you have a little money, you don’t know how to manage it. Isn’t the corn flour at home enough for you?”

Lin Yang had anticipated this reaction and didn’t want to argue further. After all, angering his mother was no small matter.

He could only reply sullenly, “Alright, Mom. I’ll return the bicycle to Uncle Li first.”

As he walked out, he quietly calculated that he’d have to find a way to save money secretly and buy his own bicycle. Borrowing one all the time was no good, especially once the heavy snow sealed off the mountains.

Besides, with the system’s hunting lock-on feature, it might even be easier to catch certain prey after the snow blocked the roads!

Pushing the bicycle out the door, he could still faintly hear his mother’s joyful laughter. He smiled helplessly. Knowing his mother’s boastful nature, it wouldn’t be long before the whole village knew he’d earned some money.

But he didn’t mind. Giving his parents some face and letting them hold their heads high in the village was worth more than anything.

Before, people had openly said in front of his mother that he was lazy and good-for-nothing, spoiled rotten. That had sparked a big argument.

When Lin Yang returned the bicycle to Li Jianhua, the man grabbed him suddenly, his eyes filled with curiosity.

“Xiao Yang, did you really make over a hundred yuan today?”

Li Jianhua was recalling a recent conversation with his daughter and wanted to confirm the news. He had advised his daughter, Li Xiaowan, to keep her distance from Lin Yang, calling him useless and idle. But the girl, flustered, had spilled the whole story.

Lin Yang smiled slightly and admitted frankly, “Uncle, didn’t Xiaowan tell you? It’s nothing big. I’ll definitely make more in the future.”

“Why don’t you consider marrying Xiaowan off to me? You know me well enough.”

Li Jianhua hadn’t expected Lin Yang to bring that up, his mouth twitching in disgust. He still thought Lin Yang’s success this time was just a lucky break and doubted it would happen again.

But since their families were on good terms and he was close to Lin Dahai, he didn’t want to say anything harsh to his junior.

So he changed the subject. “Tell me, how did you come up with this money-making idea? When I’m off work, I want to try catching snow frogs to exchange for some cash to help the family.”

“Also, what else is valuable? You can give me some tips. You know our family struggles—my wife often needs medicine. Life’s always tight.”

Lin Yang beamed at Li Jianhua and deliberately teased, “I can’t say. My head’s full of money-making ideas! Unless—”

“Unless what?” Li Jianhua asked eagerly, eyes wide.

Lin Yang didn’t answer directly but instead glanced toward Li Xiaowan inside the main room, waving at her with a brilliant smile.

Li Jianhua immediately understood and darkened with anger. Gritting his teeth, he cursed, “You little brat, you just rode the bike for free, didn’t you? If you can keep making money and prove that Xiaowan won’t suffer with you, then maybe I’ll consider it.”

“Then it’s settled!” Lin Yang said, turning and walking away, giving Li Jianhua no chance to reply.

Watching him leave in a hurry, Li Jianhua opened his mouth but ended with only a bitter smile, muttering, “Alright! I want to see what kind of waves you can really make, you little punk!”

It was still before noon. Lin Yang decided to head back into the mountains.

At home, the staple was mostly corn flour, with precious little wheat flour. Eating that every day left nothing oily or nourishing in his stomach.

He planned to hunt some game in the mountains to improve their diet.

The nearby mountains were rich in resources, and his father never came back empty-handed.

At this season, animals were preparing for winter and had grown thick with fat.

He thought catching two snow rabbits would be perfect: meat for food and their fur for making gloves.

If unlucky, he could always raid a couple of squirrel nests instead.

With the system-given skills, he looked forward to this hunting trip.

Back home, his mother had already taken the small fish and shrimp caught yesterday and fried them with the last bit of pork fat and scraps into a fragrant fish and shrimp paste.

Wrapped in flatbread, the family savored the meal.

In these times, villagers usually ate only two meals a day during the cold months, and his family was no exception.

Today, however, because he’d earned money, his normally frugal mother had prepared a better meal.

His father even drank two taels of the usually sparing white liquor.

Seeing the smiles on their faces, Lin Yang felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

After the meal, he lay on the kang for a while, then quietly grabbed the bow and arrows he had hidden earlier and headed straight for the mountains.

Once inside, Lin Yang immediately activated the system’s prey lock skill.

He moved cautiously, but the system kept alerting him that the prey were out of lock range.

The mountain animals were evidently much more alert than he had imagined.

Every time the system detected prey, they seemed to sense danger and fled immediately, making it impossible to shoot them with his bow.

After more than half an hour of this, Lin Yang suddenly stopped.

[Prey detected—Snow Rabbit. Use prey lock (basic) skill to lock on?]

This time there was no warning about being out of range.

His heart leapt as he looked in the indicated direction.

Sure enough, about ten meters away at three o’clock, a plump snow rabbit was hiding in a burrow deep underground.

As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows.

Using the system’s lock, he confirmed there were at least two snow rabbits inside, lying still.

“It’s you guys!” Lin Yang whispered.

Thanks to the lock’s x-ray vision, he carefully observed the rabbit holes and found four entrances in total.

He tiptoed around, gathering stones and branches to block two of the holes.

Then he took out some wire he had prepared and set a snare at one entrance.

The wire snare was a great tool to trap prey—the more they struggled, the tighter the noose.

Placed at the rabbit hole, it was sure to catch one.

After setting the snare, Lin Yang went to another unblocked hole.

He pulled out matches, squatted, and lit some damp leaves.

The flames licked the leaves, producing thick smoke. He gently fanned the smoke into the burrow.

Through x-ray vision, he saw the two rabbits growing restless.

[Sorry, target lost. Please try searching again!]

Lin Yang remained calm. He blocked the smoking hole with stones and hurried to the last hole.

Sure enough, there he saw one snow rabbit caught tightly in the wire snare, struggling violently.

Lin Yang quickly drew his hunting knife, pressed the rabbit down, and slit its throat to bleed it out.

When the rabbit stopped struggling, he hung it upside down on a nearby tree.

[Prey detected—Snow Rabbit. Use prey lock (basic) skill to lock on?]

“Lock on!”

Through x-ray vision, Lin Yang saw the other rabbit hadn’t escaped the burrow yet.

Now the rabbit hole was filled with smoke, and he decided to repeat the trick.

He returned to the previously blocked hole, moved the stones aside, and started blowing smoke inside again.

After five or six minutes, he heard the rabbit struggling.

“Didn’t expect to catch something so soon after entering the mountain. This male rabbit’s autumn fat is impressive—probably five or six pounds,” Lin Yang said, nodding in satisfaction.

He bled both rabbits and hung them on the tree. After a few minutes, sure they were motionless, he packed them into his basket and continued deeper into the mountain.

[Prey detected—Lynx. Use prey lock (basic) skill to lock on?]

Lin Yang froze instantly, the hairs on his neck standing on end.

The system’s detection range was only ten meters!

That meant the lynx was right nearby.

Suddenly, he felt as if he had gone from hunter to prey.