In the end, the pair brought two pieces of pig's head meat, each weighing over a pound, and went to Li Daniu's house for dinner.
"You're already here, no need to be so formal."
Eldest Sister-in-law Li grabbed Tangtang's hand, her face breaking into a wide smile.
She glanced back at the increasingly dashing Tang Wen and sighed to herself. 'This young man is really something else. I've never heard of anyone bringing meat when they come over for dinner.'
'It's a shame we don't have a younger sister or a female relative. Otherwise, wouldn't she have a lifetime of happiness if she married a man like Tang Wen?'
Before dinner, Tang Wen and Li Daniu each picked up a long, unsharpened sword, preparing to spar.
"Careful, brother!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the long sword came swinging down at Tang Wen's head.
CLANG!
Tang Wen raised his sword in an upward parry, blocking the heavy, powerful blow.
Li Daniu was inwardly shocked. 'Xiaotang's gotten stronger again! His upward parry should have been a disadvantageous move, but he actually matched me evenly.'
Li Daniu grew cautious, and his attacks became more and more relentless.
He wasn't skilled in defense. 'Even if Tang Wen is stronger than me,' he thought, 'I'm done for if I don't press the attack.'
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG...
After overcoming his initial clumsiness, Tang Wen gradually adapted to Li Daniu's rhythm.
His strength surpassed his opponent's, and his speed was even greater.
Even while on the passive defense, he could firmly block every one of his opponent's attacks. An occasional counter-strike was enough to force Li Daniu back. He was easily controlling the pace of the duel.
「A quarter of an hour passed.」
Li Daniu was the first to leap out of range, panting heavily. "I'm done! Brother Tang Wen, you're improving so fast! I can barely keep up. We two should practice together often from now on. Otherwise, you'll leave me in the dust."
"You flatter me, Brother Li. Alright, let's practice together every day from now on!"
Tang Wen was more than happy to agree.
Just now, during their exchange, his Experience Points had been shooting up. [Wind-breaking Blade, Master (109→167/1000)]
'At this rate,' he thought, 'my Sword Skill will level up after less than twenty more practice sessions.'
'Practice every day?'
Li Daniu winced internally. He wanted to refuse, but when he saw his wife and their handmaiden looking at him with pure admiration, he had to puff out his chest. "Alright, it's a deal!"
Li Daniu was a man who valued his standing. The dinner table was laden with food. Besides the pig's head meat Tang Wen had brought, there was a dish of fried potatoes, steamed sweet potatoes, scrambled eggs, a plate of roasted meat slices, and a large pot of Maize rice.
"Don't be shy, Tang Xiaomei, eat up! Brother, have a drink." Li Daniu took out a half-full jar of sweet potato liquor and poured a cup.
Tangtang and the Li Family's handmaiden had always been used to a hard life.
This was the first time either of them had ever seen such a sumptuous feast.
They were both slightly dazed.
By the end of the meal, everyone had grown much closer.
During the meal, Eldest Sister-in-law Li mentioned to Tangtang several times that she wanted to find a wife for Tang Wen...
The sweet potato liquor packed quite a punch, so Tang Wen stopped after just three cups.
Li Daniu, however, was quite the drinker and finished the remaining half of the jar by himself.
Fortunately, he had a high tolerance and was still steady enough to see the two of them out.
It was dark.
Tang Wen walked ahead, the Iron-Clad Bow and arrows on his back.
Tangtang clutched the corner of her younger brother's tunic, slowly walking home.
'Pig's head meat, scrambled eggs, roasted meat...'
'She'd never dared to dream of a life like this.'
Suddenly, she felt a chill on her neck. Tangtang looked up as icy flakes began to land on her forehead.
"It's snowing!"
Tang Wen's voice was grave.
'We have enough firewood at home,' he thought, 'but we don't have nearly enough grain and meat to get through the winter.'
"Yeah." Tangtang frowned, letting go of his tunic to tuck the hem in more securely.
For the poor, winter was an ordeal—and often a fatal one.
"I wonder how many people will freeze to death."
It happened every year. There were even cases of entire families freezing to death together.
When they got home, Tang Wen looked at the two swords they owned and said, "Sis, let me teach you Sword Practice."
Tangtang, who was in the middle of starting a fire, thought for a moment and nodded.
"Ahh, it's so warm!"
It was the siblings' first time heating the kang bed-stove. The warmth radiated up through the thick layer of dry straw, and it was unbelievably comfortable.
To save firewood, Tangtang took her blanket and lay down with her brother on the large kang.
She decided she would sleep like this for the winter. Unless her brother got married, heating two kangs was just too wasteful.
Lying on straw with only a burlap blanket for cover wasn't exactly comfortable.
'When I have time, I'll have to go into the city,' Tang Wen thought. 'I refuse to believe they don't have any cotton quilts there.'
「The next day.」 Seeing the snow in the courtyard was only a few inches deep,
Tang Wen breathed a sigh of relief. Ignoring his sister's protests, he left to go hunting early in the morning.
As the saying goes, it's not the snowfall that's cold, but the thaw.
If he waited for the snow to melt and the temperature to truly drop, it was likely that Mutated Beasts would start hunting around the perimeter of the camp.
Hunting outside the camp would be truly dangerous then!
Since it had snowed, very few people were out and about.
The poor all knew to conserve energy when it snowed. The cold made you get hungry faster, and it was easy to get frostbite.
Besides, with the ground blanketed in snow, there was nothing to find anyway. Going out was a complete waste of effort.
Tang Wen walked out the main gate all alone and strode quickly into the depths of the forest. He planned to stay out late today to get as much game as possible.
Soon, he arrived at the edge of the pool where he'd been two days prior.
The two corpses had long since vanished.
The bloodstains on the ground were covered by the fresh snow.
Although he hadn't been particularly afraid, Tang Wen couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing the scene completely clear of any trace.
Beside the pool was a mess of animal tracks. He bent down to observe them.
On the ground were several relatively clear sets of cloven, crescent-shaped hoofprints.
Without hesitation, he followed the tracks until they led him to a hollow.
This was a good place to take shelter from the wind. Tang Wen surmised that his quarry was hiding here.
He climbed a tree, took out his binoculars, and looked down.
The hollow was a field of white snow, completely empty.
'Nothing? That's impossible!'
He adjusted his view, following the line of the tracks with his binoculars.
Hm?
'At the end of the tracks, the snow... is a little bit yellow.'
He adjusted the focus on the binoculars, and the view sharpened.
A pair of curved horns were faintly visible.
'Is that...? A sheep? A gazelle? One, two, three...'
He took a white cloth from his basket, draped it over himself for camouflage, and crept toward the gazelles.
Fifty meters... thirty meters...
"BAA!"
A ram suddenly bleated. Tang Wen threw off the white cloth and burst into action, his Flying Blade plunging straight into the ram's throat.
"BAA!"
After a final, pained bleat, blood gushed from the ram's throat as it collapsed to the ground.
Without a second glance, Tang Wen lunged toward the other sheep.
He unleashed a shower of Flying Stones, precisely striking the joints of their legs.
A half-grown ram off to the side managed to dodge the volley and charged at Tang Wen, about to slam into him.
With a swift sidestep, Tang Wen dodged the charge, his arm snaking out to lock tightly around its neck!
"Down you go!" With a THUD, the ram was thrown to the ground.
Of the two rams, one was dead and the other captured.
The remaining five—ewes and half-grown lambs—had their legs injured by Tang Wen's Flying Stones and couldn't run fast.
After a flurry of activity, not a single one of the seven gazelles had escaped.
Without delay, he tied the dead gazelle to the back of one of the live ones.
He then tied the others together by the neck, muzzled them, and began herding them back toward the camp.
Tang Wen remained vigilant the entire way back; he had traveled far from the camp today. He walked until nightfall before he finally saw the camp's main gate.
Thick, heavy snowflakes began to drift down from the sky.
Drenched in sweat that was now turning cold and clammy, Tang Wen longed to be home, lying on his warm kang bed-stove.
However, he definitely couldn't bring this many gazelles into the camp all at once.
It would be far too conspicuous!
As the snow whispered down, Tang Wen stood in the silent woods, frowning in thought.
At the entrance to the camp, a young woman leaned against the gate wall, carefully peering out into the darkness...