Chapter 62 Mother and Son Hunting Birds
The children also got up at this time.
After having breakfast and taking a rest, Dalang and Erlang would go out and run around the village twice.
Sanlang and Si Niang are only five years old. Qin Yao does not recommend that the children start practicing martial arts at this age, so as not to damage their foundation.
So she arranged for them to read on their own in the morning, reading Tang poems that she wrote on a wooden board.
Only by reading day after day and deepening the impression can you remember it firmly.
Dalang is very serious when running around the village and is not lazy at all.
Erlang was different. When he was tired of running, he would sit on the roadside and pick grass for fun, reciting the multiplication table taught by Qin Yao. He would rather study and learn arithmetic than practice martial arts.
But he really wanted to learn Qin Yao's kung fu, and the requirement for learning kung fu was to complete basic training, which was too difficult for him.
Dalang was determined to learn the skills from his stepmother. He knew that his brain was not as smart as Erlang, so he only wanted to do one thing well.
Knowing that Qin Yao was going to the mountains to hunt today, Dalang specifically asked her to wait for him before leaving. He wanted to go up the mountain with her after he finished his morning exercise, so he ran extra fast.
After Dalang finished running two laps, Erlang was still sitting on the edge of the field, wondering whether he should give up practicing martial arts.
Dalang looked at his brother, shook his head helplessly, and went home first.
Liu Ji had already gone to find Old Man Liu and the others with a sickle in his hand.
Qin Yao was preparing hunting tools when she saw Dalang returning. She told the twins not to go to the river alone, and the two of them went out together.
Qin Yao just wanted to get some meat for a dinner, so she had no plans to go deep into the forest and only stayed on the outskirts of the forest.
Spring is the season when all things come back to life. The ground is covered with green grass and there are many small animals moving around in the woods.
The villagers and young boys in the village also like to set some simple traps in the small woods outside the village. Sometimes, if they are lucky, they can catch small creatures such as rabbits and gophers to provide snacks for their families.
But because people often appear here, the animals here are very sensitive. When people approach, they run away very quickly, so it is not easy to catch them.
At least in Dalang's opinion, it is almost impossible to catch these small and fast-running guys.
But for Qin Yao, this matter could not be simpler.
He didn't see clearly how she did it. Just as Dalang was about to say there was a bird over there, he heard a scream of "chirp" and the bird he was talking about fell from the tree.
"This" Dalang was a little confused.
"Go pick it up." Qin Yao reminded him when she saw him standing there in a daze.
"By the way, pick up my steel balls. They should be nearby. They are silver in color. Bend down and look up, and you will see the reflected sunlight." Qin Yao taught him.
This is related to the refraction of light. Qin Yao thought about it and talked about a few more practical techniques related to light, just as if she was taking the students to outdoor practice.
After listening to this, Dalang felt that he still had a long way to go before he could truly learn martial arts.
The stepmother said that she would not teach her martial arts until she had mastered the basics.
Dalang had no choice but to keep all her words in mind and wait for a chance to put them into practice to see if they were really the case.
He picked up both the sparrow and the steel balls. Qin Yao threw the sparrow into the small bamboo basket slung across his body, and the two continued to look for the next target.
Dalang brought a bamboo basket here to pick wild fruits, which means there must be many fruit trees in this forest.
Birds love to eat fruits, so they gather here and fly around, becoming ready-made targets.
In a place like this, bows and arrows are completely unnecessary; Qin Yao only needs a slingshot.
Any bird that came into her sight, even if it was slightly larger, could not escape the fate of being shot down by the marbles.
Dalang only remembered that he ran here and there, and when he looked down, he found that the bamboo basket had not been filled with any fruit, but was filled with various birds. It was heavy, almost twenty kilograms.
Seeing that Qin Yao was still searching, Dalang reminded her, "Auntie, there are enough already."
"Is that enough?" Qin Yao came over with a slingshot, and she warmed up.
Dalang nodded heavily and lifted up the heavy bamboo basket to show her that it was full.
"Okay, let's go back and catch some fish by the river. We'll make some fish soup tonight."
Dalang was looking forward to it.
Even on the way back, I couldn't help but take a few glances at the slingshot Qin Yao had on her back, thinking, it would be great if I could use it to shoot birds.
"Do you want to try it?" Seeing what the boy was thinking, Qin Yao turned around and asked with a smile.
Dalang didn't expect that his little tricks were seen through, and waved his hands a little embarrassedly, "No, it would be bad if it gets damaged."
Qin Yao did not try to persuade her any further. Her slingshot was indeed not suitable for children as it had too much lethality.
"When I have time, I'll make you a wooden slingshot." We still have some beef tendons at home, so we can make one for children to play with, which will be safer.
The boy's eyes lit up, and he trotted over to her, looked at her and asked, "Really? Make me a wooden slingshot?"
Qin Yao nodded. "You can usually pick up some round stones and store them as bullets, but be careful not to use them on anyone weaker than you."
"I teach you martial arts so that you can protect yourself, not bully others." Qin Yao warned seriously.
Dalang nodded heavily, "I know, I won't."
Then, he couldn't help laughing, revealing his two pointed fangs, looking silly.
"Auntie, when are you free?" He couldn't help but ask, because he was too much looking forward to it and wanted to get it quickly.
The two of them had already reached the river. Qin Yao motioned for him to wait on the riverbank and picked a branch of suitable length and thickness in the grove to make a harpoon. "Let's do it in the next two days." She rolled up her trouser legs and went into the river.
The river water flooded over her calves and the current was quite turbulent, but she still stood there steadily, as if the force of the entire river could not knock her down.
At this stop, Qin Yao seemed to be fixed there, almost merging into one with the entire river.
Dalang squatted down holding the basket. He was not worried at all that she couldn't catch any fish. He looked at the sky, the ground, and then at the basket full of birds. He laughed. He would soon have his own slingshot. Erlang knew that he would be so envious that he wanted to cry.
Soon, a strange noise was heard in the river, and then a fish was thrown in front of him.
The fish's tail was swinging cracklingly. It was as wide as Dalang's palm, with a bloody hole in the middle. It was not dead yet.
Dalang immediately held it down, pulled out a grass stem, passed it through the fish's gills, and skewered the fish.
Just as he finished stringing them together, another one was thrown up. The feeling of harvest was so good that the young boy couldn't help laughing out loud, and the river bank was filled with his excited voice.
There were five fish in a row, all strung on a piece of grass. They were so heavy that Dalang could hardly lift them.
He shouted: "Enough! Enough!"
Qin Yao then threw away the wooden stick, jumped out of the river, and rolled down her trouser legs. The mother and daughter, one carrying the fish and the other holding the basket, returned home with a full load.
On the way, they saw a lot of water celery growing in the ditch, and they picked a bunch of it and brought it back.
(End of this chapter)