Chapter 28: Lamp Oil and the Bucket

In our country’s traditional archery, the method Li You uses is the "hook" draw; one must pay attention to this word "hook," as it must never be a "pinch" of the string.

Besides this technique of Li You’s, a more mainstream method is the "three-finger draw," which uses the index, middle, and ring fingers when pulling the bow; to prevent the rapidly recoiling bowstring from grazing the fingers upon release, the archer must wear a three-finger guard for protection.

During the Hundred Years' War, the French, in retaliation against the English longbowmen, wished to cut off their middle fingers so they could not shoot, so they often shouted that they would cut off the middle fingers of the English longbowmen.

Upon learning of this, the English longbowmen took it as an honor; on the battlefield, they would often hold up their middle fingers to the French to prove their middle fingers were still there and to taunt them to come and cut them off—this is the origin of the "middle finger" in later generations.

"Whoosh..."

After Li You released the shot, his right hand touched behind his ear, and his left hand reflexively pointed the bow tip; his heart immediately felt joyful.

There is a saying in the way of the bow: "A proper shot will surely hit," which explains this principle; often, before the arrow even lands on the target after letting go, the archer already knows whether it will hit or not.

If one discovers that their form was not correct, they know the arrow will not hit without even looking.

Li You’s form for this shot was full of spirit and flawless; after the release and the pointing of the bow tip, he knew it would hit.

Sure enough, with a "whoosh," the arrow broke through the string; the entire head of that furry rodent on the persimmon tree had been buried deep inside a large honey persimmon, and it only pulled its head out upon hearing the sound of the bowstring, but it was already too late...

With a "thud," the pitch-black, cold arrowhead pierced into its waist, passing straight through with force to spare, snapping two wrist-thick branches before finally landing on the dirt slope over there.

"Good heavens, he really pulled the bow open? That’s a heavy bow with a draw weight of over a dozen units!"

Wa Qingyun, at the foot of the mountain opposite, originally could not hear the sounds from this side, but when the bowstring rang out, he reflexively looked over, just in time to see Li You’s posture as he released the string, followed by an arrow hitting the furry rodent over a hundred paces away!

This left him completely stunned; what kind of god-like strength was this?

To be able to kill, to be able to heal, and also to be able to draw such a heavy bow?

One must know that the reason this Dragon-Spine Bow could remain in the hands of Lame Liu was not only because of Lame Liu’s "the bow stays, I stay" spirit of treating it as a family heirloom, but also because no one in the Shanzhai, from top to bottom, could pull this bow open.

Even the group led by Shi Dayong and Niu Jinku unanimously agreed that this bow was simply not meant for humans to pull!

Yet, this bow had been pulled open by Li You, who did not look particularly strong, and he did it so easily and so accurately!

"It is absolutely god-given strength!"

Wa Qingyun watched until Li You rushed toward the persimmon tree before he came to his senses, rubbed his face, and hurriedly continued his search.

Everyone had made a harvest today; he couldn't be the only one to return empty-handed and lose face in front of Master Li.

Li You naturally did not know about Wa Qingyun’s internal shift; after he hit one furry rodent, the other was startled and quickly climbed down the tree.

Li You did not draw his bow again; he dropped it and chased after it in a flash. He wasn't trying to catch the rodent, but wanted to see where it was hiding; these furry rodents were best at hoarding winter food, so there must be plenty of stock in its burrow.

"There... over there..."

Heiliuzi had sharp eyes and nimble feet, following closely behind Li You. Little Orange was not even as tall as the tall grass, so she naturally couldn't keep up with them, but she hurried forward with an anxious look on her face.

"Mm, I'm watching it!"

Li You kept a close eye on it, but the furry rodent seemed to know Li You’s thoughts; it wouldn't enter its hole for the time being, and finally, it darted into the mountain forest, quickly climbed a tree, and began leaping through the branches.

"You dog, playing me for a fool!"

Li You wanted to reach for his bow, but upon feeling around, he realized he had long since thrown it behind him.

"Sigh, so annoying..."

Li You sighed, and just as he was about to turn around, he suddenly saw an animal with a grey body, a head like a wolf-dog, but with a pig-like nose, staring at him eye-to-eye at the foot of the mountain.

"A badger!"

Li You froze instantly; he was very familiar with this creature in both his past and present lives.

The badger is the kind of animal farmers hate most for ruining crops; when eating corn, it is particularly clever, always using its neck to bump the corn stalk to test if the ear of corn on top is big enough—only if it is big enough will it push the corn over at the root to eat it.

Because of this, he spent many nights in his past life staying in the fields with his grandfather to guard the corn.

At the same time, because it loves corn, its meat is very precious and it is also a rare medicinal ingredient; it is generally very difficult to catch, and an adult weighs about twenty catties. Many people always mistake it for a small wild boar, but it tastes much better than the tough and gamey meat of a wild boar.

Li You was excited; he slowly squatted down to pick up a stone, then suddenly arched his back and hurled it at the badger’s head...

But at such a close distance, he actually missed; the badger was startled, grunted a curse, turned its head, and dove into a small dirt hole behind it!

"Ah, it went into the hole just like that... haha..."

Li You really didn't know what to say; this was practically handing over its meat.

He hurried over in a few steps, sat down at the entrance of the hole, and tilted his head to observe; the entrance was as thick as the pickled vegetable jar Wa Qingyun had given him, and inside it was lined with dry leaves and was very dry. The dirt hole branched out at a depth of about half a meter.

Li You knew this was the badger’s old trick: one was a fake hole to deceive, and the other was the real hole for hiding.

But badgers are lazy by nature, and its fake hole was only deceiving itself, as it was dug extremely shallow and could be distinguished by the naked eye!

"Using smoke to smoke it out—I have never failed at this!"

In his past life, Li You’s family was poor; basically, in his memory, his family hadn't bought meat before middle school. If they occasionally ate meat, it was because his grandfather had taken him to catch badgers on the mountain.

Usually, even wolves couldn't catch them in the open, but once they entered a hole, as long as you used smoke, this creature would only bury its head in the dirt and eventually be smoked to death or suffocated inside.

"Heiliuzi, don't come over here; go quickly and bring Brother Liu’s bucket over, I need to use it!" Li You shouted to Heiliuzi, who had just caught up.

"Got it!" Heiliuzi replied and turned back.

Li You had left the bucket containing the lamp oil where he had met Yu Zhengchun; it wasn't very close, but Heiliuzi was very nimble, and he made the round trip, arriving back at Li You’s side at almost the same time as Little Orange.

"Good! A diligent little one, how lovable... eh?"

Li You patted Heiliuzi’s little head, but upon looking closely into the bucket, there wasn't a single drop of lamp oil in it.

Li You panicked; he clearly remembered that when he placed it on the rock by the roadside, there was still more than half a bucket of lamp oil inside!

"Where is the lamp oil? Where is the stuff inside?"

"I poured it out! If I didn't pour it out... carrying it from so far away, do you think I’m a fool?"

"I need to use the lamp oil, why did you pour it out?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to use the bucket? Isn't what I brought a bucket?"

"What would I do with just the bucket? I obviously needed to use the lamp oil to smoke the badger!"

"Then why did you say you wanted the bucket?"

Heiliuzi was stunned; he tilted his head like a husky and said to Li You, "Master, you clearly said you wanted to use the oil just now, but now you say you want the bucket!"

"I... you... mother..."

Li You felt a sharp, agonizing pain in his chest instantly...