Siheyuan: The Counterattack of Passerby

When Village Chief Zhao saw this, he quickly stood up and took the tray, cursing, "You stinky woman, I asked you to cook something, why are you so slow? Don't you even know what time it is? You've made our village's noble man hungry, I'll punish you!"

The honest-looking woman smiled and bowed to Lin Geng, rubbing her hands and apologizing: "Comrade, please bear with me. This cured chicken is a bit dry and not easy to stew. It takes a little longer to stew, so you have to wait a little longer!"

Lin Geng quickly stood up and supported the woman, smiling and said, "You are too polite, auntie. I am sorry for making you suffer! Don't listen to Uncle Zhao. I am not hungry at all. I had a full meal in the morning, so I don't feel hungry now!"

Village Chief Zhao was very happy to see Lin Geng being so polite to his wife. He laughed and asked Lin Geng to sit down and eat quickly. He said with a guilty look on his face: "I should treat you to a drink, but you know that life has been hard in the past few years. There is not enough food to eat, and we can't make wine. I haven't had a drink for a long time. Now I really can't find wine for you. Just make do with it. Next time you come, I will definitely find a way to get some wine in advance to treat you! Please be more tolerant this time!"

Lin Geng sat down and wanted to invite Village Chief Zhao's wife and children to sit down and eat with him, but Village Chief Zhao glared at him and said, "Why don't you take the hammer back? You are embarrassing me by standing here!"

The dark-skinned young man who followed the woman, carrying the clay pot to deliver cornmeal and wild vegetable porridge, looked at the porcelain bowl of cured chicken stewed with mushrooms and dried radishes, and swallowed hard. It was obvious that he was very greedy for this dish, and it must have been a long time since he had tasted meat.

Scolded by his father, the young man shrank his neck and lowered his head quickly. The woman smiled awkwardly at Lin Geng and was about to pull the young man out.

Lin Geng hurriedly called them over, grabbed a broken porcelain bowl they brought, scooped out a full bowl of cured chicken stewed with mushrooms, stood up and handed it to Village Chief Zhao’s wife, smiling and saying, “How can we finish so much? Take these back and eat with little brother!”

Village Chief Zhao's wife panicked and quickly refused, saying that there was food at home and that this was the dish for Lin Geng, so how could they take it back to eat? While she was talking, she secretly glanced at her man. Seeing that Lin Geng was determined, Village Chief Zhao sighed and waved his hand, saying, "Mother of the child, Comrade Xiao Lin is for you, you can take it back and eat it with Tiechui! Don't let others laugh at you!"

The village head's wife took the bowl of food with embarrassment. Before she could take the boy out, Lin Geng grabbed the boy again, took out a few candies from his pocket and stuffed them into his pocket, saying with a smile: "Little brother, take this. I'll bring you more next time I come!"

When the boy saw the candies in his hand, his eyes suddenly lit up and his hands trembled with excitement. Village chief Zhao kept saying that it was not possible, but Lin Geng insisted on giving it to him. The boy could not refuse, so he bowed repeatedly to thank Lin Geng, put the candies in his pocket, and happily followed his mother out of the shabby village branch with the bowl of food.

Although the cured chicken stewed with mushrooms and dried radish did not taste very good because pheasants did not have much fat and there were not many seasonings in the mountains, the cornmeal and wild vegetable porridge did not taste very good either, and the mixed flour pancakes also made your throat sore, but Lin Geng still ate them with relish and finished three mixed flour pancakes in one breath, because he knew that this was the best thing that Village Chief Zhao and his men could offer him, so he was not eating for the taste, but for the full friendship.

Village chief Zhao was very happy to see Lin Geng eating with relish. He kept nagging Lin Geng to eat more and told him about the hardships of their village. Although life in the city had been hard in the past two years, it was still much better than for the villagers in the mountains.

According to Village Chief Zhao, during the most difficult time last year, after the village paid the public grain tax, every household had little food left. In order to survive, they ate almost everything, including wild vegetables, mushrooms and even edible tree bark that could be picked from the nearby mountains. The only thing they lacked was Guanyin soil. It was not until this year's summer harvest that life finally became a little better.

However, there were still several elderly people and children in the village who died before this year's summer harvest due to severe malnutrition. They never had the chance to have a full meal until their death.

This made Lin Geng feel sad and he almost shed tears.

His soul came from a later era of great material abundance. Although he had heard of the sufferings of the famine era, it was only hearsay after all. Now he has come to this era and witnessed with his own eyes the hardships of the people of this era. This has a great psychological impact on him, and made him deeply understand the hardships of the rural areas of this era.

While eating the food, Lin Geng felt a little ashamed, just because he showed a little kindness to these simple villagers. The simple village chief took out the best things in his home to entertain him, a stranger he had never met before.

Looking at these rough meals, Lin Geng couldn't help but make a secret decision. Although his abilities were limited, he was still a nobody after all. He couldn't help too many people, but he could still help some people. Since Village Chief Zhao and the villagers here had shown him enough kindness, he might as well use his limited abilities to help them and improve their lives.

After dinner, Lin Geng again proposed to go into the mountains to have a look. Village Chief Zhao then asked Lin Geng to go out and shoot a few arrows first to see his archery skills.

Lin Geng did not hide it and agreed immediately. In fact, among the villagers of Zhaojia Village, because they lived in the mountains, many people relied on hunting to supplement their family income. There were also many men who could use bows and arrows. The village originally had straw targets, which were usually used for archery practice.

However, the bows used by the villagers are just hunting bows made by themselves from the more elastic and harder mulberry wood in the mountains. They have a low poundage, are relatively soft, and have poor range and power. They are usually fine for hunting small prey such as pheasants and rabbits, but they are not enough to deal with large beasts such as wild boars.

Lin wanted to show off his archery skills, so many villagers came over to watch.

Lin Geng was not afraid of the stage. He strung the bow he brought with him, adjusted the bowstring, and asked Village Chief Zhao to test the strength of the bow. Village Chief Zhao thought he still had some strength, so he took the bow, concentrated his Qi in his Dantian, exerted force with both arms, hummed in a deep voice, and pulled the string hard...

Village Chief Zhao's face gradually began to turn red, and then a little blue, but the bow was only pulled about halfway and could not be pulled any further.

So he could only slowly loosen the bowstring helplessly, looked at the bow in his hand, and exclaimed in surprise: "This bow is really a hard bow! It looks like a Qing Dynasty bow! Good stuff!"

Then he looked at Lin and asked, "Can you really pull such a hard bow?"

Lin Geng did not answer. He took the bow, drew out an arrow, drew the bow and arrow, and with a slight force of his arms, the bow was easily pulled into a full moon in his hand. He squinted his eyes and aimed at the straw target dozens of steps away. He gently loosened his right hand, and the bow immediately made a buzzing sound, and the eagle feather arrow flew out as fast as a meteor.

The onlookers immediately turned their heads to look at the straw target, only to see that the eagle feather arrow with an afterimage seemed to have eyes, flew towards the straw target, and hit the center of the straw target with a "puff". However, the arrow still had no speed reduction and actually pierced through the straw target, flew out from behind the straw target, and flew straight into the woods in the distance, and nailed into a big tree with a "thump", three inches into the wood.

"Good!" Village chief Zhao and many villagers immediately couldn't help but shout "good". Now they no longer doubted Lin Geng's archery skills.

Now they all understood. No wonder Lin Geng dared to say that he wanted to go into the mountains to hunt wild boars. It turned out that he was not bragging. He really had the skills. He could draw a strong bow and shoot arrows well. With such a powerful bow and arrow, surely a wild boar would not be able to withstand a single hit?

Village Chief Zhao no longer doubted Lin Geng's ability. He patted Lin Geng on the shoulder and said, "Xiao Lin! It seems that I underestimated you! I never thought that you had such a great archery skill. You really can walk around in the mountains with your two arms!

"Okay, I won't stop you. If you want to go into the mountains, go ahead. If I don't let you go, you will definitely not be willing. I will find someone to take you into the mountains tomorrow morning!"