Chapter 336 - 193: Jiang Feng, You’re Not Dead
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers looked utterly confused.
Jiang Feng didn’t bother explaining much.
He pulled a handful of brown rice from his pocket, scattered it by the roadside, then stepped aside and found a spot to hide.
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers exchanged glances, then crouched behind Jiang Feng as well.
"Cluck!"
A moment later, a pheasant walked out from the grass and pecked at the brown rice on the ground.
Before it finished eating, it started to stagger, then collapsed right there.
"Got the prey."
Jiang Feng rushed over, picked up the pheasant, weighed it in his hand, and said with a smile, "Almost two jin. Just right to sell to Nanny Yang."
"Is Master Ma always collecting prey like this?"
"Only small game around here?"
"How did Master Ma know something was hiding in the grass?"
The three asked one after another.
"I keep a nest over here. Every time I come or pass by, I scatter a handful of brown rice. Today I saw the rice I put out in the morning was still untouched, so I guessed there was prey in the grass."
Jiang Feng explained.
"Did you put medicine in the rice?"
Boss Zhang asked.
"Smell it yourself."
Jiang Feng grabbed another handful from his pocket.
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers leaned in and sniffed carefully.
"Alcohol."
"Yellow rice wine."
"You soaked it in wine."
They all smelled the liquor.
"Cluck cluck."
The pheasant that had passed out started flapping in Jiang Feng’s hand.
"These little prey in the mountains are greedy and can’t hold their liquor. This rice has been soaked in wine for a whole day—after just a few bites, they’ll be so drunk they pass out."
"Of course, most of the rice I put out to keep the nest isn’t soaked in wine."
Jiang Feng said, sprinkling a handful of plain brown rice into the grass.
"So this is how you collect prey every day?"
"Master Ma raises the nest well. Most people just don’t have your patience."
"Master Ma mixes the feed just right."
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers sighed in admiration.
They’d guessed Jiang Feng might know where the nests were on the mountain, but hadn’t thought he’d do it right in the most barren part of Laojun Mountain—and actually share the method with them.
It was an extremely simple trick.
The three brothers had done it hunting as kids, but the feed always got eaten up, or by the time they saw the prey, it had died.
Doing it Jiang Feng’s way—soaking rice in wine, waiting patiently nearby, then picking up the prey once it passed out—was just not something they could do.
To begin with, the time cost was huge.
Plus, they didn’t have that kind of patience.
Most importantly, they couldn’t get it as accurate as Jiang Feng.
And in their minds, a proper hunter caught big prey in the mountains—tigers, the real beasts, were their goal.
"It doesn’t always work out, sometimes I waste two or three jin of rice just to catch a single small one. Lately I’ve been working on some traps to see if I can catch bigger prey."
Jiang Feng laughed.
"Sure."
"Master Ma, how about you stay here and we’ll go check the back mountain?"
"Right, too many people will just scare the small ones away."
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers suggested.
"Alright, just be careful."
Jiang Feng watched them leave.
He hadn’t made things difficult for the Zhang Family’s Three Brothers. Not every problem needed bloodshed to solve—these three were just rivals, which made them hostile.
Now that he’d shown them his nest-raising and hunting methods, and even caught something right in front of them, the brothers were amazed, but even more dismissive.
Thinking Jiang Feng could only catch small game.
If he got bigger prey, it was just pure luck.
Hunters like that weren’t a threat to them.
As the brothers let go of their hostility, Jiang Feng’s Fortune Point went up by over three hundred.
Right then, Jiang Feng picked up a stick and tossed it into the grass a hundred meters away. A rabbit poked its head out of a burrow, was struck as if by a club, and collapsed right at the entrance.
Jiang Feng walked over and picked up the rabbit.
The next morning.
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers carried a hundred-jin wild boar back to Hippo Village.
The villagers praised them generously.
The brothers set up a pot and got water boiling at the village entrance, preparing to sell the boar meat to the villagers. If there was any left, they’d cure it into bacon for the festival market in town.
"Master Ma’s back!"
"Yo, Master Ma, not much prey today—just one rabbit and a pheasant?"
While the villagers watched the Zhang Family’s Three Brothers boiling water and sharpening knives, Jiang Feng came down from the mountain with a pheasant and a rabbit.
"Bad luck yesterday. If I go out tonight, I’ll definitely catch something big."
Jiang Feng bragged.
"Big prey? Like the big one Old Zhang’s Family caught?"
A villager laughed.
"Master Ma, why are you only just getting back?"
Zhang Second ladled some boiling water onto the blood-drained boar.
Seeing the boar, Jiang Feng was momentarily stunned, then a bit embarrassed: "I went to the back mountain yesterday too, got lost, wandered all over. You guys carry on, I’ll take the pheasant to Nanny Yang."
"Alright."
Zhang Second nodded.
"Hahaha!"
The villagers burst out laughing at Jiang Feng’s flustered retreat.
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers were also all smiles. Compared to Jiang Feng, they felt much more dignified, and the villagers’ praise kept coming, making them the most respected hunters for miles around.
Active by day, at work by night.
Half a month went by in a flash.
Jiang Feng became a hardly noticeable hunter in Hippo Village.
The Zhang Family’s Three Brothers stopped bothering him.
His dealings with the villagers were peaceful as well.
Since he could always catch small game, any family in the village needing a boost for their health would ask Jiang Feng in advance, and he’d set aside some meat for them the next day.