Chapter 29 - Setting Traps (1/2)

Yu Xiaocao learned how to set traps very quickly because she was motivated. By noon, she could already do all the steps independently. Before she knew it, the group had entered the deepest part of the forest.

Bam!

A hard nut fell down and hit Little Shitou’s head.

“Yeouch! Who hit me?” Little Shitou held his head and lifted his eyes to find the person who attacked him.

Bam!

Another nut smacked him on the forehead. An ash gray squirrel peeked its head through the leaves and regarded the three humans inquisitively.

“Stupid squirrel, how dare you throw stuff at me!” Little Shitou picked up a rock from the ground and hurled it up towards the trees. The squirrel, with another nut in its paws, darted across the branches and disappeared.

Yu Xiaocao bent over and picked up the ‘lethal weapon’ from the ground and found that it was a hazelnut. She laughed, “Shitou, we hit the jackpot! This is a hazelnut tree, if we saute these nuts they will taste really good! When we’re done setting traps, we should also harvest some hazelnuts so we’ll have more variety to eat during winter!”

Little Shitou was not interested in the idea and refused, “I don’t want to! All that hard work will not benefit us! We’re not going to be the ones eating these hazelnuts!”

Zhao Han quickly ran through ideas in his head and came up with a solution. “If you two trust me, then you can leave the hazelnuts at my home. Whenever you want to eat them, I’ll have mother cook them for you. You guys can then eat them at my house!”

That’s not a bad idea! Yu Xiaocao grinned in delight. In the future, with the divine stone’s water, the amount of game she caught would not be small. However, she absolutely could not bring the game home as she would not benefit from it. Not having a hiding place for her hauls had tormented her. Now, her problem was solved. It was as if she had been sleepy and a pillow had appeared out of nowhere!

Zhao Han scampered up the extremely tall hazelnut tree. He plucked all of the ripe hazelnuts and let them fall to the ground. The harvest was going too slowly for Yu Xiaocao’s taste, so she grabbed a thick branch and started whacking the hazelnut tree. Leaves and twigs showered down around them.

This particular tree was on the older side. The hazelnuts it grew weren’t very big but the quantity of nuts wasn’t small either. Within minutes, the three of them were able to pick a whole basketful of hazelnuts.

“Luckily Brother Han carried a basket all the way here. Otherwise I wouldn’t know how we’d get these nuts back to the village!” Little Shitou grinned widely, and his eyes squinted up into small crescents.

As the three of them went back on the same route they came on, Yu Xiaocao kept her eyes wide open to look for the traps they had set earlier. Seeing that, Zhao Han chuckled, “Catching hares takes a little bit longer than that…”

Just as the words came out of his mouth, Yu Xiaocao interrupted him with an excited shriek, “Look! What’s that? Is it a small deer? So cute!”This trap was one set personally by Yu Xiaocao. It was obvious that a young creature, barely out of infancy, had been caught by the rope. The animal had a coat of ashy yellow fur, pointy ears that curved up, a dark and round nose, and four slender legs. The fur on its butt and back legs were white and made it look like it was wearing a pair of pants with an open crouch, similar to the ones used for potty training.

The little creature that had been caught didn’t struggle it all. It stood in place stupidly and was nibbling on the nearby grass.Zhao Han strode over and, with one hand, caught the foolish little animal. He laughed, “It’s not a small deer, it’s a dumb roe deer. This little guy is quite stupid. After getting caught, it didn’t struggle to get out and is only interested in eating.”

Young children all loved small, cute animals. Little Shitou went up to rub the creature’s ears and cheerfully said, “Second Sister, this roe deer is a little foodie!”

Shitou naturally learned the term ‘little foodie’ from his second sister. He applied it immediately to the little roe deer.

Despite being delighted by her catch, Yu Xiaocao feigned being disappointed, “Such a small animal. It doesn’t look like it has much meat on it. Not worth much on the market!”

“Second Sister, we can bring it back to raise. Once it gets bigger, we’ll have meat to eat!” Little Shitou was a foodie down to his bones. He challenged himself to take on the difficult task of carrying the roe deer back to the village. Although he managed to lift the animal off the ground, he could only stagger a few steps before he fell. The roe deer tumbled over with him. Fortunately, the ground underneath them had a thick layer of grasses and weeds so neither of them were hurt.

Yu Xiaocao dismantled the noose from the trap and then tied up the little roe deer with a lasso around its neck. She then gathered a couple handfuls of dried, yellow grass and poured the last bit of her celestial stone water on top of it. With that, she lead the roe deer behind her. The rope was in one hand, and the grass was in the other. The small creature opened its large, dark, innocent eyes and followed her from behind, like a clever and obedient child.

“Second Sister, do you think this little roe deer has been raised by humans? How come it’s not afraid of us and even wants to get closer to us?” Little Shitou skipped beside the animal and occasionally ran a hand across its fur.

Zhao Han guffawed, “We’re in the deep wilderness, not a household is in sight! Where would someone raise this? In my opinion, I think this little guy got lost from its mother. It probably thinks you two are its substitute mother!”

Yu Xiaocao wanted to cover her eyes in exasperation. Although her clothes were very dull and gray, this didn’t come even close to the roe deer’s coloring. How bad would the creature’s eyes have to be in order to mistaken them as its mother?

As they headed down from the mountain, more than half of their traps had caught some game. The other half had been destroyed by some sort of animal or other. Zhao Han was astonished by their luck. After carefully inspecting the surroundings, he realized that the vegetation near the broken traps had pretty much all been eaten down to a stubble.

“Looks like the wild animals on the mountain are pretty lively today. Are they all starting their winter preparations early?” Zhao Han, who had never seen such a sight, was perplexed by the odd circumstances. He decided to ask his father what was going on today after his father got back from hunting.

Yu Xiaocao was pleasantly surprised when she discovered that her scheme to making money had worked. She exclaimed, “Brother Han, we had a fruitful trip today!”