: Sparrows
An Jiu and Lou Xiaowu each held a handgun. After dividing the three bullets in the magazine, the three of them stood silently in the snow, waiting for the startled birds to return.
Sheng Changying, who was gathering firewood in the woods, peeked over but didn’t come to disturb them.
“Let’s scatter some grain,” Chu Dingjiang suggested.
Lou Xiaowu and An Jiu nodded repeatedly, but neither moved. With a resigned sigh, Chu Dingjiang hurried back to the kitchen, grabbed two handfuls of grain, and scattered them on the snow.
With food available, more and more birds gathered.
When there were about forty or fifty, An Jiu whispered, “Let’s begin.”
This was Chu Dingjiang’s first time using a handgun, so he didn’t know the standard shooting stance. Yet, with the gun in one hand, his posture was as steady as an ancient pine—casual yet focused, exuding effortless grace.
Lou Xiaowu, despite countless experiments, still had mediocre aim. At one point, she had suspected her guns were flawed, but after watching An Jiu shoot, she was relieved—it was her own problem, not the gun’s.
The sound of gunfire would inevitably scare the birds away, so the first shooter had a clear advantage.
“I’ll count to three, and we’ll shoot together,” An Jiu said.
The other two agreed.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Boom!
All other sounds were drowned out by the deafening explosion.
A crater appeared ten zhang ahead.
Lou Xiaowu stared at An Jiu and shrieked, “Shi Si, you’re so sneaky! When did you take a Thunderclap bomb?!”
The device resembled a grenade, and An Jiu had understood its use at a glance when she saw it in the house. While retrieving the guns, she had casually taken one. Her reasoning was simple—a grenade would kill more birds… maybe even enough for a full plate.
She had aimed the explosion about six or seven zhang to the left of the flock. Many birds were either killed by the blast or stunned by the noise, littering the ground.
An Jiu swiftly gathered a pile and held them out to Chu Dingjiang. “We’ll eat these for lunch.”
“Fine.” Chu Dingjiang bundled the birds into his wide sleeve. “Cooking is easy, but someone’s coming to scold us. You two handle it.”
An Jiu slowly released her mental strength and sensed someone rushing toward them.
“It’s Sister Zhu!” Lou Xiaowu happily ran forward to greet her.
In the blink of an eye, Chu Dingjiang had vanished.
Zhu Pianxian moved so lightly she left no footprints in the snow, arriving before Lou Xiaowu in an instant. She jabbed a finger at the girl’s forehead, exasperated. “You actually used guns to hunt sparrows?!”
“Yeah! But the guns aren’t as good as the Thunderclap bomb—it took out a whole bunch at once!” Lou Xiaowu proudly lifted her chin.
Zhu Pianxian clutched her chest, her face a mix of fury and despair as she glared at the two. “Do you have any idea how much those things cost?! You used them to hunt sparrows! Do you know how many sparrows you could buy with the cost of a single bullet?!”
An Jiu and Lou Xiaowu blinked in confusion.
“Wasteful! Utterly wasteful!” Zhu Pianxian felt pain in every organ.
Bullets were tiny, requiring extremely precise components, so the materials had to be of the highest quality. Following Lou Xiaowu’s specifications, Zhu Pianxian had hired blacksmiths to refine the metal through repeated smelting—an arduous process that had cost nearly nine thousand taels of silver!
Nine thousand taels was nothing to Zhu Pianxian, but spending that much to hunt sparrows was unbearable!
Lou Xiaowu hesitantly asked, “So… it sounds expensive?”
“Expensive?!” Zhu Pianxian gritted her teeth. “Extremely expensive!”Lou Xiaowu glanced at the instigator and then gallantly took responsibility for her. "Maybe I can make more little things to sell..."
Zhu Pianxian held her breath, suppressing her inner excitement. Just as she was about to nod with feigned reluctance, An Jiu spoke up. "I did it. It has nothing to do with her."
Damn it!
Zhu Pianxian couldn't help but curse inwardly.
Lou Xiaowu looked at An Jiu with teary eyes, her expression screaming, "You're such a good person."
"Name a number, and I'll earn it for you," An Jiu said.
"Well..." Zhu Pianxian thought for a moment, then slowly raised five fingers. "Fifty thousand taels."
"Fine." An Jiu wasn't very familiar with the prices in the Great Song Dynasty, but she had the impression that research was particularly expensive, often costing millions. Fifty thousand taels didn't sound like much.
Zhu Pianxian couldn't contain her joy—these two fools really had no idea about market prices! Moreover, An Jiu seemed completely unaware that most of Chu Dingjiang's assets had already been transferred to her name.
In less than two years, Zhu Pianxian had multiplied Chu Dingjiang's original wealth over tenfold, amassing a total of three hundred thousand taels. While this amount was nothing compared to the tycoons of Bianjing, her speed of wealth accumulation was among the best of all merchants.
An Jiu had so much money, all earned by Zhu Pianxian herself. Extorting fifty thousand taels from her felt utterly unfulfilling. Besides, it was better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.
Zhu Pianxian loved money, but she loved the thrill of making it even more. While swindling fifty thousand taels from An Jiu was amusing, she was already plotting to find a chance to talk to Lou Xiaowu later and have her make things to sell.
Lunchtime.
An extra large bowl of roasted sparrows appeared on the table.
The sparrows were plucked and gutted, stuffed with seasonings inside, and wrapped in yellow mud and straw, each about the size of a goose egg. Peeling one open released an aroma that instantly filled the entire room.
Except for Mei Yanran, who remained composed, everyone else devoured them ravenously.
Chu Dingjiang calmly peeled off the mud from the sparrows but didn't eat a single one, instead neatly arranging them in An Jiu's bowl.
This gesture made Lou Xiaowu's heart ache with envy. If only her father were still alive, she thought wistfully.
After the meal, everyone retired to their rooms to rest, while Chu Dingjiang went alone to the dock.
The Dream Blossoms bloomed luxuriantly and eerily in the snow, their heavy mist hovering over the sea of flowers. Chu Dingjiang casually plucked an inconspicuous withered branch from the nearby herb garden. As he walked through the Dream Blossoms with the branch in hand, the mist seemed to melt away, retreating a foot around him.
At the dock, Chu Dingjiang found a carrier pigeon. He bent down to retrieve a note from the tube on its leg. After reading it, he tossed the note into the river and carried the pigeon back to An Jiu's room.
An Jiu was polishing her Dragon Subduing Bow. She looked up at him and asked, "Where did that pigeon come from?"
Chu Dingjiang sat down, placing the pigeon on the small table. After a brief silence, he said, "I have to leave for a few days."
An Jiu paused. "What happened?"
"The emperor is gravely ill. The Crown Prince is overseeing state affairs," Chu Dingjiang replied succinctly.
The Crown Prince had long seen the Second Prince as a thorn in his side. With the emperor's condition uncertain, though he wouldn't dare act against the Second Prince immediately, he would undoubtedly seize the chance to eliminate dissidents.
Seeing her silence, Chu Dingjiang added, "While I'm gone, you should practice your martial arts diligently. Don't spend all your time playing. You'd be better off reading more."
An Jiu frowned. "Why should I read?"Chu Dingjiang didn't answer, only asking, "What characters are written on the door plaque?"
"......"
"Qing Feng Ning Le (Tranquil Breeze and Peaceful Joy)." Chu Dingjiang tapped the tabletop, speaking seriously, "If I write a letter, what would you do if you couldn't understand it?"
"I recognize these characters." An Jiu indicated this wasn't her problem at all, "They dare hang something written this poorly above their door?" (To be continued...)
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