Rebirth in a Courtyard: I Am a Little Hunter

Wei Changshuan nodded, picked up his enamel mug, took a sip of water to moisten his dry throat, and said in a deep voice, "Xiao Chen did the right thing, very decisively! This kind of person deserves to be taught a lesson! If you're polite to him, he'll think you're easy to bully. But by coming here today, you've completely nipped his underhanded schemes in the bud. However..."

He paused, then glanced at Wei Chen's satchel with some concern. "You're carrying a weapon on you... are you sure it's okay? It won't break any rules, will it?"

"Uncle Wei, don't worry, all the procedures are complete and legal. It's mainly because I'm on a business trip, the journey is long and the situation is complicated, so it's issued for self-defense. Under normal circumstances, I would never use it," Wei Chen explained patiently, his tone certain. "Today is also a special case, to completely dissuade certain people with bad intentions, so that they won't cause trouble for the family again when I'm not around."

"That's good, that's good." Wei Changshuan was completely relieved, and his gaze towards Wei Chen was filled with more admiration and trust. "You are truly capable now. You are competent, responsible, and know your place. Your sister is fortunate to have a brother like you, and our Wei family is also benefiting from this." These words were simple, but they carried great weight.

Wei Qiang nodded earnestly and managed to squeeze out, "Xiao Chen, you're amazing!" His eyes were full of admiration.

In the latter half of the night, the atmosphere inside the house became more harmonious than before, and there was also a greater sense of awe and reliance on Wei Chen.

Wei Zhenzhen understood that the young man before her was no longer the boy they remembered who needed care and concern, but a capable and courageous man who could truly support the family and protect his loved ones. This realization made Wei Zhenzhen proud, and also completely relieved her excessive worry about her younger brother traveling alone.

As night deepened, Wei Chen was arranged to sleep on a small kang (heated brick bed) in the inner room, which had been temporarily cleaned up and was originally filled with some miscellaneous items but was now spotless. The kang was warm, dispelling all the chill of the winter night.

Lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), listening to the howling north wind outside the window, Wei Chen felt a sense of peace and tranquility. His decisive action today not only cleanly and efficiently resolved the potential trouble and prevented future problems, but more importantly, it truly established his "prestige" within the Wei family.

Even if he's not around in the future, as long as people like Wang Laizi think of tonight's scene, those cold guns and the red official seal, they will never dare to provoke this honest and law-abiding family again. This is perhaps the most practical "gift" he brought to his cousin's family on this trip.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, frost, like fine grains of salt, covered the ground in the yard, the roof tiles, and the bare branches, gleaming with a cool, silvery light in the gradually brightening dawn.

Wei Chen got up early and packed his simple belongings. Wei Zhenzhen got up even earlier than him and had already cooked a pot of steaming, fragrant millet porridge. She also used the last bit of wheat flour to mix with cornmeal and made several thick, oily scallion pancakes, insisting that Wei Chen finish them before leaving.

The moment of parting finally arrived. In the courtyard, the chill was still biting, but the sunlight had barely pierced through the clouds, bringing a faint warmth.

Wei Zhenzhen held Wei Chen's hand, her eyes red and brimming with tears, but she held them back. She repeatedly urged him, her voice choked with emotion, "Be careful on the road! Wear more clothes if you get cold, eat if you're hungry, don't be stingy! Come home early after you've finished your business, your mother and Xiao Ran are waiting for you..." Every word was filled with her deep concern.

Wei Chen was just using a business trip as an excuse to take a vacation. He had to go back to his home in Beijing before he left, but he couldn't say that here. He just let his cousin misunderstand.

Wei Qiang silently pushed the bicycle out from under the eaves, carefully checking whether the tires were properly inflated, whether the chain was oiled, and whether the brakes were working properly. He even used a clean old cloth to carefully wipe the seat and handlebars, as if this would make his younger brother ride more steadily.

Wei Changshuan stood at the entrance of the main room, wearing a cotton-padded coat and still holding the enamel mug in his hand. He didn't say much, but looked at Wei Chen and said in a deep voice, "Drive carefully on the road. Remember, be cautious in everything you do, and peace is a blessing."

While Wei Zhenzhen turned to go inside to get some pancakes, Wei Chen swiftly and discreetly slipped a small cloth bag wrapped in an old handkerchief into the front pocket of his cousin's apron. The bag contained twenty jin of grain coupons and twenty yuan. The amount wasn't huge, but in the current situation, it was enough for the Wei family to handle some emergencies or buy some nutritional supplements for Hu Zi.

"Sister, please accept this. It's just a small token of my appreciation. Use it to give Tiger some food, or for emergencies at home. Don't let anyone else know," Wei Chen said quickly in a very low voice, his tone leaving no room for refusal.

Wei Zhenzhen felt something hard and angular in her pocket, paused, then her eyes reddened even more, and tears finally rolled down her cheeks. She tried to refuse, but Wei Chen held her hand tightly.

Looking into her brother's firm yet concerned eyes, she knew this was his heartfelt sentiment, and the support he was now able to offer. In these difficult times, this sentiment carried immense weight.

She nodded emphatically, clutching the cloth bag tightly in her hand as if she were holding onto the unbreakable bond of kinship and a weighty guarantee, choking back tears as she said, "Sister... Sister, thank you. You must... you absolutely must take good care of yourself out there."

In the end, Wei Chen politely declined Wei Qiang's offer to see him off with a cart. He slung the worn canvas backpack over his shoulder, which contained the pancakes and boiled eggs his cousin had insisted on giving him, mounted his bicycle, and in the dim light of dawn and the frosty ground, he turned back again and waved vigorously to the three members of the Wei family who were standing at the gate of the courtyard. Then he turned the bicycle around, and the wheels made a soft creaking sound as they rolled over the frost-covered dirt road, carrying him steadily out of Xingshou Commune.

The morning wind was biting, slicing across his face like a knife, but Wei Chen's heart burned with passion and power. After days of arduous training in the game world, he had already achieved a minor level of mastery of the "Nine Heavens Sun-Shooting Technique."

Within the dantian, the true essence condenses like flowing mercury, thick and long, flowing endlessly, silently nourishing the limbs and bones; the physical body, after countless hunting battles and tempering with true qi, has become far stronger than ordinary people, with vigorous blood and qi, and keen senses; the mental power has also made great progress, like invisible tentacles, able to clearly perceive the slightest movement within a radius of more than two hundred meters, the rustling of grass, the chirping of insects and the scurrying of mice, none can escape its perception.

He knew perfectly well that with his current strength and perception, the ecological environment within a hundred miles of the capital city had been severely damaged by this rare cold and continuous, almost predatory plundering, and there was simply no large-scale prey population available for him to complete his mission.

To fulfill his promise to the factory and complete the seemingly impossible yet crucial "year-end meat supply guarantee" task—a task that concerned both collective interests and his own responsibility—he needed to look further afield to more expansive lands with relatively sparse human activity. Only then could he make sense of the situation and retrieve the prey from the space.

The vast, sparsely populated Inner Mongolian grasslands, once lush with water and grass, and with relatively well-preserved prey populations, became his target. There were boundless pastures, teeming with fast-moving gazelles, hares, marmots, and perhaps even wolf packs. Although he would also face harsh cold and an unpleasant environment, the sheer size of the grasslands and the relative absence of direct human exploitation offered him a glimmer of hope.

Instead of turning back west immediately, he returned to Beijing first. On the one hand, a trip to the grasslands required more thorough preparation, not only in terms of supplies, but also in terms of a more detailed understanding of the route and local conditions; on the other hand, he had to go home to make more secure arrangements, to put his mother and sister at ease, and also to see if there were any loose ends to be dealt with in the courtyard house.

When I returned to the familiar courtyard, it was already two or three in the afternoon. The winter sun shone weakly, and the courtyard seemed much quieter than usual. Most people had either gone to work or were huddled in their own houses to keep warm.

In the front yard, Uncle Yan Bugui was indeed "keeping to his post." He was wrapped in an old cotton-padded coat with the cotton batting showing, and he held a tattered broom with bald bristles in his hand. He was sweeping the clean cement ground, which was spotless and without a single fallen leaf, with his eyes like radar, glancing from time to time at the gate of the yard and the doors and windows of each household.

Seeing Wei Chen push his bicycle in, looking travel-worn, his small eyes suddenly lit up, and his face immediately plastered with his usual smile, a mixture of shrewd calculation and deliberate enthusiasm. He dragged a broom and came to greet him.

"Hey! Wei Chen's back? Haven't seen you for days!" Yan Bugui's voice carried an exaggerated surprise. His gaze swept quickly across Wei Chen's handlebars like a brush, but there was nothing there. He was still wearing the same worn-out cotton coat, nothing special, and his canvas backpack, bulging but ordinary, seemed to be trying to find some unusual clue. "What are you busy with? Heavy workload at the factory? Or... something good?"

Wei Chen stopped, a perfectly measured smile appearing on his face—a smile that conveyed a hint of weariness but also a sense of good spirits. He pulled out the remaining few "Da Qianmen" cigarettes from his pocket, expertly taking one out and handing it over: "Uncle, you've been busy. The factory has some tasks, sending me on a business trip that might take a while. I took advantage of a little free time before leaving to go back to my hometown to see my grandparents. They're getting old, and I was worried about them."

His words were perfectly watertight, both pointing out the legitimate reason of "business trip" and using the unquestionable common sense of "visiting the elderly," thus preventing the other party from digging any deeper.

Yan Bugui deftly took the cigarette, but instead of lighting it immediately, he habitually tucked it behind his ear—good things should be saved for later, or used in crucial moments.

His smile widened, as if he were genuinely happy for Wei Chen: "Of course! Filial piety is the most important virtue! You have that kind of heart, not bad! A business trip? This is a sign of the leader's trust and high regard for you! How long will you be gone? How far? Is it to the south or the north?" He relentlessly probed, unwilling to miss any detail that might contain "information".