Li Jianqing, at his age, rarely played with girls. Upon hearing his sister speaking to him in such a soft and sweet manner, his eyes lit up and he quickly ran over to ask, "What, you say, I won't tell anyone else."
Li Xianglu immediately said with a bright smile, "Brother San, I've set a trap in that piece of forest. I want to check it out; maybe we'll actually catch some wild game."
As soon as Li Jianqing heard this, his eyes lit up with excitement. His sister was really smart to be able to set traps! He eagerly grabbed her hand and ran toward the woods.
The mountainous regions in Northern Guanzhong don't have dense, tall forests, just sparse woodlands that wouldn't exist if they were not near rivers. Thus, there are no fierce beasts inside, but there are rabbits, field mice, and such, which villagers have caught before. And Li Jianqing was at that mischievous age, loving to play and make a ruckus, so hearing about the trap made him absolutely thrilled.
The skill of setting traps that Xianglu possessed came from her past life during an internship, where she learned from an older apprentice brother. Speaking of him, one must mention Xianglu's major from her previous life – archaeology. In her senior year during a six-month internship, which was about tomb restoration or excavation, and as most tombs were in the mountains, this apprentice brother from a mountain village was skilled in hunting. So, in their free time, he would take Xianglu to set traps and catch wild pheasants, which allowed her to learn the skill.
Meanwhile, Li Xianglu carefully camouflaged the trap she dug with some soil and miscellaneous grass. If not observed carefully, one wouldn't detect the trap at all, but it was between two trees, so people passing by wouldn't accidentally step into it.
Li Jianqing didn't know where the trap was, so he just closely watched Li Xianglu, only to hear her exclaim in surprise. She quickly knelt by the disturbed trap, and exclaimed, "Ah, it looks like there's a catch!" The soil and grass covering the trap were a mess, so she hurriedly brushed them aside to look, and saw a grey rabbit lying in the half-meter-deep trap, its leg pierced by a sharpened stick at the bottom of the pit, already breathing its last.
Li Jianqing got even more excited, leaning halfway into the pit to pull out the rabbit, exclaiming ecstatically, "Little sister, this rabbit weighs more than three pounds!"
Li Xianglu smiled widely, nodding her head, "Mhm."
Li Jianqing tied the rabbit's feet and placed it in the basket on his back, while Li Xianglu reset the trap.
As the two stood up and walked out of the woods, little did they know that not far away, a pair of bright eyes watched them leave.
Upon reaching the edge of the woods, Li Jianqing happily said, "Little sister, shall we cook the rabbit for lunch?"
Li Xianglu laughed, "We probably won't have time at noon; let's do it in the afternoon. Skin the rabbit when you go back, and I'll cook it in the afternoon. Add lots of chili pepper, it will taste great."
Li Jianqing swallowed hard and nodded eagerly, swiftly helping his sister gather pig fodder before hurriedly leaving. At this point, the Li Family's share of communal labor was almost done, requiring at most two more days of work. The rest would be the work on their own private land.
Just as the two reached the edge of the field, Ge Sanmei dashed up a few steps and slapped Li Xianglu's face without warning. Unprepared, Xiang staggered and fell to the ground, full of half-cut corn stalks that lay slanted with sharp edges. Xianglu fell and let out a piercing scream as she struck the ground.
Her scream alarmed Ge Sanmei, who stood frozen, her hand still raised mid-air.
Li Jianqing was stunned by the scene before him. Hearing his sister's scream, he rushed to help her but felt something wet and hot on his hand. Terrified, he looked to see his hand covered in blood and collapsed in fear.
By then, Li Erfu and Yuan Cheng hurried over and saw their daughter lying on the ground, screaming, looking as pale as ghosts with his hand covered in blood.
Li Erfu, frightened, took a few quick steps to lift his daughter from the ground but heard Xianglu scream and then saw her fainting. Alarmed, he checked her back only to find blood soaking through her clothes from a sharp, slanted corn stalk.
Yuan Cheng, startled yet calm, quickly urged his father-in-law, "Quick, Dad, take the little aunt to see a doctor; with so much blood, I'm afraid it's serious!"
Li Erfu cast an angry glance at his wife and swiftly carried his daughter away, with Yuan Cheng following closely.
Ge Sanmei didn't understand what had happened. How could a slap cause someone to bleed so much? It had never happened before when she hit people. She began to feel somewhat afraid.
Li Jianqing, having regained his senses, jumped up from the ground and ran in the direction of his father and brother-in-law.
Ge Sanmei, annoyed, threw her sickle to the ground, thinking that it was just a minor incident involving a young girl, yet everyone was reacting so dramatically. However, after seeing the large patch of blood on the ground, she hurriedly gathered her things and rushed toward the village brigade.
By that time, Li Erfu was already holding his daughter in the brigade office, set in a row of cave dwellings. Li Dafu was handling affairs in the office when he saw his brother rushing in with his niece, covered in blood.
Startled, he quickly cleared the office desk for the child to lie on, revealing a clear view of the blood-soaked patch on her back and a little hole.
Li Erfu said to his elder brother anxiously, "Big brother, quick, get someone to save Xiang. She's been impaled by a corn stalk, and there's so much blood."
Li Dafu, having seen much of the world, immediately activated the village loudspeaker and had several women cut open the child's clothes to expose the wound, plugging it with clean cotton.
A middle-aged man in a patched Zhongshan suit with glasses soon ran in, asking Li Dafu, "Comrade Brigade Leader, you called for me."
Li Dafu, too concerned to waste time, quickly said, "My niece was stabbed by a corn stalk, fetch your stuff and tend to the child."
The middle-aged man adjusted his thick glasses, took a look at Li Xianglu's back, gave some instructions for preparing the necessary items, and then dashed back to his place.