CH 23.1

Chapter 23: Anger (1) Original translation is from tenderflower's blog.

Xiao Lang followed Xiao Shouwang hunting in the mountains since he was a child.

When he was young, due to his short arms, short legs, and lack of strength, he could only help Xiao Shouwang by laying down traps and so on. Most of the game was caught by Xiao Shouwang. Later, as he grew up, he hunted more and more games with his own hands. When Lan-shi died in childbirth, and the family lost his wife who was in charge of the money, Xiao Shouwang handed over all the money to Xiao Lang for safekeeping. In his opinion, his son was the meaning of his life, and everything he had was for his son.

Xiao Lang didn’t quite understand Xiao Shouwang’s behavior. In his opinion, as a father, Xiao Shouwang took care of him when he couldn’t be self-reliant, but now he had the ability to be self-reliant, he couldn’t accept gifts from his parents. Therefore, he prepared two money pots, one for Xiao Shouwang’s money, and one for his own. This time to prepare a birthday present for Xiao Shouwang, he used his own money.

“Ah Lang, what do you think of this silk? It was good to make clothes for the second uncle. I will tailor it with your aunt when we go back. We can sew a set in less than two days.” Shu Wan stood in front of the cloth stall and carefully looked through the various colored fabrics on display, and finally pointed to a blue-gray silk sermon. This bolt would probably sell for a tael or two. When exchanging for clothes, she was afraid Xiao Lang would not have enough money, so she deliberately brought two taels of broken silver.

Boots, belts, and pastries were the fourth gifts Shu Wan proposed.

Xiao Lang still shook his head, “My father doesn’t like to wear new clothes, even if I buy them, he won’t wear them. Sister Wan, let’s go to that sword store.”

In fact, he had already thought about what to give. He called Shu Wan, he just wanted to go with her to the Qin family to see the lazy girl. Shu Wan would definitely go see Shu Zhan or the lazy girl when she came to town, but he didn’t expect Qin-shi to let her take the lazy girl back. It was a surprise.

Shu Wan looked at the place Xiao Lang pointed at. It was an old-looking store with a long table outside and a pile of new or old swords gleaming in the sun. The old man who watched the stall leaned on a rattan rocking chair, shaking and shaking, indescribably comfortable.

She smiled embarrassedly. She was a girl after all, far from what Xiao Lang thought. “Let's go, but I won’t choose...”

Xiao Lang felt a little guilty. He lowered his eyes, and said: “It’s already good that Sister Wan will accompany me.”

The two went to the sword store. This time Xiao Lang led the way, and Shu Wan followed him curiously. Most of the products on the stalls outside were defective. Xiao Lang didn’t find what he liked, so he went inside. He saw long and short swords hanging on three walls. Looking at the scabbard alone, he knew the quality was much better than that outside.

The store owner was a middle-aged man with a beard, tall and thin, white face, and a gray shirt. He was sitting behind the counter reading a book. When he noticed them coming in, he only glanced up and said, “go ahead.” Then his gaze returned to the book in his hand again as if he was a scholar.

There were knives hanging on the west wall. Xiao Lang paced to the front, his deep black eyes swept over the short knives attentively, and finally chose a ruler-length dagger with a simple scabbard but not lose it simple and unadorned. He pulled it out and after only one look, he turned and walked towards the store owner: “I want this.”

Xun Mu glanced at the dagger in his hand. There was a trace of imperceptible waves in his eyes. He said faintly: “Ten taels of silver.”

Even if Shu Wan was as calm as possible, she couldn’t help but open her cherry lips slightly and looked at the scholarly store owner in disbelief. Does such a dagger cost ten taels of silver? The Xiao family’s father and son’s annual expenses were probably not enough for ten taels!

“Ah Lang, this knife is too short, why don’t you change it to a longer one?” Shu Wan felt ashamed to say in front of the store owner that he couldn’t afford it and changed to a euphemistic way of speaking. Later, as long as you say you were not satisfied, you could leave with dignity.

However, Xiao Lang shook his head, very naturally he took out two pieces of silver ingots and five taels from his sleeve pocket. He put them on the table, and said to Shu Wan: “Sister Wan, let’s go see Ah Lan.” He didn’t think the price was too expensive.

Shu Wan was stunned and followed behind Xiao Lang until she was some distance away from the store, then she grabbed Xiao Lang’s sleeve, frowned and asked, “Ah Lang, you brought so much money out, did the second uncle know?”

It was right to be filial by buying gifts for your father, but you couldn’t make a swollen face like a fat man, and spend the two people’s food rations for a year carelessly. Second Uncle Xiao was reluctant to buy new clothes during the holidays. It could be seen that the family’s money was tight. She didn’t know how long it would take to save these ten taels of silver. She couldn’t just watch Xiao Lang spend money indiscriminately. Besides, if Second Uncle Xiao knew that a broken dagger cost ten taels, he would probably be angry with Xiao Lang!

Xiao Lang shook his head. Of course, he would not let his father know about buying gifts.

Shu Wan knew this was the case, so she hurriedly dragged Xiao Lang to the side of the road, and solemnly explained a lot of truths. How much food and clothes could be bought for one tael of silver, what to live frugally, and so on. Xiao Lang’s face was full of doubts.

“Sister Wan, I understand what you mean. It’s just that my father worked so hard to pull me up, and I want to honor him once. Don’t worry, I saved the money myself, and it won’t affect my food with my father.” Xiao Shouwang was responsible for purchasing firewood, rice, oil, and salt for the Xiao family, and Xiao Lang often went with him, so he naturally knew how valuable a tael of silver was.

In his eyes, the dagger sold for ten taels of silver was really not expensive.

The hunters in the nearby villages were generally not wealthy. If the family had no fields, the life of the hunters could be described as very difficult because they were only tall and sturdy. They could run slightly faster than ordinary people and the better ones would lay traps and master the style of farm crop with both hands. However, the preys on the mountain were not fools that they would be obediently waiting to be caught. They have sensitive ears and could easily detect the movements of hunters, either rushing fast or with fierce behavior. The hunters often return empty-handed and couldn’t catch a game for several days. Because of this, the price of a game was very expensive. Generally two or three times that of poultry. A 3-catty pheasant could sell for 200 wen, and the price of rare games such as wild boar was even higher.

Xiao Shouwang was an ordinary hunter who could barely support his family with one year’s earnings.

But Xiao Lang was different. Although he was reincarnated as a human being, he inherited most of the advantages of being a wolf king in his previous life. He had a keen sense of smell, fast running speed, and long-lasting physical strength. There were no sharp fangs and claws, but they were replaced by special long arrows, daggers and sticks, which make him a natural hunter. Others were looking for pheasants and hares everywhere, he could directly smash the chicken and rabbit nests. When four or five others saw wolves and leopards together, they would all run away. When he was nine years old, he single-handedly killed an adult leopard.