Famine and Chaos: Weaving Cloth in Exile to Escape the War

To be on the safe side.

Jing Zhichun bought another packet of rat poison that was potent and fast-acting.

The total cost was 300 coins, which made Kyoto Haru feel the pinch again.

There's been no income lately, it's just money flowing out all the time.

But with her life hanging by a thread, she couldn't care less about that now.

"Mother, what are you doing?"

Xiaoman looked at her mother who suddenly turned her back and didn't move, and asked somewhat uneasyly.

"Mother is trying to drive these wolves away. Xiaoman, be good, hold your little brother tight, and don't make a sound no matter what you see," Jing Zhichun instructed, as a piece of bright red pork belly and several inconspicuous paper packets appeared out of thin air in her hand.

"Okay, I understand, Mother."

Perhaps because the room was dimly lit except for the area around the stove, Xiaoman didn't notice the meat and medicine she had taken out.

Jing Zhichun quickly took the sickle and swiftly cut the pork belly into six even pieces.

She first opened the rat poison, then carefully applied the powder to the surface of a piece of meat and the cuts inside.

Next, she opened the bottle of paraquat. The pungent smell made her frown. She carefully poured the dark brown liquid onto another piece of meat.

Whether it was rat poison or paraquat, both were deadly poisons that could kill instantly, and there was no antidote.

She refused to believe that she couldn't kill those wolves.

After doing all this, she carefully wiped her hands clean with a rag and used chopsticks to place the two pieces of poisoned meat into a broken bowl.

She wanted to test which of the wolves preferred to eat first.

Wolves are naturally suspicious and intelligent. I'm afraid that if I smeared her with poison, she would smell the danger and refuse to eat it, which would be a complete waste of her meat.

Jing Zhichun carried the bowl back to the door and peered out again through the fist-sized gap.

The wolves that had been scrambling for the hot pork had finished the meat she had just given out, and now they lingered in front of the house, their eyes constantly glancing at the thatched hut, and they were making low whimpering noises.

The alpha wolf remained seven or eight zhang away, like a calm commander.

Jing Zhichun picked up a piece of meat that had been soaked in paraquat, weighed it in her hand, and did not throw it directly towards the wolf pack.

"Smack."

With a thud, the piece of meat fell to the ground. Several wolves nearby were immediately attracted by the sound, trotted over, excitedly circled the meat, and sniffed it.

The smell of fresh, raw meat is fatally attractive to hungry wild animals.

The young gray wolf couldn't resist any longer and opened its mouth to snatch it.

"Woo!!" Just then, the alpha wolf let out a low growl.

As if it had received some command, it immediately withdrew its head and took two steps back, but its eyes remained fixed on the meat on the ground.

The alpha wolf ran over, lowered its head and sniffed the piece of meat carefully, circled it twice, and suddenly raised its front paw, poked at the piece of meat, and then lowered its head to sniff it again.

Then it raised its head, turned and shot straight toward the hole where Kyoto Haru was, and began to growl.

Grandpa's.

So you saw through her trick?

Jing Zhichun's heart tightened; the wolf's intelligence and caution far exceeded her expectations.

Immediately, the alpha wolf growled a few times at the other restless wolves, as if giving orders.

The wolves began circling the piece of meat, no longer attempting to take a bite.

The first attempt to poison the fish failed.

Kyoto Haru frowned. She picked up the second piece of meat, which was smeared with rat poison. The rat poison had almost no smell, so it should be able to fool these wolves.

The moment the piece of meat hit the ground, it immediately caused a commotion among the wolves.

Two or three wolves opened their mouths almost simultaneously to snatch it!

The alpha wolf began to howl again, then sniffed the ground. Before the other wolves could react, the piece of meat was gone into the alpha wolf's stomach.

Jing Zhichun was amused by what he saw, so he quickly smeared rat poison on the four pieces of meat in his hand and then threw them all away one by one.

Perhaps the alpha wolf had already eaten the meat, and the remaining wolves were starving. As the four pieces of meat fell to the ground, they began to fight over them.

Kyoto Haru kept a close eye on the commotion outside, praying in her heart that the medicine would take effect quickly.

As time passed, the wolves seemed to be doing well, showing no signs of pain.

Jing Zhichun suspected that she might have bought counterfeit medicine.

Immediately afterwards, she bought another 5 jin (2.5 catties) of pork belly, smeared it with rat poison, and threw it out, which attracted another scramble of wolves.

Half an hour later, suddenly, a wolf let out a mournful howl, and then its body collapsed to the ground, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and kicking its limbs wildly. In just over ten breaths, it went limp and fell silent.

The horrific scene stunned the other wolves, including the alpha wolf.

The wolf pack immediately began to stir.

At this moment, the alpha wolf seemed to sense the change in its body. It suddenly arched its body, made a painful whimpering sound in its throat, and then began to gag violently.

Then, panic spread among the wolves.

At this moment, another wolf started to have an attack. However, it did not convulse; instead, it banged its head against the ground like a madman.

Meanwhile, the alpha wolf's situation was getting worse and worse. It started to lose its balance, staggered a few steps, and then collapsed to the ground.

It glanced one last time in the direction of the hut, then let out a very faint growl, its limbs twitched slightly a few times, and then it remained still.

With the alpha wolf dead, the remaining five or six wolves were thrown into complete chaos.

The remaining wolves stared in horror at their fallen companions and leader lying dead on the ground. After growling a few times at the thatched hut, they began to retreat and then ran towards the woods.

Jing Zhichun was immediately energized; they couldn't be allowed to escape.

What if she comes looking for revenge again next time?

The wolves had all eaten the meat poisoned with rat poison, so they shouldn't be able to fight anymore. Kyoto Haru felt confident that she could fight again.

Just as she was about to pick up her sickle and head out, she heard a loud howl, followed by hurried footsteps and the sound of people talking.

"Wife! Quick, lend a hand! Let's fire the arrows together, don't let a single one escape!"

"good!"

Immediately, two figures in the darkness simultaneously drew their bows and shot arrows, with a series of whooshing sounds.

The five or six wolves that had been fleeing were suddenly struck by arrows one after another. They howled a few times and collapsed to the ground, struggling for a moment before falling still.

"Huh? Why are these wolves so weak today? They felled them with a single arrow?"

"Oh dear! We were so busy shooting wolves! How is Madam Shen? Husband, quick, let's go check on her!"

Immediately, two figures ran towards the thatched hut.

At the same time, Kyoto Haru suddenly flung open the door and saw the hunter and his wife.

Gao Xiuqin also saw Jing Zhichun and quickly asked with concern, "Madam Shen! Are you alright? We were so scared! We heard wolves howling at night and thought the wolves were coming for revenge! So we grabbed our weapons and ran all the way here, and sure enough, the wolves came to your house."

At this point, Gao Xiuqin quickly looked Jing Zhichun over and, seeing that he was alright, she breathed a sigh of relief.

I'm afraid a pack of wolves will rush into Jingzhichun's thatched hut.

Fortunately, Kyoto Haru doesn't seem to be seriously injured.

Yang Xiaoniu also breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Jing Zhichun was alright.

Jing Zhichun hadn't expected the hunter family to come, much less that they were worried about her.

"Thank you for your concern, Sister-in-law Gao. I'm fine. Thank you both for coming to see me in the middle of the night."

"Oh, it's nothing. You saved my father-in-law and third brother. It's just what we should do."

Yang Xiaoniu nodded in agreement, but his gaze involuntarily drifted to the wolf carcasses on the ground.

He stepped forward, bent down to examine the body closely, and found no arrow wounds or knife cuts on it. He then had a vague idea in his mind.

"Madam Shen," Yang Xiaoniu turned to Jing Zhichun, "when we came over just now, we saw those wolves running like the wind, and they felled with a single arrow. And looking at the appearance of these corpses…did you use some kind of drug?"

Knowing she couldn't hide it from this experienced old hunter, Kyoto Haru told him the truth: "I did use poison."

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaoniu and Gao Xiuqin exchanged a glance. No further words were needed; they both understood that even without their arrival, Jing Zhichun could likely have dealt with the wolves using poison and other methods.

No wonder they thought those wolves weren't very strong; it turns out they were poisoned by Kyoto Haru.

Suddenly, a strange sense of frustration welled up in their hearts.

The Yang family has made a living by hunting for generations.

He fought against the wolves, tigers, and leopards of these mountains and forests for countless lifetimes, suffered countless losses, and lost countless lives, before accumulating the experience and scars gained through life-or-death struggles.

But this woman from the capital, who knew medicine, could not only save people, but also hunt with her medical skills, and so she always killed so many wolves with ease.

This left these old hunters, who relied on physical strength, bows and arrows, and the experience passed down from generation to generation, feeling a strong sense of frustration.

Kyoto Haru didn't notice the changes in the two of them.

She has something more important to ask of you two right now.

Too many wolves have died.

She didn't know how to skin a wolf, so she needed the hunter's family's help.

"Sister-in-law Gao, I need to trouble you with one more thing." Jing Zhichun pointed to the three poisoned wolves in the yard. "These wolves have all eaten the poison I used, so their meat is absolutely unusable, but the wolf pelts... I would like to ask you two to help me skin these three wolves and clean them. I only need the pelts from the three wolves in my yard."