He has a spatial ability and saves three children on his escape route.

Chapter 17 Hunting Deer

Of the three roasted rabbits, Wen Yuxia only ate one leg; the rest ended up in the bellies of the eight pillars.

"Uncle, the chickens are almost done. Put out the firewood. Seventh Uncle, you're in charge of digging out the mud."

Wen Yuxia had been thinking about the two beggar's chickens buried under the firewood pile. Seeing that her uncles had finished eating the roasted rabbit meat, she quickly told them to get back to work.

Two lumps of dry mud were placed in front of Wen Yuxia. Wang Dazhu couldn't bear to look at the featherless chicken inside the mud lumps, so he turned and went into the nearby woods, claiming he was going to find ginseng.

Wen Yuxia calmly cracked open the mud ball, took out the pheasant curled up inside, quickly plucked off the feathers, and then removed the internal organs from its belly.

He tore the white chicken in his hand into nine pieces, distributed them to Wang Erzhu and the others, and asked Wang Bazhu to take one piece to Wang Dazhu in the woods.

"It's delicious, and it doesn't taste like chicken poop at all."

"More tender than roasted rabbit, not dry at all,"

"It smells delicious, every bite is full of meaty flavor,"

……

As they ate, everyone chatted, and even Wang Dazhu, who had hidden in the woods, praised the chicken. After finishing their meal and resting for a quarter of an hour, Wen Yuxia called on the others to continue walking into the mountains.

This time, Wen Yuxia led the way, using an iron crowbar to tap the grass in one hand and a machete in the other to cut down the weeds and vines blocking her path.

Wang Dazhu and the others kept tapping on the bushes, afraid of being bitten by snakes hiding there, trying to scare them away.

Wen Yuxia, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped and raised her right hand to signal her uncles who were following behind to stay put and not make a sound.

A herd of sika deer were leisurely grazing on leaves not far away. Sika deer are relatively small, and the males' antlers branch once on the main shaft, resulting in a total of three tributaries. Both antlers and velvet antlers have medicinal value.

Wen Yuxia counted carefully; three of the fifteen sika deer had antlers on their heads, and all three were male. She lowered her voice and said:

"There are fifteen sika deer outside the woods ahead. I'm going to tie a rope to the two widest trees. When you see me waving a white cloth from side to side, you all rush towards the herd..."

Wen Yuxia's hunting plan was to have her eight uncles disturb the deer herd, forcing the fleeing deer to run into the forest.

The trees in the forest are close together, so female deer can escape easily, but male deer will be much slower because their hard, pointed antlers could get stuck between two large trees.

Wen Yuxia believes that the male sika deer is very likely to escape between the two trees where she planned to tie the rope, because the distance between those two trees is the widest, enough for three sika deer to pass side by side without any problem.

Wang Wuzhu, Wang Liuzhu, Wang Qizhu, and Wang Bazhu, the four of them also had a rope. Wen Yuxia told them to wait for an opportunity to throw the rope lasso at the head of the fallen stag.

After the antlers were caught, they were pulled hard to both sides. At this moment, Wang Dazhu and the others had to rush up to help hold down the stag and tie its four legs together.

After giving her instructions, Wen Yuxia used her light-footed skills to bypass the deer herd and go to tie the horse-tripping rope—no, the deer-tripping rope. Once she had tied the rope, she would stay behind and guard the area. If Wang Dazhu and the others failed to catch the sika deer, she would then step in to stop any male deer that passed by.

"Big brother, look, Daya is waving the white cloth," Wang Bazhu, who had been keeping a close eye on the deer herd ahead, was the first to see the signal from Wen Yuxia.

"Brothers, charge!" Wang Dazhu shouted, leading the charge towards the deer herd.

Sika deer are naturally timid and extremely alert, making them difficult for humans to approach. They will quickly scatter at the slightest disturbance. As soon as Wang Dazhu shouted, the sika deer began to flee into the forest.

Just as Wen Yuxia had predicted, the three stags ran towards her. However, two of them leaped over the rope and dashed off. Seeing that she couldn't keep up, Wen Yuxia didn't force it and pounced on the fallen stag.

Wang Wuzhu and the others, who ran over with lassos, were dumbfounded. Wen Yuxia told them to throw the lassos at the deer's antlers, saying that even if they couldn't catch the sika deer, pulling off its antlers would still fetch a good amount of silver.

Right now, Wen Yuxia is fighting a stag, clutching an antler. What should they do? It's their first time hunting deep in the mountains, and their first time seeing prey weighing over a hundred pounds. Wang Wuzhu, Liuzhu, Qizhu, and Bazhu are all at a loss.

Instead, it was Wang Dazhu and the second, third, and fourth pillars who bravely rushed forward, pressing down on the legs, back, and buttocks, and quickly helped Wen Yuxia subdue the stag.

Wen Yuxia took a deep breath and turned to call out, "Fifth Uncle, bring the rope over."

Wen Yuxia wasn't very satisfied with only catching one of the fifteen sika deer, but at least it was a male, and its antlers should fetch a good price.

"Uncle, should we go back now or continue forward?"

"Let's go back. We'll take the deer to Master Lu's house tomorrow morning and see if he wants it," Wang Dazhu said. He often worked in town and knew that Master Lu liked to buy all sorts of fresh wild animals. He figured Master Lu would buy the sika deer.

Wen Yuxia frowned, "Uncle, why not send it to the county? The purchase price there is definitely higher than in the town."

Wang Dazhu chuckled and said, "The county town is 120 li away from our village. My uncle has never been there in his entire life. Besides, going to the county town requires asking the village chief and the village head for a pass, which is a hassle."

I see. 120 li is 60 kilometers. An oxcart can travel about 5 kilometers per hour, so 60 kilometers would take 12 hours, or 6 shichen (ancient Chinese unit of time).

Even a horse-drawn carriage can only travel 20 kilometers per hour, so it would take three hours, or one and a half hours, to reach the county town. The most troublesome thing is that a travel permit is required.

“Okay, we’ll go to town tomorrow,” Wen Yuxia planned to go back and saw off the antlers first. She could ask at the restaurant if the price was right and sell the sika deer. If the price wasn’t right, she would go to the Lu family’s house that Wang Dazhu had mentioned.

By the time they descended the mountain, it was completely dark, and the villagers had probably already gone to bed. On their way back to their maternal grandfather's house, they didn't encounter a single person from the village.

Wen Yuxia climbed over the fence into the yard, opened the gate, and Wang Dazhu and the others quietly carried the sika deer inside.

"Uncle, carry the deer to the woodshed and saw off its antlers first," Wen Yuxia whispered.

Male deer are generally solitary animals, living in groups consisting only of females and fawns. They only return to the herd during estrus to find mates.

During the mating season, the soft antlers on the head of male deer have completely transformed into antlers, which become hard and powerful. Even if the antlers are not sawed off, they will fall off naturally after a period of time.

When sawing off the antlers, Wen Yuxia didn't ask Wang Dazhu and the others for help. After instructing them to go back to their rooms to rest and closing the door of the woodshed, she took the stag to her space and used a chainsaw to saw off the antlers in just a few minutes.

The next day, before dawn, Wen Yuxia, Wang Dazhu, and Wang Erzhu left their house with a sika deer and its antlers.

Along the way, the Wang brothers kept laughing as they pushed the cart, because Wen Yuxia told them that deer antlers could be sold for at least 150 taels of silver, and a sika deer weighing about 200 jin could be worth 60 taels of silver.