The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 326 - 315: Slingshot

Chapter 326: Chapter 315: Slingshot

The villagers of Qili Village had successively harvested all the beans from the fields and were recently battling with the weather, stepping out early each morning to check the sky. If they saw the glow of dawn, they would bring out the wheat and beans to dry, but the moment large clouds drifted by, no matter where they were, they would sprint back to gather the beans and wheat.

With the remaining leisure time, they cut the hemp from the fields to process it.

The Zhou family, being numerous, had nothing particularly urgent to do after helping Zhou Hu collect all the beans.

Junior Ms. Qian had soaked some beans and every morning had to make two slabs of tofu to send with Zhou Erlang to the county town. It was strenuous and time-consuming work, and to avoid delaying Zhou Erlang, both Junior Ms. Qian and Zhou Dalang would rise at the crack of dawn to grind beans.

It wasn’t until the tofu was made that the rest of the family would get up.

Then, the couple would go back to bed for a little more sleep until it was time to start cooking for the school.

Zhou Erlang continued his daily routine of carrying a shoulder pole to sell vegetables, tofu, and wild mushrooms in the county town.

With the recent frequent rains, either daily or every other day, wild mushrooms popped up like bamboo shoots after a rain in the hills.

Zhou Silang took his two younger brothers and a bunch of nieces and nephews up the mountain to search for wild mushrooms each day, and also looked for China root along the way.

However, whether it was luck or not, they hadn’t found anything for several days in a row and had to wait for Manbao to be free after school to join them on the mountain.

Manbao had been quite busy lately as well, not only because Mr. Zhuang had assigned lots of homework, but also because Bai Shanbao was about to depart.

Reluctant to see him leave, Manbao would rush to the Bai family after school each day to read books with him and discuss the various strategies he would employ upon his return to Longzhou.

Of course, Manbao also gave Bai Shanbao a slingshot for self-defense.

Bai Shanbao was not impressed with his former classmates, who seemed to enjoy fighting and often resorted to brawling in groups, picking on the weaker ones.

"You can’t even beat me, and there are so many of them. I think it’s going to be hard for you to win," Manbao said as she stuffed the slingshot into his hand, "So we’re not going to fight at close quarters. We can engage in long-range attacks. You can use this slingshot to hit people in the future."

Bai Shanbao examined it and noticed that it was much more refined compared to the slingshots they usually played with.

Most importantly, he had never seen such a bowstring before.

The bows that Datou and the others made were fashioned from long strands of hair and various feathers mixed together, with thick cloth used for shoe soles tied in the middle.

A well-made slingshot could hurt when hitting someone, but most could not shoot far due to the insufficient elasticity of the bowstring.

This was something Bai Shanbao, who had made two slingshots before, understood very well.

But now, the slingshot Manbao had given him not only had a well-polished frame, the bowstring, which he had never seen before, could be pulled far back with just a light tug. When he applied force, he nearly had to extend his right hand holding the frame all the way to the front.

Excitedly, Manbao picked up a stone from the ground for him.

Handling it firmly, Bai Shanbao pulled back and released, and the stone shot out, "bang," piercing through the window.

Both children were dumbfounded.

Soon, a roar came from inside the house, "Which bastard is throwing stones and breaking my window?"

The two children turned and ran, and shortly, the door flew open, and a round-waisted mother burst out, hands on her hips, scolding, "Who threw the stone inside?"

Seeing no response, she furiously said, "Don’t let me catch you, or I’ll skin you..."

The two rounded the corner and vanished, then hid in a nook to peek into the yard. Dason breathed a sigh of relief, "Mother Fang seems to have gained more weight."

Bai Shan retracted his little head and nodded, "My mother is picky with food; all the things she doesn’t like to eat go to Mother Fang, no wonder she’s getting fatter."

Looking down at the slingshot in his hand, Bai Shanbao exclaimed, "This is really powerful. How did you make it?"

"I didn’t make it, a friend gave it to me," Manbao said in a low voice as she took another slingshot out of her cloth bag, "I have one too, so don’t lose yours. If you do, I won’t give you mine."

"I definitely won’t lose it!" Bai Shanbao was curious, "Who is your friend, and what is this bowstring made of?"

"He said it’s made of P2 material, but we don’t have it here, so it doesn’t matter." These two slingshots were gifts from Doctor Mo Congjun.

Ever since he wanted to strike a cooperation deal with Manbao, Doctor Mo had been very kind and friendly to her. Since he was kind, their interaction couldn’t be limited to just discussing medicine during class; they also needed to build a personal rapport so that they could help each other in the future.

For example, he wanted to research some pathogens from their world and would need her help in collecting them when the time came.

Manbao was still a child, and naturally delighted when others treated her well. She would share her troubles with him, especially when persuaded.

For instance, she had a good friend who was going away, and there were many bad people in the distance who might bully him. So, she wanted to buy some weapons for his self-defense, but upon searching in the market, she found that even the cheapest ones were stun guns.

Even weapons meant for self-defense against wolves were more high-end and not available in the market.

Truthfully, she just wanted to buy a slingshot.

However, it seemed that people from the future didn’t play with slingshots, to the point that not even such toys existed.

Keke told Manbao that future human younglings played with flying cars, hoverboards, and small mechas.

With mechas dominating, of course, there were no handheld small weapons anymore.

In the end, after Manbao provided the blueprints and the principle, Doctor Mo manually crafted two and sent them to her.

Since the technology involved in the slingshot was not advanced and also existed in this era, the encyclopedia hall didn’t tax it and allowed it to be sent through directly.

Manbao had secretly tried it herself, but without pulling with full force or shooting at any object, she only felt that the bowstring was easy to pull, not realizing that it could be so powerful.

The two children couldn’t help but marvel simultaneously, "No wonder the books classify slingshots as hidden weapons. A well-made slingshot can really be so formidable."

With a weapon in hand, Bai Shanbao’s confidence surged, and after tucking it away, he assured, "Don’t worry, with this, I definitely won’t be bullied by anyone."

"Great! Oh, and remember, don’t shoot it at people’s eyes, okay?"

"Don’t worry, I won’t," he replied.

Reluctantly, Bai Shanbao held Manbao’s hand and said, "I’m leaving tomorrow. Will you come to see me off?"

"When are you leaving? I’ll take off from school to see you off!"

"You don’t need to take off. Grandmother said we need to leave earlier than usual for school and rest for an hour or two at lunchtime to avoid the harsh sun."

"Then I’ll get up early tomorrow to see you off. Don’t forget about me, okay? Remember to look out for fun and delicious things on the road, and tell me about them when you’re back so I can try them out when I travel."

"No problem, I’ll write letters to you as well."

"Wow, that’s really great!" Manbao thought for a moment and added, "If you can’t get the letters to the village, send them to County Magistrate Fu’s house. I’ll tell Second Sister Fu to collect them for me, and I can get them when Second Brother goes to town."

"No need to worry. I’ll write to Bai Er and you at the same time. I’ll have the family servants deliver it straight to your house."

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