Chapter 59 "What are you doing here?"
It was supposed to be a village gathering, and sure enough, there were many people wearing different styles of clothing on the road.
Guo Baiwen looked on with curiosity; here, people dressed like the three of them were actually a minority.
The crowd gathered in twos and threes, and what each person was saying was sometimes understandable and sometimes not.
Grandma Guo knew there were many villages near her home, but this was the first time she had ever seen so many villages gathered together for a meeting.
I had never heard of this news before.
In the past, the Dragon Boat Festival was the busiest time for our family and the fields.
Working in the fields from dawn till dusk every day, how could I possibly have time to think about going out and having fun?
There were even more people than at the Laba Festival temple fair. Fearing they would get separated by the crowd, Guo Baiwen held Grandma Guo's hand with one hand and Guo Xiaohua's hand with the other.
The three of them joined in the fun and started strolling around.
Because it was a gathering of several villages, the people from each village were different, and the spaces between them provided a good opportunity for many vendors to set up stalls and sell their wares.
While Guo Xiaohua was watching the excitement, she noticed that there was more than one girl on this side, with a tray on her head, on which were placed zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and rice wine, and she was dancing a dance that she had never seen before.
Despite the commotion, the trays above their heads remained perfectly still.
Many people were drawn to the dance and inquired whether the rice wine and zongzi on the tray were for sale.
I heard that after dark, there will be a group dance around the bonfire at the gathering center where everyone will hold hands.
The Dragon Boat Festival is close to the summer harvest, so it can celebrate the harvest and also use the lively atmosphere to drive away loneliness and evil spirits.
Guo Baiwen and Guo Xiaohua wanted to stay and look around before leaving, but Grandma Guo said that if they went back too late, they might not be able to get into the city.
So they had no choice but to give up.
Fortunately, besides dancing, there are many other activities here.
Grandma Guo saw someone hanging small cloth bags on a willow tree, which looked like they were filled with different kinds of grains. A man was shooting at the bags with a wooden bow and bamboo arrows that he had brought with him.
It is said that if you hit the target, you can avoid all the disasters of the year.
Upon hearing that it had this effect, Grandma Guo looked at Guo Baiwen with anticipation, hoping that he would also try it out.
Guo Baiwen couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to borrow a bow and arrow from the stall owner. The moment he picked it up, he knew he probably wasn't up to the task.
This bow is vastly different from the composite bow he used in his previous life, and it's not something you can just aim at and hit.
He tried twice, but to no avail.
Holding my breath, I tried a third time.
This time it was much better than the previous two, but it still barely brushed past the edge of the bag.
They barely managed to get away with it.
But his arm trembled slightly from the weight of the bow.
So all he could do was shake his head helplessly at Grandma Guo's expectant expression.
Fortunately, Grandma didn't really expect him to hit the target.
The three continued to wander around and found that many people were still burning paper figures of the five poisonous creatures made of colored paper, squatting by the river or at less crowded intersections.
After burning the food, sprinkle some rice on top; this is considered sending away the five poisonous creatures on the Dragon Boat Festival.
When Guo Xiaohua got excited, she bought a stack of colored paper, borrowed the stall owner's scissors, cut out little figures, and handed them to Grandma Guo and Guo Baiwen in turn.
Shooting arrows was too difficult; burning a small paper figure was much simpler.
However, since he hadn't brought any rice, Guo Baiwen, seeing the troubled expressions on their faces, took out a handful of rice stored in his system, using his collar as cover.
Fortunately, he had prepared the items in the compartment in advance for the 'stocking' of the candy shop.
So while the three of them were squatting there scattering rice, there were children with the character '王' (king) drawn on their foreheads with cinnabar, each carrying a boiled salted duck egg or a chicken egg, playing an egg-fighting game.
If two eggs collide, the one whose eggshell doesn't break wins.
The egg that wins at the end will be awarded the title of 'Egg King'.
But even if it eventually becomes the so-called 'Egg King', it will often still be eaten in order not to waste food.
Along the way, there were stalls selling neatly folded banana leaf buns filled with glutinous rice and dried fruit, which were sweet and sour and appetizing.
Grandma Guo bought one, and the three of them shared it.
It's quite delicious.
Besides these food stalls, there are also people selling skewers of Sichuan peppercorns along the way.
This has the same meaning as the mugwort and calamus that Grandma Guo had Guo Baiwen hang on the door frame this morning.
So the three of them just watched and didn't join in the fun.
Quite a few people gathered around to watch. After the peppercorns are hung up, they can be used as spices in the kitchen.
It is more practical than mugwort and calamus.
Guo Baiwen led the two of them around the market. In addition to the various activities held by these villages, many small vendors from the county town, who had heard the news, had set up their carts and stalls along the road early in the morning.
Guo Xiaohua stared at the sugar painting stall, reluctant to leave. She wanted to buy some, but felt they were a bit too expensive.
While he was hesitating, Guo Baiwen thought that it wasn't much of a difference, so he might as well pay for it himself.
When she reached into her purse, she discovered it seemed to have been torn when she squeezed through the market.
Fortunately, the large silver ingots were stored in the system warehouse, and the money bag only contained some loose copper coins.
However, precisely because they were copper coins, they fell all over the ground through that small opening.
Grandma Guo couldn't help but exclaim softly, "Oh dear, oh dear!" worried that someone passing by might pick up the money on the ground. She quickly pulled Guo Xiaohua along and squatted down to pick it up.
So Guo Baiwen went to pick up the few copper coins that had fallen a little further away.
Unexpectedly, in the short time it took to squat down and stand up, after picking up the copper coins, Guo Baiwen looked up and unexpectedly saw a familiar face at the gathering.
In a corner of the gathering, Chen Baoyue was at her fur stall, taking a break to polish an iron arrowhead with a small whetstone she had brought.
This arrow has been used for half a year, and the blade is a bit warped. It also tends to wobble when chasing prey on long distances.
She squatted there, repeatedly rubbing the arrowhead in her hand, occasionally picking it up to examine it, her brow furrowed.
This was her most handy hunting bow, but the arrowheads always malfunctioned.
Guo Baiwen leaned over and greeted her, "Miss Chen—"
Chen Baoyue looked up at the sound of his voice, and was a little surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"
Before Guo Baiwen could answer, she laughed to herself, "I think I said the same thing when I ran into you in the county town last time."
Guo Baiwen thought about it and realized it made sense, so he laughed along with him.
Seeing that there weren't many people around her stall, Guo Baiwen picked up the arrow she had been staring at and examined it carefully, then reached out and touched it.
He said thoughtfully, "When you sharpened it, you only sharpened the blade, not the 'spine'. The arrowhead's center of gravity is forward, so it's easy for it to wobble."
As he spoke, he squatted down and, using Chen Baoyue's whetstone, pointed to the spine at the bottom of the arrowhead and said to her, "You can try grinding a small bevel here. This will shift the center of gravity backward, making the shot more stable."
Although Chen Baoyue was skeptical, she thought she might as well try it out, so she did as he said and found that the arrow was indeed no longer wobbling. She couldn't help but look up at him with some surprise: "You know how to use a bow and arrow? How do you know about this?"
She had asked her father about it before, but he only said that the arrow was defective and could not be used.
But he couldn't say exactly how to adjust it.
There were many unusable arrowheads at home before. We just waited for a free time to bundle them together and take them to the blacksmith, where they would be melted down and polished so they could be used again.
But if that's the case, the family will probably have to spend a considerable amount of money.
To find out what was wrong, Chen Baoyue took several good arrows from home and compared them to each other for a long time, but she still couldn't find out where the problem was.
She even suspected that perhaps because it had been used for hunting for so long, the iron on the arrowhead had worn down, making it lighter and unusable.
But I never expected it would be because of such a small place.
Guo Baiwen noticed that Chen Baoyue was looking at him with bright eyes. Feeling a little strange, he explained, "I just like to think about things when I have nothing to do, and that's when I realized it."
He had studied archery for a period of time in his previous life, but the bows he used were modified composite bows, which were still difficult for him to use.
Seeing that Chen Baoyue was now completely focused on the arrow she had just adjusted.
He couldn't help but glance at the bow placed next to Chen Baoyue, and then, recalling his 'tragic record' against the cloth bag, he hesitated for a moment before asking, "May I see your bow?"
Considering that Guo Baiwen had just helped her solve the arrow problem, Chen Baoyue readily agreed, "Sure, you can't see it clearly from this far away anyway, so it's fine for you to pick it up and look at it!"
"Then I'll pick it up and take a look."
The bow looked light, but when Guo Baiwen picked it up, he found that it weighed at least thirty kilograms.
Such a heavy bow—
Guo Baiwen recalled seeing Chen Baoyue's heroic appearance in Guojia Village last time. He thought it was really amazing that she could pull such a heavy bow without aiming aids.
Chen Baoyue hadn't noticed this small detail when she was sharpening the arrowheads before. Now, after sharpening them according to Guo Baiwen's instructions, she tried it out by drawing the bow and pointing it at the willow tree in the distance. She found that it was indeed no longer wobbly.
Overjoyed, he then took another look at the items currently displayed on his stall.
He gave Guo Baiwen a complete fox pelt and thanked him, saying, "If you hadn't pointed out the problem, I would have continued to figure it out by myself!"
Guo Baiwen refused to accept it, knowing that the item was also very valuable to the hunter. "I only exchanged a few words with you, how can I accept something so valuable from you?"
Chen Baoyue insisted, "We hunters have to repay favors we owe! Don't underestimate these few words; we've managed to re-polish and reuse many discarded arrowheads!"
"If you ever want any mountain products from your shop in the future, just let me know!"
Guo Baiwen blushed slightly, but unable to refuse, he had no choice but to accept the fox pelt.
He wanted to say something more, but then he saw that Grandma Guo and Guo Xiaohua had already come looking for him along the road.
For some reason, Guo Baiwen looked at the people present and suddenly blurted out, "It's such a coincidence that we meet here. How about we all have a meal together?"
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