"Boss, wait for us!"
Then, Liu Dan and Guan Gousheng also took off running.
Su Qing waited in the kitchen for a while, clutching a wood chopper. When no one came in, he slowly peeked his head out.
Seeing no sign of the three, Su Qing finally let out a sigh of relief.
But he kept the wood chopper gripped in his hand.
"Qingzi, it's okay! We chased those three off," Wang Liu shouted.
Su Qing ran out, thanking a few of his village neighbors and Wang Liu profusely. "Thank you, Uncle Wang! Thank you, everyone!"
After Su Qing's enthusiastic thanks, the villagers gathered at his doorway all left.
Wang Liu, however, sighed as he stood beside Su Qing.
"Qingzi, you're still too skinny. Otherwise, how could those three good-for-nothings possibly bother you?"
Before Su Qing could speak, Wang Liu grabbed his arm. "Come on, let's go to my place and get half a chicken. You need to eat and build up your strength."
Su Qing's face lit up as he thanked him. "Thank you so much, Uncle Wang."
'But a fire was raging inside Su Qing. If those three idiots won't leave him alone, then they can't blame me for what's coming.'
'Never mind anything else, I feel like I could kill all three of them with just the Small Poison Pill I synthesized.'
He followed Wang Liu to get the half-chicken and brought it home furtively.
This was meat. One had to be on guard, even against neighbors.
Looking at his dilapidated thatched hut and low walls, Su Qing felt a pang of discomfort.
'If I had transmigrated as some young master, I wouldn't have to worry about synthesis materials at all.'
'And I might have even started practicing martial arts by now.'
"Sigh! In the end, I still have to rely on myself!" Su Qing thought, trying to psych himself up.
Suddenly, an urgent pressure built in his gut. He clenched and ran to a spot behind his house to relieve himself.
He grabbed a few common leaves to wipe himself clean, finally feeling some relief.
'Nature calls, but I remember this village only has one latrine. Isn't that too few?'
Su Qing was too embarrassed to go to the latrine. It was almost completely open-air, so he just took care of his business near his house.
Returning home, he started preparing the half-chicken.
By evening, Su Qing had taken out his earthenware pot to stew chicken soup.
The sky gradually darkened, and the river of stars appeared above.
The aroma of meat began to drift out.
With a fire lit in his house, Su Qing wasn't too afraid. It was said that ghosts and monsters rarely appeared in the presence of firelight. Of course, any that *did* show up wouldn't be the kind that feared ordinary people anyway.
'What's coming will come.'
Smelling the rich aroma of the meat, Su Qing instinctively started to drool.
"Whoa… Back in my previous life, I could eat meat whenever I wanted. I can't believe I'm drooling now just from the smell." Su Qing wiped the corner of his mouth, his eyes shining as he stared at the oil floating on the chicken soup in the pot.
Seeing that the chicken was cooked through, he couldn't resist picking up his chopsticks and grabbing a drumstick.
He grabbed a drumstick and took a bite.
He sank his teeth into it, and the juices burst from the drumstick. A wave of rich broth mixed with his saliva, flowing into his stomach and warming him from the inside. He chewed on the meat. It wasn't salty, but the pure, fragrant taste of the chicken, combined with the sheer psychological satisfaction, was more than enough. Su Qing devoured the entire half-chicken contentedly.
He licked even the leanest parts clean and slowly drank every last drop of the soup.
This tasted a hundred times better than the synthesized grass cakes!
With some fat in his stomach, he felt much more comfortable.
The pot of chicken soup had completely dispelled his foul mood.
After finishing the whole pot of chicken soup, Su Qing was deeply satisfied.
'Meat tastes so good.'
'It's just this environment… no matter how much I clean, it always feels a little grimy.'
'Why does my Golden Finger feel so useless? Other people get one and immediately start their Immortal Cultivation, on their way to godhood. And me? I'm still trying to figure out how to get back at those three goons.'
With a full stomach, Su Qing's mind started to wander.
He really couldn't make sense of his Golden Finger, because the synthesis recipes he had found so far were so few.
Grass cakes, Great Nourishing Pills, and Small Poison Pills.
That was it.
'The Small Poison Pill is definitely reserved for those three, but I don't know how I'm going to use it. Uncle Wang helped me today, but what about tomorrow? What if they drag me to the riverbank again, like last time?'
Su Qing was deeply frustrated. He had been beaten today, and the original owner's death had also been caused by those three.
How could he not take revenge?
Poisoning them… how could he get the three of them to fall for it?
'Unless I had multiple Small Poison Pills… or I could get those three to ingest one without even realizing it.'
Su Qing thought of hunting.
He wasn't planning on sending them off with a full meal, though.
Instead, he thought of a ranged weapon.
'As long as I can break their skin and introduce the Small Poison Pill's toxin, won't that be enough to kill them?'
There was no Physician in the village.
At most, everyone knew a few medicinal herbs that could treat common minor illnesses.
Things like fevers were something you had to endure and let your body fight off.
Let alone poison.
...
「The next day.」
Su Qing got up early and went out. He needed to find a suitable piece of wood.
Su Qing was going to prepare something special.
It would be best if he could find bamboo.
"Brother Qing, where are you going?"
His neighbor Erya, from the Bai Family, poked her head out the window and asked. Her face was gaunt, practically skin and bones, and her skin was dark and rough—the typical state for the village women.
These young girls often had to help with chores.
"Going out to find something to eat. Erya, want to come?" Su Qing invited with a smile.
Anyway, today Su Qing was just looking for wood. If he could find bamboo, it would be even better and much easier.
"No, no." Erya immediately refused his invitation.
"I have to go find some chicken feed later. I don't have time."
...
After saying goodbye to Erya, Su Qing left the village.
With only a wood chopper on him, he felt that as long as night hadn't fallen, he had nothing to fear.
If he encountered a large beast, he would climb a tree. He wasn't afraid of smaller ones.
What he feared most were the inconspicuous insects and snakes in the forest.
They were hard to spot, but very dangerous.
He hadn't found any bamboo groves on the mountain Wang Liu had taken him to before.
Su Qing didn't know if there were any bamboo groves in this area at all.
So he had to settle for some thin hardwood. He took his chopper and hacked off a section.
He was going to make a few blowdarts to poison Zhang Mazi, Liu Dan, and Guan Gousheng.
For no other reason than this:
It really, really sucked to be beaten.
When he first transmigrated, he only had the memories of the beatings; the physical pain had long since faded.
But yesterday, when the three of them came looking for him, Su Qing had gotten beaten again.
Su Qing didn't want to face that kind of humiliation and pain ever again.
He was a man with a Synthesizer now.
Why should he still have to endure such suffering?
'Failing to get revenge for this would be a disgrace.'
It would also be vengeance for the Su Qing who had died.
After chopping off a small section, Su Qing tied it up with a thin hemp rope and carried it home on his back.
As he passed Wang Liu's house, Su Qing thought he heard crying.
He couldn't help but stop.
"SOB SOB SOB… Six, how could you just collapse like this!"
It was noon, and the sun was high in the sky.
But because it was autumn, the wind carried a desolate chill.
Su Qing hurriedly knocked on the door.
He also shouted, "Sister-in-law Wang, Sister-in-law Wang! What's wrong with Uncle Wang?"
After all, Sister-in-law Wang was crying quite loudly.
There was also the sound of a child crying.
How could Su Qing not be anxious? Wang Liu was the only person in the village who had ever helped him.
Su Qing was the type to repay kindness with kindness and enmity with enmity.
Hearing that something had happened to Wang Liu, Su Qing's heart raced with worry.