Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 58 Practice Makes Perfect

Yu Xiaowei, who was smelly, washed his clothes upstream of the stream and wiped his body before coming back. Yu Xiaowei was still thinking about the cuckoo he had shot down, but after taking a detour and searching for a long time, he couldn't find any trace of it.

"I'm so pissed. It must have been taken away by something."

Yu Xiaowei searched almost every area where the cuckoo had landed, but found nothing. He was so angry that he had no place to vent his anger and his face turned red.

"Alright, alright. If you keep the green mountains, you will never have to worry about firewood. Your ability is here. If you lose that one, just hunt it again. When hunting prey in the mountains, it is often impossible to find the trace. If you get angry every time, you will be so angry that you will die."

As an outsider, Yu Qiutang kindly comforted his nephew.

He felt both sympathy and amusement for his nephew's depression, and he also envied the innocence of youth. If it were him, he wouldn't even bother to frown when something like this happened. If it was lost, it was lost. At worst, he would just beat him up.

As a result, for the next half hour, Yu Qiutang was looking for a suitable oak and making some marks, while Yu Xiaowei was constantly trying to catch the second prey, but obviously he no longer had the same luck as before.

Nothing gained.

The more he fought, the more discouraged he became, and finally he completely lost his will to fight. He hung his head like a rooster that had lost a fight, and followed Yu Qiutang dejectedly.

Yu Qiutang was not in a hurry to comfort her.

Just treating this as frustration education, the little guy thought hunting was just a joke and he could easily catch prey.

I asked him to practice his slingshot skills at home and asked him to run with me every day, but he was always reluctant. Although he didn't refuse, he was always rejecting it deep down in his heart.

Another half an hour passed, and Yu Qiutang had basically chosen the oak. He patted Yu Xiaowei on the head and said, "Why, you give up so soon? Didn't you say last night that you wanted to be the strongest hunter within a few hundred miles?"

"It's too difficult. I can't hit it at all." Yu Xiaowei blushed with shame.

His face originally had a light highland red, and after being exposed to the sun and shyness, his cheeks turned rosy red, just like the matchmaker in TV dramas with rubbed red on her cheeks.

"It's definitely not easy, of course. If it were easy, then everything around here would have been killed by humans, and there would be no chance for them to survive."

Yu Qiutang took out his slingshot from his waist and pulled the slingshot in the air while aiming at the treetops in the distance. The leather strap of the slingshot made a rustling sound as he pulled it.

"Everything needs a knack, including slingshot. Pick up the slingshot and follow me..."

Yu Xiaowei was still hesitant at first and was reluctant to pick it up. Yu Qiutang didn't care. He took out a stone calmly and put it in the slingshot cabin. He closed his eyes and listened quietly to the sounds around him.

"uncle……"

"Don't make any noise. Close your eyes and listen quietly to see if you can hear any sound around you."

Yu Xiaowei imitated Yu Qiutang, closed his eyes and listened carefully.

The wind rustled through the oak forest, making the leaves rustle. Occasionally, there were rustling sounds among the swaying leaves, and then there was an inaudible "squeaking" sound. Gradually, the squeaking sound became more and more obvious, as if it was not far away.

Yu Xiaowei opened his eyes and found Yu Qiutang looking at him.

He looked in the direction of the sound he had heard, and sure enough, he saw a squirrel sitting on a fork in an oak tree about ten meters away, gnawing on an acorn while looking around vigilantly.

He picked up the slingshot, aimed at the squirrel and was about to pull the string.

"Wait, your posture is wrong, look at me," Yu Qiutang also aimed the slingshot at the squirrel, "If you want to shoot accurately, you must first keep the slingshot flat, so that you can ensure that the trajectory of the stone is consistent with the direction you want to shoot. Yes, just like that, don't shake your hands, now you are more than ten meters away from the squirrel, but if your hands shake a little, it will make a big difference if you extend them to the distance. Yes, stay calm, don't be nervous, and slow down your breathing, so that your hands can be stable.

Do you remember the stone you hit the cuckoo with? You aimed at the cuckoo, but the actual landing point was nearly two meters away. It was precisely because you did not control your hand well. You did not even realize that you were shaking when you released it. "

Yu Qiutang explained to Yu Xiaowei patiently.

After the previous setbacks, Yu Xiaowei's learning attitude was much more correct. He learned very quickly, and after more than ten minutes of adjustment, he was able to basically stabilize the slingshot posture.

"Well, this is the first step. Developing a good habit will prepare you to hit the target every time in the future. Don't learn other people's wild ways, or you will not be able to correct them in the end. You say everyone can use a slingshot, and there are people who can often hit the target, right?

But that's not the real strength. A truly strong person, even if he can't hit the target every time, is basically sure of success. OK, hold on, aim..."

Yu Qiutang also pulled the slingshot and took aim with Yu Xiaowei. With a shout of "shoot", two stones were shot out almost at the same time. It was visible to the naked eye that Yu Xiaowei's parabola was higher. After flying for a distance, it gradually separated from Yu Qiutang's stone.

"Snapped!"

The squirrel in the distance fell down from the tree in response.

Naturally, it was hit by Yu Qiutang, while Yu Xiaowei's stone floated farther away, more than one meter away from the branch where the squirrel was.

Yu Xiaowei also saw the gap between himself and Yu Qiutang, and felt a little discouraged, but Yu Qiutang gently rubbed his head and said, "You hit well, your aim is very good, but the strength is the key."

Yu Xiaowei felt better after hearing his uncle's gentle words. He looked at his slingshot and asked, "How do I control the force? How do I know how much force is just enough?"

"This requires practice," Yu Qiutang took out another stone and pulled the slingshot. "Do you see that birch tree about seven or eight meters away? There is a woodpecker's nest on it. I want to hit the stone right into the nest."

As he spoke, Yu Qiutang adjusted the direction of the slingshot and let go. The stone really flew towards the birch tree and flew right into the tree hole.

"We are all different people, and our strengths are different, so there is no fixed way to determine the strength. You can only rely on your feeling. You need to be familiar with the relationship between your strength and the pulling force of the slingshot, and slowly develop a muscle feeling. You don't have to think about how long the string should be for how far the distance is. You can do it casually."

"Look, I'm going to hit that thin tree next to me..."

"That acorn hanging down there..."

"The wild gourd that is entangled in the middle of the tree..."

Yu Qiutang pulled the slingshot several times in succession at an extremely fast speed, and every bullet hit the target accurately every time.

Yu Xiaowei was stunned by what he saw.

I thought my uncle was powerful, but I didn't expect him to be so powerful.

"Don't be anxious. You can practice slowly when you go back. You can see from the picture book that those martial arts masters have to practice repeatedly and put in a lot of effort to achieve some advanced skills.

However, many skills are interlinked, and you learn to use strength, not just with slingshots, but other tools in the future, and you will definitely be able to use them less often,” Yu Qiutang said, walking towards where the squirrel had landed.

Now that we're already in the oak forest, it would be a waste not to catch a few squirrels.

(End of this chapter)