Chapter 28: Custom Weapons

Clara returned home around noon.

She had made a trip to Riverbend Village to return the bow and arrows to the Yang brothers.

The bow was still in good condition, but ten of the arrows had broken. Clara, keeping her word, handed them eight taels and five silver coins—ten percent of her earnings—as payment for renting the bow and arrows.

Daniel and Eli Yang were stunned. They hadn't expected her to hand over more than eight taels without hesitation.

Daniel immediately asked, curious, "Madam Clara, you must've bagged something big, huh?"

Clara didn't hide anything. "Yes, a black bear."

"You took it down yourself?" the brothers asked in unison.

Clara nodded. "Yes."

Daniel and Eli couldn't even begin to imagine the scene.

Back in the day, the two of them had once managed to bring down a tiger, but that had been sheer luck—they'd stumbled upon a fight between a leopard and a tiger. After the tiger drove the leopard off, the brothers seized the moment while the tiger was still dazed and managed to kill it, barely escaping with their lives.

They'd never had that kind of luck again.

In fact, the experience had traumatized Eli so badly that now, neither brother would go deep into the mountains alone, especially not where big predators might be lurking. They valued their lives a lot more now.

Clara then asked if they could make a custom bow for her.

Daniel, recovering from his shock, readily agreed. He knew she had great strength and asked what kind of bow she had in mind.

"Something just as smooth to use as yours, but with double the draw weight. Think that's doable?" Clara said.

The draw weight of a bow depended heavily on the materials used—too soft and it wouldn't do damage, too hard and the bow might snap. Her request sounded simple, but it was actually quite demanding.

Daniel mulled over the materials he could gather nearby and eventually said, "I'll give it a try."

Clara nodded. She didn't push it—after all, given the current level of craftsmanship, it wasn't like a divine bow would just fall from the sky.

She handed Daniel three hundred copper coins as a deposit and told him to pass word through someone to Liew Clan Village once it was ready. She'd come pick it up then.

After leaving the Yang household, Clara visited the village blacksmith to have her short knife sharpened. While there, she commissioned a long blade and a short dagger.

Alloy materials were hard to come by here, and blacksmithing techniques weren't shared. The Riverbend Village blacksmith claimed to have figured out how to make steel on his own and said he could craft a steel blade for her, but Clara didn't place too much hope in a smith who normally just made kitchen knives.

Still, she needed weapons. Without them, she couldn't even sleep soundly.

Sure, there were no zombies or mutant creatures in this world, nor were there human cannibals prowling the woods.

But there were bandits. And the local guards didn't patrol the countryside. When trouble came, ordinary folks had to rely on themselves.

Just as she was about to leave, Clara suddenly thought of something small—a slingshot.

It was compact, easy to carry, and inconspicuous. With her strength, its lethality could rival that of a bullet in certain situations.

But slingshots didn't exist in the Sheng Empire—they didn't even have rubber to make the elastic bands.

So Clara sketched out a frame and asked the blacksmith to craft it. She also commissioned fifty steel pellets, each the size of a glass marble.

As for the elastic band, she'd have to find a substitute herself.

Before heading back to Liew Clan Village, Clara made a stop at a local kiln to check on pricing. Only then did she go home.

By the end of the morning, she had just twenty-five taels of silver left in her purse.

Factoring in the house construction, the wall, and furniture costs, she was basically one step away from returning to square one.

As soon as Clara got home, the four kids dropped their stones and mud and ran to her.

"Did you change the dressing?" Clara asked while heading into the main house.

Lester Liew was lying in bed, still lamenting his bruised face. The moment he saw Clara, his whole body stiffened involuntarily.

Adam answered, "We already changed it."

Clara nodded, then turned to Lester like a routine nurse doing rounds. "How are you feeling? Any better? Did you go number one or two today? What did you eat? How much water did you drink?"

Lester frowned slightly. Was… was this her way of showing concern?

Seeing his dad dazed, Adam answered for him, "He drank a bowl of water, had half a bowl of porridge, and peed once."

Lester's face flushed red. He stammered, "I feel much better."

Clara gently peeled back a patch of herbal paste. The swelling had gone down a lot. Seemed like the village doctor's medicine was doing its job.

At this rate, Lester would be back on his feet in three or four days.

Having checked on him, Clara headed to the kitchen to make lunch.

She wasn't much of a cook and hated the hassle, so she just made a simple pot of rice and shaped six rice balls. The kids got the smaller ones, the adults the big ones, and she took the extra big one.

When Lester saw Adam bring in a fragrant white rice ball, he was once again struck by how rich the household felt.

Lunch? They're eating lunch too?

"How many meals do you eat a day?" he asked tentatively.

Adam, munching on his fist-sized rice ball, held up three fingers.

Lester was both stunned and thrilled. If this was going to be the daily meal plan, then maybe… just maybe, putting up with that fierce woman wouldn't be so bad.

He bit into his rice ball. Mm, soft rice really is the best.

After lunch, Clara headed out again.

She brought along the sewing supplies and the three bolts of cloth she had bought and went to the old Liew family compound.

The wheat had already been planted, but there were still a few empty vegetable plots. Early to mid-November was the ideal time to plant broad beans and peas. Martha Liew was in the main room sorting seeds, planning to plant them in a few days.

Inside, the rhythmic clanking of the loom echoed—Doreen and Kate were racing against time to weave cloth.

Since the imperial land distribution, most villagers split their land—half for grain, half for mulberry trees. They produced both the leaves and the silk themselves. The two sisters-in-law were fast workers; in their spare time, they could weave two bolts a year. A single bolt of silk cloth could fetch two taels of silver.

Those four taels a year often exceeded what the men could earn working the fields.

That's why in traditional "men farm, women weave" households, women held significant sway.

In one corner of the courtyard, five hens clucked about. Martha had been raising them for over two years and wouldn't slaughter them as long as they kept laying eggs.

The weather was nice today, so she had opened the coop. The hens wandered freely around the yard, and chicken droppings littered the ground.

The men weren't idle either. Lester's father and three brothers had split into pairs, scooping out manure from the latrine behind the house and carrying it to the fields to fertilize the wheat.

Everyone was used to this kind of environment by now, going about their work with unbothered expressions.

Only Clara, stepping in for the first time in a while, wrinkled her nose at the overwhelming stench of manure and chicken droppings.

Little Rosie, who had been squatting by the door playing with pebbles, was the first to spot her. She looked up and called out, "Third Auntie!"

Clara's hands were full, so she couldn't pat her head. She just smiled and asked, "Is your mom and Aunt Doreen home?"

Rosie nodded, not sure what she'd just been picking at, and pointed with her grimy little finger toward the west wing. "Mom and Aunt Doreen are weaving."

Inside the main room, Doreen heard the noise at the door and looked up from her work. She saw Clara walking in with cloth and cotton and asked in surprise, "Third daughter-in-law, what's all this?"

Martha wasn't confident enough to assume Clara was bringing her gifts—which only made the situation all the more confusing.

Clara first greeted her politely. "Mother." Then she looked toward the west wing and said, "I was hoping my two sisters-in-law could help sew a few sets of clothes. Also, where's Dad? I want to take advantage of the slack farming season to rebuild our house."

(End of chapter)