Chapter 13 – 13 A Familiar Scene
Chapter 13: Chapter 13 A Familiar Scene
The elder doctor had gone into the house, and soon came out again, holding a small box in his hand.
“Take this with you,” the elder doctor handed the box to Lu Qing.
“What is this?”
Lu Qing opened the box, only to find inside a small bundle of nearly transparent white thread.
“This thread,” the elder doctor said, “was given to me years ago when I was traveling abroad. I saved an injured swordsman, and it’s what he gave to me in gratitude.”
“I don’t know exactly what it is, only that this thread is exceptionally strong and not easily broken. It should meet your needs for making a fishing line.”
“Grandpa Chen, this is too precious, I can’t accept it,” Lu Qing said, quickly pushing the object back when he heard this.
Gifts given in gratitude for a saved life were bound to be out of the ordinary, and Lu Qing didn’t dare take it lightly.
However, hearing the word “swordsman” did stir something in him.
This world indeed had such extraordinary figures.
Elder Doctor Chen did not take it back.
He waved his hand and said, “Just keep it. It’s of no use to me. It has been in my possession for more than ten years; I’ve never had a use for it. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would’ve even forgotten I had such a thing.”
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“Since you need a strong thread to make a fishing line, you might as well use it. That way, it serves its purpose, instead of gathering dust at my place.”
“If you feel unworthy of it, just bring me some of the good catch you make someday. That little fish yesterday had a fine flavor, suitable to accompany a drink.”
Holding the box, Lu Qing felt both grateful and ashamed.
The elder doctor had treated him and his sister so well, and yet he had been thinking about stealthily learning the physician’s cultivation technique, which was truly shameful.
Looking at the box in his hands, Lu Qing silently made a decision.
In the days to come, unless Elder Doctor Chen took the initiative to teach him,
he would absolutely not try to emulate the elder doctor’s cultivation technique again.
“Don’t worry, Grandpa Chen, if I catch anything good in the future, I will definitely bring it to you first thing!” Lu Qing said earnestly, gripping the small box tightly.
The elder doctor broke into a hearty laugh, “Haha, then I’ll look forward to it!”
Exiting the elder doctor’s home, Lu Qing’s heart was racing with excitement.
Today’s gains had been immense.
Not only had he earned the elder doctor’s favor and received treatment, but he had also landed an opportunity to be taught how to identify medicinal herbs.
And on top of that, he had acquired a box of mysterious thread.
Intuition told Lu Qing that the thread Elder Doctor Chen had given him was no ordinary item.
However, in front of the elder doctor earlier, it wouldn’t have been good to keep staring at the thread, else he would have tried using his superpower to discover its secrets.
Descending the mountain with Little Yan and returning to the village, Lu Qing saw several villagers carrying bamboo poles and buckets, chatting and laughing as they came back from the village entrance.
Upon seeing Lu Qing, they started shouting from afar, “Lu Qing!”
“Uncle Shi, have you just come back from fishing?” Lu Qing inquired, noticing the poles on the shoulders of the villagers.
“Yes,” said the villager Lu Qing called Uncle Shi, speaking with some excitement, “Didn’t we listen to your advice yesterday about using earthworms for fishing? Early this morning, Dashan and I dug up some earthworms and tried them out by the river. Your method really works! Just look at our catch for today!”
With that, he showed Lu Qing the bucket he was carrying.
Lu Qing saw that the bucket did contain quite a few fish, around one or two pounds’ worth.
Some were even bigger than the ones he had caught yesterday.
After looking at the buckets of several other villagers, he saw that each of them had a decent catch, the smallest amount being half a pound of fish.
One villager was particularly lucky, having caught a fish that weighed over a pound.
But the villager was also annoyed, “I had hooked an even bigger one before, but the fish was so strong that it snapped my hemp line, and I couldn’t even find the hook anymore!”
“I told you not to pull so hard, to ease it a bit, but you had to arm wrestle with it. It’s no wonder the line broke!” another villager criticized.
“How could I have known that the fish would be so strong? I’m sure it was at least five pounds!”
“Come on, at most it was two pounds. If it were five pounds, you wouldn’t have been able to hold on to it from the start!”
“It was definitely five pounds!”
…
Listening to the villagers argue about the size of the big fish they failed to land, Lu Qing couldn’t help but chuckle.
He was all too familiar with this scene.
In his previous life when he went fishing with his buddies, it was exactly like this.
Whenever someone’s line was cut, no matter how it happened, they would definitely exaggerate the size of the fish.
Anything less than ten pounds was an insult to their fishing skills!
He hadn’t expected that, even after being reborn in the Otherworld, he would still witness this scene.
Sure enough, no matter which world, the nature of fishermen is so similar.
Lu Qing’s laughter made Uncle Shi and the others feel a little embarrassed.
Especially with Little Yan staring wide-eyed at their argument, it made them feel even more ashamed.
For a group of adults to argue like this in front of two children was really detrimental to the elders’ dignity.
“Lu Qing, where have you both come back from?”
In order to relieve the awkwardness, Uncle Shi could only change the subject.
“We’ve just come back from Grandpa Chen’s place,” Lu Qing replied.
Uncle Shi nodded, “Old Doctor Chen, yes, it makes sense. He cured your illness; it’s only right to visit and express your gratitude.”
He had mistakenly assumed Lu Qing had gone to thank the elder doctor.
“Yes, without Grandpa Chen, I probably wouldn’t be able to stand here right now,” Lu Qing didn’t deny it.
“By the way, Lu Qing, the fishing techniques we’re using were provided by you. You should pick out a few fish to take home and eat,” Uncle Shi said.
“Yeah, if it weren’t for your techniques, we wouldn’t have known that earthworms could be used for fishing!”
“Pick from mine, pick from mine, my fish are bigger!”
“Bullshit, are your fish as big as mine? The biggest fish were caught by me, choose mine!”
The other villagers also chimed in one after another.
“Uncles, there’s no need, I still haven’t finished eating the fish I caught yesterday,” Lu Qing politely declined.
“If you can’t finish them, eat more. You and Little Yan are both so thin, fish is nutritious, you should eat more fish!”
In the end, Lu Qing couldn’t resist the villagers’ pressure and symbolically picked a few fish from each villager’s bucket, threading a grass stem through them.
Like that, he also ended up with a good half a pound of fish.
“Take some more!” Uncle Shi kept persuading.
“I really can’t take any more, if I do, I won’t have enough oil and salt to cook them at home.”
This time, Lu Qing resolutely refused to take anymore.
Hearing this, Uncle Shi and the rest finally stopped urging him.
Indeed, if you don’t have oil and salt to cook fish, you can’t get rid of the fishy smell, and it’s really not that tasty.
And so, carrying a string of fish and with Little Yan by his side, Lu Qing bid farewell to Uncle Shi and the others before heading back to his own small courtyard.
Once home, he first placed the fish in the kitchen.
Then, he took out the small box that Elder Chen had given him.
Opening the box, he quietly looked at the silk thread inside.