Chopping Entry, Saving a Life

The three of them ate their fill at lunch.

They hadn't eaten meat in a long time.

The two younger children had grown tired during the morning, so Lu Chen sent them off for a nap while he took a woodcutting knife into the courtyard to chop firewood.

He figured that since he had obtained the Throwing Entry by tossing stones, perhaps he could obtain Swordsmanship by chopping wood.

There wasn't much firewood at home, and even after he had chopped it all, he still hadn't heard a notification.

"Could my form be wrong?"

Lu Chen thought it over, then took the woodcutting knife to a small hill on Back Mountain and found a bamboo grove. After searching for a while, he found a straight stalk of blue-black bamboo about as thick as an egg and chopped it down in a few strokes.

He planned to make a Bamboo Spear from the five- or six-year-old stalk and see whether he could obtain a Spear Technique Trait.

He would also try out the Chopping skill while he was at it.

He found a few more large trees, cut off their side branches, and bound them together with vines.

After chopping down quite a few side branches, Lu Chen was about ready to give up. Instead, he found a nearly dead tree as thick as his arm and hacked at it more than twenty times before bringing it down.

Only then did the long-awaited notification sound.

[Host's Chopping skill detected. Trait generated.]

[Chopping (Beginner)]

His eyes lit up at once.

It looks like I have to reach a certain stage first. I succeeded after throwing just a few stones before, maybe because I got a result and hit a bird, so the Trait was generated quickly. Was the Trait generated this time because I chopped so much wood?

Lu Chen didn't dwell on it. He cut the felled tree into several sections and dragged them down the mountain in several trips. Then he carried the side branches down on his back and stacked them in a corner of the courtyard.

Lu Chen trimmed the bamboo to a little over a person's height, just over two meters long, then cut its tip at an angle to form a sharp point.

He carefully scraped the bamboo's nodes flat with the woodcutting knife, making sure there were no splinters and smoothing them down. Then he put the bamboo in a cool place indoors, intending to heat it over a fire that evening and straighten it a little.

By the time he finished, Lu Ming and Lu Tang were awake.

"Big brother, did you chop all this wood?"

Lu Tang spotted the firewood in the courtyard at once.

"Yes. Didn't I tell you? My body's better now. I had nothing to do this afternoon, so I went up the mountain and chopped a little."

One look at Lu Tang's expression told Lu Chen she was worried about his health again.

But his Trait had previously been changed to minor injuries, and now that a day had passed, he felt that it didn't actually hurt as much.

Perhaps, as far as the system was concerned, minor injuries were just flesh wounds that would heal in a few days.

Maybe in a few more days, his minor injuries would change to fully healed.

"Oh, right. If you two have nothing to do this afternoon, help me pick up some stones about this big."

Lu Chen took out a pebble the size of a plum.

"Brother, what do you need stones for? There are lots of stones by Xiao He. I'll go find some for you!"

Lu Ming spoke up.

"I'll go too!"

After sending the two of them off, Lu Chen raised his woodcutting knife and chopped all the damp firewood by the wall, then stacked it up.

When he was done, he opened the Trait panel.

[Beginner Chopping (2%)]

"Two percent already. Just as I thought, I can improve my progress through practice too!"

A smile curled at the corner of Lu Chen's mouth.

He took a look at the Trait’s effect.

[Reduces resistance when chopping objects, allowing them to be split more smoothly. Increases Chopping Efficiency by 10%.]

He was a little surprised.

That was for chopping wood.

What if he chopped something else?

Let's not talk about it. That's too bloody.

"Big brother, come help me! It's too heavy!"

Lu Tang shouted from the doorway.

Her face was covered in sweat, and she was panting as she strained to lift a bag with both hands.

Lu Chen hurried to his feet and took the bag from her.

"We picked up so, so many stones. Second brother is still picking them up on the riverbank. There were a lot more, but I couldn't carry them."

Lu Tang caught her breath.

"Thank you, Little Tang. You're amazing!" Lu Chen praised her.

Lu Tang's eyes immediately curved into a smile. "Hee-hee, you're amazing too, big brother!"

"Rest at home for a bit. I'll go find Little Ming."

When he reached the river, he found several children playing on the bank besides Lu Ming. One child was swimming in the river, showing off his swimming strokes to the children on the bank and calling for them to come in, saying the water felt nice.

Lu Chen went over to Lu Ming and glanced at the pile of stones beside him. They were all the size of plums; it looked as though he had searched for them along the way.

"Brother, are these all right?" Lu Ming looked at Lu Chen, his eyes shining.

He was happy to be able to help his big brother.

"They're good!" Lu Chen smiled and said quietly to Lu Ming, "Do you want to learn how to throw stones from me? The kind that can hit birds!"

Lu Ming's eyes instantly shone like light bulbs as he looked at Lu Chen. "Yes! Brother, teach me! I want to learn!"

"All right, when we get back..."

Before Lu Chen could finish, the children by the river suddenly cried out in alarm.

Lu Chen turned to look. Something seemed to have happened to the child in the river. He was slapping the water with both hands in terror, shouting for help.

Lu Chen's expression changed. He looked around but couldn't find a long stick.

The child in the river was already about to sink.

The children on the bank were all terrified, and one timid child had even burst into tears.

"Quick, go get my uncle!"

"Chengzong, hold on! We'll go get someone!"

"Brother, somebody come quick! Help!"

The children all started shouting.

Lu Chen had no time to think it over and opened the panel.

"System, modify the [Weak Constitution] Trait."

As he spoke silently in his mind, he quickly stripped off his clothes and shoes and rushed toward the river.

Soon, the Weak Constitution Trait changed to [Ordinary Constitution]. He could feel a warm current rapidly circulating through his whole body, which seemed to fill with Qi and Blood, making him stronger.

Lu Ming's face was full of worry.

"Brother, don't! Your injuries haven't healed yet!"

He tried to grab Lu Chen but missed. He could only watch helplessly as Lu Chen charged into the water and quickly swam toward the child, who had swallowed his fill of water and was slowly sinking.

Lu Chen swam behind the child and caught his breath.

Luckily, his [Weak Constitution] status had been changed to [Ordinary Constitution]; otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to save the child now.

He was a successor, after all. He had worn a red scarf for six years and taken the oath twice; his heart was still red.

Besides, he wasn't acting on a hotheaded impulse. He had considered it and knew he was capable of saving the child and protecting himself. Faced with a situation like this, he naturally couldn't stand by and watch someone die.

Lu Chen wrapped his arms around the child from behind and quickly swam toward the bank.

An adult was already running over, with a child following behind him.

"Where is he?" he roared, his voice full of anxiety.

Lu Chen slowly approached the bank. The child in his arms was coughing nonstop, his face pale and his whole body trembling.

The children on the bank watched happily as Lu Chen and the child climbed ashore.

He had been saved!

Only Lu Ming looked worried and frightened.

"Brother, are you all right?"

He grabbed Lu Chen, looking close to tears.

Lu Chen wiped his face and patted Lu Ming on the shoulder. "I'm fine! Give me my clothes."

The adult who had been summoned saw that the child had already been rescued and didn't seem seriously hurt, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to give thanks when he saw Lu Chen and froze.

"Little Chen? Weren't you injured? Why did you go into the water to save this little brat?"

He hurriedly pulled Lu Chen over, wanting to check whether he was all right.

"Uncle Huaiyi, I'm fine. Let me put my clothes on."

"Oh, right, right! Don't catch a chill!"

Lu Huaiyi shot his son a fierce glare, then helped Lu Chen put on his clothes.

"Little Chen, thank you so much for what you did today. If it weren't for you, this little beast would probably be a water ghost by now!"

At that, he shot Lu Chengzong another angry look. Still a little furious, he went ahead and slapped him.

Lu Chengzong was his son, and also the child who had gone into the river and nearly drowned.

He was sitting on the ground, at a loss and shivering. When the slap suddenly landed, he burst into tears with a wail.

He was all right.

But he would be in big trouble soon!

Lu Huaiyi told the other children to take Lu Chengzong home, while he wanted to accompany Lu Chen and Lu Ming back.

"Uncle Huaiyi, I'm really fine. We're all family, so you don't need to come with me. Go check on Chengzong first. He looks terribly frightened, and he's still young. Don't let anything go wrong!"

Lu Huaiyi could only thank Lu Chen again and again before leaving.

Lu Chen had Lu Ming bring the stones he had picked up, and they hurried home.

He had already heard the system notification.

"Host detected to have changed the trajectory of Lu Chengzong's fate. Fate value gained: 30 points."

Lu Chen was a little excited.

He had just thought of a way to obtain fate value.

If changing fate could earn him fate value, what about studying?

As the saying went, studying changes one's fate.

There were quite a few children in the village now, and many were like the child who had nearly drowned just now: they either helped their families with work or played. What if they spent that time attending lessons?

If he taught them to read and write and do arithmetic, could that change their fate?

The village had once had a private school, but its teacher, Master Teng Chuan, a Xiucai, had grown old and even had trouble speaking. The village hadn't had a private school for several years now.

So none of the village's eight- and nine-year-old children had ever attended school.

But the original owner of this body could read, having been taught by his mother herself.

On top of that, Lu Chen himself had graduated from a Project 211 university with a bachelor's degree. Although he had worked for several years and forgotten most of what he had learned, simple arithmetic was still no problem.

"Who in the village has the money to hire someone to teach?"

Lu Chen thought for only a moment before settling on a person.

Grandfather Lu Xiande, of the Lu Household's eldest branch.

He and Lu Chen's grandfather, Lu Zhong, were cousins. He was also the head of Qingshan Village and the patriarch of the Lu clan. His family was fairly well-off, and several of his grandsons and granddaughters were about the same age as Little Tang, old enough to begin their education.

And his son was none other than Lu Huaiyi.

Lu Chengzong was his grandson.

"Maybe there really is a chance!"

Lu Chen decided to ask him when the time came.