A Familiar Scene

The Old Doctor went inside, then soon came back out.

He had a small box in his hand.

"Take this."

The Old Doctor handed the box to Lu Qing.

"What is this?"

Lu Qing opened the box and saw a small bundle of nearly transparent white threads inside.

"These threads were given to me years ago by a wounded wandering swordsman whose life I saved while traveling."

"I do not know exactly what they are, only that they are exceptionally tough and cannot be snapped easily. They should suit your needs for fishing line."

"Grandpa Chen, this is too precious. I cannot accept it." Upon hearing that, Lu Qing hurriedly tried to push it back.

Something given in repayment for saving a life was surely no ordinary item. Lu Qing truly did not dare accept it so casually.

Still, hearing the words "wandering swordsman" stirred something in his heart.

So this world really did have people beyond the ordinary.

Old Doctor Chen did not take it back.

He waved his hand. "Just take it. This thing is useless to me. It has been with me for over ten years, and I have never found a use for it. If you had not mentioned it, I would have forgotten I even had such a thing."

"Since you need tough thread for fishing line, you might as well use it for that. At least it will be put to proper use, instead of gathering dust here with me."

"If you truly feel unworthy of it, then when you catch something good someday, just bring me a portion. Those little fish yesterday were quite fresh and would go well with wine."

Holding the box, Lu Qing felt both grateful and ashamed.

The Old Doctor had treated him and his sister so well, yet earlier he had even considered secretly learning the man's cultivation technique. It truly was shameful.

Looking at the box in his hand, Lu Qing silently made a decision.

From now on, unless Old Doctor Chen taught him voluntarily,

he would never again try to imitate the Old Doctor's cultivation technique.

"Do not worry, Grandpa Chen. From now on, whenever I catch something good, I will bring it to you first thing!"

Lu Qing gripped the little box tightly and spoke earnestly.

The Old Doctor laughed heartily. "Haha, then I shall look forward to it!"

When Lu Qing came out of the Old Doctor's home, his heart brimmed with excitement.

Today's gains had simply been enormous.

Not only had he earned Old Doctor Chen's goodwill and had his body treated, he had also gained the chance to learn how to identify medicinal herbs from him.

He had even received a box of mysterious thread.

Lu Qing's intuition told him that the box of thread the Old Doctor had given him was no ordinary thing.

But at the Old Doctor's house earlier, he could not keep staring at it. Otherwise, he could have used his ability to investigate it.

When he came down the mountain with Xiao Yan and returned to the village, Lu Qing happened to see several villagers coming back from the village entrance, carrying bamboo rods on their shoulders and buckets in their hands as they chatted and laughed.

The moment they saw Lu Qing, they called out from afar, "Lu Qing!"

"Uncle Shi, did you just get back from fishing?"

Seeing the rods on the villagers' shoulders, Lu Qing asked.

"Yes." The villager Lu Qing called Uncle Shi said excitedly, "Didn't we hear about that method you mentioned yesterday, using earthworms to catch fish? Early this morning, Da Shan and the others and I dug up some earthworms and went to the river to give it a try. And would you believe it, Lu Qing? Your method really works. Look at what we caught today!"

As he spoke, he held out the bucket in his hand for Lu Qing to see.

Lu Qing looked inside. There were quite a few fish in it, around one or two jin in total.

Several were even bigger than the ones he had caught yesterday.

He looked into the other villagers' buckets as well. Sure enough, every one of them had caught something. Even the smallest haul contained half a jin of little fish.

One villager had been especially lucky and caught a big fish weighing over a jin.

But that villager complained ruefully, "I originally caught an even bigger one, but that fish was too strong. It snapped my hemp line in an instant, and I could not even get the hook back!"

"I told you not to pull so hard! You should have let it tire itself out a little, but you insisted on wrestling it with brute strength. Of course the line snapped!" another villager scolded.

"How was I supposed to know a fish could be that strong? I reckon that fish must have weighed more than five jin!"

"Oh, give it a rest. At most, it was two jin. If it had weighed five, you would not have been able to hold it even on the first pull!"

"It was definitely five jin!"

Listening to the villagers argue over how large that escaped fish had been, Lu Qing could not help laughing.

This scene was far too familiar to him.

In his past life, whenever he went fishing with his fishing buddies, it had been exactly the same.

Whenever someone got their line cut, no matter how it happened, they would absolutely exaggerate the size of the fish.

Anything under ten jin was an insult to their fishing skills!

He had not expected that even after being reborn in another world, he would still see this scene.

Sure enough, no matter what world they were in, anglers all had the same temperament.

Lu Qing's laughter made Uncle Shi and the others feel a little embarrassed.

Especially when they saw Xiao Yan staring wide-eyed at them as they argued, they felt even more ashamed.

A group of grown men bickering like this in front of two children truly damaged the dignity of their elders.

"Lu Qing, where have you two been?"

To ease the awkwardness, Uncle Shi could only change the subject.

Lu Qing replied, "Xiao Yan and I just came back from Grandpa Chen's place."

Uncle Shi nodded. "Old Doctor Chen? That makes sense. He cured your illness, so you ought to pay him a visit and thank him."

He had mistakenly assumed that Lu Qing had gone to thank the Old Doctor.

"Yes. If not for Grandpa Chen, I probably would not even be standing here." Lu Qing did not deny it.

"By the way, Lu Qing, you were the one who told us how to fish. Pick a few fish from here and take them home to eat," Uncle Shi said.

"Indeed! If it were not for your method, we would never have known earthworms could be used to catch fish!"

"Pick from mine, pick from mine! My fish are bigger!"

"Bullshit. Are yours bigger than mine? I caught the biggest fish, so pick from mine!"

The other villagers all chimed in as well.

"Uncles, there is no need. I have not even finished the fish I caught yesterday." Lu Qing declined.

"If you cannot finish them, then eat more! Look how thin you and Xiao Yan are. Fish are nutritious, so you should eat more of them!"

In the end, Lu Qing could not refuse the villagers. Symbolically, he picked a few fish from each villager's bucket and strung them together on a blade of grass pulled from the roadside.

Even so, he ended up with more than half a jin of fish.

"Take some more!" Uncle Shi still urged.

"I truly cannot take any more. If I do, there will not be enough oil and salt at home to cook all this fish."

This time, no matter what Uncle Shi said, Lu Qing refused to take any more.

When Uncle Shi and the others heard that, they finally stopped urging him.

Indeed, without oil and salt, it was difficult to suppress the fishy smell when cooking fish, and it truly would not taste very good.

And so, carrying his string of fish, Lu Qing bid Uncle Shi and the others farewell and returned to his little courtyard with Xiao Yan.

After getting home, he first put the fish in the kitchen.

Then he took out the little box Old Doctor Chen had given him.

He opened it and quietly looked at the threads inside.