The Ability

"Hey, don't run!"

In the small courtyard enclosed by a simple wooden fence, Xiao Yan was running after a butterfly on her little stubby legs.

Lu Qing sat on a stone stool, holding a plant with tiny red flowers and studying it.

At that moment, in his field of vision, the plant with red flowers gave off a faint white glow, and two lines of text appeared above it.

Cow Bone Grass: Average quality, medicinal.
It seemed quite effective for bone injuries and might be useful when someone was hurt.

After spending some time on it, Lu Qing had more or less figured out what the words before his eyes meant.

Simply put, perhaps because he had transmigrated, he possessed an ability.

At present, the main manifestation of this ability was that as long as he focused his gaze on an object, after a certain amount of time, the object would emit a glow and display a simple written description.

Moreover, the longer he kept looking, the more information he could obtain. But that information was not limitless; it seemed to follow some kind of standard.

For now, Lu Qing guessed that this standard was related to the glow appearing on the object.

Items with a gray glow would only ever have one line of description, no matter how long he looked at them.

Items with a white glow, on the other hand, had two or more lines of description.

And this Cow Bone Grass in Lu Qing's hand was the only plant he had found around the courtyard that gave off a white glow.

What was this, some kind of game interface? Lu Qing thought of certain map-exploration games he had occasionally played in his previous life.

After thinking for a moment, he beckoned. "Xiao Yan, come here for a moment."

"What is it, Brother?"

The little girl scampered over.

"Let Brother have a look at you."

Lu Qing helped remove a piece of dried grass stuck in the little girl's hair, then let his gaze settle on her face.

After a while, a faint white glow appeared around Xiao Yan, and a line of text emerged above her.

Lu Xiaoyan: A human hatchling, female.

What kind of lousy description was that?!

Several black lines appeared across Lu Qing's forehead.

But he continued looking.

After another while, a second line appeared.

A pitiful human hatchling. She seemed to be slightly malnourished.

Lu Qing froze. Looking at the little girl's dry, yellowish hair, he fell silent.

"Brother, are you done looking?"

Xiao Yan tilted up her head and asked with an innocent expression.

"Mm, I'm done. When Xiao Yan grows up, she'll definitely be a great beauty."

Lu Qing rubbed the little girl's hair, his heart filled with tenderness.

Xiao Yan cocked her head. "What's a great beauty?"

"Haha, you'll know when you grow up."

Hearing the child's innocent words, Lu Qing's mood brightened considerably as well.

No matter what the future held, the most important thing right now was to take good care of this little girl who depended on him for survival.

That was also the greatest lingering obsession left behind by the original owner before his death.

And if he wanted to live well in this unfamiliar world, he would have to rely on this ability he had inexplicably acquired.

With that thought, Lu Qing picked up the Cow Bone Grass and held it before Xiao Yan.

"Xiao Yan, do you know what kind of grass this is, or what it's used for?"

Xiao Yan looked at the plant with blue flowers, furrowed her tiny brows, and thought hard for a while before shaking her head.

"I don't know, but Grandpa Zhang's Big Ox seems to really like eating this kind of grass."

Seeing that Xiao Yan did not know, Lu Qing laughed at himself. He had been muddleheaded.

Even the original owner's memories contained no information about Cow Bone Grass, yet he had actually expected a child of only a few years old to know.

But Xiao Yan's next words made him pause.

"Brother, if you want to know what kind of grass it is, you can ask Grandpa Chen. Grandpa Chen likes flowers and grasses best, and he also likes boiling them into bitter water for us to drink."

As she said that, Xiao Yan seemed to recall something, and her entire little face scrunched up.

Grandpa Chen? Lu Qing searched through his memories, and soon the image of a kind-faced, lean old man surfaced in his mind.

Oh, that was the old doctor revered by the villagers.

A doctor?

Lu Qing's heart stirred.

According to the description, Cow Bone Grass was undoubtedly a medicinal herb. He wondered whether Old Doctor Chen knew how to use it.

"Xiao Yan, did Grandpa Chen come by when Brother was sick?"

"He did. Brother kept sleeping then, and no matter how Xiao Yan called you, you wouldn't wake up. I was scared, so I kept crying. Then Grandpa Chen came. After he examined Brother, he said you were ill. It seemed like he said it was some kind of Wind-Cold. He boiled bitter medicine for Brother, and after you drank it, you woke up the next day."

As Xiao Yan spoke, she suddenly exclaimed in amazement, "Grandpa Chen is amazing! Brother only drank one bowl of bitter water, and your illness was cured!"

Lu Qing fell silent.

Only he knew that the medicine Old Doctor Chen had prescribed had not saved that youth's life.

But now he remembered that while his consciousness had been muddled, he had indeed vaguely felt someone pouring something into him. It had given a trace of warmth to his chilled body, protecting his heart and allowing him to endure that difficult period of merging consciousness.

Otherwise, with this frail body of his, whether he could have awakened smoothly was far from certain.

So it seemed this Old Doctor Chen truly had real skill. He had shown Lu Qing kindness.

As Lu Qing pondered this, he suddenly felt someone's gaze. Looking down, he saw Xiao Yan staring at him.

"What is it, Xiao Yan?"

"Brother, Xiao Yan is hungry."

Lu Qing felt hungry too.

He had not been full to begin with, and the half a steamed bun he had eaten earlier had long since been digested.

But he had checked before—there was not a scrap of food left in the house.

The rice jar was so clean that even rats would not bother visiting. If Grandpa Zhang next door had not helped them out, Xiao Yan would probably have starved badly during the two days Lu Qing had been unconscious.

Only then did Lu Qing remember that he ought to thank Grandpa Zhang and Old Doctor Chen. Without their care, the two siblings might not even have survived.

But the house was truly too poor now—bare walls on all sides, nothing inside. They could not even afford a small gift of thanks.

He should first find a way to fill their stomachs. Gratitude could wait until later.

But where could he find food? Most of the family's farmland had been sold by the original owner to bury his parents.

The little that remained had been neglected and yielded almost nothing.

So digging about in the fields for food was hopeless for the time being.

Distant water could not put out a nearby fire. Even if he planted something now, it would be too late. Before the crops could grow, the siblings would starve to death.

After thinking for a while, Lu Qing entered the room where the original owner's parents had lived. He searched for some time, then finally found an iron needle and a little hemp thread in a small box.

The iron needle was much thicker than embroidery needles from his previous life and looked quite sturdy.

Lu Qing took out the needle, heated it over the fire a few times, then pressed it with wooden chopsticks and bent it into a hook. Next, he took out several strands of hemp thread and carefully twisted them into a slightly thicker, tough cord, then tightly tied it to the iron hook.

After that, he cut a stalk of resilient bamboo from the bamboo grove behind the house and tied the other end of the hemp cord to it.

Finally, he tied a piece of dry wood to the line some distance above the hook to serve as a float.

And just like that, Lu Qing made a simple fishing rod.