Lasting Ailment

"Where am I?"

When Lao Zhao woke up and saw the people around him, he asked in confusion.

"Lao Zhao, have you forgotten? You fell into the water and nearly drowned! We were the ones who saved you!"

"Yeah, when we heard you shouting and rushed over, you were already about to sink beneath the water!"

"If Old Doctor Chen hadn't been so skilled, you'd be seeing your old man in the afterlife by now!"

"How did you fall into the water? Did a fish drag you in?"

Amid the villagers' barrage of voices, Lao Zhao finally recalled some of what had happened earlier.

Then he jolted. "Right, the fish! Where's my fishing rod?"

"You're still thinking about that fishing rod? When we pulled you up, you were clutching it for dear life. It was too much trouble, so we threw it on the riverbank," one villager replied.

"Oh, how could you throw away my rod? Where did you throw it?" Lao Zhao grew anxious.

That villager immediately became unhappy. "What kind of talk is that, Lao Zhao? We kindly saved you, and not only have you not thanked us, you're blaming us instead?"

"Exactly! If we'd known, we should've left you there to drown!"

"Ungrateful wretch! We went into the river to save you and spent so much effort carrying you all the way to Old Doctor Chen's place!"

The other villagers were dissatisfied as well.

"This, this... wasn't I just upset about my fishing rod? It took me so much effort to make it. Please don't take offense. Thank you for saving me."

Realizing he was in the wrong, Lao Zhao hurriedly thanked them.

The villagers were all soft-hearted beneath their hard words. Seeing Lao Zhao apologize, their expressions eased somewhat.

"Enough, stop fretting over that broken rod of yours. Hurry up and tell us—how did you fall into the water? I remember you never used to go into the river."

"I... I jumped in myself." Lao Zhao's lips moved a few times before he finally admitted it honestly.

"You jumped in yourself?!" A villager could hardly believe it. "Didn't you know you can't swim? How did you dare jump into the river?"

"How was I supposed to know the water there was so deep? I thought it would only come up to my thighs at most," Lao Zhao argued.

"Then why did you jump into the river?"

"It was, it was..." Lao Zhao hesitated for a moment before saying, "I accidentally let a fish drag off my fishing rod. In a burst of hot-headedness, I wanted to snatch it back, so I jumped straight into the water."

Lu Qing, standing not far away: "..."

Just as expected.

When Wang Da'an had told the story earlier, he had already guessed that Lao Zhao had fallen into the water trying to retrieve his fishing rod.

He had seen plenty of such things in his previous life.

Even he himself had done something like that before.

He simply had not expected Lao Zhao to be so reckless despite not even knowing how to swim.

"You... you muddleheaded fool!"

The other villagers had never expected that Lao Zhao had nearly gotten himself killed for such a reason.

"What could that broken fishing rod of yours possibly be worth? Just cut a piece of bamboo from the mountain and make another one! You nearly threw your life away over that—did a pig root through your brain or something?!"

A villager who was on particularly good terms with Lao Zhao immediately started scolding him.

Lao Zhao did not dare say another word.

He especially did not dare say that he had not jumped in merely because he regretted losing the rod. More than that, it was because a big fish had finally taken the bait—one powerful enough to drag away his fishing rod with ease. He simply could not bear to let it go.

The two big fish Lu Qing had caught yesterday had made him green with envy.

Such huge fish could feed them for so many meals. Now that he had finally gotten a chance to catch a big fish himself, how could he possibly let it slip away?

Still, this incident had confirmed for him that there really were big fish in that spot.

As long as he was more careful next time, he would definitely be able to catch one! The villagers did not know what Lao Zhao was thinking, or they would surely have given him another fierce scolding.

At that moment, Lao Zhao tried to sit up, only to discover that his entire body was limp and weak, without a shred of strength. His head was muddled as well, and he could barely command his body to move.

He was instantly terrified. "Old Doctor, what's wrong with me? Why can't I move?"

Old Doctor Chen sighed. "You were soaked in the water for too long. Cold seeped into your body, and you swallowed a great deal of filthy river water, injuring your spleen and internal organs. You were even holding your breath for a long time. Although I expelled the dirty water from your body and woke you up, your body has already suffered damage."

"Then what should I do, Old Doctor? Please save me, save me!"

The moment Lao Zhao heard this, his heart and courage both trembled. He hurriedly begged.

The thought of catching big fish had long since been flung to who knew where.

"Calm yourself. I am a doctor; naturally, I will treat you," the Old Doctor reassured him. "But you are already getting on in years, and recovery will not come so easily. You must rest and recuperate quietly for a while."

"Will I be able to walk again in the future?" Lao Zhao asked hopefully.

"Walking will naturally not be a problem. As for how much you recover, that will depend on how well you rest and recuperate," the Old Doctor said.

"As long as I can still walk, that's enough." Lao Zhao relaxed somewhat.

He had truly been afraid that he would be crippled for the rest of his life.

"Where's my father? Where is my father?"

Just as Lao Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, another burst of noisy commotion suddenly rose from outside the courtyard. Immediately afterward, a group of people rushed in.

At the front were two young men, a woman, and an elderly woman.

Behind them were other villagers who had rushed over after hearing the news.

"Father!"

The older of the two young men saw Lao Zhao lying there and hurriedly ran over.

"Da Shan came to tell us that you'd fallen into the water and were being brought to Old Doctor Chen's place. What exactly happened?"

It turned out that when Wang Da'an and the others brought Lao Zhao over, they had also sent someone to Lao Zhao's home to notify his family.

"I... I'm fine now."

Looking at his son, Lao Zhao said guiltily.

"What do you mean, fine?" A villager beside him exposed him outright. "A Ming, your father went fishing alone, jumped into the river himself, and nearly died..."

He then recounted the matter from beginning to end, without leaving out a single detail.

As soon as he finished, the elderly woman—Lao Zhao's wife—began crying and cursing.

"You damned fool! I told you not to go fishing for whatever fish it was, but you insisted on going! You can't even swim, so what were you doing by the river? You even jumped into it yourself! Are you trying to die and make me follow you into the grave?!"

Lao Zhao's son, Zhao Ming, did not look very happy either.

But as a son, he could not exactly scold his father.

All he could do was persuade him. "Father, how about we stop fishing from now on? Our family isn't lacking that bite of fish to eat. Why insist on it?"

His second son added, "That's right, Father. Whatever you want to eat from now on, just tell us. No matter how much trouble it takes, I'll bring it back for you. Don't do anything this dangerous again."

"I won't go anymore. I won't ever go again."

Lao Zhao's face flushed scarlet from his wife and sons' words, and he could only agree.

"Don't worry, A Ming. Even if your father wants to go fishing again, he won't be able to." At that moment, another villager said, "Old Doctor Chen said your father was badly soaked this time and has been left with a lasting ailment. If he doesn't rest and recuperate properly during this period, he may have difficulty even walking in the future."

"What?!"

Lao Zhao's family was instantly horrified.