Rotten Plank

Afternoon school let out, Chen Shouyi barely managed to shake off two of his buddies' suggestions to hit an internet cafe, and pedaled home alone on his bike.

"Dad, Mom, I'm back."

It was still early for dinner, not yet the busiest time, and there wasn't a single customer in the restaurant. Mother Chen sat at the cash register, clicking a calculator over and over without looking up: "Hungry? If you are, have your dad make you a rice bowl."

Restaurant folks always ate dinner early, since normal meal hours were their peak rush.

"I'll wait for Sis to eat together!" Chen Shouyi dropped his backpack, listless.

"Then don't just stand there—go to your room and do homework!" Mother Chen Jiang Fen shot him a look, her face full of disdain.

"Not much homework today, I finished it ages ago."

"Then go help your dad clean fish. With grades like yours, I've given up hope anyway."

Chen Shouyi was used to being knocked down, always taking it in stride. Hearing this, he showed no reaction and obediently trotted off to the kitchen.

Chen Dawei was prepping ingredients, chuckling as he said, "Don't listen to your mom. Go to your room and study. Only a year left until the college entrance exam. A second-tier school might be a long shot, but I think you can still fight for a third-tier one!"

"Who made your son so dumb? It's not like I don't work hard, but I still can't score well—what can I do?" Chen Shouyi couldn't help grumbling under his breath. Over this summer break, he hadn't rested a single day, cramming at tutoring classes, yet his grades barely budged.

He'd always been most afraid of his mom; he'd only dare say this to his dad. To his mom, absolutely not.

As he spoke, he grabbed a fish, knocked it out, and skillfully started scaling it.

"You'd have to ask your mom about that. When she was pregnant, she wouldn't stay put, had to go running around the fields, took a spill, and popped you out early." Chen Dawei had a great attitude, grinning cheerfully.

Compared to his clever younger daughter, he still preferred this simple son—the boy took after him.

"So it's my fault now!" Mother Chen, tallying accounts up front, heard Chen Dawei's voice and immediately raised hers: "Think about it—when I was pregnant, it was right in the middle of the busy farming season. If I didn't bring you water, you'd have died of thirst."

"Who's blaming you!" Chen Dawei's knife, mid-chop on the meat, paused for a moment as he quickly said.

Chen Shouyi squeezed out a smirk of schadenfreude.

In this house, the women ruled and the men were weak. His mom had the highest status and the final say; his dad ranked third, with his sister ahead of him. And of course, he was the most useless of all.

"Shh!"

As if joy turned to sorrow, Chen Shouyi's scaling knife slipped with too much force, slicing his finger. Blood gushed out fast.

"I told you not to do this. Go wash it quick—band-aids are under the coffee table in the upstairs living room." Chen Dawei glanced over and said hastily.

With his hand hurt, Chen Shouyi couldn't keep at it. He quickly washed his hands and trudged slowly upstairs.

Their house was a self-built street-front building—living quarters upstairs, restaurant downstairs. When it was first built, this was still suburban farmland. Over the years, as the city expanded, the property had grown more and more valuable.

He reached the upstairs, found a band-aid, and had just put it on when he heard his little sister's syrupy-sweet voice from below.

Hearing his mom's completely different attitude toward his sister versus him, Chen Shouyi silently curled his lip.

That little brown-noser!

No matter how much he defended his sister outside, the truth was their relationship had never been good.

From fighting over toys, snacks, and attention as kids, to comparing grades and awards as they grew up.

His sister's existence always made him feel worthless, like walking trash.

What stung most was that when he was little and couldn't win the fights, he could at least make her cry. Now, he didn't even have the strength for that.

She was already a quasi-Martial Apprentice. Even if she gave him one hand, she could still crush him.

"Bro, Mom said you cut yourself cleaning fish!" Soon, his sister Chen Xingyue came upstairs too, grinning.

Chen Xingyue had her hair in a ponytail, fair skin, looking cute and lively.

But only Chen Shouyi knew how dark-hearted this sister really was.

"Nothing, just a scratch," Chen Shouyi said flatly, trying to muster some big-brother authority. From her expression, he could see the schadenfreude.

Chen Xingyue didn't press further. She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

"As everyone knows, the otherworld is a world ruled by gods, with a social structure still in a primitive stage—somewhere between humanity's early Stone Age and Bronze Age. But recent explorations by the Explorers show that the otherworld is undergoing a dramatic era of change.

Now, renowned sociologist Professor Luo will give a detailed commentary.

..."

He'd always been fascinated by otherworld programs. Chen Shouyi plopped down on the sofa, watching with great interest. After a while, he turned and asked, puzzled, "Why aren't you doing homework today?"

Chen Xingyue kept her eyes fixed on the screen, expressionless. "I've already been recommended for admission to the Capital Martial Arts Academy."

"What!" Chen Shouyi whipped his head around, stammering, "You... you've already passed the Martial Apprentice exam?"

"Not yet, but soon. My teacher estimates that with another month of practice, I'll pass."

"But..."

"The school has thirty recommendation slots this year. Three are allocated to the first-year high school class, and I'm one of them." Chen Xingyue cut him off before he could ask more.

That calm, matter-of-fact tone nearly made Chen Shouyi choke.

The Martial Arts Academy entrance and the college entrance exam were staggered—spring enrollment. That meant his sister, two years younger, would graduate high school half a year before him.

"You haven't told Mom and Dad yet?"

"Something this important should be discussed at night!" Chen Xingyue said.

Chen Shouyi said irritably, "Then why did you tell me first?"

"Who told you you're my own brother? Good news has to be shared with you first!" Chen Xingyue finally couldn't hold it in, a huge grin spreading across her face.

What a nuisance of a sister. Her heart was probably pitch black.

Chen Shouyi was utterly crushed, but he still fought to control the muscles in his face that wanted to twist. He shut his mouth—if he kept listening to her, he figured he'd end up with internal injuries from holding back.

He stared intently at the TV, but the show he'd been watching with such interest now felt completely dull. Thinking about his bleak future, he couldn't sit still any longer. He grabbed his schoolbag:

"I'm going to study."

"Dinner's almost ready!"

"Not eating... uh, just bring it to my room later."

He walked into his bedroom and closed the door, immediately letting his dejection show. Why were the girls in his class so adorable, while his own sister was this annoying?

This was blatant gloating, rubbing salt in his wounds!

He pulled his math textbook out of his bag, but with his mind in turmoil, he couldn't focus on it at all.

He pushed the math book aside and walked over to the display cabinet in his bedroom, hoping to change his mood.

The display cabinet was both his bookshelf and his collection room. Besides various reference books and anthologies, it also held a number of items from another world—these were his favorites.

A Bronze Axe, a Leather Shield, a few Stone Slabs carved with mysterious totems, and several eerie Wooden Tokens, all giving off a primitive, untamed vibe.

But these were all replicas bought from craft shops—even an amateur like Chen Shouyi could tell at a glance.

The material of the Bronze Axe was clearly the product of industrial smelting, the shield's leather was tanned cowhide, and as for the totems on the Stone Slabs, they showed no trace of age, the stone itself being ordinary Earth granite.

Still, not everything was a replica. Among them, one item Chen Shouyi suspected was a genuine artifact from another world.

It was a Rotten Plank.

It was dark in color, in terrible condition, nearly rotted through, riddled with holes as if eaten by termites. This phenomenon suggested that its original form had likely been some kind of supernatural item, of extraordinary origin and immense value.

But once it arrived on Earth, those supernatural forces collapsed, and the material rapidly corroded.

It had become a truly rotten plank. Even if thrown on the ground, no one who didn't know its worth would bother to pick it up.

And that was exactly the case. This Rotten Plank was something Chen Shouyi had found while passing a demolition site, and he had treasured it like a priceless gem.

He opened the cabinet and took out the Rotten Plank.

Under the corrosive influence of this universe's laws, the plank's interior was riddled with holes, but he could still feel that its material was extremely hard, faintly hinting at its former greatness.

On the plank's mottled surface, a few mysterious patterns could still be vaguely seen.

He had studied them before—they were narrative paintings, much like many ancient murals on Earth. They seemed to depict major developmental milestones of some otherworldly civilization.

That world's humans using fire for the first time.

Using writing for the first time.

In the upper left corner of each painting was a mysterious, complex emblem, each one different. As someone who often watched programs explaining other worlds, Chen Shouyi knew well that these were the marks of otherworldly deities—and more than one.

Unfortunately, that didn't help. No matter how mysterious an item was, once it fell to Earth, it would sink into mediocrity.

He gently stroked the plank and let out a sigh he'd already lost count of. If only this thing really had supernatural power.

Imagining himself holding up the plank, countless brilliant rays of light scattering across the land, he couldn't help but chuckle foolishly to himself.