Ancient Tale of Waiting for a Hare, I Wait for a Fish

In this chaotic world, simply getting enough to eat is a difficult task. For the people of Small River Village, hoping to always have full stomachs is nothing short of a pipe dream. For a child like him, it's even more fantastical, making the difficulty naturally much greater.

Chen Xuan didn't doubt for a moment that whether he joined the West City Pharmacy or the Fierce Mountain Hall, the risks would only increase.

He shook his head, and his heart stirred again.

Target: Eat until full today (To be set)

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"Path One: Three hundred meters away from the large locust tree on the mountainside behind Small River Village, a wild wolf will be severely injured in one hour. Depart immediately. You can arrive in half an hour. Wait for half an hour and you can obtain an adult wild wolf."

"Path Two: At Zhang Shan's house in the west of the village, there is a rabid wild boar. The house will be in chaos. Depart now and take the opportunity to steal half a wild chicken from his house."

As the text appeared, the corner of Chen Xuan's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Good heavens, even just eating until full today is this damn difficult.

Leaving aside Path One, that's up in the mountains. With his small arms and legs, if he went up there, he probably wouldn't have a "then."

As for Path Two, it seemed feasible, but Zhang Shan was a well-known hunter in the village. If he dared to steal from his house and got caught, there was a high probability he'd lose both his legs.

Fortunately, at this moment, the text flickered again.

"Path Three: By the small stream outside the village, to the right of the large rock, due to the return of fish schools in recent days, place a stone of over thirty centimeters on it. In one hour, you will harvest a ten-jin Black Carp."

New text appeared.

Looking at Path Three, Chen Xuan's eyes lit up.

He glanced at the sky, which was already darkening, and without any hesitation, he turned around and headed back the way he came.

This body hadn't eaten for two days now.

At home, his father didn't know when he would return, and there was also his mother and younger brother. If they continued to starve like this, they wouldn't be able to hold on.

He had to get some food.

A moment later, Chen Xuan returned to the small stream.

He began searching according to the content on the text.

After about a quarter of an hour, he finally found the target location.

He looked around and found a stone that was over thirty centimeters. To be safe, the stone he found was almost fifty centimeters.

He laboriously moved the stone towards the location described in the text.

The prolonged hunger made his face pale as he moved the stone, and the veins on his hands bulged.

It took him almost half an hour to move the stone into place.

"Plop!"

As soon as the stone was put down, Chen Xuan felt as if his chest was about to explode, and he couldn't help but gasp for air.

His body was completely unable to move, and his stomach was twitching even more violently.

"Ugh!"

He instinctively vomited, but only a little sour water came out; there was nothing left in his stomach.

The little bit of dry grass from the morning had already been completely digested.

"Damn this world!"

He couldn't help but curse under his breath. Then, Chen Xuan felt a wave of exhaustion in his head, and his eyes grew heavier and heavier.

Unconsciously, they gradually closed.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

As the moonlight gradually fell,

streaks of black appeared in the river.

Then,

"Splash!"

The surface of the water was broken, and then a Black Carp directly jumped out of the water, rushed upstream, and quickly disappeared into the water.

And with the first one, came the second.

"Splash!"

"Plop!"

Sounds rose one after another.

Until, one Black Carp seemed to deviate slightly.

"Thump!"

A dull sound rose, and the next moment, a huge impact directly lifted the fish's body out of the water, sending it crashing down beside him.

The fish's body landed, its tail thrashing.

Chen Xuan felt his cheek was a little damp and woke up in a daze.

Immediately, a fishy smell came over.

Making his Adam's apple instinctively bob.

"Ugh!"

He dry-heaved again, and only then did Chen Xuan fully wake up, instantly looking at what was in front of him with immense surprise.

At this moment, a large Black Carp weighing about ten catties was thrashing in front of him.

"It's... it's really a fish!"

His Adam's apple couldn't help but bob again. At this moment, Chen Xuan almost couldn't help but jump up in excitement.

However, he didn't forget the main task. Fearing the fish would escape back into the water, he quickly stepped forward and pressed down firmly, even using a stone to smash its head hard.

Only when the large Black Carp was completely still did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

And at this very moment.

A familiar voice came from the riverbank.

"Er Gou!"

"Er Gou!"

The voice was weary and anxious. Chen Xuan subconsciously looked over and immediately saw several torches heading his way.

"Mom, I'm here!"

Looking at the torches and hearing the voice, Chen Xuan didn't know why he subconsciously spoke up.

His voice was a little hoarse, not like a child's.

But as soon as this voice sounded, there was a commotion among the torchbearers, and their footsteps quickly seemed to become more hurried.

A moment later, Chen Xuan saw a middle-aged man, a woman, and the Chen Er Zhuang who had left earlier appear under a torch.

"Er Gou!"

Chen Xuan saw who was coming, and they also saw him. The woman cried out in surprise and ran straight over.

Before Chen Xuan could react, he was tightly embraced by the woman.

His body couldn't help but stiffen.

But soon, the familiar feeling gradually softened his stiff body.

"Mom, I'm fine. Look, what did I catch?"

Chen Xuan spoke softly, comforting the middle-aged woman's excited heart.

It was clear, however, that the middle-aged woman didn't care about any of that; she just held him tightly.

It wasn't until Chen Er Zhuang's loud shouts and cries sounded from beside them.

"Fish, Er Gou, you caught a fish!"

"Such a big fish!"

"Dad, Third Aunt, look, such a big fish!"

Chen Er Zhuang's voice was loud, even mixed with the sound of swallowing saliva.

And his words finally made the middle-aged woman react. She released her son and then saw the bloody big fish beside them.

Seeing this, the middle-aged woman was also stunned.

Fish, it was actually a fish.

And it was a very big fish.

"Hahaha, Er Gou, well done! You actually managed to catch such a big fish!"

At this moment, the middle-aged man beside him also spoke, his lips slightly moving in the firelight.

Fish, this is meat.

Even though it had much less fat than what they got from the mountains, it was still meat.

The middle-aged man was still quite envious.

However, he held back, knowing how difficult things were for his third brother's family.

"Hurry up, carry Er Gou back, don't let him catch a cold."

Thinking of this, the middle-aged man called out to Chen Er Zhuang.

"Okay, okay!"

Scolded by his father, Chen Er Zhuang instinctively lowered his head and quickly prepared to go and carry Chen Xuan.

"Second Uncle, no need, I can still walk!"

Chen Xuan quickly spoke, his figure swaying as he barely managed to stand up.

"Yes, yes!"

The middle-aged woman also quickly spoke.

"Alright!"

"Then let's hurry back, it's not safe outside at night."

The middle-aged man looked at Chen Xuan, saw that he was indeed fine, then nodded and called out to the mother and son.

"Okay, Second Uncle!"

Chen Xuan nodded obediently, then picked up the large fish from the ground.

The group returned towards the village with their torches.