It's All Fate

Rain hammered the roof of mud-caked thatch, the crackling sound threatening to tear the ramshackle hut apart.

Chen Yue huddled on a low stool, clutching a chipped clay bowl. The wild-vegetable porridge inside was so thin it reflected his sallow face. This was lunch for him and Mother Chen; Father Chen lay resting on the hard plank bed in the inner room, too weak to even sit up for a mouthful of hot gruel.

"Slow down, don't choke." Wang Shi scraped half a blackened bran cake into Chen Yue's bowl, but only ladled herself half a spoon of wild-vegetable broth. "Your father's pain was terrible this morning. That seaweed poultice does nothing... and the Pearl Tax we owe from his last injury still hasn't been paid..."

Mother Chen muttered to herself. Chen Yue bit into the bran cake; the coarse husks scraped his throat raw. Three days ago, he'd been in a modern library researching ancient salt and iron history. The next moment, he'd woken up on the beach of the Pearl Village, having become this namesake youth, Chen Yue, just swept away by an undercurrent.

"Yesterday, Uncle Li the Third's family got pressed by the Pearl Officials again. They said if they can't hand over three low-grade pearls, they'll take his boat. If we Pearl Households lose our boats, how are we supposed to live! Last year, A-Fu from the east end was dragged off to repair the seawall because he was two pearls short on the tax, and he still hasn't come back. Our lives as Pearl Households are truly worthless, ai!"

Wang Shi wiped the corner of her eye as she spoke, her gaze sweeping over the broken fishing net hanging on the wall—the family's only tool for making a living, now soaked through by the storm, hanging heavy and sodden.

Bitterness welled up in Chen Yue's chest. In the three days since his transmigration, he'd already figured out his situation.

The Pearl Households of Hepu Pearl Village in Leizhou Prefecture were all registered by the government as pearl divers, bound generation after generation to dive for pearls. Trying to change trades meant becoming a fugitive; if caught, the light punishment was a broken leg, the heavy one exile.

The original owner had risked going into crevices between reefs to find pearl oysters just to make up the two low-grade pearls owed from last month, and that was how the icy undercurrent had taken him.

A stifled groan came from the inner room. Chen Yue quickly set down his bowl and went over.

On the plank bed, Father Chen's right leg was swollen like a leavened steamed bun, the wound's edges tinged with purple-black—an injury from hitting a reef while diving for pearls half a month ago.

"Father, once the rain stops, I'll go dive for pearls. I'll trade them for money to get you medicine," Chen Yue said softly.

Father Chen shook his head, gasping for breath, his withered hand gripping his son's arm: "Don't go to the deep sea... the undercurrents there are fierce..."

Father Chen broke into a violent cough mid-sentence, each spasm jarring his wound. Chen Yue looked at his father's sallow face, then thought of the storm outside and the life-crushing Pearl Tax, and felt his chest tighten with suffocation.

In three days since his transmigration, Chen Yue hadn't been without thoughts of escape.

Flee? The Pearl Village was surrounded on all sides by Pearl Officials and Sea Shark Gang men; without a travel permit, there was no way out.

Learn a trade? Aside from the pearl-diving skill the original owner had left him, he knew nothing. Besides, craftsmen wouldn't take on Pearl Households.

Save up to buy back his registration? Chen Yue had asked around about the price—at least fifty taels of silver. That was a sum no Pearl Household could ever scrape together.

By noon, the storm showed no sign of letting up. Suddenly, a sharp wail cut through the rain from within the Pearl Village, piercing straight into the house.

"That's Auntie Li's voice!" Wang Shi's face went pale. Bracing herself against the wall, she moved to go outside. Chen Yue's heart tightened too. Just as he lifted his foot, a faint blue halo flickered before his eyes, and a translucent, illusory panel materialized out of thin air:

[Name: Chen Yue Status: Pearl Household, Hepu Pearl Village, Leizhou Prefecture Condition: Mild drowning aftereffects, chronic malnutrition Skills: Pearl Diving (Proficient 21/300), Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Not Yet Initiated)]

"Skill detected. Spend one tael of silver to simplify Pearl Diving?" "Technique detected. Spend one tael of silver to simplify Wave-Turning Breathing Technique?"

Chen Yue stumbled back, nearly knocking over the stool behind him.

This was...

Chen Yue's fingertip brushed the panel tentatively. The touch was icy yet insubstantial. His gaze stopped on "Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Not Yet Initiated)."

An old Pearl Household in the village had once said this method could not only extend breath-holding time underwater and steady one's body against undercurrents, but with long practice, it could also strengthen the physique and dispel internal chill accumulated over time.

The old man had taught it to the villagers for free while he was alive, but the technique required a deep, settled breath and coordination of the meridians. The original owner had practiced for over half a year without even reaching the initiation stage.

"A-Yue! Come out and look!" Mother Wang's tearful shout from outside snapped him out of his daze.

Chen Yue quickly pulled himself together. The panel dissolved into specks of light and vanished.

He rushed out the door. The rain instantly soaked through his thin clothes. Several men in tattered straw rain capes were carrying a stretcher lashed together from fishing nets, trudging through the mud toward the Li family's house, their steps unsteady.

A blackened coarse cloth covered the stretcher. The person beneath lay motionless. Auntie Li threw herself down beside it, wailing with heart-wrenching grief: "My man! How could you just go like this! For a few lousy pearls, you threw your life away!"

Neighbors poked their heads out. When they saw the stretcher, they drew sharp breaths. Their murmurs were broken up by the storm.

"It's Li the Third... he sneaked out to sea this morning. Said if he didn't pay the Pearl Tax, the Officials would drag him off to fill the army."

"In such heavy rain, the undercurrents in the deep sea can capsize a boat. He was forced into it, with no other way!" An old Pearl Household shook his head and sighed, his face etched with numb sorrow. "This is the third one this month..."

Chen Yue's heart clenched. He remembered seeing Li the Third just yesterday, mending his fishing net at the drying grounds, saying he'd wait for the rain to stop and try his luck in the shallows. He never imagined that in one night, the man would be gone.

As the stretcher passed, the wind lifted a corner of the coarse cloth, revealing Li the Third's bluish-purple, swollen face. His hand still clutched a cracked shell, inside which was embedded a tiny low-grade pearl—the fruit of his life's trade.

Just then, a clatter of footsteps came. Seven or eight men in short jackets, with short knives at their waists, splashed through the mud. The scar-faced man at the front immediately recognized the direction of the Li house. A cold smirk curled at the corner of his mouth: "Li the Third's Pearl Tax is due, isn't it? Don't think dying lets you off the hook."

Hearing this, Auntie Li wailed even harder. She lunged forward and grabbed Scarface's pant leg: "He went out in the storm just to scrape together the Pearl Tax! He's dead now, where are the pearls? Please, have mercy! Spare this widow and her orphan!"

"Mercy?" Scarface kicked her away. "The Sea Shark Gang keeps the bandits off your backs for you, and the Pearl Officials need their cut too. Where's that money supposed to come from? Either hand over the pearls, or pawn off your daughter to settle the debt. Your choice!"

The men behind Scarface immediately charged into the Li house. The sounds of ransacking, mixed with a little girl's cries, cut through the storm with piercing clarity.

Chen Yue clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. Before he could think further, Scarface's gaze suddenly swept over him, carrying a predatory glare, and headed straight for him and Mother Chen.

"And your family," Scarface said, planting his foot on the threshold of Chen Yue's house, muddy water dripping from his pant leg. "Your Pearl Tax has been overdue for half a month. If you don't hand over two low-grade pearls in ten days, you know the consequences!"

Mother Chen shuddered in fright, hastily pulling Chen Yue back two steps as she nodded frantically. "Yes, yes, yes, we'll scrape it together, we will..." Her voice trembled, carrying no real conviction—only instinctive pleading.

Scarface let out a sneer, spat on the ground, then wheeled around to face the other Pearl Households peeking out from their doors, barking harshly, "Listen up! When the Pearl Tax comes due, nobody's wriggling out of it! Either you hand over the pearls, or you hand over yourselves. The Sea Shark Gang doesn't have the patience to wait around while you drag your feet!"

With that, he ignored Auntie Li, who had gone limp, and led his men away, cursing as they went.

The commotion in Pearl Village gradually subsided. Neighbors pulled their heads back in and slammed their doors shut. The sporadic murmurs that had lingered died out completely, leaving only Auntie Li's stifled sobs drifting through the rain, desolate and forlorn.

Chen Yue supported his pale-faced mother and slowly retreated back inside.

"What's going on out there? Making such a racket."

From the inner room, Father Chen heard the noise and struggled to prop himself up. Mother Chen hurried over to hold him down, her eyes red-rimmed as she recounted how Li the Third had lost his life diving for pearls in the storm and how the Sea Shark Gang had come to collect the debt. She finished with Scarface's warning, her voice choked with tears. "How are we supposed to go on living like this..."

Father Chen froze for a long moment, then let out a heavy sigh. His withered hand slapped the bed board with a dull thud, but in the end, it all dissolved into a helpless whisper. "It's fate..."

Chen Yue said nothing. He walked alone to the shadowed corner of the room and summoned the pale blue panel once more.

His gaze wavered between "Wave-Turning Breathing Technique (Not Yet Initiated)" and "Simplify."

The Pearl Tax in ten days was a deadline he couldn't escape or dodge. Relying on brute force to dive for pearls would end the same way it had for Li the Third. But what did this "Simplify" mean?

It cost one tael of silver. Right now, Chen Yue had a little over one tael—savings he'd painstakingly accumulated over so many years.

Chen Yue stood frozen for a long moment. Finally, he silently willed, "I want to simplify the Wave-Turning Breathing Technique."

The next instant, the tael of silver in his sleeve vanished without a trace, and the panel before his eyes flickered faintly.

"Simplifying Wave-Turning Breathing Technique... Simplification successful... Wave-Turning Breathing Technique → Breathing!"

Breathing?

Before Chen Yue's mind could wrap around it, he saw the information representing himself on the panel change.

[Skill: Pearl Diving (Proficient 21/300), Breathing (First Layer 1/100)]

As Chen Yue kept breathing, the number after "Breathing" climbed steadily. In just a few moments, it had already reached First Layer 10/100.

At the same time, a flood of insights into the Breathing technique poured into Chen Yue's mind: when inhaling, sink the abdomen to draw in air, stabilizing the breath in the dantian; when exhaling, proceed gradually, adjusting the rhythm of your breath to follow the flow of the water...

As the number after "Breathing" continued to rise, his body—which had been chilled from the rain—slowly began to warm with a faint trace of heat, and his limbs seemed to gain a bit more strength.