Continuation 37: Something There

The tool shed was piled with things commonly used for farm work: hoes, iron shovels, rakes, wicker baskets, shoulder poles, and so on.

Liu Chang'an looked around, took a bundle of rope and slung it over his back. Just as he was about to grab a shovel, Gao Dewei opened a three-tier wooden dish cabinet commonly found in rural kitchens and took out two entrenching shovels.

"My dad was in the army. He said that when you went to orchards or other places just to look around, you never knew when you might need to fix something, dig something up, or hammer something down. An entrenching shovel was the most convenient thing to bring." Gao Dewei handed one to Liu Chang'an.

Liu Chang'an took it. An entrenching shovel was an essential household item for men... even though he had not prepared one himself.

Ordinary men should still keep an entrenching shovel at home. After all, not everyone was like Liu Chang'an, able to solve virtually any problem with his fists.

For example, if one day you came home and found Old Wang from next door lying in your bed, grabbing an entrenching shovel by the door would instantly boost your combat power—and it was more controllable than wielding a kitchen knife.

After all, when waving a kitchen knife around, one often faced an awkward dilemma. If you actually chopped down, someone could die. Throwing away the rest of your life over a wife who had already cheated and this infuriating mess simply was not worth it.

But if you did not chop, would that not be humiliating? Maybe the other person would see you hesitate and arrogantly point at his own neck. "Go on, chop me!"

An entrenching shovel did not have that problem. Whether to chop or smack, beat