I Jumped Into The River In Public Just For You?!

Shen Le held the Copper Fragment up before his eyes, his gaze fixed upon it with an intensity that seemed to glow. He immediately steadied his breathing, closed his eyes slightly, and tried again. This time, while no heat surged from the Copper Fragment, a phantom image appeared before him, guiding his movements through every stance and strike:

This move was off! His hand was held too low! The red phantom representing himself and the cyan phantom representing the template were not perfectly aligned!

This move was off, too! His stride was too wide!

It was time to exhale! Exhale, exhale!

When the movement was correct and the breathing was in sync, a red line would extend from the cyan phantom, and at the same time, the heat within his body would surge upward by another notch.

Not bad, not bad! Guaranteed technique correction, guaranteed internal energy—the functions of this Copper Fragment were incredible!

"Next come two tasks: one is to repair the Old Mansion to recharge the Copper Fragment; the other is to make money, make money, and work hard to make money..."

Of course, besides these, there was a third task—one that was not very important, but extremely urgent:

Fill his stomach...

Fortunately, the Old Mansion was not far from where people lived. The side of the Old Street facing the river looked desolate, but after Shen Le crossed the alley and exited through the back gate of the mansion, he reached the residential area in just a few steps.

He ordered a bowl of braised chicken with rice, wolfed it down to satisfy his hunger, and strolled slowly along the small street:

Ah, if he decided to live here, he would need to order pots, pans, and bowls later. And tools for repairing the house—various woodworking tools, paint, masonry tools, and the like.

Sigh, when he worked with his teacher, most of the tools belonged to the teacher or the school. When he graduated and returned, he had only brought a few tools he was comfortable with and some leftover pigments.

To restore this large mansion, he didn't even know how many tools he would need to prepare. Sigh, he wondered if they were sold on the street; if not, he would have to order them online...

Shen Le thought as he wandered, looking around as he walked. With its water lanes and small bridges, where every household rested against the river, it was quite pleasant to take a casual stroll while breathing in the evening breeze and the scent of the water.

As he walked, a sharp, hair-raising sound suddenly erupted from the residential building on his right:

"Screee--!"

Shen Le shuddered and looked toward the source. Who was it? Who was sawing wood? No, this sound was ten times worse than sawing wood...

If he couldn't stand it, the neighbors upstairs, downstairs, and next door certainly couldn't either. After barely enduring it for a while, people began to push open their windows, step onto their balconies, and poke their heads out to shout:

"Are you ever going to stop!"

"So noisy! The kids are trying to do their homework!"

"Can't you find an empty lot to practice the erhu!"

Oh, so it was an erhu—likely a beginner, no wonder it was screeching enough to make one's scalp tingle. Shen Le shook his head and sighed. Just as he was about to change his route, a sharp female voice rang out from the house where the sawing—no, the erhu playing—was coming from:

"How can you still play like this! What have you been doing all day! We spent a fortune for you to learn the erhu, you don't practice at the training center, you don't practice during the day, all you know is how to play! All you know is how to play!"

The mother's scolding, the child's heart-wrenching cries, and the intermittent, increasingly hideous erhu music blended together. Shen Le sighed, pivoted on his heel, and headed toward the opposite side of the street. Various comments drifted past him:

"With a mother this hot-tempered, no wonder the kid is getting worse at it."

"She's only hot-tempered because it's the mother tutoring the homework. Why don't you try having the father tutor the homework? It would be the same shouting and scolding."

"I really haven't heard many fathers scold their kids like that..."

"So this is 'widowed-style' parenting, right? The father is perfectly invisible, right?"

"If you ask me, living in this kind of old-fashioned residential building, you shouldn't learn music. You can't learn it well, and you annoy the neighbors to death..."

"Are you saying poor people don't deserve to learn music? If you don't have a big villa, you aren't qualified to learn music?"

"Be content, at least they aren't learning the suona..."

These topics were never-ending. Shen Le shook his head and hurried away, covering his ears. Before he had even crossed the street, a man's roar suddenly erupted from the residential building behind him:

"I work overtime every single day, six days a week, from eight in the morning until nine at night, for five thousand yuan a month, and three thousand of that goes to your erhu lessons, yet you're still slacking off on me every day!"

Just hearing it was miserable. A middle-aged man drained by work, with a child who wouldn't strive—it was truly a tragedy of human existence. The only thing worse would be a wife who gave birth to three children, none of whom were his.

Shen Le felt a pang of sympathy. Even so, hearing the man continue to berate the child made him feel restless. The man's shouting grew louder:

"And you say the puppet keeps you company? How can a puppet keep you company? You just want to be lazy! Play, play, play, all day long you only know how to play! What's so fun about this piece of junk puppet? Just throw it away!"

The sound of windows opening, the arguing, the child's wailing. Amidst the cacophony, a sudden, sharp scream pierced the air:

"Help--"

Shen Le stopped dead in his tracks. He turned, looked up, and followed the sound. The scream traced an arc, swept across the street, and plunged into the river ahead. The sound was very, very faint, yet sharp, shrill, and heart-wrenching—

And it was a child's voice.

A child's voice!

Shen Le kicked off and sprinted. He reached the riverbank, and sure enough, a small body was bobbing in the water. The Copper Fragment on his chest was burning hot, vibrating incessantly, and the heart-wrenching cries for help continued to ring out.

Shen Le kicked off his sneakers, one foot then the other. He shoved his phone and keys into the shoes and jumped into the river with a splash.

"Someone jumped into the river--"

"Where?"

"Where, where?"

"Call the police!"

The riverbank was in an uproar. Shen Le ignored it all, burying his head and swimming. One stroke, two strokes, three strokes—finally, he reached the small body, grabbed hold of it—

"Huh?"

Hard. It's hard?

It's a puppet?!

I jumped into the river in front of everyone for a puppet?!

For a moment, Shen Le wanted to dive back down, swim far away, and stay submerged until he reached a place where no one could see him. However, he couldn't hold his breath that long, and besides, the moment the puppet was in his hands, the shrill, desperate cries of "Help, help!" ceased immediately. The heat from the Copper Fragment on its chest vanished as well, leaving only a faint, lingering warmth that made Shen Le suspect it had just been warmed by his own body temperature.

He tried putting the puppet down, and the cries for help started up again while the Copper Fragment grew hot; he picked the puppet back up, and the cries vanished while the Copper Fragment cooled down. He tried it two or three more times, and it happened exactly the same way every time, without fail.

Fine...

Whatever...

I'm already here.

I've already picked it up.

Since the Copper Fragment can recharge, cure nearsightedness, and fix a stiff neck, it's understandable that a puppet could call for help... right?

Shen Le convinced himself of this, treaded water to take off his T-shirt, wrapped the puppet inside it, clutched it to his chest, and slowly swam back. As he reached the bank and looked up, the crowd parted with a rustle, and a frantic voice approached rapidly:

"Make way! Make way! I'm a police officer! Who jumped into the river?—You?"

Shen Le managed to pull at the corners of his mouth, twisting them into an awkward smile. With one hand struggling to keep his pants up in the water, he held up the puppet for the officer to see:

"Um... I thought a child had fallen in..."