Morning Sparring

At dawn, Lin Chen woke up.

The sea outside the window was still shrouded in a thin gray-white mist. The sun had yet to rise, but the clouds in the east had already taken on a faint orange hue. When he rolled over and sat up, he felt that his muscles were looser than yesterday, and his joints no longer made those faint cracking sounds when they moved. He put on his coat and went downstairs, the wooden boards making soft sounds beneath his feet.

In the courtyard, Master Roshi was already sitting in a bamboo chair on the porch. He held that enamel mug in his hand, white steam rising from its rim, in exactly the same spot as yesterday morning. His gaze rested on the distant sea, as though he had been sitting there for quite some time.

"There's leftover porridge from last night in the refrigerator. Just heat it up. After breakfast, go deliver the milk. The orders are posted on the refrigerator door."

When Lin Chen entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, he saw a note held to the door by a magnet. Several addresses and their corresponding households were written on it. The pot of porridge sat on the middle shelf, covered with a lid whose edges still held droplets condensed during last night's cooking. He took the pot out and placed it on the stove, heating it over a low flame. Tiny bubbles rose from the bottom of the pot, slowly reaching the surface before bursting. He stood before the stove and watched the porridge gradually heat through.

The milk delivery route started from Kame House, heading north along the coast for about two kilometers, passing through a patch of low shrubs before turning onto a dirt road. There were not many houses along the way, with one appearing only every so often. Empty milk bottles sat outside some doors, their glass interiors dry, the milk stains having formed a yellowed film. He placed the new bottles where the old ones had been and collected the empties in the cloth sack on his back. His movements were the same as when he had done it for the first time yesterday, without any unnecessary motion.

By the time he returned to Kame House, the sun had risen about a person's height above the horizon, and the mist over the sea was beginning to disperse. He washed the empty milk bottles clean and placed them upside down on a rack to dry. Water droplets ran from the mouths down the sides of the bottles, leaving a string of fine wet marks on the rack.

Krillin was doing push-ups on the beach. When he saw Lin Chen return, he said, "Master said we'll practice weighted running on the beach this morning. Two sandbags each. There are some under your bed."

Lin Chen returned to his room and pulled an old cloth bag from beneath the bed. Inside were two sandbags, each weighing around twenty jin, with visible stitching on their surfaces. He tied them to his calves, and when he stood up, his legs felt somewhat heavier than usual.

He went downstairs and crossed the courtyard. When he reached the beach, the sensation of the sand beneath his feet was slightly duller than when he was barefoot. Master Roshi tossed over two pairs of old gloves from the porch. "Put these on. They'll keep your hands from getting scraped while carrying stones."

A pile of stones of varying sizes lay on the eastern side of the beach, ranging from fist-sized to as large as washbasins. Their edges were rough, and some still had withered vines clinging to their surfaces. Krillin already had sandbags tied to his legs. He bent down, lifted a stone onto his shoulder, and walked along the edge of the beach toward a distant pile of rocks.

Lin Chen bent down and picked up a stone as well. It weighed around forty jin, its sharp edges digging into the gap between his shoulder and palm. He followed the same route, set the stone down in the designated spot, then turned and headed back. As he passed in front of Master Roshi's porch on the return trip, he noticed tiny orbs of light emerging near the ground where he had walked, drifting toward him with the flow of the air. There were not many of them, but they kept appearing—each time he lifted a stone, each time he stepped down, new pickup signals seemed to be generated.

[Ding! Picked up Strength Orbs ×3. Strength +9.]

[Ding! Picked up Constitution Orbs ×2. Constitution +6.]

He picked up the next stone and continued. During the trip, he noticed that the orbs were concentrated around his shoulders and palms, as though those areas released some kind of signal when they came into contact with the stone. He tried adjusting the size of the contact area between his palms and the stone while carrying it. The frequency at which the orbs drifted toward him did not noticeably change, but two of them were slightly darker in color than before.

Krillin had already carried three stones and was restacking one of the smaller ones neatly. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. The sandbags had left clear marks around his calves, and a thin layer of sweat seeped through the edges of his pants. "You're moving more smoothly than yesterday. Your shoulders aren't swaying when you carry them."

Lin Chen set down the stone on his shoulder. A pale indentation had appeared there, faintly red under the sunlight. "You get used to it after carrying a few more."

The hauling lasted around two hours that morning. The stones were restacked into two rows on the beach, one large and one small. After finishing his final trip, Lin Chen felt heat in his shoulders and palms. It was not the burning pain of friction, but a more evenly distributed warmth, as though he was being continuously heated while wrapped in some gentle medium, maintaining the same temperature from within and without. When he moved his joints, they worked smoothly without any obvious discomfort.

Master Roshi watched them finish from beneath the porch, then took a sip of tea. "Same time tomorrow morning. Run first, then carry stones. This afternoon, practice swimming. Swim from Kame House to that black reef across the water, then swim back."

Goku ran out from behind the house with a log about two meters long slung over his shoulder. Traces of bark still covered its surface, though several spots had been worn smooth. "Where should I put this log?"

Master Roshi pointed toward a corner of the courtyard. "Just lean it against the wall."

Goku carried the log over and set it down. It struck the wall with a dull thud, shaking loose a few flakes of plaster. He patted the bark fragments from his hands, then turned and ran back behind the house, as though he intended to carry another one.

The afternoon sunlight grew more intense, and the sea breeze weakened. The light on the ocean shifted from soft to bright, heating their skin slightly. Lin Chen sat on the stone steps in the corner of the courtyard and untied the sandbags from his legs. As he undid the buckles, they slid off and landed on the ground with a dull thump, dragging out a small amount of fine sand from their openings. Several pale marks remained on his calves, slowly fading. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, stood, and went inside to pour himself a glass of water.

Krillin was inside as well, crouching by the water vat and washing his hands. Water ran over his palms and into the drain at the side of the vat, leaving a dark wet mark on the ground. Without looking up, he said, "Don't use too much force when swimming this afternoon. There are undercurrents in that area. If you swim too far out, it's easy to lose your direction. Just stay close to me. If the current changes, adjust your direction. Don't fight it head-on."

Lin Chen stood by the door and took a sip of water. "Got it."

Krillin stood and shook the water from his hands. The droplets glinted briefly in the sunlight before disappearing into the cracks between the floor tiles. As he headed outside, he paused when passing Lin Chen. "Oh, and you tied your sandbags wrong. You need to adjust the point where the front of your foot bears the weight. I'll show you how to retie them tomorrow morning." Without waiting for Lin Chen's response, he continued outside.

Leaning against the doorframe, Lin Chen heard Krillin's voice from outside, already some distance away. "Two thirty this afternoon. Don't be late."

Sunlight streamed in from outside, spreading a rectangular patch of brightness across the floor. Lin Chen stood at its edge, finished the remaining water in his cup, set it down, and went back outside. Fresh footprints stretched across the beach toward the distance, leaving clear, unbroken tracks beneath the sun.