Catching Fish Through the Ice!

What made Li Zhong secretly marvel even more was Li Xuan's speed and the ease with which he carried his heavy load.

He himself was carrying a substantial load of medicinal herbs, while his wife was traveling light.

The two of them were already gritting their teeth and hurrying as best they could, yet their youngest brother, carrying that thick roll of sheepskin, had somehow pulled twenty or thirty paces ahead!

Looking at him from behind, Li Zhong saw that Li Xuan's back remained straight, his steps never losing their rhythm.

From that distance, they could barely even hear him breathing. Clearly, this walk and the weight on his back were well within his capabilities.

"Brother... slow, slow down! Wait for your sister-in-law!"

Li Zhong could not help calling out between pants. Then he turned to Wang and spoke quietly, his voice full of disbelief:

"Wife, did you see that? The way our youngest handles these mountain paths... doesn't he seem like a different person? This trail's so slippery that every step has my heart in my throat. How's he walking as though it were flat ground? And so fast, too!"

Wang had noticed long ago. Watching Li Xuan's relaxed, nimble figure ahead of them, then comparing it with her and her husband's cautious steps and labored breathing, she was utterly astounded.

She wiped away the tears brought on by the cold wind, her voice breathless and incredulous:

"Husband, it's not just his speed... have you forgotten? Whenever we sent him to town for a few needles and some thread, just those few dozen li, didn't he always dawdle and complain the whole way? He'd come back looking like he'd fallen apart, whining about his aching legs and feet. He couldn't stand the slightest hardship."

"When he went to see that young woman from the Xu Family, he even insisted on borrowing the village chief's donkey cart..."

"But now... look at him. He's carrying something heavy through all this ice and snow, yet he's walking faster and steadier than the two of us could empty-handed! Is... is his body made of iron?"

The couple exchanged a glance, each finding the same astonishment and deep bewilderment in the other's eyes.

Their youngest brother's transformation, as though he had shed his old body and grown new bones, simply defied belief!

They thought of the changes he had shown while hunting lately.

"Could it be... that our youngest really did encounter the mountain god?"

"Brother, Sister-in-law, the wind's blown the snow thinner up ahead. It's easier to walk there. Come around this way."

Li Xuan's clear, steady voice came from ahead. He had stopped at a sheltered fork in the path.

He turned to wait for them, an easy smile on his face.

His eyes were bright and clear in the faint morning light. There was not a trace of fatigue about him; instead, he seemed full of a vigor tempered by ice and snow.

"You little rascal! You really... really are something!"

Half an hour later.

Li Xuan noticed that his brother and sister-in-law were walking more and more slowly, their breathing growing heavier.

He stopped of his own accord and found a large rock sheltered from the wind where they could rest.

Wang leaned against the rock and pounded her aching calves. Li Zhong set down the medicinal herbs as well, drawing great gulps of air.

Seeing Li Xuan, neither flushed nor breathless, without so much as a drop of sweat on his brow, only deepened the astonishment that contrast had stirred in him.

"Youngest, you really have trained those legs of yours," Li Zhong sighed after taking a mouthful of water.

Li Xuan smiled, but his gaze was drawn to a frozen river in the valley nearby.

The river's surface had frozen solid long ago and was covered with thick snow.

Only at its center, where the current ran faster and the ice was slightly thinner, could the faint gurgle of water be heard below.

The pale winter sun shone on the ice, casting back a cold white gleam.

Something stirred in his mind. He recalled that the knowledge from the panel seemed to include some scattered information about Winter Fishing, so he rose and said:

"Brother, Sister-in-law, you two rest. I'll go take a look by the river."

"The river? The ice is slippery. Be careful," Wang cautioned him.

Li Xuan answered and made his way carefully to the riverbank.

He bent down, brushed aside a patch of snow, and examined the ice closely.

The ice was thick, but clear enough.

He brought his eyes closer and shielded them from the reflected light with his hand, trying to peer into the darkness beneath.

At first, all he saw was a blur of dark green, but he soon focused his attention.

Thanks to the sharper perception brought by his increased Physique and Dexterity, he gradually began to make out the details beneath the ice.

The contours of the riverbed, dead water plants swaying in the current, and... slowly moving dark shapes!

They gathered where the ice was relatively thin, around submerged obstacles or the roots of water plants, apparently sheltering from the cold or searching for food.

Fish! And judging by those shadows, they were not small!

Delighted, Li Xuan immediately turned and called:

"Big Brother! Come look! There are fish under the ice! Big ones!"

Hearing this, Li Zhong came over curiously and copied Li Xuan's posture. He stared for quite some time, but could only see a blur:

"Fish? Where? How come I can't see them? In weather like this, don't fish all hide in deep water for the winter? Even if there are some, this ice is as thick as stone. How would we get them?"

His sister-in-law came over too, shaking her head:

"Youngest, aren't your eyes playing tricks on you? This river's frozen solid. Even the old hands in the village never came here in winter. We have no net or hooks, so even if there are fish, it's no use. Don't waste time. We still have a long way to go."

Li Xuan confidently pointed to a shadowy patch beneath the ice where the water plants were thicker:

"Brother, look carefully over there. The plants carried by the current are moving a little differently, aren't they? Now look behind that rock beside them. Didn't a dark shadow just flash past?"

Li Zhong concentrated. With his younger brother pointing it out, he seemed to notice some unusual movement, but he remained doubtful:

"Even if there are fish... what can we do? Smash the ice? That would make so much noise they'd be scared away long before we finished."

"We don't need to smash it."

Li Xuan looked around. His gaze settled on a clump of dead reeds by the bank and several sharp stones, and an idea came to him.

"Brother, help me find a few of the toughest, stiffest reed stalks, with a point at one end, and a flat stone that's comfortable to hold. Sister-in-law, is there any dry food left in the bundle? Give me just a few crumbs."

In the past, when their youngest chased every whim that entered his head, the two of them would certainly have questioned him.

But lately, he had changed far too much.

And he had brought home so much game that, without their realizing it, his words had begun to carry some weight.

Though puzzled, Wang did as he asked, shaking a few coarse flatbread crumbs from the bottom of the food bag.

Li Zhong soon found several stiff reed stalks and a flat slab of stone with a sharp edge.

Li Xuan took them and crouched where the ice was thinnest, near a slow-moving stretch of water by the bank.

Using the sharp edge of the flat stone, he began carefully, very slowly scraping away at the ice rather than striking it.

The soft rasping was quiet enough not to disturb the fish below.

His movements were steady. With his improved Physique, he felt neither tired nor cold.

Before long, he had scraped a shallow hollow the size of a bowl's rim into the thick ice, leaving only a thin

layer at its center.

"Are you going to..." Li Zhong seemed to understand something, and his eyes widened.

Li Xuan motioned for silence and continued scraping the thinnest part at the center with an even gentler touch.

At last, with an almost inaudible crack, he scraped through the ice!

A hole the size of a bowl's rim appeared before them, and the chill breath of the river water immediately rose from it.

He quickly scattered the few food crumbs he had brought into the hole.

The crumbs sank slowly, resembling a tiny cloud of bait in the faint light filtering beneath the ice.

They waited.

Even the cold wind seemed to fall still.

Wang clenched her hands nervously, while Li Zhong held his breath.

A moment later, in the dark water beneath the hole, shadows seemed to be drawn by the tiny particles of food and began cautiously approaching.