Reservoir Anecdotes

After watching the cars turn and head up the mountain, Chen Jue followed at a leisurely pace.

He had only just finished dinner, so strenuous exercise was still out of the question. Although he had spent a while at home letting his food settle, running up the mountain would still have been a bit much.

After ten minutes or so of leisurely walking, he reached the temple at the reservoir entrance and saw the SUVs parked side by side in its courtyard.

Everyone getting out of the cars was middle-aged, in their forties or fifties, apart from two young women around Chen Jue's age. They were chattering excitedly and taking pictures of everything, clearly thrilled at the prospect of spending the night in the mountains.

"Sweetheart! Stop taking pictures for a moment and help me carry these boxes over," called the man who had asked for directions.

"Coming, Dad!" replied the girl taking pictures, before going over to help carry their things.

The people from the other cars were unloading camping tents, fishing rods, cooking equipment, ingredients, drinking water, and so on. They had come thoroughly prepared and clearly had plenty of experience.

Chen Jue took a few curious glances as he passed the temple, then turned onto a side path leading toward the dam.

He had only taken a few steps when the middle-aged visitors behind him, already panting a little from carrying their gear, called out, "Hey, young man! Could you give us a hand?"

Chen Jue stopped and glanced back at their bags and bundles. They really had brought quite a lot.

Wanting to leave a good impression, he went over and picked up two fairly heavy boxes. He also pointed out a place where they could camp. "There's an open patch below the dam over there where you can camp, fish, and build a fire. I'll take some of your things over first."

"Great! Thank you, young man! I'll transfer you some money later for your trouble," the middle-aged man wearing a gold watch said with a grateful smile.

"No, no, it's only a short walk. There's no need to pay me."

With that, Chen Jue strode off briskly. In a flash, he had vanished down the path, leaving the anglers still pushing their flatbed carts and lugging their bags staring in astonishment.

"That young man has some stamina! He can walk that fast carrying all those things!"

"He probably lives out here and comes up to exercise all the time! He's certainly in better shape than us old fossils." The middle-aged men began talking over one another.

They probably never would have guessed that Chen Jue also had four kilograms of sandbags strapped to his body.

Of course, his familiarity with the reservoir was not the only reason he could move so quickly. His attributes had also improved dramatically.

His constitution of 1.57 alone was enough to leave these city dwellers with their comfortable lives in the dust.

After carrying the boxes to a suitable campsite, Chen Jue went back once more and led the whole group of a dozen or so visitors over.

Although they had all the equipment and considerable experience with fishing and camping in the wild, it was obvious that they rarely exercised. Even with flatbed carts to help, they were all panting after carrying that little bit of gear less than three or four hundred meters.

Even if they did exercise occasionally, they were no match for a freak like Chen Jue.

The two young women in their twenties, in particular, kept complaining. It was obvious they rarely visited overgrown countryside like this.

Chen Jue, by contrast, had carried several large boxes over and still come back to help. That alone showed how far his stamina surpassed an ordinary person's.

After spending over ten minutes leading everyone to the pitch-dark campsite, Chen Jue watched the anglers set up lights, pitch tents, put up a canopy, and build a fire. Then he said goodbye and took a roundabout path up onto the nearby reservoir dam.

Helping others was all well and good, but he could not forget what he had come here to do.

How could fishing and barbecuing possibly be as fun as practicing martial arts?

Standing in the cool breeze at the center of the dam, Chen Jue removed his weights and began going through several sets of Boat Boxing, paying no attention to anyone else.

The dam was just over three hundred meters from the campsite in a straight line, and it was illuminated by downlights and strip lighting. Anyone with sharp enough eyes could tell at a glance that Chen Jue was doing some sort of exercise up there.

But the dozen or so visitors were clearly busy with their own activities and barely looked his way.

Only after more than half an hour had passed, when the tents and canopy were all up and the campfire had been lit, did Chen Jue get the faint sense that someone was watching him.

Am I imagining things? Chen Jue wondered, puzzled.

But he was not imagining it at all!

At the campsite, a middle-aged visitor had raised a pair of binoculars and spent quite a while watching Chen Jue on the dam. "Well, would you look at that! This young fellow practices martial arts!"

"What? Martial arts?"

"People still practice that stuff these days?"

"Now that's something you don't see every day! Let me have a look!"

The middle-aged men found it entertaining and passed the binoculars around, watching Chen Jue perform his boxing routines through the lenses.

"Tsk, tsk!"

"He really is practicing martial arts!"

"I never thought we'd find a young man like that out here in the countryside!"

"I thought he had unusually good stamina when he helped us carry our things earlier. Turns out he practices kung fu." The group chatted and laughed, finding it all quite novel.

But the novelty wore off as quickly as it had arrived.

To them, practicing martial arts was no different from working out at a gym. It was just another way to stay fit, nothing remarkable.

A few of them occasionally practiced tai chi for their health, and none had developed any real fighting skills.

So after watching through the binoculars for a while and satisfying their curiosity, they went back to fishing, tending the fire, and preparing a late-night meal, each busy with their own tasks.

The two young women in the group, however, could not sit still. After amusing themselves around camp for a while, they decided to climb onto the dam together to enjoy the view.

Seeing Chen Jue so absorbed in his boxing that he seemed oblivious to everything around him, they watched from a distance rather than approach and disturb him. Finding it fun and interesting, they took out their phones, recorded a short video of him practicing, and sent it to their group chat with their girlfriends.

"Look! There's a handsome country boy here who knows kung fu!"

"Anyone interested? I'll go ask for his number for you!"

The WeChat group immediately erupted with chatter. Some made jokes, some urged them to go get his number, and others said he looked bright and lively. Handsome, however, was a stretch.

After all, Chen Jue had yet to shed his excess weight. He still had a little belly and a layer of chub around his face. Although all his attributes had improved considerably, he was still a long way from regaining his youthful looks.

Noticing that someone was secretly filming him, Chen Jue immediately stopped practicing. He glanced at the two fresh-faced young women his age and gave them a faint smile, then turned and descended the sluice-gate steps on the other side. Right in front of them, he jumped aboard the little boat.

Chen Jue intended to see whether he could practice the Eight Immortals Stance out in the middle of the reservoir at night, when visibility was poor!