Chapter 41: The Old Man Fishing

To be honest, I really didn't expect Old Chen to ask me to agree to such a thing...

So for a moment, I didn't even know how to respond, and just stared blankly at Old Chen.

With a stern face, Old Chen looked at me and continued, "Sanqi! What's in the past should stay in the past! There's no need to dig into every little detail and get to the bottom of it! Spend three years hunting in the Greater Khingan Mountains, make some money selling furs, take a wife, buy a house, and live out a peaceful life—that's actually a pretty good way to live!"

Hearing Old Chen say this, I lowered my head and took deep, sputtering puffs of my cigarette.

Seeing that I remained silent, Old Chen finally let out another sigh.

"Sanqi, if you obsess over hatred, in the end, that hatred will consume you!"

Gritting my teeth, I suddenly raised my head to meet his gaze and spoke, word by word, "Old Chen, what will happen if I don't agree?"

Old Chen was startled at first, then gave a bitter smile. "Sanqi, it doesn't really matter even if you don't agree. After all, everyone has their own path to walk! The day before you entered the mountains, I told you: once you step into the trade of a hunter, you are essentially walking the path of the netherworld, and you can never turn back for the rest of your life. But right now, Sanqi, you still have one chance to turn back..."

Before Old Chen could finish, I shook my head resolutely.

"No way! Old Chen, I am not turning back!"

Just as my voice fell—

High up on the distant mountain peak, a brilliant ray of light pierced the summit. Like holy light, it slowly began to illuminate the dark and gloomy Greater Khingan Mountains.

At that exact moment, Old Chen and I stopped our conversation and simultaneously raised our heads to look at that solitary beam of light.

"The sun is coming out!" Old Chen looked at the light, speaking with a melancholic tone.

...

After packing up our belongings, the two of us resumed our trek toward Duizifang. In my estimation, we should be able to reach it before dark.

After walking in the mountains for about six or seven hours, I suddenly felt a piercing pain with every step, and I began to limp.

Old Chen clearly noticed my abnormality and had me sit down on a nearby tree stump. When I took off my shoes, I was shocked by what I saw.

My feet were densely covered with massive blood blisters, each the size of a marble... and some had even begun to fester.

I was rather proud and kept waving my hands at Old Chen, insisting that I was fine and we could just keep going.

However, Old Chen sternly stopped me. "Sanqi, let me tell you, deep in the old forests, this is no laughing matter! If you don't treat these blood blisters properly, they will get infected, inflame, and fester—and worst-case scenario, you might end up needing an amputation!"

"Ah? Amputation? Is it really that serious?" Hearing the gravity in Old Chen's tone, my heart began to flutter with anxiety. "Then what should we do now?"

Old Chen narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before telling me, "It's fine. When I first came into the mountains, it was the same for me. You just have to puncture the blisters! Sit here, I'll take care of it."

With that, Old Chen used a trenching tool to clear a small patch of ground nearby, lit a campfire, and placed his dagger into the flames to burn...

Meanwhile, I sat on the tree stump, watching him busy himself.

A bit embarrassed, I said, "Thank you, Master."

Old Chen's movements faltered instantly. He sighed and told me, "Sanqi, I told you long ago! In this world, no one can be your master."

"Why?"

Old Chen turned his head to look at me. "Because you belong to the Lin family of falconers!"

I opened my mouth, a wave of astonishment washing over me.

Although I knew my family had indeed enjoyed great glory long ago, that was during the Yuan Dynasty, several hundred years in the past.

It had nothing to do with the present!

Besides, in my memory, my parents lived in a simple three-room brick house in the village, remaining taciturn every day, doing nothing except occasionally teaching me the art of falconry.

Come to think of it, it didn't feel like a prestigious, wealthy household at all.

Yet, judging by Old Chen's words, it sounded as if my family was some kind of legendary powerhouse.

...

Unfortunately.

No matter how I hinted or directly questioned Old Chen about what kind of background the falconer Lin family actually had, and whether they were truly that formidable, he never gave me a direct answer. He only calmly told me that when I grew up... I would know.

Ten minutes later, Old Chen picked up the dagger roasted over the campfire, took a gulp of liquor, and spat it directly onto my feet...

The moment the first blister was pierced, I felt nothing but agonizing, heart-pudding pain...

Yet I gritted my teeth and endured it in total silence.

Looking at me in mild astonishment, Old Chen joked, "Not bad, Sanqi! I wouldn't have guessed you had such endurance. I remember when I first came into the mountains, having my blisters pierced made me holler for a whole day!"

I could feel my cheeks trembling, and beads of sweat rolled from my forehead down to the corner of my mouth, tasting salty.

"It... it doesn't hurt!"

That was just the kind of person I was.

As a youth, I might not have had many other skills, but my greatest talent was having a stubborn mouth.

Once Old Chen finished piercing all the blisters, he gathered some puffball mushrooms from beneath the rotting leaves on the ground and applied them to my wounds. As he smeared them on, Old Chen explained that these things had anti-inflammatory and hemostatic effects, which made them incredibly useful in the old forests.

They were called puffballs simply because their shape resembled horse droppings.

Finally, Old Chen tore a few strips of cloth and wrapped my feet.

When I put my shoes back on, although there was still occasional stinging, it was nowhere near as difficult to walk as before.

"There! That should do it! Rest for a day after we get back, and you'll be able to keep walking!" he said softly, looking at me.

After thoroughly extinguishing the campfire, we resumed our journey. Perhaps out of concern for me, the two backpacks I had been carrying were now hoisted onto Old Chen's back.

...

After marching for another hour or so, the previously clear sky abruptly turned gloomy. Old Chen squinted at the sky and urged me to walk faster, saying a hailstorm was coming.

Startled, I hurriedly asked, "Old Chen, how do you even know whether it's going to hail or rain?"

Old Chen didn't answer, simply pressing me to pick up the pace.

Ten minutes later, just as Duizifang came into view, hailstones began to patter down around us. Covering my head, I instinctively sped up.

However, right as we were about to reach Duizifang, Old Chen, who was walking directly in front of me, suddenly came to a halt.

"Wait! Sanqi!"

I quickly asked, "What is it? What happened?"

After a brief moment of thought, Old Chen stepped aside and said to me, "Sanqi, look... by the stream... is there an old man fishing?"

I froze.

Wait, what kind of place was this? Deep inside the Greater Khingan Mountains, how could there possibly be an old man fishing? Yet, when I cast my gaze forward, I was struck completely dumb.

Right there in front of Duizifang, sitting upon a large boulder by the stream, was an elderly man with a long face, wearing a straw raincoat and a wide bamboo hat... holding a fishing rod, and truly, genuinely fishing.