The morning light was just beginning to break.
Wang Heihou climbed out of bed amidst his old man's sharp gaze and scolding, and was washing his face with his buttocks stuck out in the air.
Suddenly, voices drifted over from not far away.
"Well, well! How rare, the Lu family kid actually caught a fish!"
"That's right! Auntie Liu!"
"Impressive, impressive!"
"The Lu family can have meat for dinner tonight!"
...
Without even finishing washing his face, Wang Heihou went shirtless and bolted outside, only to see a petite figure striding toward the village entrance.
In her hand, she was carrying a fish three or four fingers wide.
Judging by how it was caught not long ago, the fish was not yet dead, twisting its tail from time to time.
Wang Heihou rubbed his eyes, took a few more steps forward, and blocked the morning glare with the shade of an overhead shadow before he could clearly see the other person's face.
"Erdan! How on earth did you catch a fish?!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs.
Lu Changsheng paused his steps, walked over toward Heihou, and smiled. "I got lucky! Just happened to run into a small school of fish swimming close by!"
Wang Heihou immediately turned green with envy.
He was skilled at catching fish and knew that in such situations it was indeed easy to make a catch, so he didn't dwell on it too much.
Turning around, he went off to drag his buddies along to catch fish.
Lu Changsheng chuckled softly, bypassed the crowded paths, and walked toward home.
Mother Lu was busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
Xiao Heitu wobbled as she picked up firewood from the ground and handed it to Mother Lu.
Suddenly, the front gate creaked open with a squeak.
"Xiao Heitu!"
"Brother!"
Without even turning her head, Xiao Heitu laboriously picked up a small piece of firewood from the ground.
Lu Changsheng hurried over, feeling a mixture of heartache and amusement, and held the fish right up in front of Xiao Heitu.
Thud!
"Aish! What dropped?!" Xiao Heitu got a fright, causing the small piece of wood in her arms to fall to the ground.
She lowered her head to search for the culprit, and then suddenly froze.
"Wow! A fish~"
"A fish fell from the sky!"
Too excited to bother picking up the firewood anymore, Xiao Heitu lunged forward and pinned the fish beneath her body.
Whether the fish felt the unbearable weight or not, it began to struggle violently, flinging wood shavings all over Xiao Heitu's face.
Yet Xiao Heitu cared nothing for that, hugging the fish tightly to her chest as she stumbled back to her feet.
"Aish, Brother! A fish fell from the sky!"
She looked at Lu Changsheng behind her, her eyes curving into crescent moons.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah! Look, it's right in my arms! Shall we ask Mother to make us fish soup for dinner tonight?"
"Alright!"
Happily clutching the fish, Xiao Heitu trotted toward the kitchen.
Before long, the sound of the old mother's laughter drifted out from the kitchen.
Lu Changsheng turned his head for a glance and saw the expression on Father Lu's face soften as he prepared his farming tools.
"You've had it hard. Go get a good rest at home later! We'll handle the farm work!"
Lu Changsheng did not refuse.
His physique was indeed poor. If the virtual panel could reflect physical fitness, he probably didn't even have two-thirds of the attributes of a normal peer.
"If only I could study!"
Lu Changsheng sighed.
"Sigh~ For now, we still need to build up your health as much as possible. Even if we can't restore a healthy person's foundation, at the very least we mustn't let it get any worse!"
...
After finishing his breakfast, Lu Changsheng stepped outside.
Just as he reached the village entrance, he saw a few people standing there, seemingly waiting for something.
Those people were neatly dressed, and the texture of their clothes looked quite fine—at least not the coarse cloth worn by ordinary folks.
"It's Erdan!"
"Uncle Zhao!"
A middle-aged man turned his head to glance at Lu Changsheng.
After exchanging a greeting, he went back to sitting on the stone stool nearby.
"So, they're from the Zhao family!"
Lu Changsheng thought to himself.
The Zhao family was a prominent surname in Zhao Family Village.
Several households among them were absolute elites of Zhao Family Village, and heaven knows how many maidens wanted to marry into the Zhao family.
Earlier, someone had even introduced someone from the Zhao family to his younger sister Heitu, wanting her to go over as a child bride.
However, not all households in the Zhao family had good conditions, and after careful consideration, Father and Mother Lu had turned it down.
Xiao Heitu was remarkably sensible, and they couldn't bear to part with her anymore.
"Uncle Zhao, who is it that you're waiting for?"
"Haha, waiting for a person of distinction!" Zhao Deshui, usually so stern, managed a rare trace of a smile.
Just as his voice trailed off, a carriage drove in from outside the village.
Although it was merely the most ordinary rosewood carriage, it still brought a palpable sense of pressure to the residents of Zhao Family Village.
A carriage alone, discounting the horse, cost several taels of silver—an amount an ordinary family would probably only earn in the better part of a lifetime.
The members of the Zhao family hurried forward to greet it.
Lu Changsheng looked toward some of the onlookers gathering around for the spectacle and asked, "Uncle, who is the person in that carriage?"
"Zhao Deshui's own younger sister. I heard she married a master in Heishan Prefecture as a concubine. Tsk tsk, extraordinary! Look at the airs that master puts on—studying books really is a fine path!"
"If only I could send a child to study, maybe they could end up becoming a master themselves one day!"
...
The entire street was filled with envious and animated chatter.
The carriage sat high, and once it entered the village, it rolled straight to Zhao Deshui's house before coming to a halt.
A woman stepped down from the carriage.
To call her a matron, she was actually not very old. Lu Changsheng estimated she was just a little past twenty, and she looked rather pleasant.
At least, unlike some of the shrewish women in the village who smelled of loose-tongued gossip before they even opened their mouths.
One could tell that the family discipline of this Zhao household was somewhat different from the other families in the village.
By evening, some rumors began to circulate through the village.
That younger sister of Zhao Deshui had left behind a fair amount of money and goods for the family, and even mentioned that she could arrange for young men from the Zhao family to go to Heishan Prefecture to study and learn characters.
This news instantly detonated the entire village.
Before nightfall had even fully descended, people started running toward the Zhao family's house carrying various food items.
"Erdan! Heitu!"
Father Lu had not been idle either.
He made a rare move of taking out his cherished dry tobacco, took a few fierce puffs, put it back away, and then—as if having finally made up his mind—took a small piece of cloth from the head of the bed, which was wrapped with some silver coins.
Reaching the courtyard, he called out Lu Changsheng and Lu Heitu.
"Coming, Dad!"
Lu Changsheng pulled Heitu along as they walked out.
When they reached outside the front gate, Father Lu paused to think, then called out his eldest son, Lu Haozi.
"You're coming too. Once we get there, be sharp!"
Father Lu cast a glance at Lu Haozi.
"Or... maybe I shouldn't go!"
"Nonsense! Who knows what that master is thinking? What if he happens to take a fancy to someone like you?"
Father Lu said with absolute finality.
He held absolute authority in the household, leaving Lu Haozi with no way to refuse. With no other choice, Lu Haozi followed Father Lu straight to Zhao Deshui's house.
Although Lu Changsheng felt the odds of success in such a matter were rather slim, he knew this still counted as an opportunity, so he kept his thoughts to himself.
Only when they arrived in front of Zhao Deshui's house did they realize that nothing would likely come of this affair.
People were packed tightly in front of Zhao Deshui's door, every single one of them villagers.
Clearly, these people harbored the exact same idea as Father Lu, all hoping to win the backing of that formidable master.