Three baskets full of fish were brought down from the boat, catching the eyes of the gathered fishermen, especially when the conspicuous Tiger Head Spotted Fish appeared, it sparked a small flurry of chatter.
"Whose boat is this? Must have hit a school of fish, right? Such good luck, wow, there's even a Tiger Head!"
"Don't recognize it, looks vaguely familiar though. There's only a few well-known skilled guys on the wharf, but this boat doesn't seem to fit the bill, does it?"
"Isn't this Ashui's little sampan? That leper insisted on exchanging it."
"Who's Ashui?"
"You forgot, Liang Dajiang's boy, the strikingly handsome one."
"He's still alive? Wasn't he turned into an orphan? Last time I saw him trying to borrow grain, he was even chased out."
"Shh, the kid's living well, what nonsense are you talking about?"
Hearing this, the fishermen present showed some surprise, clearly not having expected an orphan to be able to survive on his own, quite a rare sight indeed.
"Tsk tsk tsk, he's also a child of misfortune. Luckily, it looks like he can fend for himself now, not easy at all."
"Looks like our wharf might have another skilled fisherman soon! Shame it isn't my kid, doesn't have an ounce of ambition in him."
The fishermen lamented for a while, envious and chattering among themselves, but upon seeing the baskets taken into the fish shop, they gradually dispersed.
It's hard for orphans to survive, and although it's rare to do so alone, it really wasn't their business; a bit of excitement, nothing more, as if the kid would achieve anything great in the future?
On the other side, Lin Baosong weighed the fish and did the calculations, "Including the Tiger Head, that's one hundred and thirty-two cents, how about I make it one hundred thirty-five for you?"
"Just give me a tenth of a Silver Coin plus ten cents," Liang Qu negotiated.
"A tenth of a Silver Coin?" Lin Songbao pondered thoughtfully.
In recent years, with stable prices, the official exchange rate was about one thousand copper coins for one tael of Silver, but Silver held its value better, and surely a thousand copper coins would not be enough for a tael of Silver; you'd need about one thousand one hundred and twenty.
One hundred and twenty-five cents for a tenth of a Silver Coin, that was a slight profit.
With this in mind, Lin Songbao agreed, took back the string of copper coins he had pulled out, and exchanged them for a piece of Silver and ten copper coins.
"Keep it safe."
"Mhm."
After leaving the fish shop, Liang Qu followed his usual routine and went to the foot shop to eat, sticking to the same old three dishes, while pondering as he ate.
"I've got two taels and three tenths now, just missing four taels and seven tenths to have enough for the Martial Arts School. If I can save one hundred cents each day, it'll just take two months. But it's too conspicuous; if I do it, it's got to be a gradual progress."
With the help of the Fat Catfish, Liang Qu's daily catch was higher than the average fisherman's, but only a few days ago, he was at thirty cents a day. Suddenly jumping up was too suspicious; he needed some time to adjust.
As for why he suddenly sold for over one hundred cents today, who doesn't have the occasional stroke of luck with a school of fish?
Like catching Yellowfish, once or twice doesn't matter, but more frequently, one would need a plausible excuse.
"Moreover, with the end of autumn tax season approaching, the tax money is also a problem. Two months is completely insufficient. Not being able to pay the taxes means getting caught and sent to labor service, goddammit, this feudal society."
Liang Qu had a clear plan for his future; he had to learn martial arts.
Not just to see how big the world is in this lifetime, but also because of the looming shadow of Zhao Manor.
That damned Lao Bi Deng, hanging over his head like a Sword of Damocles.
Liang Qu furiously polished off his last bite of food, settled his bill, and returned home, collapsing onto his bed.
"I wish I could catch a Treasure Fish like the Tiger Head Spotted Fish."
He thought about how last month someone at the neighboring wharf caught a five-pound Tiger Head Spotted Fish and sold it for a sky-high price of three taels and five tenths of Silver to a martial master at the market.
Such fish were wondrous for fortifying the body; one fish could save a Martial Artist over a month's worth of effort and might be even more valuable than the Treasure Plant Lotus Root he had discovered.
Just as Liang Qu was considering whether to spend some time having the Six-Whisker Catfish look around, suddenly a loud commotion came from outside, but it quickly subsided.
"Ah, another quarrel..."
Small places are like that; if a household raises their voices too loud, the entire neighborhood hears every detail.
Liang Qu thought to himself that, with money, he definitely would buy a big mansion with multiple courtyards, and then hire ten beautiful maids with slender waists and long legs, fair-skinned and lovely, cooing gently as they served tea, and he'd live the life of a gentleman.
"Bang, bang, bang."
The knocking on the door interrupted his daydream. Liang Qu got up, puzzled; it couldn't be Zheng Xiang again, could it?
"Who is it?"
"Me."
The visitor used some superfluous wording, but Liang Qu hastened to open the door; he was all too familiar with that voice and could not afford to forget it.
As he opened the door, Liang Qu saw Chen Qingjiang with a grim expression, thrusting a small cloth bag into his hands and turning to leave without a word.
"Uncle Chen! What's this?"
Liang Qu didn't even have the chance to catch up; the figure had already returned home. He could only open the cloth bag to find, to his surprise, it was filled with rice, a decent amount too, weighing about five or six pounds.
In a flash, he understood everything.
To earn a little more, Uncle Chen walked more than ten miles every day to sell fish in town. He was also an honest man, probably completely unaware that Liang Qu had the ability to fend for himself now and must have thought he was still having a hard time.
"This... is unnecessary."
Liang Qu sighed. He could never forget the grace of a single pancake.
Without it, he might've starved to death at home long ago, always too occupied with martial arts training to earn any silver for the autumn tax.
The argument just now must've been between Uncle Chen and his wife, he thought.
Liang Qu felt extremely ashamed.
After delivering the rice, Chen Qingjiang returned home to a still-silent atmosphere.
His wife, Adi, sat sulking alone in the corner of the room, not even giving her husband a glance, but burying her head in her sewing. If it were any other time, she wouldn't mind giving away rice, but their youngest son had been ill recently, and although he was cured, their savings were depleted, and they still had to pay the taxes for three people come autumn.
Wasn't this just putting on airs?
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The flickering candlelight inside the room cast a gloomy red hue on the walls.
After a while, Chen Qingjiang suddenly stood up. The flame, pushed by the movement, dipped low, causing Adi to almost prick her hand. She looked up angrily, only to feel her body suddenly lighten.
Adi was stunned and mortified, "What are you doing now?"
Chen Qingjiang, holding his wife, bent down to blow out the candle with a resounding bellow, "Go to sleep!"
"The eldest and the second are sleeping!"
"Two little pigs, what's there to fear?"
Adi's mind went blank, her face flushed, the irritation from before gone.
This is how you handle a woman.
...
Outside the door, hearing noises from inside the house, Liang Qu retracted his hand from knocking, his expression embarrassed.
He had wanted to apologize for causing a marital dispute, but ended up walking in on such an awkward situation.
Lifting the rice sack in his hands, Liang Qu could only bring it back home, planning to return it later.
...
For the next half a month, Liang Qu sold fish at the wharf, gradually increasing his daily catch.
His earnings rose from forty cents to eighty, promoting his image as a promising young fisherman.
An average fisherman made around sixty to seventy cents a day, while experienced middle-aged fishermen like Chen Qingjiang could make eighty. Only a few exceptional ones could earn more than a hundred.
Liang Qu, at fifteen or sixteen years of age and an orphan, achieving this feat was astonishing to the fishermen who knew him.
Suddenly, he gained some fame, along with plenty of envy and admiration.
Yet, something strange was afoot.
In recent days, Liang Qu tried to visit Uncle Chen's home to repay the rice but never found anyone there.
It seemed as if the family left to work at the crack of dawn, perfectly missing him each time, quite baffling.
Logically, this shouldn't be the case. Could it be that even Adi had gone to work? Were there no one left at home, and the children had to tag along?
With thoughts weighing on his mind, Liang Qu made his way to the wharf, only to unexpectedly see someone he didn't want to encounter.
Matchmaker...
His recent performances had caught the matchmaker's attention, and she'd been visiting three times now, attempting to arrange a match!
"I've said that I have no immediate plans for marriage."
Liang Qu swiftly stepped onto his boat, untied the mooring rope, and rowed away quickly.
His hasty departure suggested urgency, leading the fishermen on the shore to assume that Liang Qu was just shy, chuckling among themselves.
"Don't be too hard on Ashui, he's still just a kid!"
"Probably doesn't even understand the worth of a woman!"
"What a pity, maybe you should introduce her to me?"
"Old bachelor, go play with eggs!"
Liang Qu hadn't anticipated that showing off his "fishing talent" at the wharf would make him so sought-after on the marriage market. He didn't relax until the wharf was out of sight.
Once he reached the Lotus Root Waters, he slapped the water with his paddle.
The massive Zhupo Dragon slowly surfaced, shaking its tail at the sight of the boat and clambering onto its edge with its claws.
Seeing no one around, Liang Qu took up his fishing net and the pig bladder filled with air and dived into the water.
Man and beast searched underwater for the presence of Fatty.
Liang Qu's daily catch limit was about a hundred and fifty cents, but he could only show eighty. The rest of his time was spent searching for Treasure Fish, with the Fat Catfish never given a moment's reprieve.
But the Treasure Fish were elusive, unseen for days, until just now when a telepathic link from Fatty brought news—they found the Treasure Fish!