"Hey, don't run!"
In a simple yard enclosed by a wooden fence, Little Yan was chasing after a butterfly, her tiny legs scuttling along.
Lu Qing, meanwhile, sat on a stone stool, holding a plant with small red flowers and studying it intently.
At that moment, the plant in his view, adorned with red blossoms, gave off a faint white light. Two lines of text hovered above it.
[Cow Bone Grass: Average quality, can be used medicinally.]
[It seems to be quite effective for bone injuries and might come in handy if injured.]
Lu Qing spent some time piecing together the puzzle of the mysterious text he was seeing.
In simple terms, it seemed that his ability might stem from the fact that he had crossed into this world. He had developed a superpower.
The main manifestation of this superpower, for now, was that as long as he focused his gaze on an object for a certain period of time, the object would emit a glow with a simple textual description appearing alongside it.
Moreover, the longer the gaze was held, the more detailed the information became. However, this information wasn't limitless—there appeared to be some kind of standard.
Lu Qing tentatively guessed that this standard might be linked to the intensity of the glow emanating from the object.
Objects with a gray glow only produced one line of text, no matter how long he looked.
Objects with a white glow yielded two or more lines of text.
And the Cow Bone Grass in his hand was the only plant near the yard that emitted a white glow.
*What is this, some kind of game interface?* Lu Qing thought, recalling some map-navigation games he occasionally played in his past life.
After mulling it over, he beckoned, "Little Yan, come here."
"Brother, what's up?"
The little one cheerfully trotted over.
"Let me take a look at you."
Lu Qing gently picked off a piece of dead grass stuck in her hair and let his gaze linger on her face.
Moments later, a faint layer of white light appeared around Little Yan. Floating above her was a line of text.
[Lu Xiaoyan: A human cub, female.]
*What kind of lousy description is this?!* Dark lines figuratively etched themselves across Lu Qing's forehead.
Nevertheless, he kept staring at her.
After some time, another line of text emerged.
[A pitiful human cub, she seems to be a bit malnourished.]
Lu Qing froze. He glanced at the little one's pale, yellowish hair and felt a sting of sadness creep into his heart.
"Brother, are you done looking or not?"
Little Yan tilted her head back, her face full of innocent curiosity.
"Mm, I'm done. When Little Yan grows up, she'll definitely be a great beauty."
Lu Qing tenderly ruffled her hair, his tone tinged with affection.
Little Yan tilted her head to the side, confused. "What's a great beauty?"
"Haha, you'll understand when you grow up," he replied, amused by her childlike wonder. Her sweet naivety lightened his mood considerably.
*Regardless of what lies ahead, right now, the most important thing is taking care of this little one who depends on me.*
This was the largest lingering wish left behind by the original owner of his body before his death.
To survive in this unfamiliar world, he would need to rely on his inexplicable superpower.
With that in mind, Lu Qing picked up the Cow Bone Grass and placed it in front of Little Yan.
"Little Yan, do you know what this plant is or what it's used for?"
Little Yan stared at the plant with its blue-hued flowers, scrunching up her eyebrows in deep thought for a moment, before shaking her head.
"I don't know, but Grandpa Zhang's big ox seems to really like eating this kind of grass."
Seeing her unsure response, Lu Qing chuckled. *What was I expecting?* Even the original body's memories contained no information about Cow Bone Grass; why would a child barely a few years old know?
But then, Little Yan's next sentence caught him off guard.
"Brother, if you want to find out what kind of plant this is, you can ask Grandpa Chen! Grandpa Chen loves flowers and plants. He often makes bitter water out of them for us to drink."
As she said this, Little Yan seemed to remember something unpleasant, and her small face scrunched up in distaste.
*Grandpa Chen?* Lu Qing sifted through his inherited memories. Soon enough, the image of a kindly, gaunt elder surfaced in his mind.
*Oh, that's the venerable elder doctor the village highly respects.*
*Doctor?* A spark of realization ignited in Lu Qing's mind.
Based on the text description, Cow Bone Grass was undoubtedly a medicinal herb. He wondered if Old Doctor Chen knew how to use it.
"Little Yan, did Grandpa Chen ever visit when I was sick?"
"Of course! Brother, you were sleeping all the time back then; no matter how much I called out, you wouldn't wake up. I got so scared that I kept crying. Later, Grandpa Chen came and checked on you. He said you were sick—something about catching a chill, I think—and he made bitter medicine water for you to drink. After a day, Brother woke up!"
At this point, Little Yan suddenly exclaimed in amazement, "Grandpa Chen is so amazing—Brother only drank one bowl of that bitter water, and you got better!"
Lu Qing fell silent. Only he knew the truth: the medicine prescribed by Old Doctor Chen hadn't actually saved the boy's life.
However, he now recalled the faint sensation during his period of disorientation: someone pouring something into his mouth, imparting warmth to his cold and weak body. That warmth cradled his heart and helped him endure the strange, overwhelming fusion of consciousness.
Without that, given his thin and frail frame, surviving might have been impossible.
So, yes—Old Doctor Chen was indeed skilled and indebted kindness lay in his hands.
As Lu Qing mulled over this notion further, he suddenly felt a gaze on him. Glancing down, he saw Little Yan staring up at him.
"What is it, Little Yan?"
"Brother, I'm hungry."
Lu Qing realized he was hungry too. He hadn't eaten his fill earlier; the half bun he had was long since digested.
Yet he'd already checked—there wasn't a trace of food left at home.
The grain jar was so empty that not even rats would bother visiting it. If it weren't for Grandpa Zhang's help, Little Yan might have starved during the two days he'd been unconscious.
*I owe Grandpa Zhang and Old Doctor Chen so much—I really must thank them. Without their assistance, we siblings wouldn't have survived.*
But the current state of their home was abysmal—bare walls and empty cupboards, with no gifts or gestures of gratitude to offer.
*Filling our stomachs comes first; expressing thanks can wait.*
Still, the pressing question loomed: *Where could food be found?*
Most of the land left by their late parents had been sold by the original owner of his body to afford their burial costs. What remained was barren and neglected, yielding little to no harvest.
Scraping up food from the fields wasn't an option for now.
*Distant waters won't quench immediate thirst; if I start planting now, it'll be too late. The crops won't grow fast enough before we starve.*
After contemplating this, Lu Qing entered the room once occupied by the siblings' deceased parents. He rummaged through their belongings and finally unearthed a small box containing an iron needle and some hemp thread.
The needle was thicker and sturdier than a sewing needle from his previous world. It looked incredibly durable.
Lu Qing took the needle, heated it over the fire, then pressed it with chopsticks to bend it into a hook shape. He picked out several strands of hemp thread, twisting them carefully into a single, sturdy line, fastening it securely to the hook.
From a bamboo cluster behind the house, he cut a pliable piece, tying the opposite end of the hemp thread to it.
Finally, he placed a scrap of dead wood onto the thread just above the hook to use as a float.
A simple fishing rod was thus crafted by Lu Qing.