Windfall!

His skin had grown smoother, his frame a little sturdier. A little over two hours later, the warmth in his stomach faded, and with most of the fish digested, Liang Qu studied his reflection against the water and found that he had become better-looking. He was still a touch dark, but his formerly rough skin had turned much finer, giving him a dashing air. He clenched his fist and could plainly feel the extra strength; when he swung it, the air whistled with force. If Liang Qu had grown up on coarse grain, bran, and greens, then after eating the treasure fish he had grown up on meat, eggs, and milk — the same healthy development, but of an entirely different caliber, with a whole different bearing to match. It felt wonderful. Being filled with strength from head to toe was tremendous. He could jump higher, run faster, breathe slower — as if his entire body had lightened. "No wonder a single treasure fish wins the favor of martial masters. It's simply a divine thing for consolidating the foundation and nurturing vitality, nourishing the spirit and forging the body. If I got a hundred of them, I probably wouldn't need to enter any martial hall at all — I'd break into that rigmarole of the four gates of skin, flesh, bone, and blood all on my own." Liang Qu stood, put his clothes back on, and once he confirmed the flush of over-nourishment had faded from his face, he rowed back to the wharf without much effort, impatient to sell the treasure fish in hand and turn it into the means of advancement. But before he even reached the shore to pay the mooring fee, he saw from a distance that a great crowd had gathered on the bank, buzzing with excitement. What day was it? Hadn't the Moon Offering already passed last month? What festival was this that he didn't know about? Liang Qu set down the oars, picked up the punting pole, and poled toward the wharf; someone would come over to collect the fee. He fished two wen from his pocket and paid, then hugged his fish basket and looked around the crowd, spotting the rather tall Li Libo at a glance. Sure enough — wherever there was a spectacle, there he was, an old-fashioned fun-seeker through and through. He hauled him out with one hand and asked, "What's going on?" "Hey — who—" Pulled out of the crowd, Li Libo wore a face full of grievance, but the enormous strength clamped on his wrist left him unable to resist. He bared his teeth as he was dragged free, turned to look, and saw it was Liang Qu. "Oh, it's you, brat. What have you been taking, that your grip's this strong?" Liang Qu ignored that. "You still haven't told me. What's with all those people?" "Hey, you've come at just the right time — someone at our wharf caught a treasure fish! Shaped like a snakehead but flushed red all over, weighing two jin three taels six qian. Someone caught one before, a red perch or something? One jin fetched a whole tael of silver." Li Libo was smug and proud, as if he had caught the treasure fish himself, completely failing to notice the change in Liang Qu's expression. Treasure fish were neither plentiful nor scarce — every wharf had a lucky soul or two each month. But Liang Qu hadn't imagined it could be this coincidental: just as he was about to sell his, someone else's turned up. Fortunately it didn't matter. Treasure fish were already in short supply, and the collision wouldn't hurt. Maybe the martial master would buy two at once and, delighted, pay a little extra. Seeing how many people were around, Liang Qu cleared his throat and called out, "Our Shangrao Landing is truly blessed by the River God — two treasure fish hauled up in a single day!" Li Libo, standing closest, winced at the shout. "What nonsense are you spouting? Chen Jiechang only caught one treasure fish!" Just then the crowd's eyes swung over. Liang Qu lifted his fish basket, gripped the fish by its gills, and hoisted the ox-horn pomfret up high. "The second one I mean isn't his — it's mine!" Whoa! The onlookers burst into an uproar. The big concentric ring around him turned, in a blink, into a double circle. "Isn't that just an ordinary pomfret?" "Not a pomfret — look closely! That fish has horns on its head!" "It's true! Horns on its head — it really is a treasure fish, it is!" Once the people around had confirmed it, the already lively wharf boiled over with voices, and more and more people crowded in, hoping to glimpse the treasure fish's splendor. The treasure fish they had heard of before were all unusual in color or markings. Today there was actually a strangely shaped one, with horns growing from its head! "Who caught it?" "It's Ah Shui, Old Liang's boy! He's a terror at fishing — thirty-odd fish every day." "Old Liang? The one who died last month? Talk about luck." "The Liang family wasn't fated to die out after all!" "Damn! One treasure fish is months of rice for me! If I ever caught one, I could die without regret." "If you caught one, the money would still end up with the old madam in the back alley! Hahahaha!" The crowd was in fine ferment. It was exceedingly rare for two treasure fish to be caught at one wharf on the same day, and everyone tried to soak up a share of the luck. Liang Qu looked around and found envy and naked longing in every pair of eyes. He had never imagined the descriptions in novels could be true — that he could see it with his own eyes. "Ah Shui, I've got an unmarried daughter at home. How about I promise her to you?" "Uncle Chen Yi, isn't your girl only nine?" Seeing that the speaker was Chen Yi, whom he had met once before, Liang Qu was left utterly dumbfounded. "His family won't do — not worthy of a fine-looking lad like you. Come to my place and let me show you my daughter." "Oh, give it a rest, Shi Lao'er. Yours is already eighteen." "Don't you know the saying? A wife three years older is a gold brick in your arms." Chen Qingjiang could raise a whole household on one man's earnings, and an orphan as handsome as Liang Qu, with such formidable fishing skill, was the hottest of hot property. Any family with a daughter wanted a bite of him. Thinking of the carriage that had swerved away from him when he first arrived — not even a month had passed, and Liang Qu now understood just how completely fortunes could turn. But he bore them no grudge. When you're poor, you can only look after yourself; such was the helpless lot of those at the bottom. Amid the crowd's jostling, the two circles squeezed back into one. Liang Qu caught sight of Chen Jiechang, who had caught the other treasure fish — around twenty, tall and lean, his skin just as dark. No fisherman was ever pale. The man was a famous expert of Shangrao Landing, better even than Uncle Chen, taking in over a hundred wen a day. When Chen Jiechang saw Liang Qu, with his moment in the spotlight split between two, he naturally felt a flash of displeasure — but only a flash. He kept smiling all the same. Such was the joy of country folk: if I live better than you, I feel good; if not, I feel bad. In his past life, Liang Qu had a second uncle. After Liang Qu finished high school and won a place at a famous university, the man went around with a sour face all day — all because Liang Qu had tested better than the man's grandson. At every meeting it was 'the major matters more than the school,' and after graduation the line turned into 'out in society, it's connections that count.' The two men eyed each other's treasure fish. Chen Jiechang's was much like a snakehead, only an entirely different color — vermilion from head to tail, as if cast from fresh blood. A fine color, at that. "The Martial Master is coming! The Martial Master is here!" "Make way! Make way!" "The Martial Master has come to see the treasure fish!" The crowd fell back, and Liang Qu and Chen Jiechang looked up to find three men, all visibly taller and broader than the common folk around them, their backs held ramrod straight. So these were martial masters? More likely just martial practitioners. Only those who broke through the four gates could be called martial masters; those who hadn't were merely martial practitioners. Even all of Pingyang Town had only a handful of martial masters. Ordinary people, with little learning, naturally lumped the two together — or perhaps they knew the difference and simply went on calling them that anyway. Of the three, the man in front introduced himself: surnamed Hu, down from Pingyang Town to Yixing on business. Hearing there were treasure fish at the wharf, he had come for a look; if they were genuine, he would pay to buy them. Chen Jiechang hurried forward. "Martial Master, have a look at mine." Martial Master Hu came up to Chen Jiechang and glanced at the fish. "Red-blood perch. How much does it weigh?" Chen Jiechang said tensely, "Two jin seven taels six qian!" "Three taels of silver. Sell or not?" "Sell, sell, sell!" Chen Jiechang beamed. Three taels of silver — more than a year's worth of grain. Last month the three-jin-six-tael tiger-head grouper at the neighboring wharf had gone for only three taels five qian. Reckoned that way, his red-blood perch was worth more! Martial Master Hu took the fish and paid without weighing it at all, clearly confident that no one would dare cheat him. He came to Liang Qu next, and at the sight of the two horns on the pomfret's head, surprise crossed his face. "An ox-horn pomfret? Rare, that. How much does it weigh?" Watching Martial Master Hu's expression, Liang Qu dipped his head slightly. "Three jin two taels one qian." While the crowd had been packed around gawking, he had already had someone help weigh it. There would be no mistake. "Six taels five qian. Sell or not?" "Six taels?" Beside him, Chen Jiechang stopped dead in his tracks, and the fishermen around went pin-drop silent.