Chapter 2: Chapter 2 Superpower
"Oh no, don't run!"
Inside the small courtyard enclosed by a simple wooden fence, Little Yan was chasing a butterfly with her short, little legs.
Lu Qing sat on a stone stump, looking at a plant with small red flowers in his hand.
At this moment, in his field of vision, the plant with the small red flowers was emitting a faint white glow, with two lines of text floating above it.
[Cow bone grass: average quality, can be used medicinally.]
[Seems to be quite effective for bone injuries, might be useful when injured.]
It had taken some time, but Lu Qing had more or less figured out what the text before his eyes was all about.
In simple terms, perhaps due to transmigration, he had acquired a superpower.
The main manifestation of this superpower for now was that whenever he concentrated his gaze on a certain item, after a while, the item would glow and a simple text description would appear.
Moreover, the longer the gaze stayed, the more information he would get, but this information wasn't unlimited; there seemed to be some standard to it.
This standard, Lu Qing guessed for the time being, probably had something to do with the glow that emerged from the items.
Items with a gray glow, no matter how long he looked, only had one strip of description.
Items with a white glow had more than two strips of description.
And the cow bone grass in Lu Qing's hands was the only plant he had found around the small courtyard that emitted a white light.
What is this, a game interface?
Lu Qing thought of some of the map-running games he had played occasionally in his previous life.
He thought about it and beckoned with his hand, "Little Yan, come here a moment."
"Brother, what is it?"
The little one ran over cheerfully.
"Brother wants to take a look at you."
Lu Qing helped the little one remove the withered grass sticking to her head and focused his gaze on her face.
After a while, a faint white glow appeared on Little Yan, and a line of text emerged above her.
[Lu Xiaoyan: a human cub, female.]
What a poor description!
Lu Qing's head throbbed with several black lines.
However, he continued to look on.
After a while, another line of text appeared.
[A pitiful human cub, she seems to be a bit malnourished.]
Lu Qing paused, looking at the little one's yellowish hair on her head, feeling somewhat silent.
"Brother, have you finished looking?"
Little Yan looked up innocently and asked.
"Yes, I have. Little Yan will definitely be a great beauty when she grows up."
Lu Qing rubbed the little one's hair tenderly.
Little Yan tilted her head, "What's a great beauty?"
"Ha ha, you'll know when you grow up."
Hearing the little one's innocently spoken words, Lu Qing's mood also brightened a lot.
No matter what the future holds, the most important thing for now is to take good care of this little one who depends on him for life.
This was also the biggest lingering wish left by the original owner before his death.
And to live well in this strange world, he would have to rely on this inexplicably acquired superpower.
With this thought, 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 and what it's used for?"
Little Yan looked at the plant with the blue flowers, furrowed her brows in concentration for a moment, and then shook her head.
"I don't know, but Grandpa Zhang's big ox seems to really like eating this kind of grass."
Seeing Little Yan didn't know, Lu Qing couldn't help but laugh at himself; he was being foolish.
Even the original owner's memories didn't contain any information about cow bone grass, and yet he had expected a child of only a few years to know.
However, Little Yan's next statement made him pause.
"Brother, if you want to know what this grass is, you can go ask Grandpa Chen, He loves all these flowers and plants, and he even likes to brew those flowers and plants into a bitter concoction for us to drink."
At this point, Little Yan seemed to recall something, and her entire little face scrunched up.
Grandpa Chen?
Lu Qing reminisced within his memories, and soon, the image of a kind and lean old man surfaced in his mind.
Ah, the elder doctor respected by the villagers.
Doctor?
A thought flickered through Lu Qing's mind.
According to the note, cow bone grass was undoubtedly a medicinal herb, but he wondered whether Old Doctor Chen knew how to use it.
"Little Yan, when brother was sick, did Grandpa Chen come over?"
"He did, Brother; you were always sleeping at that time, and even when Little Yan called out to you, you wouldn't wake up. I was scared, so I cried a lot. Then Grandpa Chen came, and after looking at you, he said you were sick, something about a cold wind. He brewed that bitter medicine for you to drink and after you drank it, a day later, Brother, you woke up."
As Little Yan spoke, she suddenly exclaimed in awe: "Grandpa Chen is so amazing; Brother got better just by drinking a bowl of bitter water!"
Lu Qing was silent.
Only he knew that the medicine Old Doctor Chen had prescribed hadn't saved the boy's life.
But now he remembered that during the haze of his consciousness, he had indeed felt someone feeding him something that gave his chilling body a sliver of warmth, protecting his heart and allowing him to endure the difficult period of consciousness fusion.
Otherwise, with his frail body, it was uncertain whether he would have woken up successfully.
In hindsight, it seemed that Old Doctor Chen indeed possessed genuine skills and thus had earned his gratitude.
Lu Qing was pondering this when he suddenly felt a gaze; looking down, he saw Little Yan staring at him.
"What's wrong, Little Yan?"
"Brother, Little Yan is hungry."
Lu Qing felt hungry, too.
He hadn't eaten much to begin with, and the half of a bun he had eaten earlier was long digested.
But he had noticed earlier that there was nothing left to eat at home.
The rice jar was so clean that even mice wouldn't come near; if it weren't for Grandpa Zhang next door, in the days that he had been unconscious, Little Yan might have starved.
With this in mind, Lu Qing remembered that he should thank Grandpa Zhang and Old Doctor Chen for their care; without their help, he and his sister might not have survived.
But their home was currently too poor, completely empty, and they couldn't even offer a small gift of thanks.
He decided to first figure out how to fill their stomachs; the thanks could wait a little longer.
But where could he find food?
Most of the family's farmland had been sold by the original owner to afford their parents' funerals.
The little that remained was neglected and bore almost no harvest.
So, the prospect of finding sustenance in the fields was hopeless.
Distant waters couldn't extinguish a nearby fire; even if they planted crops now, they wouldn't grow in time, and they could starve before the crops matured.
After some thought, Lu Qing went into the room where his parents once lived, searched around, and finally found a metal needle and some hemp thread from a small box.
The needle was much thicker than the embroidery needles from his past life, seeming quite sturdy.
Lu Qing took out the metal needle, heated it in fire for a bit, and then used a pair of chopsticks to bend it into a hook shape. He then took several strands of the hemp thread, carefully twisted them into a somewhat thicker and more durable thread, and tightly tied the iron hook.
Next, he cut a length of resilient bamboo from the clump behind the house and tied the other end of the hempline to it.
Lastly, he tied a segment of dry wood above the hook on the hemp line to serve as a float.
A simple fishing rod was thus crafted by Lu Qing.