Free Web NovelUnexpectedly, Lihua wasn’t fully asleep. It seemed incredibly determined about catching fish. Its eyelids drooped heavily several times, but it stubbornly forced them back open.
“Good Human Chen.”
“Hmm?”
“Quick, talk to Lihua, or Lihua will fall asleep.”
Chen Changsheng asked, “What should we talk about?”
“Lihua doesn’t know.”
“I don’t know either.”
Lihua sighed after hearing this and continued its battle with the fishing rod.
Chen Changsheng smiled, not saying anything to it.
Lihua still needed to learn more patience. It needed more practice, but it had to come from itself. It had to be willing.
Even though Lihua was a bit mischievous now, wasn’t such an innocent Lihua just fine?
When you thought about it, it was quite good.
“Hmm…”
The nearly-asleep Lihua began dreaming of Candied Hawthorn. Unexpectedly, a sudden sound startled it awake.
“Huh!”
Lihua’s eyes snapped open. The fishing rod propped before it suddenly began to move.
“It moved! Moved! Moved!” It lunged for the rod.
Chen Changsheng’s voice halted it, “Wait a moment longer. Yanking too fast will scare the fish away.”
“Hmm…”
Lihua’s gaze locked onto the swaying rod. Both its front paws grasped the pole tightly.
“Now?” Lihua turned its head to ask.
Before the question finished, a strong pull came through the rod, tugging it outward.
“Now,” Chen Changsheng said.
Lihua hugged the rod and heaved upward with all its might. The weight taxed Lihua, making it work a bit harder, but it wasn’t impossible.
Chen Changsheng watched as Lihua shifted its stance. It turned its back, wedged the rod against its shoulder, pushed off the ground with its paws splayed wide – straining with every bit of its small body.
“Huff… huff…”
“It’s really heavy,” Lihua puffed out with difficulty.
“Need my help?” Chen Changsheng asked.
Lihua shook its head and declared, “Lihua wants to land the fish itself. No help from Good Human Chen.”
Hearing this, Chen Changsheng didn’t interfere.
“Heeeyy…” Lihua gritted, dragging the rod backward step by step, slowly pulling the fish closer. While not particularly clever, Lihua was a Monster at heart. Handling such a fish was straightforward, just time-consuming.
As the fish neared the shore…
Chen Changsheng spotted a flash of white belly and remarked, “Big one…”
“Hee… ho… Hee… ho…”
With a final, monumental heave from Lihua, the fish was hauled clear out of the water.
Splash!
The white fish landed on the bank beside them. It flipped and thrashed wildly the moment it hit land, desperate to get back to the water.
“You’re not escaping!”
Quick as a flash, Lihua pounced. Both paws pinned the struggling fish firmly to the ground.
“I caught it! Lihua caught it!”
Lihua looked at Chen Changsheng, eyes brimming with joy.
Chen Changsheng praised, “Lihua is much better at this than I am.”
“Hehe.”
Lihua chuckled, inspecting the fish before it. “But… it doesn’t look the same. And it’s not as big as the one Lihua ate before.”
Chen Changsheng glanced at it. “This one’s called White Fish, or Uptail Carp. Its taste is better than the last fish. This one Lihua caught looks over a kilogram – that’s very big!”
“Very big.”
Lihua blinked, seeming to comprehend only the ‘taste better’ part. Chen Changsheng helped Lihua string the fish up with grass and hung it on a nearby tree.
Lihua then gazed at its White Fish prize, beaming proudly. Its enthusiasm was thoroughly sparked.
“Lihua wants to catch more!”
It sprang back to life. This time, Lihua didn’t succumb to drowsiness. It was rare to see the cat so focused.
Chen Changsheng retrieved his own gaze, looking back to the lake’s surface before him. Still no movement at all. No luck today for him.
The rest of the afternoon passed with the human and the cat fishing by Ze Shui Lake’s edge.
After landing the large White Fish, Lihua managed two more small Grass Carp. Its fishing barely paused.
Chen Changsheng, in contrast, caught nothing. Lihua looked back at its three fish, two big and one small, hanging proudly on the tree. Then, it peeked behind Chen Changsheng – nothing.
“Good Human Chen still haven’t caught any fish? Lihua has caught three!”
Chen Changsheng chuckled. “Lihua really is the master angler. I admit defeat.”
Lihua let out a pleased purr-like sound, its pride tinged with shyness at the praise. “It’s… not that good…”
Seeing its awkward little wiggle, Chen Changsheng shook his head. The cat seemed almost… artificially sweet? Not like its usual self.
Seeing its own rod sitting still, Lihua turned to Chen Changsheng. “Good Human Chen, have you eaten many kinds of fish?”
“Quite a few varieties,” Chen Changsheng replied.
Lihua asked eagerly, “Which kind tasted the best?”
Chen Changsheng thought for a moment. “The best…”
He came back to the present and said, “It was a fish called Red-tail Carp. I caught two in a river years ago. The flesh was delicate, the flavor extraordinary. Fishing those Red-tail Carps even led to meeting a friend and forging a bond.”
“Your friend?” Lihua murmured, “Hmm. Good Human Chen has so many friends.”
It often heard tales of Chen Changsheng’s friends, making it seem like he knew people everywhere.
“Just a handful, really. Not as many as Lihua imagines,” Chen Changsheng corrected.
“Why does Good Human Chen have so many friends, but Lihua doesn’t?”
Chen Changsheng suggested, “Perhaps Lihua did have friends before? Maybe it just can’t recall them now.”
Lihua tilted its head in thought. “Seems… yes, quite a few.”
Chen Changsheng looked sideways at it, curious. “Like who?”
“Huahua.”
“Ghost Sword Immortal? Any others?”
Lihua frowned, struggling. “Can’t remember clearly.”
“But Lihua said there were many?”
Lihua’s little face bunched up in frustration. “Lihua remembers having many friends. But who? How did they look? What were their names? Those things are gone. But… if Lihua saw them again, probably it would remember. That’s how I remembered Huahua.”
“I see…”
Chen Changsheng murmured. Then Lihua piped up, “Good Human Chen has so many friends. Can you even think about them all?”
The question made Chen Changsheng pause. “Sometimes… it’s hard to keep track,” he admitted quietly. “Occasionally, I do think of them. I think about visiting old friends again. But I’m often busy with other things, or… we’re separated by life and death. The next meeting place is only their grave mound.”
Hearing this, Lihua blinked big eyes. “Good Human Chen must miss them a lot?”
“Of course.”
Chen Changsheng turned to look at Lihua. “What about Lihua? Does it feel that longing?”
“Probably yes,” Lihua said softly. “But Lihua can’t remember who they are anymore.”
“That’s good.”
“Good?” Lihua blinked again, confused.
“Nothing.” Chen Changsheng gave it a gentle, unreadable smile, offering no explanation. A trace of envy flickered within him for Lihua’s forgotten state. He sometimes saw himself as odd – occasionally longing for those old friends, yet at times, wishing he too could forget them. Stuck in the middle, feeling trapped… it seemed like he was trapped somewhere.
