I'm truly embarrassed that this story got a supernatural strong recommendation before the contract was even signed. I finalized the contract details with the editor today, and the book title will be changed after the signing.

I hope everyone collects it quickly before you can't find it anymore! Thank you all for your support over these past few days.

I wish all my dear readers a happy early Lunar New Year, and a very happy birthday to everyone. ———————————————————— "Damn it!

Stop hitting it, stop hitting it! It took this old bear everything I had to find a boat.

If you smash it, how are we going to cross the Yalu River!" Da Xiong's head popped up from beside the dark shadow, clutching a huge fish in one arm and wiping his face with the other, shouting at me. "Damn it!

You little bastard, you're not dead yet? Get up here quick!" Jie Yuting grabbed a tree branch from nearby and offered it to Da Xiong.

Da Xiong shoved the dark object with one hand, flipping it over; sure enough, it was a small, battered boat. He painstakingly tossed the huge fish into the boat, then grabbed the branch with one hand and the boat with the other, swimming towards the shore.

When I finally grabbed his hand, I found he was completely exhausted from the cold, his body heavy as a dead pig. It took all our combined might to haul him up, and then we worked together to drag the small boat onto the bank.

I immediately started cursing, "You punk, do you even know what the capital for revolution is?" Da Xiong wiped his face and said while pulling on his clothes, "It's gunpowder and ammunition, an unyielding spirit, the call of the Red Flag!" I shot back, "Nonsense! The capital for revolution is the lives of the soldiers.

If you don't even have your life, what good are all the guns and bullets in the world!" Da Xiong finished dressing and crouched down by the fire to warm himself, saying to me, "A little hardship and danger like this won't break a warrior as firm as steel." Jie Yuting couldn't stand our banter anymore and interrupted, asking Da Xiong what had happened. Da Xiong shivered as he spoke, "That fish had incredible power.

After I pinned it down, it dragged me into deep water. In a panic, I punched it hard enough to knock it out.

Just as I was about to swim back to shore, I suddenly felt a wooden plank on the riverbed. Following it along, it turned out to be a boat.

The boat had a big hole in it and was pinned down by rocks washed in by the current. I exerted tremendous effort to move the stones, and the boat floated up." I retrieved the large fish Da Xiong had knocked unconscious from the boat and, upon seeing it, realized it was a Ya fish.

I laughed, "We're in luck today! I thought this fish was only found in Ya'an; I never expected to catch one this big here." The Ya fish is a species unique to the Ya'an region of Sichuan, scientifically named Schizothorax qikouensis.

While you can find this fish in nearly every restaurant in Ya'an, I know it is a Class II nationally protected animal and extremely rare. I once ate it in Bifengxia, and a single serving cost several hundred yuan.

As a paleontology scholar, I know this is a cold-water fish that feeds on algae and small insects, so there's no need to worry that it grew by eating carrion. We had a boat and found food; the future looked bright.

The three of us were in high spirits, gutted the fish, and set it up over the fire to roast. Even without salt, the fish meat was naturally tender with a hint of sweetness, making it incredibly delicious.

The fish, nearly half a meter long, must have weighed about ten jin (about 11 pounds). The three of us men wolfed it down entirely, only realizing afterward that we hadn't saved any for Liang Qian.

Fortunately, she was still unconscious, or she certainly would have fainted again from anger. Next, we scavenged some broken pieces of wood from the bank and used a few hard fish bones as makeshift nails to temporarily patch the hole in the boat.

In truth, the vessel was barely more than a dinghy—the kind you often see on lakes for fishing. It was inherently fragile, but thankfully, it hadn't been submerged for too long, so the rot wasn't too severe, and it still had decent buoyancy.

We had lingered by the riverside, thick with the stench of corpses, for long enough. We couldn't wait to lift the unconscious Liang Qian onto the small boat, positioning her backside to press down on the patch, and then we set off.

Da Xiong held a torch at the very front of the boat to illuminate the way. I used a damaged shovel I'd dug out of a pile of bodies as a paddle.

Jie Yuting held a sturdy, long tree branch; if the boat threatened to hit a submerged rock, he would have to brace against the riverbed to steer us clear. The three of us, lesser wits combined, made a team worthy of a dragon boat race—and we majestically sailed into the dark river channel.

Our small craft bobbed and plunged in the swift current, carried rapidly downstream, the wind whistling past our ears. If it hadn't been pitch black all around, it might have felt like that famous feeling of "a light skiff passing ten thousand mountains." The torch in Da Xiong's hand flickered erratically in the wind, reduced to a blue flame the size of a fist, offering virtually no illumination.

We moved as if navigating the River Styx from ancient Egyptian legends, perhaps with the giant serpent formed by Osiris awaiting us ahead. All along the way, we could hear Da Xiong constantly complaining, "It's damn cold in here!

Hell, thank goodness this old bear has a thick layer of fat!" He was boasting at first, but later, he really couldn't take it anymore and said to me, "Chuanzi, you’re holding a broken shovel as a paddle. Tell me, with this current this fast, do you need to row?

You take over for this old bear for a bit, I need to take a leak!" At this, Jie Yuting chuckled and said, "Didn't you just say you were showing off? Your little flame provides no light whatsoever.

If I hadn't spent so much time practicing underground to develop night vision, you would have hit a reef by now and face-planted." Da Xiong cursed, "Damn it, why didn't you say so earlier! You two just thought I was good for blocking the wind, didn't you." With that, he shuffled back, sat down in the boat, handed the torch to me, and started vigorously rubbing his hands.

Just as I was about to mock him, Jie Yuting's voice cut in sternly, "Heads up! There's a massive reef ahead.

Prepare for a cold shock." I looked up and indeed saw the shadow of a huge boulder not far in front of us, about fifteen or sixteen meters wide. The rock had a strange shape—a perfect cylinder, looking very much like some kind of man-made structure.

The current split into two streams around this massive obstacle, with just enough space for our dinghy to pass through either way; the terrain was incredibly perilous. At our current speed, even the slightest misstep would smash the wooden boat to pieces.

So, I paddled furiously with the broken shovel in my hand, trying to guide us towards the channel on the right. Jie Yuting didn't stop either, using his meter-long tree branch to fiercely poke the riverbed, forcing our little boat steadily to the right.

I paddled with everything I had; the hand holding the shovel had gone numb, and sweat poured off me like rain. However, we started near the center of the current, and with such a short distance, there was no way to get the boat close to the right bank.

Seeing that we were about to crash into the huge rock, my heart sank, and I prepared to pull Da Xiong into the river with me. Just then, Jie Yuting sprang up like an agile monkey, leaping onto the giant rock with both feet.

He spun around, used his tree branch to deliver a precise push that nudged the bow of the boat more than a meter to the right, and then, using the boat's counter-thrust, he vaulted back onto the stone mass. All of this happened in a flash of lightning; Da Xiong and I were stunned dumbfounded.

Before we could even cheer, our dinghy shot into the rapids on the right side of the boulder. The water behind us began to rush downward.

We were slammed by the slope of the riverbed and the violent current, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. The boat began to buck violently, tossing us around until we were dizzy, nearly pitching us overboard.

I quickly turned back to press down on the unconscious Liang Qian to keep her from falling into the water. The roaring sound of the water filled my ears, seemingly threatening to pierce my eardrums.

This violent shaking and deafening noise lasted for about ten minutes. The water surface gradually smoothed out, the boat stabilized, and the booming sound slowly receded behind us.

My hearing hadn't fully recovered. I shouted to Da Xiong, "What now?

Jie Yuting must be trapped on that big rock!" Due to the earlier commotion, the torch in Da Xiong's hand had gone out. I could only hear him shouting back, "Then we’ll go back and save him now." Just then, another voice roared, "I already jumped back on the boat." I was overjoyed, thinking that Jie Yuting truly was no ordinary man; that display of agility was something only seen in Wuxia novels.

Da Xiong relit the torch. I saw Jie Yuting sitting calmly on the boat, and my relief made me change my tone: "Master Ting, just who in the world are you?"