Zhu Mingyue rolled his eyes at the two men and almost wanted to spit at them.
He had not forgotten the dirty jokes they made about him in the alley the day before.
“Are you serious? You were the one who bumped into me from behind. Was I supposed to walk backward?” Zhu Mingyue argued with a frown.
But the two men seemed not to hear a single word.
When they realized it was him, their rude attitude disappeared. They stood there staring at his face with foolish smiles and yellow teeth showing.
Zhu Mingyue immediately felt sick from their leering looks.
He did not want to deal with them anymore and turned to leave.
“Hey, don’t go so quickly!”
One of them grabbed his arm.
Zhu Mingyue reacted strongly and shook off the man’s hand.
“Don’t touch me!”
This was the first time he had met such disgusting and troublesome people.
“If you keep bothering me, I’ll report you to the government office!” he said fiercely, trying to sound threatening.
“Hehe, no need for that.”
“We just wanted to chat with you. Is that so wrong?”
The two men acted innocent and worked together smoothly, but Zhu Mingyue could not be bothered with them.
Without another word, he turned and left.
When he saw they were not following him, he finally relaxed.
He felt like the unluckiest person ever to travel to another world.
In stories, people usually received special powers or treasures.
He had arrived with nothing except his life.
It was honestly pathetic.
Once he earned some money, the first thing he would buy was a dagger.
If he met people like this again, he would make sure they never bothered anyone again.
Kicking a stone off the road, Zhu Mingyue headed toward the river construction site.
…
Meanwhile, the two troublemakers remained where they were.
“He’s really pretty, but he has quite a temper,” Yellow Teeth said, smacking his lips as if remembering something pleasant.
“So what if he’s pretty? A fiery personality is even better. Makes things more exciting.”
Yellow Teeth slapped the other man on the back.
“Stop thinking about that! Wang Huzi, did you forget what we’re supposed to do?”
“No, no, I remember,” Wang Huzi quickly replied.
“The food we stole is almost gone. If I can’t eat, you won’t even have water to drink. You can look at that boy all you want, but if you ruin my chance to sell him for a good price, I’ll make sure you regret it.”
Wang Huzi instantly felt nervous.
“Boss, I was only joking. I promise I won’t do anything.”
But in his heart, he wasn’t being honest.
He had left his wife and children behind during the refugee journey and had not been with a woman for nearly half a year.
The women traveling with the refugees were always surrounded by family members.
He never had a chance.
Now he had finally seen someone so attractive.
Even if it was a man, he didn’t care.
Just looking at Zhu Mingyue’s face made him excited.
Still, his boss had spoken.
He depended on him for survival and could not afford to anger him.
Scratching his head and ignoring the lice falling from his hair, Wang Huzi changed the subject.
“Boss, if we kidnap him, who will we sell him to? He’s a man. A normal brothel won’t buy him.”
Yellow Teeth laughed.
“What do you know? City people have different tastes. I asked around today. There’s even a male entertainment house in Shangyang County.”
Wang Huzi’s eyes lit up.
That would make selling Zhu Mingyue easy.
Thinking about the good food he could buy after making the sale, he became excited.
“Boss, let’s do it tonight!”
“No rush,” Yellow Teeth replied. “He owns nothing and has nowhere to go. He won’t run away.”
“Then what should we do?”
“We’ll visit the male entertainment house first and arrange the deal.”
…
“Achoo!”
At that moment, Zhu Mingyue suddenly sneezed while speaking with someone.
He rubbed his nose and apologized.
The man waved his hand.
“Just come to the river site tomorrow morning.”
After saying that, he hurried away to supervise the workers.
The riverbanks were crowded with laborers.
Zhu Mingyue even recognized a few faces from the refugee group.
As he watched the man leave, a huge weight lifted from his heart.
He had finally found work.
The workers did not think he was strong enough for digging and carrying dirt.
But when they learned he could cook, they happily accepted him because they needed a cook.
The pay was not high, but lunch was included, the work was easier, and he could go home afterward.
Most importantly, he would be paid every day.
That was exactly what he needed right now.
Zhu Mingyue knew his own limits.
Finding this kind of job was already a good result.
As for the future, he had no plans yet.
For now, he would take things one step at a time.
…
He was in a good mood on the way back.
When he reached the western outskirts of the city, he decided to take a walk around the area.
Passing by a pond, he noticed that the surface was frozen solid.
The sunlight reflected beautifully off the ice.
Curious, he walked closer and crouched near the edge.
He tapped the ice with two fingers.
Based on the sound, it seemed more than ten centimeters thick.
Dry reeds were trapped inside the ice, making it difficult to see beneath the surface.
After staring for a while, he lost interest and prepared to leave.
Then he noticed something brown beneath the ice.
He looked closer.
At first he couldn’t see clearly.
Carefully, he stepped onto the ice and stretched forward.
A fish!
Joy filled his heart.
The fish looked fairly large, probably around 400 grams or more.
It seemed to be a grass carp.
In his previous life, he would not have cared much for grass carp because it had many bones and a strong smell.
Now things were different.
He could barely get enough food to eat.
Any meat was a treasure.
Within seconds, he had already planned dinner.
He would gather extra firewood.
When Aunt Fu and Brother Cui returned, he would borrow their pot and cook fish soup.
A nice white soup.
Everyone could have a bowl and warm themselves up.
First, Zhu Mingyue walked to another part of the pond and tested the ice by stomping on it.
Even after his feet started hurting, the ice showed no cracks.
Satisfied, he returned.
He picked up a sharp stone and carefully crawled across the ice like a cat.
He was being cautious.
Ice needed to be around fifteen centimeters thick before it was completely safe to walk on.
The edge seemed strong enough, but he could not be sure about the center.
Crawling spread his weight over a larger area.
If the ice broke, it would also make it easier to save himself.
When he was close enough, he stopped.
Taking out the stone, he carefully chipped away at the ice.
Time passed.
His wrist grew sore.
Finally, he made a hole large enough for his hand.
Breathing warm air onto his fingers, he reached into the hole.
Soon he touched the fish.
After some effort, he managed to pull it out.
Holding the fish felt incredibly satisfying.
Only after reaching the shore did he realize his pants were soaked below the knees.
In winter weather like this, wet clothes would quickly freeze.
Without wasting time, he grabbed the fish and hurried back to the temple.
Most of the refugees were already back.
They sat around a fire drying their shoes and looked worried and unhappy.
Zhu Mingyue understood immediately.
They had not found work.
He casually placed the fish in a corner and joined them by the fire to dry his pants.
Since he was the only person entering at that moment, everyone immediately noticed the fish.
People made room for him.
As soon as he sat down, they began asking questions.
Nobody believed he had bought it.
Everyone knew he was living on other people’s kindness and had no money.
Zhu Mingyue answered honestly.
“There’s a frozen pond nearby. I dug it out from the ice.”
“Was it easy?”
“Is the ice strong?”
“Are there more fish there?”
Questions came from every direction.
He could not answer them all.
“The ice is pretty thick, but I’m not sure if it’s safe to stand on. I crawled across it. I didn’t check whether there were more fish.”
Zhu Mingyue was light and thin.
He could not guarantee that heavier people would be safe.
Before he finished speaking, someone interrupted him.
“Whether ice can hold a person is easy to tell. Young people just don’t know these things.”
“Exactly! Why didn’t I think about fishing in the pond? Young people really are clever.”
Some impatient people immediately rushed outside.
The others quickly followed, afraid they would arrive too late.
The pond was small.
Finding frozen fish would not be easy.
Zhu Mingyue guessed they might only find a few.
Since he already had one fish, there was no need for him to join the excitement.
He preferred staying inside and drying his clothes.
…
Sitting by the fire, Zhu Mingyue slowly became sleepy.
Soon he heard loud voices approaching from outside.
Several people entered.
The first man carried a large snakehead fish that looked even bigger than Zhu Mingyue’s catch.
Others came in carrying fish as well.
Big or small, everyone looked delighted.
“Catching these fish is practically free food! If you hadn’t stopped me from going farther, I would have found even more.”
The speaker held two fish and was so excited that his face was red.
This was meat that cost nothing.
“I think you’re too cautious,” another man said proudly while waving his fish in front of Zhu Mingyue.
Zhu Mingyue simply smiled and said nothing.
Thanks to the fish, the mood in the temple became much better.
People were no longer sitting around looking hopeless.
Those who caught fish went to clean them by the river.
Those who did not catch fish gathered firewood, hoping to at least share some soup later.
Zhu Mingyue handled both jobs himself.
Firewood was difficult to find in winter.
The government controlled the trees on the mountain, so ordinary people could not cut them down.
He searched around the forest edges and collected dead branches and fallen wood.
They were not pretty, but they would burn just fine.
When he returned to the temple, Cui Jian and his mother were resting beside a pile of straw.
“Auntie, Brother Cui, you’re back!”
Zhu Mingyue walked toward them with a bright smile.