I Have a Penglai Immortal Island

Da Linzi was taken home, and Qin Yunmei cooked a lot of delicious food for him. After making her son happy, she couldn't help but start probing about how much he had earned in the past two months.

The simple-minded Da Linzi, likely traumatized by his mom's stinginess, became unusually wary upon hearing this topic.

"Quite a bit, don't ask! I'm going to wash my face."

"Come back here! What do you need to wash your face for? Let me see, I won't take any of it."

Da Linzi was skeptical. "Really?" He received a smack in response.

He showed his bank balance text message to his mom. After officially paying his salary, Zhao Zhao had gotten him a bank card.

Qin Yunmei was shocked! She grabbed the phone and stared at the bank's text message, counting the digits three times: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... Da Linzi had 248,750.00 yuan, over 200,000 yuan?

Their family had never had so much in savings, even though Qin Yunmei was good at managing money. Her niece had been quite generous. In just three months of fishing, without counting the live streaming earnings... this was impressive.

Xiong Haitao was equally astonished. He knew Zhao Zhao wouldn’t shortchange Da Linzi, but he hadn’t expected this much. “Did your sister give you extra? Does everyone on the boat earn this much?”

“These are our fishing earnings. There are also our live streaming dividends. Zhao Zhao gave me half. I didn’t do much; our fans are mostly thanks to Zhao Zhao and Siren,” Da Linzi explained honestly.

Xiong Jin, who had been silent until now, interjected, “Do you have a lot of viewers on your live stream?”

Proudly, Da Linzi responded, “We have over three million fans on our channel, with tens of thousands watching our regular streams. Our record was 480,000 viewers during a deep-sea dive in the South Pacific!”

“You’re quite popular then. I knew you were doing live streams, but I didn’t expect you to become an internet celebrity,” Xiong Jin remarked, impressed.

“What’s your live stream channel called?” Xiong Jin asked.

“You don’t even know?” Da Linzi felt his brother didn’t care about him and grumbled unhappily.

Xiong Haitao cheerfully took out his phone, “I don’t know either. Show me so I can follow you. I’ll watch your streams next time.”

Da Linzi took his phone and searched for the channel name on Panda, feeling embarrassed. “You can follow us, but you don’t need to watch. Fishing is boring. Our fans are from big cities who’ve never farmed or fished. They like watching us work.”

Xiong Jin also found their channel, indeed showing 3.2 million followers. The homepage featured eight or nine edited short videos, each with hundreds of thousands of likes, some even reaching two million. This was indeed high traffic.

“With such traffic, has Panda signed you?” Xiong Jin asked.

“Yes, there’s a minimum number of hours we need to stream each month. Zhao Zhao signed the contract; I don’t really understand it,” Da Linzi replied indifferently.

While the three men discussed live streaming, Qin Yunmei was focused on getting her hands on that 250,000 yuan.

“Son, let me keep that money for you. I’ll put it in a fixed deposit, and you’ll earn a lot of interest!” Qin Yunmei said sweetly, though it was all in vain.

“No need, my card earns interest too. I’ll save it myself.”

“What kid keeps so much money? Huh? Answer me!” Despite trying to be gentle, Qin Yunmei’s habit was hard to change.

“I’m still a kid? Didn’t you say I’ve been an adult for hundreds of years? You’re not going to support me anymore?”

“Why do you need the money? You eat and live at home.” The familiar tactic returned.

“I… I’m saving to build a house! Haven’t you seen Zhao Zhao’s house? It’s grand. I’ll save up to build one too. We have two residential plots, don’t we? I’ll build a big courtyard!”

Xiong Haitao laughed, “Hey, you’ve got ambition. Go ahead and save up. I’ll come bask in the glory when it’s done.”

Qin Yunmei rolled her eyes, “You two are dreaming. I asked the foreman working on Zhao Zhao’s house, and he said the budget is millions! You two are out of your minds!”

Da Linzi found this excuse perfect. It would take many years to save millions! He stuck to his plan of building a house, saying happily, “Zhao Zhao said that everyone on the island will build Tang-style houses in the future. If I can’t build a big one, I’ll build a smaller one.” Then he changed the subject, “Mom, can you wash my clothes? I’m tired and want to sleep!”

Qin Yunmei was furious, “Why should I wash your clothes? You won’t give me your salary, and I’m still supposed to do your laundry? Am I your servant?”

Da Linzi retreated to his room while shouting, “I’ll pay you to wash my clothes! They’re smelly; please wash them!”

It was only around seven, and Da Linzi wasn’t really tired. He lay on his bed scrolling through his phone until he heard his mom scolding him from outside.

“What’s in your pocket? Cow dung? Da Linzi, how old are you? Why do you have this stuff in your pocket? And it’s wet?” She had initially been angry and didn’t want to bother, but the smell was unbearable. Eventually, she decided to wash his clothes, only to find something heavy wrapped in oil paper in his coat pocket. She unwrapped it to reveal a black, sticky lump...

Da Linzi rushed over to see Zhao Zhao’s secret medicine, three large pills compressed into a single lump...

Zhao Zhao: All that effort wasted.

Da Linzi was distressed, “Oh no, I wonder if it’s still effective?”

Maybe he should use it today. Zhao Zhao had said it might hurt, so he should prepare for that. But it would be better than letting it go bad.

He pulled out his notes and reviewed them: Heat it with a big fire until dissolved, immerse yourself in the liquid up to your neck, the water will turn clear then cloudy, about two hours, if the water doesn’t change, it’s a failure and needs to be redone.

They had a bathing barrel at home, which should be enough for him to squat in. Xiong Haitao helped him heat the water, while Qin Yunmei remained skeptical.

She and Xiong Jin had initially been watching, but Da Linzi chased them out, saying not even his mom could watch.

He filled the barrel with hot water and immersed himself in it. Qin Yunmei and Xiong Jin remained doubtful.

"Xiong Jin, do you think soaking in this stuff will cause any problems? It’s pitch black and smells pungent!" Qin Yunmei voiced her concern.

"He said it was given by Zhao Zhao's master, so it should be fine, right? What's the effect of this medicinal bath, Da Linzi?" Xiong Jin asked through the door.

"Zhao Zhao's master promised to teach me martial arts. This medicinal bath is just to lay the foundation. After soaking, my bones and muscles will be better prepared for training. I don’t really know what it’ll be like; I haven’t soaked in it yet. Dad! It’s hot! Don’t add more boiling water; it’s burning me!"

"You said you need to soak up to your neck?"

It didn’t seem very reliable.

In the first five minutes of soaking, Da Linzi didn’t feel much and mumbled that it wasn’t painful. But after a while, he felt like needles were piercing all over his body, and the pain became unbearable.

Xiong Haitao noticed his son’s face turning red and sweat pouring down his forehead. Was it really that hot? He became a bit anxious, fearing it might scald his son.

His son, trembling, said, "Dad... get... me... a towel... to bite on..."

His voice trembled with pain.

After about half an hour, Da Linzi started to feel better. He couldn’t tell if he was numb or if the pain had lessened. He felt disoriented. Xiong Haitao didn’t dare leave and stayed to witness the miracle.

"Hey? Da Linzi, why is the black bathwater getting lighter?"

"What’s happening? The water is turning clear."

Da Linzi, no longer in pain, spat out the towel. "I heard it might change back again. It's amazing!"

Sure enough, after a while, the water turned clear again before gradually becoming dirty and gray.

Before long, Xiong Haitao hurriedly opened the door and went outside, unable to bear the stench.

As soon as he opened the door, Qin Yunmei and Xiong Jin also smelled it.

"Why does it stink so much? It was bitter before, but now it smells awful!"

The three of them moved away from the door and stayed in the courtyard. Passersby on the street commented, "Who’s spreading manure at night? It stinks!"

The Xiong family: ...

On a chilly autumn night, they had to air out the house for half the night, ending up with an energetic monkey of a son.

"Dad, do I look whiter? I feel like my skin, flesh, and bones have been thoroughly cleansed. This feels so good! I feel like I can run 50,000 meters! My legs feel so light!" Da Linzi couldn’t sit still, running around the house in the middle of the night.

Xiong Haitao examined him and confirmed, "No, you’re not whiter! Don’t worry about running 50,000 meters. Tomorrow, go harvest our corn. The smell has dissipated; let’s sleep. I’m exhausted."

Alright then.

That night, only Xiong Jin tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Growing up, his brother had always been inferior to him. Although their mother never admitted it, she was biased towards him. As a child, he felt happy and content with this favoritism. But tonight had been a shock. Da Linzi, following Zhao Zhao for three or four months, had earned over 200,000 yuan. Meanwhile, he earned just over 3,000 yuan a month at his job on Changshan. He had been quite satisfied with his easy, well-paying job, which was respectable on the island.

But now?

His brother could potentially earn 3,000 yuan in a single day.

Since his cousin returned, everything had changed.

Last month, while Da Linzi was away, their mother asked him to open the windows in his room for ventilation. He saw a pile of luxury brand boxes on the floor. When he opened one, it didn’t look fake. Searching online, he found it was the latest season's release, with a single pair of jeans costing over 10,000 yuan. When he asked his mother, she said Zhao Zhao's friend had bought them for him during a trip to Shanghai.

He realized that if things continued like this, the gap between him and his brother would only widen. The more he thought about it, the harder it was to sleep.

 

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