Suijun starts with the principle of rewarding diligence.

When Buqu swam back to the lake, he saw that it was pouring rain and everything was pitch black.

In terms of visibility, it's not as good as underwater. At least underwater you have at least a foot of visibility.

"Looks like we're not going home tonight; we're even having trouble finding our way."

Fortunately, the anchor was automatically dropped when the boat capsized, making it easy to locate the small sampan.

As for the bucket of fish... the fish are definitely gone for good, and nobody knows where the bucket went...

With a small sampan overhead to shelter them from the wind and rain, and the canal having water control capabilities to keep them safe in the water, they were quite secure.

After a long while, the heavy rain stopped and the first light of dawn appeared in the east.

Bu Qu yawned, thinking to himself, "Luckily, this body is young. If it were my previous body, even staying up all night would be exhausting; if I soaked in water all night, I probably would have died on the spot."

As I pondered, a red bass swam past me, its head adorned with dark gold markings.

"A red bass? Is this some kind of treasure fish?"

There are many kinds of bass, and he knew quite a few from his previous life, such as spotted bass, black bass, and river bass...

However, he had never seen a red bass before.

"Go home first and get a good night's sleep. Then borrow the treasure fish book from Uncle Wang. Otherwise, even if I see a treasure fish, I won't recognize it."

Buqu was too sleepy to even think about catching fish.

He flipped the small boat over, weighed anchor, and headed back to port.

Back home, Buqu dried himself off, changed into clean clothes, lay down on the wooden bed, and fell asleep immediately.

......

"Knock knock knock!"

A series of urgent knocks came at the door, startling Buqu awake from his sleep.

"Li Xian, Li Xian! Come out here!"

Bu Qu, still half asleep, thought to himself, "Oh, so they've come to see Li Xian. If you want to find Li Xian, why don't you go fish him out of the lake? What are you doing at my house?"

He sat up, wondering whether he should open the door.

"They're not here to see me anyway, so I might as well ignore them."

Buqu felt he hadn't slept enough and prepared to lie down and continue sleeping.

But then the door was kicked open with a loud bang.

Two burly men walked in, scanned the area, and, not seeing the person they were looking for, fixed their gaze on Bu Qu: "Where is Li Xian?"

"Not here."

Bu Qu casually retorted, now mostly sober.

Judging from the two men's build, who were similar to Li Xian, he guessed they were also involved in fishing tyrant activities. One had shifty eyebrows, and the other had beady eyes.

The two exchanged insults and then started arguing inside the house.

Apart from the two fish in the tank, there was nothing else of value to be found.

Watching the two men brazenly ransack his house, Bu Qu's eyes turned cold, and he frowned, asking, "What do you want with Li Xian?"

The two stopped what they were doing.

The thief with the sly brow sneered, "Li Xian borrowed five taels of silver from each of us on the floating boat yesterday, saying he'd repay it today. It's already past noon, and we can't even find him. Shouldn't we go and pay him a visit?"

Rat Eyes chuckled and chimed in, "He can run away, but he can't hide. We'll wait for him at his house; he'll have to come home eventually."

"So they've come to collect a debt."

Bu Qu said, "Waiting here won't do you any good; he's not coming back."

The thieving man's tone turned cold: "What did you say?"

"He was dragged away by a water monkey while fishing at Blackwater Lake last night."

"really?"

"Hmm. I managed to escape back by sheer luck, but Li Xian, whom you're looking for, is probably not coming back. So, if you want to collect your debt, go ask the Water Monkey."

The thieving eyebrows and the rat-like eyes exchanged a glance.

"An excuse! He must have taken advantage of the heavy rain last night to run away and try to renege on his debt!"

Thief Eyebrows turned to look at Bu Qu: "Is this the line Li Xian taught you? Do you think we're three-year-olds?"

"I'm not lying to you, I saw it with my own eyes. They really were dragged away by the water monkeys!" Buqu replied earnestly.

Neither of them believed it.

However, if Li Xianzhen really wanted to use the water monkey incident to renege on his debt, he would most likely have fled elsewhere.

So, who should they ask for their money from?

The rat-eyed man sized up Bu Qu, then said to the thief-browed man, "I've heard that Li Xian treats his adopted son like a dog. Look at this lad, his skin is delicate, and his face is ruddy—he doesn't look like a dog at all!"

Thief Eyebrows nodded and sneered, "It seems Li Xian dotes on this adopted son and raises him like his own."

Bu Qu's face darkened, thinking to himself, "What kind of looks are you giving me?"

Thief Eyebrows walked to the wooden bed and smiled at Bu Qu, saying, "Since you are Li Xian's precious son, then come with us. As long as you are in our hands, Li Xian will come to ransom you sooner or later."

Seeing Bu Qu shrink back, the lecherous man grinned and said, "Don't worry, I'm very gentle."

Bu Qu shuddered and exclaimed, "He's really not coming back!"

"Fine, let's just say he's really not coming back." Thief Eyebrows chuckled. "Paying back debts is a matter of course. Since Li Xian is dead, it's his turn to pay his father's debts. If you don't want to come with us, you'd better obediently return the ten taels of silver. Otherwise, don't blame us for using force!"

"Fine, fine, you didn't leave me anything. But you left me a mountain of debt!" Bu Qu cursed Li Xian's ancestors to the eighteenth generation in his heart.

This is the first time he's encountered such a terrible father.

"I have no money!"

"If you have no money, come with us."

"slow!"

Seeing that Zei Mei was about to make a move, Bu Qu hurriedly called for a stop.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

Bu Qu used delaying tactics: "I can pay you back, but not now. I really don't have any money right now."

"Oh?" Thief Eyebrows raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan to repay me?"

"I can fish and pay you back little by little."

"How much money can you make fishing?" Thief Eyebrows wouldn't listen to a word and was about to reach out and grab Buqu again.

"Wait!" Bu Qu shouted, "Are you here for money, or to take our lives?"

The two of them were stunned for a moment.

After a moment, Rat Eyes spoke up, "Of course we're here to collect a debt. What's your life worth?"

Bu Qu immediately said, "How about this? Li Xian owes you a total of ten taels of silver. I will pay you back one tael every month, and it will be paid off in ten months."

With his thieving eyebrows and beady eyes, he sized up Bu Qu for a moment.

He certainly couldn't come up with ten taels of silver all at once.

One tael of silver a month sounds reasonable.

After all, an average fisherman's monthly catch is around one or two taels of silver.

Li Xian's adopted sons usually did not live past the age of one.

Neither of them had ever heard of any of his adopted sons being skilled fishermen.

However, since Buqu was willing to pay off his father's debts, they were happy to accept it.

If you really push someone to their death, they won't get a single penny back, it'll be a huge loss!

This is a simple calculation.

They stared at each other for a moment, their sly eyebrows and beady eyes meeting, before nodding.

Thief Eyebrows said to Bu Qu, "Alright, since you're willing to help him repay the debt, we'll leave you alone for now. But ten months isn't enough, it has to be twelve months. There's no such thing as lending money without interest."

After hesitating for a moment, Bu Qu reluctantly agreed.

With his current fishing skills, earning one or two taels of silver a month is no problem at all. But he can't agree too readily, lest the other party make exorbitant demands.

The two men took out the IOU and showed it to Bu Qu.

He then wrote a new IOU with him, and they signed and sealed it.

Buqu made a point of care by specifying that the money would be repaid at the end of each month and that the agreement could not be changed at the last minute.

The two men didn't seem to care too much; as long as they got their money back, that was enough.

The thieving-looking man with rat-like eyes accepted the IOU and walked away smugly.

"Do you think that kid can really pay back the money?" Rat Eyes asked.

"Whether he can pay it back or not, I have the IOU in my hand, might as well take it. If he can't pay next month, then I'll settle the score with him."

"That's true. That scoundrel Li Xian dared to renege on his debt. He ran away overnight; he shouldn't have gone very far. Let's look for him first. If we can find him, we'll settle the debt twice!"

"Hehehe, that makes sense!"

He has a thieving eyebrow and talks a lot; he has small, rat-like eyes.

After seeing off the two troublemakers, Bu Qu curled his lip, thinking to himself, "Even if Li Xian dies, other fishing tyrants will come along to exploit me. I'm not afraid of them in the water, but I'll have to get ashore eventually. On land, I'm no match for them. Hopefully, bankruptcy will avert disaster."

He shook his head: "I still need to get county residency as soon as possible and learn martial arts to protect myself. Only with sufficient strength can I face threats without fear."