1041 Conversation by the River

He missed this kind of lifestyle.

People only remembered the good times. Whenever someone felt overwhelmed in their life, they would reminisce about the past.

Of course, what Lu Zhou missed wasn’t his childhood.

It was his mother’s cooking.

He had been to all kinds of fancy restaurants around the world, but his favorite food was still his mother’s cooking. The braised fish, the pork ribs, the pickled vegetables… He even ate three bowls of rice with every meal.

Even though all Lu Zhou did was eat, he didn’t gain any weight. After all, he had a fast metabolism. Because of his exercise, he had gotten a lot stronger.

His body fat percentage had also decreased.

These days, Lu Zhou deliberately left his work alone. With so many things happening, he didn’t want to think about anything that might give him a headache.

He even left the golden legendary mission card in the system s.p.a.ce untouched. Because he knew that once he activated the card, he wouldn’t be able to stop working.

Even though he had distanced himself from social media, he still maintained one channel of communication with the outside world.

When he was on the phone with Chen Yushan, he heard that after the news of the frozen dormancy technology was released, the Internet went insane.

However, Lu Zhou didn’t care too much.

Regardless of what the international community thought, it wouldn’t affect him personally. Most people thought they could change the world by changing others, yet their own life was in shambles.

Being disconnected from the outside world was peaceful.

Sometimes he thought that, maybe he had contributed enough to the world, everything was moving in the right direction on its own. Maybe he should spend some time for himself.

Of course, Lu Zhou knew that he was a workaholic.

After all, this wasn’t the first time he had wanted to take a break.

On the other hand, the Chinese community also began to react to the frozen dormancy technology.

In fact, both Academician Zhao Zhongji and Professor Liu Zuobing had overestimated the public’s reaction to this incident.

There actually had hardly been any reaction from the Chinese community on this matter, it rarely gained any attention.

One reason was that the mainstream media often didn’t report on science and technology news, because the general public wasn’t interested in them.

The second reason was because…

All of the attention was focused on a celebrity couple that recently got divorced.

This was how scholars were; they were always overthinking things.

Noon.

The family sat at the table eating lunch, and Lu Bangguo, while holding a pair of chopsticks, suddenly spoke.

“Speaking of which, you’ve eaten so many braised fish made by your mother, but do you know where the fish comes from?”

Lu Zhou knew that his dad wanted to brag about his fis.h.i.+ng skills. However, his mother spoke first.

“… What do you mean he doesn’t know? Who hasn’t been to a supermarket before?”

Old Lu didn’t expect to have provoked his wife, so he began to explain.

“That’s… different, where does the fish from the supermarket come from?”

“They got it from a fisherman, you think everyone uses a fis.h.i.+ng rod to fish?”

“…”

Old Lu couldn’t think of a comeback, so he looked at his son and spoke.

“Son, are you free?”

“… I am, but what are we doing?”

“Let’s go fis.h.i.+ng this afternoon.”

Lu Zhou: “…”

So this is what he wanted.

Couldn’t he have just said so?

Lu Zhou didn’t want to hear his dad nag anymore. He did want to spend more time with his parents, so he accepted his father’s invitation.

Even though he wasn’t interested in fis.h.i.+ng, he still watched some tutorials online regarding fis.h.i.+ng. Then they went to the river a couple of kilometers away from their house.

Even though it was technically a river, Lu Zhou felt like it was more like a small ditch. His dad insisted that back in his day… around thirty years ago, it was a huge river. The kids would swim in this river every summer, which was also one of his father’s favorite activities as an adolescent.

The fis.h.i.+ng began.

Lu Zhou sat on a bench by the river. He thought it wouldn’t be long until he caught his first fish. However, the fish never took the bait.

He saw his father catching one fish after another. Lu Zhou couldn’t help but lose interest.

I guess there’s a skill to this.

I must have an IQ of 300 by now, but I can’t even catch a fish.

Lu Bangguo stared at the river as he suddenly spoke.

“There’s something on your mind.”

Lu Zhou sighed and spoke.

“Dad, is this something you saw out of a movie?”

“I’m being serious, I’m not joking,” Lu Bangguo said. “Impetuous people can’t catch a fish. Only people like me, retired without a worry in the world, can catch a fish… ”

Lu Zhou said, “… If you know I won’t catch anything, why did you still bring me?”

Old Lu smiled and said, “Well, it’s better than sitting at home all summer? Fis.h.i.+ng isn’t necessarily about catching the fish. If you feel relaxed and calm, then it becomes worthwhile.”

Honestly, at Lu Zhou’s age, listening to his father talking about life didn’t inspire him anymore.

But his father was correct, Lu Zhou had a lot on his mind.

Even though he tried to ignore it, sometimes he couldn’t help but think.

Think about his past decisions.

Lu Zhou stared at the plastic bucket that was almost full of fish. He went silent for a while and suddenly spoke.

“Dad.”

“Yeah, what?”

“If you can go to the future, will you?”

Lu Bangguo paused for a second.

“Future? What future?”

Lu Zhou thought about it and used an a.n.a.logy.

“If there is a time machine that can send you fifty years into the future… Will you do it?”

Lu Zhou thought his dad would contemplate for a while, but his father immediately answered.

“No.”

“Why?”

“You young people always like to fantasize.” Old Lu shook his head and said, “Tell me, what’s so good about the future?”

Lu Zhou said, “Well… better technologies.”

Old Lu: “What does that have to do with me? The house across our street is about to be demolished, does that affect you?”

Sometimes, Old Lu wondered if the city council had a grudge against him. All the houses around him were demolished to build new apartments, but his house was still intact.

Lu Zhou said, “… Demolition means society is growing, so you’re affected by it.”

Old Lu shook his head stubbornly and said, “I’m not going. What would happen to your mother? What about you? If I’m not here, who knows when you’ll get a wife.”

“What do you mean…” Lu Zhou said, “Your son is very popular on campus, okay? Every valentine… my phone blows up.”

Old Lu went silent for a while. He sighed and said, “I believe that. I was also a player back in my day, otherwise, your mother would have never married me. But your standards are too high.”

Lu Zhou thought about it and didn’t want to talk about this. He coughed and tried to divert the topic.

“… What if you didn’t have a family? Would you go to the future?”

Old Lu said, “What is that supposed to mean?!”

Lu Zhou said, “What if! It’s not like there’s actually a time machine.”

“Oh right… No, I wouldn’t go!”

Lu Zhou: “… Why?”

“Twenty years ago, anyone that had a brick phone in their house would be envied by their neighbors.”

Old Lu had a complex look on his face.

“But now, there are computers and mobile phones and everything. Last time I saw an article forwarded by your uncle in the WeChat group. It seems like technologies are everywhere, on your watch, on your gla.s.ses. I really don’t know how to use these gadgets. It took a long time for me and your mother to learn how to use WeChat…”

Old Lu looked a little melancholy.

“Back then, your dad kept up with the times. I knew how to fix TVs, how to fix radios. But now, I can’t keep up with the times. And this was only after twenty years…

“Fifty years? Haha… Forget about it.”