Chapter 393: Chapter 312: Shelling Insects
Duan Rong’s consciousness surged like the tide, slowly rising...
His eyelids twitched, and his eyes slowly opened.
As soon as his mind cleared, Duan Rong suddenly jumped up.
He found himself still in the stone chamber he had been in before falling unconscious.
Shang Xiangyu sat in front of the desk, flipping through the notebook. However, the large stone pot that had originally been on the desk was now gone.
Seeing Duan Rong jump up, Shang Xiangyu glanced at him and said lightly, "Awake?"
Duan Rong glanced outside the stone window, only to see a blanket of white mist rolling.
Inside Changling Mountain, there are nine dark days and one bright day, making it impossible to discern the change in the weather.
Duan Rong was unsure how long he had been unconscious.
Shang Xiangyu saw that Duan Rong did not respond and was not bothered. He closed the notebook, stood up, and said, "Come with me."
Shang Xiangyu spoke and then walked out of the stone chamber, with Duan Rong silently turning to follow him out of the cave.
Outside the stone cave, Shang Xiangyu glanced at several people busy working on a corner of the platform, saying, "Pan Yong, this kid is called Duan Rong, take him under your wing."
Shang Xiangyu finished speaking and turned back into the stone cave without waiting for a reply.
At this moment, a young man with a square face and clear eyes raised his head, smiled heartily, and looked at Duan Rong, saying, "Brother Duan, come over to my side."
Duan Rong glanced at the young man named Pan Yong. His face was dark and although he looked honest, it was obvious at a glance that he was a seasoned, deep-thinking person.
In one corner of the platform, the ground was covered with various equipment and bottles and jars.
Duan Rong carefully stepped over the clutter and stood not far from Pan Yong.
Pan Yong pulled out a small stool from behind, placed it beside him, and without lifting his head said, "Here, sit here."
Duan Rong stepped over a strangely shaped wooden device and sat down next to Pan Yong.
As soon as Duan Rong was seated, Pan Yong glanced at him and said, "Watch carefully, I’ll catch three for you to see."
Duan Rong focused his gaze, watching as Pan Yong reached into a jar by his foot and pulled out a bug.
The bug was about the size of a thumb, lacking legs and antennae, and covered in alternating rings of hard shells.
In Pan Yong’s hand, the bug wriggled continuously...
With one hand, Pan Yong gripped the bug tightly and with the other, he held a blackened iron tool that looked somewhat like tweezers but wasn’t. One end extended into a three-inch long black needle.
Pan Yong used the tool to pierce a protrusion in the bug’s hard shell with the black needle, saying, "First, fix it with the black needle. The place to pierce is the protruding part."
Using the ends of the tool to clamp tight the fixed bug, Pan Yong glanced at Duan Rong and said, "Watch closely."
Then, Duan Rong saw Pan Yong using the iron tool and his fingers moved as if arranging flowers, and somehow in that instant, the bug’s hard shell fell off, leaving a white, plump, maggot-like bug rolling into Pan Yong’s hand.
Pan Yong tossed the fleshy white bug into a wooden basin beside him, where more than ten such bugs were already crawling and rolling about...
Pan Yong removed the empty shell from the black needle, threw it at his feet, and looked at Duan Rong, asking, "Did you see clearly?"
Duan Rong shook his head confusedly.
Although Duan Rong didn’t see clearly, he knew that the crucial moment was when Pan Yong’s fingers moved, enabling him somehow to use the iron tool to remove the bug’s hard shell.
"No worries, watch again."
Pan Yong repeated the process, tossing another bug into the wooden basin.
With furrowed brows, Duan Rong focused intently on Pan Yong’s fingers, but still couldn’t make it out.
Duan Rong asked, "Brother Pan, could you slow down when removing the shell?"
Before Pan Yong could reply, another young man nearby chimed in, "Kid, it’s not that it can’t be slow. But slow, and it won’t come off."
As he spoke, the young man snapped his fingers, saying, "Just like snapping fingers, slow and they won’t snap. Understand?"
Pan Yong smiled at the young man who snapped his fingers, saying, "Yo... Yin Cong, you sure know a lot now. When you first arrived, I asked you to remove bug shells, and your face went dark, you kept rolling your eyes at me..."
The young man called Yin Cong chuckled, saying, "Brother Pan, why bring up those embarrassing moments? Aren’t you exposing my shortcomings in front of the newcomer?"
Duan Rong glanced at the young man named Yin Cong, who clearly had a lively nature, while another young man beside him had a somber expression and remained silent. Despite the joking, he continued to focus on his work without lifting his head.
Pan Yong lifted his hand and tossed a bug into the wooden basin, saying, "Come, junior brother Duan, give it a try."
As Pan Yong spoke, he put down the iron tool and stood up.
Duan Rong had no choice but to muster up the courage to sit on the stool Pan Yong had used. Pan Yong sat next to him, looking at Duan Rong with an encouraging gaze, saying, "No worries, just go for it. We all started this way."
Sitting there, as Duan Rong picked up the blackened iron tool, the others all glanced at him, including the previously silent senior brother.
Duan Rong reached into the jar by his feet to grab a bug.
The moment his hand emerged from the jar, a tingling sensation spread across his palm and the back of his hand.
Duan Rong retrieved a bug from the pile, and as his hand reached the jar’s opening, he realized he had picked up two. With a brief finger motion, one dropped back inside.
Comments