By the stream, there was a large, pebble-covered shallow bank, where a man lay with a deathly pallor, his eyes tightly shut, and even his breathing was exceptionally faint.
The stream water had soaked half of his body, while a few green-shelled crabs crawled around him, with one even climbing onto him.
For several days, the man did not regain consciousness, nor did he die, maintaining his faint breathing, just lying there.
Who knows how many days passed, when an elderly figure and a young girl slowly approached from a distance.
The old man looked about sixty years old, with a dark complexion, wearing a conical hat and a raincoat made of straw. He had a bamboo fishing pole slung over his shoulder and walked somewhat awkwardly, as if his left leg was slightly lame.
The young one was a girl under ten years old, wearing repeatedly patched old clothes, her bare feet kicking small stones as she walked. Her small face was flushed, with her hair tied into two small horn-shaped braids.
