Chapter 5.4 (Extra)

Lei Benchang used his previous experiences to predict the whole thing. The stream had been formed by rain and spring water accumulating in the sunken parts of the mountain. Some of these sunken parts were even deeper than ordinary lakes. The downward flow of water eventually connected with the water channels and underground rivers inside the mountain. The fish hiding in this place had a long life, so it was easy for the so-called “Fish King” to come about.

It was very difficult to catch the Fish King. For one thing, it rarely swam up to the surface. Unless the weather was special, the air pressure made the oxygen at the bottom of the water very thin, so special fishing lines and hooks were needed to catch the Fish King when it was at the bottom of the stream. Second, deep pools that had Fish Kings were generally protected by the locals. This was especially the case in a place like Fujian, where the people felt very strongly about it. Many deep pools and streams with Fish Kings even had temples or ancestral halls built by them, and sacrifices would be sunk to the bottom of the pool during festivals.

The kind of fish that could kill people and drag them to the bottom of the deep stream definitely wasn’t small. And considering the fact that the people were able to fish freely, it must have been an unattended wild pool in the mountains. The only thing Lei Benchang couldn’t figure out was whether the fish in the pool had drowned those people, or if there was something else going on. As a result, he made some inquiries.

At that time, the fishing association was still a well-organized organization. He used his connections to find one of the people who had been at the scene and spent a lot of money to persuade him to talk. Once he did, he heard something from that man’s mouth that he just couldn’t understand.

Those three people who had died consecutively after casting their fishing lines had completely disappeared into the bottom of the pool. They had all been alive before they were dragged to the bottom of the pool, and they had all said that they saw something.

They clearly stated that it wasn’t a fish, but from their expressions, it seemed like an aquatic plant was moving or something. It must have floated up from the bottom of the pool.

Lei Benchang was very excited when he heard this. Although he didn’t know what kind of Fish King it was, big fish found at the bottom of deep pools that had aquatic plants on their scales were probably about the same age as a human adult. Legend had it that the scales of this kind of fish would turn into armor plating after thirty years, which was called keratinization in academic circles. The ancients said that this was a transitional step before the fish turned into a dragon. After the scales turned into armor plating, it was easy for aquatic plants to grow on them like a parasite without corroding the fish’s skin.

So, he took his fishing tackle and followed the path the man had given him. When he got to this village, he found the pool and started trying to catch the Fish King. But twenty years later, he had fished in all the deep pools here, and even tried to use a float to draw the entire mountain range’s underground waterway. After using countless bait, he didn’t even see the shadow of the fish.

Fatty and I were both well acquainted with the ways of the world. As soon as we heard this, we looked at each other and listened for what the old man was really trying to say. For twenty years, the old man had stayed in this village to catch a fish.

I had some doubts in my heart. It was impossible for people to pursue something for so long after constant failure. It probably wasn’t that he couldn’t catch the fish, but that there was something else keeping him in this village.

Fatty voiced our questions, “I’ll take the liberty of asking you why you’re so persistent, and what happened while you were fishing?” For example, did you accidentally fuck the village head’s daughter or something?”

When Lei Benchang glanced at him, it was clear to see that he didn’t like Fatty very much. “Even if the village head fell for me, he couldn’t keep me here.” He said coldly. “Why I’ve stayed here has nothing to do with you. I just want your help now. I’ve been strategically approaching this fish, and now I’m one step away.”

I watched as the old man’s eyes dimmed and knew that he had something on his mind. I motioned for Fatty to back down and stop asking questions.

After hearing everything, I was closer to believing that the old man’s words were true. Although the content was somewhat bizarre, I could easily tell whether someone was speaking the truth or not.

There were all kinds of idiots in the world. Some people would do anything for a puzzle, so why couldn’t that be the same for fishing? It wasn’t all that surprising.

Fatty rubbed his hands. “Uncle, you just said you wanted us to rob a tomb for the bait inside. What is it?”

“Do you know something called dragon coffin fungus?” Lei Benchang asked.

I jerked my head up. Dragon coffin fungus was a folk name for what was essentially just lingzhi (1) growing in the coffin. It was said that lingzhi grew over the corpse’s face as a result of the corpse’s mouth spewing blood after it was buried. There were legends about it everywhere, and it was used as a patented Chinese medicine. But it was so rare that no one really knew what it was.

I looked at Poker-Face, but he was still unresponsive. It seemed that he had completely lost interest in these terms and was just looking at his phone. Fatty and I had spent a long time cultivating his phone skills. His fingers were very long, so he had to use a different method to operate the phone compared to others.

This feeling was very different from that of the past. I often felt resistant to it, but this was what the times had become. When I went to Yanyuan to pick up some bronze pieces, some local “villagers” who were former grave robbers were all using smart phones. The bronze wares would never be given to you directly, but would be shown to you first.

The time when I went to the Seven Star Lu Palace was really over.

“This thing is bait?” Fatty asked.

I came back to my senses, flicked the ash off my cigarette, and frowned, “What’s your basis?”

“If I hadn’t found something during these past twenty years, there’s no way I would have persisted for so long. It’s because I found a local fishing book.” Lei Benchang turned and took out a photocopy of a book.

Most of China’s ancient books about fish came from Fujian, so it was normal for them to keep local fishing records. Lei Benchang’s fishing book had an unknown origin, but he flipped to a record detailing a story about a local village that fished with nets. The so-called ground net was a special fishing net that was thrown into an underground river to catch the fish there. It was nothing new. There were detailed records in 1965’s edition of “One Hundred Thousand Whys” (2).

But there was a part in this record that had a few words describing a kind of fish, especially the kind of fish that had aquatic plants on its scales. As mentioned above, you needed dragon coffin fungus bait to catch this kind of fish because the fish would: “Eat dead bodies all year round.” It loved the strong stench that came from corpses. Dragon coffin fungus fresh out of the coffin was extremely pungent, so it was definitely suitable for this.

<Extra 5.3> <Table of Contents><Extra 5.5>

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TN Notes:

(1) Lingzhi (aka Ganoderma lingzhi) is also known as reishi. It’s a polypore fungus that’s red-varnished and has a kidney-shaped cap. The peripherally inserted stem gives it a distinct fan-like appearance. Here are a few pics:

(2) It’s a popular science book series in China, mostly intended for children. As of 2013, it’s on its 6^th edition (according to Baidu). There are over 500 versions of books with this same title from various publishing houses so Shanghai Children’s Press couldn’t trademark their science-y version. More info here.