Chapter 5.12 Fishing (Extra)

The old man didn’t pull the line up, so we couldn’t leave. The three of us sat on the cliff and watched the clouds drift across the sky. We didn’t say a word as the sun set and painted the rocks in a golden light.

The air was still cold even though the wind wasn’t strong, so the three of us stayed huddled together. It reminded me of all the many, many times before. Back then, each of us had something to do in our hearts, but now our hearts were empty and there was nothing.

“It’s really beautiful. I’ve seen so many mountains and rivers before. Why didn’t I stop and have a good look?” Fatty wondered aloud.

Yes, it was beautiful. As the sun gradually sank towards the horizon, I turned my phone on. There wasn’t a signal here, so it had plenty of battery power left. I put an instrumental on and then fell asleep by Fatty. He had a peculiar smell that was a blend of his own scent and tobacco smoke. After three months in the wild, everyone smelled like this.

After coming back from Changbai Mountain, I never slept in the wild again. Before going to bed every night, I always hoped that nothing would happen and that I wouldn’t dream. This time, hopefully nothing would happen again.

It was around eight o’clock that night when the temperature dropped, and I woke up from the cold. Fatty was sleeping with his mouth open and Poker-Face wasn’t around. I rubbed my face, lit a cigarette, and pushed Fatty away. When I stood up, I saw two fishing lights on the edge of the deep pool that were actually waterproof miner’s lamps. Poker-Face was helping the old man shine them on the pool’s surface. The old man was standing in the water and turning the roller to pull up the fishing line.

“What’s the matter?” I asked as I walked over.

“It’s a fish.” The old man replied.

The fishing line was pulled taut, and the old man had to use almost all of his strength every time he turned the roller to pull the line in. He turned it hard two or three times and then suddenly let it go, watching the roller turn more than ten times before locking it again.

“Is it that fish?” I asked as I secretly wondered if the dragon coffin fungus was really that useful. After not being able to catch it for so many years, did he finally succeed?

The old man sighed, “No, it should be another fish. It’s very strong and is about one meter long. I’ve caught it before. If it’s the fish I’m looking for, then—”

I didn’t know how the old man wanted to finish that sentence. Maybe it was something like: “then there’s no way I can pull it up at all.” I watched him gradually increase the frequency and intensity as he continued pulling the line up. Soon, the tension and explosive force on the other end of the fishing line gradually weakened, and the old man began reeling the line in without pause. At this time, we could finally help.

Each of us would continue reeling the line in for an hour before the next person would go, so I was excited when it was my turn. Although there wasn’t any more resistance on the other end of the line, it still felt very heavy. I used up all my strength after a few minutes and had to rest before I could continue. When Fatty woke up, we were just pulling the fish out of the deep pool. The moment it came out of the water, I could see a black shadow with white scales appear under the lamp’s illumination. The water’s surface had a magnifying effect, so the shadow looked like a monster.

It was a big carp with deteriorated eyes that was about 1.6 meters long. I didn’t know what specific kind it was, though.

“Have you ever eaten fish from a deep pool?” The old man asked me.

I didn’t know where the fish I ate came from, but I figured they all tasted the same. “Put it back. It’s not easy for it to grow so big.” I said to the old man. “Besides, the four of us can’t eat that much.”

The old man pulled the fishing line and dragged the fish to dry land while shaking his head. At this time, I saw that there was a huge hole in the big fish’s stomach. It almost looked like something had tried to eat the fish in one big bite.

“I didn’t consume its strength just now. It suddenly stopped because it was bitten by a bigger fish and died immediately.”

I used my palm to measure the wound and felt a chill. The mouth wasn’t big, but the strength and accuracy of the bite meant that it was a beast. Just one bite was practically fatal, since all the internal organs would be ripped out in an instant.

“What I said is true, right?” The old man looked at me. “It’s down there.”

His expression was intense and the murkiness in his eyes had disappeared. He looked at the water’s surface as if he could see straight through the depths.

Maybe he’s also wondered numerous times over the years whether this fish actually exists, I said to myself. The old man stood up silently, hung the fish from the branches of a nearby tree, and began scraping the scales off and removing the internal organs.

I took another look at the pool with a flashlight. As I re-examined it, I walked around the edge to see how high the water level could be. I was hoping it could give me an idea of what really caused those people’s deaths at that time.

Based on what the old man had said, those people had seen aquatic plants moving under the water before they died. And those plants were said to grow on the fish.

There was a huge drought in Fujian back then, and the water level was definitely lower than it was now. The water’s surface itself didn’t span a large area, so if a fish covered in aquatic plants was seen under the water’s surface at a low water level, then it couldn’t be too big.

After looking at the carp’s wound just now, it was clear to see that the fish’s mouth wasn’t big. Was it possible that this fish was smaller than a meter? But if a fish that small was so strong, could it really kill a carp with just one bite?

I had a lot of doubts in my heart. The water’s surface here seemed to conflict with all the clues I had heard, but I really didn’t know anything about fish.

I smoked another cigarette. The underground lake was completely dark, so how did the fish grow aquatic plants? Or, if they weren’t aquatic plants, then how did the fish grow aquatic-like plants?

If I listed all my doubts out, then: Little Brother was interested. The underground lake was in the shape of a Taiji. There was an artificial stone wall in the lake. There were strange fish swimming to the water’s surface to prey during the drought. The deep pool where the strange fish appeared was very small. There were aquatic-like plants on the strange fish.

Lei Benchang was a lantern lighter for grave robbers.

I stopped that line of thought. We were still fishing, so I wouldn’t let this matter evolve into something else. I would keep things simple. If I really detected a lie, then I would leave Lei Benchang right where he was at the time.

Lei Benchang finished processing the fish, cut it into strips, and used it as bait. Based on the size of its wound, he cut it into pieces about half the size of his arm and then soaked it in the liquid from the dragon coffin fungus.

After washing his hands in the pool, he walked over to where we were studying the fish head and began dealing with it. Fatty immediately understood, “Fish head tofu soup! Damn, I’ve never seen a fish head that big. Is our pot even big enough?”

“Since there was coffin fungus in the bait, the fish head can’t be eaten even if it was washed clean.” Lei Benchang said. “But the fish brains can be dug out and eaten. We’ll go in tomorrow to the place where I said the two pools are very close. But it normally takes several months for the fish to go down, so it’ll depend on you next.”

“Why don’t you try it? Isn’t there a fish in this pool?”

“During all those years, it was normal to catch pond fish. But that fish never took the bait once. The lake here is so big that it’s too difficult to catch a specific fish.” The old man said. “If you could accompany me for half a year, then I would try my luck. But that’s obviously impossible, and I don’t want to delay you any longer.”

The old man coughed a few times, and his eyes became murky again. When he turned and retreated into the tent, we all looked at each other and Fatty said, “He’s a dead man.”

“What do you mean?”

“He knows that his end is coming, so he won’t be distracted by anything. Have you ever seen such a person?”

I felt a twinge in my heart as Pan Zi’s last expression flashed through my mind.

<Extra 5.11> <Table of Contents><Extra 5.13>

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PAN ZI! .･ﾟﾟ･(／ω＼)･ﾟﾟ･. (I’ll never be ok lol). We got our first snow last night (kind of fitting considering it’s December 1st). If any of you are in warm regions, just know that I’m SUPER jealous of you lol