Chapter 5.21 Rain Village’s Fishing King (Extra)

I was so shocked that I felt my breath get caught in my throat and I almost choked. I took a few steps forward and squatted down to look at the marks on the ground. They were about the same width as car tires.

“Is this a fucking snake?” I asked. “Did you see it just now?”

“I didn’t get close, but it’s not a snake. It’s a fish.” Poker-Face looked at the lake and added, “It’s fast.”

As Poker-Face spoke, he put his hand on his waist. He didn’t have a knife and obviously wasn’t used to it. I pulled out my prized Kukri and handed it to him. He took it and stuck the sheath on his hip according to his usual habit. I pulled out my other one and also stuck it on my waist, copying him.

I continued shining my miner’s lamp on the lake and saw that there seemed to be a stone wall far to our left. As we walked along the salt beach, we saw that it really was a stone wall covered in salt clusters. It extended out from the shore to the lake like a flood control levee or some kind of path through the water.

“This is the fucking Sudi (1).” I said. All that was missing was the willow branches fluttering on both sides and the six bridges.

When I swung the miner’s lamp around, we could see that the lake on the other side was obviously smaller than this one. This wasn’t a perfect Taiji like we had originally thought, but the stone wall was really man-made. I didn’t know which master from which dynasty had built it or why.

The current on the water’s surface was turbulent and a lot of big waves seemed to come out of thin air, indicating that the water below was colliding chaotically. I went up to the water’s edge and tried to scoop some up, but Poker-Face held me back. He pulled out his knife, dipped it in the water, let it drip on his skin a little, and then wiped it off.

“Salt water.” He whispered.

I had received a college education, so I knew that there were few toxic minerals associated with salt mines. My stomachache earlier may have been a result of other minerals in the salt, but I wouldn’t die. I reassured him and then licked it before quickly spitting it out. The water was really salty, but not too salty. There had to be a fresh water system rushing in from somewhere to neutralize some of the salinity.

I turned around and signaled in Fatty’s direction, telling him that everything was alright and that he should hurry up. After a long time, I saw Fatty and the old man approaching, looking exhausted. Fatty pointed at me and scolded, “Mr. Naive, you son of a bitch! You shouldn’t be called Wu Xie, you’re stinking evil (2)! What were you running for? If this old man had an accident, I’d have to carry him alone. Luckily, he’s quite tough.”

I looked at Lei Benchang. He was exhausted, but when he saw the lake, he started trembling and walked towards it. I figured he never thought that he’d really see the lake one day.

He stood by the lake and then crouched down. Tears started flowing down his face as he bowed his head and cried silently.

I thought Fatty was coming over to get even with me, but when I started to make my apologies, he whispered to me, “The old man can’t go on like this. He’s too excited. He almost passed out just now. He can’t run like this again. If something happens here, we’ll be in big trouble.”

I nodded and pulled out my canteen to let the old man have a few mouthfuls of water. By this time, we had been continuously exercising for more than ten hours and our bodies’ fatigue had finally reached its peak after all that running. I figured it was time to deliver a fatal blow.

I sat down in front of the old man and turned my back to the lake. “This is it.” I said to him. “We brought you here as promised.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

“Can you tell us the truth now?” I asked as I continued to look at him. “Why on earth did you want to come here?”

When the old man paused and looked up at me, I patted him and said, “No one is able to lie to me. And I don’t think you did, either. You just didn’t tell us something. It’s ok. Just say it now.”

As soon as he opened his mouth to speak, I grabbed his hand and said, “Old man, I can accept others not telling me something. But if you lie to me once, I won’t let you fish here.”

I squeezed his hand as I looked at him without an ounce of compromise. I used enough strength to keep him from pulling back, silently telling him that I wasn’t as weak as I looked.

His tense shoulders slowly relaxed. “I—” he paused. “I came to see my son.”

I looked back at Fatty, and he nodded at me.

“My son is at the bottom of this lake.” The old man said. “I’m going to catch the fish that killed him, and I want to get him too.”

My previous sense of unease was right. The old man slowly told me that his son was one of those who went fishing in the deep pool and got dragged down. His son liked fishing because he liked fishing. He felt proud that he and his son shared a common hobby, but he never expected that his son would die at the hands of a fish.

This made the old man feel so guilty that he couldn’t accept the reality. After a long time, the old man couldn’t let it go and finally decided to face it. He was going to catch the fish that killed his son. This was the reason why he had lived here for so long.

“Old man, life and death are just part of the cycle of life. After so many years, you should also let it go. Why are you so persistent?” Fatty asked. “Maybe that fish is already dead—fuck, look out!”

As soon as the words fell, Poker-Face immediately jumped over and grabbed my collar. Fatty was a little slower, but managed to grab the back of the old man’s neck. The two of them worked together to pull us up and drag us further up the shore. Almost at the same time, there was the loud sound of water exploding from behind us and a huge wave splashed over us.

“Fucking hell!” Fatty looked at the shore where we had just been sitting. I also looked back and saw a shadow among the wave quickly retreat back into the water.

<Extra 5.20> <Table of Contents><Extra 5.22>

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TN Notes:

(1) Formerly known as Sugongdi. It’s one of the ten scenic spots of Hangzhou’s West Lake. It’s a tree-lined embankment that runs through the north-south scenic area of ​​the lake.

(2) Remember, Wu Xie’s name means something along the lines of “no evil”

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Poker-face: Be careful, there’s something in the water.
Wu Xie: Let me just turn my back to this suspicious-looking lake so I can have a discussion.
Me: face-palm
Monster Fish: YESSSS MY CHANCE!!!!!

Did I not say they jinxed themselves? lol. Anyways, I wasn’t that impressed with the trailer (I’m biased, it takes me like 10 episodes to start warming up to the new actors and I’m already attached to all the previous actors who played them lol) but “The Ultimate Note” will apparently be airing tomorrow! Here’s the iQIYI page for whenever they start posting the episodes. It looked like Black Glasses had a mullet. I’m highly shook. But Lieutenant Zhang might be making an appearance (for some strange reason) (♡‿♡)