Chapter 5.25 One Step Away (Extra)

When it came to telling stories, Lei Benchang was average. His son started fishing with him when he was five years old. He used to be a warm and steady person and hoped his son would like the things he did. His son looked like a black monkey (1) at such a young age because Lei Benchang used to take him on all-day fishing trips everywhere.

His son was very talented and could even fish with a stick and a rope, but this kind of detail wasn’t the core of the story. It wasn’t clear where his so-called talent for fishing came from, but even the fishermen themselves couldn’t tell most of the time. Lei Benchang said that sometimes, it seemed like his son could communicate with the fish in the water and knew what they were thinking.

It was a baffling feeling. Some people simply managed to catch fish no matter what kind of area they were in, even if there weren’t any signs.

There was also a type of master who wasn’t familiar with fishing so much as he was familiar with the whole body of water. He not only knew where the water was deep and shallow, but also where the whirling currents and shallow slopes were. This kind of master was also good at catching fish and could always catch more than others even though they were subject to the same conditions.

Of the two kinds of masters—those who could catch big fish and those who could catch a lot of fish—Lei Benchang’s son belonged to the former.

His son was addicted to catching big fish. When he grew up, he took part in many competitions, won lots of trophies, and began looking for big fish in the mountains and rivers everywhere. For some reason, Lei Benchang was very proud that his son had fished in all the big rivers and could tell whether there were big fish in the river systems. When Lei Benchang asked how he knew, his son couldn’t explain it. He just looked at it and came to a conclusion.

When his son came to Fujian to fish, he had actually brought a few students with him. A lot of rich people who liked fishing heard that his son was good, so they decided to take his class. They would sometimes go out to fish for fun, and would ask his son to coach them. Wild fishing was a very physical activity and would enable you to appreciate the local conditions and customs. It was very popular for a period of time during the last century, and was similar to how rich people today collected sandalwood.

When his son arrived at the deep pool, he suddenly stopped and told his students that there were big fish in the pool.

They all immediately got their hooks ready, but his son was really the one getting the four fishing rods set up. The other people were merely helping him hold the rods. His son deliberately wanted his students to get a taste of how it felt to hook a big fish. In the end, something bit the hook less than an hour later.

The fishing rod was immediately pulled in a very exaggerated semicircle that almost looked like a paper clip. Then, the line broke and the fishing rod was thrown back. The person holding the rod was inexperienced and ended up hitting his son in the eye, causing it to swell. But before his son could react, he also managed to hook something on his pole.

His son’s first reaction was to shout, “So fierce?”

After the fish swallowed the hook, it didn’t show any signs of hesitation or fear. It merely snapped the fishing line and then moved on to bite another hook nearby. His son intuitively realized that there was only one fish below, and this fish wasn’t afraid of the hook or line at all.

With the exception of shark fishing, it was rare to encounter such a situation.

His son was experienced and fought with the fish for two or three hours, but even more bizarre things happened during that time. The people next to him were still fishing, and all their lines got hooked one right after another. When the fish was fighting with him, it was still eating the bait on the other hooks. He didn’t know if it was just hungry or that fierce. After all four poles had been hooked, the fishing lines began to twist and get knotted together, and then everyone’s fishing lines suddenly loosened at the same time.

His son thought the line had finally broken and sighed. Although it was difficult for the line to break, it was still possible if it rubbed against the rock in the depths of the pool.

Not only had all four of them gone through such a big battle, but it was the first time the other three had experienced such a thing before. They laughed heartily, turned their backs to the water, and started discussing how exciting it had been. But in an unexpected turn of events, the line didn’t break and the big fish swam up.

The people on shore only saw a huge shadow covered in aquatic plants emerge from the surface of the deep pool. Then, the water exploded and his son was the first to be dragged into the pool. The others thought that his son had fallen into the water and immediately went to save him. After the ensuing chaos, all four people had disappeared and only the four fishing rods were left floating on the water. But the four rods were suddenly dragged into the water a few minutes later, disappearing into the depths of the pool.

When some people went to salvage later, they only found three of the fishing rods. The four men and the last fishing rod had completely disappeared.

After the old man heard the devastating news, he was in denial for a long time. It was only when he went to the place where the accident occurred that he knew his son couldn’t have survived. He may have been dragged into an underground river. Unable to accept this reality, he started fishing in that deep pool.

The old man closed his eyes when he said this, and I knew that he wanted to cry. The insurmountable grief in his heart and the twenty years of waiting should have converged into tears at this moment, but he had none left. He just sat there crying silently with red-rimmed eyes. His last tears should have faded away the moment he saw the lake earlier.

I could understand his state at that moment. He had finally seen his end. It had been a very long and lonely road for Lei Benchang, so when he saw the end, all he could do was cry.

I had only experienced it for ten years, so the only thing I could do was admire him and let him drink more hot water. I knew what it was like searching for someone. I used to think that I had the best persistence in the world, but now I was seeing someone who had spent twenty years looking for a corpse. I was finally starting to realize that this persistence was merely a human trait that wasn’t all that remarkable.

After that, we got ready to sleep. Fatty was so excited that he couldn’t sleep at all, but I was very tired despite my preoccupied mind. Fatty asked me what the huge building might be.

I looked at the top of the tent, thinking about the huge shadow, the shrine’s setting outside, and the statue of the Stagnant Water Dragon King. If we thought of it logically, then the ancients at that time must have discovered this underground pool. There were many wandering heroes who followed Xu Xiake’s (2) example and went deep into various caves. If they found a strange fish in the underground lake, they might have thought it was the Stagnant Water Dragon King inhabiting it and built temples to worship it. The most likely possibility was that this huge building was the Stagnant Water Dragon King’s palace, which was used to placate the dragon king. They would throw food into the deep pool as a sacrifice and pray for the protection of the water and soil.

This strange fish attacked the old man’s son when he and his group had their backs to the water, and it was the same when it attacked us earlier. If the fish took the initiative to attack and carefully chose an opportunity, then there was a chance it was quite intelligent. I decided to call this kind of fish the Stagnant Water Dragon King for the time being. The old man might be able to catch it, but it was doubtful whether we could actually subdue it.

As Fatty kept talking, I fell into a deep sleep. He woke me up the next morning, but I was confused when I heard what he said. He kept repeating himself and seemed agitated. As I tried to fully wake myself up, it took me a moment before I heard him say, “Lei Benchang is dead.”

I frowned, not understanding what he meant. I walked out of our tent and went over to the old man’s tent. When I opened the flap, I saw that the old man had been in the middle of assembling his fishing rods. His head was leaning on the rod that he was holding on the ground, but he was completely motionless.

When I went up and touched him, I found that he was cold and stiff and his eyes were still open. I looked at the pupils and saw that they were cloudy and dilated.

The old man was dead.

I looked at Poker-Face standing nearby. He closed the old man’s eyes and said to me, “He was seriously ill.”

“You knew?” I was surprised and suddenly realized why he had promised the old man at that time. He already knew.

Poker-Face looked at the old man, patted him on the shoulder, and then gently put him down. I watched his movements and suddenly realized that Poker-Face knew the old man. His actions weren’t those of someone treating a stranger, but someone treating an old friend he had known for a long time. My hair stood on end and I grabbed Poker-Face’s hand, “Who is he?”

“A person who was familiar with me a long time ago. But he’s forgotten me.” Poker-Face said.

<Extra 5.24> <Table of Contents><Extra 5.26>

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TN Notes:

(1) Pretty sure he’s just saying the kid was tan lol

(2) Xu Xiake (1587-1641), Ming dynasty travel writer and geographer, author of “Xu Xiake’s Travel Diaries”. He traveled throughout China for more than 30 years, documenting his travels extensively. His work was quite systematic in that it provided accurate details and measurements. Some say his work reads more like the accounts of a 20th-century field surveyor than an early 17th-century scholar. More info here

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This is not a drill people! They finally quit stringing us along and aired the episodes lol