Chapter 182
Chapter 182
Mafang Village.
As its name suggested, it meant a stable for horses.
It was said that more than two hundred years ago, a small rebel force that remained committed to resisting the Qing had secretly raised horses and stored weapons and armor here.
By then, however, Qing rule had already stabilized, and the small-scale uprising was swiftly crushed.
The general who led the troops was Han Chinese himself. Unable to harden his heart, he secretly spared the civilians who had only tended the horses here and had taken no part in the rebellion…
They settled down in this place, and over time, Mafang Village took shape.
Nowadays, the village had around a hundred households.
Mafang Village was also in a fairly good location.
Although it was a little farther from Lianghe Town than Wujia Village was, it lay very close to another small town called Yangtong, less than two miles away.
Yangtong was much smaller than Lianghe Town, but it still had a population of more than ten thousand. The people of Mafang Village therefore went there quite often for market days or to do small-scale business.
But back to the matter at hand.
The bizarre incident the old village chief told me about had happened a week earlier.
A man from Mafang Village named Sixth Lu had contracted a large expanse of rice paddies several years ago. He broke through the embankments and connected the fields, turning them into one enormous fishpond.
He used it exclusively to raise fish.
After several years, he had made a fair amount of money and given his entire family a comfortable life.
Fish farming was hard work, though.
Besides constantly worrying about the fingerlings getting sick, someone had to spend every night in the thatched hut beside the pond, keeping watch in case anyone came to steal fish.
People today, or people from towns and cities, might find that hard to understand. But rural life was not prosperous back then, and plenty of people went around stealing all sorts of things at night.
Corn, sweet potatoes, fish, chickens… You name it, people stole it!
Fishponds in particular needed close guarding.
They usually covered a large area, stood far from people’s homes, and held something valuable that was relatively easy to steal.
So anyone who raised even a modest number of fish would generally spend a night every few days in the little thatched hut beside their pond, keeping watch.
For someone like Sixth Lu, who ran a large commercial fishpond, it was practically an every-night obligation!
A few days earlier,
he had eaten dinner as usual, then sat with his wife and son for a while watching a Hong Kong movie broadcast by Lianghe Town’s local TV station.
Afterward, he took his battery lamp, threw on an overcoat, lit a cigarette, and strolled toward the thatched hut on the bank of his fishpond…
Naturally, the hut had no electricity, so Sixth Lu could only light a kerosene lamp and read to pass the time.
Before long, drowsiness set in. He put out the lamp and went to sleep.
Late in the night,
while drifting in and out of sleep, he suddenly seemed to hear a strange noise.
Buzzing and rumbling, over and over.
It was loud but strangely muffled, very much like thunder.
The sound woke him.
“What’s going on? The forecast said it wouldn’t rain tonight, so why is it thundering? And that sound is kind of strange.”
Sixth Lu jolted and sat up on the narrow wooden bed.
He hurriedly pulled on his coat, grabbed the battery lamp, and prepared to go outside for a look.
The moment he opened the door and swept the pond with the lamp,
well, what do you know!
He really did spot a fish thief swimming in the pond.
Sixth Lu recognized him at once.
The man was Zhao Zhiming, the village’s hooligan bachelor. He had a habit of petty theft and other underhanded acts. He had even done such rotten things as knocking on widows’ doors in the middle of the night.
That was why no one liked him.
So when Sixth Lu discovered that Zhao Zhiming had come to steal fish, he was not the least bit surprised.
There was just one thing he found odd…
“Zhao Zhiming, you idiot. If you’re going to steal fish, then steal fish. Why the hell would you jump into the pond in the dead of winter? You really are too stupid for words.”
Sixth Lu shook his head in contempt.
Ordinary fish thieves knew enough to stand on the bank and sweep a long-handled net back and forth through the water.
The more capable ones would rig up electrified equipment and shock the fish straight out of the pond!
Fish farmers hated that kind of thief most of all. If one got caught, the farmer would generally call the other villagers over and beat him half to death on the spot.
“Hurry up and get out! Now that I’ve caught you, you can forget about stealing any fish. You bastard! Since we’re from the same village, I’ll let you off after a few kicks.”
As Sixth Lu cursed, he deliberately shone the battery lamp into Zhao Zhiming’s eyes while the man thrashed through the water.
“Don’t, don’t… Aah!”
Zhao Zhiming let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The glare from Sixth Lu’s lamp had slowed him as he swam toward the bank. Then, without warning, he screamed in agony.
The next instant, Sixth Lu saw a large cloud of red bloom in the water behind and to one side of Zhao Zhiming’s body!
It was blood!
He froze in terror.
He had no idea what was happening.
“Save… save me…”
Zhao Zhiming stared at Sixth Lu on the bank, his face filled with despair.
One second later,
an immense force seemed to rise from beneath the water. The same thunderous, muffled boom sounded again.
Zhao Zhiming was dragged underwater.
A great cloud of blood welled up from below.
Then all was still.
Clatter!
Thud!
The battery lamp fell straight from Sixth Lu’s hand, and his legs gave way beneath him. He collapsed onto the ground.
“What happened? What was that just now? There’s… something in my fishpond? That thing killed Zhao Zhiming!”
He could not believe what he had just seen.
By then, the fishpond had already returned to calm.
It was as if everything that had just happened had merely been a dream or hallucination–if not for the broad slick of blood still drifting over the water, reminding him that it had all been real!
Sixth Lu sat stunned on the ground for nearly half a minute before abruptly coming back to himself.
He snatched up the battery lamp and tore home in blind panic…
There was something in the fishpond that killed people. How could he possibly dare spend the rest of the night alone in the hut?
Of course he had to rush home and tell the village chief that someone had died in his pond!
The distance between Sixth Lu’s fishpond and his home was roughly two-thirds of a mile.
He ran so fast that he lost a shoe. He even fell once and got mud all over himself, but he did not stop for a single moment.
At last, he made it home and woke his wife and fifteen-year-old son. Gasping for breath, he told them the horrifying story… Then the family of three grabbed flashlights and the battery lamp and hurried together to the village chief’s house.
Sixth Lu simply did not dare walk the dark road alone anymore.