Chapter 1 Return

In earlier years, people generally had poor safety awareness and not much entertainment, so they liked to swim in the river, and inevitably a few would drown every now and then.

Later, as people's safety awareness increased, drowning incidents had greatly decreased by the early 2000s. Old Huang from the sanitation department also said that under normal circumstances, he wouldn't see a floating corpse on the river for a month or two.

Now, three floating corpses have surfaced on the river in a row, which is truly abnormal. Old Huang realized that something was wrong and didn't dare make a decision on his own, so he quickly contacted the police in town.

Me, Uncle Mei, and Sister Xiao Mei stayed by the river, staring at the floating corpses bobbing up and down in the water.

Sister Xiao Mei said with a pale face, "Is there something dirty in this river? Why do these floating corpses seem to be deliberately teasing us, as if one pops up as soon as we retrieve another?"

Uncle Mei took a puff of his cigarette, squinted his eyes, and said, "I told you it's *fushi qi sha* (corpse floating evil), it's very evil. The sayings passed down from the older generation must have some basis. Better safe than sorry!"

Although I am a descendant of corpse捞尸人 (retrievers of corpses), I don't believe in these feudal superstitions. I always feel that there must be a scientific and reasonable explanation behind these strange events, just like the corpse floating evil is actually the effect of undertow. There must also be a reason for these floating corpses appearing one after another.

When the sun was about to set, Old Huang from the sanitation department returned in a police car. He brought the town police, an older and a younger officer, who got out of the car with him.

After taking a look at the river, the older police officer frowned and muttered, "Three floating corpses appearing at once? Very strange!"

Old Huang said with a bitter face, "I'm afraid the river ghosts are claiming lives. In a couple of days, it'll be the Ghost Festival, when the dirty things in the river are pulling in scapegoats..."

Before Old Huang could finish, a young policewoman in her early twenties with short chestnut hair and a beauty mark under her left eye sneered dismissively, saying, "What era is this? Still promoting these feudal superstitions. How can there be river ghosts claiming lives? Even my niece in elementary school doesn't believe this nonsense."

Old Huang felt that his dignity had been violated, and he said to the young policewoman with a straight face, "You young girl, don't think you know everything just because you've read a few books. I've lived by this river for half my life and seen many strange things. These are not feudal superstitions!"

The short-haired policewoman remained cold and didn't take Old Huang's words seriously at all.

Uncle Mei also felt that this young girl was a bit self-righteous and asked with a half-smile, "Young girl, if you say we are old-fashioned, then tell us, why are dead people popping out of this river one after another? Where did these drowned ghosts come from?"

The short-haired policewoman confidently said, "It's very simple. There must have been a major accident upstream of the Tuo River—such as a tourist boat capsizing, or a bridge suddenly collapsing, causing a large number of people to fall into the water and drown. Later, these victims were washed to the vicinity by the undertow, encountered a whirlpool, and were brought to the surface, and then we discovered them."

This explanation was reasonable, and Old Huang and Uncle Mei were speechless.

But these two old comrades were still unwilling to admit defeat and insisted on arguing with the young girl to the end.

Old Huang turned to the older police officer and urged, "Old Li, call upstream and ask if there's such a thing. If it's really as this young girl says, such a big accident happened upstream, we should be able to get some news."

Uncle Mei also said, "Yes, Old Li, please ask and see if that's really the case."

Officer Old Li had come to investigate the floating corpses, and he would have asked even if these two hadn't said anything. He immediately took out a Motorola phone, found a number in his address book, and dialed it.

After asking a few questions, he didn't seem to get the answer he wanted, so he found another number and dialed it again.

After making five or six calls back and forth, we were all a little annoyed waiting on the side. Old Li finally put away his phone, walked back, and shook his head with a bewildered expression, saying, "I asked around, and there hasn't been any major accident upstream. Not only in the last few days, but in the last three months, everything has been peaceful. There hasn't even been a case of someone accidentally falling into the water or committing suicide by jumping into the river."

The short-haired policewoman immediately questioned, "How is that possible? Master, is someone deliberately concealing something?"

Old Li shook his head and said, "Impossible. I asked trusted friends. If there really was an accident, they would have given me a hint."

Uncle Mei and Old Huang both looked at the young policewoman with smug expressions. Old Huang smiled and said, "Young girl, I told you, there are many strange things happening on this river, and there are even more bizarre things than this! Don't think you're a highly educated intellectual just because you've read a few books, as if you know everything. You don't believe in ghosts and gods because you haven't seen enough!"

The short-haired policewoman didn't say anything this time.

At this time, Old Li said, "To find out what's going on, we still have to go underwater and take a look."

Then he pointed to the two floating corpses on the shore and asked Uncle Mei, "Mei Lao San, did you retrieve these corpses?"

Uncle Mei grinned and shook his head, saying, "How could I have such ability? My son-in-law retrieved them!"

Hearing this, I couldn't help but feel a little shy, and my face felt hot. Sister Xiao Mei glared at Uncle Mei and whispered, "Dad, what are you talking about! I haven't married yet!"

Old Li immediately turned to me and asked, "Young man, what's your name?"

I said my name is Chen Rongsheng.

Old Li nodded and said, "Xiao Chen, I'm assigning you a task. Can you find out where the source of this undertow is, what's upstream, and follow the trail to investigate where these corpses came from?"

I smiled and asked, "Is there a reward?"

Old Li was stunned by my question, seemingly not expecting me to be so practical. Uncle Mei chimed in from the side, "The undertow in the water is very dangerous. You can't let the kid risk his life for you for nothing, Old Li."

Old Li nodded with some helplessness and compromised:

"Alright, I'll give you five hundred for going into the water once. Is that okay?"

I didn't haggle. It seemed that the reward of five hundred was the highest price he could offer. The key was that I also wanted to find out where these strange floating corpses were coming from.

I had Uncle Mei take me to the vicinity of the undertow in the river on his corpse retrieving boat, and then I entered the water again. This time, I didn't swim towards the whirlpool, but swam upstream along the undertow, looking for its source.

The sky was getting late, the sun was setting, and the light in the water was getting dimmer and dimmer. I used the last bit of blood-red light to sense the direction of the undertow and swam all the way.

I thought it would take some effort to find the source, but I didn't expect things to be simpler than I thought. After swimming about a few hundred meters, I found the source of the undertow. The current was coming out of a crevice near the shore, as if it were groundwater flowing into the river.

I first surfaced to catch my breath, gathered my strength, and then plunged back into the water, swimming towards the crevice from which the undertow was flowing.

As I dived deeper and deeper, the resistance of the undertow became greater and greater. Just when my strength was about to give out, I suddenly saw a scene that made my scalp tingle, thanks to the setting sun that hadn't yet gone down—

I saw a narrow and deep crack not far in front of me, and the undertow was constantly gushing out of this crack.

In this crack, all kinds of dead bodies were crammed in horizontally and vertically!

Some of them were swollen and had their eyes wide open, obviously not long dead. Some of them had fragmented limbs, eaten by fish and shrimp in the water, and some had even lost their skin and flesh, leaving only their ghastly white bones!

They were squeezed into the cracks at the bottom of the river, constantly shaking under the surging undertow, as if they were evil ghosts crawling out of hell, trying to climb to the human world to claim lives!