Go all out

Chapter 42: Water Ghosts Surround the Boat

Upon hearing this, Yang Yun also shot me an awkward glance. “What choice do I have? I just made 20,000—giving that to you is one thing, but now I’m stuck owing you 30,000?” I’ve been lucky to make a few ten thousand recently, but what if I don’t get a single job for a month? Then I’d be stuck in debt forever. I felt utterly devastated inside. “Can we negotiate this a bit?” I asked with an awkward smile. The man shook his head firmly. “No haggling. It’s a fixed price of 50,000,” I was speechless inside. Yang Yun also looked a bit embarrassed to look at me. As a ghostly official, he had money—but it was all underworld currency. What good is that? A hundred of mine could buy them a hundred million… I took 20,000 from Yang Yun and handed it to the man. “Here’s 20,000 for now. I’ll give you the rest in a month,” The man furrowed his brow. His eyes were fixed intently on me, making my scalp tingle. “You don’t have that much money, do you?” “Um… no,” I nodded awkwardly. “Alright, I’ll take the job. I’ll come find you in a month,” The man took the money, turned, and walked into the houseboat. When he came out again, he was carrying two roosters in each hand. These roosters had bright red combs—they weren’t ordinary roosters, but ones at least three years old. After taking out the roosters, the man tied one directly to the bow of the houseboat and the other to the stern. He then took out a small knife and slit the throat of the rooster at the stern. The rooster convulsed violently, and blood spurted from its neck, instantly staining a small patch of the river red. Strangely enough, though, while rooster blood usually dilutes when it hits water, I saw with my own eyes that this blood sank slowly, as if it were a piece of cloth. Moreover, the rooster kept twitching, and the blood dripped slowly, drop by drop, into the river. The man’s cut wasn’t deep enough to kill the rooster right away—it wasn’t going to die for a while—which was quite eerie. I watched for a while; this must have been some kind of ritual. There are many things in the river, and one needs to make offerings to ensure safety. The most common creatures in the river are water ghosts. Of course, I’ve never seen one myself, but with Yang Yun by my side, what water ghost would dare come up here looking for trouble? The man then started the boat and headed in the direction Yang Yun had indicated. Along the way, I learned the man’s name was Zhang Qiang. He wasn’t a talkative man, but he often cut straight to the chase. Realizing he wasn’t a bad person, I exchanged a few casual words with him. Of course, I also casually—or perhaps not so casually—mentioned that I could tell fortunes, hoping he’d ask me to read his fortune. I’d charge him 50,000—it’s a pretty good deal, isn’t it? But Zhang Qiang just shook his head and said he didn’t believe in fate. I was speechless. Zhang Qiang had a face that would strike fear into even ordinary ghosts and monsters, which is why he could spot at a glance that Yang Yun—who hadn’t appeared yet—was someone who made a living dealing with the spiritual realm. Few people in that line of work lack real skill, Faced with such an awkward rejection, I could only give an embarrassed smile and change the subject. Out of curiosity, I asked him what kinds of things he’d encountered over the years, and he gave a brief account. Water ghosts—he had indeed encountered them. But after he killed three or four with his corpse-retrieval hook, no water ghost dared to bother him again. That hook was passed down to him by his deceased master; it was likely hundreds of years old and possessed unimaginable yin energy. Ordinary water ghosts would die with a single hook—it was practically a sure thing. As for water corpses, Zhang Qiang had indeed encountered one—but only once, and he’d been injured in the process. These creatures were incredibly sinister; Zhang Qiang’s expression darkened as he spoke of them, However, when I asked him if he’d ever encountered the River God, he gave me a meaningful look and fell silent. I was getting anxious. I asked him several times in a row, but he just kept shaking his head and remained silent. All I could do was stand there, staring helplessly. Yang Yun, on the other hand, stood at the bow without saying a word. I felt helpless. I’m not exactly a chatterbox, but for every ten sentences I say to these two, it’s a miracle if they manage to respond with even one or two. It felt a bit strange to be sitting here in the dead of night without a single word spoken. Feeling a bit bored, I thought of the rooster with its throat slit tied to the stern, so I walked over out of curiosity to take a look. The blood from the rooster tied to the stern had already drained completely, and the river water behind the boat looked eerie—a long streak of blood in the water that, strangely, wouldn’t disperse. In the dim night, it looked like a rope floating in the water, being slowly pulled in by something. I took a deep breath. I knew the water was teeming with all sorts of creatures, but this thing had been following us the whole way—and Zhang Qiang seemed to have noticed it too, yet was pretending not to see it. What was this thing pulling in the rooster’s blood? Filled with fear and suspicion, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end at the sight of such an eerie scene. I had no choice but to walk back to the bow once more. I thought the rest of the journey would be smooth sailing, but unexpectedly, halfway there, I saw more than ten crows flying toward us from the distant horizon. To my astonishment, these crows were as big as a human head, with blood-red eyes that were exceptionally terrifying. They circled the boat over and over. Zhang Qiang frowned, untied the rooster at the stern, and flung it out. Only then did the flock of crows scramble for the rooster and fly off into the distance. But for some reason, after listening to those crows caw for a while, my head started to feel dizzy. Their cries were very strange, like the wails of ghosts and howls of wolves. People say that crows flying over rivers are actually vengeful spirits in disguise, and now it seemed that might actually be true. Fortunately, the journey wasn’t too long. About an hour later, the boat came to a stop. Zhang Qiang turned on the high beams at the bow and seemed to be preparing for something. Yang Yun had been standing at the bow for quite a while. Curious, I walked over. In the glare of the lights, I saw that ahead was indeed a right-angled bend in the river—it felt as if a huge mountain had been hollowed out right there. Because of the sharp angle, the current was even more turbulent; if someone were to accidentally fall in, they’d be swept away instantly. If you didn’t know how to swim, you’d be too scared to even linger here. From the looks of it, those 50,000 yuan were well spent. Seeing such a dangerous spot, I felt a twinge of worry. According to the rules of body retrievers, if a body can’t be recovered after three attempts, it means the job can’t be taken on—it’s considered that the remains refuse to be retrieved, or that the spirits beneath the water won’t let the person go. I’d heard rumors about these taboos, but I didn’t know if they were true, However, just then, the rooster at the bow suddenly crowed. In the glare of the bright light, I suddenly witnessed an eerie sight: the water was flowing downstream, yet in one spot, it was flowing upstream against the current. It wasn’t a big fish, nor was it a whirlpool—could it be a water ghost? I was startled by the sight. Yang Yun, standing beside me, snorted coldly. The eerie mass of water moving toward us slowly came to a halt, but showed no sign of retreating. I was astonished—wasn’t this guy afraid of dying? Yang Yun is a ghost officer, after all. By then, Zhang Qiang was ready. He’d also noticed what was happening in the distance. Frowning deeply, he grabbed the corpse hook and flung it forward. Since the distance wasn’t too great, the hook should have been able to catch it. But the eerie mass of water “wisely” twisted, transforming into a whirlpool before vanishing. The corpse hook struck empty, and the water flowing upstream returned to normal. “Something’s off here. There are so many water ghosts—could this be a corpse cave?” Zhang Qiang said in a low voice. “Lots of water ghosts”—hearing those words sent a chill down my spine. Because right after that mass of water flowing upstream vanished, identical masses began to appear one by one all around the boat. They circled the vessel like a pack of long-starved crocodiles, watching us intently,All around the boat, it was as if an invisible, massive rod were stirring the water; the water began swirling at a speed visible to the naked eye, Zhang Qiang’s face turned grim. He set down the body-retrieval hook, turned without a word, and walked into the cabin. When he emerged again, he was carrying two roosters in both hands. but these roosters were different from the ones before. Their combs were oval-shaped, and their tail feathers were very long, resembling those of a pheasant. Moreover, they were actually black. I was taken aback—these were black-boned roosters, He slit the male black chicken’s throat with a knife, and blood spurted out. Zhang Qiang carried the chicken in his hand and walked three laps around the boat, then tossed it into the river. I watched with my own eyes as the black chicken, once it hit the water, was torn apart by dozens of waves and dismembered in just a few moments. as the whirlpools swirled, the flesh and blood slowly vanished. The whirlpools quickly subsided, but after glancing around a few times, Zhang Qiang walked straight over to me and Yang Yun and said, “This is too normal,” What does that mean? Didn’t we just take care of it? Besides, with that attitude, it seems like he doesn’t even want to continue before we’ve even started,