"Hair?"
Why was the fishing line tangled with hair?
The fisherman had been angling for over a decade, but this was a first for him. His mind went completely blank, his eyes instinctively fixed on the fishing line, trying to determine whether it was truly hair or waterweeds.
The fishing light sank slowly downward. As the glow descended, the fisherman caught sight of a dark shadow rising toward him.
It wasn't clear—he could only make out a vague silhouette. No fins, no tail, but it seemed to have limbs.
"A person?"
When that single thought was all that remained in his head, the hull was struck again. The man panicked completely. He pulled out the knife he carried with him, severed the fishing line, and paddled toward the shore like a madman.
"Pull me back! Hurry!"
He rowed with every ounce of strength, but the boat wouldn't budge an inch. Those foul-smelling black strands were crawling up the hull.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
Not only was the boat failing to get closer to shore—it was being dragged toward the center of the reservoir.
Desperate and red-eyed, the man grabbed the bucket beside him and hurled the specially prepared bait far out into the water, bucket and all.
No one knew what the bait was made of, but strangely, once it was scattered, the black hair on the hull silently withdrew. That dark mass surged toward where the bait had landed.
"Am I saved?"
The man grabbed the oar and was about to paddle for shore when he turned his head and saw a scene of horror he would never forget for as long as he lived.
From the bottom of the reservoir, clumps of something resembling black waterweeds floated up from beneath the surface, swarming toward the bait he had thrown.
"Th-there are so many…"
His hands and feet went ice-cold, his body trembling. The man didn't dare look back again. He gripped the oars and paddled for shore.
"Help me! Someone help me!"
The things beneath the water had been lured by the fisherman's specially prepared bait, letting him go temporarily. Seizing the chance, the man broke free.
He rowed the little boat back to shore with everything he had, scrambling onto the bank in a heap.
Still shaking from the fright, the fisherman sat some distance from the waterline, drenched in cold sweat, gasping for air.
"You saw the fish king?" Zhang Dapo was startled by the man's reaction and hurried over to him.
The fisherman waved his hands frantically, his lips blue-purple, trembling too hard to string together a single coherent sentence.
"Come on, tell me—what did you see? When you first got on the boat, weren't you saying you had a harpoon ready and would catch the fish king if you saw it? What happened to all that?"
"There was no fish king! What was down there just now wasn't the fish king!" The fisherman's voice came in broken gasps.
"Not the fish king? Then what was it?"
"A person! It was a person!" the fisherman screamed, his emotions wildly unstable.
While the fisherman talked with Zhang Dapo,
The special phosphorescent bobber had rolled into a corner of the boat. It was much larger than any bobber sold in stores. Curious, Chen Ge stepped a few paces closer.
He could see some black, hair-like residue clinging to the stern.
Chen Ge was fearless. Even after an incident had just occurred at the reservoir, he still dared to stand right at the water's edge.
Staring at the pitch-black surface of the water, no one could say what monstrous thing might be lurking below.