Chapter 6: Dreaming of Walking Along the River Bottom

  Tongtong told me not to worry, it won't be a problem, just like when I'm dreaming peacefully, so I can rest assured! I asked her where she was taking me, Tongtong said didn't you call me by the river at noon today? Now we're going to explore the bottom of that river.

  I followed Tiantian out the door and onto the road, feeling light as a feather, like my body had suddenly transformed from 100 pounds to just one pound. It was quite fun. However, on the road, I saw many ghosts. There were people from the Qing dynasty wearing long shirts with braids standing by the fields and ditches, staring blankly into space. There were women from the Republic of China era wearing flower-patterned clothes with towels wrapped around their heads, brushing past me quickly. And there were old men wandering aimlessly at the village entrance. Even without moonlight or streetlights, I could see everything around me clearly, even more clearly than during the day. But everything was gray - is this what the world looks like when your soul leaves your body?

  On the road, I saw so many ghosts. If these ghosts were human, they would naturally greet each other, but ghosts are different, they completely ignore the existence of their peers around them. As I passed by that long-braided Qing dynasty ghost with Tongtong, it was as if she hadn't seen us at all, standing still and motionless with her head bowed in a daze. It's pitiful for people who have been dead for over a hundred years, whose wishes remain unfulfilled, and can only wander the mortal world, having long lost their consciousness from when they were alive, wandering aimlessly year after year, day after day, without awareness or purpose.

  Before long, I and Tiantian arrived at the riverbank. This river was different from what I saw during the day. Perhaps now it was the eyes of the soul that were looking, only to see the surface of the river as black as a river of ink. On the surface of the river, all sorts of things that had never been seen before were flying back and forth. For example, a white shadow about the size of a mat was suspended on the surface of the river. I seemed to have also seen a green frog's head the size of a bread car exposed in the water at the riverbank.

  I'm very curious about all this, but Tiantian isn't surprised at all. She says that the world seen by the soul is like this, and she's already gotten used to seeing it a lot. If what we saw back then had to be explained scientifically, I reckon it could be said to be things of different dimensions, existing but invisible to the naked eye and intangible.

  We stood on a rock by the river, Tongtong holding my hand ready to jump in. Looking at the dark water, I still felt a bit resistant, or rather, fearful of the unknown. Tongtong saw me tense up and immediately pouted her mouth, letting out a "whoosh" sound. A gust of wind blew from her mouth, blowing me lightly into the middle of the river. After falling into the water, I realized it wasn't much different from being on shore. The water didn't have any resistance, nor did I need to breathe - it seemed like I hadn't been breathing even when I was on shore!

  The river appears black from the shore, but once you're in it, your view is even clearer than from the shore. I can even see tiny fish as thin as toothpicks fighting 100 meters away.

  Tongtong also got into the water, and I followed her from behind. The scenery at the bottom of the river is really good, with all kinds of fish and colorful aquatic plants. As we walked, I saw a big stone beside which stood a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old. This young man's face was as white as paper, his whole body swollen, and he seemed to be wearing clothes from the 1930s Republican era.

  I was terrified, but Tóng Tóng said this was a person who had drowned long ago and still hadn't found a substitute. But don't be afraid, it's very weak. After finishing speaking, Tóng Tóng turned around and appeared beside the young man, who immediately became frightened and transformed into a black line like a yellow eel, slipping into a crack in the rock.

  We continued walking, and the riverbed was covered with aquatic plants, stones and mud. Fish of all sizes swam back and forth. Tiantian and I walked for hundreds of meters on the riverbed and came across a sand dune that was three meters wide, ten meters long and one meter high.

  Tongtong said to me: "It should be here."

  "I asked in puzzlement: 'Where is it? Why can't I see it?'"

  Tongtong said: "Those two people who jumped into the river are inside the sand pile."

  I asked Tiantian: "Don't lie to me, how can you be in the sand pile? Did they dig themselves in or was it someone who buried them?"

  Tongtong said: "I don't know, anyway they're inside, even if we knew how they got into the sand pile, they wouldn't be able to come back out alive!"

  Tongtong has a childish mindset, she doesn't pursue things to the end, as long as she finds something that works, she's fine, and she's not interested in knowing the process.

  I asked her if she was sure it was there. Then I used my hand to dig up the sand, and found that my hand had actually passed directly through the sand, and couldn't pick anything up at all.

  Tongtong, although she didn't have a physical body, could still pick things up. I told her to scoop away the sand and bring the corpse ashore! Tongtong said she couldn't bring it ashore, the person was already dead, she wasn't capable of possessing a dead body, only able to possess a living one.

  Tongtong told me that the person has been found, and I should tell the villagers to come here tomorrow to fish him out. He let me go back first, saying that if a soul leaves its body for too long, the person will be very tired.

  Tongtong finished speaking, and I suddenly felt the sky spinning and the earth turning. It was as if I had fallen down, and my whole body ached all over. At this moment, the surroundings suddenly lit up, and I squinted to see that it was Ye Fei who had turned on the light.

  It turns out that I fell off the bed and landed on the floor, no wonder everything is spinning and my whole body hurts. I don't know if last night's swim in the river was real or just a dream.

  He laughed at me, saying that I'm so old and still sleepwalk, and even need to check if I've wet the bed. Such a person is speechless, after all, I am her boss!

  I asked her why she wasn't sleeping at midnight and was so energetic, if she wanted to steal my money or not. I told her to speak softly, don't wake up Xiaojianzi.

  Ye Fei Ji said she was asleep, but she's the kind of person who wakes up with a little movement, so I can rest assured, being with her doesn't have to worry about thieves at all. After finishing speaking, she turned off the light, and not long after I crawled back into bed, I fell asleep.

  After dawn, Village Chief Zhang woke me up and said that my car had been driven back. I excitedly grabbed his shoulder and said: "I know where the person who jumped into the river is, let's get someone to go fishing with me."

  Zhang Village Chief didn't quite understand, so I asked Ye Fei to translate it into dialect again. Unexpectedly, Zhang Village Chief thought I was talking nonsense and fooling him! He asked me if I hadn't woken up yet!

  I patted my chest to guarantee, but he still didn't believe me. He said this isn't a joke and can't be taken lightly, or people will think you're intentionally fooling him. With the loss of both his mother and daughter at home, it's not the time to play tricks on others.

  Ye Fei Jie also chimed in, saying I was talking nonsense. Last night, I slept for a whole night, and even fell out of bed at midnight. Without leaving the house, you managed to find it after sleeping, while others searched all day yesterday and couldn't find it. Today isn't April Fool's Day!

  They didn't believe me, so I reluctantly pulled out 1,000 yuan and slapped it on the table, saying that if what I said was false, then consider this money as my loss to you.

  My 10,000 yuan was divided into ten stacks, two stacks in the soles of both shoes, one stack in each pocket, two stacks inside the jacket pocket, and one stack in the sole of a shoe on the small hill.

  The village head looked at the 1,000 yuan on the table, swallowed his saliva, and estimated that his family's income for two years was probably around this amount. But I took it out to gamble, what else could he not believe? So he immediately went out to inform others.

  After Zhang Village Head left, I put the money back in my pocket. Ye Fei's eyes shone brightly as she almost knelt down to hug my legs, saying that she had decided on me and a bright future was coming soon, and that she would work hard for me like an ox or a horse.

  Not long after, three young men and the man who had been crying with his head in his hands the night before arrived at the house. The village chief said his name was Wu Litao. This Wu Litao's eyes were red and swollen, obviously he hadn't slept all night, plus having cried all night and shed too many tears, overnight he seemed to have aged five years, haggard like a consumptive ghost.

  Wu Litao heard Zhang Village Head say that I donated 100 yuan to him for temporary use last night, and now it's me who knows the location of his mother and daughter's bodies, excitedly wanting to kneel down to thank me.

  I was at a loss, Ye Fei stood out and said don't make such a big fuss, it's easy to get struck by lightning, let's start moving to rescue people first! So everyone started moving, some carrying ropes, some carrying bamboo poles, and some carrying small hoes.

  I walked for over ten minutes and arrived at the riverbank, but looking out at the water I forgot the exact location because I had seen the sand pile underwater and hadn't gone ashore to confirm the position before falling off the bed and waking up. Now I'm anxious.

  What a big mistake! Both Village Chief Zhang and Wu Litao asked me where I was, but I couldn't answer. Seeing how anxious they were, I didn't dare to look into their eyes.

  My stuff except for the clothes from Kojima, money and that pearl are all on my shoelace, can only ask Tiantian now, don't know if it was a dream or Tiantian woke up last night, just in time to confirm now.

  I told Zhang Village Chief and Wu Litao that you two wait here, I'll go take a look over there. As I spoke, I walked along the riverbank for over 100 meters and took out the pearl to call Tiantian.

  The sound of Tongtong's voice made me jump up excitedly, and she really woke up. Tongtong asked me if I didn't bring her to see it last night? How could I forget now? I said that last night I only saw the sand pile at the bottom of the water and hadn't confirmed the location on shore before you woke me up, this can't be blamed on me!

  Tongtong sighed and said, "You wait and see where the fish are jumping on the river surface. Now throw the pearl into the river." I followed Tongtong's instructions and threw the pearl into the middle of the river, then called Ye Fei and Zhang Village Chief over, telling them to smoke a cigarette and wait.

  In less than a few minutes, in the middle of the river surface more than 200 meters downstream from us, there were several fish as thick as legs jumping out of the water one after another. I pointed to that place and said it was right there.

  Zhang Village Chief and a few others suddenly looked at me with eyes like they were seeing a ghost, but didn't say anything. They hastily ran to the downstream riverbank and started taking off their clothes. I asked Ye Fei, "So many big men are only left in their underwear, aren't you embarrassed as a girl?" Ye Fei covered her mouth and said she was an educated person and wouldn't think of weird things like me.

  The fish kept jumping out of the water. Those people swam to that position and started diving underwater, only to emerge a moment later, shouting "No! Did we get it wrong!"

  I shouted at them in the sand pile, and they could find it by opening the sand. Those people heard and dived again, repeating several times. The last time they drilled out of the water, one by one, like crocodiles chasing behind, scared to swim quickly back to the shore.