Ghost Record

  In order to catch this big fish, I have to stay at the old man's house for seven days and promise to catch no less than ten kilograms of fish every day. The old man smiled and said it was no problem, as long as I could catch ten kilograms of fish every day, staying for two years would be no problem either.

  The one catching fish is Tongtong. She has to wait until nightfall to catch them. She will attach herself to the body of a fish, and after the fish jumps out of the water, she will detach herself and dive back into the water. The fish that jump out of the water, even without Tongtong attached to them, will still fly straight towards the shore due to inertia. All I need to do is pick them up with a bucket.

  The old man was also very curious, I went out empty-handed every night, how could I bring back a bucket of fish at once? He had to follow me to see for himself. But I warned him that if he came with me, I wouldn't even be able to catch a single shrimp.

  Every night, he catches ten kilograms of fish, which is definitely not enough for two people to eat. The old man takes it to the meat stall and exchanges it with others for pork, or goes to the small grocery store in the neighboring village to exchange it for rice wine to drink. In just a few days, many villagers knew that there was a young man living in the old man's house who could catch ten kilograms of fish every night without using his hands. They came to the old man's house one after another, stuffed money into my hands and asked me to catch fish for them.

  Maybe someone will ask if catching so many fish and killing them would have any bad consequences, but who knows about this stuff. This is just what Buddhism says, but I believe more in the law of survival where the weak are preyed upon by the strong.

  Although many villagers came to me to catch fish, I only caught 30 kilograms every day, and 10 kilograms were for the old man. After all, I ate, drank and lived in his house. I had a requirement that no one was allowed to follow me when I went fishing. Although the villagers all agreed, I still didn't feel at ease, so I secretly ran far away to catch fish at night and let them come over during the day to take it away.

  Fish are different and the prices are also different. By the 30th, I caught fish and exchanged them for money, which was over two hundred yuan. This still has to thank Tongtong, without her, I guess I would have been wandering in the wilderness again.

  When I got to the first grade, there were still many people coming to Lao Tou's house during the day to give me money to catch fish. I refused them one by one. I told them that I wouldn't catch small fish anymore, and tonight I would catch a big fish. Tomorrow morning, you can come to the willow tree by the river and see it.

  The villagers of course believed I could catch a big fish, and asked me how big it was. When I said it was as big as two pigs, they didn't believe me again. A fish as big as two pigs? The whole village had never seen such a huge fish before, so they naturally didn't believe me. As for their doubts, I just smiled.

  During the day, I prepared two catties of pork liver, which is a big investment! However, for catching a big black fish, it's like exchanging soybeans for pearls. At over 10 o'clock in the evening, after most villagers had gone to sleep, I came alone to a river bay, which I had found a few days ago. There was a large stone at the edge of the water here, with a depression near the surface of about two meters. In other words, no matter where the sun rises from, it's impossible for it to shine here, and it's really true that the sun can't shine here all year round.

  The water here is very deep, because it's a river bay, and the water has been washing against the shore for years, so it's as deep as two stories. The emerald green water would scare anyone who can't swim just by looking at it, and Tóng said that the giant catfish's den was right at the bottom of the river bay.

  One side of the bay is bamboo forest and rice fields, the other side is the foot of the mountain. Tongtong told me that there is a cave under the bay that leads directly to the bottom of the mountain.

  I threw the willow board into the water, and Tongtong's upper body appeared on the surface of the water. With a slight shake, she came to the riverbank. What a lovely little girl! It makes people want to pick her up and pinch her face. However, although Tongtong looks like six years old, in fact, she is already 14 years old, only a few months younger than me if she were alive.

  The little girl who was fifteen years old didn't seem to be a ghost, when the flashlight shone on her body, a shadow would appear on the ground, it's actually an entity. Now I completely believe what the old man said about the ancient legend, that thousand-year-old ginseng can turn into a child, a flesh-and-blood child, not an illusion.

  I put the small wooden man carved from willow wood into the water under the stone, it floated quietly on the surface of the water, Tongtong jumped into the water with a splash, successfully completing the "move" from the pagoda tree sign to the willow wooden man.

  It's that simple, without any ceremony, and not making it so complicated. Before finding a more suitable vessel, this willow wooden man is where Tongtong lives normally. For Tongtong, Zhang Shenpo's pagoda wood plaque is a prison cell, while the willow wooden man I carved is a cozy little room.

  After this matter is completed, we will catch that big catfish. Tongtong said that the big catfish is hiding in a cave under the river bay. This cave goes straight to the bottom of the mountain and it's unknown how deep it is. She didn't dare to enter easily, for fear that there might be even more terrifying monsters inside.

  I nodded in understanding, tied the two catties of pork liver with a rope and threw it into the water, letting Tongtong dive in to catch it. When the big catfish came out, I pulled the pork liver to prevent it from biting, and led it from the river bay entrance to the section of the river upstream where there were several willow trees.

  Tongtong was playing in the water, pulling a rope made of pig liver. He was bored waiting for me, so he played in the water. One moment he performed walking on the water surface, another moment he performed making his body transparent and merging into the water, and then he turned into a big carp.

  After twelve o'clock, Tóng Tóng suddenly said to me that the big catfish is out, go and wait for her under the willow tree. I responded with a sound, only to see Tóng Tóng immediately become transparent, the flashlight shone on the rope floating on the water surface, behind it was a long black shadow.

  After running for about five minutes, I arrived at the willow tree by the riverbank and didn't see Tiantian arriving. I shone my flashlight into the river, and what a sight! The water in the middle of the river was sometimes turbulent and sometimes calm as usual.

  After struggling for over 10 minutes, a huge black fish with a length of at least 2.5 meters and weighing over 200 kilograms jumped out of the water. This must be that big carp! Its head was as large as a computer desk, and after jumping out of the water, it fell back into the water with a loud thud, making a huge splash.

  Then the giant catfish jumped out of the water dozens of times, lasting for more than half an hour. The huge noise woke up the villagers, who came to the riverbank with flashlights to watch.

  The villagers who lived in the village by the river for generations had never seen such a big fish, and when they saw such a large black fish splashing in the water, they were frightened. One told ten, ten told hundred, soon people from the neighboring village also ran to the riverside to see. There were two or three hundred people standing on the riverbank, with nearly a hundred flashlights shining on the river surface, which really put me under great pressure.

  In their eyes, I did nothing, actually I didn't do anything at all, just standing there quietly and looking at the river surface like them.

  That big carp had been struggling in the river for almost half an hour, and it was probably exhausted. Just then, it suddenly jumped out of the water's surface and flew straight towards me. I quickly ran away, if I was hit by it, I would probably not die but lose a layer of skin.

  I barely dodged, and the big catfish heavily smashed onto the ground, rolling over several times. In the water, it could rival two oxen, but on land, I reckon it couldn't even beat a dog, so I wasn't afraid, walking to its side.

  The villagers also swarmed over from the stone steps, but no one dared to walk in the shallow water area with knee-deep water in the river, perhaps they were scared by this big fish!

  After the big fish fell onto the riverbank, I saw Tongtong emerge from the water and walk straight to the shore, becoming more and more transparent as she went. I knew that catching this big black fish must have been tiring for her too, so she had returned to the willow tree to rest.

  Even if it's a first-year student like Tongtong, the villagers can't see her. I estimate that children under 6 years old can see her, but they would just think she's an older sister.

  The villagers came over and surrounded the big fish with three layers inside and out, and hundreds of flashlights shone randomly, dazzling people's eyes. I managed to squeeze out of the crowd and ran to one side to watch this large group of people, speechless.

  They were originally asked to come out and see in the morning, but these two or three hundred catties of big fish jumped and splashed in the river, and the sound was not loud. Adding that it was so quiet at night, it was inevitable that people would be disturbed.

  This fish is very resilient and can survive on land for a day or two if it's not too sunny. Some young and strong men from the village organized themselves to run back home, fetch ropes, and tie up the big fish securely. Four of them carried it to the pond in the village.

  I saw that they didn't ask me and wanted to take the big black fish back to the village, so I quickly stood up and said "This fish was caught by me, how can you rob it?"

  A bare-armed man said: "This is their village river, and the fish in the river are also theirs!"

  This answer makes me laugh and cry, rivers are not rice paddies or ponds, they don't belong to anyone or any group, what's the difference with robbers? But now they want to take this big fish that Tongtong and I caught with great difficulty as their own. As the saying goes, "Poor mountains and evil waters produce wicked people", it's really true.

  I caught this big catfish for two purposes, one is to sell it and the other is to get rid of the harm, but now it's actually taken away from me in front of my face, how can I and Tiantian agree to that.

  It's unrealistic for me to go and retrieve Da Tang Jiao. I called out Tongtong again, and it attached itself to Da Tang Jiao's body once more.

  Four strong men were carrying a large fish on their shoulders, carefully walking in the shallow water of the river, preparing to cross the river and put it into the village pond. After Tongtong attached himself to the big fish, he became like a fierce tiger, his strength increased several times. The four strong men couldn't withstand the fish's violent thrashing and all fell into the river.

  The big Tang fish that had possessed Tongtong quickly broke free from the rope's restraint, struggling to escape into the deep water area, and finally disappeared from sight.

  The villagers were all stunned, the cooked ducks flew away, and a string of hisses and sighs came from the crowd.

  These people are really unreasonable, I finally caught a big fish with great difficulty, but they openly snatched it away, which made me so angry that I couldn't bear it. It was only then that Tongtong let the big black carp escape, and this can be considered as the big black carp escaping a disaster.

  I ran downstream to the river, let Tongtong return to the willow wood, and then went to Lao Tou's house to fetch a bag, leaving the village overnight. On the way, Tongtong told me that after she attached herself to the giant catfish, she couldn't fully control it, so they had been struggling all along. But it was just a big fish after all, without any magical powers or spiritual energy, so in the end, it was still subdued by Tongtong and controlled its body.

  After preparing for so many days to catch this big fish, although it was caught, in the end it was all in vain.