Chapter 5 Section 3

  3、

  My grandfather said that the spring of 1946 was particularly warm, and every household was busy mending nets and repairing boats, preparing to make a good catch in the sea. It's strange to say, but after the Japanese devils surrendered, there were many more fish in the sea than in previous years, and even Ah Biang, who had the worst boat-handling skills in the village, could return with a full load when he went out to sea.

  My grandfather was over thirty years old at that time, in his prime, and was the best fisherman in the whole village. At that time, he was preparing to catch golden fish. What is a golden fish? It's what you call a yellow-lipped fish, which is a high-grade tonic. I heard it can cure all diseases. Especially the fish gallbladder, which is more expensive than gold. The rich people in the city directly bought it with a note. But catching this golden fish was not easy. My grandfather started fishing nets when he was over ten years old and had been fishing for twenty years, but only caught one small yellow-lipped fish of five or six kilograms.

  When people are unlucky, even drinking cold water can get stuck in their teeth. One morning, my grandfather was preparing to go out to sea to fish, but he was caught by a group of Japanese devils in casual clothes. The leader's name was Takeda Kenro, and they could speak Chinese. They forced my grandfather to take them to the Sea God Island. My grandfather was puzzled, didn't the Japanese devils surrender already? Why didn't they roll back to Japan Island, but instead brought their men to the Sea God Island?

  Looking at the black muzzle, my grandfather was not happy in his heart, but he didn't dare to resist. He set sail honestly. After about four or five hours, a little devil suddenly shouted loudly with his hands and feet. My grandfather turned back to see that several white tornadoes had appeared 40 or 50 meters away from the boat, covering the sky and flying over with a "buzzing" sound. The little devils were scared and asked my grandfather what to do. My grandfather smiled and told them not to be afraid, saying that it was not a tornado, but rather the transformation of floating insects in the sea, countless mosquitoes flying together in groups. Since my grandfather's boat sailed with the wind, they also came with the wind. As long as my grandfather drove the boat a little faster, they couldn't catch up.

  As my grandfather said, the little devils relaxed. My grandfather was busy measuring the wind direction and observing the wave strength, avoiding all kinds of reefs and whirlpools, but didn't expect another change behind him.

  Originally, a large number of "red birds" flew in from somewhere, flying two or three meters above the sea surface, cutting off the "tornado" formed by the sea mosquitoes into two segments. The sea mosquitoes below the "red birds" all became their abdominal meal.

  The little devils had never seen anything like this before, and they chattered excitedly among themselves. My grandfather knew what was going on, but he didn't bother to explain it to them, focusing instead on steering the wooden boat along a safe route. But then one of the little devils, bored out of his mind, actually started firing his submachine gun at the flock of "red birds".

  Before my grandfather's warning could be shouted out, countless "red birds" floated up on the surface of the sea near the wooden boat, shooting at the little devil holding a submachine gun like arrows. In just two or three seconds, that little devil was covered in red spots all over his body, with countless wounds and blood, letting out a mournful cry as if he was surrounded by tens of thousands of fierce ghosts, extremely miserable, making my heart feel hairy.

  Those little devils didn't know that those so-called "red birds" were actually a kind of strange fish in the sea, which my grandfather called small flying fish. The small flying fish had four pairs of hard fins on their chest that were wing-shaped, and with their extremely powerful tails, they could borrow the power of the water flow to jump out of the water and glide through the air. These small flying fish lived in groups like wolves on land, had sharp mouths, and had sharp teeth, making them extremely ferocious when hunting prey, even sharks in the sea would avoid them. That little devil didn't know his place, actually using a submachine gun to shoot at them. Unbeknownst to him, small flying fish followed the rule of "humans don't offend fish, fish don't offend humans; if humans offend fish, fish will fight to the death."

  At this time, countless small flying fish rushed over, rushing and colliding, like leeches drilling straight into the flesh. Although my grandfather and other little devils were not the main attack targets of the small flying fish, the situation was not much better, with at least a dozen small red fish hanging on each person's body, screaming in pain. Takeda Kenro was slapping away the small red fish on his body while shouting at my grandfather to think of a solution. My grandfather said that there was only one way, which was to sacrifice the little devil who caused the trouble and throw him into the sea. To say that the little devil who caused the trouble was also quite ruthless, he didn't wait for others to take action before jumping into the sea himself, shouting loudly before jumping, probably something like "Long live the Emperor". He struggled in the sea, screaming in agony, with peach blossom-like blood staining the surface of the water red.

  Those little flying fish saw the little devils in the sea and became even more excited, swarming around them. Before long, the little devils were silent. Takeda Kenro scowled, directing the other little devils to row the boat with all their might.

  All went well until dusk when they finally arrived at their destination - Sea God Island.

  The little devils cheered loudly when they saw the Sea God Island, as if they had won a great victory. My grandfather knew that the little devils were not good people and was always on guard against them. Just then, he happened to see one of the little devils behind him, holding a pistol and aiming at my grandfather through the reflection in the water. The little devils are really not human! After all the hardships my grandfather had endured to bring them to Sea God Island, they didn't even give him a sip of water, but instead wanted to kill him to silence him. At that moment, there was no time to think about these things, so hurry up and escape! My grandfather plunged headfirst into the sea.

  The little devils fired wildly at the sea, but couldn't hurt my grandfather at all. They never thought that my grandfather would hide under the boat, where it was their blind spot. My grandfather dived down desperately and then swam a long way underwater before daring to sneak out of the water. The little devils weren't stupid either, they knew my grandfather had escaped, and incredibly, they towed the wooden boat onto the island. My grandfather secretly cursed in his heart, no matter how good you are at swimming, without a boat, you can only wait for death at sea.

  Fortunately, the sky was getting darker, and the little devils were also going to sleep. They had been tired for a day and night, and each one was exhausted. My grandfather secretly approached the wooden boat, planning to pull it down into the water and row away. Unexpectedly, the little devils had assigned two sentries to guard the ship, one visible and one hidden. The visible sentry pretended to sleep, while the hidden sentry hid behind the sea god and shot at my grandfather with a cold gun! It's said that the little devils' marksmanship is accurate, but this little devil's marksmanship was just so-so, possibly because it was too dark. The first bullet grazed my grandfather's ear and flew past without hitting him! My grandfather immediately ducked down and hid behind another huge rock.

  That fake sleeping sentinel also got up, carrying a gun and chasing over. At that time, my grandfather was so anxious, his heart racing, his mind like a mess of noodles, not knowing what to do for the better. Fight with those little devils? But there's no weapon on hand. Want to run? It's clear you'll become a target.

  At this time, a strange gust of wind suddenly blew up beside my grandfather. Why is it said to be strange? It's because we people who live by the sea are very sensitive to the wind, and this gust of wind was not normal sea wind at all, but more like something that was running at an extremely fast speed. What's even stranger is that this gust of wind carried a fishy smell, and we people who live by the sea can't smell the fishy smell of the sea wind. My grandfather looked up and saw that a huge black shadow rolled towards the little devil who was chasing after us, swallowing it in one gulp without making a sound.

  My grandfather was so scared that he didn't dare to breathe, his whole body trembling. After a few seconds, the sneaky little devil also found something wrong and started shouting in Japanese. The huge black shadow suddenly rose into the air, like a giant bat pouncing on the sneaky little devil. The little devil let out a miserable cry, only cried once and was abruptly cut off, then there was dead silence again.

  In the distance, torches lit up, and Wu Nanjian led the remaining three little devils to hurry over. With no time to wait, my grandfather mustered his courage and quickly ran to pull me down into the wooden boat at sea. As we passed by the body of the little devil, my grandfather took a glance and almost threw up! The large artery on the little devil's neck had been bitten through, and his entire face was somewhat shriveled due to excessive blood loss. His arm holding the gun had been directly broken by the black shadow, and the muscles in his throat were twisted into an irregular shape, as if they were being wrung out like a dishrag, no wonder he couldn't make a sound.