When Zong Hang opened his eyes, a shiny half-bald head was swaying in his vision.
Then the bald head lifted, and a middle-aged man’s face smiled at him: “Awake?”
Zong Hang stared at him blankly.
The man smiled again, patting his cheek, his voice seeming to penetrate from all directions: “Still dazed, haven’t come to your senses yet.”
What happened?
Zong Hang lay flat and steady, but something was digging into his body underneath – the bed was made from two tables pushed together, with a gap at the joint, so there was a horizontal space under his lower back that felt chilly.
Then he remembered.
Dan Zai was going to sink him in the lake. In life’s final moment, he had erupted with an amazing survival instinct, fighting one against three, struggling desperately, but in the end was still pinned down like a helpless chick by Dan Zai and his men – those three were all tall and strong and knew martial arts. He had failed, but it wasn’t shameful.
He watched helplessly as they tied him up with rope, binding him like a zongzi dumpling, together with a heavy concrete block, finally securing it with a tight knot.
Two Thai men carried him to the boat’s edge, and as they were about to throw him, Dan Zai came over and said a few words to him while his upper body hung in the air.
The gist was that every grievance has its source, and every debt has its master. Little brother, we’re just doing a job for someone. When you become a ghost, seek revenge on the right person, don’t come haunting us brothers.
Then with a wave of his hand.
Zong Hang fell into the water with a splash.
At that moment, he didn’t know what he was thinking. It seemed like ten thousand emotions and sensations were bursting out from deep within his body, threatening to make him explode. There was no air, ice-cold lake water rushed in through his nostrils and into his throat, into his body – death would have been better, but this feeling was worse than dying.
He sank downward, the fishing boat floating on the surface, only its black bottom visible, growing increasingly distant. Just then, he suddenly glimpsed a terrifying sight.
Something long and thin was hanging from the bottom of the boat, floating in the water like seaweed or a water snake.
The water was already cold enough, but this scene made his whole body even colder.
With the concrete block tied to his back, he quickly sank to the bottom, facing upward like an overturned turtle. His consciousness gradually blurred, seeing strings of bubbles gurgling upward before his eyes…
He saw that thing hanging from the boat’s bottom diving down toward him.
It was a person.
Night had fallen, the lights were on inside, and from outside came the clanking of pots and pans, along with the smell of cooking oil.
Zong Hang shuddered.
He felt that at the bottom of the water, he had seen Yi Sa’s face.
This “feeling” was quickly proven not to be an illusion, because Yi Sa came in.
She was still dripping wet all over and seemed to have no intention of changing. Her hair was plastered down, water drops still rolling from the ends, and her impassive face, coated with a layer of water, somehow gained an element of hardness.
Zong Hang quickly propped himself up on his arms to sit up on the bed, looking at her with gratitude, but she just gave him an indifferent glance.
That glance immediately made Zong Hang self-conscious. Clearly, she had only saved him, with no intention of becoming friends.
And that man who passed by the door at the same time looked in and left with a smile…
Zong Hang’s scalp tingled slightly: it was that stalker, which meant this person knew Yi Sa all along.
He had acted smart running to warn her…
His face felt burning hot.
Yi Sa pointed at Zong Hang but spoke to Chen Tu: “Find a chance to send him away as soon as possible, keeping him here is trouble.”
Chen Tu nodded: “As it happens, I need to go out for a while, have a big deal to handle. I’m leaving at dawn tomorrow, I’ll take him out then.”
“Want me to come along?”
“No, everything as usual. I never bring anyone when handling medicine. If you come, it’ll make people suspicious.”
Yi Sa made a sound of agreement: “Need to be careful though. Even at dawn, he can’t be seen. Need to put him in a bag.”
Chen Tu gave her a sidelong glance: “You think I don’t know that?”
Whoever spoke, Zong Hang would look at them, and with each look, he felt himself shrinking more, like merchandise waiting to be arranged.
After hesitating for a long time, he finally interrupted quietly: “Um…”
Yi Sa and Chen Tu both looked at him.
Zong Hang carefully asked: “Could I… make a phone call to my parents? I’ve been kidnapped for several days, they must be worried sick. My mom’s health isn’t good, I’m afraid she might get sick from worry…”
Yi Sa said: “No.”
Zong Hang immediately fell silent.
Yi Sa walked over and looked down at him: “Your case must have alerted the embassy and police by now. One phone call, they’ll follow the trail, trace it to here, to Sumchai. Do you think I’m not afraid of his revenge? I saved you because I could, and it was convenient, not because I want to provoke Sumchai.”
That made sense – it was his fault for lacking social experience and not thinking things through thoroughly. Zong Hang nodded vigorously, wanting her to know he was deeply grateful and would follow her instructions to the letter.
Yi Sa pondered for a moment and said: “Here’s what we’ll do.”
She gestured to Chen Tu: “When you take him out, dump him in some wasteland, the more remote the better.”
Then she looked at Zong Hang: “After that, you figure out how to get help yourself. When you get back, tell people you don’t know what happened, that some drunk people kidnapped you, they were looking for someone to take revenge on, got the wrong person, beat you up, and left you in the wilderness.”
“You got lost, couldn’t speak the language, and wandered around outside, which wasted time. Don’t mention anything else.”
Zong Hang nodded, wanting to memorize her every word.
Chen Tu looked at her askance: “Will this work?”
“Why wouldn’t it? He’s back alive, they didn’t ask for ransom, it’s not murder or kidnapping for extortion. It explains things to the family and embassy, makes it easier for the police, and later the big issue becomes small. If they can’t find the perpetrators, it’ll just fade away.”
Chen Tu made a sound of agreement, paused, then jerked his mouth outside: “Come out to talk for a bit, let him rest first.”
Yi Sa followed Chen Tu to the iron cage.
A-Long and A-Hu had just been fed, and a meaty smell permeated around the cage. Yi Sa grabbed the hem of her clothes to wring out the water, the drops splashing onto the ground, reflecting the gleam in A-Long and A-Hu’s suddenly protruding large eyeballs.
Chen Tu didn’t ask about what happened after she went into the water. Experience told him it would be useless to ask.
He lowered his voice, sounding somewhat irritated: “We shouldn’t have saved him.”
Yi Sa’s tone was flat: “What’s done is done.”
She had expended energy and was in low spirits, not wanting to talk, finding even smiling too much effort.
Chen Tu gestured toward the southwest corner: “I heard Sumchai deals in powder and has connections with Myanmar.”
After the old Golden Triangle was destroyed, various drug trafficking forces concentrated in more remote areas, reportedly forming the most powerful force within Myanmar – having connections with Myanmar meant this person wasn’t simple and had powerful backing.
Yi Sa said: “I was very careful, it won’t be traced back to us.”
Chen Tu sighed: “Just worried there might be trouble someday. It’s troublesome.”
Having been in the underworld for so many years, he had seen too many cases of people who hadn’t cleaned up properly and later suffered the consequences. The longer he lived, the more cautious he became, not wanting to offend anyone or get involved in any unnecessary business.
Yi Sa didn’t want to continue this topic: “Actually, from what he said, he and I do have some connection. Anyway, we’ve already saved him, just think of it as me getting old and soft-hearted.”
Chen Tu cursed at her: “Pretending to be old again…”
In this floating village, his familiarity with Yi Sa had initially sparked many rumors. Some speculated whether he found the young woman attractive and wanted to be an old bull eating tender grass, while others suspected he had reached the age of being a father and was treating Yi Sa like a daughter.
It was neither.
It was because she had a maturity that didn’t match her age, making her someone he could talk to.
But he had never asked about her background. Here, when making friends, you don’t ask about the past, don’t look to the future, you just focus on the present. Besides, who would leave their hometown and drift here to make a living without a book full of bitter accounts?
Then again, without some special skills, one couldn’t make a living here either.
As he recalled, only once did she casually mention something about her family.
It was while drinking, with a bit of drunken courage, when Chen Tu teased her about having a young woman’s face but an old lady’s heart.
Yi Sa counted off on her fingers to him: “Look at me, lost my mother at seven months, lost my sister and father at just over three years old. How could my heart not be a bit weathered?”
True enough, ordinary people only start facing the death of loved ones in middle age, but for her, it was non-stop – within three years of being born, she had sent off three people.
…
Forget it, Chen Tu also felt he was being too cautious: the rescue was done, what’s done is done, could the wood become a tree again? Better just row forward with big oars.
He just hoped to handle the aftermath as safely as possible: “Only we few know about this. A-Xiang is reliable. Your friend Ding, go remind him, remember to warn him to keep his mouth tightly shut, don’t…”
As he spoke, he suddenly frowned, his nostrils flaring twice, and asked curiously: “What’s that smell?”
Yi Sa smelled it too.
It was the smell of boiling baijiu.
Yi Sa walked into the kitchen.
Sure enough, Li Zhenxiang was boiling liquor on the stove, steam rising from the pot. She hurriedly turned it off and asked Ding Xi beside her: “Is this right?”
Ding Xi nodded: “Let it cool completely, then boil it again, repeat three times, and it’s done.”
Li Zhenxiang nodded while complaining: “Aiyah, you Chinese people have so many rules.”
Only then did Ding Xi turn to look at Yi Sa and explain: “I guessed you did water-sitting today, so you should take medicine with alcohol soup tonight. I started preparing it first.”
Water-sitting was the first test of the Female Seven Trials. Simply put, it was a competition to see who could stay underwater the longest. They called it “water-sitting,” taking the meaning of sitting as steady as a mountain.
Yi Sa’s water-sitting was almost legendary among the three water ghost families.
That year, the Female Seven Trials were held during the coldest days of winter at the Jing River section, known as “the most dangerous stretch of the ten thousand li Yangtze.” They chartered a tour boat carrying twenty-seven girls aged seven and above from the Ding, Jiang, and Yi families.
The test rules were simple: all girls wore tank tops and shorts, carried a Wu Gui dagger, had stones tied to their bodies, and were connected by a long rope to a buoy on the surface marked with their family name.
Then they sank into the river.
The boat had clocks, and incense was also lit at the same time, to see who could stay submerged the longest. Those who couldn’t hold on would use their daggers to cut the binding rope and swim up by themselves. As a precaution, people were specifically arranged to wear flippers and carry oxygen tanks to go down for timely rescue if needed.
The scene, when described, was quite spectacular. When the time came, all the girls flipped over the ship’s rail, splashing into the water one after another, like dropping dumplings.
Then came the waiting.
People gradually floated up, like cooked tangyuan rising to the surface. Each time someone came up, the people on the boat would count and report the time, then collect the buoy.
The people of the three families all leaned on the boat’s railings to watch. Those whose buoys were still in the water were elated, those whose buoys had been collected lost face.
After collecting twenty-six, only one Yi family buoy remained in the water.
The incense had burned out, the clock ticked on, and a buzzing whisper began to spread across the boat, with everyone saying: “Looks like the Yi family is going to produce another water ghost.”
…
However, after water-sitting, energy consumption is very high, requiring medicine taken with a liquor that has been boiled and cooled three times, to ensure a deep sleep for recovery.
This medicine used to be in pill form, but now with the times, it’s ground into a potion and put in capsules.
Yi Sa made a sound of acknowledgment, not wanting to deal with Ding Xi. She always felt this person’s unsolicited helpfulness carried an uncomfortable energy.
She watched Li Zhenxiang busying herself, then suddenly thought of something: “Sister Xiang, that night, you saw Ding Xi being attacked, right?”
Li Zhenxiang nodded, her face full of lingering fear.
“Could you try to remember…”
Oh no, having to remember that again, Li Zhenxiang waved her hands frantically: “No, Isa, it was terrifying, I’ve been trying so hard to forget, and now you want me to remember…”
Yi Sa smiled and went over, holding both her hands to help Li Zhenxiang build courage: “Help me out, Sister Xiang. No one else saw it, even Ding Xi didn’t see it, only you did. Think back a bit, maybe you’ll remember some details.”
Li Zhenxiang sighed. She knew Yi Sa’s temperament: this girl seemed easy-going but was stubborn, sometimes even forceful. She couldn’t resist her.
She complained: “I didn’t see much, I told you all that day, long hair, it was a woman, and then just two arms, so scary…”
Yi Sa was very patient: “No rush, Sister Xiang, close your eyes and think more carefully. It was drizzling that night, Ding Xi was brushing his teeth on the water platform, you had washed the pots and pans and taken them out to drain, what did you see?”
Li Zhenxiang closed her eyes, muttering: “Just arms, I didn’t even see her face. Mr. Ding stabbed her with his toothbrush, stabbed several times, but she wouldn’t let go. I was so scared I dropped my basin. She…”
She suddenly stopped, her features showing some disgust.
Yi Sa’s heart stirred: “Sister Xiang?”
Li Zhenxiang opened her eyes, first shuddered, then kept rubbing her chest: “Aiyou, her arms, like they’d been cut by knives, marks everywhere, so many scars…”
Is that so?
Yi Sa turned to look at Ding Xi.
That night, although she hadn’t gone up close to check, she remembered very clearly.
Ma You’s arms were smooth, without scars.