Chapter 177: Black Back

Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio

The appearance of the house was dilapidated, and the interior was no better. It was very rudimentary, with only one stool. The old man let the two policemen who came from afar sit on the wooden bed while he sat on his own bench.

There were watermelons that had just been cut on the table. They intended to sit together and eat the watermelons and chat, but the old man had no appetite. He described in a heavy tone what had happened that day.

“It was a sunny day then, like today. I brought Xiao Jun to the reservoir to fish. I told him to stay on the shore to fish, and I took the boat to the deeper waters. There are few fish in the reservoir and no fish can be caught on the shore. Xiao Jun was very obedient.”

“Every time we come fishing, he will stay safely on the shore and wait. In order to alleviate his boredom, I have also made him a fishing rod, and he could occasionally catch a few small fish.”

“The reservoir was very quiet on that day. I don’t know why. I fished in the reservoir for more than an hour but didn’t catch a single fish. I spilled a lot of rice, but none of them took the bait…”

Li Xianyu interrupted him and frowned. “When were there no fish?”

This was very important. Generally speaking, if there was suddenly no fish in the water, it was likely that something has come in that area. The fish were either eaten up or escaped.

“We come fishing about twice a week, and it was alright when we went fishing last time,” Old Man Xu said.

Li Xianyu nodded. “Go on.”

That was to say, if something really came into the reservoir, it was probably on those days. That was true too, if there were monsters in the reservoir all the time, it was impossible for news not to spread in the village. The children were eaten and the villagers did not believe what the old man said. It means there was nothing in the reservoir before.

“I took the hook, and the earthworm on it had been in the water for so long that it swelled. Even the little fish didn’t come to peck it. I was going to row a boat to somewhere further to try when I heard Xiao Jun shouting at me. He said there was something in the water and that it was a big fish. I didn’t believe him and asked him to wait where he was. I told him not to go into the water, don’t run away, and continued to row the boat.”

“I barely rowed a few times, and I heard Xiao Jun shout, ‘Grandpa, there is a big fish in the water. It is swimming towards me.’ I turned my head and looked at it. The water was calm. As soon as I was about to yell at it, a monster came out of the water and took Xiao Jun away.”

The old man looked like he was in pain. He slapped himself on the knee with tears. “If I had believed him, I might have been able to save him. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought him here.”

“What does that monster look like?” Li Xianyu asked.

“I didn’t see it clearly. It moved very fast and I could only see a black back. But it’s huge, bigger than a cow. It’s a monster,” the old man said.

Li Xianyu frowned. The old man wouldn’t lie, he probably really didn’t see it clearly. A black back. Is it a crocodile?

When crocodiles hunt, they lurked in the water and wait for a chance to deal a fatal blow to their prey. The moment of hunting was as fast as lightning, so when the old man turned his head, he saw that the water was calm. These were the imagination of Li Xianyu, an animal world program enthusiast.

“No one believed me. Everyone said I didn’t take good care of the child and caused him to drown. But a body that drowned will surface. There was no corpse. Xiao Jun was eaten by the monster.” The old man slapped his knees in agitation.

This didn’t make sense. However, people preferred to believe that the body could not float for some reason, such as being entangled in water and grass, rather than the absurd claim that there were monsters in the reservoir.

After this tragedy happened, Old Man Xu’s son and daughter-in-law rushed back from Zhejiang Province and were devastated to learn that their son had drowned and his bones could not even be found. His father said that the child was eaten by a monster. In the eyes of the couple, this was simply an excuse to shirk responsibility, and their emotions could be imagined.

Old Man Xu’s son and daughter-in-law made a scene at home and disowned their father-son relationship with Old Man Xu. After their son’s funeral had ended, they left immediately, saying that they would never come back. Old Man Xu’s wife could not forgive him and drove him out of the house.

“You’ve been living by the reservoir. Are you preparing to find it?” Li Xianyu asked.

A glint of hatred flashed in the old man’s eyes. “Yes, no matter what it is, I will catch it. I will avenge Xiaojun, and I will avenge him even if it will cost my life.”

The sturdy net outside the house could catch even sharks, and it was clear that the old man was going to use it against the monster.

“But I couldn’t find it. I made a lot of wooden stakes in the reservoir. There was a net on the stake. As long as it passed by, the nets would certainly be able to catch it, but it didn’t show up. I went fishing in the reservoir by boat every day and there are fewer fish. I looked along the side of the reservoir and found no strange traces. So I guess it’s still in the water. ”

“But if…” If it is still in the water and you float around on the water every day, you would have been eaten by the monster long ago. It happened a month ago. Although I don’t know why the monster came here, this is obviously not its territory. Maybe it actually left? Li Xianyu felt that they had most probably made a wasted trip… No, it’s not for nothing. He looked up at the beam, covered with cobwebs, with a yellow paper talisman in the middle.

“Sir, you didn’t build this house, right? It looks like it has been here for years,” Li Xianyu asked casually.

“This was where the former reservoir manager lived,” Old Man Xu said.

Great-Grandma, who had been eating watermelons, suddenly asked, “Did something happen to this house before?”

Old Man Xu was stunned and looked at Great-Grandma. It was not that she was beautiful, but that she was right.

“There used to be a power plant here in the reservoir, it was just across the mountain, so there had to be a supervisor guarding it. The supervisor is a widower and has always lived here. Later, the wife of a family in the next village went out to raise sheep. She never came back and we couldn’t find her anywhere. After half a year, the widower turned himself in at the police station, saying that the little wife had been hidden by him.”

“He owned up to his crimes. Half a year ago, he saw the little lady herding sheep alone in the mountains. He knocked the woman out and brought her back here. He knocked her out, tied her up in a box during the day and raped her at night.” The old man pointed to the bottom of the bed.

“The box is buried in the ground, the lid is covered, and then sprinkled with dirt. If someone faints in the box, no one else can find her. As time passed, no one looked for her again.”

“Then why did he turn himself in?”

“It was said that once, he didn’t tie her up properly and the woman hung herself on the beam. The widower buried her body in the mountain. After that, he dreamed that there was a woman sleeping on the bed every night. Sometimes he woke up in the middle of the night and the door was open, but he remembered to lock the door before he went to bed. He knew the house was haunted and turned himself in. But the police said he was under too much stress and was merely seeing illusions.”

“Was the woman pregnant?” Great-Grandma asked again.

Old Man Xu looked at her like he had seen a ghost. She was right again. “After the police dug up the body, they found that the woman was four months pregnant.” With that, the old man looked a little nervous. “How did you know that?”

Li Xianyu smiled and said, “We are the police. We just used simple reasoning. It’s logical for a woman that was imprisoned and raped for half a year to be pregnant.”

The fact was that the woman hung right on top of Old Man. Her face was flushed crimson red as her tongue lolled out. Her eyes had cataracts and were white, as she stared at the three people below. It was creepy and terrifying,

In addition, there were bruises on her body and a slight bulge in her stomach. Her clothes were so ragged that they could hardly conceal her body. This was what she looked like before she died.

She didn’t leave and remained in the house all the time. However, the yellow paper talisman on the beam restrained her. Otherwise Old Man Xu would have died in the hands of a ghost who hung herself before he could avenge his grandson.

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