The person called Guan Shui was a police officer, who told Guan Shui that Zheng Yu was drowned in the river. 

As a senior member of the bodies recovery team, he was one of the most skilled swimmers, but that didn’t save him from being drowned.

A fact that was both ironic and shocking.

After he fell into the river, his phone was found and sent to the police by a person who took a walk around the deserted beach. Guan Shui’s phone number was recently called, that’s why he received a call from the police.

Zheng Yu was a member of the bodies recovery team, so it’s Master Guan’s responsibility to claim the body. After a thought, Jiang Lan decided to go with them.

Before they left, they returned to inform Zhang Zi the news of Zheng Yu’s death.

Previously, Zhang Zi managed to put up a convincing performance. After hearing the news of Zheng Yu’s death, his face turned white and his lips were trembling.

Guan Shui finally lost patience with this man. He warned him.” We will deal with you when we get back. Before that, take your time to heal your wound and consider if you want to tell us the truth.”

The horror on Zhang Zi’s face was so intense that he decided to leave out the next sentence: If you insist on lying to us, the next person to die will be you.

***

 The three of them drove to the patch of river beach where Zheng Yu’s body was discovered.

This part of the beach is an undeveloped area. Since the rainy season hadn’t arrived yet, the water level was so low that some of the river bed was exposed. 

Zheng Yu’s body was first discovered by a person passing here.

When Jiang Lan arrived, Zheng Yu’s body was covered by a white cloth with police officers investigating the scene.

Many curious onlookers surrounded the scene, exchanging what they knew about the dead person.

“This part of the river is very shallow, how come this person was drowned here?”

 “The first person discovering him said he was bound by weeds tightly, lying face down.

There was no telling how long he had stayed in the water with a belly bulging this big. A mere poke would be enough to explode it.

Jiang Lan shifted his attention to Zheng Yu’s belly. Under the cover of a white cloth, his belly was much bigger than a pregnant woman expecting to deliver anytime soon.

Master Guan and Guan Shui crossed the police cordon and confirmed their identities with the police.

While they were talking with the police, a loud cry of horror went up from the crowd.” His belly is bursting!!”

They turned around to see that the bulging belly went flat and the white cloth was soaked in blood. Underneath, something was wriggling.

 The entire crowd of spectators began to retreat further while watching the scene in horror and curiosity. Someone was filming with his phone.

 Seeing this, a police officer quickly blocked his camera while another boldly uncovered the white cloth…..

Underneath, a sight of unspeakable horror greeted him. Zheng Yu’s white skin was torn in pieces and a whole nest of water snakes had already pierced the skin and wriggled out of Zheng Yu’s ruptured stomach. Following the water snakes, fishes big and small also jumped out of the abdominal cavity and flapped around on the beach.

His internal organs had already been eaten. With the escape of snakes and fishes, shreds of meat were splattered all over the beach. Finding the sight too much to bear, some people started to vomit.

Dehydrated, those fishes gradually stopped moving as those water snakes slithered away towards the river.

With a white face, the police officer near the corpse tried very hard to maintain his composure.” It’s nothing unusual that a drowned man’s belly was full of fishes and shrimps….”

 But no one was in any mood to agree with him. Even the most experienced officers seemed to be horrified.

The leader of the whole police team announced.” Let’s wrap it up and get back.”

So Jiang Lan, the three of them left with the police officers.

*******

Their minivan followed the police car with Master Guan at the wheel. Compared with the shaking Guan Shui, Master Guan was in total control of himself and seemed calm enough to drive.

Guan Shui kept mumbling.” What did he do to bring this terrible fate to himself? Are those turtles responsible for this?”

It’s really a terrible way to die 

With his eyebrows tied to a knot, Jiang Lan said.” Send someone over to keep an eye on Zhang Zi in case he wants to leave the room. Those turtles seemed to lose their patience.”

From simply following them, to trying to hurt people, now their revenge was finally elevated to outright murder…. This process lasted half a month. These turtles seemed to finally become desperate and were now crying for blood.

If Zhang Zi was foolish enough to escape from the relative safety of the hospital, he might end up like Zheng Yu.

Guan Shui had already been shocked witless and would follow any advice Jiang Lan cared to offer. He immediately called someone in his team and asked him to go to Zhang Zi.

 Hearing the affirmative reply, he took a breath of relief and leaned against the seat.

********

When the three of them reached the police station, they were taken away to make a statement.

While Guan Shui was worried that the police might not believe them, Master Guan had already told the whole thing including his speculation on the cause of the whole event.

 Taking out a cigarette, he toyed with it instead of lighting it.

 “I know you young people might find what I am about to tell you hard to believe.” Master Guan’s voice sounded very old.” But what I learned is the wisdom passing down from my ancestors. Since the age of sixteen when I started to follow my father to recover bodies from the water, I have been in this trade for thirty two years. I have experienced all kinds of spooky things. But relying on the wisdom and rules from my ancestors, I managed to survive all of them.”

“My team would usually recover around several hundred bodies a year and I have already lost count of the number of bodies I handled personally. I have only seen one person who died like this.” The wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen.” He wasn’t drowned. He suffered this terror while he was still alive. Those things penetrated his body under his eyes and he still managed to live a little while afterwards.”

His voice trembled a bit.” They paid a high price for messing with these things!”

With a shocked expression, the police officer stammered.”….we can talk about the cause of death when the autopsy report comes out.”

Snakes and fishes penetrated a living person’s body? This story is too outrageous.

 Master Guan sighed and stopped talking. Guan Shui was still in shock. He sat there like a wooden sculpture. No one knew what he was thinking right now.”

Compared with them, the fact that Jiang Lan acted so calm throughout seemed very strange to the police officer sitting there.” You have said you have saved the victim the day before yesterday. And he was being dragged to the river by a turtle?”

 Jiang Lan corrected him.” Not one turtle, there were a dozen turtles there, each turtle was the size of a millstone.”

A doubtful look came over the police officer’s face.” Do you know the victim before? Do you have a conflict with the victim after you saved him?”

Jiang Lan blinked.” Are you suspecting me?”

He had a kind and harmless face. He looked especially innocent when he asked the police officer this question.

Facing Jiang Lan’s innocent look, the police officer couldn’t help feeling a tinge of guilt. But he straightening his face.” It is just a routine question. Please take it easy. We wouldn’t let the culprit escape justice and no innocent person will be wronged.”

Jiang Lan said.” If you find my words hard to believe, I have a friend who can bear witness to my claim. He walked with me that night.”

As a precaution, the police officer contacted Ying Qiao and asked him to come over.

When he arrived, Jiang Lan sat in the reception hall, sipping tea. He appeared helpless and cute in Ying Qiao’s eyes.

Ying Qiao strode towards him and patted his head.” How many times have I come to pick you up from the police station?”

Hearing this, the nearby police officer stared at them with eyes like a pair of torchlights.

Sensing the suspicious look on the officer’s face, Jiang Lan said.” I came to the police station  to help the police solve cases.” Then he shifted to a boasting tone.” The police in the Caiyang district had sent me a letter of gratitude before.”

With the misunderstanding cleared up, the police officer asked him.” This is the friend you talked about?”

Jiang Lan nodded in confirmation. Then the police officer asked Ying Qiao to make a statement.

When Ying Qiao confirmed Jiang Lan’s description of a dozen turtles the size of a millstone in the Jiang river, the young police officer had a look of puzzlement on his face.

At the same time, the autopsy report came out. After finishing reading it, the whole police station became silent.

What it said confirmed Master Guan’s story.

The report said the cause of Zheng Yu’s death was not drowning. He died because his internal organs were severely damaged. There were traces of scratches and strain in his mouth and Esophagus. Large quantity of water had once filled his stomach while he was bound by weeds. Every sign pointed to the fact that he was stranded in the shallow water while water snakes and fishes found their way into their body and their violent entries caused significant damage to his internal organs before he died.

Every detail in this report described an unspeakable way to die.

As a member of the body recovery team, Zheng Yu was a skilled swimmer and a strong man. What kind of force could manage to bound him and let those snakes and fishes pierce him?

The police officers looked at each other, the things unmentioned in this report sent a chill down their spine.

Jiang Lan sat with Ying Qiao, talking with each other in a low voice.” I think this incident had nothing to do with the spiritual world. I have met those turtles on several occasions. They were just extraordinarily smart and understood the nature of humans.”

Ying Qiao agreed with him.” Humans only regard monsters as a terrible force. But they don’t understand those animals. They were far more clever and deadlier than they thought.”

When a monster acquired human intelligence and started to cultivate. He began to understand karma and was bound by various rules. They wouldn’t easily take someone’s life.

On the other hand, those clever animals, who are far from reaching the level of human intelligence, would never hesitate to kill once adequately provoked, regardless of the consequences.