Torrential rain!
It's as if the heavens have torn open and the rivers are bursting their banks.
The thunderous sound is enormous, as if it will never pause.
Under the willow bank enclosure, Wang Laizi felt his hands and feet go cold, muttering to himself:
"Where are the fish? Where are the Ghost Pattern Fish that I painstakingly gathered at the bait nest?!"
The empty and fine-meshed fishing net felt like a violent thunderbolt had struck his head, shaking him to the core, his face drained of color.
Because the Ghost Pattern Fish are hard to keep alive outside of river waters, Wang Laizi specially rented a good net from the East Market Shop.
To enclose all its surroundings, gathering them carefully underwater.
Waiting for Yangquan to use them, so then he could pull the net and collect them.
Putting all of them in the fish basket, offering them as tribute.
But... it was empty?
Not even one left!
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
I clearly already got seventeen, just three short to complete the count!"
Wang Laizi had stayed at Mihun Bay for days, burning his eyes with bloodshot veins.
Now that the catch was lost, he felt entranced like a demon.
Standing there, letting the pea-sized raindrops wildly hit him.
Even drenched and looking like a soaked chicken, he didn't know what to do.
If by tomorrow morning, he hasn't gathered twenty Ghost Pattern Fish.
Yangquan would personally skin him alive!
"The fish cage! Definitely the one who stole my fish cage, that damned dog bastard!
Finished, even if I were the reincarnation of the Dragon King, it's impossible to catch this many overnight!"
Wang Laizi's legs went weak, nearly collapsing onto the ground.
Yangquan, known as the tyrant of East Market, was infamous for tormenting others mercilessly.
He once saw a fisherman family unable to pay the autumn tax.
The entire family was hung upside down and submerged in Black Water River, nearly drowning alive.
At the start of the East Market opening, there were only ten sampans and five dark-pitched boats available for rent.
Now they've more than doubled, all due to Yangquan's credit.
No one knows how many tragic stories of family destruction lie within.
"No way! I must find a way... go home!
Scatter more bait, build a nest!
The book of techniques clearly stated, at the dead of night, heavy bait can gather big fish!"
Like grabbing a lifeline, Wang Laizi wiped the cold rain from his face.
Hastily putting on his raincoat, he turned and rushed home.
He must gather twenty Ghost Pattern Fish before Yangquan comes to collect them.
Otherwise, his life would be in jeopardy!
A moment later, Wang Laizi, soaked to the skin, kicked open the door.
An old drunkard reeking of alcohol was slumped over the table, dozing off.
The thatched house was poorly covered, dripping water with a moldy smell.
Without lights, it seemed eerie and dark.
The cold wind whistled inside, chilling the old man's neck, rubbing his sleepy drunk eyes:
"Da Gui, why are you back?"
Wang Laizi's real name was Da Gui, taken for good fortune and wealth.
With a gloomy face, he glanced over at his drunken father.
Then moved to the extinguished stove, digging into the jar's medicinal residues:
"What about the medicine? The one I asked you to buy for mother!"
The thinning-haired old man murmured softly:
"Your mother only has a dry cough, what's there to cure!
I specifically visited the worship temple, got a handful of incense ash!
Mix it into water to drink, it'll heal quickly, better than getting medicine!
Old folks' remedies, they're effective!"
Wang Laizi's eyes were bloodshot, as if gone mad, hurling the jar at the old man's head:
"No medicine bought, then where's the money? Ah! I ask you, where did the medicine money go?"
The old man, collapsing with a bloodied face, kept begging:
"Stop hitting, stop hitting! Just bad luck, truly just bad luck!
Da Gui, you don't know, I won a lot earlier, I just wanted to win some money, to get a good physician for your mother..."
Wang Laizi continued kicking fiercely, cursing:
"If you gamble again with my money, I'll cut off your hand!
No skill whatsoever, just knows drinking and gambling, having you as a father brings me endless misfortune!"
Until hearing a noise from the inner room, he stopped, fumbling to the bed emitting a faint stench:
"Mother, I'll get you medicine later, I have urgent matters, need to leave first.
Show me the prescription grandma left with you."
Lying on the bed was a skeletal old lady, seemingly with barely two ounces of flesh.
Like a corpse in a coffin, just waiting for the funeral.
Her eyes were hollow, clearly blind for a long time, and she was somewhat hard of hearing.
She fumbled for a while before grabbing her son's hand:
"Don't scold your dad anymore. I just drank the incense ash water, and I feel much better, no more coughing.
Da Gui, your grandma's remedy is very wicked… Don't harm others! It shortens life!"
The old woman said this, yet still pulled out two sheets of yellow paper from under the bed.
The material was quite special, like smooth silk.
There were rows of writing like wriggling earthworms, as if written with a cinnabar-dipped brush.
Yellow paper with red writing, inexplicably ominous!
"Mother, don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Wang Laizi clenched the yellow paper and lit the oil lamp outside the house.
He didn't recognize the tadpole-like characters on it but knew how to use them.
He bit his finger, smearing one of the yellow papers with force.
Strangely, the blood didn't spread on it but was absorbed instead.
"Soak blood in wine, slice flesh with salt, combine to make…"
Wang Laizi felt cold all over and shivered as if possessed, repeating word for word what he heard by his ear.
These strange yellow paper formulas were passed down by his grandmother who had been a witch.
Using living people as traps, flesh and blood as bait, that's the "art" recorded above.
He had once fantasized about mastering some spells, learning invincible skills.
To exact revenge on all who had belittled and trampled on him!
"Family ties severed, father harms son, son harms father, mother kills daughter… Use blood as bait, chant offerings, and reap a bountiful catch."
After reciting, Wang Laizi shivered, his throat moved twice.
It was already past the second watch, not long before dawn.
He thought of the dying mother in bed, the father who only knew drinking and gambling, the moldy thatched house, the slap from Yang Quan, and being beaten by Bai Ahqi…
Various thoughts surged like a tide, finally settling on the withered face of Old Yu when he died!
Groundless malice arose spontaneously!
"Killing and spilling blood… it's not like I haven't done it before!
Don't blame me, you're useless, just dragging me down!"
Wang Laizi's eyes became even redder, almost deranged.
He took a few deep breaths, pocketed the two yellow papers, and walked up to the still-prone old man.
"Dad."
"Da Gui! Don't hit me anymore, I know I'm wrong!"
The old man trembled and quickly bowed.
"Dad, I set up a fish trap by the river, the four or five hundred pounds of catch is too heavy to pull up.
Come with me, give me a hand."
Wang Laizi, shrouded in a shadow, spoke quietly.
"I can't do it, my head is bleeding…"
The old man sat up, waving his hands repeatedly.
"I'll give you thirty percent of the money from selling the catch."
Wang Laizi took out A String of Coins and threw it to the ground.
"Alright, alright! Da Gui, I used to be a good fisherman in my youth…"
The old man quickly picked it up and put it in his pocket, suddenly not feeling the pain all over.
"Let's go."
Wang Laizi tucked the kitchen knife behind his waist, closed the door, and let the thatched house return to darkness.
...
...
Bang!
The not-so-sturdy double wooden doors were kicked open!
A few ruffians rushed in, quickly searching around:
"Brother Quan! Wang Laizi isn't here! Could he have run away?"
Yangquan's ear twitched, as if hearing something.
He turned and entered the inner room, seeing a stinking old woman.
"Is it my son? Da Gui, is that you?"
Outside the house, wind and rain raged, occasionally illuminating the sky with lightning.
Also casting shadows of sturdy figures inside!
Yangquan's gaze was fierce, his voice cold like ice shards:
"The monk may have run away, but the temple can't! Wang Laizi's old mother is still here! Let's go catch him at Mihun Bay!"
The blind and deaf old woman heard this and, with unknown strength, suddenly sat up and lunged at Yangquan:
"Don't harm my son! Da Gui is a filial child…"
Yangquan, being a practitioner, wouldn't be ensnared by the old woman, kicked her back onto the bed.
The emaciated body struggled twice, then stopped breathing.
"Old hag! Sending your dead ghost of a son down for a reunion now!"