Fish dreaming

Traditionally, when someone leaves a gathering, the conversation of the remaining people automatically shifts to that person.

"When Ms. Du talked about her family, she didn't include that aunt," Xie Wuchang said thoughtfully. "Perhaps that aunt isn't a blood relative? And she said one minute that the other person 'didn't like it and it was inconvenient,' and the next minute she thought the other person might be 'in a good mood.' Is this person really a member of the Du family?"

“At least for Miss Du Huangliang, that person is the only remaining companion. Even if the other party is suspicious, it's not a big problem.” Xiao Fu picked up his tea and took a sip. “The problem lies in her perception. She has her own set of realities, but she also knows that we, as outsiders, are unlikely to approve of her.”

"Which part?" Xie Wuchang asked, frowning.

“There are many, but the focus is on ‘pre-arranged destinations’ and ‘household chores.’” Little F put down his teacup and sneered. “Without understanding their weight, all actions are meaningless.”

“…After all, she probably hasn’t been down the mountain much, gone to school, and probably didn’t complete compulsory education.” Xie Wuchang rubbed his forehead. “She doesn’t seem very willing to talk about these things, and in my opinion, those emotions are genuine. In this situation, revealing my identity might not be beneficial.”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, the evidence is right there, isn’t it?” Little F said dismissively.

"You mean Senhu?" Xie Wuchang's lips twitched. "You yourself said it's a swamp. We didn't bring any protective gear. What if we get lung infections if we get too close?"

“…What if that’s the litter box?” Golson’s tone was tinged with sadness.

“A cat’s sense of smell is fourteen times stronger than a human’s. If the object we’re looking for is indeed hidden there, then there’s always a way to solve the smell problem.” Little F said thoughtfully. “Besides, I think there’s some special fertilizer in that lake. There must be something else between the lake and the swamp.”

During the conversation, a white cat appeared at the foot of the door to the reception room; it was Alice.

"Suck, suck, suck." Galson started rubbing his fingers together. "Why is it that only your name sounds so fancy?"

Alice was immediately drawn to it, sniffing Golson's fingers and then bumping her head against her palm.

“…Baby…” Golson immediately took out a cat treat and started feeding him.

“These five cats are from five completely different breeds; they shouldn’t be cats bred by the Du family,” Xie Wuchang said, looking at Alice. “If we’re really talking about cats, they could only have been brought by that person, meaning she’s the controller. The number is probably far more than five, and she even has a system for periodically recalling them…”

Faced with the evil conspiracy theorist, Alice turned her back and continued eating her cat treats.

"Speaking of which, why is Alice staying at the Du family's house?" Golson asked, feeding the cat treats. "The others were clearly assigned according to their regions. The southern suburbs are probably too far away, so why isn't Alice here? Is she here to protect the house?"

"Perhaps it's reserved for the Du family," Xiao Fu said. "Isn't that Miss Du Huangliang's attitude just like those of the victims?"

"...Is that so?" Golson paused, touching Alice's hand. "Could they also be victims?"

“It could also be something they requested,” said Franz. “In any case, we’ll be meeting the real person in charge soon.”

"Didn't she say she didn't want to see anyone?" Xie Wuchang frowned and turned to look in Cheng Xiangwu's direction. "What if we could get... Cheng Xiangwu to come under these circumstances?"

Cheng Xiangwu quietly followed Du Huangliang as he ran out of the reception room. Compared to passing on a message or refusing to meet, this method was obviously more efficient and had a higher success rate.

From the entrance, one can only see a main building with a horizontal width and a corridor that is far longer than one side of the running track of Senhu No. 2 Middle School. The dimly lit wooden structure space is faintly damp, with a cool feeling that touches the philtrum and cheeks as you walk, and a lingering, sticky feeling that is hard to shake off and makes people feel annoyed.

The wooden floor, lacking sunlight, creaked under the slightest pressure. Fortunately, Cheng Xiangwu maintained a good, low-noise movement pattern, as did Du Huangliang. The two moved silently and at high speed indoors in an almost horizontal manner. The person being followed looked back several times, but only received suspicion from himself.

From the moment she entered the sect, Cheng Xiangwu vaguely realized that Du Huangliang's skills were quite good, far exceeding what was expected of someone her age and status.

The farm is still largely modern in its visible areas, but as the two ventured deeper, passing by tightly closed single or double wooden doors, the technological traces designed with human needs gradually faded. Even the wall lamps, which were not particularly bright to begin with, were replaced with candlesticks, with a few flickering flames occasionally. The wax smoke dispelled the increasingly strong fishy smell, replacing it with a strange odor that had never been understood before.

It smelled like an earthy, sour scent, mixed with the smell of oil and salt, quite different from the smell in Gu Wanqiu's office. It carried a wild, untamed aura, partly from the candles and partly from the two of them getting closer to their goal.

Since when, no door has appeared on the walls of the seemingly endless wooden corridor. The monotonous grain pattern foreshadows the end ahead. Du Huangliang's steps gradually slowed down, finally stopping at the end of the corridor, in front of a double wooden door similar to the one at the entrance of the courtyard. The door appeared unlocked, and light leaked into the corridor from the cracks and underneath, making it impossible to tell whether it was candlelight or natural light.

"Um—" Du Huangliang knocked on the door, his raised voice tinged with nervousness, "Those guests outside said they wanted to ask about Alice and the others, and they seemed quite anxious..."

The door shook, but no one answered.

“They said they’ve seen Xihe and the others.” Du Huangliang pulled his hands back to grip the sides of his cloth robe, and after a while continued, “There was also a foreigner. It was the first time I’d ever seen a foreigner. Her eyes were so blue. No, she seemed to know a lot.”

But there was still no response from the other side of the door.

"...Are you really not going to see them? They brought cat treats, for the cats." Du Huangliang racked his brains, thinking hard. "They brought snacks too, like chocolate nuts and potato chips, and grape-flavored candy. I saw one of them even brought a camera. They seem pretty friendly, why don't you go check them out?"

Cheng Xiangwu observed from the roof beam. Based on the information she had gathered so far, she felt that the person on the other side of the door was less of Du Huangliang's elder and more of a cat owner who was reluctant to go out and resisted social interaction.

"Really not coming?" Du Huangliang knocked on the door again, unwilling to give up. "Who knows when they'll come next time? Just come out this once, just this once—"

No one responded to her. Du Huangliang sighed deeply, hesitated for a moment, and then turned back. She walked very slowly on her way back.

After she disappeared around the corner, Cheng Xiangwu landed silently and walked forward. A cool breeze wafted through the crack in the door; there was wind and the sound of wind.

She pushed open the door.

As dawn broke, the ventilation vents were opened, and the wind pushed the wooden door wider and wider. Outside the door was a wooden corridor exactly the same as the one they had entered the inner room, with a wooden platform like a fishing platform extending dozens of meters ahead from the threshold. Cheng Xiang squinted and looked into the distance at the end of the corridor, but all she saw beyond the wooden steps was a large expanse of uneven muddy ground mixed with sand and soil. Occasionally, a withered branch would stand upright on the dark ground. The further she went, the stickier and more sunken it became, until finally, all that remained in her sight was a mud bowl that seemed to reach the sky.

There was no one on the covered walkway, only fishing nets and dip nets hanging at the edge, reminding people what the area below the walkway should have looked like.

That mud bowl is Senhu Lake. Cheng Xiangwu had never seen its beautiful and bountiful appearance, but now he saw its thirsty, bare bones first. The hills were like hands holding this bowl, waiting for the sweet rain to fall. A few triangular-roofed buildings clustered at the foot of the hills, watching over the center of the lake, but there was no one in sight. Only these creatures, who were longer-lived and more stubborn than humans, stood here, waiting for something.

She took a few steps forward and was immediately hit by a stench so overwhelming it could knock out anyone with a normal sense of smell. In an instant, she understood the purpose of the candles in the corridor. Rather than providing light, which could be replaced, their ultimate goal was to absorb the stench that was flooding into the space.

The bottom of the mud bowl was left with residue, a thick, dark green biological soup. Cheng Xiangwu understood why the swamp was called deadly the first time he saw it with his own eyes.

And her coat needs washing again; I wonder if the fur collar will become patchy and bald.

There was no one in the corridor, nor anywhere else. Cheng Xiangwu frowned. She didn't think Du Huangliang's behavior just now seemed like a sign of mental instability, but there was indeed nowhere for anyone to hide. She had no choice but to go back to her room, close the door, take down a candlestick, and fumigate herself from head to toe before hurrying back.

Du Huangliang lingered a short distance from the door of the reception room, scratching at the wall and crouching down against it, looking as helpless as a student who was too scared to enter the classroom because she was late for class. Cheng Xiangwu increased the volume of his footsteps a certain distance away from her, and saw her jump up, turning around with a stiff movement as if she felt there was a ghost behind her.

"...Sorry, I'm looking for the restroom." Cheng Xiangwu really didn't mean to scare her.

"Ah, oh, the restroom!" Du Huangliang grinned. "It's behind the third door over there. Haha, sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, sorry to keep you waiting..."

Her voice grew softer and softer, and her smile gradually faded.

“…Thank you.” Cheng Xiangwu turned and left, completely unsure of what else she could say in this situation.

"Wait a minute!" Du Huangliang caught up in one step. She glanced back cautiously at the door of the reception room and lowered her voice, saying, "Um, what do you want to ask me about my aunt?"

Like a student asking for a cheat sheet, Cheng Xiangwu recalled the empty corridor and said, "Did you know that your cat eats some strange things?"

"So that's it!" Du Huangliang breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. "I know the answer to that too. Besides what I eat, Alice and the others eat the living's attachment to the dead. Is that what you wanted to ask about?"

She answered with complete naturalness, showing no sign that her cat had pica.

"...Them." Cheng Xiangwu thought for a moment and asked, "Did your aunt instruct them to do this?"

"Hmm?" Du Huangliang asked in confusion, "Instructions?"

“Normally, cats shouldn’t eat this kind of thing,” Cheng Xiangwu explained.

"...Oh, I see." Du Huangliang looked shocked, as if he was learning about this for the first time today. "Don't the cats outside eat this?"

Cheng Xiangwu then realized that this person really lacked common sense.

“Let’s talk when we get back,” Cheng Xiangwu said, adding, “You go first, I’ll go to the restroom and then I’ll be back.”

"No, no, no, I'll wait for you. Let's go together, let's go together." Du Huangliang quickly stood by the door.

Cheng Xiangwu didn't say anything, nodded, and pushed open the door to the bathroom. The space behind the wooden door was much more modern than she had imagined, and it could be used by multiple people. The shower wasn't here; there was a yellow flower pinned to the sink, which she had seen under a tree next to the gas station when she came.

Looking at her face in the mirror, she suddenly realized that, in terms of age, Du Huangliang could be considered her cousin.

When she opened the door again, her cousin automatically followed behind her, clearly wanting her to be the first to enter.

Upon entering the reception room, all three guests turned their gazes toward the newcomer. Cheng Xiangwu looked at Xiao Fu and shook his head.

Little Fu frowned slightly.

"Today, my aunt seems to be feeling unwell." Du Huangliang slowly moved out from behind the former, her voice very soft, but she quickly raised her head, "But I heard you wanted to ask Alice and the others about, uh, their food, right?"

“…That’s right.” Xie Wuchang paused, then smiled. “It’s unavoidable that I’m not feeling well. Thank you for making this trip. If you would be willing to answer our questions, that would be even better. Please have a seat!”

"Mmm!" Du Huangliang's mood brightened, but he didn't touch the snacks after sitting down. "In our house, Alice would help eat away our attachment to our deceased family members. Guiguzi and the others probably run out to eat people outside."

She paused, then blushed, "I just found out too, other cats don't eat these things, I'm so sorry..."

Xie Wuchang reached out and covered his mouth to prevent his expression from giving away the truth, but Gao Ersen didn't care about that.

"You, your family, do you think this is okay?!" she asked incredulously.

"Hmm?" Du Huangliang asked疑惑地, "Could there be any connection?"

Little F smiled.

“Exactly.” Golson took a deep breath. “You know you have no attachment to your family, you feel no sadness or pain over their passing, you don’t even miss them, because you simply don’t care anymore. This situation isn’t your fault, it’s caused by those cats. Do you think that’s okay?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a hint of doubt crept into Du Huangliang's smile.

"I... I think it's fine, right? After being eaten, everyone won't keep crying, and they won't feel so bad," she said softly. "Does that mean there should actually be a problem?"

She was born and raised breathing this stench, so how could she possibly see it as a problem?

“…Alright, let’s say this is your family rule.” Golson paused for a moment, then continued, “But why do you let those cats eat the feelings of people outside your family? We, those people, will find something wrong with that!”

Upon hearing this, Du Huangliang was taken aback. He turned his head to look at Cheng Xiangwu, then at Xie Wuchang, and finally at Xiao Fu.

“…We didn’t make them do anything.” She looked away and put her gaze into her teacup, her voice very soft. “I’m sorry, I really don’t understand these things. I only know that Alice doing this is a long-standing tradition in our family, but I can’t control what the others do.”

“I’m sorry to confuse you, but I believe these cats’ behavior follows a certain pattern.” Xie Wuchang frowned as he spoke. “As far as I know, apart from Alice, the other cats only talk to the relatives of the victims in a series of cases. Are you aware of this?”

The funeral industry in Mori Lake City is still relatively healthy so far; the cats haven't caused a situation where no one wants the dead in Mori Lake City.

"A case? A victim?" Du Huangliang was clearly startled; her shoulders hunched. "How...how could this happen? They shouldn't do this! They only feed on people within a certain range, like Alice, it only fed on me—"

"...Are all the members of the Du family dead?" Cheng Xiang asked five times.

The conversation paused for a moment. Du Huangliang placed his hands on his knees, gritted his teeth, and spoke again in a more composed voice, "Yes, as you can see, I'm the only one left in my family now."

"...What happened?" Xie Wuchang's expression turned serious. "I haven't seen any death registrations for the Du family. Did it happen suddenly?"

"It's because of our family rules," Du Huangliang said.

"That 'cannot kill any life other than fish and shrimp'?" Golson asked.

“…That’s a limitation that stems from that.” Du Huangliang raised his head, his face serious beneath his messy hair. “The Du family’s rule is that we are nurtured by Senhu Lake, and after we die, we must exchange everything we have for Senhu Lake.”

“So that restriction was to ensure the integrity of life,” F said. “The Du family only eats creatures from the lake.”

“That’s how it is.” Du Huangliang nodded. “This rule was established when the Du family settled here. Every clansman who dies will be brought back here, and then his body will be thrown into the forest lake to nourish the creatures there.”

"...Actually, it doesn't sound so bad, it's like a water burial." Xie Wuchang nodded.

“It seems that no matter where the Mother Lake is, it will not refuse the return of its children,” Little F said softly.

"Well, and then, as you know, after the great earthquake, Senhu Lake has been getting smaller and smaller." Du Huangliang's voice gradually softened, "It's getting smaller and smaller, and it's irreversible. My family realized that this rule might not be able to be followed anymore."

“…No way.” Golson realized something.

“Anyway, starting a few years after I was born, every rainy season when the lake rises, one of my family members would voluntarily jump in.” Du Huangliang frowned deeply. “It’s based on age; if there isn’t enough rainfall that year, it goes to the following year. Because of this decision, I’m the only child in our generation. Three years ago it was my mother, and if there’s enough rain this year, it’ll be my turn…”

The conversation ended with a long sigh, and for a moment no one spoke in the reception room.

"...Why, no." Xie Wuchang's brows furrowed, and his voice changed. "If you're not fishing anymore, why are you doing this? Besides, the rules say that what happens after death is the important thing, so why would your family make such a decision?!"

"Huh?" Du Huangliang asked in confusion. "What do you mean 'why'? Rules are rules."

"Why would someone commit suicide just to follow this rule?!" Xie Wuchang was utterly puzzled.

“…I also think it’s not good to end our lives prematurely, but this rule has been in place for a long time. After Mother Lake died completely, we have nowhere to go back to, so we have to follow it.” Du Huangliang sighed again, full of reluctance, but he had no intention of breaking the rule.

"Don't do that!" Golson didn't understand the logic at all. "Rules are rules, but people are flexible, and you obviously don't want to die!"

“Rules are things that have already been agreed upon; how can we not keep them?” Du Huangliang said, frowning.

Gorson's breath hitched, the fishy smell in his nostrils rising up and swirling in his brain.

"And what about your aunt?" Xiao Fu asked, her face turning cold and immobile ever since Du Huangliang started talking about the rules.

“Oh, I don’t think we need to talk about her.” Du Huangliang was a little scared by her expression, then thought for a moment, “Actually, although I call her aunt, strictly speaking, she can’t be considered a member of the Du family.”

"Even the cats in your manor have to follow the rules here. How can someone who has lived here for a long time and manages those cats avoid them?" Little F asked coldly.

"I don't know either," Du Huangliang said dejectedly. "She's probably the only exception..."

“Miss Du Huangliang,” Xiao Fu said.

"Yes!" Du Huangliang replied quickly.

"Why is that person unwilling to show themselves?" Little Fran asked.

“My aunt’s health isn’t very good, and she doesn’t like to talk, especially to outsiders,” Du Huangliang said.

"When was the last time she spoke to you face-to-face?" Little F asked.

"The last time was when my mother passed away. She taught me some things that I hadn't learned yet," Du Huangliang said after thinking for a moment.

"...Wasn't that three years ago?" Xie Wuchang asked in surprise.

“In that case, perhaps we can think of it this way,” said Little Franz. “She is no longer able to speak with us.”

Upon hearing this, Gorson was taken aback. He turned around and saw Du Huangliang frowning, seemingly not understanding the meaning of his words.

"...Your aunt," she whispered, "could she be...already gone?"

"She's definitely here," Du Huangliang replied with certainty. "We even talked about it last night."

"Where?" Little Franz asked.

“In my dream,” Du Huangliang said, gesturing.

“Miss Du Huangliang, a normal human being may refuse to communicate with their own kind, but when she needs to, her place of communication will never be a dream,” Xiao Fu said coldly.

"...Why?" Du Huangliang asked.

“Because of the language barrier,” Xiao Fu said. “The chances of a normal human learning the language of dreams are extremely slim.”

“But I can understand it.” Du Huangliang frowned and stood up. “Are you trying to say that I’m abnormal?”

“No, it’s normal to understand the language she speaks, and you’re not an exception, because she’s a master translator,” Little Franz said. “What I mean is, the one who isn’t a normal human being is your aunt.”

Du Huangliang remained silent for a moment.

“And you know that too, right?” Little F turned his head. “She and you, and your mother, and the dead people, or to put it simply, humans, are not the same species at all.”

As she spoke, she chuckled, "I already told you, you don't have a standard for judgment. You talk like a fish that doesn't know what a hook is. Next time you confess so confidently, why don't you ask someone first?"

Upon hearing this, Du Huangliang opened and closed his mouth several times, but still said nothing.

“Ms. Fu means that we understand you are not lying, but sometimes your starting point is different from ours,” Xie Wuchang said with a smile that had returned to normal. “Since the last time you saw her was three years ago, it might not be convenient for her to go out now. Do we have any other way to contact her?”

After a moment of silence, Du Huangliang sat down again. She glanced at the back of the house once more, but this time her gaze quickly returned to the teacup, meeting her own eyes.

“Okay,” she said. “Since you brought it up yourself, I can let you go and talk to her.”

After saying that, she reached out and drank the tea in her cup in one gulp, then turned it upside down on the table. She raised her head again and scanned everyone present with her dark eyes.

"No matter what happens or what you see next, never leave your position. Are you ready?" she asked.

“Miss Golson,” said Little F, “take your camera down and put it on the table.”

"Oh, okay." Golson didn't quite understand, but he did as he was told.

“Well then, we’re ready,” said Little Franz.

Du Huangliang looked around at everyone again, then glanced at the camera. She stretched out her hands and lightly supported the overturned teacup with her fingertips. Her fingernails, which extended no more than two millimeters beyond her fingers, made a neat, muffled sound when they landed on the cup.

Then, under the watchful eyes of the audience, she began to tap the side of the cup with her fingertips.

At first, the tapping sound only echoed in the inverted cups, but soon, ripples spread across the surface of every cup of tea on the table, every teacup began to vibrate, and every pair of hands resting on the table began to go numb.

It's unclear what medium the sound waves traveled through in the meeting room—air? Wooden table? Tea? Could these mediums really have enough energy to propagate the sound of every particle in the room? Was it merely the tapping sound of ten fingers?

No one knew, not even Cheng Xiangwu. But when she realized that the increasingly unbearable dull thud in her mind actually came not only from outside her body, but also from inside it, she could no longer refuse the knocking sound, which used her as one of the mediums for sound transmission.

Her hearing impairment could no longer interfere with her senses receiving information. She thus bypassed her five senses and arbitrarily understood what the vibration expressed. However, the sense she used to understand it, which came from who-knows-where, was unwilling to tell the brain the information so that it could understand, analyze, and provide feedback.

Because it was unfamiliar and did not conform to the natural laws she knew.

That sense seemed to have been expressing its existence for a very long time, yet it could not be felt, understood, or expressed. But now, the invading vibrations resonate with it, and it is finally being taken seriously. It has something to say, an attitude to express. A part of the brain anticipates something is about to happen; it seems to have been waiting for this moment, and now it is ready.

So she became the runway for information dissemination, and everyone on the scene was one of them. They didn't know what it was, they only knew that "they" were becoming more and more complete, more and more unified, and more and more in sync under the vibration.

Just before they were about to understand what it was, the world suddenly went silent.

There was the sound of the tide.

A layer of mist suddenly appeared before my eyes, and the wooden chair I was sitting on began to sway. The damp, fishy smell was close to my face, as if lake water would rush into my mouth if I opened it.

The damp coolness on the eyelids, between the fingers, and on the lips all spoke of how the person experiencing it was already in another place.

In a daze, the five of them found themselves on a swaying wooden boat, the deck beneath their feet damp with a thin layer of water, their toes feeling cold. Each person was enveloped in mist; the friction between their fingertips increased, strands of hair clung to their cheeks, and each breath inhaled a damp moisture. Due to the immense fog, the calm, dark gray lake stretched endlessly to the shore. Looking up, they occasionally saw the silhouette of a massive mountain slowly moving across the white expanse, and the rhythmic dissipation of the ripples indicated that the boat was still moving forward.

They were surrounded by mountains, mist, and lakes.

"...What is this?" someone seemed to be asking.

Cheng Xiangwu couldn't recognize who it was, and even the appearance of the voice source became blurry. Her already weak senses became even more dulled here, and she could only make out that there were two people in front of her.

The sound of the oars stirring the water was crisp and clear. She turned her head and saw another person sitting sideways at the stern. The person was wearing a gray linen coat and a straw hat, looking like a fisherman on a ferry. Only the blurry left half of his body was facing them.

The ferryman didn't speak; his face was blurred beneath his straw hat, but his gaze was still visible.

"Then first, please tell me your name." Someone said that Cheng Xiangwu knew at a glance that this person was Xiao Fu.

“…Du Qingyu.” The ferryman spoke, and just as Zhou Mi had said, every word she spoke sounded like it had been recorded from a radio broadcast and then edited into a single sentence for them to hear—it was incredibly strange.

"You must be the one—" Cheng Xiangwu recognized Xie Wuchang's tone.

"Why is the surname Du?" Little Fu asked.

"I mean, does it matter..." Xie Wuchang said helplessly.

“It’s important. This person’s race is not even related to the Du family. There has to be a reason for her to identify with this,” Xiao Fu said.

“Because the consciousness entities that are speaking to you now are mostly composed of people from this family,” Du Qingyu said, pressing the oar, but the boat did not provide any power to the passengers.

"And what about the remaining half, and you?" Little F asked.

“There is too much left,” Du Qingyu said. “I am the remnant life and consciousness of what you call Senhu Lake. Fish, shrimp, crabs, shellfish, birds, insects, snakes that fell into the lake, plus people, these nutritious things combined with the mud and water at the bottom of the lake, and that’s how I came to be.”

Her voice was always stuttering because of the awkward transitions between words, each word seemingly thrown into the mist, yet reaching the ear more clearly than human speech.

“Even earlier, according to their thinking, they needed to come out of the water to breathe and rely on echolocation. I was mainly a whale in the forest lake.” Du Qingyu’s words sounded abrupt, but very fluent. “I lived for a long time and ate everything. One day a long time ago, the water suddenly became too shallow, and I and other aquatic creatures were trapped in the mud, and then we died. After death, our bodies and the silt trapped our consciousness, as did the people who jumped in. I understood many languages, so I could speak, just like those people with the surname Du.”

Suddenly, a huge dark shadow approached the lake near the boat, and disappeared without a trace just as it was about to surface.

“The mud contains special mineral components, and the Du family uses the surrounding mud to make tools to call you,” Xiao Fu said.

“It’s not mud, it’s water,” Du Qingyu said. “It comes from underground water that surges up during the rainy season and becomes a part of me. It’s been like this ever since I could speak.”

"What is the water source? Where is it?" Little F pressed on urgently. "How is that vibrational language understood and learned by humans? What does it mean? What are the senses that capture information? Why does it cause such a reaction? How closely is the reaction related to the material properties of that mineral? How closely is your purpose of existence related to that underground water source? Why is your subjectivity so strong? Why are you so different from those beings with the same form of existence as you?"

Under the barrage of questions, Du Qingyu, who was sitting sideways, swayed slightly, but ultimately did not face them directly.

“What do you need these answers for?” she asked.

"...Can't you answer without a reason?" Little F asked.

"Mm," Du Qingyu said.

“…Then let’s answer the question related to the cause.” After a moment of silence, Little F said, “The eating habits of those five cats were influenced by you, right?”

“You could say that, but their predation ultimately stems from my hunger. Those cats don’t understand the reason for their hunger; they just eat out of instinct,” Du Qingyu said. “My appetite, on the other hand, comes from the part brought by the groundwater, which stems from its appetite for human souls.”

"Excuse me, what is your relationship with those cats?" Xie Wuchang asked.

“…It’s not what you think.” Du Qingyu sighed, her words broken and seemingly cobbled together. “When we were exposed to the sun because the lake dried up, animals came to eat my corpse. Only the five cats survived. But they couldn’t digest my flesh and blood, nor could they escape my thoughts, so I was able to control them. They were hungry because of my hunger. Neither they nor I have the ability to digest a soul. I can accommodate us, but if they eat too much, they might die.”

"...Can't you just not let them eat?" Xie Wuchang asked.

“Limiting myself to a specific group of people is already my limit. They can’t understand what I’m saying, and they probably don’t want to listen,” Du Qingyu said.

"Then what did you say in other people's dreams before?" Cheng Xiangwu asked.

“That’s my opinion,” Du Qingyu said. “I don’t actually understand what they’re saying.”

She slightly shifted her gaze from under her straw hat to look at the lake.

“…Okay, here’s the situation,” Xie Wuchang said. “There’s a student survivor in the Senhu No. 2 Middle School case. She’s still alive, but her family has been affected by those cats. Could you please help them?”

“No need to solve it.” Du Qingyu’s straw hat swayed. “The predator has no chance of survival. She’s not here because she’s still in that dream. Humans always have to sleep. One day the predator will re-enter her dream. You can’t bring her back.”

"Can you tell me why?" Xie Wuchang asked.

"Because they had already agreed on it, but the parts of her body other than her soul weren't ready yet," Du Qingyu said.

"...What exactly is the soul?" Xie Wuchang asked after a moment of silence.

The ferryman swung the oars horizontally, splashing water everywhere. A few drops, piercing through the mist, fell like a shower on the passenger who asked the question. Xie Wuchang reflexively raised his hand and closed his eyes, but he didn't feel the coolness of the raindrops, only a faint dampness.

“According to your ideas, the soul is a sense organ that receives stimulation and makes the brain react,” Du Qingyu said. “What you feel here is what the soul feels.”

"Did Ms. Du Huangliang's family agree with you beforehand that they would follow that rule even if it meant suicide?" Xie Wuchang asked.

“…Yes.” Du Qingyu nodded. “Long before I understood language, long before they called me ‘Lake Fairy,’ they set that rule. They have indeed always been with us, in life and in death.”

“But that was different from now,” Xie Wuchang said. “Ms. Du clearly did not want to end her life prematurely. Her lack of attachment was not spontaneous at all, and neither was Gao’s.”

She paused, her tone and expression blurred in the fog, only the meaning was fully expressed: "I think they made the agreement without thinking it through, and one of them is a minor and the other has not received a systematic education, so they obviously do not have the ability to take responsibility for their immature decisions."

"Is thinking that important?" Du Qingyu asked. "Thinking is nothing more than summarizing experience. If she asks me, I will answer honestly. Why does she need to think for herself?"

"With the way you have to explain the cause and effect when answering a question, how come you would tell others the cause and effect of your answer?" Xiao Fu's voice was full of sharp sarcasm even through the fog. "You can't understand cats, and you can't understand humans either. You just accept, answer, and print without thinking about whether free will is necessary."

"...Ms. Fu means that you may not understand Ms. Du's thoughts," Xie Wuchang said. "Have you visited her in person in the past three years?"

“…No,” Du Qingyu said.

"Why?" Xie Wuchang asked. "She must really want to talk to you in person."

“…Because, we need a physical form to exist in reality.” Du Qingyu said, shaking the object.

She released the oar and slowly turned around. The right half of her body, facing the lake, was covered with a thin layer of cloth. The body above the collar was centered on the midline, and the right half was just bones, human bones, but even the head was not covered by flesh and blood.

With only bones remaining on one side and good flesh on the other, she truly couldn't leave the house.

“Someone took away the fat, most of the flesh and internal organs rotted away, the blood seeped into the ground with the rainwater and lake water, and the bones were almost broken. My flesh and blood are no longer enough to form a complete body. I can’t see her.” Du Qingyu said, her lips not moving, her voice coming from the mist.

“…Whale blubber, do you remember who it is?” Little Fran asked.

“Many people, all sorts of people, came by helicopter,” Du Qingyu said.

"The Du family would agree?!" Xie Wuchang asked incredulously.

“They disagreed, but there was nothing I could do; I couldn’t stop them,” Du Qingyu said. “They seemed very upset, and Xiao Liang was upset too, so I gave them some, but they still…”

She turned to look at the lake again; the overflowing and calm Senhu Lake reflected the mountains and the sky.

“…I still wish I could be healthier,” she said. “It’s impossible now. My physical body is almost completely rotten. All I can do in that mud is wait, wait for her to jump in too. Her flesh and blood will become us, her soul will return to her family, and then we’ll leave this place together. And then—”

"Is that how you explained it to Miss Du Huangliang?" Xiao Fu interrupted her.

Du Qingyu did not answer.

“Of course not,” Little F answered for her. “She still believes there’s no difference between reality and dreams, and you don’t come to see guests because you don’t want to. Why do you assume she wants to go back to her family? Just because you gave yourself a name similar to hers and made her address you as a relative, does that mean you consider yourself family?”

The fog seemed to have thickened a bit.

"Have you considered that the reason she didn't choose you was because of you, not because she wanted to choose you? Have you considered why they jumped?" Little F asked, then laughed again. "You don't need to answer these questions, you don't need to explain them, because I won't tell you why I asked them."

“…I see.” Du Qingyu remained silent for a long time, then turned around, her back to the people on the boat. “I really do have no soul.”

Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared below the location of the boat. The ferryman stood up and vigorously shook the oars. The shadow below gradually moved and spread into a whirlpool, dragging the people on the boat down.

After a brief feeling of weightlessness, darkness fell all around. Countless sharp stalactites reached towards my head, and several pillars stood upright underwater. The cave was rugged and the rock walls were jagged. The calm lake beneath the boat turned into a flowing river. The ferryman was still dutifully maneuvering the oars, and the mist remained.

"Whether it's me or another fool, the reason for our existence and actions is because some life is trying to be born." Du Qingyu's voice echoed, "The vibrations you feel are mimicking the heartbeat of that being."

Those are organs that began to pulsate before birth, languages ​​that were already speaking before birth.

"It demands human souls as food, so the amniotic fluid that accompanies it rushes to fetch them to quell the cries. Once we have carried enough souls back, it will have enough nourishment to begin the next step." As she spoke, the boat suddenly tilted and plunged into the next section of the river before stabilizing slightly, splashing waves everywhere.

"Are there any successful cases so far?" Little Fer asked thoughtfully.

“No.” Du Qingyu sighed in a dull voice, “Actually, I don’t think this approach is very useful. I haven’t been able to give birth to a soul, so quantity shouldn’t be the biggest requirement.”

“...It will always have plenty of time to try and fail, what is called natural selection.” Little F looked at the river. “You and I will never see the day it succeeds.”

As she spoke, she reached out and scooped up a ladle of water.

"In short, if you want to solve the problem, you have no choice but to solve it." Du Qingyu said, and the boat slowly came to a stop. In front of them was a clear pool of water with dripping water on the top, creating ripples.

The water below the surface is deep and bottomless, occasionally catching a glimmer of light. Its beauty is indistinguishable by color, but upon closer inspection, it seems to follow a pattern.

Du Qingyu rowed the oar, disrupting the surface of the lake and also obstructing the view of the lake.

“Don’t try to feel it. Your souls are too shallow to bear its heartbeat, even if it’s just a reappearance of me,” she said.

"...How are we supposed to deal with this underwater creature?" Xie Wuchang's voice sounded like he was running out of oxygen. "We probably can't find it in reality."

“This hole was dug by you humans,” Du Qingyu said. “And as for solving it, you’ve done it once before, so just refer to historical experience, right?”

“Historical experience? Who?” Xie Wuchang asked, bracing himself for the name of a great man.

“It’s those people who took the helicopter,” Du Qingyu said. “It seems that around the time of the earthquake, they did something that caused it to hatch prematurely. The premature birth only resulted in a stillborn fetus, but the one underground is a twin. The remaining one became more active after absorbing nutrients.”

"Did the earthquake cause it to hatch, or did the hatching cause the earthquake?" Little F asked, looking underwater.

“…I don’t know about that,” Du Qingyu said. “You can try to lure that stupid thing that’s running around here. Once it gets enough nutrition, it won’t cry out for food anymore. Then, whether it hatches or fails again, it won’t continue hunting.”

"What happens if the hatching is successful or fails?" Xie Wuchang asked.

“I’ve never seen it, and it doesn’t matter.” Du Qingyu slapped the water with the oar, and in an instant, the boat returned to the hazy lake. “If you intend to do this, then I will try to keep an eye on the child’s dream, and I will also ask the cat about it.”

"This requires approval, doesn't it?" Xie Wuchang asked, puzzled.

“…I don’t know where they’ve hidden the things.” Du Qingyu shook her head. “And as for Xiao Liang, I hope you can talk to him on my behalf.”

She turned her head slightly to look at Cheng Xiangwu's position, "I can no longer go to see her. If she wants to go somewhere else, then let her go."

As soon as the words were spoken, the fog suddenly surged, but the damp, fishy smell gradually faded, and the dream ended.