Today is January 20th, and the weather is still cold. The roadside plants are covered with a layer of sparkling ice crystals, which rustle and gurgle in the cold wind.
It was cold, so I got up a little late today. After eating a roasted wild duck, I decided to take a walk by the lake since I had nothing else to do.
I hadn't been on the road long when a heavy snow began to fall. It was the first time I'd ever seen snow here. I looked up at the sky, and the snowflakes drifted down gently like willow catkins.
The pure white snow always has a unique magic; it can calm people's minds and give their souls a profound cleansing.
The snow was falling heavily. When I arrived at the lake, the earth as far as the eye could see was covered with a layer of white.
The surroundings became very quiet at this moment, and not even a bird could be heard chirping.
Wearing a fur coat, I walked alone in the snow, feeling a sense of desolation, as if all birds had vanished from the mountains and all human tracks had disappeared from the paths.
Time flies. I arrived at this place on May 21st, and more than half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.
The traditional Chinese New Year is just a few days away. I wonder how my sister is doing. I'm not here for this year's Spring Festival. Will she feel a little lost?
I don't think so. She's very popular, and so many of her friends will go and keep her company, right?
Lost in thought, I glanced at the willow grove by the lake. The willows were covered in snow, clusters of white snow adorning the leafless green branches.
At that moment, the sound of water about ten meters away from the lake caught my attention. It was snowing, and fishing in the water had become difficult. Most of the water birds, such as swans, had gone to the shallow rivers and streams.
Even the few waterbirds that remained were resting in the trees. There couldn't possibly be any birds in the water; my first thought was of aquatic animals like beavers or otters.
The animal had black fur, and its short limbs were rolling around on the surface of the water. It turned its white belly up, then used its two forelimbs to pick up a rock and begin pounding it against its abdomen.
I knew what it was the moment I saw it; it was an otter. Maybe this was the animal that stole my fish before.
The otter isn't hitting its belly with a stone because it's bored; most likely, there's a clam or some other crustacean lying on its belly.
Otters are very intelligent; their intelligence is equivalent to that of a four- or five-year-old child, and they are among the few animals that use tools.
They will turn their bellies upside down, place the river mussels on their bellies, and then use stones to crack open the shells to get the delicious mussel meat inside.
After a series of thumping blows, the clam seemed to have been smashed open. The otter lay on the surface of the water like it was eating fast food, its little paws constantly pulling out clam meat and putting it into its mouth.
As the otter was eating, its body suddenly sank into the water. I was shocked. What was going on? Was there some predator in the water?
A moment later, the otter reappeared before my eyes, still perfectly fine. This time, the otter turned its belly over again, and a stone was once again striking the clam on top of it.
Phew... So it finished eating the clam meat and went into the water to collect clams. That startled me.
The otter quickly ate the clam as well, and then swam a short distance closer to the shore.
Just as it turned around to dive again to collect the clams, its body suddenly sank again, this time at a great speed.
I thought to myself, really, why do it again? This otter is really playful and daring.
Soon the otter resurfaced, but this time its expression was no longer calm; instead, it was filled with fear.
Upon closer inspection, I saw bright red blood floating on the water's surface, and the otter swam swiftly towards the shore.
And it was at this moment that I witnessed the first unbelievable scene of my life: there seemed to be a huge figure moving rapidly beneath the surface of the water.
It gave me goosebumps; the black figure underwater looked at least as big as a water buffalo.
Its streamlined body is over three meters long, and a thick, flat tail propels it forward like an oar.
When I saw the fleeing otter swimming towards me, I was so frightened that I shuddered and ran away.
After running some distance from the lake, I looked back and saw that the otter had already reached most of its body on the shore. It seemed that it was lucky enough to escape with its life today.
Not long after I had this thought, with a sudden surge of water, a giant mouth, as big as a washbasin, followed closely behind.
Seeing this, my heart nearly jumped into my throat.
I've been here for so long, and all I knew about the wolves, tigers, and leopards in the mountains was that there were fierce creatures that were just as dangerous as tigers and leopards, hidden beneath the seemingly calm lake.
As the otter and the monster's mouths were about to touch, I couldn't help but clench my fists and break out in a cold sweat for the otter.
Fortunately, at the last moment, the otter gave a powerful push and jumped away, almost grazing the edge of the monster's sharp teeth.
Seeing that the otter had escaped, the monster slowly retreated back into the water and then disappeared beneath the surface.
I let out a long sigh of relief. That was really close; the otter was just a hair's breadth away from losing its life.
The otter seemed terrified and remained motionless for a long time. After a while, it slowly stood up and limped towards a willow tree not far from the lake shore.
Otter burrows are usually located near water, next to tree holes or rocks, so there must be a hidden burrow under the willow tree.
The otter slowly crawled back to its den, just when I thought it was all over.
Just as the otter approached the lakeshore, a bright red tongue, as rough as a rope and covered with barbs, shot out from beneath the water with lightning speed towards the otter's body.
The length of its tongue is beyond my comprehension. The distance between the water surface and the otter is at least one meter, and the figure underwater is completely invisible.
This illustrates that a tongue must be at least three meters long to entangle an otter while concealing its own form.
The otter shrieked, its body tightly bound by a tongue that lashed out like a chameleon, and was violently thrown towards the surface of the water.
I saw the otter's helpless eyes reflected in mine; it watched helplessly as its body flew through the air in an arc, getting further and further away from the land.
The tongue is very strong; with a flick of the wrist, the otter was tossed high into the air and flew a distance of five or six meters.
Almost at the same moment, something seemed to turn violently on the surface of the water, and the ripples on the surface surged.
Then, an unidentified black and gray creature appeared from below, its figure leaping vertically from beneath the water's surface and swiftly opening its massive mouth towards the otter that was about to fall into the water.
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