It was the month of 2008, and it must have been summer, maybe it was the middle of August in the solar calendar, and I remember that it was quite hot at that time.

At this time, Qiang Shun and I were still working in that private cement factory, not because we were always absent from work and asking for leave, but the leaders of the factory did not want to see us, and it was estimated that we could not find the right person, so they pinched their noses and reluctantly let us work in their factory. There are some colleagues in the factory, and they always joke with us, and when they see the two of us going to work, they laugh and say to us, yo, you two are on vacation again?

I remember that day it seemed to be a middle school shift, from 4 pm to 12 pm.

In the evening, just after dinner, at this time, a room was set up in the factory, and the workers did not have to go outside to buy food to eat.

At that time, the weather was very hot, but because the machine was opened by the guard, as long as the machine was not broken, it was fine, and it just turned around every half hour and forty minutes.

After eating, I had nothing to do, and Qiang Shun found a ventilated place, sat there to smoke and take a cool, when the cigarette was half a cigarette, Qiang Shun's mobile phone rang, Qiang Shun took out the mobile phone, we both looked at the mobile phone display screen at the same time, it was a strange number, generally like this strange number, are looking for us to do things.

One glance at Qiang Shun immediately took it, usually the opening is hands-free, and we can both hear it. On the other end of the phone, it was a man's voice, the father who drowned the child.

The man's voice was a little hoarse, probably because he was sad and crying excessively, and the man politely asked if it was Master Liu.

As soon as I heard it, this is right, it is indeed looking for us to do something, but I have long been accustomed to this kind of phone call at this time, and I replied "yes" unhurriedly, and the other end of the phone immediately fell silent, but the phone did not hang up, and after a short pause, the man's hoarse voice came again, and he kept talking.

The first half of what the man said, roughly the same as what I wrote earlier, the child took advantage of their nap at noon, led a few classmates to play in the fish pond, but the child drowned, and several other children said that they saw something in the water, which dragged his children into the water, and two children had a high fever for a few days because of this. However, the man didn't believe that there would be anything in the fish pond that could pull people into the water, and he didn't know what was in his own fish pond. The man wondered if these children had joined forces to push their children into the deep water, so they also reported the case, and the people from the Public Security Bureau came and investigated for a week, and finally came to the conclusion that the child drowned and died by himself, and had nothing to do with others.

The man's fish pond is the kind of fish pond that is open to the outside world, that is, a fish pond for fishing enthusiasts, and it may be five or six yuan a day of fishing, and there are fish in it but there are not many fish, which is similar to the nature of the wild pit.

After the news of the drowning of the child spread, the business of the fish pond plummeted, and those who love fishing also have special superstitions, feeling that the waters that have drowned people are unlucky, not to mention fishing, people do not go to that water, many do not come, but there are no taboos, plus the man has lowered the price of fishing a little, and there are still more or less people on the edge of the fish pit.

After a few days, the fishermen reacted to the man, there seemed to be something in the fish pond, sometimes there was no wind or waves, the middle of the water was inexplicably muddy, as if something was stirring in the water, and when the muddy energy passed, you could smell a fishy smell. Especially for night fishers at night, you can clearly hear the sound of "bang-la-la-la" in the water, and there is nothing on the water, as calm as a mirror.

As soon as the man heard the fisherman say this, he also paid attention to the fish pond from morning to night, and soon, he found that there was indeed a problem in the fish pond, especially in the early morning when the sky was bright, the water in the fish pond looked good, but the bottom of the water was inexplicably muddy, it really seemed that something was stirring under the water, and there was a rotten stench of deterioration of the flesh, how bad it smelled and how bad it was, but when the sun came out, the water immediately became clear, and the stench would disappear.

When I heard the man talk about this, I couldn't help but interrupt him and ask, has this phenomenon ever happened in the past?

The man said no, and I asked again, didn't your child drown a few days ago? There was silence on the other end of the phone again, and the man seemed to be remembering, paused for a moment, and said vaguely, as if there was none.

When I heard it, I wasn't too satisfied with the man's answer. Because if the child didn't have it before he drowned, then the thing in the water now is probably the ghost of a boy.

I asked again, how long has it been since the child died? The man paused for a while and replied, it had been more than half a month and almost twenty days.

Hearing the man say this, I thought, this shouldn't be a ghost of a boy or child, a new ghost that is no more than a hundred days old, almost no ability, especially children, at the moment, you have to go to the scene to see the fish pond with your own eyes.

Next, the man didn't say anything, I didn't ask anything more, and finally the man asked me if I could help him, and I agreed, asked the man's name, asked where their home was, and then made an appointment with the man, two days later.

The book is brief, two days later, we switched from the middle shift to the day shift, after the day shift got off work, I said to Zhang Li, took a few things at home, with a backpack, originally planned for me to go alone, who knows before going out, Qiang Shun came over, I didn't want to take him there, because recently, I feel that as long as there is something, Qiang Shun with me, people are not so enthusiastic about me, it feels like the relationship between the employer and the employee, I also asked Qiang Shun, is it private with people to ask for money, Qiang Shun shook his head like a rattle, and later, I also asked those who had done things for them privately, and they also shook their heads like rattles, insisting that no one had ever asked them for money.

Pack up your belongings, take Qiangshun with you, and you're off to go.

As for the village where the man lives, as mentioned earlier, it can be more than ten miles away from our village, and in the southeast of our village, the name of that village is quite tongue-twisting, so to speak, I have never heard of this village when I am so old, let alone been there.

All the way to the southeast, all the way to inquire, first inquired about their village, after coming to their village, and asked the man's name, their village people said, the man has long ceased to live in the village, the whole family has moved to the fish pond, and finally there is no way, I asked Qiang Shun to call the man, ten minutes later, the man came, and drove a car, looking at the family is good.

The man was not more than forty years old, of medium stature, probably because he had just lost his son, and his face was dark and haggard.

As soon as I met with the man, I said a few polite words, the man looked at me and said, Master Liu is so young, I smiled and said, what is still young, I will be thirty in another year. The man didn't believe it anymore and said something, looking at most in his early twenties. I smiled helplessly.

The man took us to the house where they used to live, told us to put our motorbikes in their house, and he drove us both towards their fish pond and set off again. However, what I didn't expect was that their fish pond was not close to their village, and there were seven or eight miles of land, located a little east and south of their village, the terrain here was very low, a little desolate, there were weeds everywhere, and the road was also a dirt road that was not too wide. Those who could not grow food were planted with trees. Wild grass or something, before the autumn to give people a fire to clean.

After arriving at the place, I found that the man's fish pond here, not only has a fish pond, but also a kind of free-range farm, a large wooden fence, and the fence is full of cattle and sheep, as well as chickens, ducks and geese, which are also free-range, and the whole thing is like a farm, the place is quite large, and the fish pond only accounts for one-third of their farm, and it is also two fish ponds.

Directly north of the whole countryside, there are a few bungalows, which from the outside do not look very good, and this is where the men's family lives.

The car drove all the way to the door of several bungalows, and after getting out of the car, the man told us to go inside first to drink water and rest for a while.

When I entered the house, I could feel that there was a gloomy cloud, I didn't see the man's wife, the man's parents were there, and there was a little girl of thirteen or fourteen, and the girl was very beautiful.

As soon as the man introduced us, I realized that the man gave birth to a pair of twins, and it was his son who died, and now this beautiful girl is his daughter, the boy is the elder brother, and the girl is the younger sister.

At that time, the brother and sister seemed to be in the second year of junior high school, it should be the second year of junior high school, I forgot, but the little girl looked very energetic at this time, without the heart-wrenching grief of her father and her grandparents, which is quite strange, I felt at the time, maybe their brother and sister relationship is not very good.

The man's parents didn't say anything to us, they just said hello and came.

After a few sips of tea in the house, I felt that the atmosphere in the house was very depressing, and after a long time, it could make people angry, so I asked the man to take us to the fish pond to see, the man agreed, and the three of them left the house and went straight to the fish pond.

At this time, the time was nearly six o'clock, and it was dark late in summer, and although the sun was very westward, the sky was still bright.

The man led us through the fences where the cattle and sheep were kept, and we came to the pond. As I said earlier, there are two fish ponds here, and these two fish ponds are next to each other, the man told us, the front is a high fishing pit, the back is an ordinary pit, the child drowned in the ordinary pit, the last two days, a fishing person did not come, very secluded.

Came to the edge of the pit, I took a look, there is indeed no one, the pit is full of weeds, green and green, I feel that the environment is very good, I can fish here, it is also a kind of enjoyment, and then look at the water surface in the pit, the water is very clear, at this time there is no calm wave, occasionally a string of blisters emerge in some places, which indicates that there are fish in the water.

After seeing this, I asked the man, "Where does the water here start when the water is muddy?" ”

The man raised his hand and pointed to the middle of the water, and I looked at the middle of the water, and it looked like a mirror, and there were white clouds reflected in the sky, and I asked, "How deep is the water there?" ”

The man thought for a moment and replied, "It should be five or six meters deep." ”

I nodded, five or six meters deep, I can raise almost anything, I mean, water ghosts and water spirits and things like that, they can make waves at this depth.