The water rippled gently, bending light and shadow in just the right way. Paired with Little Oriole’s posture and movements, it was as if everything had been filtered through some dreamlike lens.
Li Zhuiyuan had attended plenty of cultural performances with his parents—he’d seen professional singers and dancers—but none of them had struck him the way Little Oriole did yesterday. The sensation hit him just as strongly as it did his older and younger cousins.
His parents had raised him to be well-behaved and rule-abiding, yet beneath that ramshackle canopy, Little Oriole revealed a kind of wild beauty that he had never known existed.
It was bold. It was brash. It was vulgar. It was the kind of charm that didn’t belong on a proper stage—but God, did it smell good.
She was coming—closer and closer—as if stepping out of a painting only to walk back into it again.
By now, Li Zhuiyuan had forgotten his predicament entirely. It was as if he no longer remembered he was underwater. He ignored the panic of not being able to breathe, the water rushing into his mouth and nose.
Until—
She reached out a hand.
Yesterday, when he and his cousins crowded up front to watch the performance, Little Oriole had sashayed over, singing, and even reached out to touch his face—because among all the kids, Li Zhuiyuan was as pale and delicate as a porcelain doll.
He had hoped she would touch him again.But this time, she reached out with both hands.
Both hands gripped his shoulders.
“So cold… it hurts…”
The enchantment shattered. The eerie, inexplicable captivation broke like torn silk.
Fear finally entered Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes. Like someone waking from anesthesia, the pain surged back.
He tried to pull away, tried to dodge, to escape—but those hands clamped down on him with an iron grip. No matter how he flailed, he couldn’t break free.
Just then, a force yanked from behind.
Li Zhuiyuan felt himself being pulled—as if he were the rope in a schoolyard tug-of-war.
And then—release. He was hauled upward.
In his blurred vision, he floated higher and higher, while Little Oriole below grew smaller and smaller.
Her arms reached out to him, but between them now yawned an impossible chasm.
“Heave-ho!”
Thankfully, the basket on his back gave his grandfather Li Weihan something to grab. That’s what he’d used to pull him out.
But he was heavy—dead heavy. Just a child, yet it felt like wrestling with a frenzied ox in heat.
Something below was trying to keep his grandson down.
Lei’er rushed over to help, wrapping his arms around Li Weihan’s waist and pulling with all his strength.
Finally—
“Splash!”
The moment Li Zhuiyuan broke the surface, that resisting force vanished. All three—Li Weihan, Lei’er, and the just-rescued Li Zhuiyuan—tumbled onto the boat.
“Get us out of here!”
Li Weihan didn’t even bother getting up, just roared at Pan’er.
This time, Pan’er didn’t freeze. He pushed the pole with everything he had, propelling the boat in the opposite direction.
“Grandpa, she’s coming—she’s coming!”
Lei’er pointed ahead in terror.
Li Weihan looked—and saw it too. As the boat moved, a dark mass of floating hair followed.
She was chasing them.
“Lei’er, help Pan’er with the pole—move!”
“Okay, Grandpa!”
The two boys leapt into action, chanting rhythmically as they poled, and the boat sped up.
Li Weihan grabbed a fishing rod, eyes grim. Seeing that the hair was still closing in, he let out a shout and jabbed the rod just ahead of it.
The rod pierced the water. It seemed to hit something, but there was no resistance—only a tremendous force yanking it downward.
“Whoa—!”
He cried out. Thank goodness he let go in time, or he’d have been pulled into the river.
The hair came closer.
Standing at the boat’s edge, Li Weihan could now see her black qipao under the water.
The river was flowing east—but she was moving upstream.
She wasn’t drifting. She was walking. She was actually walking!
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
The boat rocked—then rocked harder.
Li Weihan didn’t want to imagine what would happen if it flipped and they all fell in. This wasn’t about swimming skills anymore. This was something evil—something cursed.
His eyes landed on a fishing net. No time to think. He grabbed it and flung it at the hair, now less than two meters from the boat.
The net spread across the surface, quickly sinking around the edges.
At first, the hair still dragged it forward. But slowly, the net’s speed dropped—until it stopped.
It worked. It caught her!
Li Weihan rushed to the stern and snatched the pole. “Check on Little Yuanhou!”
“Okay, Grandpa!”
Pan’er and Lei’er were just teenagers. The earlier burst of effort had left them winded. Now that Li Weihan had taken over, they rushed to Li Zhuiyuan.
“Yuanzi, Yuanzi? Wake up, come on!”
“Grandpa, he won’t wake up!”
Still pushing the pole, Li Weihan called out, “Is he breathing?”
“Yes, Grandpa!”
“Pat his back!”
One held him upright while the other patted his back.
But no matter what they did, he wouldn’t wake up.
“Grandpa, it’s not working!”
Li Weihan didn’t answer. He just gritted his teeth and kept poling, sweat pouring into his eyes. He didn’t dare wipe it away.
Finally, they reached home. He threw down the pole, didn’t even tie the boat, scooped up Li Zhuiyuan and leapt ashore. But he was exhausted—he staggered, and to protect the boy, dropped to one knee on the stone steps.
“Hss—”
His knee split open, but he forced himself up and carried the boy inside.
“Guiying! Guiying!”
“You’re back already?” Cui Guiying was cleaning the stove. Hearing the commotion, she looked up and saw the child in his arms.
She cried out, “What happened? What happened to him?”
Li Weihan laid the boy on a woven mat in the inner room. With so many kids in the house, the beds were too crowded. In summer, they all slept on the floor.
Cui Guiying cradled Li Zhuiyuan’s head and gently patted his face. But he wouldn’t wake up.
“My poor child, my poor child—what happened to you?”
“Quit crying!” Li Weihan kicked her shin. “Quick, get him some dry clothes.”
She wiped her eyes and hurried off.
“Pan’er, go fetch Old Doctor Zheng!”
“On it, Grandpa.”
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