Chapter 1

"Xina Kangzis, time to eat! Ooh-lay, ooh-lay, ooh-lay~"

Cui Guiying, wearing an apron, held a bowl in her left hand and a ladle in her right, calling out as she banged the ladle against the edge of the porridge vat.

Li Weihan, who was sitting nearby stuffing tobacco into his water pipe, kicked the woman hard in the backside and snapped:

"Did water get into your brain? Are you calling piglets?"

Cui Guiying shot her husband a glare, slammed a stack of bowls down in front of him, and spat:

"Pah! Even pigs aren't as noisy or as able to eat as they are!"

At her call, a group of children ran in from outside. There were seven boys and four girls, the oldest sixteen and the youngest only three.

Li Weihan and his wife had raised four sons and a daughter. Once their children grew up, they had all set up separate households. Usually, only their eldest son's family, who lived nearby, left their pair of three-year-old twins here to be looked after.

But as soon as summer vacation arrived, who knew whether it was for convenience or because they felt they would be losing out if they did not take advantage of their parents, but everyone sent their children over.

Once they had taken in the eldest son's children, they could hardly refuse the others. In one stroke, the house became like a schoolhouse.

The couple had not yet had time to savor the sweetness of being surrounded by children and grandchildren when the rice jar was already about to be scraped empty.

As the saying went, half-grown boys could eat their fathers into poverty. Girls included, these children were all at the age when they were growing, and they could eat like demons. Every one of their bellies was like a bottomless pit. At Cui Guiying's house, even the staple food had to be served in vats, and one vat was not enough; another pot was kept warm on the stove.

Though the couple already had grandchildren in droves, they were not actually that old. Besides, under the rules of the countryside, unless someone was bedridden and unable to work, as long as they still had the strength to farm, no matter how old they were, they had no right to live off meals provided by their children.

"Don't shove! Don't shove! Were you all starved to death in your past lives? Line up!"

The children came forward with bowls, and Cui Guiying ladled out porridge.

The last to come over was a ten-year-old boy. He wore denim overalls and fashionable sandals. His skin was fair and tender, and he looked shy.

He seemed rather out of place among his brothers and sisters, who were all filthy from playing, their noses constantly running.

"Little Yuanhou, come. Eat over here."

"Thank you, Grandma."

Cui Guiying smiled and rubbed the boy's head. Among this whole brood of biological grandsons and granddaughters, he had been the only maternal grandson—but not anymore.

The child was named Li Zhuiyuan. His mother was Cui Guiying's youngest daughter, the first university student in Siyuan Village's history.

Her youngest daughter had been admitted to Beijing University and stayed in Beijing to work after graduation. She had found her own partner too, and before the wedding, she had brought him home once. He had been a refined, fair-skinned city man.

Cui Guiying could not remember exactly what he looked like, because she and Li Weihan had been terribly restrained in front of their son-in-law that day and had been too embarrassed to look closely.

Later, their daughter became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The journey was far and work was busy, so she had never returned home. But ever since graduating and starting work, their daughter had never stopped sending money to her parents every month.

Li Weihan and Cui Guiying had saved all the money their daughter sent before marriage. When their four sons got married, they gritted their teeth and refused to touch a single cent of it. When their daughter brought her husband home that time, Li Weihan shoved back the bride price money his son-in-law offered and added their daughter's savings to it before returning it all.

They had wanted to act even more proudly and add something extra from their own household, but all four sons had married before her. No matter how tightly the couple tightened their belts, there was no more oil to squeeze out.

The matter had always weighed on them. Returning their daughter's money to her meant that, when they married off their daughter, her parents had contributed nothing at all. It was downright humiliating.

As for the money their daughter sent every month after marriage, they saved all of that too. Their sons, egged on by their wives, had come over with all kinds of excuses to try to get their hands on it, but Li Weihan had pointed at their noses and cursed them back.

Half a month ago, their daughter had asked someone in military uniform to bring her son over. He had carried a letter and some money. In the letter, she said she had divorced and that her work had recently changed, so she could only entrust her son to her parents for a while.

Their daughter had also written that after the divorce, she had changed the child's surname to hers. In an instant, this maternal grandson had become a true grandson.

After coming to the countryside, Li Zhuiyuan did not feel the slightest discomfort. Instead, he quickly blended in and spent every day happily playing from one end of the village to the other with his brothers.

The staple meal that day was sweet potato porridge. It tasted sweet, but it did not keep one full and digested quickly. Even after several huge bowls had filled their bellies round, they only had to run around for a while before feeling hungry again.

Besides, eating too much sweet potato porridge and sweet potato strips for too long could really damage the stomach. Even when one was not hungry, just seeing them made acid rise in the stomach.

Li Zhuiyuan was not sick of it yet. He rather enjoyed the feeling of this "big communal cafeteria," and he also loved Cui Guiying's various pickles and savory sauces.

"Grandma, why aren't we going to Big Beard Grandpa's house for a funeral feast today?"

The one asking was Huzi, the nine-year-old son of the second uncle's family.

Cui Guiying rapped Huzi on the head with the end of her chopsticks and scolded, "You little Xina Kangzi, they only held that because the old lady in their family passed away. Do you want them holding feasts every day?"

Covering his head, Huzi said, "Why not? It would be great if they did it every day."

"What kind of bullshit is that, you little Xina Kangzi? Even if they wanted to, where would they find enough people to die in line every day?"

Smack! Li Weihan brought his chopsticks down hard on the table and scolded, "What nonsense are you talking to little children about?"

Cui Guiying realized that she had misspoken. She did not snap back at her husband. Instead, she scooped a lump of savory sauce into Li Zhuiyuan's bowl of porridge. The sauce had crushed peanuts and bits of pork in it, and that spoonful happened to contain some.

Li Zhuiyuan stirred it with his chopsticks. The sauce spread thin, and tender white cubes of pork floated to the surface of the porridge.

Children had sharp eyes, and they cared most about fairness. Huzi immediately said, "Grandma, I want meat too, like the kind in Brother Yuanzi's bowl!"

"Grandma, I want some too."

"Me too."

The other children joined in as well.

"Shoo, shoo!" Cui Guiying scolded irritably. "It's one thing for the younger children to fuss because they don't know better, but Panhou, Leihou, Yinghou—you older brothers and sisters are joining in too? Learn some sense. Everything you're eating here today was bought with the money Little Yuanhou's mother gave us. Your parents haven't handed Grandma a single grain of rice, and you still have the nerve to fight him for food!"

Pan Zi, Lei Zi, and Yingzi lowered their heads in embarrassment. The younger ones merely looked at one another, laughed, and let it pass.

It was not as though Grandma had never hinted at it, and they had passed the message on at home, but their parents had told them to play dumb.

At that moment, Shitou, the eight-year-old from the third son's family, asked, "Is Little Yellow Oriole still around?"

Cui Guiying asked, "Who is Little Yellow Oriole?"

Huzi answered, "Grandma, Little Yellow Oriole is the one who sang and danced at Big Beard's house yesterday. Her singing was really nice, and her dancing was really good too."

"Is that so?" Cui Guiying had been helping wash dishes in the back kitchen yesterday, so busy her feet barely touched the ground. She had not had time to go out front after the meal to watch the White Cloth Band perform.

Her husband, Li Weihan, had not gone either. He claimed he had gone out on the boat, but he had actually stayed home. The real reason was that he felt embarrassed. Pan Zi and Lei Zi had already taken Yuanzi, Huzi, and Shitou—the five children—to eat at the feast. If he went too, it would look ugly.

The five children had not only eaten themselves, they had also brought back quite a lot, especially the substantial dishes allotted one per person at the table. Li Zhuiyuan copied his older brothers and tore off a piece of the red plastic table covering spread in front of him to wrap food in.

When they got home, they divided the food among the younger brothers and sisters who had not been able to attend the feast. Watching them eat, they felt like victorious generals returning from battle.

Lei Zi said, "Her singing really was nice, and she was pretty too. She told everyone to call her Little Yellow Oriole."

Pan Zi nodded. "She was really nice. She looked pretty, and her clothes were pretty too. I want to marry someone like her when I grow up."

Cui Guiying lowered her head and asked Li Zhuiyuan beside her, "Little Yuanhou, was it like that?"

"Yeah." Li Zhuiyuan put down his chopsticks and nodded. "Pretty."

Countryside White Cloth Bands prided themselves on being able to perform in the hall and work in the kitchen.

During the rituals, they could put on Taoist robes and cassocks, chant scriptures, conduct rites, and carry themselves with immortal poise and solemn dignity.

After the noon feast, they also had to organize an entertainment show. Singing, dancing, acrobatics, magic—whatever they could do, they had to put on.

If they encountered a wealthy family that cared about appearances, they might even hire certain White Cloth Bands for an evening performance. Before those shows began, however, the adults would send all the children home to sleep.

Little Yellow Oriole's surname was Xiao. Her real name was Xiao Huangying, while Little Yellow Oriole was her stage name. She was not actually young anymore, already in her thirties, and she had been divorced.

Her singing and dancing skills were really only mediocre, but she knew how to dress up. Her clothes were daring and trendy: a fitted black qipao with slits cut high, exposing her long white legs, combined with her warm and enthusiastic stage control...

To use the village women's most vicious insult, which was also the highest praise, she was—slutty.

Nowadays, very few village households had televisions. People often carried stools over and crowded in, only to find there was no room left. So before the winds of fashion had swept broadly into the countryside, Little Yellow Oriole's "sluttiness" was an overwhelming blow to the village girls and wives around her.

She did not just steal the souls of the grown men; even half-grown boys were utterly bewitched.

At that moment, a figure appeared at the door of the main hall. It was their neighbor Zhao Simei, who had been close "sisters" with Cui Guiying for years. When their children had been young, the two loved sitting on the threshing ground whenever they had time to gossip.

"Have you eaten?" Cui Guiying asked. "Come, grab a pair of chopsticks."

Zhao Simei hurriedly waved her hands with a smile. "Oh, I'd be embarrassed to mooch a meal at anyone's house, but especially yours. Look at this—you're already drinking thin porridge here."

"This porridge sits well in the stomach. I like it. Come on, I'll ladle you a bowl. No matter how empty the rice jar gets, could I possibly deny you a bite to eat?"

"Enough, enough, I've already eaten. Hey, did you know the head of the White Cloth Band just took people to Big Beard's house to cause trouble? I heard they smashed things and nearly came to blows."

Hearing that, Cui Guiying immediately stood up with her bowl and chopsticks. As she shoveled porridge into her mouth, she moved toward the door. "What happened? Did Big Beard's family not settle the money?"

"It wasn't about the performance fee. Someone from the band went missing."

"What? Someone went missing?" Cui Guiying sucked on her chopsticks. "Who?"

"A woman, the one who reeked of flirtiness. Yesterday, the way she twisted that butt of hers—she looked like she wanted to show her asshole."

"Little Yellow Oriole?" Pan Zi asked.

The other children all pricked up their ears.

"Seems like it was her, that slut." Zhao Simei sounded positively delighted by the misfortune.

"How exactly did she disappear? Have they found her?" Cui Guiying asked.

"They said someone saw that slut from the band go into the little woods by the river with Big Beard's youngest son last night. After that, she never returned to the band, so the band came to demand their person."

"What about Big Beard's son?"

"He's at home, but he said he didn't know anything and nothing happened. But plenty of people in the village saw them. It was him and that slut who went into the woods."

"Then where is she?"

"Who knows? She just vanished. The band leader came this time to demand her, but Big Beard's family insisted they had never seen her. They even said the slut had run off on her own."

"Then what happened?"

"Big Beard's family paid the band leader a sum of money. Not a small sum, either."

Cui Guiying immediately patted Zhao Simei's arm several times and raised her brows. "Something's fishy!"

Zhao Simei immediately patted Cui Guiying's arm back and lifted her chin. "Obviously!"

Big Beard had once been the deputy manager of the grain station in town. That had been a lucrative post. Even though he had retired, aside from his youngest son being a layabout, all his other sons had jobs in town. In this village, not even the Village Chief's family carried more clout than his.

So if Big Beard was willing to pay money to settle the matter, there had to be something suspicious going on!

"After getting the money, did the band leader leave?"

"He left."

"And the woman? They're not looking for her?"

"Looking for shit. The whole band picked up their gear, got in the truck, and rushed off to their next job."

"Oh dear." Cui Guiying shook her head. "I just hope nothing happened."

"Who knows."

"A person could be real or fake."

"Exactly."

Hearing this, Huzi and Shitou suddenly began to cry:

"Boo-hoo-hoo! Little Yellow Oriole! Little Yellow Oriole!"

"My Little Yellow Oriole! Little Yellow Oriole is gone! Boo-hoo!"

Seeing that, Zhao Simei nearly laughed so hard a snot bubble came out. She pointed at them and said, "See? Those two grandsons of yours are stubborn little romantics."

Cui Guiying rolled her eyes at her. "Don't you have a granddaughter? Pair one with them."

"Heh." Zhao Simei snorted and pointed at Li Zhuiyuan. "A marriage alliance wouldn't be impossible, but she has to be paired with your Little Yuanhou. Then my Little Juanhou can follow him to Beijing and enjoy the good life."

"Go on, go on. Stop dreaming."

Li Weihan had already finished eating. He had no interest in old women gossiping, and it was not convenient for him to interrupt. He merely picked up his water pipe, opened the matchbox, and found it empty.

Li Zhuiyuan put down his chopsticks, ran behind the stove to the storage nook, and brought Li Weihan a box of matches.

Li Weihan did not take it. Instead, he moved the bowl of his pipe in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan smiled and pulled out a match. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. After much difficulty, he finally struck a flame. He hurriedly shielded it with his other hand and lowered the match to the pipe bowl.

Li Weihan took several deep puffs until the tobacco caught. Satisfied, he smiled broadly.

Back then, his own daughter had liked lighting his cigarettes too. She had even said that when she grew up, she would buy him boxed cigarettes to smoke.

"Phew."

Li Zhuiyuan blew out the match, tossed it on the ground, and ground it beneath his shoe several times.

Pan Zi said, "Grandpa, let's take the boat out to pick lotus pods this afternoon?"

Li Weihan glanced at the bland meal on the table, nodded, and said, "Lei Zi, come along too. Bring the net and see if we can catch a few fish for your grandma to make soup."

The moment Huzi and Shitou heard that, they forgot all about Little Yellow Oriole and shouted, "Grandpa, I want to go too! I want to go too!"

All the other little ones started shouting too, afraid something fun would happen without them.

Li Weihan slowly swept his gaze around the room and said sternly, "Let me tell you, there are Water Monkeys in that river. They drag people underwater and drown them to make them take their place, so they can reincarnate themselves."

The children were immediately frightened and did not dare say another word.

Shitou asked somewhat unwillingly, "Why can the older brothers go?"

Pan Zi and Lei Zi were older children after all. They understood things and helped their grandfather scare the younger ones.

"Big Brother is strong. A Water Monkey can't drag me down."

"I'm good at swimming. A Water Monkey can't catch me."

Li Zhuiyuan was not frightened. He wanted to go too, but he was too embarrassed to say so. He could only lower his head and fiddle with his small hands, sneaking glances at his grandfather from time to time.

Li Weihan said, "Little Yuanhou is going too."

Huzi immediately protested, "That's not fair. Brother Yuanzi is only one year older than me."

Shitou chimed in, "Yeah, Brother Yuan isn't even stronger than I am. How can he fight a Water Monkey?"

Li Weihan slowly exhaled a ring of smoke and gave a perfectly reasonable explanation that even children could accept:

"Little Yuanhou came back from outside. Our local Water Monkeys don't know him."

Most of the village houses had been built along the water. Their front doors faced the road, while their back doors faced the river.

To wash vegetables or clothes, one only had to carry things out the back door and walk down a few blue-brick steps to reach the riverbank.

Families who knew how to manage a household often set up nets along their stretch of river and raised ducks and geese inside the enclosed water.

The Old Li family's boat was tied to the persimmon tree behind the back door. After Li Weihan untied the rope, he stepped aboard first and steadied the boat with a bamboo pole.

Pan Zi, carrying the fishing rod, and Lei Zi, holding the fishing net, jumped onto the boat one after the other.

Li Zhuiyuan carried a small bamboo basket on his back and was pulled aboard by Li Weihan.

"Sit tight, everyone. Off we go!"

As the bamboo pole repeatedly lengthened and shortened over the water, the boat began to move.

Pan Zi and Lei Zi were long accustomed to it. Both lay reclined in the boat, completely relaxed, while Li Zhuiyuan sat straight and proper, watching floating water plants drift by and dragonflies skim past.

"Here, Yuanzi." Pan Zi handed him a small handful of roasted beans.

He was from the eldest son's family, and his house was nearby, so he sometimes went home and brought snacks back. But his mother had told him to hide those things and eat them himself, never share them with others.

In contrast, when Li Zhuiyuan's mother had sent him over with the man in military uniform, she had also sent a large bag of snacks—biscuits, pork floss, canned fruit, and more. Another large package had arrived by mail the day before yesterday. Cui Guiying kept them locked in a cabinet and rationed them out among all the children every day.

"Thank you, Brother Pan Zi."

Li Zhuiyuan accepted them and put one in his mouth. The local people called these "fist beans." They were actually broad beans, stir-fried in their shells with spices and salt, making them fragrant and tasty to chew.

But Li Zhuiyuan did not like them. They were too hard, difficult to bite through, and could easily chip a tooth.

So while the two older boys kept making crunching sounds, Li Zhuiyuan merely held one in his mouth and sucked on it like candy.

"A whole line of little brothers, drifting down the road; a whole line of little brothers, Liangliang must shine tonight."

Pan Zi began to sing.

"You're singing it wrong." Lei Zi laughed. "That's not how it goes."

Pan Zi said disdainfully, "Hmph, if you can sing it, then you sing!"

Lei Zi moved his lips awkwardly and scratched his head. "I only remember the tune."

Li Weihan, who was poling the boat, asked, "What are you singing? I can't understand it."

Pan Zi answered, "Grandpa, it's what Little Yellow Oriole sang yesterday. It's called Yue Opera."

"Yue Opera?" Li Weihan seemed surprised. "What you just sang was Yue Opera?"

Lei Zi said, "No, Grandpa. It's Cantonese Opera, from Guangdong and Hong Kong."

"Oh, I see. Then sing it properly for Grandpa to hear."

Lei Zi said, "Pan Zi can't sing at all. He can't even remember the lyrics. He's nowhere near as good as Little Yellow Oriole was yesterday."

Actually, Little Yellow Oriole's singing had not been very standard either, but in the mainland nowadays, there was not much difference between standard and nonstandard. No one could understand it anyway; all that mattered was that confident tone.

Pan Zi pointed at Li Zhuiyuan. "When Little Yellow Oriole was singing yesterday, I saw Yuanzi singing along. He knows how."

Li Weihan said, "Little Yuanhou, sing it for Grandpa."

Li Zhuiyuan said embarrassedly, "I only know that little bit."

"Sing, sing." Lei Zi urged him. "Yuanzi can do more than sing Cantonese Opera. He can even sing English songs."

Left with no choice, Li Zhuiyuan began to sing:

"Even if tomorrow brings a thousand songs, drifting along the roads far from home; even if tomorrow brings a thousand evening stars, brighter than tonight's moon.

That's all I know. Mom liked this song and played it often at home."

Lei Zi looked provocatively at Pan Zi. "Hear that? Your lyrics were wrong."

Pan Zi rolled his eyes at Lei Zi.

The boys chatted all the way until the boat finally reached a wider stretch of river.

Pan Zi went to help his grandfather take the pole. Li Weihan began untangling the fishing net while searching for a good spot, while Lei Zi set up the fishing rod.

Li Zhuiyuan was not assigned any task. He continued sitting upright with his little bamboo basket on his back, watching his grandfather and brothers work for a while, then looking at the water plants on the river and the frogs hopping atop them.

As he watched, Li Zhuiyuan leaned forward in puzzlement.

Li Weihan had been keeping an eye on this "grandson." Seeing him like that, he immediately warned, "Little Yuanhou, sit farther inside. Don't fall in!"

Li Zhuiyuan pointed at the river ahead and asked, "Grandpa, Brother, there's a clump of black water grass over there."

"Where?" Lei Zi looked in the direction Li Zhuiyuan pointed. "Huh, there really is. It's black."

"Where, where?" Pan Zi was helping pole the boat from the stern and could not see clearly, so he took the initiative to steer the boat toward it.

Li Weihan did not think much of it at first. He was busy loosening knots in the fishing net. Only when he heard Li Zhuiyuan and Lei Zi still chattering about it did he look up in that direction. At a single glance, he froze.

That black mass was fine yet spread out, scattered yet unseparated. How was that water grass? It was clearly human hair!

As Pan Zi kept steering the boat closer, they drew nearer to that patch, and the part beneath the water gradually came into view as well—the black patterns, the white knotted buttons, the graceful curves...

Since Li Zhuiyuan was sitting down, Lei Zi, who stood beside him, saw the submerged part first. He immediately shouted:

"Grandpa, that's a person! Someone fell into the water! Pan Zi, hurry over and save her!"

Stories about the Water Monkey could no longer frighten boys their age. Their simple, kind natures made them instinctively assume someone had fallen in, and their first reaction was to rescue her.

"Bullshit!"

Li Weihan suddenly roared. This grandfather, usually somewhat strict but even more often kind toward the children, rarely lost control like this. Veins bulged beneath his rough, cracked skin. He immediately threw the fishing net onto the boat and walked toward the stern as he shouted at Pan Zi:

"Turn around, turn around! Give me the pole! Don't go any closer!"

Their boat had been here for quite a while already, yet they had heard no sound of anyone falling into the water. The surface there was calm and still now. What rescue could possibly be needed? That person must have been dead for a long time!

But logically, even if they had come across a drowned corpse, at most they should have found it unlucky. Why would he be so terrified and flustered?

Yet Li Weihan knew that they could only get far away as quickly as possible.

The area was crisscrossed with waterways because it lay beside both river and sea, so someone drowning was not particularly rare. Basically, every village, or one of the nearby villages, had someone who specialized in retrieving bodies from the water.

It was generally not a main occupation, but the person chosen was always fixed. First, because it brought bad luck; second, because there were many taboos. Unless one was an experienced hand with an inherited trade, few were willing to touch such work.

Siyuan Village had a body retriever named Li Sanjiang. By seniority, Li Weihan had to call him Uncle.

Li Sanjiang had neither sons nor daughters. He could not even be bothered to farm the land allotted to him by the village, instead renting it out merely to secure some food.

But he did not live the life of an idle man scraping by meal to meal. He did Paper Crafting and retrieved bodies, and both jobs paid well—far more than farming that little bit of land. Though he lived alone, he had liquor and meat every day, living quite comfortably.

In earlier years, Li Weihan had rented Li Sanjiang's fields to help his four sons get married. He had truly taken advantage of the man, so whenever there was a need to retrieve a body, Li Weihan would go along with this clan uncle to lend a hand.

Although Li Sanjiang never let him board the boat or touch the corpse, making him stay on shore each time to set up the Offering Table and prepare chicken blood and dog blood, after enough trips, Li Weihan learned some of the tricks of the body-retrieval trade from Li Sanjiang.

In that trade's jargon, a floating corpse was called a Death Collapse.

Normally, after a drowned person had soaked underwater for several days and gradually decomposed, the body would float to the surface. Because of differences in pelvic structure, male corpses often floated face down, while female corpses floated face up.

After following a standard procedure for most Death Collapses, Li Sanjiang would retrieve them, carry them ashore, and hand them over to their families. But once, while drinking, Li Sanjiang had solemnly said there were two exceptions he did not really dare retrieve.

The first was a Death Collapse beside a whirlpool. That meant there might be a sinkhole or mud trap nearby, and both man and boat could be overturned and sucked in.

As for the second, even Li Sanjiang's lips would tremble and his scalp would go numb at the sight of it...

It was the kind of Death Collapse that stood upright on the riverbed, with only its hair floating on the surface!

It was filled with immense resentment, unable to rest in death, determined to drag someone down to join it!

Li Weihan still remembered Li Sanjiang staring at him with bloodshot eyes across the drinking table and speaking very seriously:

"Hanhou, remember this. If you see that kind of Death Collapse on the water, don't think about anything else. Run as fast as you can. If you run too late, it'll keep you!"

Therefore, upon discovering that this was an upright Death Collapse, how could Li Weihan not be horrified? Not to mention that he had three grandsons on the boat!

Still intensely curious, Pan Zi clearly failed to understand his grandfather's order. When his grandfather came over to snatch the bamboo pole, Pan Zi stumbled, driving the pole sideways into the mud and causing the boat to tilt sharply to the right.

Such a tilt was nothing to those accustomed to boats. Lei Zi, for instance, quickly bent down and grabbed the gunwale, regaining his balance. But Li Zhuiyuan, sitting there without such experience, was carried by inertia, and with a splash, he fell into the water—on the very side facing the Death Collapse.

The river water was very clear, and it was broad daylight with the sun shining brightly, so visibility underwater was good.

Li Zhuiyuan had only just fallen in and was still flailing instinctively when the sight before him stunned him.

Just as Lei Zi had said, someone stood in the water—and it was none other than Little Yellow Oriole, whom the brothers had been talking about at the dinner table today!

She still wore the black qipao from her performance, with white floral knotted buttons, a slit rising to her waist, and those red high heels on her feet.

The current flowed steadily. Under its push, her arms swung back and forth rhythmically, while her legs swayed gently to and fro.

It looked as though she were walking underwater.

She swung her hands, twisted her waist, bared her legs, rose onto her toes, and sang...

Even underwater, she still embodied that wanton manner the village women both envied and despised.

"Even if tomorrow brings a thousand songs, drifting along the roads far from home..."

By his ears, Li Zhuiyuan seemed to hear Little Yellow Oriole's unstandard Cantonese accent again.

Accompanied by the song,

Little Yellow Oriole slowly turned around, gradually facing Li Zhuiyuan.

Her long hair drifted diagonally upward, like a black umbrella spread above her. The powder on her face was heavier than yesterday, and her lips were even more vividly red.

Suddenly,

She smiled.