Strange Creatures

"Where?" Zhang Bo and the others immediately crowded around Xiao Xiao, craning their necks and widening their eyes. Their heads nearly dipped into the water as they looked all around, but found nothing.

"Third Brother, are you messing with us?"

"Yeah, where are the fish? I haven't even seen a single baby shrimp."

"Third Brother, you must've seen wrong."

"No, they're right there, and over there. Aren't there lots of fish?" Xiao Xiao instinctively protested. The lake was crystal clear, its dark depths faintly visible, with distinct shadows gliding through the water.

Those were fish, weren't they?

Xiao Xiao stepped closer and took a careful look.

"Are those... carp? So many of them?" His voice grew quieter and quieter. Xiao Xiao couldn't help rubbing his eyes.

A faint light now fell across the surface of the lake, and the shadows gradually took shape.

Their bodies were spindle-shaped, with underslung mouths and one pair each of rostral and maxillary barbels. Their gill rakers were short, their bellies rounded, and their scales large and circular. Their lateral lines were distinct and slightly curved, and their tails deeply forked. Their color was an uncommon vermilion, shimmering in the rippling water until it made him a little dizzy.

Xiao Xiao squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. No mistake—they were still there.

At first glance, these fish looked no different from red carp. But—what the hell? What kind of red carp had a bird's tail and six legs?!

Xiao Xiao was baffled. Was he just ignorant? Did fish like this actually exist?

But Xiao Xiao turned to the other three. "You really can't see any fish here?"

"That's right, Third Brother. What's wrong?"

"Third Brother, maybe you should take a break."

"Come sit over here, Third Brother."

Xiao Xiao ignored them, staring fixedly at the fish in the lake. Then one of them suddenly met his gaze. Its eyes were lively, almost sly—not at all like a fish's. Its mouth was stretched wide, as if it were smiling.

"Giggle."

The sound seemed to ring right beside his ear, striking his eardrum. It was as childish as a baby's laugh, yet utterly bizarre.

That... was laughter, wasn't it? Xiao Xiao instinctively stumbled back a step.

The whole eerie scene made him suck in a sharp breath.

Xiao Xiao quickly looked away and rubbed his ears. His face had gone pale. With Zhang Bo and the others peppering him with questions and looking at him with concern, he put some distance between himself and the lake.

When he looked back, the tranquil, secluded waters had somehow turned sinister and strange.

Half bright, half shadowed. Suddenly, Xiao Xiao pictured a fish grinning widely before him, and shuddered.

At Xiao Xiao's urging, they quickly left the lake behind.

After that, perhaps their luck finally turned, and they soon found a way out and ran into some other visitors.

"Haha, I told you, stick with me and you'll be fine. See? We made it out!" Zhang Bo looked rather pleased with himself.

"You've got some nerve saying that. Who was freaking out earlier?"

"Exactly, Eldest Brother. We got lucky this time, but next time..."

Xiao Xiao lagged behind, still somewhat dazed.

He couldn't understand whether those fish had been a hallucination or real.

If they were a hallucination, that strange laughter still seemed to echo in his ears, leaving him unsettled. If they were real, why couldn't Eldest Brother and the others see them?

"Third Brother, what's taking you so long?"

"Coming."

Forget it. Xiao Xiao shook his head. If he couldn't figure it out, there was no point dwelling on it. At least they were away from the lake now. He figured he'd never go back there again.

"Giggle. A human saw us."

"Really! He looked so scared of us. Giggle."

"Honestly, giggle, it's been ages since we met someone who could see us."

The rest of their trip went smoothly. Zhang Bo took them hiking all over the mountains around Zichuan.

Xiao Xiao, Zhuge Yun, and Zhao Luzheng complained nonstop, but Zhang Bo had plenty of reasons: when it was this hot, they ought to head into the mountains to cool off. He also took the opportunity to sneer at their weakling physiques and equally pathetic stamina, declaring that he was going to whip them into shape.

Then he asked, with a rather lecherous grin, "What, can't you handle it?"

Xiao Xiao and the others were speechless.

Well, now they had to handle it, whether they could or not. A man couldn't afford to lose face!

But trying to save face only made them suffer.

By the time they finally got back to campus, they were all sprawled across their beds, pretending to be corpses, unable to move.

Their backs and waists were killing them. Even when Zhang Bo taunted them, they didn't have the energy to respond.

Xiao Xiao shifted in place. Even after several days, a lingering soreness remained in his limbs, making him uncomfortable.

As he moved around a little, his gaze accidentally swept past something and abruptly stopped.

What was that...?

It had moved too fast. All he'd seen was a long tail, which quickly vanished around the corner of the hallway.

Whatever it was, seeing it in a university lecture building was unbelievable.

And... Xiao Xiao looked around. The corridor was crowded and noisy, but everyone seemed perfectly normal, as if no one had noticed a strange creature dart past them just now.

Xiao Xiao's heart was beating a little fast, and his head hurt. Was this another hallucination? Or was he the only one who could see it?

If it was the latter, to be honest, he didn't like being special at all.

Forget it. He hadn't seen anything. He'd seen nothing. He took deep breaths and tried to convince himself.

But he was already wondering whether he should find time to visit a temple and see if he'd picked up some kind of bad luck.

Xiao Xiao didn't pay it much mind then. It was only a minor anomaly. It hadn't threatened his safety or affected his life, so he decided it must have been some trick of light and shadow.

Xiao Xiao cheerfully put the strange occurrences out of his mind.

Little did he know that, without his realizing it, his life had already veered far off course. Whether he liked it or not, these anomalies would become the main theme of his future.

And one day, he would calmly take these strange creatures in stride.

Xiao Xiao had nearly forgotten the long-tailed creature by then. But one day, while looking for a book in the library, he caught sight of that fleeting figure again through a gap between the books and shelves, completely unprepared.

Xiao Xiao froze, then took off after it without a second thought.

The library's eighth floor housed the Social Sciences Second Collection. It was rarely crowded.

It was almost noon now, and the place was especially quiet. The slap of sneakers against the floor rang out clearly.

Xiao Xiao's eyes were fixed on that tail as he chased the strange creature between the shelves.

It was running fast, yet every time Xiao Xiao thought he'd lost sight of it and was about to give up, a bit of its tail would appear from some corner and wag at him. He had to admit, it was infuriating—like it was deliberately messing with him!

Panting hard, Xiao Xiao glared at the tail, already imagining all the tortures in the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing Dynasty.

At last, Xiao Xiao cornered it in a triangular nook. The dim light and swirling dust made it hard to see the figure in front of him.

In the cramped space, Xiao Xiao's breathing was quick and loud, but there was also a hint of cautious restraint.

Xiao Xiao felt rather pleased with himself.

Well? He'd caught up with it after all.

But as the view grew clearer, he gradually froze.

What... was that?

It looked like a rat, but had a rabbit's head and the body of a sika deer.

Its animal-like pupils were vertical and red, like a rabbit's. But unlike a rabbit's gentle eyes, these were cold, and held a thoroughly human arrogance and disdain.

Its tiny body radiated an immense pressure.

Xiao Xiao met its vertical gaze. The gorgeous red reflected a hazy sheen, beautiful in a bloodcurdling way.

Xiao Xiao couldn't help feeling dazed.

Just as he was growing woozy and lost in thought, he suddenly felt a razor-sharp wind cut past with a fierce whistle. His ears rang for an instant, and his cheek stung. Something sticky began to trickle out. He hurriedly raised a hand to wipe it, and saw scarlet on his fingers. Sure enough, he was bleeding.

"Crash!" A series of books fell one after another. He looked back and saw an empty patch on the shelf diagonally ahead, with books scattered haphazardly across the floor beneath it.

He peered through the gap in the shelf, but there was nothing there. It was as if the whole thing had been a dream.

But Xiao Xiao knew it had all been real.