"But the seven people floating in the water refused to get on the boat. They raised their heads and stared fixedly at the people aboard, repeating the same few words over and over, urging them to get into the water. The sight was... the sight was downright eerie."
"Someone brought a lantern over and shone it into the water. Then they saw that the faces of the people below had taken on a faint, sickly green hue!"
Yu Chengmu looked toward the river, his brows drawing together slightly. After a moment, he said quietly, "Water ghosts."
"Exactly!" The old man nodded emphatically and continued in a hoarse voice. "The elders on the boat immediately realized they were being haunted by water ghosts, and those who'd gone into the water had probably been taken as substitutes."
"At that point, they couldn't care less about the fishing net. They immediately tried to row back to shore as fast as they could!"
"But no matter how hard they rowed, the boat wouldn't budge, as if it had taken root. It just spun around on the water."
"Then someone shouted that the people in the water had all sunk beneath the surface and disappeared."
"As soon as he finished speaking, the boat belonging to the person who'd shouted suddenly began rocking violently."
"The people aboard lost their footing, and two of them fell into the water. The one who'd shouted fell in, too."
"But before they could even call for help, they sank beneath the surface. It happened so fast that in the blink of an eye, all three were gone."
"Someone later recalled seeing countless hands reach out of the water. Those hands grabbed the people and dragged them down."
"The water was black at the time, and those hands were so pale—ghastly