The Body Fisher

By the banks of the Yellow River, My older brother, who had been sent away since childhood, suddenly came back our village. He was taciturn, carrying a long bamboo pole, his clothes soaked with water and foul mud.



He settled in a solitary house at the edge of the village and began a profession that no one else dared take on-he became a corpse dredger. Each time he dredged, he would row out alone in a small boat, retrieving the souls claimed by the river.



However, after his arrival, strange occurrences began to unfold in the village. In the wells by the river, sounds of crying echoed; in the dead of night, heavy footsteps could be heard dragging through the stone-paved streets. Some claimed to have seen him whispering by the river, as if conversing with something in the water.



Fear spread among the villagers, and they began to speculate-was this dredger a savior or a summoner of the dead? What was his true purpose here? Was he trying to give peace to the dead, or was he luring more living souls into the Yellow River?



It wasn't until one stormy night that someone gathered the courage to secretly follow him out to the boat. What they discovered floating in the river was more than just corpses...