Chapter 1 I'm Just Here to Ask for Help

I was wondering what this pretty woman was doing waving at me from the riverbank. Turns out she was in the service industry.

A small town like Hongyan doesn't see a lot of traffic, and the number of able-bodied men is limited. She wasn't about to miss the chance to snag a new potential customer like me.

I was about to politely decline when Uncle Mei happened to be coming back from town.

I quickly pointed at Uncle Mei and whispered to the alluring woman, "Sis, my old man is back. You better leave, or he'll beat me if he sees me flirting with you behind his daughter's back!"

The alluring woman was quick on the uptake and immediately turned to leave.

As she left, she gave me a lingering look and whispered, "Little brother, my shop is just across the street. Come by and visit when you have time, sis will be waiting for you."

Then, swaying her graceful waist, she slipped away before Uncle Mei returned.

Soon, Uncle Mei came over, glanced at me, and then at the massage parlor across the street. He looked a little embarrassed.

I knew he had seen everything and didn't want to hide anything, so I told him the truth. "That woman came over to ask me if I wanted a massage. I guess she thinks I'm a new face and there's money to be made. But I didn't agree."

Uncle Mei nodded, still a little awkward. "It's good you didn't. Those places aren't sanitary, you can easily catch something."

"Yeah," I replied, quickly changing the subject. "Any news from town?" I asked.

Uncle Mei shook his head. "No news. I'm not familiar with this town, and I can't exactly ask around openly, so I'm just relying on luck. I only heard that two people drowned in Duck River these past few days. Both locals, and both were still in school."

Kids have poor safety awareness and aren't as good at swimming as adults. It's easy for drowning accidents to happen during this kind of severe weather.

Besides, even if Shopkeeper Wang had connections, he wouldn't ask students to rob tombs for him. So these two poor victims were obviously not related to the tomb raiding gang.

"Let's call it a day for now. I'll go look at other bodies of water tomorrow," I said to Uncle Mei.

Uncle Mei had no other choice but to go home with me.

The night passed without incident. Duck River was quiet.

The next morning, Uncle Mei and I split up again. He was in charge of gathering information in town, and I went to the river to look for clues.

This time, I switched to a different waterway, going downstream along Duck River, first observing the surface of the water, and then diving down in a few deep spots to search.

But this trip was still fruitless. There wasn't a trace of anything in this river. I even suspected that Jiang Yongguang had been played by Little Shopkeeper Wang and that the story about Master Gao sealing the acupoints was complete nonsense.

By the time I steered the boat back to shore, it was almost noon. I sat under a willow tree to rest, waiting for Little Liang to bring me lunch.

I had just closed my eyes to take a nap when I suddenly smelled a strong perfume. I opened my eyes and, sure enough, the alluring woman from the massage parlor was back, standing next to me and watching me.

I was startled and said impatiently, "Sis, I really don't want a massage. My wife will be here soon to bring me lunch. Don't get too close, she'll misunderstand."

Unexpectedly, the alluring woman was like a piece of gum, sticking to me and refusing to leave.

She took my arm and whispered, "Little brother, come with me for a minute, I want to tell you something."

As she spoke, she actually tried to pull me towards her shop.

I was dumbfounded, thinking, do they force people into this line of work now?

I quickly shook her off and said a little angrily, "Don't pull me! I told you my wife is coming to bring me lunch soon. If you keep pulling me like this, don't blame me for getting angry!"

As soon as I said that, the alluring woman's eyes suddenly turned red, and she was about to cry. She whispered, "Little brother, you've misunderstood me. I'm not forcing you to get a massage, I'm not that kind of person. I'm asking you for a favor..."

Seeing that she was about to cry, I couldn't bring myself to scold her anymore, so I patiently asked, "What favor do you want to ask me for? Just say it out here, I'm not going into the shop all confused."

The alluring woman had no choice but to obey me, standing under the willow tree and whispering to me, "I'm not a local, I came here from another place to work. You know, my line of work isn't exactly respectable, so I told my family back home that I work in beauty and hair, not massage."

I nodded, knowing that this was human nature.

The alluring woman continued, "I have a boyfriend back home, we've been together for several years, and our relationship has always been stable."

I thought to myself: Your boyfriend is really unlucky.

The alluring woman continued, "I've been working outside for so many years, and my boyfriend has never come to see me. But a few days ago, I don't know what got into him, he actually secretly took the train to see me, saying he wanted to give me a surprise..."

I gradually realized that something was wrong and quickly asked, "Then where is he?"

The alluring woman's eyes turned red again. She said in a low voice, "When he came to see me, I was working. He stood outside the window and heard everything... He was shocked and lost his mind for a moment, and then... then... then he jumped into Duck River."

I couldn't help but be stunned and asked, "And then? Didn't you go save him?"

The alluring woman said guiltily, "People from our hometown are all landlubbers, not many people can swim, he can't swim, and I can't swim, how could I save him..."

"Then you should have called for someone to save him!" I said speechlessly.

"It was night, there was no one by the river at all." The alluring woman began to sob as she spoke. "I wanted to save him too, but I really can't swim, I could only watch him drown in the river..."

She must have felt guilty, her makeup was smeared from crying. Finally, she grabbed my arm and pleaded, "Little brother, you're a corpse fisherman, can you help me get him back? I couldn't save his life, I only ask for a complete body, so he can have a proper burial, he can't die in a foreign land..."

I was a corpse fisherman to begin with, so naturally I wouldn't refuse business. Besides, this drowned, honest man was truly pitiful, so I agreed without thinking.

"Then tell me where he jumped into the river, and I'll go get him this afternoon."

The alluring woman nodded quickly, "Okay, okay."

Then she asked me, "Little brother, how much do you charge for one retrieval? I usually don't save much money, if the price is too high, can I give you a few massages to pay off the debt..."

As she said this, probably because of her occupational disease, she subconsciously reached for my waist.

Just then, Little Liang came to bring me lunch, and when she saw me standing under the tree with a heavily made-up, coquettish woman, she couldn't help but shout, "Chen Rongsheng! What are you doing?!"