Folk Strange Stories Part 1: Miao Township Wu Zu Chapter 5 Section 4: Eating Man Pond 2

"That would require sealing off this area, right? What if more people drown?" Li Yan spoke up.

"Of course we sealed it off," Lin the guide chuckled bitterly. "It was sealed off twelve years ago. They put barbed wire all around the waterfall, but still, people died in the pool under the waterfall every year. They only removed the barbed wire yesterday, saying it was to cooperate with your mission."

Li Yan continued, "Hasn't your Public Security Bureau stationed someone here?"

"They have," Lin the guide smiled wryly and pointed at his own nose. "It's me. We set up a guard post at the only opening in the barbed wire. I've been here for over ten years. This place isn't a tourist attraction; besides the occasional Miao people, you won't see a single soul around." No wonder, I glanced at Lin the guide; I thought you were a man of few words, but it turns out you've been holding back for all these years; you're quite a talker.

When he mentioned that people died in the pool every year, images of that pale, water-soaked face from a few years ago popped into my mind. I asked, "Old Lin, so many people died in the pool, did they drown, or how did they die?"

"I say, La Zi," Liu Jingsheng, who was very dissatisfied, looked at me and said, "Do you really believe that? Just listen to it as a myth; you're taking it too seriously."

Although Old Wang was skeptical, this mission was of great importance, and he couldn't afford any mistakes. He turned to Lin the guide and said, "Old Lin, we must go take a look at that waterfall no matter what. Lead the way." Lin the guide no longer insisted, sighed, and walked ahead for a few dozen meters. He pushed aside the tall grass, revealing a very hidden dirt path. He said, "Let's go from here; it will take about twenty minutes."

I sensed something was amiss, "Old Lin, didn't you say no one goes to the waterfall? How come there's a path?" Lin the guide explained, "It was when they discovered the dead foreigner that the City Bureau, Foreign Affairs Office, and other offices sent a bunch of people here. In early spring, before the grass had grown, this dirt path became conspicuous."

"Let's go, check the terrain near the waterfall and then return. It's almost time for the ambush." Old Wang gave the order, and the nine of us followed Lin the guide down the dirt path. Lin the guide seemed reluctant, walking ahead with his head down, and his talkative nature from earlier had vanished.

As we got closer, the sound of the waterfall grew louder. No one spoke along the way. Although Old Wang's team didn't believe in supernatural occurrences, Lin the guide's emotional storytelling had clearly left them feeling uneasy. As for me, the closer we got to the waterfall, the more my head hurt, as if a force wanted to burst out of my skull. This feeling was familiar; I remembered it. The last time I encountered the Water Ghost, I had a headache for a long time.

"We're here." Lin the guide led us to the end of the dirt path, then passed through a dense thicket of wormwood over a meter high. A waterfall of about thirty to forty meters high finally appeared before us. Water gushed straight down from the cliff over thirty meters high, falling into a pool the size of a soccer field below. The mist from the waterfall formed a rainbow in the sunlight.

"Does this waterfall look like it has dead people?" Song Chunlei said something foolish, "Where are there floating...?" He wanted to say floating corpses, but he froze halfway through, his entire body stiffening. On the shallow beach fifty meters away from us, something was drifting.

It can't be a coincidence. Just when we were in shock, Old Wang had already braved it and walked over. A captain was a captain after all; his courage wasn't just for show. The rest of us followed behind him. I felt sweat in my hands that gripped my gun; my headache had worsened.

As we got closer, we finally saw that it wasn't a floating corpse but a wooden board over a meter high.