The Vanishing Fish Mystery

The incident didn't happen too long ago, it's very recent. The brother who sent us the story wishes to remain anonymous, so I won't mention his name. He's currently in the Xinjiang province. What they usually do is, after coming back from the office, they go fishing in the Grand Canal, which is huge and has many different sections. Near his house, at that part of the canal, he goes fishing. His apartment is a two-room flat, and he lives alone. Sometimes his university juniors come to his place to chat. He really enjoys it when Bangladeshi brothers are in a foreign land and visit his apartment. Living alone, after a while, a person starts to feel lonely, and that can turn into frustration. Because of this, he always tries to keep in touch with brothers from his university, whether they are his classmates or juniors. His office ends at six, and he gets home around six-thirty. After resting for a bit, he goes out for a chat. Most of the time, they fish in different parts of the Grand Canal using fishing rods with reels. The government releases a lot of fish there, and many people fish there. On weekends or public holidays, many people try to fish there. They often try to catch fish, cast their lines, and chat. So, I'm going to tell you about one such incident. They went fishing; there were two of them that day. Usually, there are three of them together, but that day, for some reason, the third person didn't come. So, when the two of them went fishing, they found that they had been trying for three consecutive days but couldn't catch a single fish. On the fourth day, when they went fishing, unlike the other days when there were three of them, there were only two of them. They tried fishing for a long time, trying as they did on other days, but it wasn't working.

So, the situation was such that even when using earthworms to make the fish bait, you know, what we call *adhar* or bait, the fish wouldn't even nibble, wouldn't even try to eat the bait. It was a very disheartening situation. It felt like, you know how sometimes we say someone cast a spell on us, the fish weren't eating anything. So, they kept moving from place to place, thinking that maybe there were no fish in this spot, let's try another. But that wasn't really working. They'd done the same thing on previous days, and it hadn't helped. But there's a particular kind of fish that's found there, it's the Chinese Tangra. These are almost half a hand long and yellow in color. These Tangra fish are quite tasty. So, they were thinking of catching these Tangra, but they hadn't had any luck on other days. Then that day, when they moved to yet another spot, suddenly one fish after another started biting at their hooks. Sometimes it seemed like they’d pull the line, but the fish wouldn’t get hooked, but they were constantly eating the bait. It wasn't that they weren't catching any fish; sometimes they'd manage to hook one, other times they'd get away. The amount of fish they caught, the *adhar* amount of fish, was enough for one person. So, they caught a lot of fish, 26 plus, something like that, in a short period of time. Then the younger brother who was with him said, "Brother, we've got a lot, let's go home." By then, it was almost 3:30 or 4 in the morning, something like that, according to Chinese time. Then they thought, "Yes, that's right, we have to go to the office in the morning, we need to get some sleep." So, the two of them went home. After arriving home, the younger brother freshened up a bit, went to bed and lay down. And the older brother, the one from whom we got this story, he cleaned and cut the fish nicely, he washed them very thoroughly. After washing them, he thought he would put them in the freezer.

So, after cutting the fish, he nicely washed them and placed them in a bowl. After placing them, he went to the washroom. When he came out of the washroom, he saw that not a single fish was there. But there was no way for a cat to enter their apartment. So where did the fish go? And even if a cat did get in and carry the fish away in its mouth, the water from the fish would be dripping, drip, drip, in a line. You’d see the water droplets. And even if a cat carried them away in its mouth, would a cat carry away so many fish at once? Maybe if 25 or 26 cats came together, they could carry the fish away at once, but was it possible for 25 or 26 cats to enter that flat that night? His flat was on the 26th or 27th floor. How would a cat even get there? And nobody stole them at night. Where did the fish go? He then shouted, "Hey, little brother, come here! Look, the fish are gone!" He was also taken aback. "Fish gone? What do you mean, brother? Didn't you just cut them and wash them nicely?" He said, "Yes, I washed them. Come see, the fish are gone!" So he also came there and saw that everything was indeed there, but the fish were gone, and there wasn't a single drop of water anywhere around, even though the fish were wet. It seemed like the fish had mysteriously vanished from there. They couldn't find any explanation for this. Where did the fish go? Anyway, they were discussing it among themselves. They joked a bit, although they were also a little scared, thinking maybe a ghost had taken the fish. Anyway, it wasn't long before dawn. They needed to sleep for a while because he had to go to the office in the morning.

So, he didn't have much time to think about this matter. He went to sleep and went to the office in the morning. So, the event happened a few days later, they went fishing again. However, this time not two, but three of them went. They went as three always do.So, last time they caught fish in that spot at the Grand Canal, they cast their lines there again. They cast, and for a long time, nothing was biting. Then suddenly, the fish started biting. It was still quite late, but not as late as last time, maybe a bit earlier.

They caught quite a few fish then. They put these fish in a red polythene bag. Into a red polythene bag. Then they were coming home on their bikes, back to their place, where they live. On the way, suddenly one of them exclaimed, "Hey, the fish are gone!" Gone meaning, "Yeah, the fish are gone! The polythene bag that I tied to the bike is gone!" Gone! They figured maybe they hit some speed bumps and the bag came loose from the jolting. The polythene bag was pretty thick, there was no way the fish could have gotten out on their own, as far as they knew. So one guy said, "Okay, I'll walk home. It's close. You guys take the bike and go back and look for the fish." He walked home and got there pretty quickly. When he opened the door and went inside, he was completely thunderstruck, like something amazing had happened. He saw that red polythene bag, the one that disappeared from the bike, the one they thought had fallen off, was inside the house, and the fish they had caught just a little while ago were in the red polythene bag. He was too scared to open it, because who knew which red polythene bag it really was.

He already knew what kind of red polythene bag he had filled with the fish. That same red polythene bag was inside the house and from the outside, you could see the outline of the fish inside, a kind of shadow of the fish was visible on one side of the polythene. Seeing that, he understood that there were fish inside. He was very scared about how it got there. The house was locked [music] before I arrived, how did the fish get inside? In the meantime, they had already arrived and said, "Brother, we couldn't find the fish, and look at the state of this phone." The phone was broken, the camera was broken, and the back covers were off, and there was a crack where it was hit from behind. Before explaining how the phone broke, he was saying, "Look, how did this polythene bag get here?" They were also surprised. Then they said, "Brother, have you opened it and looked inside for the fish?" He says, "Brother, I don't have the courage to open it myself, you guys come and let's open it now." When they opened it, they found the fish they had caught inside. Those yellow tangra fish were there.

Then, a younger brother who was with him said, "Brother, I heard that if you sprinkle salt and turmeric, no one can take them away." So, before washing the fish, they quickly sprinkled salt and turmeric on it. Then he asked, "Okay, tell me how the mobile got into this state?" Then he said that the mobile was in his hand, in his right hand. He was about to put the mobile in his pocket when he felt someone hit his hand very hard from behind. That's when the mobile fell and this is what happened. But he couldn't see who hit him.Because no one was supposed to come here, and definitely not to attack like this, especially just with a mobile phone. I couldn't understand why they attacked just with a phone; what was the reason for such anger and resentment? It became a mysterious thing. They realized that the fish couldn't be eaten, perhaps due to some unseen force, which resulted in the phone being thrown in anger. But how did the fish get from the bike to here? If they were going to take the fish, why bring it back home? This mystery remains unsolved. Even now, the brother gets scared when he thinks about it. He never stays alone in his house at night anymore. He used to, but not anymore. He always brings a younger brother, classmate, or older brother to stay with him at night. Because his room is separate and another room is empty, he tries to get someone to stay with him. So, that's how it's been going; that's how his time is passing. He still goes fishing, and this incident is always on his mind when he does, but the mystery remains unsolved. The first night, the fish were taken away, and the next time, after the fish disappeared, how did they come back inside the house? Generally, people in China don't really believe in these things. The majority of people in China have a strong inclination towards atheism. They don't believe in a creator, in God, but even there, these normal or similar things happen. Some try to explain it scientifically, while some things always remain unknown. So, it seems that even in a place like China, where there are huge skyscrapers, these kinds of scary events happen frequently. So, this was the story.