Beyond the "islet" stretched a placid pool, vast enough that the far side remained obscured by distance; what lay across the water remained a mystery to us.

"Strange! If that thing is truly a turtle, why is it just staying put here and not moving?" Man Niao Niao posed a question that left all three of us scratching our heads.

"Exactly! I find that strange too!" Tan Ping'er chimed in agreement.

"There's only one explanation for this situation: it's trapped. Look how enormous that turtle is, but the pool behind it seems narrower. Perhaps it can't squeeze through?" My pseudo-profound guess earned a burst of derision from Man Niao Niao. "Your imagination, you son of a turtle, is truly lofty. But consider this: turtles don't only survive in water. Even if the passage ahead is too narrow to climb into, this dike is wide, and what lies below is even wider—why doesn't it just slide down? Furthermore, have you noticed? That turtle hasn't moved from that spot, neither up nor down. Don't you find that unsettling?"

Man Niao Niao's rebuttal left my face flushing slightly. I weakly argued back, "Perhaps the turtle fears those strange aquatic creatures in the pond below might try to climb into its shell!"

"Nonsense. A turtle can retract its... head so deep into its shell that it can’t be pried open. What harm could a few meager water snakes and leeches possibly do to it?"

Stung into silence, I shot Man Niao Niao a resentful glare. I walked over to the pile of dry kindling, fashioned a thinner torch, lit it, and flung it toward the green-furred turtle that had so thoroughly embarrassed me. The torch flared, wavered briefly, and landed precisely next to Hua'er. Startled, Hua'er leaped aside and barked twice at me with clear displeasure. "Missed! My apologies, partner, don't take offense!" I called out to Hua'er with a chuckle.

The torch did not extinguish; it continued to blaze fiercely. In an instant, a strange smell of burning hair filled the air. The giant turtle’s green fur ignited with a roar, and very quickly, the "islet" transformed into a fireball radiating blinding white light before my eyes.

This spectacle stunned us into silence. I felt a chill deep inside. Logically, though the giant turtle's green fur was long and thick, it must have been soaked by the pond water. How could ordinary flame cause it to burn with such wild intensity?

Perhaps disturbed by the light, the giant turtle thrashed violently in the water, sinking rapidly. A sputtering, hissing sound, like flames dying out, came from the water's surface. Hua'er barked helplessly twice, then, just as the turtle was about to vanish completely beneath the surface, it sprang with a splash into the pond. Following that sound, the turtle’s body finally disappeared entirely.

I fully expected Hua'er to swim back to us using a textbook, dog-paddle style. Instead, the actual scene made my jaw drop—Hua'er strolled toward us across the water with an almost casual grace, the surface only covering its legs up to the knees.

"Damn it all, is there a bridge down there?" I exclaimed involuntarily, jumping up.

"A bridge? What bridge?" Tan Ping'er asked, puzzled.

I didn't answer. Holding the torch, I brought it close to the water and told Man Niao Niao to find a dry stick. I poked the stick into the water, but it met solid resistance less than a foot down. "Bloody hell, how shallow is this water?" I exclaimed, losing my composure and letting slip a curse.

Hearing the water was shallow, Man Niao Niao squatted down to inspect the surface. Mustering some courage, he stepped one leg onto the spot indicated by my stick and bounced lightly, testing the hardness of the supposed "bridge" beneath the surface. Seeing nothing shift, he grabbed my pant leg and stepped both feet into the water. "Haha, this water really is shallow! No wonder that giant turtle wouldn't come ashore!"

While I was testing the depth, Hua'er had already reached us. Seeing Man Niao Niao blocking its path, Hua'er pouted discontentedly and whimpered twice. Man Niao Niao, in his moment of triumph, hadn't forgotten his old feud with Hua'er. Hearing the warning, he sidestepped slightly, adopting a mentality of someone who preferred to avoid trouble when possible.

But then, Man Niao Niao’s body suddenly lurched downward, followed by a dull thud, and the sight of that massive, spectacular fellow vanished!

This sudden turn of events sent me and Tan Ping'er screaming. While we were bewildered, Man Niao Niao’s large head broke the surface of the water. He spat out several mouthfuls of water with sputtering sounds, braced his hands beneath the surface, and pushed his torso up, kneeling in the water with only his lower legs submerged.

"Blast it, that son of a dog Hua'er almost cost me my life!" Man Niao Niao shouted, wiping water from his eyes and mouth.

Seeing that Man Niao Niao was safe despite the fright, a weight lifted from my chest. I quickly pulled him up onto the dike, grinning darkly. "What's it like down there?"

"What time did I have to look at what it was like down there? Escaping was the priority!" Man Niao Niao shot me a fierce glare, rubbed his head, and flung water droplets from his messy hair onto my face and clothes.

"Uh... looks like that bridge below isn't very wide after all!" I said to Man Niao Niao with a chuckle. Tan Ping'er hurried over to help Man Niao Niao wring out his soaked clothes.

Man Niao Niao grumbled a couple of times and walked off to deal with his wet garments.

Tan Ping'er took the torch from me and leaned over to examine the bridge beneath the water that I had mentioned. After studying it for a long time, he stood up and said doubtfully, "I can't see anything special about it. What in the world is going on? Is it like you said, that the bridge is black, just like the water?"

I walked the length of the dike, prodding the pool repeatedly with the stick, until I finally discovered that the bottom beneath the surface was not level; some parts seemed unfathomably deep, while others were remarkably shallow. After probing for some time, I managed to map out the general outline of the bridge below—it, too, was oval-shaped.

Had someone constructed an enormous elliptical platform under the water?

Before I could process this, Hua'er suddenly barked fiercely toward the direction where the giant turtle had been. I looked up and saw that the giant turtle had surfaced again. Its long fur was ragged and patchy, clearly the result of being burned.

Man Niao Niao, having wrung out his trousers, returned and lit another torch, tossing it toward the giant turtle. However, the fellow had put too much force into the throw; the torch sailed far past the turtle and landed behind it.

Just as the torchlight neared the water's surface, my eyes widened, because, not far behind the giant turtle, a hull—entirely pitch black—had appeared: a boat!

This black boat was only visible to me for a fleeting moment, merging back into the darkness almost instantly. The sighting was so brief that I wondered if I had imagined it. "Did you see that boat?" I asked Man Niao Niao and Tan Ping'er hesitantly.

"We saw it!" Both Tan Ping'er and Man Niao Niao answered in unison, confirming my eyes hadn't played tricks.

"Was it black?"

"It was black!"

Receiving their affirmative answers, I was deeply perplexed. Where had this black boat come from? Why hadn't we noticed it before?

"Did you get a clear look at its shape?" I couldn't describe the black boat's form and sought help from the others.

"That... I've never seen a boat like that!" Tan Ping'er replied uncertainly. Before he finished speaking, Man Niao Niao declared decisively, "It was a Lotus Picking Boat!"

"A Lotus Picking Boat?" I grew even more confused. "Why a Lotus Picking Boat?" My question stemmed from the fact that in the Tujia region, a "Lotus Picking Boat" wasn't a real vessel designed for harvesting lotus roots; rather, it was a lantern play performed locally between the ninth and fifteenth days of the first lunar month. Although styled as a boat, it was never meant for water navigation. These boats were usually constructed from bamboo, colored cloth, and crêpe paper. The bottom was perforated, and during the performance, an agile woman would step through the hole, securing the boat to a cloth sash around her waist. She would then sway and dance in a peculiar manner, accompanied by gongs and drums, while two strong young men on either side held oars and mimicked rowing. In short, performing the Lotus Picking Boat was an important form of self-entertainment for the Tujia people during the first month, and remains one of the few surviving ancient entertainment forms in the region.

The issue was, how could a Lotus Picking Boat—which wasn't even a functional ship—appear silently in this spot? And why was it entirely black? When did it arrive? Where did it come from? These questions left me profoundly bewildered.

Tan Ping'er and Man Niao Niao shared my confusion. "Judging by the size of that Lotus Picking Boat, it should be big enough to fit three or five people..." Man Niao Niao remarked with admiration.