Daxiong spat out two mouthfuls but wasn't angry, remarking, "It tastes a bit like seaweed! But not very strong."

I smiled smugly, indicating my own brilliance.

Daxiong scratched the back of his head and asked, "But what's the use of analyzing that?"

I spread my hands and replied, "No use, just analyzing for fun."

Daxiong was momentarily speechless, then cast a hopeful glance back at the ice surface.

I checked the time on my phone; an hour had passed since we lit the mining lamps, and there was still no sign of fish surfacing.

Just then, Daxiong shouted, "Damn! That's a huge one!"

Hearing his surprised exclamation, I looked down and indeed saw a thick, black, elongated object, as wide as an arm, slowly rising from the deep water beneath the ice.

The reason I called it huge was that this thing was at least twenty meters away from us, as if we were seeing it from the height of a five or six-story building.

This meant that, discounting surface and ice refraction, the object must be at least two or three meters long.

We watched intently as it rose slowly, noticing its trajectory was a direct path toward us—clearly intentional.

My heart was filled more with curiosity and disbelief, while Daxiong, visibly excited, raised the chisel in his hand, ready to smash the ice, mumbling, "If we catch this one, we can head back today; it’ll feed us for days."

I grabbed his hand and said, "Hold on. This doesn't look like a fish to me. Fish bodies are flexible, and when they rise, they usually ascend at an angle, typically with their heads tilted up. This thing is floating up perfectly straight. Even if it is a fish, it’s one that’s been dead for ages. Would you dare eat it?"

Hearing this, Daxiong stopped and stared straight at the object again.

Actually, I already had a suspicion in my mind; I had a rough idea of what this thing was, though I wasn't completely certain.

A minute later, when the object was only five or six meters away, my guess solidified, yet Daxiong remained clueless.

So, I decided to tease him a bit, laughing as I said, "I’ve figured out what this is. It’s the Loch Ness Monster..."

Daxiong froze—the name Loch Ness Monster was famous enough that he had heard of it.

He quickly stood up, exclaiming in alarm, "Whoa, you mean a plesiosaur?"

I shook my head. "Where are there so many plesiosaurs? You clearly haven't watched enough documentaries. The original form of the Loch Ness Monster is just a piece of rotten wood."

"Rotten wood?" Daxiong shook his head. "Impossible. How can wood swim?"

I explained, "Wood certainly can't swim, but wood submerged at the bottom of a lake swells up, generating a lot of gas, which causes it to float up. Eyewitnesses of the Loch Ness Monster always report first hearing a 'pop,' and then seeing a dark, rough-skinned object surface, which perfectly matches the characteristics of wood. When wood breaks the surface, the air bubbles clinging to it explode upon contact with the air, and that explosion creates the sound of a 'pop.'"

Just as I finished speaking, the piece of rotten wood floated up near our feet. It was entangled with various waterweeds, making it look fuzzy and very strange.

Seeing that it was indeed a piece of wood, Daxiong sighed, "It really wasn't a fish... what a waste of effort."

Then, using the light from the mining lamp, I clearly saw the wood, and I was startled, saying to Daxiong, "This isn't ordinary wood; it seems to have many patterns on it."

Daxiong frowned too, looking at the wood, and noticed the markings. He then said, "These patterns look a bit familiar... They look like... they look like the totem post in the center of the village!"

I bent down for a closer look and confirmed that the patterns were extremely similar to the totem post in the village.

Daxiong commented from the side, "Strange. Does this mean there's a village underwater?"

I shook my head, indicating I didn't know.

As we pondered, the air bubbles on the totem post, hitting the ice surface, began to burst one by one. After a few bubbles escaped, the totem post sank back down.

We watched the rotten wood descend until it vanished from sight, remaining silent.

Daxiong thought for a moment and suggested, "Maybe the old totem post broke, and someone just dumped it in the lake as trash?"

I thought that while this possibility was extremely remote, it was plausible. However, we would need to ask Mrs. Rabirovich or Andre back home for confirmation.

Our thoughts drifted, and neither of us spoke.

But after a few seconds, Daxiong made a "hush" gesture at me and pointed downward.

Thinking he had spotted something, I looked down and saw several salmon, each over a meter long, slowly rising from the lake bottom.

This time, I was certain they were fish because their mouths were opening and closing, and their bodies occasionally wriggled as they slowly swam toward the mining lamp.

It turned out that the reason no fish had taken the bait earlier was all the commotion Daxiong was making on the ice surface. Attracting them with light was definitely the right approach.

I looked at the few plump fish and swallowed hard.

I knew that cold-water fish like these were incredibly tender; salmon, for instance, is a cold-water fish, and wild salmon is far more delicious than farmed salmon.

I could even see that the tails of these fish had a slight dark red tint, meaning these were Taimen (or Siberian Salmon).

Taimen are notorious for their uncontrolled growth among salmon; if food is plentiful, they grow indefinitely; some people have seen Taimen two or three meters long.

Thinking of this, I sighed and told Daxiong, "Today we’ve encountered not only the Loch Ness Monster but also the monster of Kanas Lake."

Daxiong obviously knew about the latter and paid no mind to my dark joke. He grabbed the axe and chisel nearby and began breaking the ice.

The large fish scattered immediately upon hearing the noise above, but we weren't worried; more fish would surely come once we relit the lamp.

Daxiong told me to step back, and carefully striking the ground with his chisel, he spent about ten minutes carving a deep hole about 80 centimeters thick through the ice layer.

Then he shook his hand and remarked, "I didn't realize this ice sheet was so thick..."

I nodded, thinking that while ice doesn't form overnight, dropping from ten degrees above zero to below minus ten in a single day, coupled with a full day and night of blizzard, meant seventy or eighty centimeters of ice wasn't surprising.

I signaled Daxiong to sit down and rest, then took out the specialized pointy ice saw and began sawing around the deep hole.

What we were doing was inherently dangerous; one mistake could cause the ice sheet to crack. Falling into the lake wouldn't be the main issue; the critical factor was the freezing water. If we weren't pulled out quickly, our muscles would soon lose mobility, leading to numbness and drowning.

More importantly, an initial crack could trigger a chain reaction—the harder we struggled to climb out, the more layers of ice we grabbed would peel away.

Fortunately, Daxiong had experience living in Northeast China, where he had fished through ice holes. Under his guidance, I successfully sawed a hole about one square meter in size.

Next, we planned to place the mining lamp near the edge of the hole and, when fish approached, scoop them up with the fishing nets we held.

By this time, the sky was growing dark; it was nearly five in the afternoon. As daylight faded, the temperature dropped a few more degrees, the wind intensified, and the snow began to fall harder.

We crouched on the ice surface, guarding a single dim, yellowish light.

In the distance, near the lakeshore, stood several trees dozens of meters tall. The undergrowth beneath them was flattened by snow and ice, creating a jagged line resembling a blood streak extending far into the distance.

Liang Qian and the tired Teni were sitting under one of the large trees, chatting about something I couldn't hear. Wisps of cooking smoke were rising from the distant village, and lights were gradually coming on, causing me to gaze out distractedly.

After watching the ice surface for a while, sure enough, as the darkness deepened, many fish began swimming toward us.

These Taimen were incredibly large—the smallest was half a meter long, with dark black backs, streamlined bodies, and reddish tails, creating a balanced aesthetic full of wild beauty.

All the fish raised their heads, exposing half their bodies above the water. Their dull eyes seemed to be summoned by the surface, staring blankly at the mining lamp in our hands.

I made a signal to Daxiong and whispered, "Three, two, one!"

The moment my voice dropped, the net in Daxiong’s hand flew out. This net had very fine mesh and light cord, with twelve small lead weights hanging around the perimeter. When cast, the weights sank first, pulling the edges in quickly.

Startled, the fish wouldn't immediately dive down; instead, they darted near the net, hitting the walls, allowing the caster, upon pulling the rope, to flip the entire net over and trap the fish inside.

Daxiong was strong. When he felt the lead weights had sunk sufficiently, he yanked hard, pulling the net up from the deep hole. I immediately heard a loud crackling sound on the ice surface—the noise of large fish struggling inside the net.

Daxiong was ecstatic. He quickly pinned the net down and brought over the metal bucket.

We were happily collecting the large fish, but our joy lasted only a few seconds before Liang Qian's piercing scream echoed from the lakeshore!