The Nanhe River on the edge of our town is evil. As the old saying goes: "Nanhe recruits people every year without interruption." Those who died were all children around ten years old.
When I was six years old, I lost my footing and fell into the water. Walking on the bottom of the river felt like walking on flat ground, and it let me come back. The adults said that it was the water monkey looking for a "substitute", but I always felt that the pale face in the river looked a bit familiar.
Until the town was about to demolish the old bridge, the playmate Ajian who was lucky enough to survive was now hanged on the bridge pier. His mother grabbed me like crazy: "The bridge cannot be demolished! Under the bridge lies the sinful debt of our entire town!"
Only then did I learn that all the children who died in the "wimp disease" that swept through the town sixty years ago were sunk in the bridge piers. And my great-grandfather was the mayor who was in charge of repairing the bridge...
Now, the bridge is torn down. The children who were sacrificed back then are coming back.
