The End of Lucky Koi

Old Wang squatted by the riverbank, smoking one cigarette after another. At his feet were more than thirty bulging woven bags, filled with dead koi carp. These fellows, once swimming happily in the pond, were now a heavy burden.

He was the caretaker of an ornamental fish pond in a shopping mall. Yesterday, he came to work as usual, only to find the fish pond filled with dead fish. Red, yellow, white, all kinds of colors, but all lifeless. The mall management was very angry and ordered him to dispose of them immediately.

Old Wang was an honest man, and he had dealt with dead fish more than once. But this time, he felt like he was moving a grand funeral. The koi carp died in various ways; some had bulging eyes, some had scales falling off, and some had their mouths wide open, as if silently protesting something.

He remembered a customer once laughing and saying that these koi carp were "living wealth gods" that could bring good luck. But now, they had become trash. Old Wang felt like he was one of these dead fish. He was once a living person, but now he was like a porter, repeating meaningless work every day.

The process of moving them was very boring, and he suddenly felt a little hungry, so he bought an egg pancake from a roadside stall. While eating, he had a flash of inspiration.

He carefully took out a few koi carp from one of the woven bags and hid them inside his coat. Then he threw all the woven bags into the garbage truck, wiped his hands, and walked straight to the nearby wet market.

The wet market was bustling with people, with various hawking sounds rising and falling. Old Wang walked to a fish stall and, flipping open his coat, revealed a few koi carp that were still smelling of fish.

"Boss, how much for these fish?"

The fishmonger was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with a smile. "Oh, these fish look good! Are they wild? How many do you have?"

Old Wang pointed behind him. The fishmonger was puzzled, looked around, and saw nothing.

Old Wang smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice, saying, "I have a lot of these fish, special price today, 30 yuan a jin."

The fishmonger's eyes lit up, and he nodded hastily, "Okay, okay, I'll take as many as you have!"

The next day, Old Wang was back at work at the mall. He found that the fish pond had been refilled with water, but the pond was empty. The mall management asked him how he had disposed of the fish, and he smiled and said, "I cleaned them up."

The manager patted him on the shoulder, expressing satisfaction. Old Wang looked at the fish pond, thinking silently that these koi carp had probably become a delicacy on people's tables.

He took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke. He suddenly felt that this world was sometimes as absurd as a carefully designed joke.

And he was just a clown struggling to survive in the joke.