Forty years ago, when this town of Yu Xiang Ye had been a flourishing fishing village, an old crusty man had come along during a festival.

He was literally the most grumpy man ever. Like, seriously. The first thing he did when he came into the village was grumble, kick a rock, and curse out a house he thought was too ugly. Thankfully, there was no one around to be weirded out by him, since everyone was at the lake, enjoying the fishing festival.

That is, except for one person — the younger version of the old fisherman who was now groveling in the dirt behind me.

He was the one person who'd run into that grumpy, crusty bald old man on the way back from going to the bathroom.

"Hello, Sir!" he called out when he noticed the crusty bald man stalking around outside the town gates. "Are you looking for the fishing festival of Yu Xiang Ye? It's right inside, at the ancient lake of Gu Lao De Hu!"

The crusty bald man's eyes flashed red. He crossed his arms and shot the poor fisherman a murderous look.

"Are you serious? Why would I want to enter a town that smells so strongly of fish it's practically burning my internal organs! No! I'm here to file a complaint."

"Um..." said the poor friendly fisherman. "All right, what is it that's bothering you, sir? I can relay it to the town leaders."

"Hmph. Your little town is too smelly. Every time I come through this area, I smell the scent of fish wafting through the air like a plague! If you don't do something about it, I'm warning you — I'm a demonic wizard. I'll curse your town to never be fishy again!"

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"Um..." the poor friendly fisherman repeated. This crusty bald guy had to be crazy. Him, a demonic wizard? And cursing a town over the smell? Of course Yu Xiang Ye smelled like fish! It was a fishing town!!! Who didn't know that? And it was the day of the fishing festival, for heaven's sake!

"All right," he said apologetically. "I will relay your complaint to the town leaders. Have a nice day, sir!" Then he sped off away from this crazy dude and back to the festival.

The crazy bald dude scoffed. "That kid thinks I'm crazy, huh? I'll show him!" He muttered something and disappeared.

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"And from that day on..." I finished explaining, "Your town and lake were cursed. Basically, a grumpy old incompetent wizard screwed you guys over."

The old fisherman continued to grovel. I hoped he was getting a nice mud mask for those wrinkles.

"Forgive me! Forgive me, O Great Immortal! I did not mean to bring my beloved town any harm! O, forgive me, immortal..."

"Ummm...." I coughed awkwardly while all the villagers solemnly stared and nodded, as if the old fisherman was doing the proper thing. "Why are you apologizing to me? This didn't affect me at all...Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I care that much about your fish..."

"O Great Immortal Goddess! Please tell us, how can we lift this horrible curse?" the fisherman wailed.

"Yes, Immortal Being!" the villagers echoed. "Save us from this curse! What must we do?"

I coughed.

Okay, this was the awkward part.

"Um...well...you see...old fisherman guy, when that wizard cast a curse, he kind of...drew it on your body. So that, whenever you fished, the water level of this lake would decrease steadily. I assume you've been fishing more in desperation lately as the water level rapidly declined?"

The fisherman nodded eagerly. "Yes — as we realized the fish were all dying, we all scrambled to fish more before they died to make any money we could before the lake was gone completely."

I nodded. "Right. So, the more you fished, the faster the lake declined. Your panic made the lake's demise come about faster."

Tears began to seep out of the poor old fisherman's eyes. Hurriedly, I held up my hands.

"It's not your fault! That wacko old man set a curse on you for no big reason! Don't cry, okay? I'm no good with tears. Now, to get rid of this curse, which is a rune he cursed onto your body..." I coughed awkwardly again.

"Please go and wash your ass."