In the late 19th century, there were legends of squid doing evil in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

Ramon, a 12-year-old boy, grew up hearing stories from old people about the "Devil's Fish." According to legend, the Devil's Fish was bigger than the biggest ship in the harbor, and each of its teeth was like a sharp machete. It was easier to bite through a bone than a few toothpicks.

On Ramon's birthday, his father, Blas Selacha, the most famous pearl merchant in the Buddha's Secret Sea, asked him to join the search for pearls. He tacked a sign on his office door that read "Selacha and Son Pearl Shop" and taught him how to use scales correctly and how to distinguish the good from the bad. It was the happiest day of Ramon's life, and he looked forward to going out to sea with the ship to collect pearls soon.

One hot August afternoon, Brass came to investigate his son's knowledge of pearls. He saw that the boy had correctly selected the best pearls, and that there was a bag containing shorts, a vest, and a short knife under the desk. Knowing that he had made up his mind to go out to sea to collect pearls, he agreed to go with the ship.

There were five boats in the pearl fishing fleet, and there were four or five people on each boat. Ramon was on the "Santa Teresa", in addition to their father and son, there was also an Indian and a young man named Louis.

Louis came here more than a month ago. He was tall and handsome, but there was always a sneer hidden in the corner of his mouth. He claimed to be the king of diving, and said that he would definitely find the most precious pearl in the world.

At dawn, the fleet reached the pearl quarry. His father allowed Ramon only to pull baskets full of pearl shells up the boat. Louis laughed at him: "Children are only fit to deal with ropes, jumping ropes at home, pulling ropes on boats!" Then he "plopped" into the sea, filling the baskets again and again.

Louis was indeed capable, and he did the work of three people by himself. St. Theresa was full, and he went to another ship to help. Before dark, all five boats were full, and he sat down next to Ramon and talked about the large pearl he had found in the Persian Gulf. "That pearl was the size of a fist," he said. "It sold for almost a palace, but I left it all in the casino!"

Although Ramon thought he was a little bragging, a beautiful illusion gradually formed in his mind as he listened. He dived to the bottom of the sea, opened a huge shell, and took out a shining pearl...

Just then Louis suddenly shouted, "Fish, devil fish!"

Everyone looked in the direction of his fingers, and there was indeed a silvery-white shadow swimming there, looking very scary, like a white canopy with huge wings spread. Ramon's father shook his head and said with certainty, "It's not a devil fish, the devil fish is twice the size of this fish."

When everyone had calmed down, his father whispered to Ramon: "Louis has never been anywhere except the Sea of Buddha's Secret Order. Don't believe his adventures in the Persian Gulf. But he did get killed in fights over pearls."

Ramon nodded and said, "I will guard against him."

Four days later, a fisherman named Rochan came to sell the pearl. He brought a black pearl. Brass thought it was small and the price was not high, but Ramon bought it for fifty pesos more than his father. However, he said to Rochan, "You have to take me to the lagoon you go to, and I want to see what kind of mussel produces black pearls." In fact, Ramon's real purpose was to find extra-large black pearls to surprise the bragging Louis.

By the time they reached the entrance to the lagoon, it was nearly dawn. The boat passed through a cave and entered a serpentine channel sandwiched between two headlands, which was very dangerous. Gradually, the channel opened up, and the boat finally entered a large oval lagoon. Rochand slowly rowed the canoe across the lagoon, and when he came ashore, he whispered, "No one has come here, I'm afraid the devil fish live in the bottom of the lagoon. When I was fishing, I found a big hole. Who else would live in it but the devil fish?"

Ramon nodded and said, "Because the Devil Fish lives here, you can pick a black pearl that no one has ever picked before!"

For three consecutive days, Luo Shang accompanied Ramon diving for pearls, and their tracks got closer and closer to the big hole.

On the fourth day, Luo Shang cut off his hand on the pretext of cutting the clam and refused to continue looking for the pearl clam. Ramon rowed a boat and went to the lagoon alone.

Sure enough, after walking intermittently underwater for an hour, the huge fish cave was discovered. The hole was eerie, and cold currents kept pouring out of it. However, right at the mouth of the terrifying fish cave, there were a few big clams that Ramon had never seen before.

Ramon picked the biggest one and pulled out his knife to cut open its shell, but the knife was like prying in a crack in the rock, so he couldn't use it, instead, his hands were bleeding. He floated up to rest for a while, and decided to dig out the large shell and bring it back. Then he dived six times in a row, his eyes confused by the sea salt, and he managed to separate the big clam from the reef with his knife. He took out the rope, pulled the big clam up into the water, tied it to the stern, and rowed the boat back.

Rochanne was standing in the bushes on the other side of the lake, his eyes wide like bronze mirrors, and he refused to let Ramon help him. He murmured, "You stole from the devilfish and it will take revenge!"

Of course, he refused to lend the machete to Ramon. However, Ramon still smashed the giant clam with a stone and pried it with a knife.

There were three black pearls the size of peas on the outer layer of the mussel meat. Ramon inserted the knife into the thick mussel meat, took out a huge black pearl, and held it in his hand, which was exactly full. He exclaimed happily, "God Pearl, I got the God Pearl!"

However, Luo Shang was so terrified that he covered Ramon's mouth and said, "Go quickly, I can't keep you for a moment! Do you know? The devil fish will even catch up to the shore and swallow the house in one bite!"

Ramon tried every means to comfort him, but Luo Shang, trembling all over, drove Ramon onto the boat and paddled madly. He kept looking back and prayed, "Forgive this child, he didn't mean to steal your pearls, he just wanted to show off, I will ask him to return it to you..."

The terrifying atmosphere affected Ramon, and he was also a little worried that the demon fish would catch up. Just as the two were trembling, there was a loud thunderous sound in front of the canoe. Before they could figure out if it hit the reef, the canoe had broken.

Ramon covered the pearl in his shirt pocket and swam ashore. Luo Shang also went ashore, and he shouted, "The devil fish has bitten the boat, quickly threw the black pearl at it!"

Ramon put his hands in his pockets and refused to say anything. He jumped aside and cried, "No, I risked my life to get it, and I won't give it to the devil!"

Before dawn, Ramon rushed back to the pearl shop, put the black pearl on the balance, and weighed the black pearl at 62.3 carats, which was a rare divine pearl! Ramon didn't want anyone to know about it, but the news spread like wildfire, and people gathered outside the door, all wanting to see the divine pearl. Soon, the road was blocked by these curious people.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, my father came back with the fleet. With a sharp knife, he carefully removed a little white blemish from the big pearl, and then the black pearl looked even more radiant.

Soon, the owners of four other pearl shops in the city came to Ramon's house together and wanted to buy the big black pearl together. Mr Brass offered 20,000 pesos, but they were only willing to pay ten thousand, which slowly rose to fifteen thousand two hundred and fifty pesos. Ramon's mother gestured to the doctor to agree to the price, which she wanted to use to buy a red carriage with four white horses. But by this time Brass was tired of bargaining, and he said to Ramon, "Go and invite Father Garrard, and I will present the bead to the Virgin Mary of the Sea, and she will bless Father and Son Selacha's pearl shop forever!"

Five days later, Father Gallard held a bead-laying ceremony for the father and son. People carried the statue of the Virgin of the Sea, sang and danced in the city to celebrate. Finally, people carried the statue of the Virgin to the sea and knelt down to pray to the Virgin Mary to bless the Cerazza fleet.

At this time, Louis found Ramon and said to him, "The one I found in the Persian Gulf weighs more than ten carats than your black pearl, and it is still colorful!"

Ramon smiled and nodded. He no longer cared about Louis' bragging.

The black pearl was placed in the hands of the Virgin Mary of the Sea, and churchgoers had to stand on tiptoe to take a look at the rare treasure. At this time, Ramon's mother also felt that it was more valuable than buying a carriage.

A few days later, in the morning, the wind was shining brightly, and Brass led the fleet to set off for pearl fishing at sea again. However, there was a strong wind in the evening. The storm did not subside until dawn. People were worried and rushed to the beach. Father Garrard came too, and said confidently, "The fleet will soon enter port. Go back and prepare food."

But the day passed, and as the sun went down, a single wooden boat came from afar. It was the lonely Rochanne. He brought news that the storm had swallowed up the Selacha fleet. Before long, a man stumbled onto the beach and immediately collapsed there. When everyone looked closely, it was Louis, the only one of the thirty-two who survived.

On the fourth day after the storm, mourning services were held in churches for the dead. "Black pearls don't bring good luck," Louis exclaimed. "Just smash them!"

With tears in his eyes, Ramon felt that Louis' words were reasonable, and he even regretted that he shouldn't have risked picking the big pearl from the mouth of the fish hole. At night, he quietly entered the church, retrieved the black pearl from the hands of the Virgin of the Sea, and rowed the boat to the lagoon where the devilfish lived.

The moon rose and slowly set again. Near dawn, thick fog rose from the sea, and Ramon finally rowed the boat into the serpentine channel. Suddenly someone shouted from behind, "Ramon, I'm Louis! Don't be stupid, give me the black pearl!"

It turned out that Louis found that Ramon had taken the God Pearl and followed him all the time. Ramon quickly took the black pearl out of his pocket, raised his hand, and threw it into the water. Louis immediately jumped into the water where the pearl was. After a long time, he emerged beside Ramon's boat, smiling and saying, "Look, the God Pearl is in my hands!"

Ramon turned his head, not wanting to look at him. Unexpectedly, after Louis got on his boat, he jumped over and carried the boy over. Ramon struggled and shouted, "What are you going to do? The black pearl is in hand, what else do you want?"

Louis laughed and said, "Come with me to Guimes. I want to sell this treasure for a good price in the name of Silas and Son Pearl Company!"

Ramon couldn't get rid of the tall Louis, so he had to paddle with him. The boat had been sailing all day, and around midnight, a strange crash woke Ramon from his dream. In the moonlight, he saw a huge fish next to the wooden boat, which seemed to be about to swallow the two people on board at any time. Ramon woke Louis up and said to him, "It must be the devilfish to collect the debt, let's return the pearl to it."

Louis shook his head, picked up the harpoon, and threw it violently. The harpoon was empty, but the fish was gone. However, during the daytime, they found that the fish was still following the boat, swimming in smaller and smaller circles, causing the boat to shake violently.

Louis was also a little nervous. He rowed the boat to an island called Dead Island and wanted to wait for the fish to swim away, but the natives on the island found them and came with bows and arrows. They had to jump on the boat and row into the sea.

At this time, the squid appeared by the side of the boat again, and Louis turned around and said to Ramon, "Your father was swallowed by the storm because he believed too much that God would support him, and it had nothing to do with the squid. There are many squid in the sea, and they just target us as prey, ignoring your father's kindness. I must kill it!"

When the fish approached again, Louis threw a harpoon with a rope and stuck it between the fish's two outstretched fins.

The fish was in so much pain that it jumped up like a fly, and the boat also flew up and down in the sea, and then was pulled forward by a tight rope.

The fish swam east, then turned west and swam around the dead island all morning.

At noon, Louis lost his composure. He stuffed the black pearl into Ramon's shirt pocket, pinned it outside, and said to him, "That demon used my harpoon as a thorn, and I have to go and kill it! If anything happens, do what you want with this black pearl, just don't throw it into the sea!"

At that moment Ramon saw something in Louis' eyes that he still couldn't understand. He nodded and let Louis' big hand touch his head all over.

Louis began to pull the rope back little by little, and the boat gradually approached the fish. When the boat was only a step away from the fish, Louis turned and kissed Ramon's forehead, pulled out the waist knife, jumped, and landed accurately on the fish's wide, flat back. He held the harpoon in one hand, raised the knife in the other, and used all his strength to insert the knife into the fish's neck.

The fish trembled, jumped out of the water, and fell down again. At this time, Louis accurately stabbed the second and third knives. Jiangyu's throat let out a low groan, his tail beat the sea, and his dorsal fin stood up, as if he wanted to buckle Louis into the water.

Louis shouted happily, "I stabbed him in the heart, it can't threaten us anymore!"

Ramon immediately shouted, "Jump back, don't make a wrong judgment!"

Louis's face was red as if he was drunk. He shook his head and said, "How many times can this happen in a lifetime? I want to fight it!"

All of a sudden, the battered fish drilled into the water, the rope made a cracking sound, the boat shot out like an arrow, and all the items were overturned into the sea.

Ramon gripped the edge of the boat, widened his eyes, and stared at Louis underwater, only to see him kneeling on his knees, grabbing the harpoon with both hands, trying to prick the hook deeper. Suddenly, the end of the rope attached to the hull broke, the rope rebounded, spinning and entangling Louis, and Ramon shouted: "Louis, stop fighting it!"

But he did not hear Louis answer. Louis, still holding the harpoon in both hands, did not move, and sank with his opponent to the bottom of the sea.

When Ramon returned to the city after a ten-hour voyage, the whole city was still asleep. He climbed into the church, put the huge black pearl into the hands of the Virgin Mary of the Sea, and rang the big bronze bell vigorously.

In the lingering sound of the bell, he remembered his father, Louis, and the people around him. He felt that he had suddenly grown up.