Yuanjiang City, five kilometers southeast.
There is a large lake here, where the Hunan, Zi, Yuan, and Li rivers flow into it. It belongs to the Dongting Lake water system. Because it is located in the south, it is called South Dongting.
This is a typical wetland feature. The lakes are flooded with water, and the water falls into islands. The rivers and branches in the territory are densely covered with small islands. Hundreds of lake islands and lake islands are scattered on the vast lake.
It was at dusk, the setting sun was shining, the waves were shimmering, and the water surface was covered with gold marks and swung far away, startling two wild ducks. The wild duck fluttered its wings, and before it could fly away, it was eaten by a big fish that jumped out suddenly.
Crash!
The big fish fell back into the water, and the sea was calm, as if nothing had happened. If an uninformed person comes here, he must think that it is a good place with beautiful scenery.
"Jinjin, wait for me!"
A coquettish call broke the silence, and suddenly two figures appeared on the lake, thin and tall, one in front and the other behind, as fast as walking on flat ground.
"Wait, wait, it's fun for me to come out by myself, I have to bring you this burden!"
Xiao Jin ran forward blah blah blah, Long Qiu was not angry, and said with a smile: "I'm very happy, this is the first time we've gone out together."
"Hehe, you are happy all day long!"
She curled her lips and kept walking, but was slowly caught up.
It is said that the two of them have been out for a month. In addition to collecting the formula of Liuyi mud, they also need to find materials for the furnace body. When I came to the South Dongting, I was looking for one of them.
They jumped across the wide lake and soon came to a sandbar in the southwest corner. This sandbar is in the shape of a crescent moon, half-embracing the lake water, and there is a similar island on the opposite side. The distance between the two is relatively close, separating the big lake and enclosing a circular deep pond.
"The two islands hug each other, located in the southwest, the water forms a circle, and there are tall trees on the island. This is what the jade slip said."
Xiao Jin carefully identified it and was sure it was correct.
Long Qiu also took a look, and said: "That thing is usually in the water, how do we find it? Empty the water?"
"That's so boring, of course I'll go down and look for it."
She put away the jade slips and said: "I'll go down, you wait on the shore."
"I also need to go!"
"Oh, you have to keep it up."
"I don't, you just want to play below by yourself!"
"Tsk!"
Xiao Jin was depressed, the child was getting better and better, so she could only say, "Okay then, let's go together."
After all, they were like two mermaids, plopping into the water at the same time, their whole bodies were enveloped by aura, and the water vapor did not touch them at all.
The bottom of the lake is quite turbid, and there are long water plants everywhere, one cluster after another floating with the waves, like the hair of ghosts. There are also many unknown fish, shrimps and crabs swimming around, occasionally passing a shadow, but it is a big herbivorous turtle.
"Wow, this crab is so big, it could be dinner."
Xiao Jin grabbed an unlucky crab casually, fiddled with the crab's claws twice, put it into the storage bag, and then went to catch the fish vigorously.
"Stop playing, it's important to get down to business!"
Long Qiu pulled her arm, and sent a message with his spiritual sense helplessly.
"Business is important, and eating is also important. Don't make noise!"
Xiao Jin broke away from the other party, and ran towards a clump of aquatic plants. She pushed aside the soft and dense grass leaves, and was delighted to find that there were shrimps laying eggs inside. Shrimp roe is a good thing!
She happily went to fetch it, but suddenly her expression changed, and she sank down suddenly as if being pulled by someone.
"Mmm..."
She waved her arms wildly, her eyes widened, her muscles twisted, and she acted like she was terrified.
"Jinjin!"
Long Qiu watched her being dragged into the water plants, frightened to death, and immediately summoned the Qingping sword, the blue light flashed, boom!
Well, half of the bottom of the lake was split open.
"Fuck! You murdered your own husband!"
Xiao Jin poked her head out against the shiny green grass blades and yelled at her.
"you!"
Long Qiu saw that Ya was carrying a water monster, nothing was wrong, so he immediately realized that he is a showman, a showman!
The girl couldn't help being a little angry, she ignored it, and swam up by herself.
"Well… "
Xiao Jin grinned and followed in a dejected manner.
Crash! Xiaoqiu returned to the sandbar, without saying a word, the guy coaxed him in various ways: "Oh, I just teased you, I didn't mean to."
"Don't be angry, I was wrong, okay?"
"..."
Long Qiu just ignored, Xiao Jin rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, I promise I won't make trouble in the future, come on!"
She forcibly pulled him away, changed the subject and said, "Look, this is a water monkey, haven't you seen it?"
"ah!"
Long Qiu glanced at it, and was instantly attracted to it.
There are legends about water monkeys everywhere, but whether they exist or not is still uncertain. Now that the environment has changed, this kind of ghost with a folk foundation has been brought out.
This thing is two feet tall and thin, like a child a few years old. It looks like a man or an ape, and its body smells bad and is covered with mucus.
The hands and feet are like human beings, but they are very slender, and they all have three toes. The hair is disheveled, and there is a disc-shaped depression in the center of the forehead. The special thing is the back, which is actually carrying a tortoise shell.
It curled up on the ground, trembling, looking at the two of them with spiritual eyes.
"..."
Xiao Jin circled around twice and said, "If it's not too ugly, I really want to raise a few. Yujian said to take a piece of finger bone to replace the water demon scales, um, it's a finger."
Long Qiu looked at the fingers, there were three, the left and right were shorter, and the middle was longer, and asked: "Which one shall we take?"
"Don't understand this? Come, let me teach you!"
The guy pointed out Jiangshan's virtues, and said: "The master said, the three shorts and one long are the longest, and the three longs and one short are the longest. You are sure."
Long Qiu felt awkward, and asked, "Why do you choose the long one?"
"Short ones don't work!"
As Xiao Jin said, she held her middle finger and snapped it hard.
"Whoa whoa!"
The water monkey screamed in pain, looking more and more pitiful.
"Don't pretend to be a quail here, you suck human blood, you think I don't know?"
Crack!
She broke another phalanx, sealed the opponent's breathing and limbs, and kicked back. After a while, the corpse floated up, attracting a group of scavengers to circle around.
"Okay, let's go!"
It's strange to say that if Long Qiu came out by himself, he would have to be responsible and wise, but when he came out with others, he would unconsciously become dependent—maybe he was spoiled.
The two completed their task and immediately returned to Yuanjiang City, five kilometers away.
Yuanjiang is a county-level city with a population of more than 700,000. The place is not small, but now it is empty, and the people have already evacuated.
A river passes through the city, splitting it into two parts. There used to be dams along the banks of the river, but now the water surface expands and has flooded the dams, pouring into the streets and approaching the main city.
They randomly found a barbecue shop, borrowed the leftover charcoal stove, poured out a table of aquatic products, and started grilling in a mess.
"Brother is retreating, I don't know what's going on?" Long Qiu sipped his wine, thinking very much.
"Leave him alone, he's definitely fine." Xiao Jin took a crab.
"My sister has been gone for almost a year, and I seldom hear back..."
"You are doing your daughter's life and your mother's heart. There is a hero and a heroine, with halos and good luck, do you need to worry about me?"
She grabbed another fish and said as she gnawed, "It's April, so it's time to plant crops over there, right? Let's set aside a large piece of land, and the township entrepreneurs who are in distress are sure to be established."
"It's a good thing to have plenty of food! This year's weather is good, neither too hot nor too cold, so we're sure to have a bumper harvest."
"Huh? Say it again." Xiao Jin paused.
"There must be a good harvest."
"No, the previous sentence."
"Neither cold nor hot." Long Qiu didn't understand.
"neither cold nor hot..."
Xiao Jin blinked. She had felt something was wrong since she arrived in Yuanjiang City, and now she finally realized it.
"According to the situation in previous years, the temperature here in Hunan Province should have warmed up long ago. How could it be cooler?"
She simply put down the sign, ran out the door, jumped to the high-rise building to look at the sky, and saw a dark cloud in the distance, slowly spreading to this side.
"Fuck you grandma, it's going to rain!"