A remote mountain village in a county in Anhui Province.
Old man Xu was originally an ordinary farmer in the countryside at the foot of the mountain. He had been working with the fields all his life. He had not graduated from elementary school and could not speak Mandarin well. On the other hand, my son is more promising. He has finished high school and is working hard in Zhejiang Province with his wife, leaving his grandson and his wife to take care of him.
The little grandson is very cute, well-behaved and sensible, his eyes are big and bright, and he is very smart. In addition to working in the fields, Old Man Xu has two major hobbies: drinking and fishing. The wine is home-brewed rice wine. Three meals a day cannot be eaten until the wine is in the stomach.
As for fishing, there are many ponds outside the village, but old man Xu’s house doesn’t have one. The villagers raise clams and fish, just waiting for the fish to be fat in the coming year and sell them at a good price. The most disgusting thing is stealing fishermen, and old man Xu also disdains it. Do this.
Fortunately, there is a reservoir in the mountain, which belongs to the government and is considered a public property. When Mr. Xu was young, he participated in the excavation work of the reservoir. Villagers from several nearby villages dug it out with hoe after hoe. Over the years, the water flowing out of the reservoir has supported acres and acres of crops.
Old man Xu would take his grandson into the mountains to fish in the reservoir when he had free time. The reservoir was very large, the fish were all wild and difficult to catch, and the mountain roads were rugged and difficult to walk. Normally no one would come. But old man Xu is a master of fishing. Whenever he goes to the mountains, he can always bring home a few delicious and fat fish.
But not long ago, old man Xu took his grandson to the mountains for fishing. An accident happened. The grandson fell into the reservoir and drowned. Old man Xu was also kicked out of his home and lived alone in the mountains.
"Then the cute little baby is gone like this. Old man Xu loves to drink. He doesn't bring water to work, and the pot is always filled with wine. We all know that he must have been drunk and did not take good care of his grandson. Drowned."
In the countryside at the foot of the mountain, at a small shop on the roadside, the fat sister-in-law chatted with Li Xianyu.
Grandma Grandma was a woman who kept her word. She said she would take him to upgrade, and the next day she asked King Thunder and Lightning for a mission. Considering Li Xianyu's work-related physique, King Thunder and Lightning was no longer worried about letting him get involved in the Bloodline family or in some large-scale operations.
So I made a list of tasks for him, including incidents that were suspected of being caused by blood descendants, or incidents that were confirmed to be caused by vampires. There were big fish and small fish. They were regarded as Baoze's intractable diseases, and they were all thrown to him.
Just what Li Xianyu wanted, a pleasant and obscene development.
The first stop was this small mountain village in Anhui Province. Li Xianyu bought a cigarette on the roadside at the entrance of the village, smoking and chatting with his aunt. Auntie also likes to chat with the handsome young man.
"Tsk, no matter what, it was an accident. Isn't it too much to drive the old man out of the house?" Li Xianyu said.
"You are still young and have not become a father. Of course you cannot understand the pain of losing a child." The aunt obviously did not side with Old Man Xu.
"But I am a son." Li Xianyu refused.
"That's all. If you admit your mistake, you might not be kicked out of the house. But old man Xu is so stubborn. He said that his grandson was eaten by a monster, not that he drowned due to drinking and negligence. He also said that everyone should go up the mountain. Avenge his grandson. Where did the monster come from? It’s not like others have never gone fishing before, so why does the monster eat his grandson?"
Monster... Li Xianyu pretended to be curious: "Have you found the child? Whether it was drowned or eaten, we will find out when we find the body."
"It's strange. Many people in the village went into the reservoir to look for it, but couldn't find it. The reservoir is also big, so it might have been caught by aquatic plants. The police looked for it for a while, but couldn't find it. Then they dropped the matter," said the aunt.
After thinking about it, Li Xianyu tentatively said, "It's interesting. Auntie, do you have any folklore in your village, such as monsters, ghosts, etc."
Ninety percent of folk legends about gods and ghosts are false, but ten percent are true. Those true stories come from alien blood descendants. There are many similar materials in the company.
For example, farmers on the mountain found that their chickens and ducks were often missing, and their numbers were decreasing every day. They suspected that thieves had stolen the chickens and ducks, so they patrolled the farms with hunting dogs late at night. As a result, I heard a "rustling" sound coming from the reeds, like the sound of something crawling, but the sound was too loud, and it obviously couldn't be an animal. I picked through the layers of reeds, and under the moonlight, I saw a A giant python dozens of meters long swam into the water, its scales glowing with cold light, and its amber vertical pupils like big lanterns. There is a chicken in its mouth, and the sound is made by it parting the reeds.
No one will believe this kind of thing if you tell it, but it will gradually become local folklore.
The Northeast he has been to is even more so, and the legend of the Five Immortals is everywhere.
The aunt thought for a while and said yes, there is a waterfall under our reservoir, and it is said that a dragon sleeps in it. There is also the mountain temple in the back mountain. In the middle of the night, the mountain guard saw the mountain goddess come to life and walked out of the temple.
These are ridiculous fictions at first glance. There is a possibility of a big snake, but it is too much to say a dragon. If there are dragons in the world, then I still have a phoenix at home.
Li Xianyu hurriedly stopped her: "Where's the reservoir? Is there any?"
"There is no reservoir. It was dug decades ago. I am young and not qualified to have my own legend." The aunt said with a smile.
"..." These days, legends also depend on seniority.
After asking for the direction of the reservoir, he understood the situation pretty much. Li Xianyu flicked the cigarette butt on the ground and stamped it out, "Zu... let's go."
Grandma squatted at the door of the store, watching a three- or four-year-old child sitting and rocking to cheerful music: Dad’s dad is called Grandpa...
She raised her head and raised a bright smile: "I want to sit here too."
"Let's play next time, play again next time." Li Xianyu couldn't afford to lose this person, so he dragged her away by force.
As the old saying goes, you can walk to the top of the mountain until you die. It looked like it was right behind the village, but it took half an hour to walk into the mountain, and then followed the overgrown mountain road into the mountain, which was almost guessed by the mountain people step by step.
Lu Xun once said that there is no road in the world, but when more people walk on it, it becomes a road.
A wise saying.
The mountains in Anhui Province are neither high nor steep, but deep, with many mountains and hills, and hills next to hills. It was summer, and the vegetation was green and lush. Li Xianyu trudged along the stream in the deep mountains, and encountered a pear orchard along the way, with yellow and orange colors hanging on the branches.
Li Xianyu took off one, wiped it on his chest, and when he took a sip, juice splashed everywhere. He picked two more and put them in his pocket. After my grandma tasted it, her sweet eyes turned into crescent moons, and she picked six or seven of them and pocketed them in her arms. Regardless of her white and tender belly being exposed, Li Xianyu glanced at her belly button and forced himself not to look at it again.
"It's better to be in the countryside. You can eat for free." Grandma was so happy: "I just saw a melon field at the foot of the mountain. Let's steal it tonight."
"You also know it's a theft?" Li Xianyu said angrily.
"The melon patch is so big, and it's full of watermelons. It doesn't matter if one is missing. Let's eat half of them each with a spoon." Grandma said crisply.
"Hey, that makes sense. Let's steal one tonight." Li Xianyu changed his stance without any principle.
Li Xianyu grew up in the city. He had only seen the scenery of the countryside on TV. Once he entered the mountains, he couldn't tell the difference between east, west and north. Fortunately, there was a stream to guide him, which flowed out of the reservoir.
After turning a mountain col, he saw a high embankment, thirty or forty meters high. He climbed up the steps and climbed to the top, and his eyes suddenly opened up.
The blue sky is clear, the mountains are green, and the reservoir is like a huge green ribbon, lying quietly among the mountains.
This should be the head of the reservoir. The other end is invisible, blocked by the green mountains.
Li Xianyu looked around and saw a dilapidated house in the woods on the left. According to the shop aunt, Old Man Xu had been living there since he was kicked out of the house.
They approached the house. There was no one inside, but there were signs of human life inside. There were a lot of wood piled outside the house, as well as wood planing and sawing tools, as well as some nets that looked like fishing nets, but were stronger and thicker than ordinary fishing nets.
"He should have gone out, but he is not at home." Grandma came out of the house, holding half a watermelon, gently opened it, and gnawed it happily like a pig.
"Hey, isn't this good? Taking something without telling you is stealing."
"It's so sweet, try it."
"... Wow, it's really sweet, is there any more?"
"There are still some in the house."
The grandfather and grandson sat on the threshold and ate watermelon. The sun was shining brightly and the cool wind blew from the reservoir, which made them feel relaxed and happy. This place would be a good place to escape the heat.
"Someone is coming." Grandma spit out the watermelon seeds and looked towards the reservoir.
A small boat rowed from the place where the two mountains met, creating a sparkling wave of light. The person on the boat was vaguely an old man, wearing a straw hat. The boat sailed to the shore. The old man tied the rope used to fix the boat to the wooden pile on the shore and walked towards the hut.
He saw a young man and woman sitting on his threshold eating watermelon, and was surprised, "Who are you?"
This is an old man in his fifties, with gray hair, but his body looks strong and thin. His skin is tanned by the sun from years of hard work, and his hands are covered with calluses.
He saw that the two young men had tender skin and tender flesh, the younger one was growing handsomely, and the younger one was as beautiful as a fairy and not like a villain, so he did not show any hostility.
"Are you Xu Guojun? Can you speak Mandarin?" Li Xianyu stared at him.
The old man nodded and said in less fluent Mandarin: "Who are you?"
Li Xianyu took out his police ID from his pocket: "We are the police, here to investigate your grandson's case. He died in the reservoir more than a month ago, but his body has never been found."
Xu Guojun's face turned gloomy, and he stood there dumbfounded for a moment: "You police said he was drowned, but he was drowned, so why did he come here?"
Li Xianyu pulled out another gun like a magic trick, "But you told the police that your grandson was taken away by a monster. We are here for that monster. If it really exists."
Xu Guojun looked at the gun and suddenly became excited.
"Do you believe what I say? Don't you police say I'm talking nonsense? I asked you to avenge my grandson, but you don't believe me, and everyone doesn't believe me..."
He was very emotional and burst into tears when talking about his grandson.
"Can you tell me more about the situation at that time? I will judge whether what you said is true or false," Li Xianyu said.
(End of chapter)