"I was just about to row back to the shore when I suddenly felt the oar hit something. When I shined the flashlight..." Uncle Zhang changed his color slightly. Even thinking about that memory now, he still has lingering fear: "I saw a huge shadow in the sky. The boat swam by and I hit it with my oar. It seemed to be startled, and it suddenly sank into the water and disappeared."
Old Man Zhang was born and raised in the local area and made a living by farming and fishing. He was very familiar with this water area, but what was under the water was completely beyond his understanding.
"Since half a month ago, most of the boats passing through our town have sunk. I don't know why. There are also fishing boats in the town, and they capsize inexplicably from time to time. Everyone says there are water monkeys in the river. I didn’t believe it at first, because no one had seen it before, so it was all nonsense. But I was really frightened that day, and I saw something in the river.”
"I rowed desperately toward the shore, but within a few meters of swimming, there was a strong force under the water that overturned my boat, and I also fell into the water."
"Have you seen what the big fish looks like?"
"It was too dark and the water was even darker, so I couldn't see clearly. I vaguely remember that there was a very long tail, thick, long and black."
Li Xianyu frowned slightly, what kind of fish has a thick, long and black tail
"Is it a crocodile?" Li Xianyu asked.
After hearing this, Old Man Zhang patted his head: "It's possible. Do you think there might be crocodiles in the river? I've heard news about species invasion on TV. We used to have crocodiles here."
He obviously didn't associate the big fish in the water with the monster.
Grandma kicked her great-grandson: "Can you think of anything else besides crocodiles?"
Li Xianyu thought: "Baby fish?"
Grandma rolled her eyes and said, "That's a good relationship. Let's stay alive this time."
A creature like the dragon salamander has a ferocious temperament. If it were it, Old Man Zhang would already be a ghost at the bottom of the river.
"What happened next?" Li Xianyu asked.
"Then I climbed into bed and paddled out to the bank. Let me tell you, I haven't used a boat since that day. If this was really a crocodile, I wouldn't even dare to go to the river." Old man Zhang was still frightened.
"We still want to rent a fishing boat. Don't refuse in a hurry. You are not the only one with a fishing boat in this town. If you refuse, others will agree." Li Xianyu took out a stack of money from his wallet: "Two hundred a day. I'll give you a thousand as a deposit... The fishing boat is not big, right? Is this enough deposit?"
Ninety percent of the problems in the world can be solved with money, and 10% of the problems can be solved with more money.
Li Xianyu and his grandmother got what they wanted and rented a fishing boat. It was not a professional fishing boat. The small fishing boat built by the town could carry about eight or nine people. The old wood was mixed with new wood, and it looked like it was often repaired.
"Uncle, there are a lot of rats in your town."
As soon as they got close to the boat, a big rat escaped from the boat and hurriedly crossed the shallow water and escaped into the melon field next door.
"Our town was also called Cat Town a few decades ago," said Old Man Zhang.
"Not Rat Town?"
"Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a rat plague in the town, and many people died. The able-bodied families moved away, and the poor families stayed here to wait for death. Legend has it that it was because of the rat spirit, but one day, a man came to the town. Cat Fairy, it subdued the rat spirit. There is a Cat Fairy Temple on the mountain behind the town. The town also built a temple dedicated to the Cat God. Instead of worshiping the gods of heaven and earth, worship it every year and pray for a good harvest every year. ." Old man Zhang said, "Actually, people in the town began to raise cats to catch mice, and the rat plague was gradually solved. But our kind of cat fairy temple is too wild, so we made up this kind of legend to make it more convincing. "
In traditional Chinese culture, there are also particularities when building a temple to worship a god. It must be an officially recognized god, otherwise it will be regarded as a shrine to an evil god and cannot be promoted.
"The rat plague has come again in the past few years. Rats are everywhere in the town. They are gnawing at the farmers and the grain at home. The cats they raise are useless," Old Man Zhang complained: "These days, all walks of life are immoral. Cats are also immoral. They don’t catch mice but only eat them secretly.”
Rowing into the river, the river is very wide, about a hundred meters. Li Xianyu tried to open his spiritual eyes, but there was no change in the quiet river surface, and there was no boiling of demonic energy.
Therefore, things in the river are the most difficult to deal with. There are traces of everything that passes by on land. In some places, aliens have stayed for a long time, and their unique smell lingers for a long time. However, the river water is constantly flowing, unless it happens to be with it. Make sure you look at it, otherwise it will be difficult to spot.
The boat had its own fishing rod, so Li Xianyu found a few pieces of meat from his wallet and asked his grandmother to sit on the bow of the boat and fish.
"My adoptive father's favorite thing is fishing. He goes fishing every now and then. He dreams of one day going out on a yacht to go fishing. But his salary is not enough to support Bingzhazi and me. Bingzhazi is not living up to expectations. He has graduated. He doesn't work and is still gnawing at his old age, so his adoptive father's dream will always be a dream. But I hate fishing the most. If I do it for a long time, I won't get a single fish." Li Xianyu said.
"I didn't like fishing when I was young," my grandmother said. "Later I found that fishing is not bad and can kill time. The most important thing I don't lack is time."
She held the fishing rod in her hand and looked at the water, her eyes as blurry as water waves.
here we go again.
From time to time, grandma would reveal the vicissitudes accumulated over the years. Only at such times would Li Xianyu realize that she was a hundred and fifty-year-old antique.
Immortality should be a very happy thing. Many emperors and generals have dreamed of it. Li Xianyu thought so before, but after inheriting from his grandmother, he discovered that immortality may not be a blessing.
You cannot die, but all your family and friends are dead. When people defeat time, you are still not invincible, and there is still loneliness waiting for you.
Moreover, times are always changing, but people's three views will not change. Grandma is constantly suffering from the pain and helplessness of the impact of three views. If the ratio of men to women in our country continues to deteriorate, in a few years it may no longer be monogamy, but polyandry.
If Li Xianyu could live to that era... he might as well commit suicide by committing seppuku.
After floating in the water for an hour, my grandmother caught several big fish and released them all.
"What did you find?" Grandma took the exam for her great-grandson.
"That's a bit of a frown." Li Xianyu rowed toward the shore: "Based on the experience gained from the flood dragon incident, if some ferocious alien species comes to this water area, in a short period of time, the fish and fish in this water area will There will be a sharp decrease in the number of organisms, either being eaten or being scared away. The current situation is obviously not like that. There are quite a lot of fish, some big and some small, in even proportions."
"What does this mean?"
"It means that the thing may be a vegetarian, or an omnivore, not just chasing fish for food." Li Xianyu thought for a moment, "There is another possibility, that thing does not live in the water, but in this case, It just seems weird.”
No, it looks very skinny.
He obviously doesn't live in the water, but he goes into the water to flip the boat and bite the steel plate on the bottom of the boat. It's really not shameful.
After returning to the shore, I went to Old Man Zhang's house again and asked him how many fishing nets he wanted to throw in the river. The grandfather and grandson walked around the town and were embarrassed, but couldn't find a single hotel.
It's only a 40-minute bus ride away from the county seat. Usually there are no outsiders at all. At most, people from nearby villages come to buy some things.
The hotel cannot operate in the town.
On the other hand, Internet cafes are popping up everywhere, there are at least two on one street, and the business seems to be pretty good.
Li Xianyu and Grandma opened two machines in the Internet cafe and scanned all the popular online games on the market.
Playing games and shopping are the only fun my grandparents have in the new era, and it would be even better if they have their great-grandson with them. Let's dominate the game together and conquer the city, which greatly increases the fun.
"It's much better than the Internet cafes in Shanghai." The small rural Internet cafe surprised Li Xianyu.
The environment of the Internet cafe has a strong sense of the times, filled with smoke, and everywhere are men's encouraging words pointing out the country: Go home quickly, you idiot, the high ground is gone.
Do you know if you have played in a group, the ADC is an idiot, but he is playing solo.
Don't defuse the bomb yet. The enemy is still in the A dog, and still has grenades.
... ..
It reminded Li Xianyu of his childhood. After school, he and his friends would sneak to the Internet cafe near the school. He was not old enough to surf the Internet, so he watched his elder brothers play games. There is always a smell of cigarette smoke in the Internet cafe, and occasionally you can see non-mainstream young ladies typing on the keyboard and dancing hard.
The big brothers who wear straight white jeans and have oily hair that hasn’t been washed for several days, no matter what they look like now, but when they have a three-dollar Nutrition Express on the table and a five-dollar Red Gold Dragon cigarette in their mouth, When their hands caress the keyboard like a lover, they are kings.
If it was the era when Li Xianyu was a child, if a high-quality beauty like her grandma appeared in an Internet cafe, there would definitely be some bastards who would come and strike up a conversation. If they were bolder, they would even do something.
But things are different now. Even in small towns with underdeveloped economies, eyes are still coveted, but no one will come over to strike up a conversation without the sense of humor.
Compared with the previous generation, people of this generation have one more precious quality: self-knowledge.
Poverty gives us self-knowledge.
The game was played until ten o'clock in the evening, and the grandfather and grandson reluctantly left the Internet cafe.
"Grandma Grandma is so awesome. In the team battle just now, if you hadn't killed two C-positions, we would have lost."
"You are also very powerful. You took all the damage, otherwise I wouldn't be able to cut in."
Grandfather and grandson brag about each other, which probably means that except for them, the other three children are all idiots.
At ten o'clock in the evening, there were almost no pedestrians in the town. They left the town and trudged along the field ridge by the river until they came to the spot where the fishing boat was parked during the day. The fishing boat was locked to the wooden pile on the shore. Li Xianyu dug out Take out the key and unlock.
Grandma kicked the fishing boat out with a gentle kick, and then floated aboard.
The river was quiet and pitch-black. Not far away were the lights of the town. On the other side were the silent fields, and at the end of the fields were the vast rolling hills.
After floating in the river for a long time, the wind and waves were calm.
Li Xianyu and Grandma Zu both restrained their energy. He didn't even dare to open his spiritual eyes. If a monster was hiding nearby, opening his spiritual eyes at this time would scare it away.
"I don't know if the wait-and-see method is effective. According to the information provided by Old Man Zhang and the clues from the Hangzhou branch, the probability of something happening to the fishing boat is 70%, which is extremely high. Based on what happened to me... My lucky score, the probability of it appearing should be 100%." Li Xianyu said in a low voice.
Li Xianyu fished up the fishing net according to the position of the buoy, and was surprised to find that the fishing nets that were intact when he dropped them were all bitten.
"What do you think it's for? It's so weird to just make trouble without hurting anyone."
"Never mind it. If you get caught, you'll be beaten. You can drain the blood and we can leave."
"Crash!"
There was a sound coming from the water in the distance, like a big fish stirring the water, which was extremely abrupt in the silent night.
(End of chapter)