"No reason. Anyway, I'll leave you a phone number later. If you want to use the car in the future, just call me directly."
I didn't sleep all night. When the taxi drove near the South Pier, I yawned and turned my head to look outside.
Suddenly, I saw an old man with gray hair, wearing white clothes, burning paper by the lake.
I thought I was too sleepy to be dazzled, so I took another closer look.
That's right, it was an old man wearing malaysian clothes and white clothes who was burning paper money. The old man even turned to look at me.
The driver also saw it and said, "Don't look at it. I know that old man. His name is Lao Yan. He is over eighty years old. He burns paper by the lake every year during this month. He burns it all night long."
"He burned it for his family?"
"It was burned for his son. It seems that his son's birthday falls within these two days."
"Oh? His son drowned in the lake?" I asked.
The driver suddenly fell silent and focused on the road ahead. After a minute or two, he drove with one hand and lit a cigarette and said: "You are not from our local area, so you don't know. His son died in 1994. A total of 32 people died on that cruise ship, and his son was one of them."
"More than thirty people died? Why such a big accident! Did the ship sink?" I asked in surprise.
"No, I also participated in rescuing people at that time. I was only 26 or 27 years old at that time." The driver frowned and recalled: "I still remember that I was eating that day, and the transportation management sent someone to send a message asking us to rescue people. Said the cruise ship was missing.”
"When we arrived in the Nanhu District, it suddenly became foggy. The fog was too big and the visibility was only a few meters, so we turned on the searchlights in broad daylight. From day to night, we finally found the cruise ship."
"Not a shipwreck? What then?"
The driver flicked the ashes of his cigarette and frowned and said: "Then we reported to the transportation management, and the captain led us onto the cruise ship. No one was seen. It was as if those people disappeared out of thin air. It took a day of searching to find them. More than ten people died in the bottom bunker containing diesel. Many people's heads were burned and carbonized, but their bodies were intact."
The driver finished speaking and took a puff of cigarette: "What, you don't believe it? Do you think I'm telling a story?"
I said I didn’t believe you, I just couldn’t figure it out and was curious.
He said: "It has been reported in the news that more than thirty people were killed by robbers. If you want to know more, you can look up the news from that year. The name of the cruise ship is Hai Rui."
I nodded.
He suddenly added: "Actually, there is another version of this matter in our local area, which is completely different from what is reported in the news. Do you want to hear it?"
"Listen, tell me."
He said: "Another theory is that there were three men on the boat using nets to catch fish, and they accidentally fished out a silver bottle from the lake with a dragon head, a fish body and an open mouth."
"What?" I said I didn't understand.
The driver said that he just picked up a silver bottle, a dragon head, a fish body, and the dragon's mouth wide open.
"That must be an antique." I said.
The driver nodded: "Yes, for many people it is an antique."
After listening to his description of the dragon head and fish body, I immediately thought of something called "Chi Kiss".
This is the ninth child of the dragon. In the past, the shape of this thing appeared on the roofs of some temples and palaces, but it does not exist in reality. It is not surprising that such cultural relics appear in the water of Qiandao Lake, because there used to be many temples in the ancient city of Chun'an.
If what the driver said is true, then this silver bottle is very valuable. At least I have never seen a chisel-shaped living container. I have only seen some similar architectural fragments.
The driver looked calmly and said: "After catching the bottle, the three men hid it for fear that other people on the boat would find it. What they didn't know at the time was that the bottle was not something that could be used by humans at all. It was The treasure of the water ghost, the death of the boatman is related to the revenge of the water ghost of Qiandao Lake, they were burned alive by the will-o'-the-wisp."
"Why, you don't believe it, do you?"
I didn't say anything, just smiled.
He sighed: "There were four people who went on the boat to rescue people with me. One died in a car accident a few years ago, one died of illness, and another went to Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou to become a monk. At the beginning of the year, I also I went to Lingyin Temple to visit him.
