The next morning, Village Chief Wang hurried to Le's house. As soon as they met, he told Zhang Shaofei straight to the point: "A Fei, when you went back yesterday, Fa'er was still fine, but for some reason, in the middle of the night, there was a noise outside. The cry of a wild ghost came, and my son was so frightened that he got into bed and huddled up shivering, not daring to move."
"Ah..." At this time, Zhang Shaofei had returned to normal, and then he remembered that when Village Chief Wang first met, he mentioned that Wang Jinfa was afraid of calling out "there is a ghost" at night, thinking that it was the nonsense he was talking about in a nightmare. So I didn't take it to heart.
Village Chief Wang continued: "Hearing what Fa'er said, I listened carefully, and sure enough, there were cries of children coming from outside the village. I forced myself to calm down and walked out of Fengshan Village, and there were indeed bursts of cries from wild ghosts. "
Zhang Shaofei stared at Village Chief Wang with surprised eyes and asked: "Village Chief Wang, did you really hear the cry of the wild ghost?"
"I heard clearly last night that the cries of wild ghosts came faintly from the dark mountain stream. You have to believe it!" Village Chief Wang recalled.
Zhang Shaofei asked again: "Village Chief Wang, is that wild ghost's cry really like a child's cry?"
"Yes, Fei, the cries of those little devils are really frightening and creepy..." Village Chief Wang said with lingering fear.
Zhang Shaofei touched his head and said, "Is it really that serious?"
Village Chief Wang nodded and continued to narrate: "Which family's children would go to Longtan to cry in the middle of the night? Therefore, my heart has been tightening, and I can no longer close my eyes and sleep peacefully at night."
After the sun came up, Village Chief Wang, who had not slept all night, dared to go out and go to the village to ask questions from house to house. He visited the whole village and no one took their children to Longtan in the middle of the night.
The villagers’ answers made Village Chief Wang even more frightened:
"Last night in the middle of the night, I got up to relieve myself and suddenly heard the cry of a child from Longtan. I was so frightened that I didn't even pee and went inside. It was so scary."
"Yes, it scared me so much that I locked the door tighter. My child was so scared that he hugged me all night before he could sleep."
"Is this the arrival of an imp?"
"I wonder which house the little kid on the mountain went to do evil?"
Village Chief Wang then added: "My family, me, and the people in the village all heard it clearly."
After Zhang Shaofei listened to Wang Cun's matter-of-fact narration, he lowered his head and pondered, which triggered his memories of a past event in the Shaolin Temple.
After thinking for a while, he naturally had some guesses in his mind, and asked Village Chief Wang: "Have you gone to Longtan to find out what happened?"
"I asked the most courageous servant Ding Lei Bao in the family to go find out. But when he heard the crying as soon as he left the village, he was so frightened that he even peed." Village Chief Wang shook his head and said.
"Could it be..." Zhang Shaofei stopped talking at this point.
Seeing that Zhang Shaofei was hesitant to speak, Village Chief Wang asked strangely: "A Fei, could it be something?"
"No...it's nothing..." Zhang Shaofei knew that telling him now would be in vain, so he waved his hand and answered.
Village Chief Wang didn't understand: "A Fei, what's wrong with you?"
Zhang Shaofei's eyes flashed a few times: "I will go to Longtan to check it out at midnight tonight, and I will naturally have the answer then."
Village Chief Wang asked in shock: "You went to Longtan in the middle of the night. Aren't you afraid of ghosts?"
Zhang Shaofei laughed: "Am I afraid of ghosts? I think the ghosts are afraid of me."
Village Chief Wang asked with concern: "Do you want to bring any self-defense weapons?"
"Weapons? No need!" Zhang Shaofei waved his hand, "Just prepare the torch for me. Village Chief Wang, do you dare to go with me?"
Village Chief Wang pondered for a while, and finally made up his mind: "Okay, for the life of my precious son, I will go with you even if I risk my life."
Zhang Shaofei said: "Village Chief Wang, since you are willing to go with me, then you can ask a few brave people in the village to follow us. If anything happens, it will be easy to take care of it."
Village Chief Wang said loudly: "The most courageous people in our village should be my nephews Wang Hanqiang and Wang Hanwei. I will ask him to go with us tonight."
Zhang Shaofei nodded and said, "Okay."
…
Night finally fell.
Wang Hanqiang held a bow and arrow in his hand, and Wang Hanwei and several strong villagers held hunting forks and other equipment, and arrived at the home of Village Chief Wang.
"Let's go!" Zhang Shaofei waved his hand and led Village Chief Wang, Wang Hanqiang and others, holding torches, out of Fengshan Village and walked in the direction of Longtan.
The mountains at night are so dark that you can't see your fingers. Frogs and insects are chirping on the roadside beside the stream. Fireflies are wandering in the mountains and forests, twinkling with the stars in the night sky. The cold mountain wind is calling shrilly. It adds a bit of mysterious fear to the mountains.
The group of people followed Zhang Shaofei, marching hard in the dark, and finally arrived near the deep pool.
Zhang Shaofei signaled everyone to be silent, and everyone tiptoed toward the pool.
Suddenly, bursts of children's cries came from Longtan.
Village Chief Wang was immediately frightened so much that his legs trembled and he fell forward with a thump. Zhang Shaofei, with his quick eyesight, supported him.
Zhang Shaofei whispered: "Village Chief Wang, what are you afraid of?"
Village Chief Wang's voice trembled: "Some kid is crying..."
Zhang Shaofei patted his chest, lowered his voice, and said to everyone: "Where are the ghosts in the world? I'm charging ahead, so don't be afraid, just follow me. But when we get to the pond, everyone should try to keep quiet."
"Yeah, let's follow you." Everyone followed Zhang Shaofei forward cautiously.
On a dark night, the dark clouds in the sky were blown away by the wind, and the clear sky was like a huge piece of unparalleled blue satin.
At this time, the bright moon is like a disk, and the silver moonlight shines on the surrounding mountains, flowers, grass and trees, like a layer of silver brilliance.
Zhang Shaofei led Village Chief Wang and his party to the waterside quietly.
The waterfall that cascaded down from the high rocks hit the protruding rocks in the pool like a whitewash, stirring up waves of waves.
Zhang Shaofei asked everyone to light torches. In the light of the fire, he saw that the water in the pool was crystal clear, and there were springs "ding-dong, ding-dong" rising up from the rocks at the bottom of the pool, forming a turbulent swirling current.
Everyone stood quietly by the pool and observed.
Suddenly, bursts of children's cries rang out from the pool.
With his sensitivity and experience, Zhang Shaofei discovered the source of the sound at a glance, waved his hand to silence everyone, and then pointed into the pool.
Everyone followed Zhang Shaofei's gesture and saw several strange-shaped fish swimming in the pond: the fish was nearly a foot long, with black and brown colors on its back, a flat and wide head, and an inlaid fish on it. It has a pair of small eyes, its tail is flat on the side, and its outstretched limbs are short and plump.
Zhang Shaofei blurted out: "Ah! Baby fish!"
Village Chief Wang put his mouth close to Zhang Shaofei's ear and asked in a low voice: "What? Fei, do you call this fish a giant salamander?"
Zhang Shaofei nodded and said affirmatively: "Yes, village chief, these are giant salamanders."
By the light of the torch, Village Chief Wang saw that all the fish had four legs. He looked at Zhang Shaofei curiously and asked, "A Fei, how come this kind of fish has legs?"
Zhang Shaofei pointed to the giant salamander swimming freely in the stream and replied with a smile: "Yes, village chief, this giant salamander is different from other fish. It has four legs and can swim in the water or on the rocks on the shore." Climb up.”
"Baby fish, baby fish..." Village Chief Wang said to himself, "Why do they call it baby fish when so many people can't afford its name?"
"Village Chief Wang, this fish makes a baby-like cry at night, so people call it baby fish. You just heard it with your own ears. The cry of this fish is more like a baby's cry." Zhang Shaofei pointed to the stream. The few giant salamanders explained patiently.
Village Chief Wang seemed to have some realization: "Such crying is nothing if heard during the day, but it is terrifying to hear it in the middle of the night."
Zhang Shaofei explained: "This giant salamander doesn't scream during the day."
Village Chief Wang was puzzled: "Then when will it bark in the middle of the night?"
"The giant salamander only lives in streams with excellent water quality in the mountains. It hides in the crevices of the rocks during the day and only comes out at night. They only call in the middle of the night when they are in heat." Zhang Shaofei said with a smile.
After hearing this, Village Chief Wang suddenly realized and said: "Ah, that's it! I heard bursts of children crying outside these nights. I always thought it was a little ghost screaming in the middle of the night! That Witch Hao also said it was from the other side. Those wild ghosts possessed my son and scared me so much that I almost even peed."
