Chenjia Village is located in a place called Ant Mountain south of Bali River and falls under the jurisdiction of Yingshang County.
Like many villages in Dashu that are far away from the county seat, Chenjiacun is relatively isolated and backward; on weekdays, the highest administrator in the village is the village chief, followed by a group of older elders with good reputations. them.
If something happens in the village, the village chief and these "elders" usually discuss countermeasures, and the conclusion they draw is the final implementation policy, which will not be changed.
Of course, nothing big can happen in a village like this...
When it comes to money, the richest family in Chenjia Village is just a farmer compared to the wealthy households in the city, and is not even as good as a businessman passing by doing business; when it comes to beauty, in this mountainous place, the girls in the village have grown up They are exposed to the sun and have to do farm work, and have no chance to receive any cultural education, so their appearance and temperament are generally not very good when they grow up.
In a place like this, unless there happens to be a bandit's village nearby, not even bandits or flower pickers will come to visit.
Therefore, life in this village was relatively peaceful.
Until...someday in Yongtai's seventeenth year.
That day, there were thunderstorms, which continued from day to night without any letup.
In this damn weather, it was impossible to do anything, whether it was farming, cutting firewood or hunting, so the villagers naturally took a break early.
Just like that, early the next morning, the rain stopped, but many families found that... their children were missing.
The children in this mountain village are naughty, but there is no one who does not go home at night. Moreover, it rained so heavily last night and it was dark outside, so it is impossible for the children to run out on their own.
What can be done? Everyone, help me find it.
But the whole village searched for a long time around the village, but couldn't find even a shadow.
It was getting dark again. Now, the adults were very anxious.
First, there were as many as nine lost children, all of them boys - in those days, it was polite to say that sons were favored over daughters; to put it harshly, many families, especially poor families, did not regard their daughters as human beings at all... ...There are not a few people who are so poor that they sell their daughters to rich families as maids or even to brothels. Those who can think about finding a good husband for their daughters are already considered conscientious. But boys are different. No matter how stupid or bad they are, they are still treated as treasures by their families.
Secondly, among the nine missing boys, three are descendants of the elders' families, and one is the great-grandson of the village chief. They are the "nobles" in the village. Is it okay to lose them? ?
Thirdly, what happened this time was very strange. There were many families in the village who had not lost their children, and they were all worried. They were afraid that their children would be gone when they woke up the next morning.
That night, an atmosphere of terror spread in the village...
The village chief is even considering sending someone to the county tomorrow to send some money to the county government office and ask the superiors to investigate.
Just like this, the next day, early in the morning, someone started shouting at the entrance of the village, saying, "Something big happened! There is a goblin!"
When the villagers heard the news, they swarmed over and talked a lot. When the village chief arrived after hearing the news, almost the whole village, men, women, old and young, had already gathered around...
The crowd made a way for the village chief to step forward. When he took a closer look, he couldn't help but gasped: only to see that half of a piece of wood thicker than the mouth of a bowl was stuck diagonally on the dirt floor at the entrance of the village. pile.
If you look closely, you will see that this is not an ordinary wooden pile, but a mast on a ship.
Of course, if it is thicker than the mouth of a bowl, it is definitely not the mainmast, but in ordinary people's concept, this is no longer something that can be forced into the ground by manpower.
"Village chief, look, there are words on it!" Not long after, someone with good intentions reminded the village chief.
The village chief actually saw it, and there were indeed some words engraved on the wooden pillar; as the most literate person in the village, he should go up and take a look...
"The God of the Water Realm has descended into the mountains, and the common people are unaware of the west wind. If you want your nine sons to return home, offer them to the Dragon King Cave in the north of the village." The village chief read the words again, frowned and pondered for a moment, and roughly understood the meaning.
Then, he translated with the villagers: That is to say, a Dragon King came to our Ant Mountain in the past two days. The heavy rain the day before yesterday was a sign of the Dragon King's arrival, but because we villagers were too ignorant, we did not take good care of it. After receiving the Dragon King, the Dragon King became angry, so nine children were lost in the village. Now the Dragon King said that as long as we go to the "Dragon King Cave" in the north of the village to offer offerings to his old man, the children can come back.
These words...from a modern perspective, they are basically a kidnapper's manifesto, and the core idea is to give money to release the kidnapper.
But in the eyes of these villagers, this bandit's logic is very smooth.
They felt that someone who could kidnap nine children without anyone noticing on a thunderstorm night and drive the mast of a ship into the ground must not be human...
The less knowledge and ability people have, the more they like to use a set of theories that are easier for them to understand to explain the unknown doubts in front of them in order to eliminate fear.
When pursuing the truth, we have to face difficulties and dangers, but following the crowd... is very simple. Everyone says and does this, so I will follow suit; even if I am wrong, everyone is wrong together.
So the villagers hurriedly gathered together a few baskets of chickens, ducks, fish, meat, rice, flour and money, and carried them to the cave in the north of the village with drums and gongs.
The cave is very deep and connected to an underground river. There are many forks in the cave and the terrain is complex. The locals know that you cannot enter here because it is easy to get lost and unable to get out. Originally, this cave did not have a name, but now since "Dragon" "Prince" said this was the Dragon King's Cave, so the villagers called it that.
At noon, they had set up a simple altar in front of the Dragon King Cave, lit incense, and stacked the "offerings" by the entrance of the cave. Then the village chief led the villagers to kneel three times and kowtow; after worshiping for a long time, they Depart respectfully.
It turned out that it really worked. They came here again the next morning and found that the nine missing children were all lying under the altar table, but yesterday's offerings were all missing...
The villagers now believe even more that this is the manifestation of the Dragon King - the kidnapper does what he says.
Later, several similar incidents happened in the village, and the routines were similar, so I won’t go into details here. The children who were kidnapped by the Dragon King and came back were generally still young and could not speak easily, so they were asked by adults. I couldn't tell what I saw.
Over time, the villagers in Chenjia Village have been trained by the "Dragon Prince"; now the Dragon Prince no longer has to engage in the kidnapping business, and the villagers themselves know that they will send batches of "offerings" on the first and fifteenth day of every month. , there is no need to send money, just rice, noodles, wine and meat; in addition, every quarter, a girl must be sent, which is said to "have sex with the son of the Dragon King".
In fact, after seeing this, all the readers must be able to tell that this group of thieves pretending to be the Dragon King are not very smart, and the excuse they came up with is a bit far-fetched, but they can't help it... because the eldest girl and the little girl Children are different. The girl may run away, and if she sees something and talks nonsense when she goes back, she will be involved in the "Dragon King Cave" incident.
Therefore, they came up with the idea of "**", so that the villagers can naturally send people here when it is dark; the girl can't see clearly in the dark, and she can't run far if she wants to, as long as the villagers leave They came out to take the person so that the other person could not escape.
All in all, this farce has been going on for more than a year.
The villagers in Chenjiacun are also very good at comforting themselves, just like some religious believers: whenever they encounter something good in life, they will say that it was blessed by the Dragon King, and our offerings are indeed true. It’s worth it; whenever something bad happens, I feel like I’m not sincere enough, so we should give more gifts next time.
Until...that evening, two people came to the village entrance...
…………
After Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai entered Chenjia Village, they randomly found a tea shed and sat down, and immediately asked about the scene they had just seen at the entrance of the village.
The villagers didn't hide anything, because in their concept, the Dragon King was already a belief here, and there was nothing they couldn't mention. So, even the waiter and the tea guests around him were busy complementing each other. Let’s talk about all the above content.
After listening to this, the first reaction in the minds of the two modern people, Brother Sun and Brother Huang, who have traveled through time, is also conceivable - this is a really cool person, isn't it kidnapping and extortion?
However, they didn't say anything in front of the villagers, because through observation, they had already seen that the villagers here had Stockholm Syndrome. If you said something about the "Dragon King" in front of them, they might still react. Will fall out.
It was almost dark at this time, and the two hurriedly went to find a house to stay overnight.
After entering the room, Sun Yixie gave the fellow villager some money and told him not to disturb them. Then he closed the door and began to discuss with Huang Donglai...
"Brother Sun, do you care?" Huang Donglai asked.
Sun Yixie had a tacit understanding with him, so he naturally knew what he was asking: "Whatever~" He looked arrogant and glanced at his trident, "We don't care about the blatant ones in Zoumazhai. , are you afraid of these pretenders?" He paused, "Besides, brother, things are different now, okay? With my skills, killing a few bandits is like chopping melons and vegetables?"
"Okay, Brother Sun, it's okay," Huang Donglai said, "I admit that you have made some progress now, but you don't have the illusion that you are very powerful, okay? When the time comes, you will be chased and chopped down. Don’t you want me to come and wean you off?”
"Shut up, I~" Sun Yixie said in a long voice, "When have I been chased and chopped? Just tell me, are you scared?"
"Why am I being cowardly? You are not cowardly either." Huang Donglai said, "I just want you to be careful, so that you don't get fucked up again by being careless."
"Of course I will be cautious." Sun Yixie raised his eyebrows and said, "Brother, you have intelligence, okay?"
"Oh?" Huang Donglai read something from the other person's expression, and raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "So...Brother Sun, do you have a plan again?"
"Hehe..." Sun Yixie smiled obscenely, "Listen to me and tell me slowly..."
