Along the Yangtze River, the waves were blown by the wind and pushed against the river bank, creating patches of white foam and emitting waves of fishy smell. Hidden in the reeds as tall as a person by the river is a small wooden boat. Two sneaky figures squatted nearby.
These two people were Lu Ze and Song Chou. They were hiding among the reeds and waiting for their people to come over.
Song Chou stretched his head from time to time to check the direction of Xiling, "Master Lu, when can we cross the river?"
Lu Ze shouted: "What's the hurry? Wait a minute. If you stick your head in again, I won't have that head of yours!"
Song Chou was so frightened that he crouched down quickly, not even daring to breathe, so he could only suppress his uneasy mood. Looking at the dark river surface with misty white mist, the river wind blew by, and he couldn't help but tremble all over because of the nervousness and coldness.
At this time, dots of fire suddenly lit up not far away, and a burst of anxious and eager hoofbeats came from far away. A panting man leaned on the saddle, running desperately, as if to avoid the pursuers.
Lu Ze immediately stood up and whistled at the man.
Just as the horse neighed, before it could stop, the man on horseback could not wait to roll off the saddle and sprint towards this side, rolling and crawling.
"Sir, hurry up, leave quickly, they have all been caught..."
Before he finished speaking, an arrow flew from nowhere and penetrated directly into the back of the man's heart. The man spurted a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground lifeless.
Lu Ze still didn't know what was going on, so he crouched down and quietly jumped into the disguised boat. Song Chou jumped on board without hesitation.
When Lu Ze turned around, he stared at him as if he were a fool and cursed in a low voice: "Asshole, who asked you to come up? Go down and push the boat!".
"Yes, yes." Song Chou jumped out of the boat in great panic, gritted his teeth and pushed the stern of the boat with all his strength, letting the boat slowly slide into the river. Lu Ze picked up the boat and pushed hard, and the boat jumped out. Song Chou didn't even have time to jump on the boat, so he could only hold on to the edge of the boat and was dragged into the cold water.
Lu Ze glanced at him with disgust and stretched out his hand to pull him up. Song Chou was soaked all over. Because of the cold, his upper and lower teeth were shaking so hard that they were almost broken.
They walked another seven or eight feet, and dozens of torches were already swarming on the river bank. They heard someone shouting: "Catch the spy alive and you will be rewarded with a hundred golds!"
Then some soldiers shot arrows at the ship.
At this time, the boat was already more than ten feet away from the shore and gradually disappeared into the mist on the river at night. Lu Ze was worthy of being born in Jiangdong, and his boating skills were very good. He could also control the boat to hide in the white mist to avoid flying arrows.
By the time they reached the center of the river, the arrows of the soldiers on the shore could no longer reach them. Lu Zecai laughed loudly at the shore and said, "Beiman, you have the guts to chase me! Hahaha."
Song Chou was also paralyzed in the boat at this time, gasping for air, laughing, mocking the soldiers on the shore, and was glad that he could escape. "Haha, that's right, come here if you dare!"
But the soldiers on the shore didn't seem to hear it. They didn't seem worried. Instead, they folded their arms and sneered.
Lu Ze was feeling strange when suddenly the ship shook and began to rock from side to side, making him almost unsteady. I finally managed to stand firm by holding on to the oar. Looking at the water traces behind the boat, I saw that they were two long lines before, but now they are getting shorter and shorter.
"Sir, something seems to be caught on the bottom of the boat!" Song Chou shouted.
"Shut up, I know!" Lu Ze scolded.
"Is there an iron lock in the river?" The first thing he thought of was that there was an iron lock here, catching the bottom of the boat.
He used the boat to explore and found no underwater iron awls or chains.
In a moment of surprise and confusion, the hull of the boat slowly stopped and began to drift toward the north bank with the river current.
"Sir, what's going on?" Song Chou had already been panicked and asked hurriedly.
"Stop talking nonsense and go boating!" Lu Ze shouted.
Song Chou could only suppress his complaints, pick up the oar in the cabin and paddle along. But no matter how they rowed, the ship did not move forward an inch. Instead, it began to slowly retreat toward the north shore...
"Sir, what is...what is going on?" No matter how stupid Song Chou was, he realized that this was unusual.
Lu Ze stared at the dark water, suddenly thought of something, and blurted out: "Oh no, this is... this is a water ghost!"
Lu Ze was shocked when he thought of this, and his face turned pale. There has always been a legend among the residents on both sides of the river. There is a kind of river boy in the river who will turn people who drown in the river into water ghosts and help them catch innocent people. Water ghosts will drag the boat to the center of the river at night. At that time, river boys will jump on the boat, drag people into the water, drown them and eat them.
Therefore, as long as the fishermen go out to fish, they will offer sacrifices regularly to pray for peace.
Lu Ze has heard this legend since he was a child and has long believed it. And everything now is almost exactly the same as described in the legend.
"Water...water ghost?" Song Chou was so frightened that his teeth chattered. He grew up in the north, how could he know these legends.
Lu Ze stared at Song Chou and said, "Captain Song, we are afraid of bad luck tonight, why don't you come to punt the boat, and Lu will be on guard."
Song Chou felt that he had bad intentions, but there was no intention of discussion in Lu Ze's tone. He had no choice but to take the oar. As soon as he stretched it out, he felt a light touch in his hand. When he brought it up again, he found that the oars had been cut off by something underwater.
At this time, the fog on the river was getting thicker and thicker. The only thing that could be seen was the orange firelight on the river bank shining through the white fog and reflecting on the eyes of Lu Ze and Song Chou.
Lu Ze held the knife in one hand and the oar in the other, watching the water around him with vigilance, but everything in the river was as before, nothing abnormal. But the fog is getting thicker and thicker, and the swirling and fluttering white mist forms various shapes. At this time, people's imagination is always very rich. Song Chou felt that the mist was like a group of ghosts dancing around the boat.
"Sir... Your Majesty, we seem to have been pushed back..." It saw two traces of water gradually appearing in the direction of the bow of the ship.
Lu Ze shouted: "Shut up, I know!" He paddled a few more times, and the boat struggled to move forward a few feet, then began to retreat again.
At this time, many people had already gathered on the shore.
Zhao Da stood next to Wei Tong and asked in a low voice: "Master Wei, do you think this is really Song Xin?" He looked into the river. The thick fog had already obscured his sight, and they could not see anything.
Wei Tong said with a confident expression: "Master Zhao, just watch, they can't escape."
While talking, Zhang Hu came over, bowed and said: "Captain, everyone on the shore has been captured, and our ship is also heading towards them."
"Okay, let them be careful."
At this time, the two people on the small boat in the river were spinning in the fog, but they did not dare to jump into the water to escape. In this season, the cold river water would freeze within a quarter of an hour after jumping, and there were also scary water ghosts below.
Watching his boat heading towards the shore step by step, the torches on the shore became increasingly clear.
Song Chou was so frightened that he wanted to jump into the water, but he couldn't swim. There was no scary thing under the dark river yet... But he would rather return to the north bank and be caught by the soldiers than die in the hands of the water ghost.
Lu Ze looked at the approaching fire, pulled out the short knife from his waist, and prepared for the final fight against the trapped beast.
Suddenly, the boat jolted under his feet. Lu Ze lost his balance and fell into the water with a plop. Then he felt a hand pinch his ankle and drag him underwater. Lu Ze was frightened by this and swallowed several mouthfuls of river water mixed with sediment. In panic, he suddenly received a heavy blow to the back of his head and fainted.
After a while, Lu Ze floated up and was picked up and captured by soldiers approaching the boat.
Song Chou was the only one left on the boat. When he saw the dagger dropped by Lu Ze, he quickly grabbed it in his hand.
Then he heard a crash in the river behind him. Song Chou quickly looked for the sound and saw a figure slowly floating in the thick fog-covered river in front of him. Song Chou was too scared to open his eyes and just waved the knife in the air.
This person was Song Xin. He floated on the river, stepped onto the boat as if he were walking on flat ground, stood in front of Song Chou and asked with a smile:
"Uncle, you and I haven't seen each other for a long time, why did you use the knife on your nephew?"
When Song Chou heard this title, he quickly opened his eyes and saw Song Xin standing in front of him with a smile.
"You...you are...a ghost..."
Song Xin smiled and said, "Uncle, you said you wanted to help me get out of prison, why didn't you come?"
"Ah!!!" Song Chou was so frightened that he howled like a slaughtered pig, and a smelly warm current suddenly spurted out of his crotch.
"I was wrong, I deserve to die, please don't hurt me."
"Hey, where did you go wrong?" Song Xin deliberately lengthened his voice, which was especially scary on the dark river surface filled with thick fog.
"Good nephew, I...I don't...I don't want to kill your father...oh no...it's him, it's him..."
Song Xin suddenly shouted with a ferocious face: "Kill him!!"
Song Chou kowtowed, "Damn it, I want to be an official, I like your mother-in-law, I'm so obsessed..."
"Hehehe, very good. But you should go talk to the people in the school office about these things."
"School Office, yes, Lu Ying, Lu Ying is a spy!"
Song Xin laughed, stepped forward, grabbed Song Chou's collar, and said sternly: "If you escape, my mother and the others will be punished again. In order to silence you, you killed Lin Danda!" He slapped Song Chou on the face.
"But because of you, how many soldiers died! My cousin was almost killed too!" As he spoke, Song Chou was slapped twice again, and Song Chou's cheeks were swollen like a watermelon.
"You still falsely accused me of being a spy. You bribed school officials and prison bullies to kill me!" After saying this, Song Chou received another slap on the face.
At this time, more than a dozen teeth were scattered in the cabin.
Song Xin threw him in the cabin and glanced disdainfully. Cao Jun's boat in the river had already followed the sound of slaps and found Song Xin and the others in the thick fog. At the same time, they also saw the furious scene of Song Xin just now.
Many soldiers also heard rumors from Xiangyang that the defeat was caused by the spy Song Chou leaking the news, so many people were scolding him.
They didn't expect that Song Chou had changed his name and was hiding among them. And it's on the ship right in front of you.
Song Xin grabbed Song Chou's bun, raised his head, and said loudly: "Song Yi inside has been captured by me!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers on the river and the bank instantly burst into cheers.
