The merchant ship entered Yanzhou three days later.
Different from the first half of the journey, after entering this middle reaches of the river where the terrain is getting higher and higher, you can obviously feel that the wind and waves on the river are much stronger, and the huge hull begins to shake and tremble in the river.
At this time, there were more and more seasick passengers on board, and some people started to vomit due to seasickness. The entire cabin was filled with a disgusting sour smell.
None of the three ghost-faced Taoist priests could stand the smell. They stayed outside the cabin for more than half of the day. Only when they were too sleepy at night did they force themselves to return to the cabin. After staying up like this for two days and nights, the ship was already moving. The boundary of Eastern Qinzhou was reached.
On this day, the Grimace Taoist and He Siniang stayed on the upper deck as usual, chatting.
During their chat, the two could clearly feel the nervousness on the faces of the busy boatmen. The feeling was not panic when encountering danger, but a kind of anxiety expressed by worrying about something.
The atmosphere on the whole boat was very strange, and since crossing the border of East Qinzhou, the waves on the river were obviously a little faster. Sometimes the waves were even so high that people on the boat could hardly stand.
The grim-faced Taoist priest had also become familiar with some people on the boat in the past few days. At this time, he happened to see a familiar young boatman passing by, so he stopped him and asked: "Little brother, Taoist priest, I see you look panicked. Did something happen?"
The young boatman saw that the person asking the question was the Taoist priest with a grimace who had been chatting with him frequently in the past few days, so he stopped and replied: "Nothing happened, but the waves are very strong in this section of the river, and ships often encounter danger in this section." , so everyone can’t help but feel a little nervous.”
"Oh, so that's what happened. It was fine a few days ago, but now things have changed."
"It's not just here. The further you go to the east Qinzhou ferry, the worse the wind and waves will become. It will only be better if you leave Dongqinzhou and see Yongzhou."
Hearing this grim-faced Taoist priest and He Siniang couldn't help but become curious. The East Qinzhou Ferry was the destination of the three of them. Why was there such a strange situation there? So they asked: "What happened on the ship?" I don’t understand, little brother, do you know the reason?”
Hearing this, the young boatman looked around and saw no one around, so he lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "I didn't know much when I got on the boat late. I only heard from the seniors on the boat that it seemed to be an ancient tomb near the ferry." Troublemaker!"
"Ancient tomb?!" The grimace of the Taoist priest changed color slightly.
"Well! There was a drought some time ago, and an ancient tomb on the river embankment was exposed. Then the tomb was quietly opened up by those who had good intentions in the town. But who knew that since the ancient tomb was opened, this section of the river has become... A storm began to arise, and it has not been peaceful to this day. They said... they said there was a monster in the tomb, and the storm was caused by the monster, and the monster only eats the human heart and liver of the living! The cause of the storm is to overturn the past..."
"Snapped!"
Before the young boatman finished speaking, he saw the boss of the boat standing behind him. He slapped him so hard that stars appeared in his eyes and said angrily: "Have you forgotten the taboos on the boat? You dare to say anything. Do you want to Kill the whole boat?"
The young boatman had tears in his eyes after being beaten, and quickly admitted his mistake and retreated. Then the boat boss turned his head and said to the two grim-faced Taoist priests: "The child didn't stop what he said. Don't blame me. The old man has been running here for almost forty years." Our ship has seen strong winds and waves, so please feel free to rest assured."
The grimace Taoist priest and He Siniang nodded quickly, saying that they were not worried, they were just bored and just listened to it as an interesting thing.
After the boat boss left, He Siniang whispered: "Although we are fighting upside down, we won't encounter ancient tombs everywhere, right? Besides, what kind of tricks are hidden in that ancient tomb? There are storms and waves everywhere, could it be that there are really monsters under the ground?"
The Taoist priest with a grimace chuckled and replied: "Is it true that children can do what they say? Even if there are real monsters, isn't Brother Meng always clamoring to marry a monster as his wife? This trip is worth it."
"They were talking about 'little goblins', how could you become a monster like this? Besides, that's not what I mean when I say goblin."
"Hey, Pindao, can you still not understand? Pindao, isn't this just a joke to comfort you?"
"Don't comfort me, we are in the same boat. As the saying goes, there is no wind without waves. The waves in this river are so weird, so we have to pay attention to it."
"Don't worry, I know a little bit about Feng Shui. The Huai River is like a barrier for the ancient tomb. It is said that 'water melts and gathers qi, water moves and qi disperses'. Now that the water level has receded, the ancient tomb If the hole is opened and the condensed air in the tomb leaks out, wouldn't it stir up the river water and create waves? But then again, this tomb is probably not a kind person. It can make such a big wave. How heavy is the Yin Qi? The poor man guessed. The scale inside will not be small.”
"What do you want to do again?" He Siniang glanced at the Taoist priest with a grimace: "I can put my words first, and don't let any extraneous matters come out this time."
"Pindao is just thinking about it. The Yin Qi in the tomb is so heavy, it's not a business that we can easily handle."
"It's good to know."
Pulling back his thoughts from the ancient tomb in Dukou, the grimace Taoist priest began to chat with He Siniang again.
During the chat, as we got closer and closer to our destination, white flowers began to bloom on the waves on the river.
Although the grim-faced Taoist priest explained the reason for the rough river waves, he couldn't help but become as nervous as He Siniang when he saw the waves crashing against the side. These tomb robbers like them can use all kinds of tricks on land, but when they reach the water, they become wild cats with explosive hair. They can only secretly pray to the ancestor for blessings and make sure nothing goes wrong before reaching the ferry tonight.
You say you are afraid of what comes. After a day of sailing in rapids and swells during the day, when it was time to turn on the lights, the merchant ship finally encountered a dangerous situation.
The three ghost-faced Taoist priests had just finished dinner and were about to go to the deck to watch the sunset. Suddenly they heard people shouting outside, as if something terrible had happened.
The three people hurriedly walked out of the cabin and saw the boatmen outside looking panicked and rushing to the bow of the ship. The boss of the ship was lying on the bow side of the ship, looking into the water to look at something.
The Taoist priest with a grimace stopped a boatman and asked, "What happened?"
The boatman's face was full of fear, and he said in a trembling voice: "The Dragon King is paddling!"
Before he finished speaking, the huge hull suddenly swayed, and a roar was heard, and the hull immediately tilted to one side.
Everyone was unsteady and fell to the ground one after another. The Taoist priest with a grimace even somersaulted backwards and hit the hatch before stopping.
At this time, the hull of the ship tilted and then straightened back. After shaking twice, the hull of the ship straightened again. The grimace Taoist took advantage of the inertia of the ship's alignment and threw himself against the side railing. He straightened up and looked out of the ship. In the afterglow of the setting sun, he saw a huge black shadow in the water crossing the bottom of the ship.
