Three days later, I received a call from Lao Sun. He said that the equipment and everything else had been prepared and would be transported to the small dock on the north side of Zhushan Reservoir in the afternoon, and he asked me to meet at the dock.
After tidying up, I took a taxi to Zhushan Reservoir.
Far away, you can see Lao Sun standing on the edge of the pier smoking. Next to him is a short boy, twenty years old at most.
As soon as I got out of the car, Lao Sun trotted over and said, "Shopkeeper, you came quite quickly. This is my little brother. You can just call me Xiao Wu."
After saying that, he slapped Xiao Wu on the back of the head and said, "Call someone."
"The shopkeeper." Xiao Wu called.
I reached out and patted Xiao Wu on the shoulder.
Then I walked to the dock with Lao Sun. The Wuling Hongguang he rented was filled with things. I opened a large package of things, including a waterproof miner's lamp, an archaeological shovel head, a folding shovel, a short-handled hammer, and a pry that was more than a foot long. A stick, a plate of nylon rope and three military knives. In addition, the food alone must weigh dozens of kilograms. The key is that there are two sheep tied to the door of the car.
I didn’t understand: “Old Sun, what are these two sheep doing? Going to the tomb and making hot pot?”
Lao Sun said no, but we have to enter Zhushan. The most troublesome thing is to cross the Zhushan Reservoir. The locals say that the Zhushan Reservoir has been abandoned for many years because there is a snake spirit living in the reservoir. We want to enter Zhushan, After passing the Zhushan Reservoir, you have to slaughter a sheep and take care of it.
The legend is of course false.
It is true that there are snakes in the Zhushan Reservoir, but whether they are venomous or non-venomous snakes, a bite in the water is no joke, let alone dozens or even hundreds of snakes? Just being disgusted can make people sick to death.
I nodded.
Seeing Lao Sun hesitate to speak.
I said, "If you have anything to say, just say it. Since we are going to go panning for gold together, we are just guys on the same boat. We can't think about things from the inside."
I said gold digging on purpose just to build relationships.
Lao Sun said: "This time I found a few good people in the stall road to join me. They don't know our relationship. I'm afraid they will feel wronged by you, the shopkeeper, for pretending to be my follower."
I said no problem, and then Lao Sun picked out a bunch of equipment for me and personally sent it to the reservoir duty room for me to change.
After putting on my equipment and preparing to go out, Lao Sun came in again.
I said, "Is everyone here?"
"All together." Lao Sun came over, took out an iron bullet from his arms and handed it to me: "This time, take this when you go down. The iron bullet is in your bag."
I looked down and my eyes lit up.
This is a short-barreled gun, similar to a spray gun. Because it is made of home soil, it has no safety and can only fire a single shot.
Although the risk is high, there is no man who doesn't like this iron lump.
I stopped taking off my clothes and put the gun aside: "Old Sun, are you hiding something from me? What kind of horsepower does it have down there? Do you still need this thing?"
"None of us knows what's deep inside the tomb, so we got two of them just in case. You put a pair of them in a waterproof bag, it won't work if water gets in."
"And you?"
"I have one too." He took out a box cannon from his arms. It looked like it was quite old. He said it was passed down from his grandfather and it could ward off evil spirits.
After putting away the box cannon, he said: "Last time we encountered water monkeys when we explored less than 40%, and we killed five brothers before escaping. This time I have to kill those beasts; and there are I have recruited these people this time and I don’t know their details. Although they are of the same mind till the end of the grave, who can guarantee that the other party will not betray them? So I have a ring on my body and I feel confident."
"In place."
I gave him a thumbs up.
Coming out of the duty room, there were four more people on the dock. Three of them were dressed similarly to what I was wearing, and the other was dressed like an ordinary person.
Lao Sun said that this was the boatman who sent us across the Zhushan Reservoir this time.
When we got closer, the boatman said, "Boss Sun, are you still in the same place as last time?"
"Yes." Lao Sun took out a stack of bills from his pocket and stuffed it into the boatman's pocket: "I will say a few more good words to the River God later. We brothers will definitely do well in making offerings."
The boatman patted his pockets and urged us to board the boat, a slightly dilapidated awning boat.
After boarding the boat, the boatman swung the oars and we headed towards Pig Mountain.
I felt a little uncomfortable. There was definitely something wrong with this boatman. There was no flaw, it was just intuition.
After a while, I asked the boatman why he didn’t turn on the engine of the boat or something. The boatman said that all the work he took us on was done secretly, and he would not allow us to go on board Zhushan and Goushan after they were liberated. The reason is unknown; if we were arrested by the law enforcement team, If the people know it, they will be invited in for tea.
After a while, the boatman said: "Boss Sun, we are ready."
Lao Sun responded, pulled out the saber from his waist and plunged it directly into the throat of a sheep, and blood flowed into the water along the hull.
Lao Sun was obviously experienced. He quickly disemboweled the animal with a saber. The internal organs were divided into piles, the mutton was placed in a pile, and the sheepskin was left to the boatman.
As he watched the boat arrive near the Zhushan River Cave, Lao Sun threw all the internal organs on the boat into the water, and oily flowers suddenly floated on the dark water.
Then, there was a banging sound from the bottom of the boat, as if someone was slapping the hull.
The boatman said: "Don't be nervous, these are the descendants of the river god enjoying the offerings."
I climbed along the pole and asked the boatman River God what was going on.
The boatman laughed and said that the story started more than a hundred years ago. Legend has it that there was a turtle spirit in the reservoir at that time. As long as someone passed by the reservoir, the turtle spirit would stretch out its head and eat people. Later, Lafayette decreed that as long as someone could subdue the turtle spirit and ensure the safety of the people in the area, he would be made the river god and be enshrined forever.
Later, the Taoist Master of Longhu Mountain invited the current River God to drive away the turtle spirit, so our village worshiped the River God for generations. However, after liberation, the Four Olds were broken and the mountain was sealed, so everyone gradually forgot about it.
After the boatman finished speaking, he pointed toward the mountain: "Look, the temple of the River God is over there."
Looking in the direction he pointed, there was indeed a dilapidated temple standing there.
While they were talking, the boat had entered the river cave, and a stench came to their nostrils.
I said, "There's such a big corpse smell here."
"Those two brothers filled the river cave with all the people who died before liberation. It was because of the resentment that a turtle spirit was born in this reservoir." The boatman said, turning on the headlight on his head.
I smiled and shook my head. I never believed in ghosts and monsters.
After rowing forward for a while, Lao Sun saw that the situation was almost complete and asked: "Brother, when will this mutton be given to the River God?"
No one answered.
I opened the curtain of the cabin and found that there was no boatman at the stern of the boat, so I hurriedly shouted to Lao Sun: "Throw it away, throw it down quickly, and kill the other one too."
Lao Sun said: "But this is not to support..."
I yelled, "What an offering? The so-called offering is to throw fishy meat into the water. The things under the water will no longer be interested in the people on the boat after they have eaten and drank the raw meat. Why are you so grown up so superstitious?"
When Lao Sun heard this, he didn't dare to be negligent. He raised the knife and dropped it. The sheep's head rolled into the water, and blood gushed out like a spring.
He hurriedly threw the sheep's internal organs and fur into the river.
But it's too late.
Under the illumination of the miner's lamp, I saw a black snake-like creature rising from the water and heading towards the boat.
