After hearing Lu Zhicheng's cry, Hua Muling and I didn't say anything more. After taking a few deep breaths, I walked over and picked up Xiong Ming, who was almost thrown into a pig's head, and walked cautiously towards the bottom of the steps step by step.
Not long after, a few of us came to a dark and extremely wide underground river.
Perhaps to suit the occasion, or perhaps to warn the world, a stone tablet actually stood beside this underground river.
The stone tablet clearly says: Anyone who trespasses will die.
I looked at the tombstone and smiled with a bit of disdain, and murmured to myself: "It's an ordinary underground river, but it turned out to be so annoying."
Before I finished speaking, a sound of bells suddenly floated across the river.
The sound of the bell was heavy and muffled, making it extremely uncomfortable. If we want to be more specific, it is actually similar to the soul-calling bell used by the great dance shaman in the rural areas of Northeast China.
A few of us followed the ringing and looked towards the dark river, only to see ripples on the river. After a while, a dark and narrow boat followed the waves and reached the shore.
The boat is very strange. It is surprisingly narrow and long. At first glance, it looks a bit like some kind of fishing boat in the south, but if you look closely, it doesn't look much like it.
A pole was inserted diagonally at the bow of the ship, and a copper bell the size of a bowl was hung on the pole.
The little boat was strange, and the ferryman was even stranger.
I saw an old woman standing behind the bell as big as a bowl. She was only a little over one and a half meters tall at most. Her stooped body made her look like a walking "question mark" from a distance.
The old woman's face is full of wrinkles. Even if she doesn't smile, the wrinkles on her face are enough to kill a few flies. You don't need to guess to know that this old woman is definitely not young.
But what surprised me was that this old woman actually had eyes that were completely inconsistent with hers. To me, those eyes were not only extraordinarily bright, but also extraordinarily charming. The frightening murderous aura, but also inadvertently revealed a girl-like look.
I looked at the old woman's eyes and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
At this time, the old woman had already swung the boat in front of the few of us using the pole.
Only then did I clearly see that there was a guy in a black cloak behind the old woman.
The guy brought a big bamboo hat, which was very low and covered his entire face.
He was dressed like a boatman, with a blue shirt and coarse trousers, some of which had turned white in places, but he was holding a pole made of pure gold in his hand, which was still shining even at this moment. Golden light.
I stared straight at the boatman. Although I couldn't see the guy's face clearly, for some reason I always felt like I had seen him somewhere, but for a while I couldn't remember where exactly.
Just when I was in a daze, Hua Muling elbowed me in the waist.
I turned to look at Hua Muling and asked in surprise: "Fourth girl, what's wrong?"
Hua Muling lowered her voice and whispered in my ear: "There is something wrong with that boatman."
I nodded and lowered my voice and said, "Yeah! I think so too. I always feel like I've seen that guy somewhere. But for a while I can't tell where it is..."
Hua Muling also nodded and said, "In short, this place is very weird. We must be careful, careful, and careful in everything we do."
I nodded, and just about to speak, I heard the old woman who had been standing at the bow slowly speak.
Just listen to the old woman saying: "Who is ringing the bell to cross the river?"
After hearing what the old woman said, I noticed that there was a copper bell the size of a bowl not far from the river bank.
Seeing the old woman asking this question, Lu Zhicheng, who had been standing aside, took a step forward and said with a smile: "Yes, mother-in-law! A few of us want to cross the river, please ask mother-in-law and the boatman to wait for us to cross."
The old woman glanced at each of us with eyes as cold as knives. After a long time, she slowly said: "You all understand the rules, right?"
Lu Zhicheng smiled and nodded and said, "Of course! We all understand the rules! We all understand them!"
As Lu Zhicheng spoke, he reached out and took out five pieces of ghost money, held it in both hands and respectfully handed it to the old woman on the boat.
The old woman reached out and took the five pieces of ghost money, looked at them one by one under the chandelier on the bow of the ship, and after confirming that they were correct, she nodded slowly and said: "Yes! It's true! In that case, then Come up!”
The old woman said and turned slightly to one side. Seeing this, I picked up Xiong Ming and started to put it on. But just as I was about to step onto the boat with one foot, the boatman who had been standing behind the old woman suddenly shook his hand, and the solid gold one poked straight at my ankle.
I was shocked, my body swayed, and I jumped back.
If it were normal, I would have dodged this blow in a matter of minutes, but now there was a Xiong Ming pressing behind me, and my movements were obviously much slower.
In an instant, I didn't even dodge the boatman's blow. Although the boat pole made of pure gold missed my ankle, it hit my calf impartially.
I suddenly felt a heartbreaking pain coming from my calf, and then, my center of gravity shifted, and I fell backwards.
Seeing that there was an accident on my side, Hua Mullington, who was already on the boat, shouted: "What are you going to do? Haven't we already paid the ghost money?"
The old woman tilted her head slightly, and her girl-like eyes glanced back and forth on Hua Muling's face several times. Finally, she said slowly: "My boat is small. It will sink if there are so many people on it at once." Yes. You don’t want to die in this Naihe, right?”
The old woman's words made Hua Muling speechless for a moment. She opened her mouth several times and didn't know what to say.
Seeing that Hua Muling didn't speak, the old woman just stared at her with a pair of beautiful eyes. She couldn't help but sighed and continued: "I didn't say I wouldn't pick them up. Since you have already paid, old lady, I naturally didn't send them away." principle."
When the old woman said this, she tilted her head slightly. The boatman tapped the pole made of pure gold on the bank, and the narrow boat instantly swung away from the river bank and sailed along the river into the darkness.
At the same time, the old woman also said: "If you want to cross the river, just wait here honestly!"
After finishing speaking, there was a dull sound of copper bells. The sound was muffled and deep, and it soon covered up the old woman's words.
I watched the boat getting further and further away, sighed helplessly, got up from the ground, and laid Xiong Ming flat on the river bank.
And when I turned Xiong Ming over, I almost burst out laughing.
Originally, only half of Xiong Ming's face hit the ground, but this time it was good. The fall just now happened to turn the remaining half of Xiong Ming's face into a pig's head.
I looked at Xiong Ming's green and purple face and couldn't help but sigh. Then I took out a pack of cigarettes from my jacket pocket. Just as I was about to light it, I saw a figure flashing out of the darkness not far to the left. Pass.
My heart tightened, and of course I shouted to the dark place on the left: "Who is there?"
But there was no response. When no one answered me, I stood up and walked slowly towards the dark place on the left. My right hand unconsciously reached for the knife stuck in my waist.
I walked very slowly. Originally, the distance was only six or seven meters, but I walked for five minutes.
I walked very lightly, lifting and placing each step gently, for fear of making any noise.
But just when I was about to walk into the darkness, suddenly there was a "crash" under my feet.
I was stunned, and before I had time to react, I stepped on something under my feet.
I was surprised and said, "What did I step on?"
I thought as I squatted down to see what I had stepped on. But when I saw the object at my feet, I was stunned.
Because that thing was nothing else but a bunch of mobile phone accessories.
I picked up the mobile phone pendant on the ground and found that there was a bow and two bells on it. The bells and bow were covered with diamonds, and they still shone brightly in the dim light of the underground river.
Even if I'm stupid, I know that this thing doesn't belong in the plateau area, and the people living nearby don't have time to tinker with these bits and pieces.
"Since it doesn't belong here, then why does it appear in this place?" I looked at the string of mobile phone pendants in my hand in surprise, and thought to myself: "Could it be that the black shadow just left it accidentally? So that's it. , is that guy a woman? Or is he a transvestite?"
Just when I was looking at the object in my hand in a daze, suddenly the string of copper bells sounded on the river again.
"Bang...bang...bang..."
Every time the bell struck, I felt like my heart was being hammered hard.
I took a long breath and moved my thoughts back from the string of mobile phone pendants.
I am a very open-minded person, and I often comfort myself, "All unanswered questions will be answered one day. As for when that day will be? Let time handle it!"
It was this mentality that made me stop worrying about the pendant and the figure. Instead, I carefully put the cell phone pendant into my jacket pocket, turned around and walked towards the river bank.
The boat came very quickly, and it landed on the shore in a short time. But what surprised me was that this time there was only an old woman.
The boatman who had been standing behind her now disappeared.
The old woman held the pure gold pole and swung it back and forth in the river a few times. The long and narrow boat straightened instantly.
Looking at the movements of the old woman in one go, I couldn't help but sigh in my heart: "Where did this old woman come from? The boat pole weighing dozens of kilograms was like a bamboo pole in her hand. She stopped the boat and docked so lightly. This... Even Xiong Ming's arm strength is strong enough to do it."
The old woman didn't notice what I was thinking. After parking the boat, she poled the solid gold boat into the river and said softly: "Get on the boat! It's your turn to cross the river!"
Without further ado, I leaned over and carried Xiong Ming on my back, then jumped onto the long and narrow boat.
