Chapter 21 "Dragon King"

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, Chenjia Village is relatively isolated and backward; on weekdays, the highest administrator in the village is the village chief, followed by a group of older people. , the reputation is also good among the elders.

If something happens in the village, the village chief and these "elders" usually discuss countermeasures. 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 Chenjiacun has less money than the rich households in the city. He's just a farmer, not even as good as a businessman passing by doing business; when it comes to beauties, in this mountainous place, the girls in the village have been exposed to the wind and sun since they were young and have to do farm work, and have no chance to receive any cultural education. Therefore, when you grow up, your appearance and temperament will generally not be very good.

In a place like this, unless there happens to be a bandit's village nearby, even bandits and flower-picking thieves will not go out of their way to visit.

Therefore, life in this village was relatively peaceful.

Until...someday in the seventeenth year of Yongtai.

That day, there was a thunderstorm, which continued from day to night, without any letup.

With 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 gone.

The children in this mountain village are naughty, but they don’t go home at night. Moreover, it rained so heavily last night and it was dark outside, so it is unlikely that the children would 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's getting dark again. Now, the adults are very anxious.

First, there were as many as nine lost children, and they were all boys. In those days, to say that boys were favored over girls was to be polite; to put it harshly, many families, especially poor families, They don't treat their daughters as human beings at all... There are not a few 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. Lost. Can you not make a fuss?

Thirdly, what happened this time is very strange. There are still many families in the village who have not lost their children, and they are also worried. They are afraid that their children will be gone when they wake up early tomorrow morning.

That night, an atmosphere of terror spread in the village...

The village chief was even considering sending someone to the county tomorrow, go to the county government office to pay some money, and ask the superiors to investigate.

The next day, early in the morning, someone shouted at the entrance of the village, saying, "Something big happened! There is a goblin!"

The villagers heard the sound They also came in droves and talked a lot; when the village chief arrived after hearing the news, almost the whole village, men, women, old and young, had gathered around...

The crowd made way for the village chief to step forward. , he took a closer look and couldn't help but take a breath: only to see that half of a wooden stake thicker than the mouth of a bowl was stuck diagonally on the dirt floor at the entrance of the village.

Looking carefully, 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...

"Water Lord Jie Shen descended into the mountain, and Li Shu was ignorant of the west wind. If he wanted his nine sons to return home, he would 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 are too I am ignorant and did not receive the Dragon King well. The Dragon King became angry, so the village lost nine children. Now the Dragon King has 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 You 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 person.

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 in a thunderstorm night and insert the mast of a ship into the ground must not be human...< /p>

The more people lack knowledge and ability, 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.

In pursuit of 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. Wrong together.

So the villagers hurriedly gathered together a few baskets of chickens, ducks, fish, meat, rice, noodles and grains, and carried them to the cave in the north of the village while beating gongs and drums and carrying burdens.

The cave is very deep and connected to the 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 after entering; originally, this cave did not have any But now that "Dragon King" has said this is the Dragon King Cave, the villagers just call 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 lost children were lying under the altar table, but yesterday’s offerings were all missing...

Later, several similar things 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 usually still young. Unluckily, even when asked by adults what he saw, he couldn't explain clearly.

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 the tenth day of every lunar month Five batches of "offerings" are sent over, and 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 be "having sex with the son of the Dragon King."

In fact, after seeing this, all the readers can probably tell that this group of thieves pretending to be the Dragon King are not very smart. The excuse they came up with is really far-fetched, but they can't help it. ... Because older girls are different from children, the girl may run away, and if she sees something and talks nonsense when she goes back, she will be blamed for the "Dragon King's Cave" incident.

So, they came up with the idea of ​​"**", which would allow the villagers to send people over when it was dark; the girl couldn't see clearly in the dark, and she could run away even if she wanted to. It's not far away. As soon as the villagers leave, they will come out to get people, so the other party can't 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 something good happens in life, they will say that it was blessed by the Dragon King. , our offerings are indeed worth it; whenever something bad happens, we feel that we are not sincere enough, so we should give more offerings next time.

Until...that evening, two people came to the entrance of the village...

.........

After Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai entered Chenjia Village, I randomly found a tea shed and sat down, and immediately asked about the scene I 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, Qizui All the above contents were explained in a roundabout way while complementing each other.

After listening, the first reaction in the minds of the two modern people, Brother Sun and Brother Huang, who have traveled through time and space, is also conceivable - this is a fucking ruthless person, isn't it kidnapping and extortion? ?

But they didn’t say anything in front of the villagers, because through observing their words and expressions, they had already seen that the villagers here were already StockholmSyndrome, if you say something wrong about the "Dragon King" in front of them, they might even 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 asked him not to disturb them. Then he closed the door and began to discuss with Huang Donglai...

"Brother Sun, do you care?" Huang Donglai opened his mouth and 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, "That's what happened in Zoumazhai?" We don't care about this blatant thing, why are we afraid of these pretenders?" He paused, "Besides, brother, things are different now, okay? With my skills, killing a few bandits is not the same as killing them. "Chopping melons and vegetables?"

"Okay, Brother Sun, that's all right," Huang Donglai said, "I admit that you are making some progress now, but don't have the illusion that you are very powerful. Okay? When you are chased and chopped, do you want me to cut you off?"

"Shut up~" Sun Yixie said in a long voice, "When will I do it?" Have you ever been chased and chopped? Just tell me, are you scared?" "What am I scared of?" Huang Donglai said, "I just asked you to be careful. Damn, another careless person will suffer."

"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 Yi Xie smiled obscenely, "Listen to me and tell me slowly..."