I collect cultural relics in the human world

"I'll stay." Li Chong was the first to respond to this plan, "I am most familiar with the terrain here."

"I'm staying too!"

"Me too!"

"We don't need so many, and we don't want to add too much burden to others." After Uncle Zhao finished speaking, several young men started arguing about the remaining indicators.

At noon, the sun's passion was fully revealed, and the wind disappeared without a trace. The desert surrounding them in the distance lost its golden tone under the heat of the sun and turned white, as if all the vitality had been evaporated, leaving only The heat waves of the sun billow in the air.

Lao Chaofeng looked at the sky and suddenly intervened in the debate: "The sun rises too fast and time waits for no one. It's better to split up and make sure that one of the people left behind will take us to the spring. The people below will continue to discuss the retreat and the list of people to stay, how about Li Chong?"

Lao Chao had something to say, and before Uncle Zhao agreed, Li Chong responded immediately, but then a dull voice also sounded from the crowd.

"I'll go too." Several people turned around, and it was Zhu Bin who wanted to leave.

"Are you looking for trouble?" Li Chong rolled up his sleeves, looking like he was sharpening his sword.

"Hey, brother Li Chong," Fan Yu stepped forward and hugged the impatient man and walked out of the shed, "What do you care about him? Lead the way. Let's go our own way."

Fan Yu knew what Lao Chaofeng meant. Li Chong was the least thoughtful in the room. With him, he could learn the most information along the way.But Uncle Zhao obviously also knew what Qin Jian was thinking. If Li Chong and Zhu Bin were really allowed to cause trouble here, Uncle Zhao would have an opportunity and would have to change the person leading the way. By then, they might not be able to find out anything along the way. A trip in vain.Thinking of this, of course he had to pull Li Chong on first, not giving Uncle Zhao a chance to stop and consolidate the results of the first step.

As for Zhu Bin, Fan Yu remained calm on the surface, but was very puzzled in his heart.This man sounds like the son of the old village chief, but he has conflicts with the whole village, especially with Li Chong, who is impatient and can't deal with it, and keeps him around to talk. Maybe there will be unexpected gains.

Lao Chaofeng obviously thought so too. He nodded to Zhu Bin and said, "That's troublesome."

Uncle Zhao wanted to say something else, but when the villagers in the shed saw that something had come to an end, they gathered around him one after another. Discussions about staying and leaving continued, and he could only watch a few people walking quickly to the back of the village.

The noise faded away behind them. A few people followed Li Chong through three or four mud houses and around the winding paths. After walking for seven or eight minutes, they finally came to a low-lying place, where a large piece of greenery felt comfortable but unexpected. The ground grew out of the flying sand and stones, and turned out to be a common reed beach in the Jiangnan water towns.

"We're here." Li Chong stopped. In fact, not only did he tell a few people, but they also knew that they had arrived at their destination. They all stopped. Only Jun Jiuzi took a few steps forward, with a look of yearning on his face.

In the sea of ​​sand, the reed beach is like another undulating ocean, swaying and rustling in the wind.The sun shines through the sparse clouds on the reed beach, casting mottled light and shadow, which is more delicate and graceful than the majestic and magnificent desert.

Lao Chao Fengzai looked at everything in front of him carefully, trying to find any trace of the ancient ability, but found nothing - except for one thing, this scene was too similar to He Si's dream. It was just the end of He Si's dream, the desert oasis. It was nothing more than a mirage, with the bones of devoured animals left in the middle of the quicksand.

Lao Chaofeng had a bad premonition in his heart. This dream was not a clue to an ancient artifact, but rather a metaphor about the ending.

The traces of the spring water are no longer visible, but the reeds are still standing in the wind, with tall stems and slender leaves, emerald green.It can be seen that although the sand spring has dried up, the groundwater level is still high, at least where the reed roots can draw it.Things may not have developed to an irreversible point yet, and Jun Jiuzi felt a little more comfort in her uneasy mood.

The spring guard was still beside the sand pool. When he saw Li Chong, he ran over as if he had seen the backbone of Li Chong.

"Is this the Shaquan you were on duty last night?"

The young man guarding the spring glanced at the old Chaofeng who was speaking. Before the fear dissipated from his face, he showed hostility and stared without saying a word.

"It's okay," Li Chong patted the young man on the back and said, "They are here to cooperate with us to find a solution."

"The Shenquan was dried up by their people. Who knows if it's the cat crying over the mouse, especially that woman," the young man said, pointing to Jun Jiuzi, "She was the one who sneakily appeared on the edge of our village first. Shaquan has had problems one after another."

"Misunderstand……"

Before Jun Jiuzi finished speaking, there was a snap, and the big hand that was supporting the young man's back a moment ago slapped the back of his head, causing him to stagger.

"Brother Chong..." The young man touched the back of his head, looking aggrieved.

"You can't do anything anymore, right?"

"No."

"Just answer the question. Was it you who was on duty at Shaquan last night?"

"Don't you know..." The young man muttered with his head lowered. Seeing Li Chong glare and wave his big black hand over again, he quickly replied, "Yes, yes, it's me."

"What kind of attitude do you have? Do you usually treat others like this?" Zhu Bin couldn't help but speak when he saw how pitifully the young people were being oppressed.

Unexpectedly, it was not Li Chong who answered him this time. The young man suddenly turned around with a stiff neck and said, "What does it have to do with you?"

Zhu Bin was so sentimental that he suffered a loss. His brown face turned red after holding in his breath, and he could only mutter to himself: "I don't know what is good or bad."

Li Chong was in a surprisingly good mood. He slapped the young man on the back again, looked at Zhu Bin specifically and said, "Jiang Zi has a lot of potential, he will give his brother a good face!"

Fan Yu couldn't help but laugh when he saw it: "You guys have a good relationship, one is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer. By the way, Jiang Zi, were you always guarding the spring last night?"

"Yes, this is the rule of the village. You can't leave even one step while guarding the spring."

"If...it's an urgent need to urinate, there must be some personal issues that need to be resolved."

Jiang Zi smiled, pointed his fingers around and asked, "We are all men, why do we have to choose a place to pee?"

"Haha," Li Chong was happy when he heard this, and continued, "You people in the city don't understand this. The most precious thing in the desert is water. We usually save it to water the saplings, but you are not as particular as you."

"There's a lady here, be careful what you say." Zhu Bin was also a perseverant person, and after holding back, he still didn't forget to interrupt.

"Thank you, don't worry about me," Jun Jiuzi smiled calmly, "I've come here from crawling in the sand, I understand."

"When I heard people call you Professor Jun before, I thought that a female doll was not worthy of you, but I confirmed it when I saw you today." Li Chong said and gave a thumbs up.

Jun Jiuzi felt a little embarrassed because of the compliment, and then asked Jiang Zi: "Did anything unusual happen while you were guarding the spring?"

"It's strange. If the spring water has dried up, doesn't it count?"

"except this."

"No more." Jiang Zi shook his head honestly.

"Since you haven't left, can you tell when the spring water dried up?" "When I came to change my shift after dinner last night, the sand spring was still normal. It can't be called normal. It was just turbid, but the water level did not change significantly. At that time, it was "Eight o'clock in the evening," Jiang Zi recalled for a while and continued: "It hasn't changed much since then. Maybe it was because it was dark and I didn't notice it at first. Later, a water bird suddenly flew out from the reeds as if it was frightened. Of course I I had to go check it out. I wouldn’t know if I didn’t look at it. After a quick look, I realized that something was wrong. The bottom of the spring seemed to be leaking. The water level had dropped a lot. Bubbles were bubbling at the edge of the spring. After a while, it was... different. We’ll see the bottom soon.”

Although it was just a memory, the scene seemed to have happened again before Jiang Zi's eyes. He tried to stay calm, but he still couldn't hide the panic in his eyes.

"About what time will that be?" Jun Jiuzi didn't have time to take into account his emotions and asked directly.

"02:30." Although he was panicked, Jiang Zi said with certainty. He pointed at the watch on his hand and said, "I looked at the time when I called the village chief."

"Did you leave during the time when you called the village chief?"

"No," Jiang Zi said, taking out a whistle from his pocket and emphasizing again, "You are not allowed to leave during the guarding of the spring. In case of emergency, we all use the whistle to contact you. The village front house comes very quickly."

"That's true." Fan Yu nodded when he heard this.

In fact, it would have no impact even if he left. The spring water had already begun to disappear by then. Since Jiang Zi had not seen anything strange before, it made no difference whether he stayed or not.He then looked at the sand pit where there was obviously no drop of water. The color of the sand was darker than the surroundings. The remaining water vapor seemed to have not been completely evaporated by the sun, but if it continued to be exposed to the sun like this, it might not be far away from this moment. .

What exactly happened?What caused the spring to disappear this time?The most important thing is, what is the motivation of the person who did all this?

Fan Yu thought, and his eyes shifted to the face of Zhu Bin who volunteered to accompany them to the spring. This young man seemed to be dismissive of the sacrifice just now, and he also wanted to persuade the whole village to leave together. I don't know what he thought about the disappearance of the spring. How it looked, he decided to inquire about it.

But before Fan Yu had time to speak, Jun Jiuzi suddenly said, "Where is our researcher Xiao Chen? Can I see him?"

Li Chong and Jiang Zi were silent, but Zhu Bin frowned and asked as if he didn't know anything: "You also kidnapped people?"

"What do you know? We just leave him here to ask about the situation."

"Do you really think this is a lawless place?"

"Hey, we are scholars after all. Then you go find someone to arrest us. I happen to want to ask the police to investigate our spring water."

"Rogue!"

"Let's not talk about this matter for now," Jun Jiuzi quickly interrupted their meaningless argument, "Since you said that the matter is related to Xiao Chen, and you even want to drag him to worship his ancestors, you must let me meet with him first. , he may know many situations better than us."

"You have to ask Uncle Zhao about this. The key is with him," Li Chong added, "otherwise I will take you to the place where he is locked up, and you can chat through the door first."

"I have the key, where is he being held?" Zhu Bin interrupted.

"Where did you get the keys?" After Li Chong finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that he was the son of the village chief. According to the usual practice, the village chief did have a set of spare keys for the whole village, and his voice became mute.

"Let me ask you, where are the people being held?"

"Is that key yours? It belongs to the next village chief."

As soon as Li Chong finished speaking, he saw Jiang Zi glance at Zhu Bin with disdain and said angrily: "If the village chief knows that the key he left behind has been used like this, he will probably die in peace."

"What did you say!" This sentence touched Zhu Bin's weakness. He had been patient and suddenly jumped up and rushed in front of Jiang Zi. This man looked like a scholar, but he still had the blood of Shaquan Village in his bones.

"Hey, brother, don't be impulsive." Fan Yu stopped Zhu Bin and found that his breath was unstable, and his eyes turned scarlet because of these words.

"Did I said wrong thing……"

"Jiang Zi, shut up!" Under Li Chong's sharp scolding, Jiang Zi shut up and stepped aside.

Li Chong looked at Zhu Bin, who was still upset, and Jiang Zi, who was dejected. He licked his lips before saying, "Do you have the key with you?"

Zhu Bin remained silent and nodded slightly.

"Then let's go, I'll take you there." After saying that, he turned back and pointed at Jiang Zi, "You stay here, Uncle Zhao has something to do ahead of time and will come back to you later."

Several people changed directions and turned around and walked towards the village. Just like when they came, Zhu Bin was still alone at the back of the team, but his mood was much worse than when he came. Fan Yu also slowed down when he saw this.

"Hey," Fan Yu greeted and went straight to the topic, "I just heard that you seem to have some conflicts with the villagers?"

"I don't know what is good and what is evil." Zhu Bin's anger rose again as he thought about Jiang Zi's attitude towards him just now. "The people in this village are obsessed with living a good life and insisting on living a miserable life in this poor mountain and harsh water. "

"Are you the old village chief's son?"

Zhu Bin nodded at this knowing question.

"Then... I'm sorry, let me ask privately, is Uncle Zhao the new village chief?"

"Not yet, but it will be soon." Knowing Fan Yu's true intention, Zhu Bin sighed and replied, "My father has only been away for a month, and the election of the village chief has not been decided yet, but Uncle Zhao has senior qualifications and said It’s acquiesce if you agree.”

"I see. I'm sorry to bring up your sadness again." Fan Yu leaned closer, "I just don't understand. Since your father is the village chief, he must want to save the village. Why...why... Why are you going against your father?"

"This is not playing devil's advocate," Zhu Bin shook his head, "Do you think this place is suitable for human habitation?"

"The place is indeed a bit barren, but after all, there is a sacred spring that feeds a whole village of people. Our ancestors have been working on this land for generations. It is normal to be reluctant to part with it. Please take it easy."

"I don't want to persuade you anymore, just let them stay here if they like. I'm so angry."

"You are just talking angrily," Fan Yu smiled and put his arm on Zhu Bin's shoulder, "There is always a reason why you don't want to leave. Is there nothing else other than habit?"

"Ha," Zhu Bin sneered, "Since we want to worship our ancestors, didn't they tell you where they are?"

"That's it, the ancestral temple, do you have any explanation?"

"Everyone in our Shaquan Town has a dream, which is to live a peaceful life and be buried in the ancestral temple after death. By my father's generation, fifteen generations of people have been buried in the ancestral temple, and the top The wooden signs are all decayed and broken, and the name cannot be seen clearly, but this dream has never changed."

"Why is this?" Fan Yu felt that he was finally going to find out the truth.

(End of this chapter)