Anecdote of the Yellow River

Chapter 2 Strange Talks Under the Lamp: Those Weird Things
When my grandfather was just 20 years old, he started to make a living as a corpse fisher in the Yellow River, and he has been walking on the ancient road of the Yellow River for almost 50 years.There are hundreds of strange things he has seen. When I was young, I liked my grandfather telling me the strange things that happened on the Yellow River.

I often curl up on the kang wrapped in a quilt, feeling scared and curious at the same time.Grandpa was sitting opposite me, and there was a small square table in the middle. A small oil lamp was lit on top of the square table.Grandpa grabbed a handful of peanuts and told me stories while sipping on a small wine.

One year, a great famine occurred in the local area, and thousands of miles of people died of starvation. Tens of thousands of corpses were floating on the Yellow River.In the relatively narrow section of the river, the crowded corpses even blocked the section of the river.

Since there are too many corpses, no matter how you clean them up, you can't finish them.Besides, at that time, no one organized manpower to clean up, and no one volunteered to clean up. Everyone couldn't even eat enough, so how could they care about these things?Many corpses were soaked in the water. At that time, people who lived by the Yellow River did not dare to drink the water in the Yellow River. They could smell the stench of corpses floating from the river surface from far away.These corpses finally sank to the bottom of the Yellow River along with the sand.

After the famine, the [-]-year-old grandfather officially became a corpse hunter in the Yellow River. He encountered strange things the first time he set out on a boat.

It was when the sun was about to set, and grandpa rowed the boat to go home.It is more taboo to fish corpses at night in this business, because dead corpses are very cloudy at night, and they are easy to "smash evil spirits". Therefore, corpse hunters on the Yellow River usually return their boats before sunset.

Grandpa hummed a ditty and slowly swayed the oar. The boat cut through the waves on the water surface, making a rattling sound.He was in a better mood, thinking that the first time he sailed was relatively smooth.

Suddenly, there was a whimpering cry.Grandpa stopped the scull and listened intently, and found that the voice was resentful and melodious, like weeping and complaining, as if it was close at hand, but also as if it was far away in the sky, so ethereal that it didn't seem like it was coming from a living person.

Grandpa looked up and saw that there were no other boats on the vast river except his own boat. Where did this strange crying sound come from?Grandpa's cold sweat fell suddenly. Could it be that the voice... came from the river?

After all, Grandpa is still a novice. This is the first time he encountered such a strange thing, and he was naturally extremely nervous. He hurriedly rowed, wanting to leave this water area as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, the strange crying became more and more clear and louder, as if there were many people crying at the bottom of the river, the crying was so desolate and sad, it almost broke people's hearts.Grandpa could faintly hear those people crying and shouting: "Hungry! We are so hungry!"

At this moment, Grandpa was surprised to find that the river surface in this area of ​​water turned blood red.Many whirlpools appeared in the blood water, and white hand bones protruded from the whirlpools.

The terrifying scene in front of him frightened grandpa out of his wits, and he swung the oar like a wind wheel.But no matter how hard he tried, the boat was pulled by the whirlpool and kept spinning on the water surface, unable to sail out of this water area at all.

After a while, there was a sudden clang of gongs at the bottom of the river.

Grandpa lay tightly on the side of the boat, stuck his head out, stretched his neck and looked towards the bottom of the river.

I saw many vague black shadows appearing indistinctly under the water. Judging from the outlines of those shadows, they looked like human figures.Those figures crowded each other in a row, walked slowly from the bottom of the river, and walked towards the center of the river.

Grandpa quickly retracted his head and lay motionless in the boat, not even daring to breathe.

I don't know how long it took, but the weird crying finally stopped.The surface of the river returned to its original appearance, without blood or whirlpools, as if everything it had just seen was a false illusion.

A few days later, when a sand mining ship was operating in this water area, it discovered that there were many clear footprints in the sand under the water. Those footprints were like a long snake, winding to the center of the river.

Later, grandpa went to ask the elder worker of the Yellow River for advice, and the old worker told him, "You have encountered Yin soldiers crossing the river! The figures you saw are the ghosts who starved to death. Hell. It's a good thing you didn't say anything, or you'd be one of them by now!"

According to legend, in another year, a strange sight of "two dragons swallowing the sun" appeared on the Yellow River. At least hundreds of people witnessed this spectacle.Grandpa was also one of the witnesses.

It was an early morning when the mist covered the Hengjiang River, the morning sun dyed the river red, and a round of autumn sun was hidden behind the morning mist, still holding a pipa half-hidden.This is a rare good weather in autumn. Although it is still early, many industrious fishermen have already gone out with their oars. "The early bird catches the worm" is an old adage that has never changed. People want to take advantage of this good weather to catch more fat fish.

In less than an hour, the originally bright sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and those thick black clouds were like galloping monsters, gathering with claws and teeth bared.But in the blink of an eye, the boundless sky seemed to be covered by a huge black cloth, and no sunlight could seep in.

The fishermen put down their work one after another. They have never seen such weird weather after walking on the Yellow River for so many years.

Someone muttered: "Isn't this the end of the world?"

Soon, the wind blew up on the river, and for a while, the waves rolled, and the fishing boats were like leaves falling in the wind, whirling wildly on the river.People were horrified to find that the water of the Yellow River turned black, like a big black dye vat, bubbling and bubbling, as if boiling.

At this time, some fishermen shouted loudly: "Run away! This is the king of the Yellow River who is angry!"

A fisherman shouted, "The king of the Yellow River must have complained that we caught too many fish, so he is not happy. Put the fish back into the river!"

The fishermen were all in awe of the Yellow River. When they heard that the King of the Yellow River was angry, they didn't dare to take the fish anymore, and hurriedly dumped the fish in the cabin into the river.

Strange to say, after the fishermen poured the fish from their cabins into the river, the water stopped boiling.

The fishermen gasped and rejoiced secretly that although they had been busy for nothing all morning, they finally saved their lives.

Among these fishing boats, there was only one fishing boat that did not dump the fish, and the owner of this fishing boat was two brothers from the Niu family.

The two brothers of the Niu family are the bully kings of Hezi Village. They have a bad temper, are very greedy and selfish, and have a bad relationship with the villagers.Seeing that the weather is good today, the Niu family brothers set out early and occupied a large area of ​​water for fishing.During this time, other ships broke into the waters they occupied, and the two brothers immediately took up the harpoons and threatened viciously, "Get out of my way! You are tired of fishing in our land, aren't you?"

The two brothers of the Niu family quickly caught a lot of fat fish, and it was absolutely impossible for them to put the fish they caught back into the river.The brothers of the Niu family looked coldly at the fishermen who were busy pouring fish, with mocking expressions on their faces, "A bunch of idiots! What about the King of the Yellow River? It's all bullshit, I don't believe it!"

The Niu brothers were indeed greedy. They rowed their boats beside other fishing boats and cast out their fishing nets to catch other people's fallen fish. This was much easier than fishing by themselves.Soon the fishing net was full of lively and fat fish, and the two brothers were delighted from ear to ear.

An old fisherman dissuaded him and said, "No way! You can't do this! The King of the Yellow River forbids us to take these fish away. Whoever takes them away will suffer!"

The Niu family brothers replied domineeringly: "Whoever dares not let us take these fish away will be damned!"

As soon as the Niu brothers finished speaking, they heard two loud bangs, and suddenly two powerful jets of black water rushed out of the water, one of which just rushed out from under the Niu brothers' fishing boat. The brothers were washed away without a trace.

The two water jets rushed from the Yellow River to the sky, connecting the Yellow River and the sky.Seen from a distance, the two huge swirling and rising water columns are like two giant pillars supporting the sky, which is quite spectacular.Two black whirlpools appeared under the water column like the mouths of monsters, sucking tens of thousands of fat fish into them.

With a click, a dazzling red lightning fell from the sky and split into the Yellow River.

At this moment, the fishermen saw in horror that two huge snake-shaped black shadows flew out of the river, coiled around the sky-high water column, and flew up to the nine heavens, back and forth in the black cloud waves roll.

"My God! Lord Dragon! It's Lord Dragon!"

Surprised and delighted, the fishermen raised their hands above their heads and kowtowed to the two black shadows rolling in the sky.

Those two huge black shadows swirled back and forth at the position of the sun, looking like two giant black dragons swallowing the red sun back and forth.

This strange scene lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and the dark clouds in the sky suddenly tore into pieces, drifted away quickly, and turned into a bright sunny sky again.And those two huge black shadows also sneaked into the Yellow River along the water column and disappeared without a trace.The two water jets collapsed suddenly, the crystal water droplets burst and splashed in all directions, and there was a short shower of rain.When the fishermen came back to their senses, everything returned to its previous calm, with only a few fragmented fishing boat boards floating on the water.

There are so many evil things on the ancient Yellow River Road that they cannot be counted. Believe it or not, the mysterious culture of the Yellow River Basin will affect us forever.

(End of this chapter)