Xuanyuan Jue

Chapter 112 The world is bustling (4)
The woman hugged the man's thigh and wailed, "You, the head of the family, kill me... I don't want to live anymore!"

When everyone saw it, they quickly supported the man.Lu Ban shouted: "You man is so ignorant! If you kill your wife, your daughter will come back to life?"

Feng Shen was afraid that Lu Ban's words would be too harsh, so he hurriedly tried to persuade him: "Dead people can't be brought back to life...sorry to both of you."

"It's time for retribution!" The man wailed and squatted down with his head in his arms.Tears dripped down the eye sockets. "I didn't expect Erya... she couldn't escape after all..."

Lu Bantou believed in ghosts and gods at first, but he felt terrified when he told him so.But because of his face, he still raised his voice, trying to gain some courage. "You... You really deserve to be a couple... One is talking about water ghosts, the other is calling for retribution... You girls are so young, how can you offend any god!?"

The man wiped his face and sighed: "If it's a god, it won't argue with us. What she offended... is the water ghost in the moat!"

Hearing the couple repeatedly talking about water ghosts, Feng Shen was quite puzzled. "Why do you think it's a water ghost? My sister-in-law, it was raining heavily when the incident happened, and her face must have been covered with mud and water, and her eyes were dilated... It's hard to guarantee that you didn't see it."

"That water ghost... I did see it." The woman shook her head, sobbing and held up the little flower shoe in her hand, "I was afraid that something would happen to Erya, so I specially sewed a red cloth on the toe of her shoe to ward off evil spirits... If you don't want to... If you don't want to, it's still..."

Speaking of this, the woman was sobbing.Everyone looked at the embroidered shoes in her hand, and found that there was indeed a small piece of red cloth nailed to the toe of the shoe.

Lu Ban scratched his head, wondering: "How do you know something will happen to her?"

The man continued, "Because Erya... stole the offerings for the water ghost!"

"It's really strange!" Lu Ban shouted, "I only heard that there are people who worship the God of the River and the Lord of the Dragon... It's the first time I've heard of worshiping the water ghost!"

The man sighed for a long time before telling the inside story.

The Cao households on their canals don't beg for food in the great rivers and oceans, so they don't worship the dragon god very much.Whenever the river opens, the group will be led by the leader, butchering a fat chicken and burning a few sticks of high incense is regarded as a sacrifice to the river.

However, the canal is big, and naturally many lives have been swallowed up.Leaving aside those who stumbled and drowned, just those who commit suicide and throw themselves into the water, every year there are not twenty-five, but nearly ten.

As more people die, all kinds of taboos follow.Beside the canal, there is a saying: "If you bully the mountains, you don't bully the water. If you bully the water, you will meet ghosts." It is said that the water is full of yin, and the souls of the drowned are trapped by the water and turn into water ghosts.Only those who are pulled to the back can be reincarnated.Therefore, the Cao households did not fear God, but feared the undead who died in vain in the river.Fear of being singled out, being dragged away by the water ghost and ruining his life.

One end of the moat is close to the canal, which is the only way for Cao households to go to and from Datong Bridge Wharf.I don't know when it started, the deep canal section of the moat began to show evil nature.People are often dragged into the water by monsters jumping out of the river, and the corpses are also missing.This kind of incident has happened several times, and the surrounding residents have rumored that there is a water ghost.At night, there are few people on the embankment.Even the water workers who are not lacking in physical strength have to travel in groups of threes and twos before they dare to pass at night.

When the trouble became fierce, the tenants were all terrified.So each family spontaneously bought a pig's head and a sheep's head, and threw them into the river to feed the water ghosts.There are three sacrifices a year to pray for the safety of the family.

The third day of March is the first sacrifice at the beginning of the year.The man went to the butcher's stall early to cut a pig's head, took it home and let his wife cook it, and prepared to throw it into the river the next day.The woman cleaned the singed hair of the pig's head, put it on the stove, and went on to other tasks.The daughter Erya was greedy, followed the smell of meat, uncovered the pot, and secretly tore a few strips of undercooked pork to eat.After the couple found out, the pig's head that ate the ghost had already "disappeared".

The erya who steals the mouth must be beaten.But after beating their daughter, the couple became worried.Cao households make a living as coolies, with heavy work and little money, and it is rare to get meat on their food a few times.Otherwise, Erya wouldn't be so greedy.If you want to buy another pig's head, the family will inevitably have to dig through their teeth again.After discussing for a whole night, the couple still couldn't bear it.Early the next morning, the couple quietly threw the broken pig's head into the river, and built some extra papyrus, which was considered a good deal.

After that, the whole family was worried, feeling that they had fooled the water ghost.Afraid of causing trouble, the woman burned incense and prayed to Buddha, and gave red cloth spiked shoes to her daughter.After a while, everything was fine.I thought this matter was over, but I didn't expect that the water ghost jumped ashore in broad daylight today, and dragged Erya to drown.

"His grandma's!" Lu Ban yelled at the river, "This bastard's eyes are sharper than his mother's needle eyes! Doesn't he just eat your flesh? As for being fussy with a child?"

Feng Shen didn't fully believe the water ghost pulling people.I always feel that the woman has lost her head in a hurry, and her eyes have an illusion.However, according to what the woman said, when all the yamen servants arrived, the second girl had already drowned, there was absolutely no reason for her to survive.But she is a little girl, Feng Shen couldn't bear her body to be soaked in the river and let fishes and shrimps compete for food, so he said to the couple: "The matter has come to this point, there is no way to recover. Then let's help the two of you to fish up Ling Ai's body." .”

"What else are you looking for..." The man shook his head in pain, "The one who was dragged away by the water ghost...how can we find the corpse?"

"Why can't I find it?" Lu Ban yelled, "Although the water in this section is deep, compared with rivers, it's just a palm-sized area... But it's strange, it is said that after so long, the corpse should have been soaked to the brim. ...was it entangled in water plants?"

"Gentlemen," the man clasped his fists at the yamen servants with red eyes, "we admit this bad luck! The girl's body... is definitely not found... If you don't listen to persuasion, we won't be able to stop it." Stay... we don't care anyway!"

After finishing speaking, the man wiped his face, dragged the woman and stumbled away.

Lu Ban was stunned for a while, and didn't recall it for a long time. "Why... are they all stinky? Is it my own? Feng Jingjing, you said that girl... Is it their own?"

Feng Shen sighed, and said, "Leave them alone. Let us brothers take some effort to salvage the girl's body and bury it..."

At this moment, a few spectators had gathered on the embankment.Hearing that the officials were about to go down the river to retrieve the corpse, the expression on his face was full of astonishment.

Feng Shen ignored it and wanted to take the lead in getting into the water.He just lifted up his robe, but was blocked by Lu Ban's head. "Feng Jing, don't go down! The water looks quite deep, and it's a bit weird to keep it uneven..."

Feng Shen waved his hand and said, "I don't believe those..."

"Feng Jing, you stay here!" The two good-natured yamen servants also persuaded, "Both of us took off our clothes! How can we use so many people to pick up a child's corpse?"

Feng Shen thought the same, so he stopped insisting. "Be careful!"

The second yamen servant responded and jumped into the river.Seeing this, a group of people on the bank stepped forward one after another, their eyes fixed on the river.

Those two yamen servants were really good at water, they held their breath for a long time, and dived to the bottom of the river.But after fumbling back and forth for a long time, only a few pig and sheep skulls were thrown up.

The animal bones in the river proved that what the couple said was true.It seems that a lot of pigs' heads and sheep's heads are used to worship water ghosts.Seeing that there are more and more skulls on the shore, the girl's body has not yet been found.

After waiting for a while, a yamen servant floated up and swam back to the shore. "Huh... Take a break before fishing... It's really strange, the bottom of the river was almost sifted, but I couldn't find it... Eh? Has the iron lock been up yet? This kid has not held his breath for as long as me... I haven't seen you in a few days Have you got the patience?"

Feng Shen's heart trembled, and he faintly felt that something was wrong.He anxiously probed into the river, but saw a pool of bright red blood floating up on the surface of the water not far away!
(End of this chapter)