"What's cooking in the pot is catfish." Zhu Xiucai replied in a low voice.
"What's wrong with the catfish?" Qin Shaoyou asked in confusion.
He didn't know much about fish, he only knew that catfish was edible, and he didn't understand why Zhu Xiucai had this reaction.
Zhu Xiucai explained: "Catfish are ferocious in nature and like to eat meat. In addition to preying on fish and shrimps in the water, they also eat carrion."
carrion?
Qin Shaoyou changed his color slightly, but he understood what Zhu Xiucai meant.
There had been a flood in this river before, which not only collapsed the bridge, but also destroyed the villages along the bank, so someone must have drowned!
For those who were drowned, if they were lucky, their bodies would be salvaged, but if they were unlucky, their bodies would be entangled in water, plants and other objects, and they would have to be buried at the bottom of the river.
The catfish in the river eat carrion. No one can tell what kind of meat they ate during this period.
Therefore, it is better not to eat these catfish.
Liao Lishi, who was guarding his old friend's coffin, couldn't help but frown and lowered his voice after listening to the whispers of Qin Shaoyou and Zhu Xiucai:
"Normally, these people who make a living in the water should be particularly taboo about this kind of thing. How can they cook and eat catfish at this time? There is no way that there is only one kind of fish in this river, right?"
"It's definitely a bit weird."
Qin Shaoyou nodded lightly, and quietly moved his steps closer to the fisherman holding the boat.
But he didn't get too close, and kept a good distance.
This distance will not arouse the fisherman's alertness, and at the same time, if the fisherman does behave strangely, he can be subdued immediately.
Zhu Xiucai also moved his steps quietly, forming a cooperative trend with Qin Shaoyou.
At the same time, he remembered an old incident and whispered: "When I used to work in a township and county, I once handled a case where a ghost paid for his life. A ghost deliberately threw copper coins near the official road to lure passers-by to pick them up.
Anyone who picks up this money will find that when they spend it, they will find that these coins are still copper and silver when they are picked up, but when they are spent, they will become paper money, and there will be a message on it that I will lend you a few years of life.
Something like that...
Do you think the catfish cooked on this boat is just like paper money, used to borrow money for longevity?
If you eat them, your life will be taken away?"
The night watchman is full of energy and often deals with monsters and ghosts, so his sixth sense is much sharper than others.
Zhu Xiucai just felt something was wrong at the moment and was making bold assumptions.
Liao Lishi frowned and said: "If it is really a matter of borrowing fish for longevity, then who is borrowing it? Is it these boatmen? They don't look like people who understand the art of witchcraft, and they are not old, far from old
It’s a point where I need to borrow Yangshou to extend my life.”
"It's not necessarily to lend them longevity, maybe... it's to the people who drowned." Qin Shaoyou thought of a possibility.
Zhu Xiucai and Liao Lishi both changed their expressions.
Obviously everyone feels that this speculation is likely to happen.
Qin Shaoyou raised his voice, pretended to chat, and tried to trick the fisherman who was punting the boat: "Boatman, a lot of people must have drowned in the flood before, right?"
The fisherman sighed, with a sad look on his face: "A lot of people did drown."
Zhu Xiucai took up the topic and asked him: "Shipman, everyone in your family should be okay?"
The fisherman stiffened slightly, and then replied in an unnatural tone: "It's okay... Haha, it's okay."
Zhu Xiucai and Qin Shaoyou looked at each other.
They all saw that the fisherman was lying.
Before they could ask further, the fisherman had already arrived at the middle of the river with his boat.
At this moment, the night watchmen on the two ships suddenly felt a chill coming.
The chill penetrated the skin and went straight into the bones and organs, causing even the energetic night watchmen to shiver.
Then I realized there was a problem!
It's the beginning of summer, and it's the end of the year. The sun is scorching, so why does it suddenly become so cold?
Even if the river wind blows, it shouldn't be like this.
A night watchman looked up at the sky and suddenly discovered that the sun in the sky had become hazy at this moment.
It's like being caught by a dragon.
And this hazy feeling is still getting stronger.
The next moment, they knew why they had this weird hazy feeling.
But there was fog on the river, and the fog blocked the sun.
Not only that, after the fog appeared, it became stronger and thicker at an extremely abnormal speed.
In just a few breaths, the mist covering the river was so thick that people couldn't see the sun or the people around them.
Moreover, this mist seems to have the effect of blocking sounds.
The sound of running water, the sound of oars, and even the sounds of conversations that everyone heard before when the boat was sailing in the river were all gone at this moment.
No, we can’t say there isn’t one.
Qin Shaoyou soon made a new discovery.
The sound must have been blocked by the fog, making it very quiet, making it difficult to hear.
This feeling is a bit like on earth, when taking off and landing quickly in an airplane or elevator, the pressure inside and outside the ears is unbalanced, blocking the Eustachian tube, causing hearing loss.
If you were an ordinary person in this world, you would definitely be frightened by this weird scene.
But Qin Shaoyou and the others were not like this.
Not only were they not frightened, they immediately controlled the fishermen on the two boats according to the direction in their memory.
Seeing Qin Shaoyou and Zhu Xiucai suddenly appearing in front of and beside him, the fisherman was confused at first, and then panicked.
He seemed to be confused as to why these two people were not affected by the sudden heavy fog. Why were they not frightened by the sudden deafness?
Zhu Xiucai stared at the fisherman and asked with a sneer: "Boatman, tell me, what's going on with this fog? And those catfish you're boiling in the pot, are they used to buy lives with longevity?"
"I...I don't know what you are talking about." The fisherman stuttered a little when he said this. He was obviously flustered and uneasy after his thoughts were revealed.
And judging from his appearance, he was not affected by the cold air, nor was his hearing blocked by the strange fog.
Zhu Xiucai snorted coldly and was about to ask another question when he suddenly felt the light around him dim.
The fog that appeared on the river actually blocked the sunlight, making the area shrouded in fog instantly darken, as if it were dark night.
Then, a voice came from the mist.
The sounds were small at first, but soon became loud and noisy.
"There is indeed a problem!"
Qin Shaoyou didn't panic. After listening for a while, he heard the sound of raging water, river embankments, and houses being washed down.
But more often, there are screams, cries, calls for help...
Qin Shaoyou immediately understood that these should be the sounds that appeared on the night of the flood.
It’s not just the sound…
In the dark river water, there were also groups of black shadows.
Qin Shaoyou and the night watchmen immediately poured blood into their eyes. Even though the light was dim, they could clearly see the black shadows appearing in the river.
Those are heads one after another.
All the heads were disheveled, their faces were blue and purple, their entire faces were swollen and disfigured, their two eyeballs were protruding, and they were pale and bloodless, and their lips were turned outwards, with black tongues sticking out...
After these human heads emerged from the bottom of the river, they poured towards the two boats from all directions.