"Ouch, my shoulder hurts, Liu'er, come here and change the handle. After carrying it for more than ten miles, the skin on my shoulder is worn out."
"You deserve it. I ask you to be lazy on weekdays. Look at Brother Taozi who came out of town with you. Nothing happened at all."
The young man who came over had thin arms and thin legs. He took the pole from the middle-aged man in a murmur, and continued walking with the man named Taozi carrying the pigs and sheep.
The three of them were walking and chatting, with heavy baskets swinging up and down. When they came to the dirt road leading to the village entrance, they happened to meet an ox cart coming. The three of them were all from the village, so they were naturally wary of outsiders.
The middle-aged man rubbing his shoulders walked faster, walked in front of the old cow, and raised his chin: "What do you do?"
"Oh, I'm here..."
Chen Yuan paused for a moment. Seeing their vigilant looks, he directly asked Yulongshan, whom he had never heard of before. He was afraid that something was wrong, so he smiled and raised his hands in less than half a breath.
"I am a craftsman who performs wood carvings everywhere. Brother, you have also seen the weather. It is about to rain heavily. Where can I go? I saw a village here and thought of coming over to take shelter from the rain.
.”
The two people carrying the cattle and sheep could not stand here and wait. They said hello and went back first. The middle-aged man who was left behind poked his head and looked into the car. In addition to a dark-faced Taoist, there was also a sleeping man.
There are little Taoist boys and puppets hanging all around.
"This Taoist priest is a hitchhiker."
Helping monks is common in the village. The man did not raise any suspicion, but he was worried about the fat Taoist's face and frowned: "That Taoist priest, what's wrong with your face..."
"I am born with a dark face." The fat Taoist endured the pain and pretended to be nonchalant, "Have you ever heard of a person with a dark face showing how upright his character is?"
"Ah yes."
Seeing that the Taoist priest was a little angry in his words, the man quickly stopped talking and didn't say any more. After all, the old man in the village once reminded him that there are two kinds of people in the world who should not be offended, those who are officials and those who are monks.
"Brother, if you want to take shelter from the rain, of course we have nothing to say. That's right, a master is coming today. Does the Taoist priest in your car mind?"
Before Chen Yuan could speak, the fat Taoist inside made a sound.
"We are all monks. They each practice their own way and recite their own sutras. If you have anything to mind, just walk around and don't talk too much."
Chen Yuan pretended to be helpless and smiled at the man. The latter nodded understandingly and walked beside the bullock cart, asking Chen Yuan to drive back to the village with him. This way, he could help Chen Yuan when others asked.
Say a few words.
"Brother, actually you came at the wrong time."
"What's wrong?"
"There is a Dharma gathering in our village tonight, and we have invited the masters from the temple to come over."
Chen Yuan was a little curious: "Isn't the village haunted?"
"Well, it would be okay if it is haunted. Our village has a prosperous population. There are more than a dozen strong young men with a lot of yang energy. We are not afraid of ghosts, but we are afraid that ghosts will not come."
The man was also a talker, and he got a little excited when he started talking.
"Actually, it's the river at the entrance of our village. The source of the river flows out of the mountains. No one knows how long it is. I heard from the old people in the village that when they were young, they organized the young people in the village to explore the source, but they couldn't walk for two days.
We didn’t reach the end, and as we went further in, the mountains became steeper and the forests became denser, so they all came back.”
Chen Yuan smiled: "Maybe it came from other states and counties. What's so strange about this."
"Isn't it strange, but there are floods every few years, and the fields just planted are immediately flooded. If you are a farmer, don't you feel bad."
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, many villagers who were rarely seen outside had gathered here. When the man came back, they all came up to say hello and asked about the ox cart next to him, as well as Chen Yuan and Fat Taoist on it.
"It's about to rain heavily. Those who came here to take shelter from the rain are all hard-working people. Don't be embarrassed. When the time comes, I will make room in my house for him to take shelter from the rain."
The man's surname was Xu. He explained to the villagers who came around. Chen Yuan also handed over his hands in the car and looked around. In addition to the suspicious villagers, there was also a small wooden platform set up on the side of the sunba. It should be the villagers.
The invited monks will be here to chant sutras and ward off evil spirits.
"Big brother, follow me."
The man who had explained over there interrupted Chen Yuan's thoughts, waved to him, and walked in front to lead the way. His home was at the back of the village. Apart from a blind old woman, the woman ran away with someone a few years ago. There were three rooms in the house.
There was no one else in the small courtyard consisting of simple thatched houses.
"Brother Liu, your Dharma gathering is still so lively. What's so weird about the river outside? Halfway through what you said, it made my heart itch."
After Chen Yuan got off the bullock cart, he bowed to the blind old woman who was sitting under the eaves, and then followed the man into the house to clean up.
"Hey, it's actually a flood. There is a flood every five years. Everyone is used to it. But the last time there was a flood, some people saw a long shadow in the water waves. They were afraid that they would catch up with this house soon.
I don't believe it. How can such a big guy live in the mountains? A cow can't fill his stomach with every mouthful."
"That's a walking dragon, what do you know!"
At this time, the blind old woman who was sitting outside suddenly spoke, "It is said that when a snake grows into a big snake, it will turn into a dragon. If a dragon wants to turn into a dragon, it has to set off a flood and follow the big waves to borrow ditches along the way and scratch it.
The scales on his body and the popularity of nearby villages will help him."
"I know, mother."
The man responded with a smile, turned around and whispered: "Don't believe it, old people are just like that. They listen to the wind and it rains. A few days ago, I even said that I was a big bastard."
Chen Yuan nodded with a dry smile and was about to answer when the old woman's words came immediately.
"Don't think Mom can't hear it. Do you think Mom is trying to scare you? Let me tell you, Mom's father was swept away by a dragon in the flood. Don't believe it, your Mom saw it in the mountains when she was little.
A girl in a white dress, young and beautiful, with a good-looking figure. She is much prettier than anyone my mother has ever seen. But just because your grandfather took a second look at her, the village became flooded, and your grandfather couldn't.
Standing at the entrance of the village, I was suddenly knocked over by a big wave and swept into the water. I didn't even make a sound and just disappeared."
Having said this, the old woman seemed a little excited, and the crutch in her hand made a "bang bang" sound on the ground.
"That woman is so beautiful, she must be a monster in the mountains. How can a person be so beautiful? Mother, I am sure that the monster in the water is her!"
"Mom, don't be excited, don't be excited."
The man went outside to comfort the old woman. Chen Yuan in the room frowned. The beautiful woman, appearance and clothes he heard from the old woman, combined with the fact that this was near Yulong Mountain.
‘Is it Bai Susu?’
Why, could it be that I haven’t been here for many years and have started cannibalizing people?