Chen Mengsheng looked out at Hulu Town, which was as bright as day, and said to Shangguan Yanran: "Junior sister, you and your eldest brother can stay in this abandoned house and take care of them. I'll go out and see what's going on in the town and why.
Let’s light up the lights together?”
Xiang Xiaotian said casually: "Brother, you are really rare and strange. Of course you have to light up the lights when it gets dark. What's the fuss about this? Maybe it's the rules of their town..." Xiang Xiaotian was speaking.
I heard the intermittent sound of gongs and drums outside. The sound of drums immediately caused every household in the town to respond with endless drum beats.
Xiang Xiaotian was very unhappy and scolded: "Hey, people in this place pretend to be dead during the day, but at night they become night owls. Do they just want to sing a big show? Brother, I will go with you to see them.
What is going on in this town?”
Shangguan Yanran knew that letting Xiang Xiaotian stay in the room would only make it more uncomfortable. Besides, having him accompany his senior brother would be a helpful helper. She smiled and said: "Senior brother, let Brother Xiang accompany you. I am here.
, I will definitely take good care of everyone. If Sister Qi Ying is missing a hair, Brother Xiang, just ask me, and you can go with peace of mind." Shangguan Yanran said the three words "Sister Qi Ying" very loudly, and she was still embarrassed.
Qi Ying's face turned red as she drank the fish soup, and she lowered her head and said nothing. Shangguan Yanran's skills were as good as those of a few thieves. Of course, Qi Ying's injuries would be healed in just two days.
Okay. Lihua and the others are protected by Shangguan Yanran, so nothing should go wrong.
Chen Mengsheng nodded and went out of the house with Xiang Xiaotian into the town. From a distance, he saw a man walking on crutches and holding a drum in his hand. He walked from house to house with lights on.
People were beating drums outside their houses, and they would not leave until the corresponding drum beats came from inside the house. The drum beats had no rhythm at all, and they were just beating randomly.
Xiang Xiaotian whispered: "Brother, everyone in this town is sick. If you don't sleep at night, you don't know what they are going to do?" Chen Mengsheng shook his head in confusion and walked quickly towards the man playing the drum. Several Chen Mengsheng dodged.
He came in front of the man, and the man raised his head, which startled Chen Mengsheng. Chen Mengsheng had seen a lot of ugly people, but he had never seen one so scary. His face was covered with a big black ringworm, and
The layers of thin scales in circles are so bloody that it makes people shudder when they see them...
The man also saw Chen Mengsheng, a stranger, trembling and throwing down the big drum, using his sleeves to cover his face and leaning on a cane, then turned around and staggered away in a hurry. Xiang Xiaotian shouted: "Hey, you ugly thing, don't run away. It's so late at night.
What kind of drum are you beating? If you don't explain it to me clearly, I won't let you go back today." Xiang Xiaotian opened a pair of big hands to block the man's way, and the man sat down in fright and was so weak that he couldn't help it.
On the ground.
Chen Mengsheng stepped forward and picked up the big drum on the ground and said: "This little brother looks like you are not very old, why are you so weak?"
"I...I...sigh. You foreigners should leave here quickly, don't waste your life in vain. We can't leave. If you stay in Hulu Town, you will be like me..." Then
The man said to Chen Mengsheng gently.
"Fart, I still don't believe it. What do you mean if I stay here, I will become like you?" Xiang Xiaotian glared and cursed.
Not long after the man's drum stopped playing, someone in the town opened the door and came out to take a look. Xiang Xiaotian turned around and saw that the people coming out of several houses had black ringworm on their faces, covering most of their faces. He was shocked.
Standing dumbly on the spot, Xiang Xiaotian pointed at everyone and shouted: "What's wrong with you? You all look like evil ghosts. What happened to Hulu Town?"
Chen Mengsheng pulled Xiang Xiaotian and bowed to everyone: "We are people passing by here, and we have no ill intentions. We are just confused about Hulu Town and want to tell you. If there is any difficulty, we two brothers will take action.
Help.”
A white-haired old man walked out from the crowd and said timidly: "You guys have been wandering around Hulu Town during the day, why haven't you left? We don't dare to come out to meet you when we see your faces, old man
I just advise you to leave as soon as possible to save your life. Too many people have died in this town, so don’t ask any more questions. If you have a chance to survive tonight, just take a boat and leave. Wait until you have black ringworm on your face.
It’s too late.”
Xiang Xiaotian said angrily: "Old man, how can you curse people like you? How did you know that we can't survive tonight?"
Chen Mengsheng also frowned and said: "Old man, although we are foreigners, we are not afraid of trouble. I see that your words are flashing and there is something unspeakable, but I don't know why."
The old man said to the man sitting on the ground: "Xiao Qingzi, you continue to play the drums. Let's go back separately. Maybe these foreigners can really break the curse in the town. You two come with me.
, Let’s talk after we enter the house.” The old man seemed to be very respected in Hulu Town, and those who followed him returned to their respective houses in response to what the old man said. Chen Mengsheng and Xiang Xiaotian followed the old man into the big tile in the north in confusion.
In the room, the man on the ground whom the old man called Xiao Qingzi got up and continued to beat his big drum. Immediately there was another drumming sound in the town...
Xiang Xiaotian entered the large tiled house with a huge chill running down his spine. There were seven or eight memorial tablets in the huge hall. There was a little girl of sixteen or seventeen who was looking at Chen Mengsheng and Xiang Xiaotian in fear. The little girl
Her graceful figure was tarnished by the black ringworm on her face. The old man called out: "Chunni, go make some tea."
Chen Mengsheng hurriedly waved his hands and said: "Girl, don't be tired, we have just eaten. I'd better tell us what happened in the town!"
The old man let out a long sigh and said: "Old man, my surname is Zang, and everyone in this town calls me Zangjiu. Sir, you don't know something. There used to be 180 households in Hulu Town, with a population of over a thousand, but now
You must have seen that there are less than three hundred people left alive. Old man, I am the patriarch of Hulu Town. I have two sons and watched them start their own families. Unexpectedly, in just half a year,
They have all become spiritual tablets for worship. Only the old man and the youngest granddaughter Chunni are left to live together..."
Xiang Xiaotian asked anxiously: "Were they killed by some evil person?"
Zang Jiulao shook his head with tears in his eyes, walked to the coffin, burned three sticks of incense in the incense burner and said, "It wasn't someone who killed me, it was a strange fish that made the town uneasy." Xiang Xiaotian frowned.
They were twisted together, patted the table and looked at Chen Mengsheng.
Chen Mengsheng asked: "Old man, what kind of strange fish can kill so many people? Please forgive us brothers for being ignorant, what exactly caused this incident?"
After finishing the incense, Zang Jiu said: "Most of the people in Hulu Town make a living by catching fish from the Yangtze River. Only a few people still farm on the ground. In May and June last year, the Yangtze River reached the fish flood season.
When the anchovy returns to give birth, people in the town, regardless of gender, old or young, go to the river to catch the anchovy. There are three kinds of fresh anchovy, pufferfish and anchovy in the Yangtze River. Especially the anchovy that enters the river in early spring, the fish body
Plump and delicate, with bones as soft as cotton. A pound of swordfish caught and sold in Anqing Prefecture would be worth dozens of taels of silver. However, I never thought that there were so few swordfish during the fish season last year. There were so few fish in the town.
The men rowed upstream and cast a group net. Unexpectedly, nine out of ten fishing nets would be broken. They didn’t know what was strange under the river. My eldest son Zang Hong led someone down with a harpoon.
I didn’t expect those dozen fishermen to come out after they entered the water..." The old man’s little granddaughter was sobbing softly on the side, she must be Zang Hong’s daughter.
Chen Mengsheng comforted him and said, "What kind of fish is that in the water? It's so ferocious that it killed more than a dozen people in a row."
Zangjiu said dejectedly: "I don't know what kind of fish it is. People in the town who have been fishing all their lives don't know that strange fish. When the strange fish came out of the river, it overturned three or four fishing boats.
That fish has a head bigger than this room, and underneath its head are ten bodies several feet long, and it also makes a bark like a dog..."
"Ah..." Chen Mengsheng exclaimed: "That's the Ho Luo Fish. How did this vicious fish end up in the Yangtze River!?"
Xiang Xiaotian asked anxiously: "Brother, what kind of fish is that? What kind of thing is that? Have you seen it?" The grandfather and grandson in the room stopped crying and looked at Chen Mengsheng blankly.
"Horo fish usually grows in the Qiaoming Mountains in the north and flows westward into the Yellow River. The horo fish has one head but ten bodies. It makes a sound like a dog barking. People who eat its meat can cure carbuncle.
Disease. However, this fish's temperament is extremely serious and cannot bear any harm. If it is harassed, it will definitely be punished. It is a strange fish in the water. It is a hundred times more ferocious than Junior Sister's roaring beast. The people in Hulu Town disturbed He Luozhi.
Fish, it will definitely come to seek revenge."
Zang Jiu nodded repeatedly after hearing what Chen Mengsheng said: "Sir, what he said is indeed correct. From that time on, there has been no peace in Hulu Town. At first, the chickens, ducks and livestock association disappeared inexplicably, and then the town
The people inside bit it up and threw it into the river. Many people wanted to kill the strange fish, but dozens of boats couldn't do anything to it. The strange fish could sink the boat as soon as it turned over."
Xiang Xiaotian scolded: "How dare that good beast be so arrogant, take me to meet it!"
Zang Jiuciao cried: "It's because we designed to kill it that we ended up where we are today. There was a blacksmith in Hulu Town. His son was only seven or eight years old, and he was eaten by the strange fish. He didn't care whether it was day or night.
They built an iron cage about ten feet long, drove the cattle into the iron cage, set up a mechanism, and placed it on the riverside. Until the third night, there was a loud barking of dogs in the town. Everyone in the town rushed there.
I just saw a strange fish caught in an iron cage by the river. Dozens of people in the town had been killed by the strange fish and they all hated it and gnashed their teeth. People pulled the iron cage to the center of the town to let the sun shine on it.
After being exposed to the sun for two full days, the strange fish spit out a cloud of black air and died. The blacksmith took the lead and chopped up the strange fish. Every household ate the strange fish meat to satisfy their hatred. But the blacksmith and his wife both died that night.
They were hanged at home. Anyone who ate the strange fish meat had black ringworm on their faces within three days. The itching and pain made life worse than death..."
Chen Mengsheng asked again: "Has anyone reported the case to the family where the blacksmith was hanged?"
"Why haven't you checked? The eldest man of Anqing Prefecture came here by boat to investigate the case. The seven or eight government servants he brought with him were also hanged in the house. I don't know how the fishing boats parked on the riverside in the town got back.
Everything was burned down overnight, and anyone who tried to escape from the town would have their corpses floating on the river. Strange things would happen in the town at midnight. Alas, a few days ago, my house was fine during the day, but at night the whole family was fine.
Except for me and Chun Ni, we were all slaughtered. That’s why the town used drumming to cheer them up to survive the long night..."
Chen Mengsheng thought for a while and said: "Old man, how did you and Chunni escape this disaster?..."