Looking at the broken red bricks at the edge of the small temple, I swallowed and asked, "Master Hu, who is this? Do you know him?"
Lao Hu shook his head and said he didn't know him.
I waited until after ten o'clock in the evening, when I came out of Guizailing, I followed Lao Hu to the hut where he lived.
A few sweet potatoes were roasted by the briquette fire, and Lao Hu asked if he wanted to eat them.
I lit the fire and said, "Don't eat, Mr. Hu. Is this guy from your village beating people with a slingshot? You really don't know who it is that beat Ya Po like that?"
Lao Hu peeled the sweet potato skin, took a bite and said, "How would you know who it is if you don't see it? There are many people in the village who can shoot slingshots. Maybe they have a grudge against Ya Po."
"What do you mean? Why do you mean there are so many people who know how to shoot a slingshot?" I asked confused.
"It happened two years ago. No one is doing it now. I told you, so don't go out and talk nonsense."
I said yes.
It was only after he told me that I understood. I really didn’t know about this before.
"In the 1990s, in Qiyang, Shuangpai, Ningyuan, and here in Daoxian County, many outsiders came to collect birds. Because there were many birds here, they collected them and made them into ornaments. Some of them were dyed to resemble kingfishers.
They gave me a lot of money. Old Hu said that in 1996, the Forestry Bureau arrested more than 30 people, and they were all published in the newspapers. He even pulled out the yellowed Yongzhou Morning News from under the bed for me to read. The headline was, "Yongzhou Police cracked down on a huge crime."
In the poaching case, more than 30 people from the poaching gang headed by Hu Moumou were arrested."
At that time, in addition to farming, people used slingshots to shoot birds, and those with good conditions dared to use earthen guns.
Millions of migrating birds pass through the Yunbingshan Scenic Area in Lanshan County, Yongzhou City every year, in groups. As long as these birds fly lower, you can shoot down several of them with a slingshot.
There are red-billed lovebirds, blue-throated front tigers, thrushes, common buzzards, large-billed crows, black short-footed bulbuls, hooded birds, etc.
There is a tuft of miscellaneous hair on the top of the crowned bird's head. The tuft of hair on the top of its head was pulled out and dyed blue. It looks very similar to the length and texture of the kingfisher's feathers. It can be said that they are almost exactly the same.
This kind of bird feathers can be used to pass off as emeralds, and finally the emeralds are mixed with gold and made into various jewelry, which are sold to rich women all over the country.
Many of today's jade ornaments still use this old method, which is difficult to detect because the detected organic matter is also organic. For Guangtian Guangdong Village, at least dozens of villagers had shot birds at that time, and every household had a slingshot.
Lao Hu also did it at that time, so he couldn't tell who hit Ya Po with a slingshot.
I sat in Lao Hu's hut until about eleven o'clock, and then I went back to where I was staying.
Xiaoxuan opened the door for me and whispered: "Where have you been? You came back so late."
"What's wrong?"
Xiaoxuan pointed to the west room, "I told you to be quiet when you come back, so as not to disturb your Uncle Xue. Come with me, I'm waiting for you."
There was no light in the room, it was cold and dark, and there were no candles lit.
I opened the door curtain and entered the inner room. I saw two dark figures sitting beside the bed, namely Boutou and Dou Sprout.
"Why don't you light candles?" I asked.
"Shh..."
Dou Sprout whispered: "Don't click, we are already asleep now."
Hei Gulongdong waved to me with his head.
I sat cross-legged on the bed, and Douyazai opened the window again, looked outside, made sure there was no one in the courtyard outside, and closed the window again.
"Boss, what's the situation? What are you doing?"
Sitting with his head opposite me, he coughed lightly and said, "Yunfeng, after my research these days, I have a very bad feeling."
"What does it feel like? Is it a water hole under a pond, or..."
