More than three hours later, at around ten o'clock in the evening, I slowly emerged from the water.
There was silence all around, so I turned off the flashlight and swam quickly to the pond.
I found some dry clothes that had been hidden in the woods and put them on. I carried a black plastic bag and left quickly.
Instead of taking the road to Tianguangdong Village, I walked north alone at night. I walked quietly for more than an hour and went to the adjacent Xiacun Village not far away.
I was told to be very careful with my head. I didn't dare to turn on the light for fear of being discovered. I relied on the moon for illumination. The road was not easy to walk at night, so I picked up a stick and used it to cut grass to explore the way.
Opposite Xiacun is Jiantouling Mountain. At the foot of Jiantouling Mountain is a road that leads directly to the county town. Passenger buses also pass by here during the day. Now when traveling there, you will also take this road.
It was 11:30 in the evening. I was wearing jeans, cloth shoes, and a torn jacket. My hair was soaked with water and had not been combed. I was holding a black plastic bag in one hand and a stick in the other.
Finally I saw a van driving towards me with its headlights on, so I waved my stick to stop it.
The driver didn't stop, but slowed down the car and stuck his head out and said, "Beetle, where are you going?"
I ran to catch up and asked, "What did you just say?"
"You beetle, you are walking on the road in the middle of the night. Where are you going?"
"Beetle boy" may be a curse in their local dialect? I couldn't bear to say that I would go to the train station or any place with a lot of cars around the city.
"Then you are lucky to have met me, otherwise you would have had to wait until dawn."
"Get in the car, I'm going to the city to pick up some goods."
When they got to the city, they put me down and I said hello to someone and told them to slow down. As for the dung beetle he mentioned, he probably meant begging for food.
I still had more than two hundred yuan with me, so I took a taxi to the train station.
At that time, it was not called Yongzhou East Railway Station. It was out of service more than a year later. The train station was very small. There were trees on both sides of the railway line. Behind the trees were rows of self-built buildings with wires hanging randomly. The place was brightly lit at night and the security was high.
not good.
I entered the station and bought a ticket for 2:30 in the morning. It was Saturday after 12 o'clock and I had to be back before Monday.
Where to go?
Go to Changzhou and find a geotechnical engineer nicknamed Lao Ka.
The boss told me that although this old Ka is in Changzhou, he is from the northern sect. He came to the south to settle in the past five or six years. It seems that Jinpen gave up his career. The boss has never been with this person. His eldest brother, Mr. Sun, had been with him in the early years.
This person has been in contact before, and the relationship between the two parties is considered familiar.
The boss had considered this person before, but firstly because the two parties were not familiar with each other, and secondly because he did not expect the underwater iron coffin, he did not go there.
The green car took more than four hours from Yongzhou to Changzhou. When the sky was bright, I got off at Changzhou Station. He only told me an approximate address. The person was not easy to find.
I took a taxi from Changzhou Station, and when I arrived at the place mentioned above, I looked for the old man and woman who came out for a walk in the morning, and the owner of the newsstand and the canteen. None of them knew him. I kept asking until about ten o'clock in the morning, and I found a restaurant.
Eat at a roadside stall selling breakfast.
I didn't have much hope at first, so I just took a casual bite. Unexpectedly, the owner of fried dough sticks said: "Lao Ka? What are you looking for him for?"
"Do you know him?" I quickly put down the bowl and chopsticks.
The boss wiped his hands, threw the rag aside and said, "I know you. I went to get a pot from him yesterday, wasn't this?" He pointed to the new pot of egg soup for me to see.
"You have to hurry up to find him. Usually, he stops work at eleven o'clock and drives back. I don't know where he lives."
I didn’t drink the tofu nao, so I wrote down the address, took two buns, and went to find them while eating the buns.
What Lao Ka does now is "stealing pots". I don't know if the people born in 2000 know this, but I think many friends born in the 90s have seen him.
At that time, cans, Lulu bottles, etc. were all made of aluminum. When I collected a lot of them at home, I would take these to look for pot thieves on the street. After melting them, I would make aluminum pots and basins. The quality of the products was very good.
, it will not leak after decades of use.
Also, children often pester adults, saying they don’t want a pot, saying they want to make a small sword, an axe, etc. out of a can.
When I arrived at the place, I saw a tricycle parked on the side of the road from a distance.
There were many things on the ground, including buckets filled with sand, clay stoves, pliers, thick gloves, etc.
The clay stove has burned the cans into molten aluminum. A man in his forties, holding a cigarette butt, with unconventional long hair, was putting on gloves. There was a middle-aged woman beside him to help.
