Chenjia Village, located in a place called Ant Mountain south of the Bali River, belongs to the jurisdiction of Yingshang County.Like many villages in Dashu that are far away from the county seat, Chenjia Village is relatively isolated and backward; On weekdays, the highest chief executive in the village is the village head, followed by a group of elders who are older and have a good reputation.If something happens in the village, it is usually up to the village chief and these "elders" to discuss countermeasures, and they come to the conclusion that the final implementation policy will not be changed.Of course, nothing big can happen in a village like this......
When it comes to money, the richest family in Chenjia Village is just a farmer compared to the rich in the city, and it is even better than a businessman passing by to do business; If you want to talk about beauty, in this mountainous and wild place, the girls in the village have been exposed to the wind and sun since they were young, and they have no chance to receive any cultural education, so their appearance and temperament are generally not very good when they grow up.Unless you happen to have a bandit's stockade nearby, even robbers and flower thieves won't come to visit it.Therefore, the life of this village is quite peaceful.Until......
One day in the seventeenth year of Yongtai.On that day, there were thunderstorms, and it rained from day to night, and there was no light at all.In this ghost weather, whether it is farming, chopping firewood or hunting, nothing can be done, so the villagers naturally rest early.In this way, the next morning, the rain stopped, but many families found it......
The children in the family are gone.The children in this mountain village are naughty and naughty, but there is no one who does not come home at night, and besides, it rained so heavily last night, and it was dark outside, and the children are unlikely to run out on their own.What can be done?
Let's help find it.But the whole village searched for most of the day in the surrounding area of the village, but they didn't even find a shadow.Seeing that the sky is about to get dark again, now, the adults are in a hurry.First, there were as many as nine lost children, and all of them were boys - in those days, it was polite to say that sons were preference; To put it mildly, many families, especially poor families, don't treat their daughters as human beings at all......
There are not a few people who are so poor that they sell their daughters to big families as maids or even to Qinglou, and they can already think about finding a good in-law for their daughters.But boys are different, no matter how stupid or bad they are, they are also treated as a treasure by the family.Second, among the nine boys who disappeared, three were descendants of the elders' families, and one was the great-grandson of the village chief, that is, the "nobles" in the village.Third, this time the incident is very strange, there are still many families in the village who have not lost their children, and they are also afraid, afraid that tomorrow will wake up in the morning and their children will be gone.That night, an atmosphere of terror spread through the village......
The village chief is even thinking about sending someone to the county tomorrow to make a trip to the county yamen to get some money and let the boss send someone to investigate.In this way, the next day, early in the morning, someone at the entrance of the village shouted, "Something is wrong!"
There are goblins!
”The villagers also flocked to the scene and talked about it; When the village chief arrived when he heard the news, almost all the men, women and children of the village had already gathered there......
The crowd moved out of the way and let the village chief step forward, and when he looked closer, he could not help but gasp: but he saw that on the dirt at the entrance of the village, there was a wooden stake that was half thicker than the mouth of the bowl.If you look closely, this is not an ordinary stake, but a mast on a ship.Of course, the one that is thicker than the mouth of the bowl is definitely not the mainmast, but in the concept of ordinary people, this is no longer something that can be forced into the ground by manpower."
Look, village chief, there's still a word on it!"
After a while, there was a good thing to remind the village chief.The village chief actually saw that there were indeed some words engraved on the pillars of the wood; As the most literate person in the village, he should also ...... go up to see "The god of the water world descends into the mountain, Li Shu does not know the west wind, if you want the nine sons to return home, offer it to the Dragon King Cave in the north of the village." ”The village chief read the words again, frowned and pondered for a moment, roughly understanding the meaning.Then, he translated it with the villagers: That is to say, in the past two days, a dragon lord came to our ant mountain, and the heavy rain the day before yesterday was a sign of the dragon king's coming, but because we, the villagers, were too ignorant and did not receive the dragon lord well, the dragon lord was angry, so the village lost nine children, and now the dragon lord said that as long as we go to the "dragon king cave" in the north of the village to offer offerings to his old man, the children can come back.These words......
From the perspective of modern people, it is basically a kidnapper manifesto, and the core idea is to give money and release people.But in the eyes of these villagers, this set of bandit logic is very smooth.They realized that it was not human beings who could unwittingly take away nine children in a thunderstormy night, and could still stick the ship's mast into the ground......
The more people lack knowledge and ability, the more they like to use a set of theories that they can understand more easily to explain the unknown doubts in front of them, so as to dispel their fears.In the search for the truth, there are difficulties and dangers, but conformity is like a stream......
It's very simple, everyone says and does this, and I follow along with what I say and do; Even if it's wrong, it's everyone's mistake.So the villagers hurriedly gathered chickens, ducks, fish, rice, flour, money and grain, put together a few baskets, beat gongs and drums, and carried the burden to the cave in the north of the village.The cave is very deep, connected to the underground river, there are many forks in the cave, the terrain is complicated, and the locals know that they can't enter here, because it is easy to get lost and unable to get out after entering; Originally, this cave did not have a name, but now that the "Dragon King" said that this is the Dragon King Cave, the villagers call it that.At noon, they have set up a simple altar in front of the Dragon King Cave, lit incense, put the "offerings" at the entrance of the cave, and then led the villagers to kneel and knock nine times by the village chief; After a long pray, they left respectfully.The next morning they came back to find the nine missing children lying under the offering table, but yesterday's offerings were gone......
The villagers now believe that this is the manifestation of the dragon lord - this kidnapper does what he says.Later, there were a few similar things in the village, and the routines were almost the same, so I won't repeat them one by one here; Those children who were taken away by the dragon lord and came back are generally still young, and they are not good at talking, and they can't tell what they saw when asked by adults.Over time, the villagers of Chenjia Village were all trained by the "Dragon King"; Now the dragon lord no longer has to engage in the kidnapping of tickets, and the villagers themselves know that they will send a batch of "offerings" on the fifteenth day of the first month of each month, and they don't need to send money, just rice, noodles, wine and meat; In fact, seeing this, I think all the officials can also see that this group of thieves pretending to be the dragon king is not very smart, and the excuse they think of is really far-fetched, but they can't help it......
Because the eldest girl is different from the child, the girl may run away, and if she sees something, she goes back and talks nonsense, and the matter of the "Dragon King Cave" will have to be tried.In this way, it is logical for the villagers to send people when it is dark; In the dark night, the girl can't see clearly, and she can't run far if she wants to, as long as the villagers leave, they will come out to get people, and they can't run away.All in all, this farce has been going on for more than a year now.The villagers of Chenjia Village are also very good at self-comfort, just like some religious believers: whenever they encounter something good in life, they will say that this is the blessing of the Dragon King, and our offering is really worthwhile; But whenever something bad happens, I feel that we are not sincere enough, and our family will have to make more offerings next time.Until......
In the evening of that day, two people came to the entrance of the village..................
After Sun Yihe and Huang Donglai entered Chenjia Village, they found a tea shed at random and sat down, and immediately inquired about the scene they had just seen at the entrance of the village.The villagers didn't hide anything, because in their concepts, the Dragon Lord was already a belief here, and there was nothing that could not be mentioned; So, even Xiao Er and the tea guests who drank tea around him complemented each other and told them all the above contents.After listening, the first reaction in the minds of the two modern people who have crossed over is also conceivable - this special coercion is pretending to be a person, isn't it just kidnapping for blackmail?
However, they didn't say anything in front of the villagers, because through their words, they had already seen that the villagers here were already Stockholm syndrome, and if you said that the "Dragon King" was not in front of them, maybe people would turn their faces.At this time, it was almost dark, and the two hurriedly went to find a family to spend the night.After entering the room, Sun Yihuan gave the fellow a few money, asking the other party not to disturb them, and then closed the door and began to discuss with Huang Donglai......
"Brother Sun, don't care?"
”Huang Donglai opened his mouth and asked.Sun Yihe had a very tacit understanding with him, and naturally knew what he was asking: "What's the matter~" He looked arrogant, and raised his eyes to glance at his trident, "We are all in charge of the blatant kind of Horse Village, are you afraid of these pretending to be ghosts?"
”He paused, "Besides, brother is not what he used to be now, okay?"
With my skills, killing a few bandits is not like chopping melons and vegetables?
”"Okay, Brother Sun, it's okay, ah."
Huang Donglai said, "I admit that you are making a little progress now, but don't you have the illusion that you are 'very powerful', okay?"
When the time comes, you are chased and cut down, don't you want me to cut you off?
”"You shut up Lao Tzu~" Sun Yixiang raised his voice and said, "When have I been chased and cut down?"
Just say, are you cowardly?
”"What am I trying to do?
You're not cowardly. ”Huang Donglai said, "I'm just asking you to be cautious, don't be careless again." ”"Be cautious, then of course I'll be cautious."
Sun Yihun raised his eyebrows and said, "Is my brother intellectually good?"
”"Oh?"
Huang Donglai read something from the other party's expression, and the corners of his mouth raised slightly, "So......
Brother Sun, do you have a plan again?
”"Hehe......"
Sun Yi smiled lewdly, "You listen to me slowly......"