Great sunshine

Zhao Shitou trembled even more violently, trying to curl up and bury his head in his chest.

Lacking sufficient flexibility, he failed miserably and could only close his eyes tightly, scrunch up his face, and raise his hands above his head to completely cover his face.

The reeds here are very tall and strong; legend has it that they grew so well because they ate human flesh.

There is a famous legend about the Zhunu River.

That is, from time to time, some large, round, and dazzling pearls will appear here. You can get rich overnight by selling just one of them.

It is said that more than 800 years ago, there was a continuous torrential rain for thirteen days, and everyone suspected that a hole had been punched in the sky.

The once sweet river water has turned fishy and salty.

People began to suspect that the Dragon King had fled into the river, and that the shrimp soldiers and crab generals were hiding beneath the water. Some said they were protecting the Dragon King, while others said they were waiting for the Dragon King to fail so they could eat his corpse.

Until a woman, whose entire family had perished in the overflowing river, called out each of their names from the riverbank every moment.

She was very thin, almost unrecognizable, and only ate the occasional dead fish and rotten shrimp that came up to her.

That day she found a seashell, the largest she had ever seen.

Inside was a pearl the size of a thumb, pure white and flawless, shimmering in the sunlight.

Yes, the moment the woman raised the pearl high, the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and the sun reappeared.

Later, the pearl ended up in the hands of the master, the county magistrate, the prefect, and finally the emperor.

Everyone guessed that the woman must have acquired a large fortune and lived a carefree life from then on.

The river was renamed the Pearl River.

What even the emperor desired was right here. Countless people rushed here in a frenzy, but all came up empty-handed.

I don't know when it started, but it's assumed that only women can find those kinds of pearls.

One by one, women lost their lives here.

And so the great plague was born here.

Temples, Taoist temples, and countless shrines were built along the river to commemorate them and to suppress them.

Seven years ago, everything was overturned.

Zhao Shitou grew up listening to his mother tell stories about the Pearl River. He remembered his mother saying that the female ghosts in the story had started causing trouble again.

Tell him never to come near here again.

The deep-seated fear, mixed with a premonition that his life was about to fall into an abyss, made him wail incoherently.

Li Zhujun walked over impatiently and said to her older brother, "What are you doing? You kicked him so hard he's practically an idiot. His mother is not someone to be trifled with; once you get involved with her, you can't get rid of her."

Li Meijun still felt wronged.

"What did I do? It's all my fault, okay!"

It was because he made too much noise searching through Meng Songying's room that the five of them fled in a disheveled state, their shouts amplified in their guilty conscience.

The reed marshes suddenly became lively, as many animals living there were startled and scattered everywhere.

Li Zhujun was just as assertive, spitting on the ground: "What the hell? Of course it's your fault!"

The two pretended to fight, and the other two rushed to stop them. In the midst of the chaos, Zhao Shitou, upon hearing the word "ghost," completely lost his mind.

They pushed aside the layers of reeds and ran away, while the remaining four quickly stuffed the stolen goods into a large piece of cloth and chased after them.

Why are you running?

"Stone, stone!"

"The money's been distributed, come back soon!"

The one who shouted this was Li Jujun, who was then hit hard on the head by Li Zhujun.

"Shut up!"

Along the way, the four were completely bewildered, having no idea why Zhao Shitou had suddenly started having an epileptic seizure.

They never imagined that someone could be so afraid of ghosts.

Since they started doing evil deeds, they have completely believed that there is no such thing as birth, death, or reincarnation. Otherwise, wouldn't they be certain that they would definitely go to the eighteenth level of hell in the future?

Only after catching up did we realize what Zhao Shitou was afraid of.

Li Zhujun also wanted to kick him, but she gave up the idea because she was worried that he would go crazy again.

He pretended to be gentle and kind to comfort Zhao Shitou: "What are you afraid of? These legends are just for fooling children. Don't you see how many reeds are growing around here? If you step in at night, your feet will sink into the mud and you won't even know how you died. That's why they made up such a story. You're an adult, you should believe in science."

The other three stared at them as if they had discovered a new continent.

Seeing that Zhao Shitou seemed to have calmed down a bit, Li Zhujun secretly plotted with his three true brothers.

"We only found a single-story house today. There are more people living in that small building. We still need him to keep watch and scout the place. We need to keep them at bay for now."

Faced with money, Li Meijun stopped contradicting her third brother and even apologized to Zhao Shitou.

Zhao Shitou still felt that he was forced to become a bad person and was actually a good citizen.

In front of these habitual offenders, he was like a quail, only able to tuck his head in and hide his wings, utterly cowardly.

Upon hearing an apology, all they can do is nod and say "uh-huh."

As dawn broke, the same four people were still sitting at the same table in the cafeteria.

They just didn't have the same high spirits they had yesterday.

Director Sun and Li Yuanhong both frowned, while Wang Shuitao kept staring at Meng Songying's face, looking somewhat worried.

Meng Songying chewed her food more and more slowly, until eventually it was just slowly ground between her teeth before she swallowed it.

This was the last bite. He put down his chopsticks and silently put the rest of the food into his lunchbox, intending to eat it when he was alone later.

Wang Shuitao didn't notice anything unusual because the other two people were also sighing and barely eating.

However, when it was time to leave, they stuffed it into their mouths in just a few bites.

Wang Shuitao accompanied Meng Songying to the clinic on the south side of the factory.

Meng Songying wanted to politely decline, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he saw Taozi's eyes staring at the scar on his left cheek.

He shut up.

The infirmary is a separate small room, about thirty square meters in size.

Upon entering, I discovered that the room was divided into two sections by a curtain.

Every workshop has a nurses' station, but this is Wang Shuitao's first time visiting the medical clinic.

Without smelling that familiar disinfectant, for a moment she could feel her heart sinking, as if a vacuum had been drawn around her heart.

It's a feeling that's hard to describe.

Suddenly, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. When Wang Shuitao looked over, Meng Songying's hand was already hanging naturally at her side, as if she hadn't moved at all.

There was only one woman in the clinic, around fifty years old, with long hair tied in a low bun and secured with a wooden hairpin.

The person was very clean and moved very efficiently.

I just opened the cabinet door behind me and took out a bottle of pills.

Turning around, she looked at the two people standing in the doorway with a puzzled expression and said, "Come in, what are you standing there for?"

Wang Shuitao's nose keenly detected a faint smell of bitter medicine, similar to what she used to smell when she went to the pharmacy.

His mood improved considerably, but he was still somewhat confused, and in his daze, he made a move to help Meng Songying up.

The aunt was even more puzzled: "Your foot is injured too?"

She noticed the obvious red marks on Meng Gong's face and assumed it was just a facial injury.

Meng Songying, no longer concerned about how unsightly the scars on her face would look when she moved, quickly and firmly denied it: "No."

Then he went in first.

Wang Shuitao immediately followed her in, and even tried to help Meng Songying sit down. She felt that she would have wasted her time if she didn't do something for the patient.

He dodged it, so all I could see was the back of his head.

Auntie turned Meng Songying's face up to the sunlight and said, "It's alright, young men regenerate quickly, and the cut was shallow, it won't leave a scar."

She didn't prescribe any medication, thinking it wasn't necessary.

Wang Shuitao was a little worried, so she pressed down Meng Songying, who was trying to stand up, and asked, "It's hot now, won't it get infected or something?"

Feeling a stiffness in the shoulder beneath her hand, Wang Shuitao released her grip, knowing that many people dislike close physical contact with others.

The proportion of such people is increasing.

The aunt pulled out a bottle of iodine from the cabinet behind her, handed it to the two of them, and said, "Put a little on it, that'll do. I'll go find some gauze and adhesive tape inside."

With that, he lifted the curtain and went inside.

Only Wang Shuitao and Meng Songying remained outside.

Wang Shuitao had already reached out and taken a fresh cotton ball in her hand, and then poured out some iodine.

Since Meng Songying couldn't see the wound on her face, she decided to help, since she had been helped several times before.

Once ready, he gently pushed the uninjured side of Meng Songying's face with his left hand, signaling him to turn his head.

The fingertips are warm, soft, and also rough.

The dust floating up and down in the air was very noticeable under the sunlight.

Meng Songying pursed her lips and remained silent.

Two people were clearly reflected in the window in front, and you could even see Wang Shuitao's uneven hair hanging down her back, moving as she carefully applied the medicine.

These are several large glass windows installed in the infirmary that allow a lot of light to pass through. My aunt usually uses them as mirrors.