Chapter 22
It's been almost a year since I jumped off the bridge, and I've almost forgotten about it.
Also during the summer vacation, Maomao, Zhang Song and I made an appointment to go fishing in Pianshi.
Pianshi is located in the northeast of our village. It is a slanted, bare foot of a mountain. The villagers cut the foot of the mountain horizontally to allow the rice pond ditch to pass through.
The broken foot of the mountain sloped down. At the top was the road, parallel to the rice pond ditch. Downhill, a vast expanse of bare mountain sloped directly into the water. The water wasn't deep, just over a meter. Beneath the rocks was a large pit, perhaps two meters deep.
This river is Chunhe River. Pianshi is about two kilometers away from Chunhe Bridge. From here you can see pedestrians and vehicles passing by on the bridge.
Further north of Pianshi, we call this place "Mei" (pronounced the same as "mi" in "flood") Tuzi. I don't know why it was given this strange name, but the water here is so deep that no one can reach the bottom.
Going further north from No Bald Man, you'll reach Hebei. The water here is deeper, and on the other side of the river are high mountains. The Spring River meanders right at the foot of the mountains, and the water deepens the closer it gets to the mountains. This is a big bend, and the upper reaches come down from Xiaoliang.
Back to the topic, the three of us wanted to go fishing in the river. Actually, it was the two of them who wanted to go, but they insisted on dragging me along.
I don't like water because I've had an inexplicable fear of it since I was a child. But they kept asking me to go, so I had no choice but to go along.
We agreed to fish under the rocks, a little way from the big pit. This is the gate where the water from the rice pond is released. Once the rice fields are watered, the sluice is blocked here, and the water will flow back to the Chun River.
Mao Mao and Zhang Song knew that several people had died in our village last year, and that they had jumped from Chunhe Bridge. But they weren't from our village, so they didn't feel the panic.
This led to the fact that they just heard about it but didn't take it seriously at all.
We went down from the Chunhe Bridge. There are dams on both sides of the Chunhe River to prevent flooding during the flood season and submerging the crops planted by the villagers.
We walked along the dam towards Pianshi.
On the left is a large rice field that extends all the way to Pianshi, and on the right is the Chun River, flowing slowly.
As soon as I got on the dam, I felt something was wrong.
Zhang Song was walking in front, holding a fishing net and walking very fast.
Maomao was behind me, and I always felt like he was staring at me. But when I turned around, he looked the same as always.
I deliberately talked to him to see if there was anything unusual about him.
The tone and demeanor of his answer were completely normal.
This is a bit strange, but I firmly believe that my feeling is not wrong.
We continued walking like this, two kilometers, which was not close at all. All the way, I felt that Maomao was staring at me intentionally or unintentionally. Several times when I turned around, he immediately turned his head away to look at Chunhe.
Finally we arrived at the rock. The two of them first went into the water to play for a while, and then we started fishing not far below the rock.
How do you catch these fish? You pile stones in the shape of an inverted "eight" in shallow, fast-flowing water. Then, place a net over the bottom opening. This way, the fish are swept into the net by the rushing current. We call this stone-laying method "liangzi," and it's practiced in many places, not just in Chunhe.
After they built the trap, they waited for the fish to enter. It was boring waiting, and since they knew I didn't like playing in the river, they headed over to the sluice gate in the Rice Pond. The rice pond had been watered that day, and the water from the sluice had been redirected to the Chun River, so the three of us played there.
The water here is very shallow, barely reaching the ankles. On either side of the waterway are simple platforms made of cement and stone, about knee-high, to prevent the water from flowing out and flowing straight into the Chun River.
I sat on the platform, dipping my feet into the water. The cool water flowed over the tops of my feet, washing them gently. I gently kicked my feet in the water, creating a shimmering splash. A wave of refreshing sensation spread from the soles of my feet straight to my brain, and the irritability brought by the summer heat gradually dissipated. I felt that the whole summer had become particularly cool.
Maomao and Zhang Song were splashing water on each other in the river and had a water fight. Soon their clothes were wet.
At this time, Maomao walked onto the platform and jumped down.
I suddenly felt a chill coming from him, and I immediately turned to look at him. The corner of his mouth was curled up in a very strange smile.
“Don’t jump!”
It happened in a flash. I rushed to stop it, but it was too late.
It was really strange. The platform wasn't very high, but when Maomao jumped down, he landed headfirst. He lay in the waterway, motionless.
The cold aura disappeared in an instant.
The picture froze at the moment when Maomao lay in the water. Although it was only two or three seconds, it felt like a very long time to me.
I quickly walked over to him and helped him up, but it was a bit difficult for me to do it alone. I looked at Zhang Song who was standing there in a daze and said, "Come and help!"
Zhang Song finally came to his senses and hurriedly helped me carry Maomao to the dam not far away.
Maomao is unconscious, but luckily he's still breathing. Zhang Song and I don't know what to do, fearing something might happen to him.
Zhang Song patted Maomao's face, hoping to wake him. But ten minutes passed, and Maomao showed no sign of waking. I pinched his philtrum, following a method I'd seen before, but there was no reaction.
Maomao's breathing was getting weaker and weaker, and his hands were getting cold. I knew I couldn't wait any longer.
The only strange thing today is the cold aura coming from Maomao, and that's the only way I can approach it.
"Please keep an eye on him for me. If anyone comes, don't let him disturb me." I said to Zhang Song.
Zhang Song had seen my abilities many times before, and he began to observe his surroundings after I finished speaking.
After a year of study, I am much more proficient in the knowledge in "Yin Fu Lu" than before, so I concluded that Maomao must have been captured by a wild ghost as a substitute.
I sat next to Maomao, closed my eyes, and placed my right index and middle fingers on the feather stone, drawing in its energy. Even with my eyes closed, I could see everything around me, even more clearly than with the naked eye. It was a wonderful feeling.
I looked at Maomao, and when I saw a cloud of black air gathering above his head, my nervous heart relaxed. This proved that my judgment was correct; it was a ghost causing trouble. As long as this cloud of black air was removed, Maomao should be able to wake up.
I silently chanted in my heart: The three scenes of Shangqing, the energy enters the mysterious origin. The evil spirits are driven out of the body.
The feather stone on my chest emitted a golden light, hitting the black air wrapped around Mao Mao.
The black gas dissipated immediately after being hit by the golden light.
This is my first time practicing this technique in a year, and I didn't expect it to be so effective. I originally thought it would take some effort. It seems that after a year of study, I've finally gotten the hang of the Yin Fu Lu.
I opened my eyes and looked at Maomao.
Maomao raised his eyebrows and his fingers moved unconsciously.
Zhang Song didn't expect that I would succeed so quickly, and looked at me with surprise.
But he was impatient. When he saw Maomao reacting, he reached out and slapped Maomao's face without waiting for him to wake up.
He might have learned it from my uncle. When he was frightened silly in the reservoir, it was my uncle who woke him up with a slap in the face.
This trick really worked, and Maomao woke up in no time.
He opened his eyes in a daze, and my heart finally settled down.
"Wake up, wake up." Zhang Song said excitedly.
He saw Maomao wake up, raised his hand, made the number four, and asked, "What's this?"
Although Maomao had just woken up and was still a little fuzzy, I could clearly see that he looked disgusted and said, "Ew!"
"Hehe." Zhang Song smiled innocently.
Seeing that Maomao could speak, I asked him, "What happened to you just now?"
Maomao didn't answer. Instead, he asked both of us, "Why am I lying here?"
"Don't you know what's wrong with you?" Zhang Song asked him.
Maomao shook his head and looked at us with a puzzled expression.
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