Chapter 27 Fish Disaster 4 Her Courage
The next morning, the villagers gathered outside the Laojun Temple.
The old temple keeper showed the long stick he had drawn to the crowd, and the crowd cheered.
"Old monk, why is it the Yu family again?" A one-eyed man was dissatisfied. "I offer the most offerings, why is it never my turn?"
The eldest son of the Yu family grinned and said, "During the last flash flood, it was me, Yu Da, who helped repair the hole in the Laojun Temple. Laojun sympathized with my sincerity."
Next to her stood a big and strong old lady with gray hair, chapped and red cheeks, and her hands were covered with thick calluses from constant work. A little child was lying on her back, tied to the body with a blue and white cloth.
She smiled and said, "That girl is eight years old, six years older than our Zhuangguang. It's just right."
Someone chimed in: "One-eyed dragon, you old widower, Old Lady Yu is raising a wife for her grandson, why are you joining in the fun?"
The one-eyed dragon snorted coldly and grinned, "I just want someone to take care of me in my old age. Why, is that not possible?"
Zhou Qiaochu hugged the temple door handle, his young face full of tears. The villagers just watched coldly, as if they had long been accustomed to this scene.
The old temple priest kindly knelt down and scooped a spoonful of light brown soup from the nearby water tank. "Don't be afraid, child. Drink this, and you will receive the blessing of Laojun."
Zhou Qiaochu turned his head away and refused to obey: "No! I want to go home!"
"Good boy," the old temple keeper smiled, "this is your home!"
After saying that, he forced the soup into the girl's mouth. A strange tacit understanding seemed to spread among the onlookers. They clasped their hands together, their eyes pious and crazy, and looked up at the statue of Laojun in the hall.
The old temple keeper motioned Yu Da and Old Lady Yu to come forward, his expression gentle but unyielding, and asked the girl to hold their hands.
"From now on, you are the daughter of the Yu family. You must learn to abide by some rules."
Ignoring Zhou Qiaochu's confused expression, the old temple keeper spoke slowly, "First, younger generations should not disobey their elders. Second, wives should not disobey their husbands. Third, do not interfere in other people's family affairs. If you see a strange shadow in the village, get away as soon as possible. Fourth, do not enter Laojun Temple at night."
After that, he ordered Zhou Qiaochu to kowtow three times in front of the statue, and then asked her to press her forehead on the instep of the statue to receive the blessing.
Zhou Qiaochu refused to go with the Yu family and wanted to hold onto the table leg and drag it for a while. However, when his eyes swept across the statue in the hall, he found that the kind-looking old lady suddenly turned into a young woman!
She was shocked and looked carefully again, but the statue was still the same statue and had not turned into anyone else.
Perhaps because he was frightened, Zhou Qiaochu was a little dazed and stopped struggling. He was coaxed and taken away by Old Lady Yu.
The crowd also dispersed sparsely, leaving only the old temple priest standing there with his wrinkled smiling face.
The Yu family has a low bungalow in the valley at the end of the village. It is dark and damp. There is no electricity in the village, and it is pitch black inside, like a man-eating cave.
As soon as Yu Dayi returned home, he locked Zhou Qiaochu in the innermost room and locked the door regardless of the girl's crying.
Old Mrs. Yu did not try to stop them, but instead consoled them in a gentle voice: "As long as you stay home and stay home, I will let you out."
you.
Zhou Qiaochu wiped away her tears, as if she had thought of something.
She turned around and bravely groped around the room, and finally found a dying woman lying in the corner.
There was a narrow, high window above her head, and the bleak moonlight seeped in sadly, flowing across the woman's thin face.
Zhou Qiaochu held back her sobs and reached out to push the other person: "Sister, sister?"
Chu Ying was half asleep and half awake when he found a little girl of seven or eight years old in front of him.
She propped herself up, her forehead bruised and the corners of her mouth broken. Her cheeks were slightly sunken from being hungry for days.
"Who are you?" She strained to see the girl's face clearly, her eyes widening in a moment. "Were you also abducted by them?"
Zhou Qiaochu nodded vigorously, crying, "They took away my schoolbag."
Chu Ying looked desperate and helpless: "How could they be so lawless..."
She suddenly thought of the child carried on the back of the old lady from the Yu family, and suddenly understood the girl's future situation.
When Chu Ying thought of this, he felt nauseous and started to dry heave, leaning against the wall.
Zhou Qiaochu lowered his voice to comfort her: "Sister, my father is the captain of the criminal police, he will definitely come to save me!"
Her father had agreed on a "secret code" with her. Even if a bad guy replied to the message with a watch, he would definitely notice something was wrong!
"Is your father a Fengcheng detective?" Chu Ying's gray eyes lit up a little: "Does he know where you are?"
Zhou Qiaochu hesitated: "He is from Hecheng, but he knows I am here for summer camp."
In a city hundreds of miles away, finding a little girl who was deceived and taken to a valley is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The hope that had just emerged was extinguished again. Chu Ying's eyes gradually turned red. She stroked the red rope tied around her wrist, tears silently falling.
"Sister, did they beat you?"
The strange and dark environment made the girl uneasy, and she subconsciously wanted to get closer to her only companion.
Chu Ying touched the wound on her cheek and recalled the night when she escaped. She was outnumbered and was beaten badly.
However, thinking about it now, there are many doubts. She clearly remembers that she was seriously injured at that time, and it seemed that her leg bones were also broken. But after being thrown into this room for a night, she only had flesh wounds and had no problem sitting, lying down or walking.
Thinking of this, she looked at the red rope on her wrist, her eyes revealing a bit of sadness.
Zhou Qiaochu approached her: "Sister, what's wrong with you?"
Chu Ying came back to his senses: "I... thought of some things in the past."
"Is your sister's home in Fengcheng?"
"No, my home is far away from Fengcheng. It's also a remote village."
"Sister, do you miss home? I miss you so much..."
“…”
After a long silence, Chu Ying said softly, "I don't know."
In my memory, my hometown is a piece of frozen soil that cannot be melted and a long-dry sandy field.
As her parents wished, they had a younger brother and no longer had the money to raise a daughter, so she was left to be raised by her aunt.
My aunt was a fortune teller in the village. Relying on the respect and offerings of the villagers, she was able to spare some money for Chu Ying's studies. Chu Ying worked hard and was admitted to the county school after finishing junior high school.
The county seat is sixty or seventy kilometers away from Hulu Village, which is not too far, but it is a completely different world.
The roads are neat and tidy, the buildings are magnificent... A country girl who finally managed to get out of the cracks in the sand slope fell into the colorful and prosperous city.
Even though she was careful to please everyone, she was still criticized for being the "witch's daughter".
She didn't dare to disobey her aunt's decision, didn't dare to refute her classmates' ridicule, and didn't dare to face the cold eyes of others.
She just hated and resented the backwardness and barbarity of her hometown day after day, and was determined to leave.
So when she was admitted to Fengcheng University, her first thought was that she could finally get rid of all this.
Before leaving, my aunt put the braided red string around her wrist and said: "If you are not happy outside, you can always come back to the village."
No, don't.
She would rather live her whole life as an ordinary person in a big city than go back to the village to be a shaman medium.
Chu Ying asked her aunt to leave with her, but she just shook her head silently.
"I have been watching over Grandma Hu Er for my entire life. Wherever she is, I will be there."
Chu Ying left.
Little did I know that the separation that day felt like a lifetime ago.
Zhou Qiaochu pulled Chu Ying's sleeve and pulled her back from the long old memories.
She whispered, "Sister, I saw my schoolbag thrown into the temple by that grandfather during the day. The spare phone my father gave me was inside. I remember the way, and I want to dig it out to find it."
Chu Ying looked at the high window above his head, thinking of the night he was caught escaping at night, and shuddered as he shook his head: "No, it's too risky. If we behave ourselves, maybe they will let us out later."
Zhou Qiaochu said anxiously: "But, that phone hasn't been charged for a day. Sister, please lift me up so I can get out!"
Chu Ying was timid and afraid that the group of barbarians would implicate him, so he would not let Zhou Qiaochu take any risk at all.
At this moment, a faint fishy smell drifted in through the high window, and it became stronger and stronger. The two men couldn't help but cover their mouths and noses and looked up.
Seeing this, Zhou Qiaochu closed her eyes and almost screamed. Chu Ying pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth tightly.
——I saw a sticky, wet and smelly fish head slowly emerging from the narrow window, its eyes bulging outwards, and its gills opening and closing, looking both strange and creepy.
The two of them huddled in the corner, watching the enormous strange fish poke its head out to look around. After finding nothing, it staggered away.
When silence returned outside the window, Chu Yingcai trembled and mustered up his courage. He stepped on the straw pile at the corner, struggled to climb up the window sill, and climbed up to take a peek.
Under the pale moonlight, there was indeed a shadow with a fish head and a human body, wandering aimlessly in the village.
Chu Ying's scalp tingled, and he didn't dare to look any further. He slowly sat down against the wall.
Zhou Qiaochu choked up: "Sister, what was that just now?"
What is that?
Chu Ying himself didn't know.
Are there such terrible creatures in the world?
Or is it...
She subconsciously stroked the red rope on her wrist, her face filled with horror, not daring to think any further.
Once, because of her aunt's identity, she felt inferior and could not hold her head up in front of her classmates and teachers.
More than once, I have fantasized late at night: if it wasn't my aunt who raised me, if my biological parents hadn't abandoned me, would my life be completely different?
But at that moment, Chu Ying's long-held beliefs began to collapse.
Zhou Qiaochu's voice trembled: "Is it... the strange shadow that grandpa mentioned?"
Chu Ying had an impression: "Were you also taken to the temple first?"
When the villagers make deals with human traffickers, they don’t send the people home directly, but take them to the Laojun Temple to draw lots... It’s as if the "Laojun" decides which home to send the abducted people to.
This custom is so absurd and unheard of!
Although Zhou Qiaochu was wiping away tears, her eyes were determined beyond her age. "I'm scared, sister. I need to find a way to leave and call the police."
Why……
The fish-headed monster is so weird and scary, isn’t this seven or eight-year-old girl afraid?
Chu Ying hugged his knees, unable to tell whether he was confused or jealous of the other person's courage that he envied.
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