Chapter 30: Seven Miraculous Effects of Fish Disaster
Early in the morning, Zhou Qiaochu was in her locked room, knocking on the door and crying, "Grandma! Uncle! Open the door quickly! Something's wrong with my sister!"
After a while, the door was pushed open by Old Lady Yu. She glanced at the ground with empty eyes, carefully closed the door, and then hurriedly squatted over and asked, "Oh my, what's going on?"
Chu Ying clutched his stomach, sweat dripping down his forehead and his lips turning pale. "It hurts so much! Please, take me to the temple. I'll do whatever you say..."
A hint of joy flashed in Old Lady Yu's eyes, but she didn't let go. "My son is away on business. You should be patient for now and wait for him to come back and take you there."
Yuwei Village is closed and backward. Whenever the villagers have a headache or a fever, they only go to Laojun Temple for treatment. Strangely enough, the magic medicine given by the old temple priest seems to be really effective. No wonder the old man has an extraordinary status in the village and is deeply respected.
"I can't stand it anymore," Chu Ying cried, rolling on the ground. "Please save me!"
Seeing the man about to bang his head against the wall, Old Lady Yu rushed over to stop him: "That won't do! My family has spent years of savings on you!"
As she spoke, she frowned and nodded: "Okay, okay, I'll take you there! You can't run away anyway."
Old Mrs. Yu helped Chu Ying out. Zhou Qiaochu wanted to follow her, but she locked him in the hut.
Before leaving, Chu Ying was supported by the other party and took the opportunity to turn his head and nodded nervously to Zhou Qiaochu.
The girl watched the door close again with a worried look on her face, muttering to herself, "Sister, please don't be in any danger..."
Laojun Temple is not far from Yu’s home. It takes only seven or eight minutes to walk to the temple gate.
The gate was unlocked during the day. Old Lady Yu helped Chu Ying inside, but the old temple keeper was nowhere to be seen.
Chu Ying bent over and cried out again, with a look of pain on his face: "I have acid reflux in my stomach and I want to vomit."
Old Mrs. Yu jumped up and said, "Don't spit it out!"
In desperation, she sent Chu Ying to a low thatched hut behind the temple: "If you want to vomit, go to the toilet."
The temple wall was high and there was only one exit. Old Mrs. Yu was not worried that she would escape, so she did not follow her in. Chu Ying ran over obediently, but when Old Mrs. Yu was not paying attention, she crouched down and went around to the backyard.
She hadn't wanted to take any chances.
But the fear that the fish-headed man caused her was too intense. She knew that if she remained motionless at this moment, she would probably lose her only chance to call the police.
At this moment, a strong fishy smell suddenly came into my nose.
She went around the back door into the temple, behind the statue.
The bungalow is not big, and the most likely place to hide something is under the altar.
She lifted a corner of the thick red velvet covering the altar and crawled in fearfully. Sure enough, there were a lot of miscellaneous items piled inside.
Several tables, chairs and benches with missing limbs and covered with cobwebs were piled together with several black cabinets with mottled and peeling paint. They looked like relics from the early 20th century and for some reason they were stored under the altar.
Chu Ying was concentrating on finding Zhou Qiaochu's schoolbag, but the fishy smell became more and more pungent and unbearable.
She raised her head and sniffed, then followed the source of the scent. Unexpectedly, she discovered that there was another person hiding at the other end of the altar!
She was so frightened that her legs went weak. Thinking of what happened after she was caught that night, the courage she had just mustered up was completely gone.
The man had his back to her, his shoulders shaking slightly, making a faint crackling sound, which was the source of the foul smell.
Chu Ying's heart beat faster and faster, and there seemed to be a voice in his heart warning him loudly not to get any closer.
But sometimes, driven by curiosity, people make decisions that go against rationality.
As if he had noticed something, the man paused, stood up alertly, and turned his head left and right.
At that moment, Chu Ying covered his mouth tightly and bit his tiger's mouth hard to prevent himself from screaming - there was a fish head on the man's neck!
It turns out the fish-headed monster I saw last night wasn't an illusion!
Chu Ying hid her body behind the pile of discarded furniture and stared at the thing in the monster's hand in disbelief. She finally figured out the source of the fishy smell.
This fish-headed man is chewing a fish raw...
No! That's not a fish!
Chu Ying opened his eyes wide. This time he didn't need to pretend. He felt a real nausea rising in his throat.
——That was... a baby in swaddling clothes.
Swish——!
A corner of the red velvet was lifted up, and a dry hand covered with yellow spots suddenly reached in and grabbed the fish-headed man's forearm.
The old temple keeper narrowed his eyes and dragged the monster out from under the altar.
"Oh my, I went out and searched for it for a long time, and finally ran to hide here... It took a lot of effort."
Chu Ying was so frightened that she could not move, holding her breath. She waited until she heard rustling sounds and dragging movements outside for a long time. Then she suppressed her fear, crawled on the ground, gently pulled up a little bit of the tablecloth, and peeked into the gap.
There were several wooden basins in the backyard, and the muddy ground was filled with scaly blood.
The old temple keeper was no different from a fish butcher in the fresh food market. He held a scraper in his hand, knocked the fish-headed man unconscious in the basin, bent down to scrape off the scales and cut open the belly, then picked up a basin of water and flushed the ground clean.
Afterwards, he poured the cleaned "fish meat" into the well next to him.
After a while, a gurgling sound similar to boiling water came from the well, as if the lid of a soda bottle had been opened after being shaken, and a stream of light brown well water overflowed like a fountain. The old temple keeper then collected the water in a wooden bucket and poured it into the water tank next to him.
This water jar... is exactly the one that the old temple priest scooped for them to drink after drawing lots!
Chu Ying couldn't bear it any longer and almost fainted.
The busy figure of the old temple priest in the courtyard paused, and he turned around and suddenly looked under the altar.
He rolled his eyes and muttered, "It seems that Laojun wants to eat one more fish today..."
-
"Long Zhu, did you notice that we just passed this place?"
Meng Caiyun leaned over to the driver's seat and spoke in a very heavy tone.
Long Zhu was holding the steering wheel, and he showed a surprised expression when he heard the words: "I know, seeing that you didn't react, I thought you liked the scenery here."
Meng Caiyun: “…”
After a while, she asked tentatively: "Can you open this road?"
Long Zhu nodded and calmly placed his hand on the gear lever: "You should have said so earlier."
As soon as she finished speaking, she shifted gears neatly and stepped heavily on the accelerator. The car instantly accelerated and flew out. The two people in the back seat silently grabbed the upper armrest in the face of this strong push.
After a while, Long Zhu said, "It started again. It seems like something is stopping us."
It's just a low-level ghost wall, it's not difficult to break.
But if we continue like this, no matter how much time we have left, we will be delayed.
Before Meng Caiyun could figure out what to do, another car suddenly appeared in his sight.
Her eyes lit up: "Tell him to stop the car!"
Without thinking, Long Zhu drifted and braked suddenly, forcing the oncoming car to stop next to the suspended guardrail.
A dazed man came out of the car. Everyone thought he would get angry, but he was so excited that his eyes were filled with tears. He opened the car door and jumped out as if he had met a savior.
Until he saw the dragon bamboo, he was so scared that he crawled back.
Meng Caiyun was puzzled: "Every move he made was beyond my expectations."
Feng Jia caught a glimpse of the small card with the words "Good Dream Hotel" stuck under the other car's window and said meaningfully, "It looks like he's also been stuck in a trap."
Long Zhu stared at the man: "This man looks so familiar."
The fourth brother turned pale and rushed forward to hug Long Zhu's ankles: "I was wrong! I was wrong! Please don't kill me!"
Long Zhu was a little surprised and subconsciously turned around to look at other people, only to see Meng Caiyun and Feng Jia silently looking away, pretending to look at the scenery.
Long Zhu pondered for a while, then a light bulb went off in her head. She slapped her palms lightly, "Ah, I remember now!"
"It's the guy who gave me a boost at the gas station!"
The fourth brother was stunned for a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief with a guilty conscience.
Long Zhu: "Don't you have a daughter?"
The fourth brother's heart trembled, and he stammered and couldn't utter a complete sentence.
Meng Caiyun and Feng Jia looked at each other, and a look of understanding appeared in each other's eyes.
Feng Jia sneered at Lao Si and said, "It seems you are the human trafficker in collusion with the owner of the Good Dream Hotel? Have you kidnapped another little girl and sent her to the village?"
The fourth brother's forehead was covered with sweat and he almost buried his head in the ground.
Meng Caiyun stroked his chin and said, "Well...he can't get out, and we can't get in. I have a good idea."
The fourth brother shuddered and backed away: "I don't want to go into the village again. There's a temple there that's really weird. I won't go..."
Meng Caiyun laughed twice: "You look scared, but we won't hurt you."
The fourth child crept back fearfully: "There are ghosts there! I won't go! I'd rather go to jail!"
He shouted excitedly for a while, and suddenly, a subtle "click" sound was heard. In an instant, the fourth brother seemed to have become a different person. He got up from the ground in a daze and said, "I'll go with you."
Feng Jia was a little surprised: "How did this person figure it out?"
"Yeah, how did you figure it out?"
Meng Caiyun put his right hand behind his back and lightly turned a pair of scissors in a circle.
Long Zhu glanced in Meng Caiyun's direction thoughtfully.
It seems like something was cut just now.
Is it an illusion?
The car zigzagged all the way into the village.
When they were almost at the familiar Laojun Temple, the fourth brother suddenly shuddered, as if he had regained consciousness. After a brief moment of confusion, he showed a look of horror.
"Why am I back?" He trembled and hid in the back seat, refusing to get out. "This is really weird! The old temple keeper clearly gave me real money before, but later it all turned into paper money!"
Feng Jia frowned: "Temple keeper? Is that your buyer?"
The fourth brother said vaguely, "This is my first time in the village. In the past, it was always Lao Yang who took me up the mountain."
Seeing Feng Jia's cold expression, he felt inexplicably frightened, so he confessed everything guiltily: "...That's really all I know!"
Meng Caiyun hissed, "So, the kidnapped person will be sent to the Laojun Temple, where the temple keeper will draw lots to decide which family to send them to?"
Feng Jia snorted coldly: "So-called 'efficacy', so this is the method."
Meng Caiyun thought for a moment and said, "This is strange. We can't force our way in."
Feng Jia was already a little angry: "Do we have to wait for them to harm more people?"
"What I mean," Meng Caiyun smiled sheepishly, "is that if there's someone who can get inside, it wouldn't be easy to alert the enemy."
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