Cao Xiaoyang and the others continued to walk forward for half an hour according to the road pointed out on the map, and after rounding a hill, a wide river appeared in front of them, and the river flowed slowly from top to bottom.

The riverbed is extremely wide, and the closest distance between the two banks is dozens of zhang away.

On both sides of the river there is a wide beach, which is full of blood-red flowers, and a little phosphorus fire flickers among the flowers, which looks both beautiful and slightly weird.

There was a ferry on the bank of the river in the distance, and a wooden boat was parked at the crossing, and on board stood a boatman in a cloak and a hat and holding a penny.

Cao Xiaoyang said to Tang Wenwen: "It seems that the map that the land melon gave us is true, and it should be the Santu River ferry in front." ”

At this moment, an old man with a cane behind them walked slowly, and when he saw Cao Xiaoyang holding a map in his hand, he asked what it was, and Cao Xiaoyang answered truthfully.

At this time, the old man frowned and said, "There is only one road from the Huangquankou to the Santu River Ferry, what map is needed there?"

As soon as he heard this, Cao Xiaoyang remembered that he didn't seem to see any forks in the road just now, and then he realized that he was still in the hands of the land melon.

The old man then asked, "Did a dwarf man with a hat sell it to you?"

Cao Xiaoyang nodded.

"What did you buy it for?"

"Two copper coins. ”

When the old man heard this, he immediately clapped his hands. "Doll, why are you so confused!"

Cao Xiaoyang said: "Old man, isn't it just two copper coins, it's no big deal to be deceived by him." ”

The old man then asked, "And how many copper coins do you have on you now?"

"Two. ”

"Isn't this bad, if you want to cross the river through the Santu River crossing, you need to pay the boatman a ghost and two copper plates, and if you can't pay it, he will push you off the boat when the boat reaches the middle of the river, and then you will become a water ghost in the Santu River, and you will never be able to go ashore. ”

When Cao Xiaoyang heard this, he was immediately shocked, it turned out that the four copper coins that my grandmother prepared for us were the boat fare.

At this time, I only heard the old man continue: "How has this person lived all his life, he can see it clearly when he arrives at the three rivers, and some people have infinite scenery when they are alive, but after they die, no one even burns the money for crossing the river, which is really sad."

I arrived at the Santu River ferry a month ago, and because I didn't have the money to take the boat, I had to turn back to the yang world, and then I did a month's hard work for the city god to earn enough copper plates.

The land melon who bought the map was the same as me, and after his death, no one in the family burned money, so there was no money for the boat, and he was supposed to go with me to do drudgery for the city god, but that guy had a bad heart, and would rather be abducted and deceived than do drudgery.

He has been guarding the ghost gate inside and outside for a month, and today someone finally fell for it. ”

This is Cao Xiaoyang secretly scolded in his heart, I didn't expect that grandson to be so insidious, he actually set a show for me here, if I see him again, I must screw his head off.

At this time, Tang Wenwen said a little anxiously: "Chartered man, how can we cross the river now that we have two less copper plates?"

Cao Xiaoyang thought to himself, if he turned back to the Linglou now, it would take several days to go back and forth, and when the time came, it would not be fun to let Emperor Xudu wait in a hurry.

So he asked the old man, "Can the fare for this boat ride be paid with paper money in addition to copper plates?"

Before, when Cao Xiaoyang was inspecting the baggage, he found that there was a large pile of dark coins on the fourth layer, thinking that if the banknotes could be paid, it should not be a big deal to pull out one or two from it.

The old man shook his head. "I don't know much about this, but I only understand after asking the boatman, so you can say hello before you get on the boat. ”

So they passed the blood-red flowers on the other side of the river, and came to the ferry to ask the boatman about it.

The black clothes worn under the boatman's hat were actually covered with dry bones without flesh and blood, and then he raised his skull head and shook his head, telling Cao Xiaoyang in a very ethereal and weird voice that he only accepted copper coins.

Cao Xiaoyang was a little panicked for a while, so he proposed to add money, but the boatman still shook his head vigorously, and finally Cao Xiaoyang took out all the dark coins on the fourth layer of the burden, saying that this was all his money, and then the boatman finally agreed.

Cao Xiaoyang picked up the money and was about to hand it to the boatman, when Tang Wenwen stopped: "Sister Qian put this money on the fourth layer, indicating that this should be used on the road later, if we spend it all now, there will definitely be problems in the future." ”

Cao Xiaoyang knew that he was demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall, but now there seemed to be no other way, but for the sake of insurance, he still asked the old man just now: "Uncle, do you know that there are still places that need to be spent on the road ahead?"

The old man shook his head, saying that the farthest he could only go to the transition point, and he didn't know what the future would be, and he only got two copper coins for doing a month's drudgery for the city god, and he had no choice if he needed to spend money later.

Cao Xiaoyang thought to himself, since an old man dared to continue walking without money, what was he afraid of, so he still decided to give all those dark coins to the boatman. But what Cao Xiaoyang didn't know was that he would soon regret his current stupid behavior.

The Santu River, also known as the Burial Head River and the Santu River, is the most important boundary between yin and yang.

The ferry boat floated slowly on the Santu River, the river was windless, the surroundings were very quiet, and the flowers on the other side of the river bank gradually drifted away, and finally turned into a pale red in the smoke on the river surface.

The water of the Santu River is deep black and as thick as a pot of soup, and the bottom of the river bubbles the size of eggs and emits a disgusting stench.

From time to time, you can see severed limbs and even half-rotting heads, which are the ghosts of boatmen who have been pushed into the water because they have no money, and they are rotted and separated after wailing in the water for a while, and finally their souls are scattered.

During the boat, the old man talked to Cao Xiaoyang about some of his past events. The old man was the CEO of a multinational company before his death, and gave birth to three sons and two daughters in his life, his wife left early, and he did not remarry after that, and he lived to old age alone, but fortunately he was rich and his children were filial.

Before he died, he thought so, but he never expected that less than a day after his death, the five children of the family began to compete for the family property, so that he, the big boss who had been in the limelight all his life, did not even have a decent funeral in the end.

Later, the five children completely tore their faces for the family property, and in order to get as much of the family property as possible, they spent all their energy and time in the court, so that no one cared about the old father's memorial, so that he, a millionaire in life, could not even pay the two-penny boat money on the Santu River after his death.

Speaking of this, he sighed one after another, sighing.

The boatman rowed the boat, and after walking for about half an hour, Cao Xiaoyang and the others finally arrived at the other side, and walked up along a small road, and they came to the third stop of the trip, Wangxiangtai.

Many people have heard that there is such a place in the underworld in the yang world, standing on the lookout platform, you can see your beloved relatives and friends in the yang world for the last time.

The old man had already seen his five children clearly and did not want to see those bad scenes again, so he did not climb the lookout platform.

Cao Xiaoyang didn't have to go up because he didn't die, so he naturally didn't have to go up, and in the end, only Tang Wenwen went up to the lookout platform, and she saw her parents and family members on it, and she couldn't help crying sadly.

Cao Xiaoyang couldn't do anything else except comfort her a few words, so the three of them didn't say anything all the way after that.

After that, they walked forward for about two hours, and a black forest appeared in front of them, and there was a stone monument on the side of the road outside the woods, on which were written the three big characters "Evil Dog Ridge".

At this time, Cao Xiaoyang asked the old man: "Have you ever heard of this place, is there really a vicious dog in the Vicious Dog Ridge?"

The old man shook his head, indicating that he did not understand.

For some reason, after seeing this forest, the three of them invariably had an inexplicable fear, but Vicious Dog Ridge was the only way for them to move forward, so they had to grit their teeth and walk in.

Cao Xiaoyang found a few thick branches in the woods, he gave one to the old man and Tang Wenwen respectively, and said: "Isn't it just some vicious dogs, I have never been afraid of dogs when I was a human, and now that I am a ghost, I may not be afraid of those beasts." ”

The old man nodded yes, so they began to go deep into the Vicious Dog Ridge, and after walking for a while, Cao Xiaoyang suddenly found that there was a hat on the side of the road in front of him, and he felt a little familiar after a closer look.

"Isn't this the hat of the land melon?"

Tang Wenwen looked at it carefully, and then nodded.

"Well, it's his. ”

"Why did you end up here?"