Chapter 1: Seongnam (3)

Strange to say, as soon as his words fell, the smoky wind on the canal suddenly cooled. "Boom!" A string of thunder really sounded in the clear sky. Immediately after, a stream of wet water vapor swept straight across the river, blowing away the stinky sweat on everyone's bodies.

Cheng Xiaojiu and the others raised their heads in surprise and looked at the place where the thunder started. I saw a pitch-black cloud from south to north, quickly approaching the pavilion Taocheng along the canal. Around the dark clouds, red, purple, blue, green, and lightning splashed, as if countless demons and monsters were dancing behind the clouds. And except for this black cloud in the sky, the rest of the place is actually all walan, how clean and how clean.

"God, the dragon is out of the water!" Some people screamed loudly, left their work behind, and were stunned.

The clouds that are rapidly drifting in the sky are indeed a dragon, if you regard the few dark clouds in front of you as the dragon's head, and the thousands of miles of clouds behind it as the dragon's body. The dragon's horns and claws were all set, and a golden curtain of water fell from the sky to the ground under its gaping mouth. As the dragon's body rolled, countless electric snakes, large and small, flew in all directions, like tens of thousands of scales shining in the sunlight.

"Click!" "Click!" Lightning struck one after another, causing the earth to tremble slightly. The river was like a pot boiling in an instant, and fish of all sizes jumped out of the water and writhed in strange postures in the electric light. Less than three miles from both sides of the river, it was still a clear and sunny day. The dazzling sunlight shone down from the sky, illuminating the houses, mountains, and trees in the distance, like an illusory dream.

In the midst of this dream, there was a real laughter, as clear as the deafening thunder. It was the laughter of a few girls who had just come home from shopping, revealing coquettishness and lightheartedness. The coolies on the docks were awakened from their fright by the sudden laughter, and they scattered with their heads in their hands.

"Don't go, don't go, cover the boat with lacquered cloth, cover the food!" Cheng Bo, the housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion, opened his arms and tried to intercept the escaped batons to help himself. The bars slammed his arm away, and he didn't look back.

"I pay the wages, I pay the wages. You people who have lost their conscience! Makobo was knocked on the head, sat on the ground and howled. The grain in the warehouse is most afraid of moisture, in case it is wet by the rain, these hundreds of thousands of stones of good Jiangnan white rice will have mold and insects. When the time comes, not only will the owner of the grain not spare him, but I am afraid that the entire Pavilion Tao Zhou family will not be able to bear the anger of the other party.

"Help me cover the grain, and then give each person two buckets of rice, no, three buckets." On the first cargo ship, a man dressed as a vendor rushed out of the cabin and shouted loudly. He has a short five-length stature, and he doesn't look like a powerful master at all. But this roar overpowered the thunder in the sky. The brave sticks hesitated and stopped, and most of them continued to run. In these chaotic years, three buckets of rice is indeed not a small amount, but you have to have a life to eat, right? According to the legend of the old generation, anyone who witnessed the true face of the dragon lord would be caught in the sky and thrown thousands of miles away and smashed into a meat pie. Strong men are mortals with the naked eye, but they don't have the courage to go against the dragon king. What's more, even if these 20 boats of grain are all drenched in the rain and moldy, the loss is only the family of Master Zhou, what is the matter with the poor men who don't know where tomorrow's dinner is?

Seeing that the dark clouds were getting closer and closer, the five short figures became more and more anxious, opened their throats, and continued to raise the price. "Anyone who helps, will be given five buckets of rice, and the money will be hanged, and there will be no repentance!"

With a click, as if echoing his voice, a purple bolt of lightning slashed down from mid-air, smashing half a wall of water across the river in the distance. After the wall of water fell, the first drop of rain finally landed on the boat. Bai Liang jumped up brightly, jumped a few more times, and plunged headlong into the canal.

"It's hail!" The wands screamed in horror, and they became more and more afraid to turn back to help. They tried as fast as they could, taking refuge in the thatched huts on both sides of the river. The owner of the thatched hut did not dare to refuse, and as soon as he put the man in the door, he closed all the windows. Thunder on a sunny day, who should be killed. Irrelevant people, don't bother with God's business!

Cheng Bo, the housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion, cried for a while, but he didn't have the slightest sympathy. He looked up at the "black dragon" rolling in the sky, the corners of his mouth twitched a few times, he stood up tremblingly, and trotted closer to the cargo ship.

He had already accepted his fate, and if God wanted him to die, he would rather die in the grain ship. At least in the future, the head of the family will not trouble his nephews and nephews for the sake of his loyalty. The hail became denser and denser, and the more urgent it became, the old housekeeper did not dodge, did not dodge, and squatted beside the grain bag in a daze, waiting for the final blow of lightning.

At this moment, more than a dozen strong men with wooden spoons, clay pots, and clay pots on their heads rushed out of the shacks near the wharf, jumped onto the cargo ship, and covered the grain with lacquered cloth with the boatmen and households. Large, round hailstones fell from the sky, knocking wooden spoons, clay pots, and clay pots clanging. The people under the wooden spoons, clay pots, and clay pots were like fairy music, and while quickly wrapping hemp rope around the lacquered cloth, they emphasized without looking back: "Five buckets of rice, Chengbo, this is the price offered by your people." Don't cheat later! ”

"Little Lao'er will never cheat. No bullying! Cheng Bo, the housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion, suddenly recovered a little bit of his spirit, and burst into laughter. The "black dragon" in the sky seems to be coming quickly, but in fact there is still a little distance. Although the sporadic hailstones in front of me made people dizzy, the harm to food was far less than that of a pouring rain.

Seeing that there were bold people rushing up to help, the rods who hid in the nearby shacks to avoid the disaster started to make a fortune again. Several, a dozen, twenty dozen, and a moment later, nearly fifty more men returned to the ship to help at the risk of being killed by lightning for the high reward promised by the five-short figure. In the end, there are many people and there is great strength, although a few people fell into the river in a panic and were well filled with water. But before the golden waterfall at the dragon's mouth fell to the dock, several cargo ships that had already opened their cabins were covered with lacquered cloth. Although the follow-up dozen cargo ships did not have time to be covered with any rainproof facilities, because they had not yet had time to open their warehouses, all the goods were still covered with a thick layer of straw mats.

God never did what people wanted, and without waiting for the people on the previous cargo ships to make more preparations, the dragon head finally moved directly above the fleet, and the golden waterfall visible to the naked eye poured down, reflecting the sunlight, like a heavenly river bursting. With a series of strange lightning bolts, the fish danced on the surface of the river, leaped from the surface of the water into the air, and then twisted their bodies and fell into the river one by one. There are crucian carp more than three inches long, silly silver carp, black and ugly catfish, and thick and fat carp, all of which respond to the thunder in the sky, and want to leap into the clouds to worship the king of the water tribe who came from afar.

"Lord Dragon!" The people with the wooden pots and clay pots fell to their knees. The fish have all flown into the sky, who else is the dragon king hiding behind the clouds? If ordinary people dare to lose their manners in front of the Dragon King, do they still want to end up with a whole corpse?

"Kneel, kneel, bow to the dragon king, bow to the dragon king!" The old butler Chengbo was scurrying all over the boat, and when he saw that someone was still standing, he immediately tore him down. The baton and the family members had long been frightened by this sudden outbreak of heavenly might, and as soon as he reminded them, they immediately obediently lay on the deck and threw themselves to the ground. Suddenly, the housekeeper saw a flugled green still standing in the heavy rain, with a broken wooden basin on his head, standing still. "Cheng Xiaojiu, Grandpa Xiaojiu, don't make trouble for everyone!" The butler Maibo ran a few steps forward, crying and pleading. There was only rumbling thunder that answered him, and Cheng Xiaojiu, who was standing at the bow of the ship, faced the lightning flying in the sky, as if he had no fear at all, and his backbone was straight!

"Grandpa Xiaojiu, what are you going to do!" The butler ran a few more steps, slipped by the unmelted hail on the deck, slapped his thighs and cried.

Cheng Xiaojiu still didn't respond, staring blankly at the waterfall falling from the sky, his body "as safe as a rock". If Cheng Bo had taken a few more steps forward and pushed him from behind, he would have seen that it was a misunderstanding. Cheng Xiaojiu was not bold at all, but he had long been frightened stupid by the strange situation in front of him, and he didn't know that he was the only one in the entire fleet at this moment who dared to face the wrath of the "Dragon King". Several hard objects fell from the sky and hit him right in the back. The intense pain made him stagger, and then, stubbornly, he stood up straight, holding a broken wooden barrel, and continued to be in a daze in the rain and thunder.

Is there really a dragon in this world? Cheng Xiaojiu didn't know the answer. Looking through the bright and strange rain curtain, he saw electric snakes flying around him, drifting away, as gorgeous as the fireworks he had seen with his father in Beijing when he was a child.

The god in the clouds was clearly enraged by the inadequacy of the fish in the river, and with a thunderclap, threw the fish down again. "That's not right!" After being hit a few times by the hard objects falling in the sky one after another, Cheng Xiaojiu finally discovered the truth. It's not a fish in the river, it's a fish from the sky! There were indeed fish falling down from behind the dark clouds, at least, there were more than three of them in the big fish that had fallen into the canal in a row, and they were of a different species that he had never seen before!

Pap, papa, papa, papa, the fish splashed on the deck, most of them still alive, and blood gushed from the corners of their mouths. "The Dragon Lord is angry, the Dragon Lord is angry!" Cheng Bo, who was drenched like a chicken in soup, prostrate on the deck, didn't dare to raise his head again. The sudden clouds and schools of fish falling from the sky were far beyond his comprehension. Therefore, he prefers to believe that there are gods in the sky, and he prefers to believe that as long as he knocks his head a few times, he can save the ship, young and old.

Not only Chengbo and the fleet were bowing, but near the dock, more than half of the people who were lucky enough to witness this Tianwei fell to their knees in the mud. Fish, large and small, fell beside them, struggling and writhing. People who rarely eat meat once turn a blind eye to it. They didn't dare to touch these Dragon Lord's people, even if the other party had fallen from the sky into the mortal world, and they would soon dry up and die. They were afraid of arousing the Dragon Lord's anger, although they had not usually done anything that touched the Dragon Lord's interests, they still couldn't eat enough and couldn't afford to wear clothes.

There are also people who are not afraid of God's punishment, and the gangsters who looked for Cheng Xiaojiu'er in the morning are such characters. Instead of starving to death, it is better to be punished by the dragon lord and be struck by lightning. In line with the principle of fighting for their lives, they rushed into the streets with wooden basins on their backs, picked up the struggling fish from the mud, and threaded them one by one with bamboo slivers on strings. The red blood of the fish fell down the bamboo strips, dripping into the puddles on the ground, dyeing the puddles red.

Scarhead hung a heavy string of fish around his neck and danced excitedly. He quickly began another collection, covered in fish blood and with a happy smile on his face. "Thank God for the food!" Following behind Scar's head, another topless beggar screamed muttered, biting half of a raw fish at the corner of his mouth, his tail swaying up and down his lips.

"Iniquity!" Several elderly people yelled at the gangsters and beggars, condemning each other for committing murder in front of the Dragon King without authorization, bringing countless disasters to Guantao City. But the thugs would not pay attention to him, and when they saw a fish falling, they ran towards it. Everyone carried several bamboo strips in their hands, and each bamboo strip was heavy and bloody with live fish.

Strange to say, although there were many lightning bolts in the sky, not a single tree was chopped down. The whole dark cloud gradually coiled into a large cauldron lid, and the black pressure was pressed upside down at the head of the pavilion Tao City. Except for the sky directly above the Pavilion Tao City, the surrounding sky is still clear. Bright sunlight shines from all directions, illuminating the rain in the sky.

Seeing that the person who caught the fish first was not struck by lightning, more and more poor people joined the ranks of catching fish. Since the few who took the lead in disrespecting the Dragon Lord were not punished by God, the "fair and honest" Dragon Lord would definitely not pursue other blind followers. Since the Dragon Lord had already thrown these fish to the ground, perhaps he wanted to punish them by fake human hands. The best punishment is to let this group of stupid fish who have offended the Dragon Lord die without a place to bury, and everyone is willing to use their teeth and tongues to carry out the will of the Dragon King.

"You, aren't you afraid of God's damnation?" The old people couldn't stop the people from grabbing the fish, and burst into tears, kneeling in the mud and kowtowing to the sky.

"Oh my God, if God had eyes. It will not be so fat that the rich will not be able to live! Someone laughed and retorted, reached out to grab the nearest big fish, and by the way knocked his companion who was trying to compete with him.

Cheng Xiaojiu put a wooden basin on his head and listened to the hustle and bustle of the world. He suddenly felt that he was dreaming, and the sky in front of him was clear, except for the dark sky in the middle, which did not exist in the world at all. Not only is this strange sky a nightmare, but this lightning, this cloud, this river, this boat, this tree, all are dreams. Including the crowd who worship Tianwei more than once, and the companions who compete for the fish to break their heads, all are dreams! Nightmare that doesn't wake up! He had fallen into this dream a long, long time ago. That year, when he was only six years old, he rode his father's tall horse, fell asleep unconsciously, and never woke up.

In this nightmare, my father became a bad guy in a daze, was sent to the frontier, and never returned. He and his mother were first driven out of the capital, and then exiled to his father's hometown of Ping'en. Then I watched the days go from wealth to hardship little by little, and watched the elders who were full of friends in the past become strangers. Then, in the nightmare, Zhang Jin, who loves to eat the living, hit the door of the house, escaped from the city with his mother and the last bit of savings, and ran to Guantao to join his mother's cousin, who was a baby father since he was a child. Then, the mother and son were sent out of the door by each other like a plague god.

If there really were immortals in the underworld, it would be impossible for him to allow such a thing to happen. Fish should not fall from the sky, and thunderclaps should not sound in the clear sky. So, it's all a dream. In this dream, Cheng Xiaojiu couldn't feel a trace of sunshine and warmth, all he could feel was endless loneliness and coldness.

Several small fish landed at his feet, dying and losing. Cheng Xiaojiu squatted down, picked them up from the deck, and gently threw them into the river. To no avail, more fish landed on the boat, some were thrown to their deaths, some were not yet dead, and gently tapping their backs on the deck, as if begging the gods for forgiveness. It wasn't God who saved them, but Cheng Xiaojiu who squatted down! Like a demon, he threw the dead and the undead fish into the river one by one. No matter how strange the gaze around me is.

He saved a carp the size of a palm, and he saved a catfish that had been growing all the time. There was also a monster with white scales and a long beard, which looked like a poisonous snake in his hand, and Cheng Xiaojiu also held it to the side of the boat and threw it into the water to release it. He didn't know if it made sense for him to do this, and the part he saved was nothing compared to the fish that died on the shore and in the hands of people. But he didn't want to see these fish die in front of his eyes, not for mercy, but for the sake of being both God's outcasts, the hatred of the gods!

A golden carp landed at his feet, making a splash. The fish was three feet long, and the scales on its belly were like the evening sun. This is an authentic Yellow River carp, Cheng Xiaojiu recognizes it! He hadn't tasted this delicacy in years. Before his father was confiscated into the army, he would take him to the restaurant for dinner every autumn. That warm memory is still something he can't forget. Cheng Xiaojiu wiped a handful of tears and grabbed the fish's tail. Someone tried to fight with him, but he pushed him out. "Cheng Xiaojiu on the day of the eight lambs, don't you look at who I am!" The other party yelled angrily. He turned a deaf ear, slowly crouched to the side of the boat, and gently lowered the big golden carp.

As if spiritual, the golden carp nodded at him, and then quickly leaned down to the bottom of the river. "Click!" Another lightning bolt fell in mid-air, and it was in the middle of the Taocheng head. The enemy towers and city walls on the south side of the century-old city shook and fell down in thunder.

The showers stopped instantly, and the black clouds were far away. Suddenly, the bright sunlight lit up between the heavens and the earth, and the eyes of the people were dazzled.

"Damnation!" Someone cried loudly.

"God sends fish to everyone to eat, and God has fish for everyone to eat." The scar-headed thug had two large strings of fish in his hand and four or five strings around his neck, and he was running up and down the puddle, his eyes glazed over, and his snot running down his mouth.

Note 1: Dragon hanging, tornado. It is often found on the surface of the sea and in the desert. According to scientists, the fish are sucked into the air by a tornado and fall when the wind weakens.

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