At this point, the old man let out a long sigh and motioned for us to come and sit down.

Although it is close to noon, after staying in the rural yard for a long time, you will still feel cold.

The room was very clean, and as soon as I entered the door, I first saw a long incense case, with tributes and incense burners on the table, and a black and white photo on the wall, an old lady, looking very kind.

You don't have to ask to know who it is.

The old man asked us to sit and made a pot of tea.

But where did I still have the heart to drink tea, and looked at the old man, hoping that he would say the following soon.

Pouring the tea without hurry, the old man finally spoke.

He was also surprised to see the fishermen in disarray, and asked him how he had done this.

At first, the fishermen just smiled bitterly and shook their heads, but they refused to speak, but then they couldn't stand the old man's repeated begging before telling the truth.

The story also starts from when he fished the coffin containing a living person from the bottom of the Yellow River.

The man actually had a breath left, and the fishermen took him home, and they didn't have the money to see a doctor for him, so they kept it at home, and they ate whatever they ate, and they also gave the man what they ate, but fortunately, there were many fish and shrimp in the Yellow River in that era, and if he could catch fish, he would not starve to death.

At that time, there was also the Yellow River hairtail fish, which was said to have high nutritional value and was most suitable for the sick to eat.

After about three months, the man spoke, and it was the first time he had spoken to someone.

It turned out to be an authentic southwestern Lu accent.

The man told the fishermen that he was a member of a mysterious organization on the edge of the Yellow River, and that he had been punished by the clan for breaking the rules of the clan, and that he had been locked in a coffin and sunk to the bottom of the river, and that if the fishermen had not saved him, he would have become a pile of bones.

The fishermen were also curious, so they asked what kind of organization was so vicious, and besides, what era was this, how could they still do this! It's just lawless.

The man did not explain, but repeatedly thanked him and asked him to teach him a "trick of fortune" that would bring good luck.

The fisherman didn't actually take it to heart, he didn't believe in any tricks in the world, but he was embarrassed to refuse directly, so he should listen and play!

The man's account was so bizarre that the fisherman remembered it after listening to it.

The man wrote a few more lines on the paper, saying that this was the mantra of "Fortune Trick", the great secret of their organization, which was absolutely not allowed to be leaked, and let him remember it and burn the note so that it would not fall into the hands of outsiders.

When parting, the man told him: Fortune tricks can bring him unexpected good luck, but you must not be greedy, let alone do bad things, otherwise you will be eaten by the lucky boy, and the consequences can be said to be worse than death.

The fisherman didn't think so, because he didn't think about using this so-called "fortune trick" at this time.

Three or four months have passed in a blink of an eye, and the time has come to winter, as an old bachelor who can only fish, this season, his life is really not good, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as having eaten the last meal without the next meal.

At this time, there was a girl in the village, named Ma Shifang, who hooked up with a married couple and became pregnant unexpectedly. This man didn't know what his mentality was, and at first he swore that he would definitely divorce his daughter-in-law, and the child in his womb might be seven or eight months old, but he turned his face and didn't recognize anyone.

There was no way, Ma Shifang still gave birth to the child.

The child died before the full moon, and as for how he died, outsiders can't figure it out, in fact, this is a hard-working child, and such an ending may not be a bad ending.

It is impossible for a baby who dies to enter the crematorium, let alone be buried in his ancestral grave, and he usually finds a remote place to throw it away - nor can he be buried in the soil, and the elders say that if the soil is buried, the child will never be born, and will haunt his family.

When the fisherman knew about this, he suddenly remembered what the man had said, "Fortune Trick."

"Fortune Trick" is in need of a baby who dies before the full moon as a "Fortune Boy" - this is not a coincidence!

Looking at the four walls of his house, thinking about the cold words he encountered, he was heartbroken, took advantage of the absence of anyone in the middle of the night, secretly ran into the field, picked up the dead child, put it in a black jar, and according to the man's instructions, put in the willow note, peach pit, locust roots, yellow incense ashes, etc.

In fact, he still didn't take it too seriously at this time.

Who knew that in the middle of the night, when he was sleeping soundly, he suddenly heard a burst of crying from the outhouse, like a baby crying, far and near, intermittently, and he thought that someone's child was lost.

I was about to go back to sleep, when suddenly a lightning bolt flashed in my mind - it was the middle of the night! Where did the baby come from, besides, the sound was clearly coming from the outhouse.

Startled, where was there still sleepiness, and suddenly there was a layer of sweat in my head.

Then I thought that there was a baby's corpse in the black porcelain jar......

It's scary to think about!

Thinking of the baby in the black porcelain jar, the fisherman shrank into a corner almost conditionally, covered his head with a quilt, and trembled like chaff.

After half an hour, his whole body was soaked with sweat, but he found that except for intermittent crying, nothing else strange happened, and there were still hours until dawn, so he couldn't keep curling up!

He gritted his teeth, slowly stood up, and walked towards the bedroom door, and when he was almost there, he was sure that the cry was coming from the jar.

He quickly took out the note left by the man and read it towards the porcelain jar......

After that, the fishermen didn't tell the story.

Anyway, from then on, the fishermen arched the black jar as an ancestor, and every morning and evening a stick of incense, no matter what the festival, it was three bows and nine knocks, counting the dishes and tributes.

Something magical happened!

At that time, the lottery had just spread to China, and it was considered a fashionable thing.

He took only 120 yuan to the lottery spot in the bazaar, bought all the lottery tickets, and planted a first prize, two second prizes, and a third prize.

The prize is estimated to be worth at least three or four thousand yuan.

The lottery owner's face is elongated......

Later, he changed a few places to buy lottery tickets, and the results were similar each time, fortunately, there was no such two-color ball style lottery in third-tier cities at that time, otherwise, it may not have created any "miracle".

Later, he didn't like it, so he went to the black market to gamble with more than 100,000 cash.

The result can be imagined, almost every gamble must win, and in a short time, the funds have accumulated to millions, and the fishermen at this time are no longer the poor dicks who can eat well and are very content.

He has done what the rich do, what the rich want to do, and his desire is getting stronger and stronger, and he is becoming more and more dissatisfied.

Lying on the bed at night, under the bed were bags of hundred-dollar bills, and in the middle of the night he heard the laughter of a baby coming from the black jar, and laughed strangely, and the laughter made people feel creepy.

At this time, the fishermen were already so dizzy that they didn't want to think about why they began to make good luck when they first heard the crying inside, but now they heard laughter.

Whatever! Anyway, it's better to laugh than to cry.

Who knew that a few days later, something would happen.

He first began to lose money, and finally he couldn't control his hands - he also knew that with more than 2 million, he would be able to live a comfortable life in the next life.

In less than ten days, all the money was lost.

That's when something even more terrible happened.

It was as if the black altar of one's own offering suddenly cracked, and the babies inside also became pitch black, like charcoal.

After that, he always felt that his two calves were carefully tearing the pain of his lungs, and he scratched it with his hands and beat it with a stick, but it was useless. Keep your books in stock

Three days later, when he couldn't bear it anymore, he picked up the knife he used to chop the fish, cut off his legs, and that's it for a long time.

Speaking of this, the old man smiled bitterly again.

"I could have guessed who was in the coffin! It seems that they did not really disappear, but went into hiding, rarely showing their heads. ”

As soon as the old man's voice landed, Hao Minyuan and I opened their mouths almost at the same time, "Who is it?" ”

"It's what you call the Yellow River Knife Keepers - of course they call themselves 'River Keepers.'"

"That's right! The river keeper, what the hell is guarding! ”

This question has been in my heart for two days, and I really don't vomit and feel unhappy.

The old man paused for a moment before replying, "It should be a great secret about the Yellow River!" I've also been checking for decades, and I'm scared in the end! ”

"Afraid?"

"That's right! Fear! ”

"Afraid of what?"

"I always feel that whenever I investigate this matter, there will be an invisible force that interferes with me and even hinders me."

Hao Minyuan snorted: "Who is it?" If you encounter this, you must call the police in advance! ”

The old man smiled bitterly: "Call the police? I'm afraid you can't control this! In the end, I gave up, I didn't live in the village, I lived an idle life, so be it! ”

"We can't do anything?" Hao Minyuan was obviously a little unconvinced.

"I can't do it!" The old man replied in the affirmative.

The atmosphere was suddenly a little awkward.

At this time, Liu Xili, who had been standing on one side and did not speak, spoke: "I don't know if this fisherman is still alive now!" If he is still alive, it may be more helpful to talk to him to solve our case. ”

Hao Minyuan nodded, turned around and asked the old man: "All these years, you still have contact?" ”

The old man seemed to shake his head, and nodded again: "There is no connection!" However, the year before last year or the beginning of last year, there was a person walking the streets and alleys, who happened to be in their village, and I did ask - he was still alive, and he could barely survive with the help of the village's relief and well-wishers. ”

"Oh! Convenient to tell us the address? ”

"What's so inconvenient about this! He is in Linzi Village, a little more than a hundred miles away—it seems that it used to belong to Xinzhuang Township, and now it is divided into Shengtuo Township. ”

Hao Minyuan nodded: "I know this place, I went to handle the case a few years ago." ”

When he walked out of the old man's gate, the old man took a long breath: "Some people want to live, but they can't live well, some people want to die, but they can't, punish!" It was like talking to ourselves, and it was like speaking to us.

Hao Minyuan asked Liu Xili to go back to the office to sort out the information and see if he could find out more information about the Yellow River credit knife man.

He drove me to Linzi Village.

Ran wildly along the embankment of the Yellow River and stopped on the side of the pontoon bridge.

This is Linzi Village, because it is the old Yellow River crossing, so there are many fishermen in this village.

There was a supermarket at the entrance of the village, Hao Minyuan went over to buy two boxes of ham sausages, thought about it for a while, and asked for a cigarette.

"The poor man must have something to hate, but yes! He was pitiful after all, and it didn't matter how hateful he had been. ”

I paid the money and asked for the address of the fisherman's house by the way.

"You're talking about crazy old leper!" The supermarket owner smiled and looked for change.

"Crazy old leper?"

"Oh! For more than ten years, everyone in the village has called him that, but his real name is Feng Lai. We walked to the door, and the boss added, "I should have died a long time ago, but I just couldn't die, isn't it an old man?" ”

According to the address of the supermarket owner, we came to two houses that looked like they could collapse at any moment.

"Is Uncle Feng at home?"

Walking to the door, Hao Minyuan shouted towards the house.

After a full minute, a hoarse voice came from the room: "Who! ”

Knowing that he couldn't move anymore, Hao Minyuan directly pushed the door open.

I followed behind Hao Minyuan, and just took a step inside, I was suddenly covered by a fishy smell.

The room was dimly lit, with little furniture, except for a small, uncoloured table, flanked by an equally worn chair with a large basin full of feces and urine.

On the small kang, a humanoid object was curled up, and if it hadn't moved, I wouldn't have imagined that it would be a person.

"You...... Who are you? Who are you looking for? ”

Hao Minyuan turned around, but he didn't seem to find a suitable place to put things, so he had to take two steps forward, bypassing the basin filled with feces and urine, and putting things on the black futon.

"Hello! We are from the Hekou District Police Station, and we want to know more about the situation! ”

"You ...... You are police ...... ......The figure's futon shook for a while, followed by a series of coughs.

"I'll just get to the point!" Hao Minyuan took two steps back, "We are looking for you for the fact that you saved someone from the coffin back then." ”

The crazy old leper trembled again, and then replied tremblingly: "Don't ...... Don't talk about it again, I'm ...... I forgot. ”

"We know why you've become like this, because now I have encountered a strange case, so I asked you about it!" After a pause, "In addition, I also advise you to untie the knot, otherwise I am afraid that it will never end." ”

I don't know if Hao Minyuan's words are my own thoughts, or if I borrowed someone else's words, but in short, it makes sense.

"I ......"

The old man coughed again and slowly raised his head.

Only then did I notice that it was an old face full of wrinkles, and I could distinguish the facial features, but the entire surface of the skin was wrapped in a layer of black paste, the eyes were cloudy, the corners of the eyes were full of eye droppings, and the beard almost covered the mouth.

"It was a nightmare! I...... I really don't want to talk about it again......" After a pause of more than a minute, the old man continued, "All right! Someone should know the truth...... Terrible things don't become other people's nightmares anymore. ”

Hao Minyuan took out a cigarette, took out one and handed it over, but the old man was not polite, he took it tremblingly, stuffed it into his mouth, and Hao Minyuan lit it for him.

After taking a sip, the old man spoke again: "In retrospect, he is not human at all!" How can a man stay in a coffin at the bottom of the river for so long and still be alive! How can people know those things...... He's a demon! ”

"Don't get excited, you speak slowly!"

"Actually, I should have ...... It should be imagined that he is not human, but just ...... It's just that I've lived a long time and is bored, and it's nice to change my lifestyle - but then again, I've lived a fairy-like life. ”

The mad leper's voice gradually calmed down.