Fu Jing dragged the simple suitcase in his hand loaded with the clothes and daily necessities that he needed to change for a week, and walked step by step to Pingcheng Township, which felt out of touch with the real society.

"Why is it that the land that was shriveled before has become wet and sticky when it comes here?"

The country road in front of Fu Jing was as wet and sticky as if it had just rained, and there were still paved stone slabs on the road to help walking, and it seemed that this wet and sticky state had existed for a long time.

Looking back at the rice fields on the left and right, it must have been a long time since no one took care of them, and the rice fields used for growing crops have completely turned into filthy and muddy ponds.

After walking all the way, until Fu Jing arrived in Pingxuan Township, he didn't even see a single figure.

At noon, there was a dead silence in Pingxu Township, Fu Jing looked up at the end of a street, and only one of the nearly thirty shops was open, even if the sun was shining, Fu Jing could still vaguely feel an eerie feeling lingering around his body.

"Let's go to that shop first, maybe there are people."

Fu Jing really didn't want to stay on this dead street for a second longer, but fortunately, when he went home to tidy up his things earlier, he thought about going to the countryside and the land was not smooth, and he changed into easy-to-move sneakers.

Dragged along the suitcase and ran to the back of the street.

"Someone!"

Fu Jing's eyes saw an old man sitting leisurely in the door, leaning Erlang's legs and smoking a cigarette gun.

"Hello, uncle! Don't know if there are any places to stay here recently? ”

When Fu Jing stepped forward and asked the other party very politely, the old man's eyes did not change in the slightest, confused and distracted.

"Uncle!?"

Fu Jing stood on the ground with his suitcase, leaned his face closer to the old man and asked again. The old man's two eyes, which had been motionless, suddenly turned upwards and glared at Fu Jing, causing the latter to take a big step back in fright.

"There is not much place to stay here because there are no outsiders coming to stay here at all. You look like you're from the city, right? ”

"Yes. I'm a freelance writer who wanted to gather inspiration and happened to be here. Fu Jing was very adaptable and immediately put himself in an approachable position.

"I advise you to get out of here quickly, if you get into trouble, you won't be able to live the life you enjoy in the city again."

The old man took a deep puff of tobacco and exhaled a large amount of white smoke.

"Uncle, I actually know some of the specific situations here. I'm not afraid, I feel that maybe life needs to have a little more ups and downs to be interesting than boring. Actually, it doesn't matter if you're dead. ”

In the process of persuading the old man, Fu Jing was shocked when the last improvisation sentence was spoken, and he didn't know why he mentioned the taboo word 'death' in front of a stranger.

The old man turned his gaze and looked at the young and promising young man in front of him in surprise.

"You can live in my house, my wife died not long ago, and a room is vacant."

"Good ......"

Fu Jing had no reason to refuse, but when he thought that he was about to move into a room where someone had just died, he couldn't help but feel hairy in his heart.

"How much does it cost?" Shall I advance you for a week's worth of room payment? ”

Fu Jing doesn't care about a little money. Besides, the money is also reimbursed by the company, the main purpose is to establish a relationship with the elderly, and to find out some news from the mouth of the elderly in the future.

"No need, feel free to live here, as long as you don't die. We don't like a big city here, two meals a day, not long after my wife died, I also cook meals for two people every day. ”

"That's not good......"

"Come up quickly." The old man didn't seem to listen to Fu Jing's words.

The self-built concrete bungalow has been around for at least 30 years. Under the leadership of the old man, Fu Jing saw that his room was not as terrifying as he imagined, and there was no portrait of the old woman hanging on the wall. Or a few incense candles stuck on the counter in mourning.

On the contrary, the room with white as the main body has a good environmental hygiene, and the layout is simple and refreshing.

"Thank you, uncle. I don't know if I live here with my uncle, what do I need to pay attention to on weekdays? Fu Jing asked with a smile after putting the luggage into the room.

"The only thing I need to pay attention to in my house, and of course this is what the whole village needs to pay attention to - about the time of use."

"Water time?"

When he heard the word 'water', Fu Jing, who was extremely professionally sensitive, immediately took out the record book and ballpoint pen he carried with him. I plan to record the important things that will come out of the mouths of the old people next.

"In our Pinghui Township, the time for water use is restricted. Once it exceeds 16:30 p.m., it is forbidden to use water for a qiē until 8:00 a.m. the next day. So if you want to use water at night, you need to connect it in the bucket in advance. If you want to die, you can also turn on the faucet at night. ”

There was a strange look in the old man's sunken eyes.

"Why are there water restrictions? Could it be that it is because of the problem of the transmission pipeline? If so, I can help you write a letter to the city to reflect the problem. ”

Of course, Fu Jing knew the general reason for the ban on water in his heart, and he said this just to set up the old man's words.

"It's not something that can be changed by humans, it's something wrong with our water source."

"Water source?"

"The water source of our whole township is the mountain spring water flowing down from the Qixiang Mountain behind the township, and the water of the Xuhe River around our Pingxuan Township mainly comes from this mountain spring water."

"It's just that after 16:30, the water in the river becomes unfit for human use. It's better not to ask too many questions about some questions, I still have something to do, you can be busy with yourself. Meals are served at 10:30 and 17:00 every day, so be sure to be punctual. ”

The old man's answer had already made Fu Jing very satisfied, and it was already very good to have such a harvest on the first day of here.

"Spend the afternoon walking around the townships, where people are generally poor, and with a small tip, I believe I should be able to get the answers I want. After 16:30, the water of the river will become unsuitable for human use? What does this phrase mean? It seems that it is necessary to find a time to visit the river. ”

Fu Jing packed his luggage, and he didn't plan to put his clothes in this somewhat old wardrobe.

In the process of cleaning up, I found that there were a lot of drying balls in many corners of the room, and even the upper layer of the wardrobe was full of dense bags of drying balls, but despite this, there was still a damp and oppressive feeling in the room.

On the first day, Fu Jing spent the whole afternoon going to Pingxuan Township to collect information, but the dead silence in this township completely exceeded Fu Jing's expectations.

In the four hours of the whole afternoon, Fu Jing traveled almost 1/3 of the township, I don't know if everyone went out or some other reason, Fu Jing only found a total of eleven households, and there was only one woman with some abnormal nerves who took care of Fu Jing, and there was no useful information at all.

Not only that, but the door of the township mayor here was sealed, and Fu Jing's very careful observation ability saw from the notice posted on the side of the gate that it was almost taken off, that the township chief here had left three months earlier, and there was no one to manage the entire township.

"I don't have any useful information to write a manuscript like this, and it seems that I can only extract information from the old people who rented me the house."

Seeing that the time was almost close to 17:00 dinner time, Fu Jing returned to the old man's home along the same road.

When I turned the corner, I already smelled the smell of fragrant firewood and rice, and the fatigue of the car ride in the morning and the fatigue of running around in the afternoon was stimulated by the fragrance, but when Fu Jing turned around and stepped into the door of the old man's house, the scene in front of him suddenly made Fu Jing stunned.

The meal was ready, and the old man was already sitting at a small wooden table for two people to eat.

There are two dishes and one soup on the wooden table, which are naturally vegetarian dishes, but Fu Jing was also born in the countryside when he was a child, and he can't help but feel a little nostalgic for this kind of coarse tea and light rice. But the scene in front of Fu Jing was ......

In front of the empty seat where I was supposed to eat, there was a bowl of white rice.

Strangely, there are two chopsticks stuck vertically on the white rice, like a dead man's tribute meal.

"Come and eat, young man."

Fu Jing nodded hesitantly and came to the edge of his seat, always feeling that there was something unclean sitting on the empty seat.

"Eat." The old man's somewhat vacant eyes made Fu Jing only able to suppress the uneasiness in his heart, and picked up the chopsticks inserted in the rice and started slowly.

Although the dishes tasted very good, Fu Jing did not have the slightest appetite, and after reluctantly swallowing a mouthful of food, he said that he was a little unaccustomed to the water and soil and went back to the room to rest.

The old man who stayed in the hall took Fu Jing's clean rice bowl and went to the kitchen again to fill a bowl full of white rice, and then inserted his chopsticks again, so that the scene was restored to its original state, and he was still muttering something inaudible in his mouth.

Then, the chair that no one sat on began to shake on its own strangely, making a wooden sound of 'quack~quack~quack'.

"There must be some problem with the old man taking me in here, I need to get useful information as soon as possible, and try to get out of here as soon as possible. Now I'm going to find out what is going on in the Huang River, maybe it's all man-made, and the murderer still lives in Pingxu Township. ”

Fu Jing had already begun to suspect that the old man who took him in had a problem.

"Let's go to the river now......"

Fu Jing had a single-lens reflex camera hanging around his neck, a notebook and materials in his backpack, and when he opened the door and was about to step out, a figure stood in front of Fu Jing.

"Where are you going?" It was the old man who stood in front of Fu Jing.

"I'll go to the edge of the river first." Fu Jing stared at the old man and couldn't help but feel timid.

"No one will go to the river at this time, I advise you to stay here, I have something I want to talk to you about......" (To be continued......