When I was in the Marine Police, I was given a task to salvage an underwater shipwreck, and we were mainly responsible for maintaining order and vigilance at the scene, and it was fine at first, but then things got out of hand, because the things we fished up were so weird, and in the end there were deaths and disappearances.

Tong Liu and I met at that time, although she was not my first love, but that short period of more than a month made me sad and joyful, so that it is still unforgettable.

It all started around the Spring Festival that year......

……

In the early 90s, many northern cities often held some ice lanterns and ice sculpture exhibitions, which on the one hand enriched the cultural life of the people, and on the other hand, it could also attract tourists and increase local financial revenue.

As one of the top freshwater lakes in the country, Songhu Lake has a unique geographical location. In winter, the lake will freeze into a mirror, and the deepest depth can reach more than ten meters. In those years, the "ice mining" profession, which had been silent for decades, flourished again, until 1995, when it finally reached its climax. It was also that year that it fell to the lowest point again, and there was only one reason - something big happened on the lake......

That year was approaching the Spring Festival, most of the "ice pickers" on the lake were withdrawn, and the "New Year's flavor" in the Northeast was stronger than now.

There were only seven or eight people left on the lake, just to do some more work and earn more money.

The leader is an old widower, who is over 70 years old, but his body is quite tough, and he can pick up 200 catties of ice lumps by himself, and his co-workers call him "Old Snow Head".

Seeing the old man struggling to move the large ice lump to the snow plow, the young men around him were laughing, and the big man said, "Old man, what age are you, and you still use your old tricks?" If you go on so slowly, when the lake opens in spring, we won't be able to finish it! ”

"Mountain Cannon, shut your crow's mouth!" A middle-aged man next to him scolded, "open the lake" refers to the ice surface of Songhu Lake, and the fishermen can go down to the lake to fish again, but in the mouth of the "ice picker", this is a taboo - if the ice is melted, what should the people on the lake do?

The big man was not convinced, and beckoned to the young man behind him, "Cheng, you do yours, we do ours, anyway, whoever earns more and earns less, suffers by himself." ”

A group of young people threw off their arms to start work, chainsaws, micro-cranes, and forklifts were all used, and in a short time, more than a dozen large ice mounds one meter square had been made.

The old Xue Tou only cut half of it, and the forehead under the leather hat was already sweating, and the middle-aged man handed over a big front door, "Xue Tou'er, rest for a while, let those rabbit cubs do it, rest assured, if they have something to eat, you will have that bite!" ”

The old man leaned on the ice cube and grinned bitterly, "Old, really old." "Taking a puff of smoke, the ice cubes picked by the young man were crystal clear, shining in the sunlight, and a little dazzling.

Click!

A slight sound made the old snowman's face change greatly, and he stood up and shouted at the young man, "Stop! Stop it! ”

The loud sound of chainsaws drowned out his shouts, and it wasn't until the old man rushed up that the big man stopped, "What's the matter?" ”

"I can't do it anymore today, the 'Old Lake King' just snored."

"Be superstitious, you will." The big man disagreed, "The 'old Lake King' sleeps well and snores every day, so we all have to drink the northwest wind." ”

"If you want to do it, you have to give birth to a child!" Sweat was pouring down the old man's sideburns.

"What else are you going to change? The ice born in this place is bright, the inside is transparent, and not a single aquatic plant has been frozen in ten meters and twenty meters, isn't this the 'old lake king' who saw our hard work and gave it away for nothing?! "The big man is right, the most important thing about collecting ice is the quality of the ice lump, there is no debris in it, there are no bubbles, of course, you can give a good price. He thought about it, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, old man, the ice here is thick, and you can't do anything if you hit seven or eight meters, so you can look at the ...... with peace of mind" He said, and started the chainsaw again, but this time the machine was dumb and fired, and it didn't turn for a long time, he smashed it violently, roared again, and the chainsaw suddenly didn't enter the ice, stirring up a large spark, as if it had touched something hard.

Everyone gathered around curiously, staring down and looking down, only to find that the ice reflected by the sunlight was a golden light, and they couldn't see anything clearly, and suddenly someone shouted, "! What a evil! ”

Only then did everyone find out that the gap cut by the chainsaw was bubbling out**, and the smell was foul, I don't know what it was.

"No, it won't split the brain of the 'Old Lake King', right?" Someone said, with teasing.

"Blinded!" The big man scolded, "What's nothing, let's talk about it first!" ”

Set the sling, the micro crane began to start, it happened that a black cloud blocked the sun, someone was still looking down at the neck, this time I really saw it, the man screamed, sat on the ground, "My mother-"

Several people came up again, looked at it closely, and couldn't help but gasp one by one......

Beneath the clear ice, there was a miserable white human face, staring at them with empty eyes.

A few people instinctively stepped back, and when they heard a soft "click", the ice surface cracked a fine line, and countless forks were divided, which quickly spread around, and everyone was stupid - in the cold winter of Sanjiu, the lake was actually opened?!

The whole lake trembled slightly, it seemed that the river and the sea would be turned over at any time, the first unlucky were those trucks and forklifts, because of their own weight was too large, some had fallen into the cracked ice, the driver on the micro crane just jumped down, the car overturned, the front of the car was planted under the ice, the crane arm was picked up, high and pointed straight to the sky......

People fled in panic, but only the experienced old snowman remained calm, allowing everyone to spread out and lie flat on the ice with their limbs stretched out to reduce the pressure on the ice as much as possible.

Fortunately, this time it was not really a lake, a few minutes later, everything was calm again, people breathed a sigh of relief, the old snow head let everyone slowly climb to the shore, but even greeted several times, but found that the people behind him did not move, looking back, those strong guys were staring at one place in a stunned manner, he looked along, and was also stunned -

The long arm of the crane had lifted the ice lump, and there was a big box embedded in it, and I don't know what the material was, shiny and shiny, half on the ice, half on the ice, half on the ice, carved with strange symbols, no one recognized.

The old snow head was stunned for a while, and beckoned everyone to come ashore, but the young people were curious and refused to leave, they made their own calculations - they had long heard the local elders say that before the Songhu Lake was dammed into a lake, it was the convergence of several rivers, and there were ethnic minorities stationed on the bank in ancient times, and there were ancient battlefields here...... In the past, I occasionally heard rumors that fishermen fishermen brought gold and silver jewelry, and who touched antiques and antiques...... The box in front of me is strange, and it may contain some good things, and if everyone divides it, they won't have to do the hard work of shaving the lake and collecting ice.

I thought so, but no one dared to go there, because there was still a gap cut by a chainsaw on the box, and the white liquid was bubbling out of it.

The big man was bold and the strongest, gritted his teeth and crossed his heart, touched a pickaxe and crawled over, and the others stared at him from a distance, and they all sweated for him, but when they saw the big man approaching, they smiled, "What the hell is the dead man's face, look at it-" Hook the box with the pickaxe, pull it out, clang! The box fell to the ground, turned over, and happened to come over, and when everyone saw it, they immediately felt at ease, and the white miserable face turned out to be painted on the box board, which should be a decoration.

There was less to worry about, and the big man was even more unscrupulous, seeing that there was a clay tube on the lock of the box, and he chiseled it open with a pickaxe, and reached out to lift the lid of the box, when the old snow head shouted over there, "Boy, don't-"

Before he finished speaking, the lid had been turned up, and everyone's eyes were staring at the big man, but they saw that his smile suddenly froze, and the mouth of the box was facing away from everyone, and no one saw what was inside, but when he heard the big man scream, he planted it in the box, and the lid was fastened, and he was caught by the waist, and the ice broke again, and the box dragged him and began to sink rapidly.

Everyone was stunned, and there was no time to rescue, and finally the old snow head had experience, climbed up and climbed the plow and stroked hard, and the person came to the front, when half of the big man's body was dragged under the water, he grabbed his ankle, how could the big man be too heavy, and the old man was also dragged down the ice, and finally had to kick open the lid of the box, and then dragged the big man back to the lake......

Later, someone asked the big man and the old snow head what was in the box, but they could not get a satisfactory answer......

……

I learned about this incident from a person who witnessed the scene less than a month after I joined the Marine Police Force, and half a year after this incident.

When it comes to how to become a marine policeman, it also comes from an intentional or unintentional move by me.

In July 1995, just after graduating from the police academy, I was assigned to a small county near Songhu in the northeast.

During the same period, more than 20 police academy graduates were assigned to the county seat, and later more than 10 went to the township police station, five or six stayed in the county bureau office, and three went to the forest farm.

Now that I think about it, that incident may have been the turning point in the second half of my life, and the beginning of all the joys, worries, surprises, excitement, and fears that were entangled with each other......