When I heard that I had the smell of Jiao, I pinched the collar and cuffs and sniffed them carefully, but there was no special smell.

Seeing that I was puzzled, Hu Yang said unhurriedly: "It's not from you, it's something you have carried." ”

As soon as he said this, he immediately thought of the cyan beads placed in the study, took out a wooden box in the lower drawer of the desk, and took out the blue-brown beads from it and put it in the palm of his hand to show him.

Hu Yang was like a cat seeing a fish, snatched the bead and put it in front of his nose to smell it, his eyes were full of a sense of intimacy, and he immediately asked, "Where did you get this bead?" ”

So I told him about my experience in Longquan Township, and after leaving that place, I couldn't find it when I went back no matter how I looked for it, as if it had never appeared.

Hu Yang returned the beads to the box in disappointment, sighed and said, "Do you know why I am looking for Jiao?" Two years ago, when the flood waters receded, I tried to heal the wound in my palm to no avail, and I began to grow scales, thinking that I was going to turn into a monster covered in fish scales, so I had suicidal thoughts. ”

"As a result, one day I met an old man who was exercising in the morning by the river, he was a professor-level doctor named Liu Xiancheng, he saw that I had the idea of suicide, and began to persuade me, maybe I was depressed for too long, and wanted to say the words in my heart before I died, but the old Mr. Liu was more excited than me when he heard what he said, and he pinched my hand and said that he had a way."

We sat on the couch and lit a cigarette each, listening to him talk quietly.

"At first, I thought he was saying this to make me give up suicide, but when he said that the monster was called Jiao, I believed him.

The next day I went to the hospital where he was, he handed me a package, asked me to go back to smear, and after the letter was skeptical, the flesh of the original wound turned out began to heal inward, and the scales on my hands showed signs of fading for the first time, so I was so happy that I went crazy, went to this old Mr. Liu, took me to his house, opened a sandalwood box and picked up a palm-sized scale, saying that this is the scale of Jiao, which was handed down from his ancestors, and has been passed down for I don't know how many generations, and the medicine I used was the powder scraped off the scales. ”

Hu Yang rubbed his face, smiled bitterly and closed his eyes.

"I thought I really met a savior that time, and after using up the two weeks' worth of medicine, I couldn't wait to run to Mr. Liu."

Hu Yang, who suddenly opened his eyes, with a light of hatred, clenched his fists, clenched his teeth, and said word by word: "Someone killed him!" Ruined my hopes! ”

Who killed him?

I hurriedly reassured him and asked, "Mr. Liu was killed?" What's going on? ”

"When I went to his house, all I saw was a portrait of his daughter, who told me that there was a thief at home ten days ago and stole a box of things and an ancient book from his ancestors, and Mr. Liu was also lying in a pool of blood and had died."

Hu Yang hugged his head in pain and said: "The thief only stole everything in the box and an ancient book, but the police have no clues, and they have not solved the case so far." ”

I looked at him thoughtfully, and said, "This thief only steals the contents of that box and ancient books, so he must know what is inside, and it is very important to him, even more than other people's lives and money." ”

Speaking of which, a question popped through my mind.

blurted out and asked, "Do you know the name of that ancient book?" ”

Hu Yang thought about it carefully, nodded and said: "This gentleman told me that in addition to the box, what her grandfather values most is that ancient book, which seems to be called "Near the Water Collection", which talks about some strange creatures in ancient times, anyway, it is regarded as a book similar to "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". ”

"Who is Junjun? Mr. Liu's daughter? ”

Hu Yang suddenly laughed, "His daughters are in their fifties, and his granddaughter is called Yang Junjun." She knew that I had been tracking down the cause of her grandfather's death, so she kept in touch with me. ”

Seeing Hu Yang's smile when he talked about Yang Junjun, he liked people.

"What about the results of your search?"

Hu Yang shook his head and said, "There is no clue at all, and then my injury began to recur until it became like this." But I was no longer discouraged, at least I knew that there was a way to heal the wound and not turn myself into a monster, and the rest of the days I kept looking for the clues of Mr. Liu's death, while constantly looking for the legend about Jiao.

It wasn't until the other day that I finally locked down two places. But I can't do it alone, and it's not convenient to find outsiders who can't be trusted. ”

"So you're looking for me?"

Hu Yang looked good when he smiled, but a tall and handsome young man was made into such a vicissitudes of life.

He said: "It was an accident to find you, I passed by you in a supermarket and smelled the smell." Instinct tells me that you will be able to help me. Of course I pay! ”

With that, he took out a bank card and put it on the table.

"There's half a million in it, and that's all I can do when I sell my house, and I know this adventure could be a lifetime of death, but"

I interrupted him, returned the bank card to him, and said angrily: "Dude, I am not short of money, and after I am discharged from the army, the 300,000 yuan will be put in the bank to give birth, and I will be taken back as a friend." ”

"This job, buddy took it!" I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "The people who have been at home for the past two years are getting rusty, and it's time to move, don't you think?" ”

Hu Yang's eyes were red, and he kept saying thank you to me.

"Stop talking about that, let's talk about what to do next, shall we?"

He sat down again to sort out his feelings, and then said, "Have you heard the allusion of cutting Jiao everywhere?" ”

"The World Speaks New Language," I nodded.

"What if it's true that the slashing around is true?" Hu Yang blinked and looked at me, "I went to Yixing for this allusion, and I couldn't ask the famous hall in the local area to treat it as a tour, but in a temple, I met an old Taoist priest with a white head sitting on a stone bench and dozing off. ”

He continued: "Listening to the old Taoist priest, after fighting with Jiao for three days and three nights, Zhou Chu chased and killed along the lake to a waterhole, and the Jiao was injured and escaped into the water and never came out, and Zhou Chu did not really kill the evil Jiao, but went to the Lu brothers to ask for some secrets.

After that, Zhou quietly hired people to drain the water in the pool, built a strange temple at the mouth of Jiao's water hole, and then began to make official fortune prosperous, until the waterhole was filled with water at some point, and Zhou began to have bad luck and finally died of defeat. ”

The news told by Hu Yang subverted the inspirational story of Zhou everywhere in the allusion, perhaps there are unknown follow-ups behind many familiar stories in this world, maybe darkness, maybe light.

After agreeing on the next things to do, including procuring all kinds of expeditions and first aid things, Hu Yang was sent out the door, and before leaving, he repeatedly told me not to tell anyone else, because he felt that the person who killed Mr. Liu would appear at any time.

Rubbing the bead that belonged to Jiao, he was always a little uneasy about the unknown itinerary, so he decided to go back to his hometown and get a thing left by his grandfather to take with him, just in case.

A legendary journey is about to begin.