I just want to know the information brought by the handwriting on the stone tablets, a big river, how many secrets are hidden, leaving the river beach to find such a discovery, Jing'er Lake, and that person, as if shrouded in a veil of mystery. I looked at the bright red words, and I didn't want to waste any more effort, so I carefully hid them and waited until I met them.

There were some things left over from my predecessors in the sandcastle, and I picked up those planks and other things, trying to kill the missing doors and windows, but I couldn't get into the windows at all, so I simply gave up and hid in a dead corner. Breaking free from the fog of Jing'er Lake, I was immediately affected by the safety of Lao Fuba and Lao Zang, but I don't know how long this dust storm will last.

Twenty minutes or so after I got into the sandcastle, a man suddenly burst out of the dust and sand and jumped in through the window. I saw at a glance that it was Lao Zang, he seemed to have used all his strength, jumped in and lay on the sand and did not move, I quickly dragged him to the corner, looked up and down, Lao Zang was not injured, but all the way desperately running for his life, his physical strength was exhausted, and he was weak and vulnerable. I helped him lie down, fed him some water, and after a while, Lao Zang woke up leisurely, and was surprised and happy when he saw me.

"Do you know how to read?" I had been thinking about the stone tablets with words left by that person, and as soon as I woke up, I asked him anxiously. Although Lao Zang is a native of this kind of person, he looks vulgar and wild, but it is very troublesome to walk outside, he does not know words, and his culture is not high, but he can still recognize ordinary words.

I handed the stone tablet to Lao Zang, he looked at it and read out the words on it: I have a big sin, cut my tongue and punish me, I deserve it, I don't blame you.

There are only a dozen words on the stone tablets, and I can hear some of the meanings through the words, but they are a little vague. That man was special, at least to me, he was very much like me, he had his tongue cut out and thrown in the middle of a great river in the middle of nowhere. And it's literally easy to see that he had his tongue cut out for sin, and more importantly, what does this matter have to do with me?

I don't blame you, I immediately recalled the way he behaved and looked when he was sad and reluctant to come near me, bowing down in parting but refusing to take another step. This puzzle disturbed my mind, and I always felt that if I didn't figure it out, my heart would be as uncomfortable as pressing a stone. As I was talking to Lao Zang, the thick sand in front of me arched, and Lao Weiba's head popped out, shaking the sand on his head, and spitting out crumbs with a gray face.

The three of them were in danger, and they were finally able to completely put their minds at ease. We hid in the corner to avoid the dust storm, and asked Lao Zang about Jing'er Lake. But Lao Zang is not a local, but he has passed by a few times in the past, and he has heard people talk about the legend of Jing'er Lake, the real root, he can't tell it clearly, only looking for locals, maybe he can ask a one, one, two, two.

This dust storm came and went quickly, and after three or four hours, it finally subsided. The whole sandcastle was almost filled with dust, and we struggled to crawl out and look up in the direction of Jing'er Lake, and I felt that if we went there now, the stone coffin might not appear, and that man might have to hide from me if he deliberately kept his distance from me. The three camels cowered in the corner outside the sandcastle, and as soon as the dust storm passed, they shook off the sand off their bodies one by one, and they were unharmed. Lao Zang packed up the things that had not been lost yet, and hurried on the road from here.

As soon as the dust storm passed, the entire Gobi Desert fell into a deathly silence again. We didn't dare to stay, we tried our best to hurry, walked for a whole day, and in the evening of the next day, Lao Zang said that he had heard people mention that about 20 miles to the west, there was a green space, which was born around a tributary of the big river, and where there was water, there was life, and there were people living there, and there were barley planted, and we could rush over and settle down before the night fell, and the dust storm made us lose something, and it happened to add to the locals. It was much slower to walk with a camel than to walk alone on the river beach, and halfway through it was already dark.

jingling

A dull sound of bells drifted to his ears from the dark night, for this kind of sound, Lao Zang is familiar, it is not a camel bell, it is the bell around the neck of the head sheep when the shepherd drives the sheep. There are no large pastures in this place, and the number of sheep grazing is not destined to be too large, and nine times out of ten are the inhabitants of the nearby green space. Following the sound of the bell, I saw about twenty sheep, walking one by one, and a very old shepherd dragging a whip and supervising the flock. Lao Zang went to talk, the old shepherd hunched over and turned back to talk to Lao Zang, I didn't hear the local dialect so clearly, the old shepherd's voice was a little messy, the two of them chatted for a long time, I didn't know what to say.

"It's not far away, and it's about ten miles away." Lao Zang pointed to that side, and the old shepherd said that he lived more than ten miles away.

After walking on the Gobi Desert for so long, there was nothing more comfortable than hot water and a bed, and Lao Fuba and I suddenly came to our senses and followed the old shepherd forward. However, after walking for four or five miles, the vegetation around the river gradually became more lush, and the old sheepherd drove the sheep to graze, which was the way of life for the people, and we could not stop it, so we sat down to rest. Lao Zang taught me to pick out all the blisters on my feet, otherwise I wouldn't be able to walk after resting for a while.

The old shepherd looked very old, probably someone who had lived here all his life. While picking up the blisters, I wondered if I could ask him about Jing'er Lake. The old shepherd took out a dry cigarette and was about to make a fire, so I asked Lao Zang for a cigarette and handed it to him, and took the opportunity to talk. At the beginning, the parents were short, and as I thought, the old shepherd said that he had herded sheep all his life, and he was lonely and had no children.

"After a few more years, it's time to kick your legs." The old shepherd's eyes couldn't be opened, but his attitude was optimistic and peaceful, and he smiled.

"Jing'er Lake, do you know that place?"

"Why don't you know?" The old shepherd nodded, if it was in the mainland, a day's journey away, they might not be very familiar with each other, but in the Gobi, a day's journey is as close as two adjacent villages, and the old sheepherd has lived here for many years and knows Jing'er Lake very well. When I heard this, I was so refreshed that I didn't bother to drink hot water and make my bed, so I talked to him on the spot.

"That place, it is said, that there used to be a dragon living there." The old shepherd drooped his eyelids, and there was a mysterious look on his dark and thin face, and he stretched out his hands and gestured, "It's so thick." ”

What the old shepherd said was an old rumor that had been circulating in the local area for many years. It is said that there was a dragon living in Jing'er Lake before, very lonely, that dragon likes to be lively, often out of the water incarnation, pulling passers-by to chat and relieve boredom At the beginning, he was still very cautious, simply chatting, and then came out too many times, and gradually revealed his family background. Once, the dragon entangled a woman passing by to have a family affair with others. The woman was scared at first, but gradually felt that the other party had no malice, the dragon gave the woman something, and the two talked very speculatively. The woman went back to her mother's house, brought back some barley wine from her mother's house, and took it out for the other party to drink. The dragon drank the wine, and his mouth was not closed, and Yun Tianwu said a lot, saying that he was the king of antiquity who had left here to take care of something.

The old shepherd told me about this, and my heart shook like thunder. Ancient folklore, obviously not complete nonsense, the king of antiquity, isn't that the king of Yu!?

"And then?" I held back the shock in my heart and continued to ask.

When the dragon had finished drinking, she gradually became drunk and unconscious, and the woman ran home, her mouth broken, and told the story of the incident. Someone was curious and ran over in droves to see the legendary dragon. As a result, I saw a dragon as thick as a water tank by the river, and it was still sleeping soundly with saliva in its water. This time it was terrible, one spread ten, ten spread hundreds, all said that there were treasures left by the ancient kings in the river, and the messy people ran over and went down the river to catch things. But nothing was caught, and the dragon probably knew that he had slipped his mouth, and he didn't show up again for a while, and the matter was noisy for a while, and it calmed down.

But not long after the matter subsided, there was a heavy rain in the area, which is very rare, and there have not been a few times since ancient times. Some say that in the midst of the rain and thunder, they saw a shadow tumbling in the air, roaring in pain, and a scarlet blood stain fell between the downpour. The tumbling shadow dragged the remnants of blood, jumped straight from the river to the side of Jing'er Lake, plunged into it, and never appeared again. However, Jing'er Lake has become a forbidden land, and nine times out of ten people who set foot in it have never returned.

"It's all the old sayings of the past, true or false, let's have fun." The old shepherd dropped the cigarette in his hand, pointed forward, and said, "There is water over there, go and drink it if you are thirsty." ”

The conditions were very difficult back then, and you had to pay attention to replenishing water all the way along the way, even if you still had it on your body, you had to drink enough water and fill the kettle when you encountered a water source. Lao Fuba couldn't stand this drought and yelled at Lao Zang to drink water. I was completely stunned by the legend told by the old shepherd, and I was a little anxious, the water source was next to it, and it was not convenient, so I walked slowly a few steps towards that side, thinking to myself, the legend of the year, and what I knew, had a striking resemblance. The dragon was punished for having too much mouth, and the man in Jing'er Lake, who looked like me, had his tongue cut out.

I thought as I absentmindedly and conveniently, and the sheep around me foraged in twos and threes. Halfway through, I saw the goat slowly walk up to me and raise its head. At the same time, I heard the goat-headed mosquito whisper to me, "Don't drink the water there!" ”