The use of that severed hand had always been a mystery to me, and I looked at the old ghost in the hope that he would give me an answer.

"That's something left by the old grandfather of the Seven Gates of the River." The old ghost said: "Baby, don't ask about this matter, your father knows these things very well in his heart, he doesn't say it, because he is afraid that you won't be able to keep it, and some things will be known sooner or later." "

"It's this sentence again," I muttered, in fact, I knew that what the old ghost said made sense, but I was always unconvinced.

"Baby, when Lao Tzu was as old as you, he always followed the old generation's butt and kept asking, and I always felt that after I knew these things, it was like picking up a big bargain." The old ghost walked forward with his hands behind his back, and took me and Qiqi forward, and said: "But now that I think about it, I know how stupid I was back then, Lao Tzu often thinks that if I don't know these things all the time, then Lao Tzu can live a little easier in this life." "

"If you really feel aggrieved, you can tell me, I won't spread it, my mouth is very tight."

"Do you know what's buried in that river?" The old ghost pointed to the Yellow River, which had begun to rise not far away, and said, "It's at the bottom of the river." "

"How would I know this, if I knew, I wouldn't ask you." As I answered, I pondered alone in my heart, the old ghost's words are definitely not unreasonable, the river is patrolling the river, and the town is not unreasonable, they will not leave the river from life to death, which means that there are things in the river that they want to protect.

"Qimen River Protector, Seven River Protectors, Wazi, Lao Tzu promises that if one day you grow up and really know these things, you will be like Lao Tzu, and you will regret it." The old ghost stood against the river wind, walked with his hands behind his back, and his black and white messy hair was blown and danced in the wind, and said: "This matter is very important, just like a mountain, it has been pressed in Lao Tzu's heart for decades, and it can't be unloaded, as long as you live for a day, you will be pressed for a day, you don't understand the taste." "

"How big can it be?" I don't think so, my grandfather occasionally drinks, and when he drinks more, he will tell me that his head has fallen off at most and there is a big scar, and it is not a big deal. This is the usual mentality of the people who walk the water in the Yellow River, because they are rolling on the tip of the knife every day, and their hearts are not so broad, so they can't eat this bowl of rice.

"Do you really think that if you are a river wretch, you will die and you will be a hundred?" The old ghost scoffed: "Lao Tzu is impatient to talk nonsense with a baby like you who doesn't understand the height of the sky, what he said before, he turned his face and forgot about it, didn't Lao Tzu tell you how this river came from?" Do you think that King Yu ruled the water back then, but what really governed the water was? Lao Tzu told you that what he treated was the things under the river, forget it, I don't know the smell of and fart, Lao Tzu can't be in such a hurry with you. "

As he spoke, the old ghost flicked his sleeves and walked forward by himself, and I hurried after him, thinking that although he said something angry, it didn't seem to be exactly angry words, and there was some secret in it. He said that the Yellow River was opened by someone a long time ago, which is unbelievable, but I have followed the old ghost for the past few days, and I always feel that he is not the kind of person who talks nonsense when he opens his mouth.

What is the bottom of the Yellow River? Dayu controls the water, not the water?

I still chased and asked, but the old ghost refused to say a word, I had no choice but to turn my head and talk to Qiqi to relieve my boredom. Qiqi has been in Yinshan Gorge for a long time, and she feels unaccustomed to it as soon as she comes out, she is the kind of girl who has less knowledge than me, and her innocence is a little ridiculous and distressing. She washed her face with water, and though her face was very pale, she looked handsome, and I was about her age, and told her a great deal of things. Qiqi occasionally laughs, but there is always a kind of melancholy between his eyebrows that can't be left behind.

I don't know where the ancestral grave of the Sun family is, and the old ghost only knows the approximate location, so many years have passed, and I don't know if there has been any change in the local area. The river has begun to spread in all directions, overflowing along the waterway and river silt pond that washed out during the past flood season, and the boats on the river are almost cut off, and the old ghost took us for five days before we arrived at Huaixi Building, the ancestral land of the Sun family.

There are too many villages on both sides of the Yellow River, and even those who always walk by boat cannot remember all the villages in their hearts, even if they are natural villages in the past and administrative villages after liberation. My impression of Huaixilou Village comes entirely from other people's stories, it is said that there was a theater stage there before the liberation, and when there was a play, people from the neighborhood would often come to see it. In the early days of the Republic of China, warlords fought there, the village was deserted, and the stage remained in place. There was an opera troupe from Xinyang, Henan Province, who wanted to settle in Kaifeng, and when they walked near Huaixi Building, they met someone who invited them to sing. If it is a local opera troupe, you may immediately suspect that because of a war, the people in the village run out, how can someone still invite the troupe to sing in the past. But the opera troupe in the field didn't understand the situation, anyway, it was excellent to take a job halfway and earn some money, so they immediately agreed.

But when the play really started, the troupe began to panic, the stage was at the entrance of the village, and there were only two audiences in total, one old and one young, squatting in front of the stage and watching them sing. The head of the drama troupe talked to two people, the older one had a blank expression, didn't say a word, and looked at the people singing on the stage with a smile, and the corners of his mouth drooled. The troupe owner felt that something was wrong, and as soon as the play was over, he wanted to take people away in a hurry. It wasn't until everyone packed up their bags and prepared to leave overnight that they suddenly found that the youngest little girl in the troupe was trapped on the stage and couldn't get off the stage.

The people of the troupe ran over to save him, but no matter who approached the stage, it would feel as if someone was pushing him outward, and the force was very great, and a group of people watched the young little flower girl cry on the stage, but they couldn't do anything.

Xiao Huadan was trapped on the stage for two days, and when it was about to dawn on the third day, she hanged herself in front of the stage. After that, the people of Huaixilou Village returned to their hometown one after another, but as long as it was night, there were often people who could hear the babbling singing from the empty stage, and later, this stage was demolished, but at night, the stage that has been demolished is in place, there are often white shadows floating, and the people who are bold and curious nearby run over to see, come and go, the more it spreads, this is how Huaixilou is famous.

Generally speaking, if you are born in this village, then the graveyard after death must be next to the village, but the Sun family is a river tree, and the cemetery is very secret, not far from the village. The flood season is coming, the people in the village are very busy, the old ghost doesn't want to deal with the living people more, take us around the road, the river beach is basically sandy land, no food, we walked to about six or seven miles away from Huaixi Building, the old ghost stopped all of a sudden.

The river water in the flood season flows here along a river that has been dry for more than half a year, there is a large wasteland, nothing is planted, but it is washed away by the river, revealing a big mouth seven or eight meters long, the water keeps pouring down the mouth, the wasteland seems to be empty underneath, so much water keeps pouring down, as if flowing into a bottomless pit.

"Oops." The old ghost frowned, it seems that this wasteland should be the ancestral tomb of the Sun family, and all the rivers of the Sun family after many generations before and after they died. He Yanzi does not believe in Buddhism, but believes in cause and effect, believes in the past life and the afterlife, and their grave is secret, but when they build the tomb, they have made an old book, and the inside of the tomb is very magnificent. This wasteland is densely packed with graves, washed and soaked by water, and it is estimated that the ground has been penetrated.

"Baby, do you know why the Yellow River bursts every year?" The old ghost looked at the wasteland and the river that kept flowing into the ground, and suddenly asked me, "The embankment has burst for thousands of years, and it has not been broken." "

"It's raining, and when it's flood season, the levee will naturally burst."

"It's not." The old ghost shook his head, looked at me, and said, "Someone wants to divert it." "

"What did you say?" I was shocked, the Yellow River rose and was diverted, that is a matter that people can say? It all depends on God's meaning, I was a little dizzy by the old ghost's words, and I asked him.

But the old ghost always liked to say half a sentence like this, and then he stopped talking, walked a few steps to that side, and solemnly knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times. This is not the ancestral tomb of his family, the seven gates of the river are of the same origin, and the old ghost is still very respectful to the ancestral tomb of the Sun family. I didn't hear it so clearly while kowtowing, but I knew that the old ghost must be talking about the rudeness of the children and grandchildren of the future generations, and go to the ancestral grave to get something, so that the ancestors would not be surprised.

"Baby, you are obedient and stay here." The old ghost left Qiqi outside and took me to the water-swept hole to take a look. There was no real bottomless pit under the hole, the water kept flowing, accumulating to a hole about waist deep, I handed the flashlight to the old ghost, but he didn't get used to it, so he lit the gas lamp.

"Go in with Lao Tzu, you have a long experience, and you can also practice your courage." The old ghost didn't say a word, he looked at the entrance of the cave, and got in, I didn't want him to look flat, and I followed the drill, as soon as I entered the hole, half of my body was soaked in water, and the water was mudier than the river, like a pool of mud.

The surrounding soil was completely loosened by the blisters, and if it were not for the grave that had been built underneath, it was estimated that the land would have completely collapsed. The water was constantly flowing, and the depth was always waist-high, and I always felt that there was a strange smell in it, which was very uncomfortable anyway, but I was relieved to think about it, this is a graveyard.

When the water rushed in, the cemetery below was completely unrecognizable, and we walked in about a dozen meters away and saw a burial chamber with a semi-dome. The water was flowing in a hurry, up and down, walking, a big piece of soil was loosened by the blisters, and collapsed beside it, and at the same time as the soil layer fell, a few pieces of wood buried in it appeared faintly, and the old ghost looked at the decaying wood, and suddenly began to lose his temper.

"Who is harming the people of the Sun family!" The old ghost's face was ugly, and I didn't know where the wood came from, but the old ghost was furious when he saw them.

Quack

At this moment, there was a sudden cry from the front, and I grew up by the river, and I was familiar with this sound, it was the cry of a toad. At the same time as the sound came, a large group of toads swam towards this side in dense form, and I thought that the toads were coming for the two of us, and I was feeling cold.

But to my surprise, a large group of toads swam over, ignoring me and the old ghost, and swam to the entrance of the cave in one breath as if fleeing for their lives, and then scrambled to crawl out.

No matter how stupid I am, I can see that there is something behind me, something that must be scaring the large group of toads and crawling outwards like they are fleeing for their lives.