Three days later, Dong Pai pushed a chicken cart stacked with three loads of dry firewood to Jinsecheng to peddle. This time it was on North Street, and he saw many people crowding at the entrance of the photo studio to look at a photo, saying that it was a strange sight.

Dong Pai was not in the mood to watch, he pushed the chicken cart that had just finished selling dry firewood to leave. Suddenly I heard others talking: Jinse City has a demon and weirdness, two days ago a pair of beautiful girls with long braids and a red dress went to this photo studio to take pictures, and the photo was not a person, but a red-tailed carp.

Dong Pai was shocked, so he parked the empty chicken bus on the side of the road and went to the door of the photo studio to take a look. He squeezed into the photo studio's business hall with great effort, and a female boss with hot hair like waves was retracting a photo in her hand and pasting it on the wall for everyone to see.

As soon as Dong Pai looked up, he found that the red-tailed carp in the photo posted on the wall was very similar to the carp he bought and released from a strong man for 29 yuan three days ago, so he walked over and asked the female boss, are you mistaken? You took a picture of a carp.

What the hell do you say. Why do I take a picture of a carp? I'm in business, will I give money to take pictures of carp? I'm not crazy! The female boss said the truth, her eyebrows furrowed, and there were traces of being drawn by the eyebrow pencils.

So, there is really a girl with a pair of long pigtails and a red dress who came to your photo studio to take pictures! And when it comes out, it's a red-tailed carp. Dong Pai looked at the female boss and moved his gaze to the photo of the red-tailed carp hanging on the wall, and kept sighing.

Of course yes, would I tell a lie? The landlady took out a slip from the desk drawer and said, "Look, this is a deposit slip for the money paid for the photo, and I waited for the girl in the red dress to come and take the photo, and usually I can take the photo the next day, but no one has come to take the photo yet, which is really strange."

Dong Pai smiled incredulously, then left the photo studio and pushed away an empty chicken cart on the side of the road, slowly forgetting about it.

A few days later, another strange incident occurred: whenever he went up the mountain to chop firewood or went out to sell firewood to return home, he approached his house at the foot of the mountain and smelled the smell of food.

He wondered how the smell of food could come from the smell of food when there were no other people's houses nearby. Could it be that someone can't have a picnic in the woods behind their house? The first time, when he smelled the smell of food, he did not unlock it and entered the house, but went around the woods behind the house, and there was nothing but the cries of birds and the sound of the wind in the mountains, and the smell of food gradually disappeared; He turned around and returned to the door, the smell of the food was so strong in his nose that he clearly felt that someone was cooking in his house.

Reason told him that it was impossible, that there was a copper ring lock hanging from the door that had not been moved, and that there were fences on the walls of the left and right rooms, and people could not climb in, unless they had removed the fence with a saw or something, but was it necessary to do so?

He looked carefully at a few more windows, but they were all unmoved. Then with doubts, he took out the key and unlocked it, the door creaked open, he walked in and looked up, there was nothing, everything was untouched.

He walked around the hall and followed the smell of food into the stove house, and found that the dining table in the middle of the room was full of four dishes and one soup, among which was his favorite fried pork slices with dried bamboo shoots. Of course, he wasn't thinking about eating now, he was thinking about who would come in and get him a table of food before the door of his house was opened.

He looked here and there, but there was no man. Anyway, his stomach was hungry, so he put a bowl of rice in the stove and ate it sullenly.

On the second and third days, Dong Xiang went out early in the morning and went home at noon or evening, and a table of meat and vegetables he liked to eat was still set up in the stove house.

He thought to himself, "Who is secretly helping me?" I must find this person and thank him. But can it be found? He came up with a solution. Early in the morning of the fourth day, as usual, he took a firewood knife and a sharp burden, and pretended to go out to do something, but when he was halfway there, he quietly turned around and crept to a wooden lattice window of his house.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps in the house, and he clearly remembered that the door of his house was locked, and the back door was closed, and the latch was tightened, so how could there be anyone in the house?

Regardless of that, he slowly raised his head and looked into the room through the gap in the half-hidden window sash.

He found a beautiful girl with long pigtails and a red dress taking a scoop of water, scooping water from the water tank into the wooden basin, and then bending down to wash the vegetables.

Dong Pai didn't alarm her, he immediately remembered that a few days ago, the fashionable female boss of the photo studio on North Street in Jinsecheng said that there was a beautiful girl with a pair of long braids and a red skirt who came to her museum to take pictures, but what came out was a photo of a red-tailed carp, and no one took it.

Could it be that she is washing vegetables in the stove house...... Although Dong Pai was a little afraid and suspicious of her, he was full of gratitude after all. He thought: Since you help me, even if the red-tailed carp spirit is weird, it will never harm me. He suddenly mustered up the courage to straighten up his body and shouted loudly, which lady is it, who secretly helps me Dong Pai cook and eat every day, I want to be grateful and thankful, but I can't find the master. Unexpectedly, before she finished speaking, the beautiful girl flashed and disappeared without a trace.

Dong Pai turned around and came to the door of the house, unlocked the door and entered the house, and when he came to the stove house, he saw that the dried bamboo shoots soaked in the wooden basin had been half washed and were being contained in a porcelain plate.

Dong Pai was in no mood to take care of it, and continued to let go of his voice and shout, which kind girl are you, why do you want to help me? Why dodged as soon as I saw me, I don't understand. The voice broke the silence in the room.

After a while, there seemed to be an echo in the air: Brother Dong, you don't need to understand for the time being, if you want me to appear in front of you, you must do one thing according to my instructions.

Dong Pai said to the air, you say! A voice replied, "Didn't you just peek at me outside the window?" I tie a pair of long braids and wear a water red skirt, as for the face, you don't see it clearly, you can imagine, you go to Jinse City to ask a painter to draw my photo, and then you also draw a photo or take a photo, put my picture and yours together and light it on fire, I can receive two yin photos, give them to the city god in the city god temple in Jinse city to see, let him be our main marriage, get a marriage certificate in the city god temple, I will be your daughter-in-law in a dignified manner, you can show up, you can see me.

Isn't this a yin marriage? How can it be? Dong Pai asked with wide eyes.

Yes, I have been cultivating in the Huancheng River of Jinse City for a thousand years, and I can manifest my human body at any time. Dong Pai felt that this sweet female voice seemed to come out of his side, but he still didn't see anyone.

You're a red-tailed carp...... Dong Pai didn't finish the word "fine", and then he heard the female voice stop him: Don't say fine, it's ugly to say fine, I'm in the water tribe, everyone calls me a red-tailed mermaid, I was originally cultivated by a red-tailed carp, you can call me Li Yu's sister in the future, Li Yu is a homonym for carp.

A sweet female voice in the air lingered in his ears. Dong Pai was excited, and immediately swore and clenched his fist, saying Okay, I will call you Li Yu's sister. Sister Li Yu, let me ask you one thing, have you ever been to the photo studio on Jinsecheng North Street?

The same sweet female voice replied, "I have seen it, it does not show the phantom body I have cultivated—the human figure, but it shows my original form—the red-tailed carp. Where am I embarrassed to take pictures?

However, I got that picture from the photo studio last night, isn't it this one? As soon as the words fell, a photo was thrown from the window of the stove house and landed in the palm of Dong Pai's hand, and he took it and looked at it carefully, which was exactly the same as what he saw in the photo studio on Jinsecheng North Street a few days ago.

He put it in his purse and said to himself, "Is this true?" But he said, Sister Li Yu, I'm going to Jinse City to find a painter to draw photos of you and me, I am willing to marry you as my daughter-in-law, I am so poor, there are many yellow flower girls in the mortal world, but who can afford me? I'm determined to live with you.

The inconspicuous Li Yu let out a sneering laugh, and then said calmly, Brother Dong, thank you for saving me, that time my original body, a big carp, was fished from the Huancheng River, if you hadn't saved me, there would be no today; It takes another 500 years of cultivation to return to its original form. So I help you with the cooking, busy with the housework, you don't have to thank you, I should thank you.

Dong Pai laughed and said You don't have to thank me, you should go to thank the old monk in the temple in the mountains behind the house, it was he who told me to do good deeds, give more alms, and save all sentient beings, so I was willing to use the money I worked hard to sell firewood and buy you and put you back in the river. He walked as he spoke, and then went out, and heard Li Yu, who seemed to have given him, say, don't talk about the old monks in the temple, you go and come back quickly, I will cook rice and stir-fry vegetables in the house and wait for you to come back and eat!