Scholar and water ghost

On the day when the body was found by the seaside, Wei Tingshu happened to have just been in this Linhai fishing village for half a month. It happened to be evening, and half of the sky was covered in fire, as if a pinch could drip bright red blood.

At that time, everyone was collecting the net, and suddenly the crowd not far away burst into noise like flowers, and he didn't pay attention to it at first.

After finishing my fishing nets, I looked at the empty wooden barrel as always, looked up at the sea and sky, and sighed, "Hey——".

"Young man, don't worry, how long have you been learning! I think the old man also learned for more than a month before he caught his first fish." Uncle Qin, who heard a sigh not far away, spoke up.

Uncle Qin is a veteran fisherman, in his 50s, with gray hair, a beard on his chin as long as a finger, and a kind and kind face. He taught himself how to fish at first.

Wei Tingshu smiled helplessly, and walked over to help Uncle Qin close the net.The net is very heavy. It seems that Uncle Qin has caught a lot of fish again.

After some effort, the two finally pulled the fishing net out of the water, and picked up the fish in the net into the wooden bucket one by one. The noise not far away became louder and louder, and many people gathered. Surrounded by water.

The fishing village is small, and there are rarely such lively events. Uncle Qin packed the net, lit the dry tobacco in his hand, took a deep breath, came back to his senses, patted his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go, too." Go and see."

Wei Tingshu is not a person who likes to join in the fun, but since Uncle Qin has said so, then let's go and have a look, anyway, it's all right.

The two walked over and took some effort to push through the crowd before they could see clearly what was going on.

It turned out that Ergouzi from the head of the village actually posted a dead body on the Internet. In this simple seaside village, this is a big deal. I saw the villagers whispering to each other with expressions of fear on their faces, and even a woman Covering his eyes with one hand, he said straightly, "Bad luck, bad luck".

Er Gouzi, who brought up the dead body, was so frightened that his legs shook and he sifted through the chaff. He couldn't help but muttered: "Bodhisattva bless, Bodhisattva bless, Namo Amitabha! Namo Amitabha!"

Uncle Qin is the head of the village. When everyone saw him passing by, it was as if they had seen the backbone of the village. They all gathered together and told what happened.

It turned out that when Er Gouzi collected the net just now, the net was too heavy, thinking that he had caught a lot of big fish, he worked hard to collect the fishing net, and pulled it out to have a look, but he didn't scare away the three souls and six souls.I saw that there was no big fish in the net, it was clearly a male corpse with bubble hair.

Er Gouzi was so frightened that he screamed and backed away for a long time, which alarmed the surrounding fishermen to come up to watch, and only then did the following things happen.

Wei Tingshu leaned over to take a look, oh, it really bloomed, I don't know how long it took to soak in the water before it floated to the shore.I saw that the eyes were blurred and horrible under the wet clothes, and I didn't look like a human being, and I didn't know how many mouthfuls were taken by passing fish and shrimps. Many places not covered by the clothes showed faint bones .

"I don't know which family's son it is, what a crime!" A fisherman sighed as he turned around and walked away, not seeing the tragedy.

The reason why he was called Young Master was also because of the clothes left on the man's body. Although the clothes were bitten and tattered, it could still be seen that they were originally brocade clothes, especially the jade pendant around the waist, which was full of color and luster. It is crystal clear and has fine texture. It is estimated that this is the only object whose identity can be found out.

"What are you doing in a daze, why don't you report it to the police?" Uncle Qin calmed down quickly after seeing the storm, he shouted loudly.Only then did people react, and the young and fast-footed guy immediately ran towards the county seat.

It took half an hour to go back and forth from the seaside to the county seat, and when the officials arrived, it was already dark, and some of the mothers-in-law who were worried about waiting went home first.At this time, only Uncle Qin, Wei Tingshu and Er Gouzi were left squatting not far from the corpse, all silent by coincidence.

Er Gouzi was going to leave too, but Wei Tingshu said that he was the first to discover the body, and he stayed when the official sent for questioning.

The master, Wu Zuo, and two policemen from the government, after greeting Wei Tingshu, they looked at the scene directly and asked questions, and then the two policemen carried the body back to the county government office.

Three days had passed since the body was found by the sea.

That evening, Wei Tingshu was entrusted by Uncle Qin to send the fish he caught during the day to a restaurant in the county town. When he came out, he was carrying the wine he had just caught. Unexpectedly, he ran into someone head-on, but it was the master from that day. .

"Brother Wei, what a coincidence!" The master's eyes lit up, he looked at the wine bottle in Wei Tingshu's hand, and said happily, "Since we met, how about a drink?"

Wei Tingshu is a person who likes to drink, and not only is he good at drinking, but he is also good at talking to people when drinking. At this time, when he heard the master's appointment for a drink, he thought about it, and there is nothing serious about it today, so he was happy and refreshed immediately. After agreeing, he turned around and walked into the restaurant.

The master seemed to be a regular customer of this restaurant, so he ordered Xiaoer to go to the private room on the second floor, ordered a few home-cooked dishes and two jugs of wine, and sat down.

The master's real name is Chen, and the single name is a Chinese character "Dan". When Wei Tingshu was still the county magistrate, the two of them had a good friendship, and they often communicated with each other.

The master is a local, just like the southern wine that Wei Tingshu is drinking at this time, it is mellow and refreshing, like spring rain, lingering in his throat.

Wei Tingshu took a few sips of wine from the peanuts on the table, blushed, and began to talk more, suddenly remembered the corpse that day, and asked: "Brother Chen, the identity of the corpse at the seaside the day before yesterday has been found out." ?”

"Hey..." Chen Dan took a sip of his wine and then let out a sigh, "It's not like you don't know what kind of person the county magistrate is today? If you are still here..."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Chen Dan consciously made a slip of the tongue, and the atmosphere was somewhat awkwardly silent.

Wei Tingshu is a number one scholar, and his official career should be magnanimous, but it's a pity that Qian Lima needs to meet Bo Le.Today's emperor is fatuous and incompetent, and eunuchs are in power, which student doesn't want to serve the country with all his heart?Wei Tingshu was no exception. He was young and energetic, distinguished between black and white, and did not know how to turn around. At the royal eve, he made a slip of the tongue after drinking and offended the emperor's new favorite concubine, and was demoted to this small seaside county, and went on the road overnight.

In the past few years, the people have been neglected, disasters have continued, and the treasury has been empty. In order to build palaces for the favored concubines, the emperor listened to the opinions of the eunuchs. .The originally turbid officialdom was like a cesspit in a farmhouse. Wei Tingshu simply resigned from office and became a fisherman on the seashore to spend his days chatting.

At this time Chen Duo mentioned this matter again, how could he not sigh.

"I made a slip of the tongue, please don't blame Brother Wei, don't blame me!" Chen Dan drank the wine in his glass as an apology.

"It's okay! It's okay!" Wei Tingshu also picked up the wine in his hand and drank it down.

"The county magistrate saw the rotting corpse and his face was blurred, so he instructed his subordinates to check if anyone was missing within a few miles, and closed the case the next day. You know, just by looking at the clothes, you can tell that it's not someone nearby. , it must be some rich and noble son who went out to sea to play, and was in trouble and drifted over."

"I thought he would look at the corpse's attire anyway, and spend more time to get more oil and water, but who knows... Forget it, let's not talk, come, brother Chen, drink!" Wei Tingshu raised the wine glass in front of him again, and Chen Dan collided in the air, there was a loud "dang", and the transparent wine spilled out.

At this time, night fell and the lights came on, the whole world seemed to be pressed under the palm of a huge hand, and the weak light was just a dying struggle.

Wei Tingshu and Chen Dan drank until the moon was in the sky, and then they parted in front of the restaurant. Wei Tingshu carried the wine he drank during the day, and walked towards his house by the sea.

With a "creak", Wei Tingshu pushed open the courtyard door and closed it again, continuing to walk into the room.

Wei Tingshu's house was bought by him with his official salary for several years. It is located on a high ground not far from the sea. There is a small courtyard with three bedrooms, a study, and a kitchen. The front and back yards are Surrounded by a half-person-high fence with morning glory entangled on the fence, there is a coconut tree in the front yard, a few plots of land in the back yard, and a thatched hut in the corner beside the land.

Wei Tingshu casually threw the wine he had brought back on the four-legged round table in front of the bed, took off his coat, shoes and socks, and fell asleep on the bed.In the middle of the night, the wine woke up thirsty, and I stumbled up to pour water to drink. After drinking half of it, I suddenly realized that something was wrong?There seemed to be a gloomy and cold air in the room. He looked around, but he didn't see anything wrong. He thought to himself that he must have passed out from drinking.

After drinking a cup of cold tea, I poured another cup and continued to drink. This time I woke up a lot.Just after putting the cup down, the feeling of something wrong came up again.Hey, why did the wine bottle on the table fall?Where did the mud go?

"Strange thing, did I drink it again before going to bed?" Wei Tingshu scratched his messy hair and walked to the bed while talking to himself, before he could figure it out, he fell asleep again.

Early in the morning of the next day, Wei Tingshu sent the money from the fish sale at Uncle Qin’s house yesterday, and apologized again. Uncle Qin said straightly, “It’s not in the way, it’s not in the way,” and kindly kept him for breakfast, Went out to sea to fish.

The sun is shining today, and the sand on the beach is scorching hot. If you drop an egg, it will turn into eggs immediately.Wei Tingshu put on the bamboo hat that shaded the sun, dragged the fishing boat to the sea, and went out to sea.

Wei Tingshu is a native of the north and doesn't know how to swim. He only started to learn swimming when he was relegated to this small southern island. Although he has learned seven or eight points, he is different from the locals. There are also few fish.Today, for some reason, before noon, there were a lot of fish on the net, and there was even an octopus of a rare size.He counted carefully, and in just one morning, the fish caught in the net was more than twice as much as in the whole day. Two buckets of heavy fish headed for town.

Still changing fish money, looking for a restaurant, ordering two small dishes, a few pots of wine, drinking a glass and sighing.After drinking until dusk, I added two more small dishes, weighed the silver taels in my pocket, and added another meat dish. After drinking until the moon was above the sky, I stumbled towards the seaside hut.

After three days of such a drunken life, Wei Tingshu filled two buckets of fish every morning, stuck to the stool in the restaurant in the afternoon and evening, and threw the flagon he brought back on the table when he returned home at night, and fell into bed. Just sleeping, snoring like thunder, and when I wake up in the middle of the night and want to drink again, the flagon on the table is always empty.

Wei Tingshu finally noticed something was wrong. It stands to reason that he couldn't catch so many fish every day, because he was in the shallow sea, and sometimes even the deep sea fish came into his net. Even the waiter in the fish shop noticed it. The look in his eyes was not right, as if he had stolen the fish somewhere.

Another strange thing is that on a few nights he remembered that he obviously didn't drink the wine he brought back before going to bed, so it was empty in the middle of the night, it was really strange.Moreover, waking up in the middle of the night in the past few days always has a gloomy feeling...

Could it be...the house has been targeted by thieves recently?However, he is poor and white, so it's not enough. After searching around, he didn't lose anything at home. How strange!Weird!No, I have to think of a way!

Another day, Wei Tingshu was still full of fish in the morning.He took it to the town to sell it calmly, exchanged the money and found a restaurant, and returned home late at night reeking of alcohol, still threw the flagon he brought back on the table, and fell asleep.But this time, he didn't really drink too much, he clearly remembered that the flagon on the table was not sealed, he pretended to fall asleep, and quietly waited for the thief who stole the drink in the dark night.

The author has something to say: Well, the articles in this series are all short stories, about [-] to [-] words, welcome to taste!