Half River Autumn Moon and River Spring [Rat and Cat]

"Cat, are you sure what you saw was a 'person'?"

Zhan Zhao paused, and suddenly coughed anxiously, Bai Yutang hurriedly helped him to straighten his back, Zhan Zhao tried his best while coughing, "Wait a minute, let me...cough, cough, slow down, I was choked to death just now." It's...cough cough..."

Zhan Zhao was covering his waterlogged nose and was trying to inhale with his mouth when Deng's grandmother brought Xiao Shanzi and knelt down in front of them: "Xiao Shanzi, quickly kowtow to the savior!"

Seeing this, Zhan Zhao hurriedly struggled to get up and support the two of them, "Grandma Deng, this is impossible, get up quickly."

But the Deng family's granny was also very firm. She was dragged by Zhan Zhao and insisted on kowtow to him. Zhan Zhao had nothing to do, and Bai Yutang didn't have the slightest intention to help. The cat almost lost its life, so what's the point of kowtowing?

"Grandma Deng, what are you and Xiao Shanzi doing here? How did you fall into the river?"

"I, we..." Deng's grandma hugged Xiao Shanzi and knelt on the ground in shock.

Zhan Zhao looked not far away, there was an overturned bamboo basket, and there were some meals in the bamboo basket, which were obviously brought by the old and the young, so he pointed and asked, "Where are these meals?"

Deng's grandma looked back at the bamboo basket, wiped her tears, and then slowly said: "To tell you the truth, my lord, I actually brought Xiao Shanzi here to worship his parents."

"Worship?"

"Yeah, my girl, I know best. It's impossible for my daughter to go out for so long without coming back to see me and Xiaoshanzi. Something must have happened to her! The old village chief often bought things with his own money to make us feel at ease. , and lied to us that those juniors earn money to honor us. In fact, my wife, I know in my heart... how can there be any juniors? It is the village head who is supporting the lonely old people in our village... I, I don’t want my daughter After leaving, I don’t even have the food from my hometown, so every once in a while, I will bring Xiao Shanzi to the Luojiang River to pay respects to his parents.” Grandma Deng took a break, and continued, “Just now I was planning to pay respects to his parents. The food was taken out, and Xiao Shanzi was playing with rocks on the side, maybe it was too dark around, this kid didn’t pay attention when picking up rocks, and accidentally slipped into the river.”

Zhan Zhao was puzzled and said, "Since it's worship, why did you choose this time? Wouldn't it be better to wait for the sky to brighten up a little later? How dangerous is it? It's pitch black right now?"

The grandmother of the Deng family sighed: "I just don't want the villagers to find out. The old village head really cares about us. Everyone in the village trusts him and relies on him. I don't want his efforts to be in vain. Sneaking in and coming out to worship before dawn, so that when we go back, no one in the village will find out."

"Then why did you choose to worship here?"

Deng's grandma put her arms around Xiao Shanzi and wept, "This is the place where the old woman saw her daughter for the last time. That's where she sent them back then..."

Zhan Zhao sighed, and didn't want to ask any more questions, so he said, "All the food was overturned, let's send you back."

After sending the two of them back to the village, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to the town, and told Mr. Li about the discovery of the Corpse Swallow Cave on the cliff. After hearing this, Mr. Li was shocked, and immediately gathered his hands to say Go find out.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang led the people from the yamen to go to Shiyan Cave together. On the way, they saw the people from the yamen carrying many torches and a big bag of things that looked like straw. They couldn't help asking: "Lord Li, what is this torch It is used to drive away corpse swallows, so what is in this bag?"

Master Li replied while riding a horse: "Oh, this bag is also used to drive away dead swallows. It is called centipede grass. As long as it is ignited, it will work. Once the hole is full of the smell of centipede grass, it will be driven out. The corpse swallow dare not go back to the cave."

Zhan Zhao said with a smile, "That's a coincidence, there are so many centipedes in the yamen."

Li Chengsi nodded and said: "This centipede grass can not only repel dead swallows, but also has miraculous effects on ordinary mosquitoes, rats and ants. Mojiao County is adjacent to the Luojiang River, and there are some plagues of birds, sparrows and rats all year round, so every household will always have it." Centipede grass, Yamen is no exception."

"Oh, that's how it is." Zhan Zhao smacked his lips, "If my lord didn't say anything, I would have thought that my lord would know the foretelling, and I'm so well prepared."

Li Chengsi smiled a little bit at a loss.

When everyone rushed to the cliff, the original path had disappeared. Zhan Zhao nodded to Bai Yutang, and Bai Yutang understood that the formation would break again, and the group of dead swallows at the bottom of the cliff was shaken out again. Everyone was dumbfounded. A flock of black corpse swallows hovered in the air.Li Chengsi was also a little moved, and Zhan Zhao summoned him several times before he came back to his senses: "It's the first time I have seen such a spectacle, the two adults are really good at it, it opened our eyes. If the two adults hadn't fought Hai Qingtian's ability, I am afraid that I will not be able to discover the secret of this cliff until I die."

Zhan Zhao beckoned to everyone, pointed to the path that was revealed again on the cliff, and said, "Big guy, be careful when walking, this road is narrow and slippery, if you accidentally fall into the river, it will be troublesome, you must pay more attention .”

Everyone hurriedly nodded their goodbyes, and then carefully climbed down the cliff under the leadership of Zhan Bai.

Everyone got down the cliff without any risk, but it obviously took a lot longer than the previous two people to go down the cliff, and corpses have already started to return to their nests one after another.Although it was already daylight at this time, the corpse swallow cave was still pitch black. Everyone began to light torches and entered the cave one after another. Everyone marveled at the depth and width of the cave. The rustling sound gradually sounded, Zhan Zhao glanced back, frowned and said, "The corpse swallows are coming back, everyone be careful."

Hearing this, Master Li hurriedly asked the subordinates carrying the centipede grass to get ready: "My lord, don't worry, I will let them ignite the centipede grass to drive away the dead swallows."

After igniting the centipede grass, the smoke was so smoky that people couldn't open their eyes at first, Zhan Zhao covered his mouth and nose with his hands, and after he finally got used to it, he saw the corpse swallows who were planning to enter the cave really hovering around for a few minutes. After the circle, they stumbled and flew out again, thinking that this centipede grass really has a miraculous effect!But don't say it's a corpse swallow, people will be smoked away.

Li Chengsi saw that the corpse swallow was smoked away, so he left two people to go to the hole to hold hands. If the corpse swallow returned to the nest, he would continue to smoke with centipede grass, and the rest of them continued to go deeper and walked for a while. Seeing the bottom line, Zhan Zhao was asked to walk behind Bai Yutang, and he saw Bai Yutang always stop and go, frowning and looking around.

"What's the matter, mouse, is there a mechanism?"

Bai Yutang shook his head: "I can't say, it's always a weird feeling."

Just as Zhan Zhao was about to ask again, someone behind him suddenly shouted in panic, "Bone! Bone, bone...fair!"

Everyone looked back at him, only to see the man sitting in the water in fright, pointing to his side and trembling non-stop.Everyone hastily moved the fire light to their sides. Everyone was shocked when they saw it. It turned out that on both sides of the hole, there were countless skeletons and white bones dormant quietly.

There are a lot of bones here, and they are all human bones. They are stacked on both sides, and the taller ones are even half exposed. If you don't look carefully, you may think they are reefs.

Zhan Zhao went over to check, and found that these bones were very clean, without any flesh and blood, as if they had been eaten by something.

"It's corpse swallows." Bai Yutang stood beside Zhan Zhao, "They eat corpses, and they peck them very cleanly."

Zhan Zhao thought for a while and said, "I remember you said that corpse swallows only eat corpses and have no interest in living things, so these people only come after they die..."

Bai Yutang nodded: "That's right."

"My lord, come here and take a look!" A yamen servant not far away shouted, Li Chengsi heard the words and walked towards him, the yamen servant picked up the broken clothes of the skeletons in the water and said, "Look at the clothes attached to these corpses, They all seem to be locals."

Li Chengsi knelt down to check for a while, then nodded: "Bring all these corpses back to the shore, count the number of people, and keep the clothes left on the corpses as much as possible, so as to facilitate the identification of the corpses."

"Yes!"

Seeing that all the yamen servants started to get busy, Li Chengsi walked up to Zhan Zhao, and said respectfully: "Thanks to the two adults, otherwise these corpses may never see the light of day. Arrange for people from the grave village to come and identify the corpse."

Zhan Zhao asked, "Master Li thinks these skeletons are the missing young people from Grave Village?"

Li Chengsi was stunned for a moment, and asked back: "Don't you think so, my lord?"

Zhan Zhao didn't answer his question, instead he looked around and asked again: "Why didn't Zheng Liang and Zheng catch the head today?"

"Oh, Chief Zheng went to the graveyard."

"To the graveyard?"

Li Chengsi pursed his lower lip: "The humble official is still worried about Ye Hong's safety, so he sent Zheng Butou to go to the grave village early in the morning."

Zhan Zhao nodded: "Lord Li really cares about Master Ye."

As soon as Zhan Zhao finished speaking, the corners of Li Chengsi's eyes turned red, as if they were about to burst into tears, he hurriedly turned his head and rubbed his eyes, then turned his head and said with a smile: "I made your lord laugh, do you want to go on? ?”

Zhan Zhao looked at the dark and seemingly endless cave, and said, "You stay here to carry the bones, and Yutang and I will go in and have a look."

After the two finished talking, they were about to move on, Li Chengsi hurriedly called them to stop, and then handed over two unused torches to Zhan Zhao: "I don't know how deep this hole is, sir, I'd better bring two more torches for spare. .”

After Zhan Zhao took the torch and thanked him, he continued to go deeper with Bai Yutang. The deeper the interior, the less light there was. There was no water on the ground, and the entire hole began to narrow. After walking for a while, Bai Yutang couldn't help it. Asked: "Mao'er, are those skeletons in the water really the young people who disappeared from the graveyard?"

Zhan Zhao frowned: "Nine times out of ten, yes."

"Then why did they die in the cave?"

"Judging from the current signs, it seems that these people were tricked into taking bird's nests, but in the end they were killed and thrown in the cave, so the corpses became new nourishment for the corpse swallows, waiting for them to be eaten After they are exhausted, maybe the murderer will trick a group of newcomers to get the bird's nest..."

"You mean, someone lures people to come here to pick up bird's nests in the name of a part-time job, and then kills everyone to raise swallows with their dead bodies, and then repeats itself to lure people here?"

"Yes, on the surface it is."

"On the surface?" Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "Do you have doubts?"

"I just looked at the bones and found that many of them were cut at the waist. Don't you think it's strange?"