My idea is very simple. I am still the same Li Jinglan who escaped from Lei Town when I was a child, but I later went to England to study.
Now that I have returned from studying abroad, I feel homesick, so I took my housekeeper Lao Jiang back to Lei Town to visit relatives.
This status is currently the best, because in my impression, the people in Lei Town are very exclusive!
Lao Jiangshou praised me for being smart and quickly followed my instructions and drove out to buy clothes.
I went back to the room and snarled several sentences in foreign language in front of the mirror.
In order to do my best, I had to become the most fashionable guy in the society of the Republic of China who spoke both foreign and Chinese.
Soon Lao Jiang came back. He bought himself a gray plaid suit and a sexy red tie.
After I put on my student clothes and gold-rimmed glasses, I came out of the room and said hello exaggeratedly: "Hello, my Butler Jiang!"
Lao Jiang was deeply shocked by my acting skills and said he didn't even recognize me.
We booked our train tickets to Hubei and got on the train. Lao Jiang also brought a large bag of cakes and other gifts from Peiping, saying he wanted to give them to the folks in Lei Town to try.
I nodded secretly. This little drama queen in me finally brought out an old drama queen.
After getting in the car, I just teased Dahu, the golden-skinned tortoiseshell cat I raised. If he needed coffee or lunch, I would just snap my fingers and tell Lao Jiang to buy it.
From time to time a sentence pops up: "yes" or "no".
This caused the female flight attendant to ogle me, and she really thought that I was a young foreigner from a wealthy family, and she wanted to have a casual marriage with me.
I responded to her in English mixed with half of Chinese, and after talking to her, I actually got a bag of candies.
The cat in my arms also enjoyed some high-end treatment. After eating and drinking enough, he slept soundly.
After a day and a night, we finally arrived at a small station at the junction of Jingmen and Yichang. Lao Jiang held his suitcase and respectfully asked me to get off.
At the last moment, the charming female flight attendant secretly slipped me a small note and left with a blush on her face.
This shows the charm of us, one old, one young and one cat.
I led Lao Jiang south while reading the small note. The name of the female flight attendant was written on the note: Lin Qiuyue.
Unfortunately, this place is still as desolate as I remembered. There is no one at the small station, let alone rickshaws. We can only walk.
At first, Lao Jiang was very patient, but after walking for a few hours, he finally couldn't help it anymore and urged him every once in a while.
"Aren't you a master? Masters are afraid of getting tired."
"Nonsense, it's not you who is carrying the box. I'm so hungry that my chest is touching my back." Lao Jiang yelled.
"Pay attention to your identity. How could any butler say that to the young master?"
I deliberately teased him, then took out a candy from my pocket and blocked his mouth.
At this moment, the cat in my arms was so hungry that his eyes were filled with stars, and he would let out a low roar from time to time to vent his dissatisfaction.
"Li Jinglan, you won't fucking lead me astray, right?"
In the end, looking at the vast wilderness to the west, Lao Jiang felt a little desperate.
I told him to rest assured that I would remember this road even if it turns into ashes.
When I was a child, I swam across the Zhang River, one foot deep and one foot shallow, to escape from here. I clearly remember every tree and blade of grass on the road.
Because every once in a while I would escape in my dreams, with the rolling river in front of me and the townspeople and torches catching me behind.
At this moment, the cat in my arms suddenly shivered, its whole body stood up, and its ears stood high. I thought it sensed some danger, but I found that its nose was twitching, as if it was smelling something.
"Dahu, what's wrong?" I asked.
The next moment, the cat suddenly broke away and ran forward whining. Lao Jiang and I could only chase after it.
Lao Jiang ran and cursed, saying that after catching the fat cat, he would have to make a meal to go with the wine.
After running for more than ten minutes, Lao Jiang and I both stopped and became overjoyed.
Because we saw wisps of smoke floating in the air. Where there is smoke, there are homes.
At the same time, the smell of burnt fish began to penetrate my nose.
When we ran to the place, we found that it was a crescent-shaped fishing village. There were many naked fishermen handling fresh goods, and some were drying nets. Each of them had dark skin and looked very healthy.
After a while, I found Dahu under a food stall. This guy was squatting on the ground, looking at the stall and drooling.
Boy, cats have a really good sense of smell!
Lao Jiang and I couldn't run anymore, so we simply sat in front of the stall and asked what local snacks were available?
"Would you two like the freshly cooked charred fish soup? This is a specialty of our village. The meat is tender and smooth, and the soup is white and mellow."
These words immediately aroused the greed in Lao Jiang and I's stomachs. We took out the money and put it on the table and told him to come quickly.
"Okay."
As soon as two bowls of fragrant fish soup were served, Lao Jiang and I drank.
The big tiger also jumped up on the dining table and kept rubbing against me, so I bought another bowl of soup and asked it to drink it.
The food stall owner couldn't help but smile when he saw that we were so generous and took care of three bowls of soup at once.
He said there were very few out-of-town guests here and we were lost.
I raised my neck, glanced at the big river not far away, and asked, "Isn't this the Zhang River?"
"Young Master, do you still know about Zhanghe River?"
The food stall owner looked surprised.
While picking his teeth with a fish bone, Lao Jiang continued: "Our young master is a native of the other side of the Zhang River. He has just returned from studying abroad and wants to visit relatives."
"Across the Zhang River? Could it be that you came from Lei Town!"
The expression of the food stall owner changed completely. He put down his spoon and sat down opposite us. He said that this was the first time he saw people from Lei Town wandering outside and even going abroad.
After all, Lei Zhen has a quirk. They never go out and live on an isolated island on the other side of the Zhang River for generations. Even if they run out of firewood, rice, oil and salt, they just send people to the fishing village to buy nearby and never go one step further.
Suddenly, the food stall owner seemed to have thought of something and muttered: "It's strange to say that Lei Zhen usually sends people to buy salt from me at the beginning of every month, but now it's the middle of the month and no one has come. , Could it be that their taste has become weak and they don’t eat much salt?”
not good! Something happened in Leizhen.
Lao Jiang and I looked at each other and read key information from each other's eyes.
So I asked again: "Have anything strange happened to you recently?"
Old Jiang took out a silver dollar and put it on the table: "Our young master likes to hear strange things. As long as you tell him and he is satisfied, this white ocean will be yours."
The food stall owner shook his head: "It's nothing strange."
But for that silver dollar, he could only rack his brains to think about it. Suddenly he slapped his head: "That's right! The Dragon Prince came to patrol the river two days ago."
"Dragon King patrolling the river?"
Seeing our interest, the food stall owner immediately started talking non-stop.
It turned out that two nights ago, pale white will-o'-the-wisps suddenly appeared on the other side of the Zhang River. Although they had no arms or legs, they could jump up and down, just like the scene in the graveyard. It was very eye-catching to see.
"A sister-in-law who was fishing in the middle of the night accidentally got close to the will-o'-the-wisp. Guess what? Even the people and the boat capsized, and turned into a floating corpse the next day. The villagers were so scared that they never dared to go out at night. They all said It's the Dragon King's parade, and those will-o'-the-wisps are lanterns set by shrimp soldiers and crab generals. Anyone who sees them will be taken to the Dragon Palace of the East China Sea."
After hearing what the food stall owner said, I frowned and asked, "The will-o'-the-wisp only appears on the other side of the river?"
"Yes." The food stall owner nodded.
"Isn't there Thunder Town on the other side of the river?"
"It's true." The food stall owner slapped his thigh: "The will-o'-the-wisp is wandering outside Lei Town."
The missed monthly salt purchase contract and the mysterious will-o’-the-wisp on the other side of the river were two pieces of information telling me and Lao Jiang that something had happened in Leizhen, which made our hearts tighten.
However, we never expected at that time that the real accident was more terrifying than imagined!
"Thank you, this money is yours."
I smiled, drank the bowl of fish soup, and asked the boss if he could help us find a boatman to ferry us to the other side.
"this……
The food stall owner showed a troubled expression: "Master, you are from Leizhen, you should know the rules there!" Lei Town does not welcome outsiders. If they knew it was us who ferried them, they would never give us business again. "
Of course I knew this very well, so I chose a more compromise method at the moment: "Then can we rent a small boat? A raft will also work."
The food stall owner said it was no problem, he had it at home.
So with the help of the food stall owner, Lao Jiang rowed the boat and I held the cat and slowly floated to the other side of the river.
What a coincidence that it got dark halfway through, and the thick dark clouds were like a big pot lid. From a distance, the isolated island seemed to be sending out distress signals to us!
