Chapter 523: The Danghe Fishing Corpse (1)
The cold wind whistles and the heavy rain pours.
Another winter when everything withered is coming. On this day, the winding and steep Dang River is shrouded in the ghost weather that is rare in ten years. It has just passed and it is as dark as the night is coming.
The northwest has been drought and rainy. Logically speaking, when encountering such rain, the residents living here should be cheering. However, on the iron boat floating on the river, Old Man Long and his two sons did not feel good at all.
Today, they are still repeating the life passed down by their ancestors - catching corpses.
The full name of Old Man Long is Long Yang Bo. Seventeen days ago, he had just celebrated his 60th birthday. He had already told his clan members and his family that he would retire after he was 60 years old and completely withdrew from the corpse fishing industry, allowing his two sons Long Dafu and Long Dagui to inherit the business. However, today's business is really mouth-watering and extremely challenging, forcing him to take action with himself again.
In the storm, the three fathers and sons of the Long family had been busy in the Haruwusu section of Danghe for a long time. They used their homemade roller hooks, large nets, and corpse-catching tools, but an entire hour passed, and the three of them had no gains, and they became increasingly unsustainable in the increasing rainfall.
On the shore, a bloated official, crossed his hands on his back, looking at the river. There were tutels on both sides of him holding umbrellas for him. It seemed that the tutels had already been extremely painful by such weather, but the master had no words to persevere, and the two could only knock their teeth and swallow them in their stomachs.
After a while, Long Yang Bo took back the empty roller hook and lamented. The official on the other side of the shore shouted: "Magistrate Zheng, the rain is too heavy and the water is very fast. Today is really not suitable to salvage the body of your beloved daughter. Otherwise, let's wait until the rain stops tomorrow before coming!"
"No! Xiaohe's body was not salvaged for a moment, and the stone in my heart could not fall for a moment! Besides, if time is pushed back, wouldn't the body be even more unaware of where to rush?" Zheng Magistrate refused sternly and shouted, "Why don't you jump into the river to salvage?"
"This..." Long Yang Bo was speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say.
Zheng Magistrate Zheng said angrily: "If you have anything to say, just say it! I know that you corpse fishermen have to go down the river on weekdays, why don't you go down today? You are deeply acquainted with water. I don't believe that Danghe is so big that it can drown you?"
"His grandma, I'm so disrespectful! Dad, why don't we do this business anymore!" Long Dafu was extremely irritated. After hearing the insulting words of Zheng County, he felt even more angry and immediately proposed to his father to stop work and retreat.
"Oh, Dafu, don't do this. We can't afford to offend County Magistrate Zheng. Even if this is the last time my dad has caught the body, if you two brothers want to succeed in the future, they will have to rely on him to protect you..."
After Long Yang advised his eldest son, he solemnly shouted to Zheng Magistrate Zheng: "Prince Zheng, we are not secretly talking, I will just say it: Your beloved daughter committed suicide by jumping into the river due to the relationship between men and women. She looks like a flower and is wearing red clothes all over her body... Our Long family has a taboo. We will not salvage such a way of death at all! Today, for your sake, it is good to be able to go out to salvage the boat, but you must never dare to go into the river to find the corpse!"
"Hmph, absurd, superstitious! What's wrong with Ruhua Siyu? What's wrong with red clothes all over her body? Could she still turn into a ghost and eat you?" Zheng Magistrate Zheng became more and more excited, and his voice could not stop trembling, but he knew that this matter would depend on the father and son of the Long family, so he finally lowered his anger, "Okay, stop talking, I will double the reward for you. The twenty taels of silver I originally said, now I will pay for forty taels! You go down the river immediately and salvage my daughter quickly, don't say more!"
"Forty taels of silver, my god!" After hearing this, even Long Dafu, who was most angry, couldn't help swallowing.
According to the Long family's corpse-catching customs, the cost of corpse fishing has always been charged according to the identity of the service recipients - for ordinary people, it is normal to salvage a corpse at least three or five taels, and for high-ranking nobles, ten taels are the starting price. The business of 20 taels of silver in Zheng County is already very rare, let alone now it is for forty taels!
The second son Long Dagui said itchy: "Dad, brother, this deal is worth it! Why don't I go. I'm young and in good health. For money, I'm not afraid of the woman in red. I don't believe in that evil. Anyway, this time, if I do this, I won't do it in the future."
Long Yang Bo sighed and said, "Oh, do you know why my father had decided to retire. Do you have to follow you out on the boat today? It's because you are worried that your newborn calf is not afraid of tigers and do anything that will be reckless. This woman in red committed suicide by committing suicide in love, and there are always saying that she is very likely to become a zombie and a ghost. Not to mention the corpse fishermen in our party river, even the senior corpse fishermen in the Yellow River, they dare not touch them casually..."
Long Dagui said disdainfully: "Everyone knows the legend, but Dad, I ask you, in your corpse-catching career for more than 40 years, have you ever seen a woman in red turn into a ghost or a zombie?"
"This is not..."
"That's right! The lie will become the truth after repeated a thousand times. Besides, the Long family in Dunhuang said that they are descendants of the great god Yinglong, and they are born with the characteristics of exorcism. Even demons and ghosts should avoid us?" After Long Dagui finished his rebellion, he said angrily, "Dad, just this time. Didn't you say just now, can't we afford to offend County Magistrate Zheng?"
As he was speaking, County Magistrate Zheng urged on the shore again: "Why are you still standing there? I'll ask you, do you still want to get stuck in this Danghe River in the future?"
"Oh, Magistrate Zheng, don't worry, aren't we discussing the details of entering the river?"
After dealing with the magistrate Zheng, Long Yang sighed and nodded, "You are right, we can't afford to offend this person. Today, it's a disaster for us. Entering the river, I agree, but if you can't go, I'd better go."
Long Dagui wondered, "Why?"
Long Yang Bo pointed to the red silk that was broken on Long Dagui's left arm sleeve and said earnestly: "'The red silk is broken, and the corpse is stopped." This ancestral rule must not be broken! It is extremely unlucky for your red silk to break today. In other words, you have lost the qualification to catch the corpse today, so it's better for me, an experienced veteran."
Only then did Long Dagui notice that the red silk wrapped around his left arm sleeve had indeed broken. In addition to frightened, he cheered himself up and said, "The red silk has been stuck in a lot of rain today, so it is so unsolid, so there should be no problem."
But no matter what, he repeatedly listened to his father's nagging about the rule of "The red silk is broken, and the corpse is stopped" when he was urinating. Long Dagui, who followed his father's corpse for seven years and experienced the first time in the red silk is broken, and he had already backed down.
"Okay, stop talking. Finish it early, finish it early and go back to rest." Uncle Long Yang stopped Long Dagui with his gesture, and without saying a word, he plunged into the turbulent river.
Although my father has been engaged in the corpse fishing process for more than 40 years and has recovered more than 700 corpses of various types, today's scene of the whole world like ghosts and charms still makes Long Dafu and Long Dagui raise their hearts to their throats.
A moment later, Long Yangbo's head poked out of the water, and it seemed that he had not found any trace of the woman's body. Then, he swam elsewhere and sneaked into the river again.
After more than twenty times, when Long Yang Bo was putting his hands on the water again, he picked up a red-clothed corpse in his hand. Judging from his figure and long hair, the body was undoubtedly a young woman!
Seeing that his father completed the task safely, he thought that forty taels of silver were obtained, and the two brothers couldn't help but cheer on the boat!
"Haha, dad, that's great!"
"I just said, nothing will happen! Let's go ashore!"
Uncle Long Yang had not returned to the boat, and swam to the shore with the woman's body. After getting ashore, he carefully placed the body on his back at the feet of Zheng Magistrate Zheng and asked, "Magistrate Zheng, this should be your beloved daughter, right?"
Although the woman's face looked extremely pale and swollen due to long-term soaking, Zheng Magistrate recognized that the woman was her daughter Zheng Xiaohe. For a moment, he couldn't help but feel sad. His feet softened, and he knelt on the ground, crying and snatching the earth.
"Of course it's my daughter! Why isn't it? Xiaohe, why are you so unhappy and want to find a short-term view... Do you know how much pain I feel in my heart now... Xiaohe..."
Afterwards, the two brothers Long Dafu and Long Dagui also drove to the shore on the iron boat and met with the people on the shore.
Seeing the grief of Zheng County Magistrate Zheng, everyone sighed.
It was a heavy moment, but the next scene made everyone present frightened!
I saw that Zheng Xiaohe, who was already dead, suddenly opened her eyes!
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Chapter completed!