Chapter 38 Chapter Nine Another West Water Village

I gently rubbed my aching forehead, and found a blue-black stone tablet beside me, and I seemed to have seen it somewhere before.Enduring the pain, I opened my eyes wide and looked at the words written on the stone tablet. Those three words turned out to be Xishui Village!After the peddler knocked me out, why did he drag me back to Xishui Village?However, there was no trace of the peddler around me. I really don't understand why he would do this?I looked towards Xishui Village, but saw a scene that surprised me.How did this Xishui Village look different? The wooden buildings in Xishui Village in front of me have disappeared, replaced by groups of blue brick and tile houses.In just a blink of an eye, how could there be such a change in Xishui Village, and the village was already full of life with people coming in and out.I lowered my head and read the words on the stone tablet carefully again. There was still only the word Xishui Village on it, and it was still the same yellow mark.This stele was indeed printed in the same mold as the stele I saw before, but why did the village change its appearance.

At this time, I saw a person walking out of the village entrance, and he was walking towards me.When that person approached me, I realized that that person was Xinhong! "Jinwei, why are you here now? I've been waiting for you for a long time!" Xinhong said with some complaints. "Behind you...is Xishui Village?" I asked Xinhong tentatively. "Isn't the word 'Xishui Village' written on the stele? Do you need to ask me?" Xinhong pointed to the blue-black stone stele. "How is it possible? There is no one in Xishui Village, and the houses in Xishui Village are no longer inhabitable!" I said loudly.

"Why are you here now? It's already four o'clock in the afternoon. I've been waiting for you here for a long time, and I thought something happened to you again." "Listen to me first, I really went to a place called Xishui Village just now, and there is a stone tablet exactly like this one in front of the village, with the words 'Xishui Village' also written on it!" I said a little excitedly, "It's weird there. I also picked up three strange scales from that place. If you don't believe me, look at the scales on my hand!" After I finished speaking, I opened my hand, only to find that the scales in my hand had already disappeared!I hurriedly turned all the places on my body where I could hide things upside down, but I still couldn't find the three scales.I said hesitantly, "Just now... just now I was... holding it in my hand! Why did it disappear!"

"I think you are dizzy from the heat, there is only one in Sishui Village, and it is right behind us!" Xinhong said with a smile. "But... but... I..." I hesitated to speak, and even I began to wonder if everything I saw before was an illusion. "Don't worry about it, let's go to the village and sit for a while. Let's stay in Xishui Village for a few days first." Xinhong said while pulling me to Xishui Village. "No! Look at my forehead," I said, pointing to the sore spot on my forehead, "I was dragged here after being beaten unconscious!"

When Xinhong heard what I said, he leaned close to my forehead and looked at it carefully.I pushed him away and said, "This is the evidence. Now you must believe what I say. I think the Xishui Village you mentioned may not be true. Let's not go in." "Even if you were really knocked out, it doesn't prove that you have been to another Xishui Village. I have already asked the elders here. Xishui Village has always been in this place and has never been moved! "Xinhong obviously thought I was talking nonsense. I know that I don't have anything to prove that there is really another Xishui Village, so I keep the words in my heart for the time being.I don't know what is the connection between the Xishui Village in front of me and another Xishui Village?

Xinhong and I chatted as we walked, and Xinhong told me that the middle-aged woman had returned to the county seat and we were going to stay in this village for a few days.Xinhong also said that he wanted to look here to see if there were any mountains or the like. We walked into Xishui Village, where most of the village was built with green bricks and tiles from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and there were also a few rice husk and mudstone houses.Some well-off villagers in some villages have built some brick and tile houses themselves, so occasionally mud brick houses and red brick houses appear abruptly among the blue brick and tile houses.Some poor villagers adopted the method of ramming in the north. First, they erected wooden planks, filled them with mud, rocks and rice husks, and then used manpower to ram up the mud walls layer by layer.Because there is a lot of rain here, the mud house is easy to collapse due to the accumulation of water. The owner also used large stones and lime to build a protective wall more than one meter high to protect the mud house.

The layout of this village adopts the T-shaped streets and alleys commonly used in northern villages, and also incorporates the comb-style layout of traditional Lingnan villages. The north and south styles are wonderfully unified together, and the style is inevitably a bit "weird". Outsiders entering the village are like entering a big maze.Every street and alley in the village is not straight. Walk along the stone road at will. After tens of meters in each line, the road with seven turns and eight bends will disappear in an instant. , the sudden enlightenment of another village will appear from time to time.The layout here is almost the same as that of Xishui Village!

When we walked into the village, I realized that the villagers here are all expressionless, and the clothes are also the type of old China.Everything here seems to have preserved its most original features.We boarded in an old man's house. This old man lived alone in a blue-brick house. Her face was full of wrinkles, and there seemed to be sadness in her eyes. Maybe all lonely old people would have such eyes.I don't dare to look directly at this old man. It's not that I discriminate against old people, it's just that this old woman makes me feel a little scary. "You two can live in this room. There is no room, so you can squeeze together!" The old woman struggled to speak.

"On such a hot day, two people squeezed together?" I was a little reluctant. I saw that this tile-roofed house had three bedrooms besides the living room and kitchen.So, I said, "Grandma, don't you have three bedrooms here? You can sleep in one for yourself and two for the two of us, okay?" "The other one belongs to my grandson, you are not allowed to sleep in it!" the old woman said firmly. "You still have a grandson? Then where is he now?" I asked curiously, how could any young man leave the old man alone at home. "He...he..." The old woman suddenly became agitated and said incoherently, "He's dead! I don't have a grandson!"

The old lady staggered back to her room while raving nonsense excitedly, leaving us alone in a daze.Xinhong and I walked into the room. There was thick dust everywhere. It seemed that no one lived or cleaned the place for a long time.There is only one bed in the room, and the bed is not very big.It's a hot day, let the two of us sleep together! "Xinhong, take a look. The bed and the quilt are already yellow. Why do you live in this house? Is there no other place to live?" I complained. "I've asked, and the only one in the village who has a vacant house is this old woman's house. There's nothing I can do about it," Xinhong shrugged, and said helplessly, "We'll just stay here for a few days, and we're not asking you to live forever. live here."

I sat on the bed, frowned and said, "Xinhong, have you asked the people in the village? Is there really no mountain around here?" "I asked, and they all said no, and this place is indeed vast. Where are the mountains?" We sat and chatted for a while, then unpacked our respective luggage.I took out my dead phone, and then I remembered that Mr. Ye had sent me a text message, and I saw him in the woods.There is no electricity here, how can I charge my phone and read text messages?If I knew I should buy a few batteries for it as a spare.I saw Xinhong took out his mobile phone, so I asked, "Xinhong, is your mobile phone still charged?" "Is yours out of battery? Mine is almost out. It can't be charged here, and I'm still worrying about it!" Xinhong said while packing his luggage. "I put my SIM card in your phone to read a text message, okay?" Before I could wait for Xinhong to speak, I took apart his phone. "What message do you want to read, and who sent it?" Xinhong's tone suddenly became energetic. "It's from Teacher Ye! I forgot to tell you, I saw Teacher Ye when I was in the forest just now!" "Is it Teacher Ye that you have been in touch with these days? He is here too?" Xinhong said half suspiciously, half surprised. I changed my mobile phone and opened the text message.It said: "Jin Wei, remember the research I told you in the E-mail? I think I'm about to find the answer! I think you should know the story of Chang'e flying to the moon. It's going to be rewritten!" There are only a few words in the text message, but it confuses me.Why did it get further and further away, and it even involved Chang'e!Isn't Teacher Ye sick? At this time, the old woman suddenly opened the door of our room and brought us a kerosene lamp and a box of matches.Before she left, she turned her head and said, "Don't wander around at night, it's dark here, it's not good to get lost!" Although the road here is the same as that of Xishui Village, I already know how to get out of this village.So, when I heard the old lady say that just now, I didn't take it to heart at all. The sky gradually darkened, and Xishui Village was also swallowed by the thick darkness.Xinhong and I stayed in the room, doing nothing, bored.This dim kerosene lamp couldn't illuminate the room, but it made me feel uneasy and scared. Xinhong suddenly said: "Jinwei, let's go out and have a look." "Go out? It's so late, and it's so dark outside." I said with some resistance. "We have a flashlight! Let's go to that real clay sculpture." After speaking, Xinhong took out the flashlight from his bag, and then walked outside. I had no choice but to go out with Xinhong.Before we went out, we heard some strange noises outside the house.We hesitated for a moment, then headed out with flashlights. The village was dark and quiet, except for the sound of our walking.Because it was so dark here, we all walked against the wall.Accidentally, I was tripped by the bumpy path.I just passed the door of a house, and I knocked the door open with a loud noise.The folk customs here may be very good, and there is no need to lock the door at night.Otherwise, it will be opened as soon as it hits. I just made a loud noise and felt a little guilty.Seeing that the kerosene lamp was still on in the house, we went in to say sorry to them.However, when Xinhong and I opened the door, there was no one inside, only a burning kerosene lamp.Xinhong felt strange, and took me back to the old woman's house, only to find that the old woman was no longer in the house, and only the kerosene lamp was burning. "Will there be no one in the village?" Xinhong said suddenly, which startled me. "There is no one in the village? How is that possible? Aren't there still many people during the day?" I said incredulously. Xinhong didn't answer me, and we then broke into several houses, but there was still no one there, only candles or kerosene lamps were burning.I said tremblingly, "Why did the people in the village suddenly disappear?"