Chen Jiuli gratefully accepted the official seal, when Fang Hao's cell phone suddenly vibrated. After the call was connected, Fatty Wang's bold voice came. Fatty Wang excitedly told Fang Hao that he had landed a big deal. Fang Hao felt happy after hearing this. He believed that Fatty Wang was serious this time because he had always wanted to learn the art of fishing for corpses. After hanging up the phone, Fang Hao murmured to himself: "I have another order to take." At the same time, he also looked forward to Fatty Wang bringing back more good news.
In Sanjiashan Village, a villagers meeting is in progress. Fatty Wang walked out of the utility room of a farmhouse, walked into the yard, and found a stool to sit down at random. This meeting is closely related to him.
The village chief sat on an old millstone, tapped the ground with his cane, and said in a low voice: "Everyone must have heard of the rumor that the life of the Yangtze River will be extended, right?" As soon as he finished speaking, the yard suddenly became noisy.
Fatty Wang was confused when he heard this. He was originally called by the village chief because he claimed to be able to retrieve corpses. But how is it related to the "Yangtze River life extension" now? He handed a cigarette to a big man next to him and asked: "Brother, what does 'life extension on the Yangtze River' mean?"
The burly, dark-skinned man took the cigarette, looked at Fatty Wang, and said, "Just call me Tiezhu. Brother, are you not a local? All locals should know this rumor."
Fatty Wang nodded, pointed to the village chief and said, "I am the corpse collector invited by your village chief, but I have never worked here before, so I really don't know much about it."
Tie Zhu's hand stopped in mid-air and he looked at Fatty Wang in surprise: "Are you the person who picked up the corpses invited by the village chief?" After receiving a positive answer, he frowned and said, "I'm afraid you will run away if I tell you. I have already done this before. Several body collectors ran away!”
"Are there many corpse hunters here?" Fatty Wang asked. In his opinion, corpse collectors should be very rare.
Tie Zhu shook his head, with disdain on his face: "Huh, are they considered corpse fishermen? They used to be in the salvage team or on the ship, and then pretended to be corpse fishermen to cheat money!"
He explained that in modern society, it is rare to find corpses. Normal salvage work is carried out by officials, using modern salvage equipment. It is difficult to find people who specialize in collecting corpses like those in ancient times.
"However," Tie Zhu changed the topic, "some of these swindlers have indeed cheated."
Fatty Wang asked curiously: "What happened next?" He began to feel that things might not be simple.
Tie Zhu took a deep breath from his cigarette: "Then? They were all dead! We still have to call the police and let the authorities send a ship to salvage them."
Fatty Wang frowned and looked at the village chief, thinking to himself: According to Tie Zhu, several groups of people have gone down there before, but they failed to salvage successfully, and instead lost their lives. Is there really something weird in the Yangtze River?
"By the way," Tie Zhu said suddenly, "you asked about 'Yangtze River's life extension', right? This rumor started ten years ago. At that time, there was a wealthy businessman who felt that he was about to die, so he heard something about the extension of life on the Yangtze River. It is said that as long as ten people are sacrificed to cause a shipwreck, the river will become very strange after ten people die."
"Weird?" Fatty Wang couldn't help but ask.
Tie Zhu nodded and continued: "After that, strange things always happened in our village and nearby villages. People often drowned in this river basin, and now it is famous. Four years ago, the Yangtze River cut off its flow, and our village just happened to Nearby. Guess what? We saw a translucent coffin at the bottom of the river!”
"The lid of the coffin is transparent. Our whole village went to see it. What do you think we saw?" Tie Zhu asked mysteriously.
Fatty Wang shook his head, and Tie Zhu continued: "In that huge coffin, there were ten people who had not rotted away! It was later rumored that these ten people were the ten people who died in the previous shipwreck!"
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Fatty Wang asked in confusion: "Then why didn't you take them out and cremate them?"
Tie Zhu shook his head shyly, threw away the cigarette butt and said: "We thought so at the time, but the coffin was one piece with no openings, just like a complete stone. No one knows how those corpses were packed in! And the Yangtze River The flow only lasted for a few hours, and before we could even discuss it, the water suddenly rose back up. If I hadn’t been good at water, I would have almost drowned there!”
Fatty Wang's mind was filled with questions, but he felt like he couldn't ask any more questions. He kept thinking in his mind: One-piece coffin? Are there other coffins like this in the world? If it was really one piece, how could the body be put in it? Also, why didn't they take the coffin out from the bottom of the river and just leave it there?
At this time, the village chief coughed a few times, and after the villagers calmed down, he continued: "Ten years have passed since this incident, but in these ten years our crops have gotten worse and worse, and our luck has gotten worse and worse.
Lao Li from East Village went into the water at the beginning of this year, and then he got a strange disease and died within three days! If it hadn't been for the interruption four years ago, we would still have been kept in the dark! Now, I invited an expert to look at Feng Shui.
The feng shui of our village was ruined by that coffin! We have to deal with that coffin! The body in the coffin must also be dug out! ”
After the village chief finished speaking, the courtyard fell into a brief silence. …
The women hugged the children tightly, while the men smoked silently, their rough palms still showing traces of labor, and their faces showing some uneasiness.
The coffin located at the bottom of the river has already become the focus of everyone's discussion.
But every salvage attempt ended in failure, and some people even died. No one knows what happened at the bottom of the river, but the coffin seems to be cursed, and anyone who touches it will die.
"Village Chief, it's not that I want to back down. We have tried many times, but everyone can see the result." A villager said helplessly.
"The coffin was extremely heavy and could not be lifted by one person. However, every time many people dived, they all failed to survive."
"I tried to dig with a crane, but found nothing. Instead, the driver died mysteriously."
"Now, the surrounding villages all know that we have a strange coffin here, and anyone who touches it will definitely die."
"What's even more disturbing is that with every death, one more strange thing happens in the village."
"Should we consider moving? Why take risks here?" These words came from a man in his thirties, and his fear was obvious.
However, not all the villagers are young and strong.
Many old people can no longer bear the pain of migration.
For them, adapting to the new environment is more difficult.
Therefore, some people raised objections: "How can you give up so easily?"
"Lao Xu's son died here. How do you ask him to let go?"
"Besides, there are so many elderly people in the village, how do they relocate? How do they survive in the new environment?"
……
The yard was once again engulfed in quarrels.
The village chief hit the ground heavily with his cane, making a dull sound, interrupting everyone's quarrel. He spoke slowly: "That's enough!"
"If you want to leave, I won't stop you. This is your freedom."
"But there are still many elderly people and deceased relatives in the village, and it is unrealistic to let them leave."
"Whether we stay or go, the problem of the coffin must be solved."
"Our relatives who drowned in the river also need to be fished out and buried in peace."
"I have invited a corpse collector. It is said that he is a master from Yin Yang Inn. The purpose of convening everyone today is not to discuss whether to dispose of the coffin, but to discuss fund-raising matters in the village."
After hearing this, many young people looked puzzled: "Yin Yang Inn? Where is that?"
Although young people have never heard of it, the elders in the village understand it.
The village chief explained: "The Yin Yang Inn has not appeared for a long time, and maybe everyone is not familiar with it."
"I only heard my great-grandfather mention it when I was a child..."
Before he finished speaking, a young man whispered: "The village chief is eighty-three this year. He heard what his great-grandfather said when he was a child. Wasn't that something that happened during the Republic of China?"
"Maybe earlier, maybe during the Qing Dynasty!"
The village chief continued: "Transportation was inconvenient at that time, and strangers often died in other places. So there were people who were responsible for sending corpses back to their hometowns. This kind of person was called a walking master."
"There are also people who specialize in salvaging drowned people in rivers, and they are called corpse salvageers."
"The corpse collectors at that time were different from those today. They mastered ancient skills and taboos."
"The Yin Yang Inn is the gathering place for these special professionals. Even they are full of respect for the Yin Yang Inn. This shows its high status."
"The Mr. Wang I invited this time is a master from Yin Yang Inn!"
Everyone turned their attention to Fatty Wang.
Fatty Wang smiled slightly, and after greeting the village chief, he felt secretly happy. This time it's a big deal!
If the whole village raises funds, it will be a huge amount of money.
Not only can he make a lot of money, but he can also take this opportunity to ask Han Tang for advice on how to fish out corpses, killing two birds with one stone.
Judging from the reaction of the villagers, the money is almost within reach.
However, he has not yet mastered the art of retrieving corpses, so he needs to return to the Yin Yang Inn to ask Han Tang for help.
Considering the difficulty of the task, pricing needs to be prudent, otherwise you may lose money.
So, while everyone was thinking deeply, Fatty Wang said: "As for remuneration, I don't think there is a need to make a hasty decision."
"I have learned about the situation, and to be honest, this task is quite difficult."
"I plan to go back to the inn to discuss with the shopkeeper first. If possible, I will ask the shopkeeper to come and check it out in person."
"We will discuss the pricing issue later. What do you think?"
When the village chief heard this, he stood up suddenly, stared at Fatty Wang, and secretly speculated in his heart.
Could this fat man want to escape?
It's hard to find someone willing to take over, we can't let him slip away easily!
As for the Yin Yang Inn...
The village chief was actually not convinced.
That's just a legend. Does it really exist?
He seriously suspected that the fat man was deceiving his old man.
But looking at the abilities he displayed, it seems that he does have some real talent.
The village chief hesitated for a moment, looked around at the villagers, and finally plucked up the courage to speak in person.
"Sir, our village is willing to pay a reward of 150,000 yuan. What do you think?"
As soon as these words came out, Fatty Wang was shocked.
One hundred and fifty thousand? Just because of this?
The first job he took at the inn was assigned by Aunt Xu. At that time, Aunt Xu only gave him a few big roosters as a thank you.
Later, after Zhang Qilin completed the task of removing corpses, Zhang Hao gave him the money out of his own pocket.
Therefore, Fatty Wang originally thought that this job would be profitable, but the income would definitely not be as lucrative as fighting in reverse.
Now it seems that he was wrong!
If Fatty Wang learns that the inn not only collects gold and silver, but may even ask for more precious things such as yang energy and life span, I wonder what he will think.
Fatty Wang was speechless for a moment. The village chief mistakenly thought that the reward was low, so he rubbed his hands and gritted his teeth and said cruelly.
"How about two hundred thousand?"
Fatty Wang took a deep breath of air-conditioning and experienced for the first time how wonderful it felt to be pelted with money.
How did this village chief secure his position?
So good at "negotiating prices"!
What's puzzling is that the villagers don't seem to have any objections?
Do they also agree with this price?
Or are the salvage scammers we hired earlier offering higher prices?
Fatty Wang quickly nodded in agreement, fearing that the village chief would bargain again and cause dissatisfaction among the villagers.
"Village Chief, you misunderstood, I definitely didn't mean that."
"I am deeply pleased to see your sincerity. Please rest assured that I will report to the shopkeeper in detail when I return. No matter what the result is, I will ask him to visit your village to inspect it in person!"
The village chief saw that Fatty Wang had no intention of escaping, and had already proposed a high price of 200,000 yuan, which was the limit. If you still can't impress him, there's really nothing you can do.
So, the village chief nodded in response.
"Okay, Mr. Wang, when do you expect to come back?"
Fatty Wang glanced at his phone and said, "Today is Wednesday. I will be back tomorrow and discuss with the shopkeeper. I will probably leave the day after tomorrow!"
"As long as you trust Yin Yang Inn, we will live up to your trust."
"Okay, let's all leave for now and we'll discuss it the day after tomorrow!"
After Fatty Wang exchanged greetings with everyone, he was pulled aside by Tie Zhu.
Tie Zhu looked around and after confirming that no one was there, he solemnly said to Fatty Wang.
"Brother, are you really going to help us?"
Fatty Wang stared at Tiezhu and smiled after thinking deeply.
"Of course, your village chief has already bid 200,000 yuan!"
Tie Zhu shook his head hurriedly and continued.
"That's not what I meant."
"The village chief never told you the hidden secrets of our village, and the coffin is not as simple as he said."
"To be honest, a gentleman once pointed out that the coffin has a history of a thousand years, and underneath it is the eye of the river. This coffin exists precisely to seal the eye of the river."
"If the coffin is damaged, the river will lose control."
"Once the river eye gets out of control, disaster is imminent!"
"Anyone who destroys the river eye will be cursed by the Water Dragon King!"
"Therefore, if you are not up to the task, then give up. Many people have already died, and it is not worth adding more casualties!"
"But don't let the village chief know, otherwise he will nag you endlessly."
Fatty Wang frowned in confusion, thinking that there is such a statement?
Logically speaking, how can this coffin be moved lightly?
It seems so
This task is not as simple as it seems.
The village chief is indeed cunning and only speaks half of his words, which is really insidious.
No wonder they can offer 200,000 yuan. I’m afraid that when they actually take action, they will ask for more!
Fatty Wang nodded, patted Tie Zhu on the shoulder and responded.
"Got it!"
"We will study it carefully when we go back and give a reply to the village the day after tomorrow."
After that, Fatty Wang chatted with Tie Zhu for a while, then went straight to the train station and bought a ticket to Luo City. (End of chapter)