Chapter 20: Black Beetle and Landlord

  Tongtong's answer made me feel a sense of loss, and the fish below disappeared. Is it related to what Tongtong said about these insects? Or did these insects, like locusts, eat all the fish in the water?

  Without the crystal fish's blood, how can Xiao Jianqiang's dumb illness be cured? Just thinking about this makes me unbearable to give up like this. Let Tongtong go down and catch a few more of those insects for me to take a look.

  Tongtong told me that the spring eye is directly connected to the underground water cave, and it's all over the place. Just now she went down there and didn't know how far she went, and now she can't remember where she met those insects.

  I'm in a bit of trouble now, returning empty-handed won't be a big deal, but at least I should know what's going on! If they ask me for the reason, how am I supposed to explain? Should I tell Ye Fei and her uncle the truth or just say that I was bragging and only came to try my luck, without thinking I had much of a chance of catching the crystal fish.

  However, clever me still thought of a way to let Tongtong catch a big yellow eel that was still in the late stage of hibernation and hadn't come out of its hole in the stream. Tongtong caught it and brought it into the spring eye, releasing it only when they reached the underground water, then following this yellow eel all the way.

  So I waited for more than half a bell, and Tóng Tóng came out of the spring again, then jumped onto the shore to tell me that the yellow eel was swimming around in the water, finally entering a stone cave. Tóng Tóng followed it inside and found that the walls of the cave were covered with those insects, like a dense black layer of small tadpoles.

  When these insects found a yellow eel entering, they immediately swarmed over. The yellow eel's body was covered with countless insects, layer upon layer. After the insects dispersed, the fat yellow eel didn't even have any bones left.

  I couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, feeling that these bugs were even more terrifying than the flesh-eating sand of Dao County. At least that sand would leave behind bones after devouring flesh, but these bugs wouldn't give you any face like that. The flesh-eating sand only eats creatures that have drowned and sunk to the bottom of the river, whereas these bugs eat living creatures that are already in the water. Luckily, Tiantian is a spirit without a physical body.

  It can now be guessed that there are no fish under the groundwater because those terrible insects have spread and eaten all the big and small fish.

  I asked Tiantian if she had caught any insects, and she said yes. She then stretched out her palm, revealing several small black dots on it - they were tiny beetles, about the size of green beans. Unfortunately, all of these insects were dead. They were so fierce and terrifying underwater, but once they reached the surface, they couldn't even last a few minutes.

  What's the origin of these black worms, and will they have any connection with the carnivorous sand in the rivers of Xinche Township, Dao County? These strange things make people curious yet reject them from the bottom of their hearts!

  Since the underwater has been occupied by these disgusting insects, it's impossible for fish to exist, let alone rare crystal fish. I had Tongtong return to the pearl, and could only carry the snakeskin bag back. When we returned to Ye Fei Chou's house, they didn't even bother with me, I asked them why they didn't ask if I caught any or not.

  They all say without asking, they know I didn't catch it! And also never even saw it!

  I asked them how they knew I didn't catch any, and their answer was that crystal fish are so rare and live in deep water underground, how could you possibly catch one, unless the Dragon King is kind enough to send you one.

  I didn't bother to explain, the real reason I couldn't catch any fish wasn't that at all, but it was inconvenient for me to tell them. I went back to the hall and lay down on a wooden board, my mouth couldn't help but shout "I'm exhausted". Xiao Jianzi saw me shouting "exhausted" and hurried over to help me massage my back.

  Kokoro Sasaki is so cute, yet she's a child who can't speak. I'm only missing the last medicinal herb, and it doesn't sit well with me. I've made a silent vow to find the crystal fish no matter what.

  Ye Fei Ji pulled me up to help with cooking dinner, I was out for so long that they didn't even eat waiting for me. The dishes for dinner were the leftover from noon and the meat of a glasses snake caught in the evening. The snake's tail was stir-fried with chili peppers, while the snake meat was deep-fried. The big fire at the bottom of the pot made the snake meat all golden yellow, and the taste was really good.

  But with such a big snake, and two of them living together, and making their home in the tomb, I'm afraid that the spiritual energy is too strong, so I don't dare let Xiao Jianzi eat it, for fear that the child will be haunted by the vengeful spirit of the dead snakes. As for Ye Fei Chui, she was scared enough today, the snake meat on her plate wasn't even touched with chopsticks, and it all went to me and my cousin's husband instead.

  My uncle won't care about this, and I won't either. A dead snake is nothing to be afraid of, even if it's become a monster, as long as it tastes good, I'll eat it with big mouthfuls.

  After dinner, I asked Ye Fei Chui's uncle and said, "Has your place ever had any insect disasters or the like, such as fish in a fish pond being eaten by insects overnight?"

  Leafy Ji's uncle thought for a moment and said, "Yes, that was during the days of eating out of big pots. In the pigpen of our production team, there were pigs raised, one of which was eaten into a skeleton overnight by something unknown. The next day, the big sister who fed the pigs fainted on the spot, and at night, another pig was eaten into bones, causing everyone in the entire production team to be frightened."

  At that time, no one dared to talk about gods and ghosts, even if they thought so in their hearts. The big team just divided into several groups to guard the pigpen at night. Ye Fei's uncle was only thirty years old at that time, and one night it happened to be his turn with a man named Ah Gou to guard the pigpen.

  My uncle and Ah Gou both privately believed that it was definitely a counter-revolutionary element creating panic, in order to sabotage the revolutionary construction undertaking, using a ghost manipulated by a sorcerer.

  Uncle-in-law and Ah Gou took turns keeping watch at night, Ah Gou's wife had just given birth to a child, so he kept the first half of the night, and Uncle-in-law kept the second half. After Uncle-in-law took over from Ye Fei Chui, not long after, around 3 o'clock in the middle of the night, he saw a black circular object as big as a water buffalo flying onto the roof of the pigpen, making a humming noise.

  After the monster flew down to the pigpen roof, it turned into a black snake and crawled in through the window. My uncle didn't dare go in to look, so he quickly called for people. Since the pigpen was built in the village, more than 20 people were soon called over. They lit torches and rushed into the pigpen. One of the pigs was covered all over its body like it was wrapped in a black cotton quilt. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that this pig's body was crawling with dense, black little beetles.

  It's strange that the pig is still snoring loudly, and it doesn't seem to be aware of the numerous insects crawling on its body at all, which shocked everyone who rushed into the pen, and no one dared to take a closer look.

  It's unclear who took a torch and walked to the side of the pig, burning the insect larvae. The small beetles immediately dispersed and flew everywhere, biting many people and causing injuries. Many of the insects were burned to death, while those that survived flew away. The pig was left covered in blood, with bones exposed in many places, and soon died without ever waking up.

  The people who were bitten all walked around like they were drunk, stumbling and staggering. The wounds festered and suppurated, taking two or three months to heal. But after that, the bugs were never seen again, a gag order was put in place, and on the surface, no one in the village ever mentioned it again, just whispers among individuals in private.

  My uncle told me about this strange thing, but the village is two kilometers away from here. At that time, he hadn't lived in the mountain yet and had only been living there for less than five years.

  I associate this insect that eats pigs with the one in the water, and it's very similar to what my uncle said, only one is a flying insect, while the other lives in the water.

  I showed those insects caught by Tongtong to my uncle, and he immediately widened his eyes in surprise, asking me where I had caught them.

  I said that the one from the spring water, my uncle said he didn't remember wrong, back then when we ate pork it was this kind of bug. I asked him if he remembered correctly! This bug was scooped up from the water.

  Ye Fei Jiao's uncle immediately returned to the room, took out a small bottle, and poured its contents onto the stool. Although the kerosene lamp was not bright enough, I could see clearly that what he had poured out were also small beetles, exactly like the ones I had caught. Ye Fei Jiao's uncle said that at the time he had picked up several dead insects to study whether they were cultivated Gu worms or not, but since the insects were already dead, he couldn't figure it out and kept them as a memento instead.

  If this is the same species of beetle, why was it able to fly before, but in just a few decades has become...

  Living in water, once out of the ground, they die immediately! What's the origin of these insects? Could it be that they are actually a kind of Gu insect raised by some master and escaped to multiply wildly?

  Ye Fei Jiu was so scared that she quickly took Xiao Jian Qi to sleep, but her cousin's house only had one room and one bed. Helplessly, her cousin stopped talking to me and started laying out a long bench and wooden board in the hall to make a simple bed, soon making a rough small bed for Ye Fei Jiu to make do with. Tonight I could only spend the night on the floor with several snake skin bags, which made Ye Fei Jiu's cousin feel very embarrassed, repeatedly saying that next time when we come to his town's home to play, there will be no lack of beds to sleep in.

  At night, I couldn't sleep. My mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts, thinking about the process of catching snakes today, the sand in Daoxian River that eats meat, the insect that eats pork mentioned by my uncle, and the aquatic insect that eats fish mentioned by Tongtong. Before I knew it, dawn had almost broken before I fell asleep.

  After falling asleep, I had a dream that I was walking on a rural path through the rice fields. When I came to a single-plank bridge, an old hunchbacked woman was standing in the middle of it, blocking my way. Just as I was about to ask her to move aside, she turned around and bowed three times to me. I didn't understand why, so I asked her, "Don't you recognize me? Why are you showing such great respect? This will shorten my lifespan and get me struck by lightning."

  The old woman smiled and said that her home was located on the edge of a loquat forest. Two years ago, two snakes occupied their house as their nest. Fortunately, we killed those two snakes today. However, those two snakes were the descendants of the local land god, so let's be careful. I asked the old woman why the descendants of the land god would be two snakes?

  The old woman didn't answer me, shook her head and disappeared, leaving me feeling depressed. Could it be that a snake had become a spirit and after death became the god of the land?