Chapter Nineteenth: The Mountain God Temple Leather Trunk

  After several old men and women finished talking, we finally had dinner. To be honest, after being bothered for half a day, I was starving. Who cares about anything else! Looking at the big meal on the table, my mouth was watering. If it weren't for my mom pinching my leg, I would have dug in already!

  Just as I was enjoying the food, Wang Long and Wang Feng walked towards me. Wang Feng pulled my arm: "Brother, are you done eating? Let's go have some fun."

  "What's up?" I asked with a chicken wing in my mouth.

  "Hide, kitty! They've all come looking for us." He said with a expectant face, staring at me.

  I took a look, and it was indeed a vengeful spirit clinging to my leg. Wasn't this bullying a newcomer? I wanted to say no, but Mother spoke up first. She smiled at Wang Feng and said, "Feng, your brother has finished eating. It's just right that you all haven't seen each other in a long time, so let's get closer." After saying that, she pinched my waist.

  "Don't worry, Auntie, I'll take care of him."

  I was taken aback and thought to myself: You little brat is still trying to protect me? If it weren't for the one-yuan note, would you still be protecting me?

  Mom smiled gently, patted Wang Long's little face and praised: "Look at our little dragon, growing up to be a young man." After finishing, she turned her head and looked at me with a serious face, asking: "Finished eating? Finish eating and take your brother and sister out to play!"

  I hastily nodded in agreement, spat out the chicken bone in my mouth, and pulled them both to leave. As we walked, I thought to myself: This kid is going to grow up to be a swindling merchant if he's lucky!

  As expected, his mother hadn't gone a few steps when I discovered him, and that little brat had an expectant sly smile on his face!

  A group of rascals with black lines all over their faces gathered together, and they started secretly discussing where to go next. The threshing ground was out of the question, they had been there before and it was no longer interesting. Later, a few of them discussed and said that not far from the old house, there was an abandoned mountain temple, who knows how many years ago, with many hidden places for people. Without waiting for my agreement, they all ran off. I thought to myself, this is really your territory, you're in charge, isn't this obviously bullying honest people?

  No choice, the minority has to obey the majority, so I just followed from afar. Just as I was thinking what to do next, Wang Long quietly walked up to me, held my hand and said with a deep expression: "Brother, don't worry, I'm here!" Then he looked at me expectantly.

  I thought to myself: This kid looks at me like I'm a god of wealth or something, but I don't trust him one bit. So I patted his hand and smiled, saying: "This time, you have to give me a 50% discount!"

  After arriving at the place, I took a look and indeed this broken temple is really broken. A piece of wall has collapsed, and several rooms have no tiles either. However, the place is not small, it can be imagined that when the incense was prosperous in those years, it was also magnificent.

  I originally wanted to take a look around first, but these kids started making a racket. I thought that if I said any more, I'd appear weak, so I just went along with it. Anyway, I've got a one-yuan note for protection, who's afraid of whom?

  I thought I'd have to be human this time, otherwise it wouldn't matter even if I had a lot of money. Unfortunately, this kind of thing relies on luck, and after several rounds of fierce battle, I was unexpectedly eliminated as expected. What's even more infuriating is that the "Blue Wave" from the mud pit became human, and all I saw was him looking at me with a wicked smile, his nose making two sounds: Hmph, hmph!

  I rolled my eyes, this time it's really bad luck! When will the grievances be reported? Your grandfather! After everything was ready, everyone scattered and ran away. I stood still on the spot, talking to myself in my heart: I'm not stupid at all, you've all played this place rotten, what am I hiding? I'd better take a defensive stance, lest I invite trouble!

  I had made up my mind, but then I saw Wang Long, that little brat, beckoning me with his eyes and waving at me from behind a broken wall. My heart started to stir, thinking that this kid seemed to have some skills. Alright, let's just get cheated once, grandma's, in giving him a one-yuan bill!

  After coming to Wang Long's side, this kid pulled me and ran backwards, while running, he said to me: "This place, we haven't been here a few times, because this place is not clean!" I smiled, got it, see? He started playing the bamboo clappers!

  Then the interface said: "It's not clean, it's broken like this, can it be clean?" This kid listened to me and said with a face of disdain, waving his hand at me: "I'm not talking about that kind of uncleanness, I'm saying this place is too evil, haunted!"

  Wow! Are you trying to scare me with a ghost story? Do you think I'm afraid of you? I was secretly laughing: Hey, don't you know who your brother is? You're trying this trick on me? So I pretended to be terrified and looked at him: "Ahh?! Is that true? Then we shouldn't make any noise here!"

  "This little kid saw that I was taken in, and immediately added fuel to the fire, saying: 'It's really true, listening to old people talk about it, this place used to be haunted. The Taoist priests in this temple, big and small, were all pinched to death by ghosts.' Feeling that it wasn't scary enough, he quickly added another sentence: 'After being pinched to death, they were all hung from the beams, with their tongues stretched out really long!'"

  I almost burst out laughing, thinking: Can you make up something more ridiculous? Are you trying to scare me? You little brat! So I pretended to be very scared and ran until I stopped in my tracks. Then I stared ahead with a shocked expression. This kid didn't know what was going on, so he turned around and called out to me. My lips trembling, I looked at him with a frightened face and said: "Y-you... are you talking about that old Taoist?" After finishing speaking, I pointed behind him with a shaking finger.

  This little guy had just finished listening to me, and suddenly turned his head back! Sure enough, he saw an old Taoist priest hanging from the beam with his tongue out, dead! At that moment, he let out a strange scream, "Ma!" and ran behind me, hugging my waist tightly, shouting: "Ghost... ghost... ghost!" After saying that, he started shaking all over and refused to let go!

  I looked at him with a silly expression, and I couldn't help but laugh so hard that my cheeks almost cramped up to the back of my head. It turned out that this little guy was too busy chatting with me earlier and didn't notice that on the beam in front of us, there was a broken hemp rope hanging from it, and on the rope, there was an old hemp sack swaying gently, probably blown by the wind. This little guy was so tense that he actually mistook the hemp sack for a hanged Taoist priest.

  I proudly patted his head and laughed: "Little devil, you're still too young to fight with your brother!" At this time, the little guy also saw clearly that it was a sack, not an old Daoist. He patted his own chest, panting and said: "Oh my god, I'm scared to death..."

  I looked at him with a shocked expression and smiled slightly: "Alright, young master, don't mess around. Tell me, is there really a good place? How much silver?"

  The little guy looked a bit tense and glanced forward again before grinning: "Got it! Old rules, three bucks!"

  I directly pulled out a 5-yuan bill from my pocket and handed it to him. He stretched out his hand to take it, but I quickly pulled it back: "You little rascal, don't be in such a hurry! If this place is good, then this 5-yuan bill will naturally be yours. But if the place isn't good and we get caught, humph, sorry about that, not a single cent of this money!" After saying that, I put the money back into my pocket.

  This kid saw the big cash fly away, felt a bit unhappy in his heart, and glared at me with a huff, saying fiercely: "Alright, I'll follow you, who made you my big brother?" After finishing speaking, he ran away without looking back. I chuckled and followed closely behind him.

  Look at this kid, he led me to the backyard in a roundabout way. I took a look and saw that the whole yard was overgrown with weeds, and part of the house had collapsed. I thought to myself, how could anyone hide here? Wouldn't we be caught right away?

  Who would have thought that this little guy was standing on the edge of a well, with a serious face asking me: "Brother, can you swim?" I took a look at the well and then looked at him, thinking to myself that he wanted to trick me into jumping in! So I stared into his eyes and said: "Brother, are we going to jump into the well together?"

  "This little guy is also looking at me, grinning: "Don't worry, there's a rope by the well. I've been thinking of coming down here to catch cats before, but I was afraid since I'm alone. Now that we're two people, I'm not afraid anymore.""

  After listening, I rolled my eyes and thought to myself: "You little brat isn't afraid, but your big brother is!" Isn't this just playing with our lives? So I went around the well and found a rope, pulled it hard, and it was quite sturdy. Only then did I feel at ease. Anyway, it's pretty hot today, so going down to cool off in the well isn't bad either. Thinking of this, I nodded at him: "Alright, let's do it. But we have to agree on one thing - if we get caught, you're the one who came up with this idea. If we don't get caught, then it was me who found a good spot!"

  "What's the basis for this?"

  I pulled out a 50-yuan bill and flashed it in front of him with a sly smile: "Just because of this!"

  We both took off our clothes and hid them in the stone crevices by the well, then we climbed down into the water. The well water was cooler than other water, and it felt really comfortable to soak in it on such a hot day. We were enjoying ourselves in the well when we heard footsteps above us. I signaled to Wang Long with my hand that there was someone up there. He made some gestures back at me, then hid his head underwater, only exposing his nostrils. I thought to myself, "Not bad!" and followed suit, hiding my own head under the water as well.

  Listening to the footsteps going back and forth around us, we were secretly pleased in our hearts. At this time, a shout came from above: "Come out, I've seen you."

  When I heard this, I almost choked on my water, thinking: This is all a trick that Master has played before, and he's still trying to use it on me? So I held onto Wang Long without moving, and after a while, I saw a small head poking out from above. I took a look and it was indeed "Lan Bo".

  I said to myself, "This little guy is facing away from the sun and looking down. What can he see with that black thing?" Sure enough, after a while, he shouted a few more times, didn't get anything, and ran off. When I saw him running far away, my friend Wang Long and I finally emerged from the water. Wang Long looked at me, I gave him a thumbs up, and we both burst out laughing sneakily.

  We laughed and I asked him: "How deep is this water? I feel it's quite deep, can't even touch the bottom."

  Wang Long smiled at me: "It's not deep, only about four or five meters, I've been down there before."

  I said to him, "You little brat just said you were afraid of being alone, now you're bragging that you've been down there? Aren't you contradicting yourself?" This little brat saw me doubting him, and at the time he didn't dare do anything. He pouted his small mouth: "Believe it or not, I really have been down there! There's a big leather trunk at the bottom of the well. If you don't believe me, go take a look yourself!"

  A leather trunk! I had a sudden movement in my heart at that time! This is not far from the old house, will my grandfather hide his treasure here? The more I think about it, the more possible it seems! Thinking of this, my heart became excited, but with my swimming skills, diving four or five meters down is still a bit overwhelming.

  Then he asked Wang Long: "I told you not to brag, is there really a treasure chest down here?"

  "This kid patted his chest and said: 'How could that be fake? When have I ever bragged?'"

  I hastily hugged him and gave him a kiss: "Ah, baby, you've made a great achievement! This might be Grandpa's treasure! So, if you're really capable, go down and pull it up. If not, don't show off, I'll go call someone..." Before I finished speaking, this little guy flipped over, head down and feet up, and dove into the water.

  As I watched Wang Long dive down, my heart immediately began to regret it. I thought: Why was I so anxious? Whether this kid is bragging or not is another matter, but if he really has a bit of an accident, how can I explain it to his family? This isn't going to cause a huge disaster, is it? After thinking about it, I started to panic.

  The more I think about it, the more afraid I become. I thought to myself, why not just go down as well! Just as I was getting impatient and was about to dive in myself, I saw bubbles rising up from the water, followed by Wang Long, that little scamp, swimming around like a big white fish, swift and agile. In an instant, he broke through the surface of the water!

  Looking at the cowhide suitcase that was about the size of a trunk in his small hands, I was stunned! This kid is only nine years old this year!

  This kid looked at me with a silly face and smiled complacently: "How's that, bro? I didn't lie to you, did I?"

  I stared at him with a stupid expression, speechless, and my heart was shocked! I thought to myself: You little brat shouldn't be called Wang Long, you should be called Dragon King!