Chapter 4

When they returned to the village, it was already noon.

The old house naturally had no food in reserve, but Jiang Yue had brought back quite a few ingredients from the city the day before.

The kitchen was very simple, with only a small stove for burning honeycomb coal, and there were several hundred pieces of honeycomb coal in stock.

After all, it was a holiday, so it couldn't be too simple.

The salted duck was ready-to-eat food brought back from the city, along with a plate of stir-fried beef, a plate of braised fish, and a few home-style stir-fries.

This meal was quite decent, with a good mix of meat and vegetables, and a full range of flavors, which greatly whetted San Gou's appetite.

"Second Brother, let's talk about something?" San Gou mumbled while gnawing on a duck leg.

"No deal!" Jiang Yue didn't even look up.

"I haven't even said what it is yet." San Gou was getting anxious.

"I know what it is even if you don't say it."

"Then you tell me. If you get it wrong, you have to agree to one thing." San Gou started to get clever.

"Want me to take you to the city? Fine! Pass the entrance exam for the city middle school."

Jiang Yue knew exactly what San Gou was thinking.

The mention of the exam made San Gou deflate like a punctured balloon.

The duck leg in his mouth suddenly lost its flavor.

"Second Brother, I promise I'll only go for two days. Just take me for a visit."

The Qingming holiday was a short break, and a two or three-day trip wasn't a big deal. But San Gou was a monkey, and once he got a foothold, he'd climb up.

If he agreed too quickly, there would inevitably be more demands. Better to let him stew a bit.

San Gou, unaware of Jiang Yue's thoughts, was about to pester him when someone called from outside the yard.

"Is anyone home?"

The two brothers went out to see an old man passing by.

He wore a round straw hat and a green-brown raincoat, with a pair of rarely seen straw shoes on his feet, caked with mud.

He was already hunched over, and with a fish basket on his back, he looked even more bent.

The raincoat was quite unusual, much larger than a regular one, with faint, strange patterns, making it look somewhat odd. But overall, it was clear he was a fisherman.

"Little brother, this old man is passing by and would like a bowl of water." The old man's accent was heavy, and his words were barely understandable, but they were indeed the local dialect.

"Grandpa, why don't you come in and sit down?" Although the Jiang family wasn't a prominent one, they had good manners. Jiang Yue, at his age, had a rare level of politeness.

"No, no, I'm all muddy. I don't want to dirty your house." The old man waved his hands.

"San Gou, go get Grandpa a cup of water."

San Gou eagerly went in and poured a cup of warm water.

The old man took the cup, brought it to his lips, then shook his head: "Country folk are cheap. We can't drink boiled water; it gives us stomachaches. Just some well water will do."

"Hey, Grandpa, who drinks well water when there's boiled water?" San Gou complained, but he didn't stop moving. He walked to the well in the yard and drew a small bucket of water.

Gulping, gulping, gulping...

Despite his hunched and thin frame, the old man drank with great enthusiasm and an astonishing amount.

The small bucket of water was gone in a blink. He smacked his lips, still seeming unsatisfied.

Even San Gou, a glutton, was amazed.

Taking the bucket from the old man, San Gou, for some reason, remembered the time he won a "free bottle" in a city drink promotion and blurted out, "Another bucket?"

"Another bucket?" The old man seemed to consider whether it was appropriate, then grinned, "Alright, another bucket."

Another bucket went down, and it was empty again.

San Gou didn't say anything but thought to himself that he had only heard of a "rice bucket" before, never a "water bucket."

The old man seemed to have had his fill and waved to leave.

After a few steps, he wobbled back and beckoned to Jiang Yue.

"Little brother, I drank two buckets of your water. I'll give you a few words."

"Grandpa, please speak."

"Ha ha ha ha..." The old man laughed mysteriously, his throat making sounds like a fish blowing bubbles, muttering something that seemed to be nothing.

"Remember, remember."

The old man left with a strange smile, shuffling away.

"San Gou, did you hear what he said?"

"Second Brother, you didn't hear it either? The old stinkard must be messing with us. He didn't say anything." San Gou was angry and wanted to chase after him to argue.

Jiang Yue held him back, shaking his head: "Forget it. The old man is so old, and it's just two buckets of well water."

The two brothers returned to the house, disgruntled.

Before they reached the main room, they noticed something unusual on the corridor.

"Hey? Second Brother, what's written on the corridor?!"

On the corridor, three lines of large characters appeared, written with a flowing hand, quite impressive.

The first and second lines each had ten characters, and the third line had twelve.

Who wrote it?

The back door was closed, no one was in the house, and they had been outside the whole time. It was impossible for someone to have come in through the front gate.

Moreover, in such a short time, it was scientifically impossible to write so many characters.

The most bizarre thing was that the characters were written in water marks.

Jiang Yue had seen people write large characters with water in the city.

In parks and open areas, old men who loved calligraphy often did this.

What made it bizarre were four points.

One, the characters appeared extremely mysteriously, written calmly without any haste. In such a short time, it was hard to complete them at a normal speed.

Two, the yard was not large, and they were standing at the door, only about seven or eight meters from the corridor. If someone had secretly written so many characters, there would have been some noise.

Three, usually, water marks would gradually fade and disappear. But these water marks were as dark as ink, showing no signs of fading.

Of course—

The most bizarre was the content of the three lines!

The white tiger fights the green dragon, the sky and earth are pierced.

The vermilion bird's spine is broken, the human world is full of troubles.

A place of many troubles, do not stay long.

If Jiang Yue had only been guessing and sensing before, the sudden appearance of these three lines shattered his last bit of hope.

His previous premonitions were likely to come true.

San Gou, being only twelve, couldn't understand these cryptic words and had no way to ponder their deeper meaning. He grabbed the axe leaning against the door and rushed into the house.

After searching inside and out, he came out dejectedly.

Shaking his head: "The back door is closed, and no one is in the house."

"Follow me." Jiang Yue, having some insight, quickly walked out of the yard.

"Wasn't the old man heading in this direction?"

Jiang Yue led San Gou along the direction the old fisherman had taken, stopping near a small stream at the end of the road.

Jiang Yue parted the grass and found a fish basket and a pair of worn straw shoes.

At the stream, it was a dead end. Unless one crossed it, but with the recent rain, the water was deep. Even a strong young man would need tools to cross, let alone an old man.

Moreover, there was no reason to abandon a fish basket, a tool for making a living.

"Second Brother, look, there's something in the water!"

San Gou, with his sharp eyes, pointed at the water.

Indeed, about twenty to thirty meters downstream, a creature was floating and diving in the water, swimming away.

It had a head, four limbs, and a shell with patterns.

It was clearly an old turtle.

San Gou, seeing it clearly, sighed, feeling regretful: "If only we had a net. Such a big turtle would be a great tonic. It would be worth a few hundred in town."

At this moment, the advantage of being young showed.

Young and ignorant, fearless, and without wild imagination, there was no confusion.

On the way back, San Gou kept complaining about the old man who had asked for water, thinking he must have accomplices, deliberately playing tricks on them.

As for the motive, San Gou concluded that it was because they were young and their parents were not at home.

Jiang Yue didn't explain, seeing no need to burden a twelve-year-old with such worries.