Yellow River Craftsman

Chapter 46
On the way back, Grandpa told us a story about Jiaolong that he personally experienced.

That was 30 years ago, probably in the early 80s.It was a summer afternoon, and I had no way to find the dead body, so I went out to fish with Hu Xue from the same village.Life at that time was relatively difficult. When I didn’t receive a way to find corpses, I went out to fish with others to make a living.

Our fishing boat was not far away, and a few thick dark clouds floated from nowhere in the sky, covering the bright sunshine.The shapes of those dark clouds are like monsters, constantly changing their shapes, and slowly gathering together.The originally bright sky suddenly became gloomy, and the sky and the earth were dark.

Everyone raised their heads in doubt, what happened?Has the weather changed?

It is not uncommon for the sky to change over the Yellow River, but that time the sky became a little weird.But in a short while, the billowing dark clouds, like overwhelming waves, kept pouring into the sky above the ancient Yellow River road from all directions.The sky was as black as ink, as if the night was approaching.The waves on the surface of the water were churning, and the waves of the rolling Yellow River overwhelmed the waves.Our fishing boat was bumping up and down in the rough waves, as if it might capsize at any moment.The evil waves slapped on the edge of the cliff, stirring up high water columns, and making a deafening roar.

"What's the situation?" Hu Shou yelled at the top of his voice, he turned around and rushed into the cockpit, and asked the old boatman in charge of the helm: "Ding Erye, what... what's going on?"

Ding Erye looked at the surface of the river nervously: "There are unpredictable things in the sky, and people have misfortunes and good fortunes. No one can tell what happened to the master today. Hu Shou, you should hurry up and invite everyone to take shelter in the cabin for the time being." !"

Hu Shi nodded, exited the cabin, and greeted us to hide in the cabin.

Hu Chou looked at the dark sky outside the cabin with lingering fear and said, "The weather is so weird, is something sinister going to happen?"

A fisherman named Xiaowu scolded with a smile: "I think Brother Hu is worrying too much, isn't he just a freak, why are you so nervous?"

At that time, I said with a solemn face: "To be honest, I also feel that the weather today is a bit evil. I have lived on the Yellow River Ancient Road for so many years, and this is the first time I have encountered such a strange weather! I have the same worry as Hu Shou , I'm afraid something big will happen in this horrible weather!"

As soon as my words fell, I heard a loud bang in the sky, and a dazzling red lightning, like a sharp sword that opened up the world, burst out of the billowing black clouds.Then the lightning split into countless branch shapes in the air, like a devil's arm, inserted into the rolling Yangtze River, instantly illuminating the entire river surface.

The moment the river surface lit up, we suddenly discovered a huge black shadow appeared under the distant water surface, judging from its size, it looked like a huge boa constrictor.The boa constrictor twisted its body as long as a train, and swam quickly in the torrential river.

Almost simultaneously we exclaimed, "My God! What's that?"

There was originally a thousand-ton freighter and an iron fishing boat on the river not far away, and I saw the black shadow cruising quickly from the water.Immediately afterwards, there was a loud bang, and the iron fishing boat flew straight out of the water, and then fell to pieces from the air. The two fishermen on the fishing boat screamed and fell into the water, disappearing instantly.

Before we came back to our senses, we heard a louder noise, and the black shadow slammed into the thousand-ton freighter fiercely.Under the impact of the black shadow, the freighter trembled violently, tilted [-] to [-] degrees, and nearly capsized.At that moment, we clearly saw a shocking impact crater left on the side of the thousand-ton freighter.You know, the hull of the freighter is made of extremely hard steel plates, and it can easily smash a thousand-ton freighter into such a shape, what kind of giant is that black shadow?

After hitting the thousand-ton freighter, the black shadow immediately sank into the water, and water mist splashed on the surface of the water, and the black shadow quickly disappeared from my sight.

It took no more than ten seconds for that weird black shadow to appear and disappear, but it left us with an indelible memory for a lifetime.We stared blankly at the vast water surface, too surprised to say a word.

What is even more unbelievable is that after the black shadow disappeared, the hazy sky actually cast a beam of bright sunshine.That beam of sunlight was like a bright knife, cutting through layers of dark waves.When we looked up, we saw that the clouds and waves in the sky quickly dissipated. After a while, the sky returned to its previous clean and bright, as if nothing had happened just now.

"Help—help—" There was a sudden cry for help from the river not far away.

We followed the prestige and saw two black heads floating up and down on the surface of the river. They should be two people who fell into the water.They swung their limbs desperately, but they couldn't resist the impact of the water, and the rushing water quickly rushed them downstream.

On the bumpy freighter, a middle-aged woman lay on the side of the ship, stretched her arms, and shouted hoarsely towards the water: "My child... my child... save my child..."

Presumably when the black shadow hit the freighter just now, the two children lost their footing and accidentally fell into the river.Seeing that the two children were about to be swallowed by the surging river, Hu Shi immediately asked Ding Erye to turn the rudder, and drove the fishing boat over quickly, trying to catch the two children who fell into the water.

Hu Shou took off his coat, revealing his strong body, and stood proudly on the deck.The sun fell on his bronze skin, reflecting the dazzling light.I only heard Hu Shou say: "Look at me!", and then there was a splash, and Hu Shou flew into the water.

After a while, a crash was heard not far away, and Hu Shou's head suddenly popped out from the water, holding a dying child in his hand.

The fishing boat quickly approached, Hu Chou threw the child on the deck, turned around and went to save another child.The child's head had almost completely submerged under the water, and the current had washed her far away, and an ordinary person would definitely not be able to catch up.But Hu Shou was really powerful, just like a submarine with a motor running, it swished up and dragged the child back.

At this moment, there was thunderous applause on the freighter, and everyone was cheering and applauding Hu Shou's feat.In fact, there are quite a few crew members with good water skills on the freighter, but now that the wind and waves are rough, none of them dare to go into the water to rescue them.In their eyes, Hu Shou suddenly became a heroic existence.

We sent the two children to the freighter. Fortunately, Hu Shou was rescued in time. The two children were not seriously injured. After simple emergency rescue, they came back to life.

Back on the fishing boat, Hu Chen let out a sigh of relief, and turned his gaze to the calm water surface, a trace of panic slowly appeared on his face.

I noticed that Hu Shou's expression was a little strange, so I asked him, "Hu Shou, is there something wrong with you?"

Hu Shou was silent for a while, then suddenly said in a slow and deep voice: "When I went to save those two children just now, I found... I found something underwater!"

Something underwater? !

Hu Shi's words were like a bomb falling on the crowd, the cabin was silent, everyone turned their attention to him, we didn't quite understand the meaning of Hu Shi's words.

I said, "Hu Shou, can you make this sentence clearer?"

Hu Chou looked away from the surface of the water, and said slowly: "Just now I dived underwater to save people, and found a strange trace underwater!"

"Weird traces? What traces?" We all sat upright, wondering what Hu Shou saw underwater just now.

Hu Chou said: "I don't know, anyway, the trace is very weird, as if something has been dragged away from the water, the moss on the bottom of the water has been scraped off, and there are still some black spots on the stones under the water. The sticky liquid! I guess it is probably left by the black monster just now, and I don’t know what that monster is..."

The old helmsman Ding Erye, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. He said, "We may have encountered the legendary walking dragon. The black shadow under the water should be a dragon!"

what? !Go? !

We looked at Ding Erye with extremely puzzled eyes. Even though we have rich experience, we have never heard of "walking Jiao", so we asked Ding Erye to tell us what "Zoo Jiao" means.

Ding Erye lit a cigarette and started talking to us in high spirits: "Actually, I have never witnessed a flood with my own eyes, but I have a relative who is a worker in the Yellow River, and I also heard from my relative about the flood. After the torrential flood, there will be clear and strange traces under the riverbed. Those traces are like drag marks. The moss and soil on them will be taken away, and some strange slime will be left on the underwater stones. The phenomenon is called walking.

The reason for this phenomenon is that whenever there is a flood and heavy rain, the dragons hiding under the water will come out and use the flood to go eastward to the East China Sea, leaving such drag marks along the way.What's more, it may drag down houses, wash away farmland, and smash bridges.After some dragons run to the East China Sea, if they happen to be lucky, they can ascend to become real dragons.From my point of view, the black shadow just now is likely to be a dragon. Otherwise, what kind of species can knock a thousand-ton cargo ship into such a shape? "

After listening to Grandpa's narration, we only feel that the world is so big, and it can be described as full of wonders.Under the rolling water of the Yellow River, how many secrets are buried that we don't know?I'm afraid I can't finish talking in three days and three nights, and I can't figure it out in 300 years.

(End of this chapter)