Chase Game

The river breeze was slightly cool.

The fishing boat broke the calm surface of the river, creating ripples.

Ling Yi sat in front of the stove in the cabin, listening quietly as Old Man Ge told him the stories he knew about Dongshan Village.

Old Man Ge recounted the story in detail—

"Dongshan Village is named Dongshan Village because the mountain next to it is Dongshan."

"But now, very few people know that Dongshan was not called Dongshan before, but 'Luofengshan'."

Ling Yixin wondered if another strategist had also perished here.

Old Man Ge's next words, however, refuted his conjecture.

"As the name suggests, 'Fallen Phoenix Mountain' is said to be the place where a phoenix fell, but it is too far in the past for the truth to be verified."

Ling Yi recalled the "phoenix shadow" he had seen above the abyss, and combined it with Old Man Ge's words, he couldn't help but make connections between the two.

"When Dongshan was still called Luofengshan, there was naturally no Dongshan Village. There used to be only one family living there."

"Who is it?"

Ling asked a question at the right time to show that she was listening.

Old Man Ge paused for a moment, then uttered two words:

"The Meng family!"

"The Meng family in the county town?"

"Exactly!"

Interesting. Ling Yi was looking forward to how the story would unfold.

"At that time, the Meng family at the foot of Luofeng Mountain was just an ordinary farming family."

"But now, they are an existence that we can no longer reach."

"You mean, the rise of the Meng family... is somewhat suspicious?"

Old Man Ge tapped his pipe on the gunwale and chuckled:

"Hehe... calling it suspicious would make us country bumpkins seem too jealous. It's just... a few rumors."

Rumors can be true or false, but most of the time they are a mix of truth and falsehood, and can be taken as a reference.

Ling Yi understood this principle and waited quietly for Old Man Ge to continue.

"It is said that the head of the Meng family took his three sons hunting in the mountains. When they returned home in the evening, they were trapped on the mountain by a sudden thunderstorm."

Fortunately, the father and his three sons found shelter in a cave, made a fire, and decided to spend the night in the cave and wait for the rain to subside before going down the mountain.

"When it got completely dark, the youngest son went deep into the cave to urinate, but saw a ball of will-o'-the-wisp floating in the dark cave."

"This is another sudden downpour, another night, and another ghostly fire in the cave. An ordinary person would probably have wet their pants by now."

"But the four members of the Meng family were all incredibly brave. The youngest son wasn't alarmed when he saw the will-o'-the-wisp; he just ran back quickly and woke up his father and brothers."

"Then the head of the Meng family led his three brothers, lit a torch, and carefully searched inside the cave."

"Guess what they saw?"

Old Man Ge told the story vividly, and Ling Yi was listening intently, as if he were actually in that scene.

Who would have thought that Old Man Ge would suddenly ask such a question.

It's like when a teacher is engrossed in lecturing on the podium during class.

suddenly!

A pen tip flew over, and then you heard, "Ling Yi, come and do this problem!"

Ling Yi was both amused and exasperated, and could only guess randomly.

"How would I know what they saw? It couldn't possibly be a phoenix, could it?"

Unexpectedly, Old Man Ge stopped what he was doing, turned around and looked at Ling Yidao with some surprise:

"How do you know? You haven't already heard this story and are just making fun of this old man, have you?"

Ling Yi: ? ? ?

No, I was just guessing!

No, there's a concept in psychology called "psychological suggestion."

I had previously seen Feng Ying and heard about Luo Feng Po.

It must be because he was given hints multiple times that he guessed correctly on the first try.

After hearing Ling Yi's negative answer, Old Man Ge continued, still somewhat doubtful:

"Anyway, the rumor has always been about a phoenix, but some people say it's actually a box of gold or something."

"Since it's just a rumor, let's go with the more mystical version."

"Where were we... Oh, we were talking about the four members of the Meng family seeing a phoenix."

"We don't know what this phoenix looks like, but we do know that with the help of its divine power, the Meng family prospered and soared to great heights."

Ling Yi waited a while, but didn't hear anything more, so she asked with some confusion, "That's it?"

"Oh, that's all. That's the rumor about the Meng family. But in my opinion, it's true that people really can't get rich without unexpected wealth..."

Seeing that Old Man Ge was about to ramble on again, Ling Yi quickly corrected him:

"Wait, wait... didn't we say we were going to talk about how Dongshan Village was destroyed?"

Old Man Ge slapped his forehead: "Oh dear, look at my memory..."

"Hahaha... Let's continue with the Meng family then."

"The earliest rumor was the one I told you about: the Meng family received a gift from the divine phoenix, and from then on, the family prospered and rose to great heights."

"But as time went on, the story changed and became distorted."

"Some say the Meng family became wealthy after they found a chest of gold."

"Some say that the Meng family did not receive the divine bird's gift at all, but rather made a deal with it, which they are obligated to repay later."

"The rumor that Dongshan Village was destroyed by a fire is related to this statement."

At this point, Old Man Ge stopped his previous storytelling-like eloquence.

He lowered his voice and said with some apprehension:

"It is said that the four members of the Meng family made a deal with the divine phoenix, agreeing to fulfill their vow in this generation."

"But didn't the Meng family already move to the county town?"

"So the promised fulfillment of the vow was not fulfilled. The divine bird awoke, thinking that the Meng family still lived at the foot of the mountain, and punished them by burning down Dongshan Village!"

"So, in that case, Dongshan Village didn't actually offend the gods at all; they were just taking the blame for the Meng family?"

Hearing this, Ling Yi had some guesses in his mind.

Old Man Ge sighed and shook his head:

"I've taken the blame, but... well, you could say that there's always a reason why someone is pitiful."

Ling Yi asked, somewhat puzzled, "What kind of explanation is that?"

Old Man Ge: "Think about it, Dongshan Village doesn't even have a decent piece of fertile land."

"With just a few small plots of land and hunting in the mountains, people can barely make ends meet, yet people still flock there. Why is that?"

Ling Yi's expression hardened: "They...were also there because of that phoenix rumor?"

"That's right, no matter what the rumors say, the fact that the Meng family is getting rich is an unchanging fact."

"People are all driven by fame and fortune. Who would want to move to that godforsaken place if they weren't hoping to get a bargain like the Meng family?"

Ling Yi sighed, "In the end, I didn't get any advantage; instead, I ended up taking the blame for someone else!"

"Yes, in my opinion..."

Old Man Ge started talking about his life philosophy again, but Ling Yi automatically filtered it out, only processing the information in her mind once.

In simple terms, this is a story about a "knife-selling man" or something similar.

The divine bird Phoenix was the one who sold the knife on credit, and the Meng family became a wealthy family by virtue of this "knife".

However, when it came to the generation that was supposed to fulfill their vow, the Meng family broke their promise, which enraged the awakened divine bird, the phoenix.

The anger turned Dongshan Village at the foot of the mountain into a pitiful scapegoat.

That's how it all appears to be, but how much of the rumor is true and how much is false is anyone's guess.