Chapter 46: Worship the River God?
Sacrifice and pay money?
When he heard that he had to pay money, Liang Qu frowned subconsciously.
In the old days, due to the backward production tools, the personal safety of fishermen on the water was greatly threatened during storms. Therefore, they worshipped the legendary gods of the sea as the protectors of life and the gods who bless the harvest.
The frequency is very high, about twice a year, once in winter and spring, and once on June 6th.
Winter and spring are not fixed, and the reasons for holding them are often like last night.
But you have to talk about money
Liang Qu figured out that the river god Uncle Li mentioned was the big monster he saw last night. However, to ordinary people, there was no difference. They were both powerful creatures that could not be resisted by human power.
He was not very willing in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. He had to offer sacrifices to the river god without paying money. Even someone like Baldy Zhang would not dare to do such a thing.
"Uncle Li, how much do you want?"
Li Dakang thought for a moment and said, "I haven't heard of anyone dying this time. If there's an able-bodied male in the family, then he should give about 100 coins, right? It's basically the same amount in previous years. It's only on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month when it's more grand, so they'll ask for more."
Liang Qu breathed a sigh of relief. There were only three taels of silver left from what Master Yang had given him last time, which was more than enough.
But the ship still has to be shipped.
There are “quite a few” boats staying on the shore, but that doesn’t mean they are all of them. Most of the people on the pier are trying to make a living and don’t care about being eaten by the so-called river god.
In response to Li Dakang's kindness, Liang Qu apologized.
"Hey, kid, why don't you listen to advice? What will happen if you delay for two days?"
"Uncle Li, you probably don't know that Brother Shui went out fishing last night when it was raining heavily, and he came back safely, didn't he? I'm afraid he saw what the monster looked like." Lin Songbao came over and shouted at the top of his voice.
"Songbao? What are you talking about? It's the river god, the river god!"
A fisherman got anxious and tried to cover Lin Songbao's mouth, but Lin Songbao dodged and ran away, so he failed to cover his mouth.
"Isn't it all the same? Last year we saw that big wide fish, taller and bigger than a building ship. You also said it was a river god. And the year before that, there was that piranha, one of its teeth was bigger than a person, and you couldn't even hold it.
It happens every year. I have never seen the same thing since I was born. I wonder how there can be so many river gods in one river. If they are all river gods, they must fight each other. Isn’t that a big monster?”
Li Dakang beat his chest and stamped his feet: "No reverence at all, no reverence at all!"
Chen Cheng, who was standing by, reacted and asked hurriedly, "Ah Shui, did you go fishing last night?"
"Yes."
Liang Qu did not hide it, it was not a big deal. There must be many people who saw the big monster, otherwise it would not have been known to everyone now.
"I was quite close to it last night. When the 'River God' fell into the water, the waves were so big that if I hadn't held on to it firmly, the boat would have capsized. I quickly came back and didn't catch any fish."
Li Dakang said in fear: "It was too dangerous, it was really too dangerous. Fortunately, you were far away. If you were closer, wouldn't you be eaten?"
Lin Songbao laughed loudly: "That's not so exaggerated. How big is a talent? How big is a monster? Eating a person is like eating a grain of rice. I feel tired even if I open my mouth so wide."
Li Dakang felt uncomfortable listening to this: "How can you talk like that, kid?"
Lin Songbao scratched his ears, pretending he didn't hear anything, and walked over to Liang Qu and leaned against him: "Brother Shui, I've been waiting for you for a long time. If I hadn't seen your sampan at the pier, I would have gone to your house to look for you."
Brother Shui?
Liang Qu was a little surprised.
Lin Songbao had never called him that before, even when the fish seller said that he would round up the number later, he still called him Ah Shui, after all, Lin Songbao was older than him.
"So you've been waiting for me? Something?"
"Hey, I came to ask if you have time recently. My dad wants to treat you to a meal. What do you think? He said that you can choose the time and place."
"Did you hear any rumors?"
"I don't know either." Lin Songbao scratched his head. "My father didn't tell me. He said that I was too talkative and couldn't keep secrets. He wouldn't let me know anything you didn't tell me. But he told me that you have great potential in Pingyang Town and asked me to call you Brother Shui when we meet."
Liang Qu seemed to be thinking about something.
Yixing City and Pingyang Town are very close, but they are more than ten miles apart. The incident happened in secrecy that night, and only the apprentices of the martial arts school knew about it. Most of the apprentices were staying at the hotel, so it would take some time for the matter to develop.
Lin Di, the head of the fishing shed, obviously had some information channels of his own. Lin Songbao urged: "How is it, whether it works or not, give me a word, and I will go back and tell my father."
"Then let's do it tomorrow night. You can choose any place. Just come and tell me when you've decided."
Liang Qu did not refuse. He missed his own black-sailed boat a little bit, and perhaps this was an opportunity.
The sampan is too small and has no roof. When it rains, the cabin is filled with water. It is not as good as a sampan in any way.
"it is good!"
"Then I'm going out on the boat."
"I'll come see you tomorrow morning."
"Ah."
The river surface is calm, and the water reflects the light of the stars and the moon.
The oars stirred the lake, and the water made a loud noise.
Bang, bang, bang.
The oars hit the water, and the dull sound traveled far away along the waves.
Ripples appeared on the water surface, and the scales of the creatures that could not float to the surface glowed with a cold and hard green light, which contrasted with the sparkling moonlight.
After one day of absence, the immobile body grew again, reaching an exaggerated length of nearly three meters. It roamed beside the boat, which was enough to scare any fisherman from Jianghuai. Ordinary people would not believe that it was a Taihua crocodile.
However, at this time, the creature was floating calmly on the water, with a small crab monster beating its claws.
The crab monster was spitting bubbles. Its jade-white shell became much harder and its color began to turn slightly bluish. The sound it made when knocked became more and more metallic. Its size had also increased a lot. It used to be the size of a fist, but now it was a circle larger than a fist.
After seeing the real big monster last night, Liang Qu realized that the crab monster was just the lowest existence in the monster ecological chain.
Their young must grow rapidly, especially if they are adequately supplied with nutrients, otherwise it would be difficult for them to survive in the fiercely competitive deep waters.
Perhaps the crab monster came to the shallow waters in an attempt to lay eggs and hatch its young in a safer place.
At the current rate of growth, it would take less than two months for my fists to be useful and no longer just a useless accessory.
It's quite interesting to say, because the scales on the body cannot move, the fist-like limbs can easily fix the body, and the two are almost inseparable.
In contrast, the green back of the fat catfish is too smooth and it cannot stand steadily.
Wow.
Speak of the devil, and he appears. The fat catfish floated to the surface, with water flowing down its smooth green back and into the lake. It raised its head and spit a mouthful of water at its fist, knocking its fist into the water.
Seeing that his plan had succeeded, Ah Fei turned over, revealing his white belly, and seemed to be "laughing out loud", with his long beard shaking constantly.
The fist that fell into the water swam like a lobster, curled up its lower body, and flew to Ah Fei's mouth, pinching its long whiskers.
Ah Fei's catfish whiskers were fleshy and he felt pain immediately, flailing around in the water.
It is already huge in size, exceeding three meters, reaching meters. Its thick skin hides strong muscles, and its explosive power makes it so powerful that no fish dares to mess with it in the water.
At this moment, he swung his body like a water dragon, which was very shocking, and water splashed over.
Only the one who cannot move is like an old monk in meditation, standing by unmoved.
Seeing that the two beasts were playing more and more aggressively and the cabin was filled with water, Liang Qu immediately stopped them and the two beasts stopped fighting.
"A Fei, help me catch fish. Try to catch more expensive ones, like carp and yellow croaker, okay?"
Ah Fei shook his long beard to show that he understood.
The growth of the two beasts has brought them higher intelligence. Now they can not only identify precious fish with "abnormalities", but even some expensive fish species.
As a disciple of Master Yang, it’s not too much for Liang Qu to catch 300 coins of fish in a boat trip, right?
(End of this chapter)
