But the only things on this boat were cooking and raising a boat. I denied it directly. I had never made it before. I was afraid I was not familiar with anything except instant noodles. As for raising a boat, of course I had never done it before. But I was very interested in trying it out. It didn't seem very difficult to see it, but I knew very well that unless Uncle Fu and his son were both drunk, they would never hand the boat in my hands.

Since I had nothing to do, I really wanted to walk around. When I first got on the boat, I felt that my feet were shaking and very uncomfortable. After a few days of adaptation, I can finally stand up and walk a few steps carefully. However, the cabin is only the size of a palm, and if I walk a few more steps, I will fall into the river. The surrounding world is vast, but I can only be here honestly. I finally understand what the feeling of a lion and a tiger locked in the cage is. 'There will be another five or six days to be free' I silently comforted myself in my heart.

Under my eager eyes, the sun finally slowly set on the seventh day, but the afterglow of the sunset still spread all over the sky, and the sky was not completely dark. According to convention, every time Uncle Fu and his son would start looking for a shelter, stop the boat for the night, and wait until dawn the next day before departure.

They seem to be very familiar with this river, so they can always find a suitable place every time. The same is true today. Uncle Fu held the rudder with his hand and looked calm and composed. He probably had already thought of a place to spend the night.

Suddenly, Fu Sheng, who was sitting on the back deck, shouted in horror, "Ah---!", and at the same time, he straightened up and pointed at the water behind the boat. His actions suddenly broke the tranquility and comfort just now. Several other people immediately looked at the water behind and were surprised to find that a huge splash of water surged on the water dozens of meters away, larger than the basketball court, and a large area of ​​water actually bulged up directly, at least more than half a meter higher than the surrounding water surface.

Although I lack physics knowledge, I can understand that this phenomenon can only be created when huge objects float up rapidly. Obviously, there is a big thing floating from the bottom of the river, but I don’t know what it is. However, Uncle Fu and his son shouted in a terrified tone, "The River God is here! The River God is here!"

Of course I sneer at this feudal superstitious statement. This should be a big fish or a water monster. I remembered Loch Ness in the UK and Lake Kanas in Xinjiang. I didn’t expect that one day I would also witness the water monster up close. I was really excited.

Finally, the splashes above the river gradually scattered, and the water at the bottom of the river no longer surged, and the river surface dozens of meters away calmed down again, but what floated from the bottom of the river did not appear, and only a huge black shadow appeared under the river surface.

The first thing I felt was that the black shadow was very similar to a whale, but then I denied it. How could there be whales in the river? At this time, Uncle Fu and his son had already knelt down and kowtowed straight towards the black shadow, and kept muttering, "Please bless the river god! Please bless the river god!"

I turned my head and looked at the old man and found that he looked very calm. "What is this?" I asked casually, "I don't know." The old man shook his head very simply, and then added another sentence, "It doesn't look like a good thing anyway." "You have to say this." I replied dissatisfiedly, and then continued to ask, "Do you say it can eat people?" The old man thought for a while before pondering and said, "It should be, but if you eat vegetarian food, it will definitely not grow so big." This sentence made me a little scared. If it was chewed, I wonder if Bai Wuchang could restore me.

"The river god is here! The river god is here!" The old man's horror shout suddenly interrupted my thoughts. When I looked up, I found that the black shadow had moved. The speed was not very fast, but the direction was towards the boat. If I were hit, I don't know what would happen to the person. The boat would definitely fall apart.

At this time, Uncle Fu's reaction was very fast, and he rushed from the ground with a swoosh, taking the helm with one hand, quickly sailing the boat to the side, and shouting loudly to Fusheng, "Send tribute to the River God! Send tribute to the River God!"

Fusheng was already a little scared, but he kowtowed on the back deck. He woke up suddenly when he heard his father's shouting. He quickly stood up and stepped into the boat tent. He quickly picked two chickens hanging on the roof of the shed, threw them all in the direction of the black shadow, and then turned around and picked two more and threw them out.

His actions made me feel distressed. These chickens were just slaughtered white chickens bought by Uncle Fu when he was on the boat. There were five of them in total. In order to prevent corrosion, a layer of salt was applied to the surface. After a few days, the chicken skin was slightly dry and a lot of oil was precipitated, showing a translucent state. In addition, the crystal clear salt particles looked so attractive. I had been thinking about it for several days, but I didn't expect that this thing was not for people to eat.

I watched the chickens be thrown into the water, especially when Fusheng reached out to grab the last chicken, I almost shouted, "That's the monster in the water, not the weasel on the land, the monster only eats fish but not the chicken." But in the end I still held back. Before getting on the ship, the old man told me not to talk nonsense after arriving on the ship, because the boat owner has many taboos, some common words on land, and if they say them on the ship, they may get a knife.

Although I was not afraid of fighting, it was a bit unworthy for a chicken, so I had to swallow the words to my mouth and watched resentfully as Fusheng quickly threw the last chicken into the river.

However, the black shadow did not react to these chickens, and even did not respond to the boat next to it. He still swam over from a few meters away from the boat in the original direction. At this time, I could see more clearly, but I could only see a huge black spine with many shells or vines attached to it. It felt a little disgusting, but I didn't see what the head of the black shadow looked like.

The black shadow swam forward and soon disappeared from everyone's sight. The four people on the boat stared at the river surface nervously and didn't dare to move. They waited for seven or eight minutes. Seeing that the black shadow did not appear again, the four people secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and they all felt like they had survived the disaster.

I don’t know whether it was the chickens that really worked or whether this black shadow was originally full and came out for a walk, so he had no intention of continuing to eat. In the end, he could only say helplessly in his heart, "Your world is too messy, I can’t understand."

After confirming that it was safe, Uncle Fu immediately grabbed the rudder and drove the boat downstream. He felt that this was not fast enough, so he asked his son Fusheng to row desperately and leave the water as quickly as possible.

When the sky was completely dark, Uncle Fu drove the boat into a calm river beside. Before the boat could stop completely, I jumped to the shore. This was a rare time for the day to let the air flow. Of course, I had to hurry up and make full use of the time. Although it was so dark around me that I couldn't go anywhere, after sitting in the boat for a day, it felt like a pleasure to walk a few steps on the shore.

Soon the old man also came to the shore, and only Uncle Fu and his son were left on the boat. After bolting the boat, he placed incense tables on the back deck despite the fatigue of the whole day, kowtowed and burned paper to thank God and all the gods for their blessings. Such a scene happens every day, but perhaps because of the encounter with a water monster, today's worship is particularly solemn and more time-consuming than usual. It was not until my stomach was so hungry that the worship ceremony was completed.

After packing up the incense table, Uncle Fu also sat on a stone on the shore and enjoyed the rare leisure time of the day. Only Fusheng was left on the boat to prepare supper, but his hands and feet were very quick and he quickly prepared the supper.

Looking at the food exactly the same as the previous six days, my hungry stomach suddenly felt full. At the same time, I missed the chickens thrown into the river even more. I really wanted to ask if Fusheng only knows how to cook these dishes, but of course I can't ask if this is something that people have worked hard to make. After all, it's something that I have to complain quietly in my heart. If I say it in person, I'll be shameless. Of course I can't do such shameless things.

After dinner, the next time is to sleep. There is neither TV nor Internet access in this world. The only entertainment after dark is to sleep. Of course, those with wives sleep with their wives. As for us single men, at most, can only entertain themselves.

When the sky gradually became brighter, I opened my eyes. At this time, Uncle Fu and his son were already busy. Their hard work and perseverance really made me admire them. It was like a precise clock, driving tirelessly on their tracks every day.

After breakfast, the boat set sail again. The voyage on this day was very dull and I didn’t encounter anything that could interest me. In the following days, I encountered two more incidents that were suspected to have appeared in the water monster. However, both times, I saw huge splashes of water on the river from afar, and then there was no following, and I didn’t even see the shadow of a water monster, which made me feel a little regretful.

With my bored waiting and expectation for water monsters, the boat finally arrived at the destination of our trip - Hailiancheng. This is a large coastal city, several times larger than the scale of the city I have been to before.

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!