The master said not to judge people by their appearance

People from Hekou Village were preparing for the river god sacrifice by the pier, but Xie Yunlan finally agreed to let Shen Fan do the river god sacrifice.

Right now, they don't know the real body of the river god, and they don't know where the other party is hiding. Looking for it in this vast Cangjiang River is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The only way is to lure the other party to show up.

Ordinary people would die if they made this sacrifice. Shen Fan was protected by soul fire, and the evil spirits could not get close to him, so he was the most suitable candidate. Drowning in water.

Shen Fan seemed to have an inexplicable confidence in his water skills, even though he had never even been on a boat, he told Xie Yunlan time and time again that he would not drown.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that Shen Fan never uttered any big words, and even his extremely unreliable method of choosing a route has been fulfilled one after another.

Intellectually, Xie Yunlan decided to try to trust him.Emotionally, he was inevitably a little anxious.

He watched from the bank the busy people in Hekou Village. Several young and middle-aged men were making bamboo rafts. Like every bridegroom before, Shen Fan would sit on the bamboo raft and float into the river.

They arranged the chopped bamboo and tied it with rattan. They were very skillful, but Xie Yunlan suddenly stopped. He looked at the loose raft tied with a circle of rattan, and asked: "This is the raft you built?!"

But the people who made the raft said: "Master Xie, the bamboo raft needs to be loosened a little bit, otherwise how will it sink in the middle of the river..."

With a sound of "swish", the speaker fell silent. Xie Yunlan was putting the knife on his neck, and said in a cold tone, "If the raft sinks, you can go down together."

The people who made the raft were trembling and speechless. After Xie Yunlan moved the knife away, they quickly found some rattan and tied the bamboo raft round and round. Turn it into an indestructible warship.

After a busy morning, the sacrificial offering was almost ready.

Shen Fan came out of the River God Temple, the sun was too hot at noon, Xie Yunlan was standing in the sun to supervise the work, he sat on a chair in the River God Temple to rest.

He didn't realize that he was about to become the bridegroom of the river god at all, and his expression was lazy and casual. He didn't feel any nervousness before getting on the raft, and he was still in the mood to ask Xie Yunlan a question.

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

In just half a day, Shen Fan asked this question for the third time.

When Shen Fan explained the reason for his hesitation before, Xie Yunlan was not only shocked in his heart, but also asked the phrase "Why don't you look good" directly.

After all, if Shen Fan is not good-looking, then other people can only think that this strange-shaped thing vaguely looks like a person.

"Ah?" Shen Fan looked very confused at the time, "Do I look good?"

"When..." Xie Yunlan realized that something was wrong and shut up in time.

It's strange to say that a man is good-looking.

But Shen Fan was still asking the bottom line: "Do you think I'm pretty?"

"I don't think so." Xie Yunlan said firmly.

Shen Fan lowered his head, feeling inferior and a little pitiful: "I really don't look good."

Xie Yunlan: "..."

"...It's not bad-looking." He remedied.

Shen Fan looked up at him with a confused expression: "Then do you think I'm pretty or not?"

Xie Yunlan didn't want to answer, so he changed the topic and talked about the previous question of whether to let Shen Fan go into the water to lure out the river god.

After the two talked and Xie Yunlan was persuaded to agree to the plan, Shen Fan asked again abruptly: "Do you think I look good?"

Xie Yunlan still didn't answer, and found an excuse to prepare for the sacrifice, turned around and left.

He didn't answer the first two times, and he still didn't want to answer the third time, but... Xie Yunlan looked at Shen Fan, who was looking at him intently. He rarely saw this kind of expression on Shen Fan, as if this question was very important to him.

"...Good, good looking." Xie Yunlan's eyes wandered, not daring to look directly at Shen Fan, and his ears were slightly reddened.

Finally got the answer, Shen Fan seemed happy to be praised, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he complimented politely: "You look good too."

Xie Yunlan's face also began to flush.

Until Shen Fan got on the bamboo raft and slowly drifted away from the pier, Xie Yunlan's face still had an unusual tinge of red.

Fortunately, it was so hot that many people's cheeks turned red from the sun, so the abnormality on his face would not attract others' attention.

The bamboo raft floated along the current to the center of the river, Shen Fan was getting further and further away from the shore, the blush on Xie Yunlan's face faded, and turned into a frown of worry.

Although Shen Fan felt confident that he would not be drowned, Xie Yunlan was not as confident as him.

He didn't take his gaze away from Shen Fan for a moment, his eagle-like sharp eyes patrolled the water surface around the bamboo raft, searching for any monsters.

The rest of the people also gathered around the pier, staring at Shen Fan intently, wanting to see what magical powers this so-called envoy of the Dragon God has.

However, everyone waited for one stick of incense, two sticks of incense, and half an hour passed, and nothing happened.

The water of the Cangjiang River is clear and gentle. Occasionally, a fish jumps out of the river, creates a circle of waves and then dives into the bottom again. As for the so-called river god?Not even a shadow was seen.

In fact, during the previous nine sacrifices, the people of Hekou Village had never seen any river god. The reason why the groom sank into the water was that the people of Hekou Village tied the bamboo raft very loosely, and it would disintegrate naturally when it reached the center of the river. , has nothing to do with the river god.

And this time the raft was tied very tightly, Shen Fan did not sink after floating for so long.And after arriving at the center of the river, the bamboo raft stopped moving forward. Xie Yunlan was still not at ease, so he specially found a hemp rope to tie it to the raft, just in case.

Now the rope has been put to the maximum length, the bamboo raft is not moving, neither is Shen Fan.When everyone was more or less anxious because of waiting, Shen Fan still quietly sat cross-legged on the bamboo raft, not at all impatient.

Xie Yunlan looked at him from a distance on the shore, and when he got close to Shen Fan, he would always be offended by the other's coquettishness and stupidity, but when he was so far away, there was an inexplicable sense of distance.

Shen Fan was dressed in white clothes spread out beside him, his brows and eyes were lightly closed, and his expression was indifferent and solemn, like a god or Buddha sitting in a temple, exuding a sense of inviolability that is far away.

Xie Yunlan couldn't help thinking about Shen Fan's background again. When he was distracted, Xu Xin came over with a flattering smile: "Master Xie, are you thirsty after standing for so long? Come have some tea!"

He handed over a celadon teacup containing warm tea. There shouldn't be a tea set by the pier, but Xu Xin sent someone to go to a nearby village to get it.

In terms of luxury enjoyment, Xu Xin is very similar to Shen Fan, but Xie Yunlan's feelings towards the two are completely different. He suppressed his boredom with Xu Xin, took the teacup, and said with a smile: "Thank you very much." Master Xu."

Seeing this, Xu Xin heaved a sigh of relief, and at the same time showed an annoyed expression: "Master Xie, I accidentally said something wrong just now, please don't take it wrong, I was surrounded by those gangsters, what? River God, what lives in this river is a demon that kills people! We must never compromise with this demon!"

Xie Yunlan looked at Xu Xin's performance filled with righteous indignation in front of her as usual, but she sneered in disdain in her heart. What got involved, she accidentally said what was in her heart, and was afraid that she would offend herself and write a booklet to sue the emperor, so now Start to make up.

Xie Yunlan really wanted to write a memorial to show Xu Xin's fatuous and incompetent nature, but at the same time, it meant offending the second prince. Many things Xu Xin is doing now annoy him, but they haven't touched Xie Yunlan's bottom line yet. It is not possible to offend the second prince for this.

So he said: "I know, Mr. Xu is also thinking about the common people. He is worried that the evil spirit will flood Cangzhou City, but he just thought of the wrong way for a while."

"Thank you for understanding me!" Xu Xin's fat face burst into laughter.

Xie Yunlan smiled perfunctorily, said some polite words to Xu Xin, and then turned his gaze back to Shen Fan in the middle of the river. He did not forget to observe the water surface while speaking, but the water surface remained calm.

Another half an hour passed, and everyone lost the nervousness they had at the beginning, and their eyes no longer closely followed the bamboo raft floating in the river. They either sat or leaned under the willow trees on the bank, thinking Why hasn't the river god appeared yet?

Xie Yunlan was also thinking about this question. The God of the River wants a young and handsome man. Although he doesn't know why Shen Fan's aesthetics are so peculiar, he even thinks he is not good-looking, but for most people, his face is definitely far more than that. The word handsome, why didn't the river god take the bait?

Was he aware of Shen Fan's ability and was afraid?Or... is there no river god at all at the bottom of the water?

Something is absorbing the resentment in the water, but this thing may not always be hidden in the water.

Xie Yunlan called a few people from Hekou Village to come over to ask questions. He already knew that none of the people from Hekou Village had met the God of the River in the previous sacrifices, but he still wanted to ask some more details.

"When was this river temple built?"

Everyone shook their heads: "I don't know the exact year, but it has been around for at least a hundred years."

Xie Yunlan asked again: "Do you know the origin of the River God?"

Everyone shook their heads again, only one person shook his head for a while, then suddenly remembered something, and said, "The River God should be a dragon king who came down from the sky."

The rest of the people also remembered what they said, and started talking about it.

"That dragon appeared ten years ago. How long has the River God Temple existed? The time is wrong."

"Where is it wrong? Our Cangzhou prefect is still changing every few years. Doesn't the river god have to change?"

"That's right, that Dragon Lord must have been demoted because of something, so he came to be the Cangjiang River God. Didn't that happen after the Dragon Lord came..." The person who spoke suddenly realized something, be careful He glanced at Xie Yunlan and swallowed the words back.

Xie Yunlan's current attention was on the "dragon", and everyone was talking about it. He didn't pay attention to this person's pause for a while, and only asked: "What dragon? Make it clear!"

An older man came out and explained: "Ten years ago, there was a sudden heavy thunderstorm in Cangzhou one night, and a dragon appeared in the thundercloud."

"Yes, I have never seen such a big thunder in my life!" Someone echoed, "The whole sky was illuminated by thunder that night, and the thunder was as loud as a landslide, rumbling!"

The speaker folded his arms while talking, the power and power of the thunder that night was so terrifying that he still feels a little palpitating when he thinks about it.

Everyone felt the same way, and when they mentioned this matter, their expressions were filled with apprehension.

"Which dragon brought this thunderstorm?" Xie Yunlan frowned. What was the origin of that dragon that could bring such a terrifying thunderstorm?

But the people in Hekou Village said: "No, how can anyone who invites lightning strike himself!"

"All the thunderbolts that night struck on that dragon! There were at least thousands of thunderclaps throughout the night, even tens of thousands! The dragon's scales fell off a lot!"

"It's more than that, even one of the dragon's horns was cut off! The dragon finally fell from the sky, and the dragon's body several hundred feet hit the ground. The noise was as loud as an earthquake!"

They said it vividly, but Xie Yunlan asked, "Did you see it with your own eyes?", but they all said: "I didn't see it, we heard it from people."

Xie Yunlan's expression became suspicious. Although he believed in the existence of dragons in the world after the incident in the capital, dragons are real, but legends and stories may not be true. There are so many people, but none of them have seen it. It really looks like a myth. out of the story.

Seeing his expression, everyone quickly explained: "The thunder is too strong, we dare not go out, we are all hiding in the house, we dare not even look."

There are many thunderstorms in the south of the Yangtze River in summer, but the thunderstorms in the past are not as shocking as that night. When the thunder that should be purple is extremely intense, it is pure white. Under the brilliant sky, everyone's hearts are also pure white, fear When it reaches the extreme, I don't even have the ability to think, let alone go out and check.

"But some brave people in Cangzhou City saw it, and saw that the dragon's horn was cut off and fell from the sky. I heard that the hunter picked up the broken dragon's horn in the mountains the next day. Woolen cloth!"

"Master Xie, I've heard about this too!" Hearing their conversation, Xu Xin hurriedly came over and said, "After the thunderstorm night, there was a rift outside the city of Cangzhou the next day. It was smashed when it came down!"

"Master Xie, that rift is the one we passed when we entered the city yesterday. There was no such rift ten years ago. It suddenly appeared overnight after a thunderstorm. It is impossible for manpower to dig out such a rift overnight. Such a long rift can only be smashed out by the body of a dragon!" A guard who brought Xie Yunlan into the city yesterday also came out to testify.

Rift?A vague thought flashed through Xie Yunlan's mind, and he asked, "Where is the dragon's horn?"

"It seems to be dedicated to the prefect?" Everyone was not sure, "The prefect rewarded several hundred taels of silver, and then the Orion moved away with his family. I don't know where he went."

Xie Yunlan looked at Xu Xin, and Xu Xin quickly said: "I only took office a year ago, they should be talking about the previous prefect, Mr Zheng Rui, Mr Zheng, Mr Zheng went back to his hometown after resigning last year, now he should be in Huaizhou In town."

Huaizhou is some distance away from Cangzhou, and it takes three days to ride a fast horse back and forth, so I can't see Zheng Rui for a while, let alone verify the authenticity of Longjiao.

Xie Yunlan frowned and thought about it. He still had doubts about the authenticity of this matter. These people swear by it, but no one has seen it with their own eyes. The rift that suddenly appeared overnight may also be due to memory deviation caused by rumors. Folk legends of gods and monsters are probably produced in this way.

And even if there is such a dragon whose horn has been cut off, it is not certain whether he is really the new river god that everyone said, and whether it has something to do with the current case. It started to make trouble, but that dragon appeared ten years ago, the time difference is too far away.

He thought for a while, and then asked some details, such as who witnessed the fall of the dragon, and the appearance of the dragon.

When everyone was talking together, their gazes on Shen Fan became less. Shen Fan floated in the middle of the river, the wind was calm, and the people were even quieter. He seemed to be in a trance, motionless, but at this moment, he suddenly opened his eyes.

He looked down at the river water, and when everyone was ignorant, under the clear water surface, there was a cloud of floating shadows out of thin air, like seaweed, or...human hair.

A hand that was so pale that it didn't even have the slightest color of blood suddenly stretched out from under the water surface, carrying damp water vapor onto the bamboo raft. The person under the water raised his head, and a pale and stiff face was reflected in Shen Fan's eyes. It was He Zhu. .