Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Guan Shui drove to Zhang Zi’s hometown.
Zhang Zi was a native of Jiangcheng, and his hometown was in a village on the border of Jiangcheng and Yangcheng.
The village was called Zhifu Village. In recent years, as part of the new rural construction, every household had gotten a two-story self-built house next to the cement road. However, in June, most young people were working outside, and there were not many people left in the village to farm. Every household thus had its doors and windows closed, making it seem a bit quiet.
Guan Shui had been to Zhang Zi’s home once. Zhang Zi’s home was at the end of the village, an old brick-and-tile bungalow a little far from the road, with large fields and irrigation ditches behind the house. His family was poor and in debt, his parents worked away from home all year round, and there was only a deaf and blind grandmother at home.
Guan Shui was not sure whether he had returned to his hometown, but Zhang Zi was raised by his grandmother, and was the most filial to her. Even if he was a jerk, he would not abandon his grandmother.
They could only try their luck here.
“We have to go a little further inside.” Guan Shui stopped the car on the side of the road and pointed to the dirt road that turned left from the concrete road.
After parking the car, the two walked in. The sun was strong and there were not many people on the road. The master and the apprentice walked past the decent self-built buildings in front and finally saw the low brick and tile house in the back.
But before they could get close, they heard Zhang Zi’s voice. He seemed to be arguing with someone, shouting things like “go away”, “don’t come over here”, “I was wrong”.
Guan Shui was happy at first, but then he realized that something might have happened to Zhang Zi’s family. He looked at Captain Guan, picked up a thick branch from the roadside as a weapon, and quietly approached Zhang Zi’s house.
Captain Guan was old, but he was not a coward. He also took a brick in his hand and followed Guan Shui.
The main hall of this bungalow had two doors, both in front and back, which were connected. Captain Guan hid at the front door to provide support, while Guan Shui quietly entered the house and walked to the back where the sound was coming from.
He originally thought that the debt collectors had come to Zhang Zi’s hometown and was thinking about whether to call the police. But when he walked to the front of the main hall and saw the situation outside, he opened his eyes wide in horror.
As mentioned before, behind Zhang Zi’s house was a large area of farmland and irrigation ditches. The back door was only two or three meters away from the paddy field. At this time of year, the paddy field was full of green and growing rice seedlings. However, now, many of the rice seedlings had been trampled down. Zhang Zi stood in the paddy field with a stick in his hand in despair, with injuries on his body, and was retreating step by step. In front of him, there were at least twenty turtles of all sizes.
These turtles all stretched out their pointed heads, staring at Zhang Zi with a pair of small eyes. The big turtle in the front still had blood and flesh in its mouth, which looked like it had been torn from Zhang Zi.
When Zhang Zi took a step back, they took a step forward, as if they were forcing Zhang Zi into the ditch behind. This was the scene on the shore, but if he really went into the water, Zhang Zi’s fate would probably be the same as Zheng Yu’s.
Guan Shui’s heart was in his throat. He tried to remind Zhang Zi: “Don’t go back. There’s a ditch behind you! Don’t go into the water!”
“Brother, save me, please call the police, help me call the police!” When Zhang Zi saw him, a glow appeared on his desperate face.
Before Guan Shui could say anything, he saw the turtles suddenly turn their heads to look at him, their little eyes were pitch black and contained a hint of chilling emotion.
Guan Shui swallowed his saliva, remembering what Jiang Lan had said about these turtles being very smart. He threw the branch he had picked up as a weapon to the ground, raised his hands and took a step back to show that he was harmless.
Sure enough, the turtles turned their heads back and stared at Zhang Zi.
Two of the big turtles pounced on him again, biting Zhang Zi’s legs one on each side. Zhang Zi was unable to dodge and fell to the ground with a cry of pain. He could only desperately hit the turtles on the head with a stick.
But these turtles refused to let go and even bit his legs, trying to drag him into the ditch behind him!
The rest of the turtles were scattered around and followed slowly behind. This scene looked weird and scary.
“Brother, save me!” Zhang Zi was being dragged backwards into the ditch. He could only turn his head and look at Guan Shui, with his hands firmly stuck in the soft mud of the paddy field, trying to steady his body.
Guan Shui gritted his teeth, bypassed the turtles and rushed to the front to stop them, trying to communicate with them: “Let’s talk first? What do you want? We can try our best to satisfy you.”
He was afraid that the turtles wouldn’t understand, so he took some effort to gesture how to move away from the water.
He was afraid that the turtles would not understand and would drag him into the water as well. He could only delay time while anxiously hoping that his master would quickly find someone to help.
However, what was strange was that the turtles seemed to have really understood what he said and stopped.
The big turtle dragging Zhang Zi opened its mouth and let out a short cry. After this cry, the other turtles all looked towards Guan Shui and also let out a cry of “ah”.
Guan Shui didn’t understand, and didn’t dare to guess, so he could only scold Zhang Zi: “What the hell did you do? If you don’t want to die, tell the truth! Otherwise, you will end up like Zheng Yu. I don’t want to die with you!”
Zhang Zi’s face turned pale. After looking around, he seemed to finally accept his fate and said tremblingly, “Under the bed, that thing is buried under my bed.”
Guan Shui understood what was going on. It turned out that he had taken something from these turtles.
He swallowed hard and negotiated with them: “I’ll go get the things for you right now, okay?”
As he spoke, he slowly moved his body. The turtles kept following him, but they didn’t attack. Guan Shui quickened his pace and rushed into the house.
He didn’t dare to delay, so he went to Zhang Zi’s room, moved the bed away, and then started digging the soil.
There was a piece of soil under the bed that was obviously loose, so he didn’t dare to waste time and started digging on that spot. It was only when Captain Guan from outside came over with a shovel to help that he could move faster.
Guan Shui lowered his voice, fearing that the turtles would understand him: “Have you contacted Jiang Lan?”
Captain Guan nodded: “They are coming, let’s stabilize the situation first.”
As they were talking, the shovel stopped, as if it had hit a hard lump. The two stopped and used their hands to pull the object out, only to find that it was an iron box.
The box was unlocked, and the two opened it and found it was filled with wood ash. Guan Shui reached in and touched something cold. He took it out and found that it was a white jade turtle.
The jade carving was lifelike, and the turtle’s eyes were full of agility. The turtle was as big as a basketball and had a transparent luster. It was cold to the touch but became warm after a while.
Even people who didn’t know much about jade could guess that such a large jade carving must be worth a lot of money.
Zhang Zi’s family had been poor peasants for three generations, so it was impossible for them to own such an expensive item. One could easily imagine where this thing came from.
Guan Shui took a deep breath and carefully held the white jade turtle out: “Is this it?”
Sure enough, the turtles became restless. Two of them crawled over and stared at Guan Shui with a fierce look.
Guan Shui’s heart trembled. He put the white jade turtle on the ground and took a few steps back.
The two turtles opened their mouths, picked up the white jade turtle, quickly crawled towards the ditch, and then went into the water.
Guan Shui was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he discovered that the other turtles were still holding Zhang Zi, staring at him with their little eyes.
He was a little confused: “Is it not done yet?”
Captain Guan seemed to remember something, looked at Zhang Zi, and asked sternly, “Is there more than one? Did Zheng Yu take one too?”
Zhang Zi nodded with a dejected look on his face.
The author has something to say:
Longlong: I kissed him!
Lanlan: I licked him 0.0
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