The house looked old and shabby on the outside, but the inside wasn't much better. It was very simple, and there was only one stool. The old man asked the two policemen who came from afar to sit on the wooden bed while he sat on the stool.
There was a freshly cut watermelon on the table. The old man had planned to sit down and chat while eating the watermelon, but he didn't have much of an appetite. He described what had happened that day with a heavy tone.
"It was also a sunny day that day. I brought Xiao Jun to the reservoir to fish. I asked him to stay by the shore while I took the boat to the deeper waters. There weren't many fish in the reservoir, so we couldn't catch any by the shore. Xiao Jun was very obedient. Every time we came to fish, he would stay by the shore and wait. To keep him from getting bored, I also made him a fishing rod. Occasionally, he would catch a few small fish.
"That day, the reservoir was very quiet. I don't know why, but I fished for more than an hour. There wasn't a single fish. I spilled a lot of rice, but not a single fish took the bait …"
Li Xianyu interrupted him and frowned. "When did the fish disappear?"
This was very important. Usually, when there were no fish in the water, it was very likely that something had come to that area. The fish had either been eaten or escaped.
"We come here to fish about twice a week. The last time we came, everything was fine," Old Xu said.
Li Xianyu nodded. "Please continue."
In other words, if something had really come to the reservoir, it would have happened during those few days.
If there had always been a monster in the reservoir, it was impossible that there hadn't been any rumors in the village. The villagers didn't believe the old man's words that the child had been eaten. This meant that there had been nothing in the reservoir before.
"I retracted the hook. The earthworms on it were swollen. Even the small fish didn't come to take a bite. Just as I was about to row the boat further away, I heard Xiao Jun shout at me. He said that there was something in the water. It was a big fish. I didn't believe him. I asked him to wait there. Don't go into the water, and don't run around. Just row the boat. "
"After a few rows, I heard Xiao Jun shout again." Grandpa, there's a big fish in the water. It's swimming towards me. " I turned around and saw that the water was calm. Just as I was about to scold him, a monster emerged from the water and snatched Xiao Jun away. " At this point, the old man seemed to be in pain. He slapped his knees with tears streaming down his face. "If I had believed him, I might have been able to save him. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have brought him here."
"What does the monster look like?" Li Xianyu asked.
"I couldn't see it clearly. Its movements were very fast. I only saw its black back, but its body was very big. It was even bigger than a cow. It was a monster." The old man said.
Li Xianyu frowned. The old man wouldn't lie. He probably didn't see it clearly.
Black back … Was it an alligator?
When a crocodile hunted, it would hide in the water without moving, waiting for a chance to give its prey a fatal blow. The moment it hunted was as fast as lightning, so when the old man turned his head, he saw that the water was calm.
That was what Li Xianyu, an animal lover, imagined.
"No one believed me. Everyone said that I didn't look after my child and caused him to drown. But a drowned body will always float up. There's no body, so Xiao Jun was eaten by a monster." The old man slapped his knees again.
This was indeed unreasonable, but compared to the absurd theory of a monster in the reservoir, people were more willing to believe that the body could not float up for some reason, such as being entangled by water plants.
After this happened, the son and daughter-in-law rushed back from Zhe Province. When they found out that their son had drowned and not even his bones could be found, they were devastated. But the father said with certainty that the child was eaten by a monster. In the eyes of the young couple, this was an excuse to push the blame away. One could imagine how they felt.
The son and daughter-in-law made a scene at home and cut off all ties with Old Xu. After their son's funeral, they left immediately, saying that they would never return. His wife couldn't forgive him and chased him out of the house.
"You've been living next to the reservoir. Are you going to find it?" Li Xianyu asked.
The old man's eyes shone with hatred. "Yes, no matter what it is, I'm going to catch it. I'm going to avenge Xiao Jun, even if I have to die."
The thick net outside the house could even catch a shark. It was obvious that the old man had prepared it to deal with the monster.
"But I didn't find it. I put a lot of stakes in the reservoir and there were nets on them. As long as it passed by, I would be able to catch it. But it didn't appear. I took a boat to the reservoir every day to fish. There were fewer and fewer fish. I looked along the side of the reservoir and didn't find anything strange. So I guessed it must still be in the water. "
"But if …"
If it was still in the water, you would have been fed to the monster since you floated around in the water every day.
The incident happened a month ago. Although he didn't know why the monster came here, it was obvious that this was not its territory. Maybe it had already left?
Li Xianyu felt that this was a wasted trip … No, it wasn't a wasted trip.
He raised his head and looked at the beam. The beam was covered with spider webs and there was a yellow talisman stuck in the middle.
"Grandpa, you didn't build this house, did you? It looks quite old." Li Xianyu asked casually.
"This used to be the place where the reservoir manager lived." Old Xu said.
Great-grandmother, who had been eating watermelon, suddenly asked, "Did something happen to this house before?"
Old Xu was stunned. He looked at Great-grandmother. It wasn't that she was beautiful, but that she was right.
"There used to be a power plant here. It was on the opposite side of the mountain, so there had to be a manager. That manager was a widower and had been living here. Later, the wife of a family in the neighboring village went out to herd sheep. She never came back and couldn't be found. Half a year later, the widower turned himself in to the police station. He said that he had hidden the wife.
"He confessed to his crime. Half a year ago, he saw his wife herding sheep alone in the mountains. He was tempted, so he knocked her out and brought her here. During the day, he tied her up and locked her in a box. At night, he would rape her. " The old man pointed at the bottom of the bed. "The box was buried in the ground, covered with a lid, and then covered with soil. The person was unconscious in the box, so no one could find her. After a long time, no one looked for her anymore. "
"Then why did he turn himself in?"
"I heard that he didn't tie her up properly, so the woman hanged herself on the beam. The widower buried her body on the mountain. After that, every night, he would dream of a woman sleeping beside his bed. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night, and the door would be open, but he clearly remembered to lock the door before going to bed. He knew that the house was haunted, so he turned himself in. But the police said that he was hallucinating because he was under too much pressure. "
"The woman was pregnant?" Great-grandmother asked again.
Old Xu looked at her as if he had seen a ghost. She was right again. "After the police dug up the body, they found that the woman was four months pregnant."
After saying that, the old man looked a little nervous. "How did you know?"
Li Xianyu smiled. "We are the police. It's just a simple deduction. A woman was imprisoned and raped for half a year. Isn't it natural for her to be pregnant?"
The truth was that the woman was hanging on top of Old Xu's head. Her face was the color of pig liver, and her tongue was sticking out. Her cataract eyes were staring at the three people below. It was strange and scary.
Other than that, there were bruises on her body. Her stomach was slightly bulging, and she was only wearing clothes that were so tattered that they could barely cover her body. This was how she looked before she died.
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