Chenjia Village is located in a place called Ant Mountain south of Bali River and is under the jurisdiction of Yingshang County.

Like many villages far from the county town in Dazhong, Chenjia Village is relatively closed and backward; on weekdays, the highest chief executive in the village is the village chief, followed by a group of older elders with good reputation.

If something happens in the village, it is usually the village chief and these "elders" to discuss countermeasures. The conclusion they draw is the final implementation policy and will not be changed.

Of course, no big deal can happen in a village like this...

When it comes to money, the richest family in Chenjia Village is just a farmer compared to the rich families in the city, and it is even better than a businessman who passes by business. When it comes to beauty, in this mountainous land, the girls in the village have been exposed to wind and sun since childhood and have to do farm work, and they have no chance to receive any cultural education, so they generally don’t have a good appearance and temperament when they grow up.

In such a place, unless there is a village with bandits near you, even robbers and flower-picking thieves will not come here to visit.

Therefore, life in this village is quite peaceful.

Until... one day in the seventeenth year of Yongtai.

That day, there was a thunderstorm, from day to night, no small sign of sight.

In this ghost weather, no matter whether it is farming, chopping wood or hunting, it can't do anything, so the villagers naturally rested early.

In this way, the next morning, the rain stopped, but many families found that... the children at home were gone.

The children in this mountain village are naughty, but they don’t want to go home at night. Besides, it was raining so heavily last night and it was dark outside, so it was unlikely that the children would run out by themselves.

What can I do? Please help me find it.

But the whole village searched around the village for most of the day, but couldn't even find a shadow.

Seeing that it was getting dark again, the adults were so anxious.

First, there are as many as nine children lost, and they are all boys. To put it bluntly, many families, especially poor families, do not regard their daughters as human beings... There are many people who sell their daughters to wealthy families as maids or even to brothels. It is already considered conscientious to be able to think about finding a good husband for their daughter. But boys are different. No matter how stupid or bad they are, they are still treasured by their families.

Secondly, among the nine boys who were missing, three were descendants of the elders' families, and one was the great-grandson of the village chief, who was the "noble" in the village. How could it be a problem if it was lost?

Third, this time the incident was very strange. There were many families in the village who had not lost their children, and they were also worried, afraid that their children would disappear when they woke up early tomorrow morning.

That night, a terrifying atmosphere spread throughout the village...

The village chief was even thinking about sending someone to the county tomorrow to get some money to the county government office and ask the superiors to investigate.

The next day, early in the morning, someone started to scream at the entrance of the village, saying, "What a big deal! There is a fairy!"

When the villagers heard the sound, they flocked to each other and talked; when the village chief arrived after hearing the news, almost all the men, women, young and old in the village had already surrounded there...

The crowd moved aside and asked the village chief to walk forward. When he looked closer, he couldn't help but take a breath: But he saw that there was a half-thick wooden stake that was thicker than the mouth of the bowl on the mud at the entrance of the village.

If you look closely, this is not an ordinary wooden stake, but a mast on the boat.

Of course, a thicker than a bowl mouth is definitely not the mainmast, but in the concept of ordinary people, this is no longer something that can be inserted into the ground by manpower.

"See, village chief, there are still words on it!" Soon, a good thing reminded the village chief next to him.

The village chief actually saw that there were indeed some words engraved on the pillar of the wood; as the person who read the most in the village, he should go up and take a look...

"The God of the Water Realm descended to the mountains, and the common people were ignorant of the west wind. If they wanted the nine sons to go home, they would offer them to the Dragon King Cave in the north of the village." The village chief read the words, frowned and pondered for a moment, roughly understanding the meaning of them.

Then he translated with the villagers: That is to say, a Dragon Prince came to the foot of our Ant Mountain these two days. The heavy rain the day before yesterday was a sign of the Dragon Prince coming. But because we villagers were too ignorant and did not receive the Dragon Prince well, the Dragon Prince got angry, so nine children were lost in the village. Now the Dragon Prince said that as long as we go to the "Dragon King Cave" in the north of the village to present offerings to him, the children will be able to come back.

These words... from the perspective of modern people, they are basically the declaration of the kidnappers, and the core idea is to give money and let people go.

But in the eyes of these villagers, this set of robber logic is very smooth.

They felt that it was definitely not human that could kidnap nine children without knowing it during a thunder and storm night, and could insert the mast of the ship into the ground...

The less knowledge and ability people are, the more they like to use a set of theories that are easier to understand to explain unknown doubts in front of them to eliminate fear.

To pursue the truth, you will face difficulties and dangers, but following the crowd... It is very simple. Everyone says this and does this, and I will follow it and do it; even if it is wrong, it is all the wrong ones.

So the villagers quickly arranged a few baskets, including chicken, duck, fish, meat, rice, flour, money and grain, and put them together, and carried the loads to the cave in the north of the village.

The cave is very deep, connected to the underground river, with many forks in the cave and complex terrain. Locals know that it is impossible to enter here because it is easy to get lost after entering. Originally, this cave did not have a name, but now that the "Dragon Prince" said that this is the Dragon King Cave, the villagers called it that way.

At noon, they had already set up a simple altar in front of the Dragon King Cave, lit incense, and placed the "offer" at the entrance of the cave. Then the village chief led the villagers to kneel and kowtow. After worshiping for a long time, they left respectfully.

As a result, it really worked. They came here again the next morning and found that the nine missing children were lying under the altar, but yesterday's offerings were gone...

The villagers now believe that this is the Dragon Prince showing his saint. This kidnapper did what he said.

Later, a few similar things happened in the village, and the routines were almost the same, so I won't go into details here. Those children who were kidnapped by the Dragon Prince were usually still young and were not good at speaking. Even if the adults asked what they saw, they couldn't explain clearly.

Over time, the villagers in Chenjia Village were trained by the "Dragon Prince". Now the Dragon Prince no longer has to engage in kidnapping activities. The villagers themselves know that they will send batches of "offerings" on the 15th day of every month, and they don't have to give money, rice, flour, wine and meat;

In fact, seeing this, I believe all the readers can see that this group of thieves pretending to be the Dragon King is not very smart. The excuse I thought was a bit far-fetched, but they had no choice... Because the big girl is different from the child, the girl may run away, and if she sees something and goes back to talk nonsense, the "Dragon King Cave" will be leaked.

This will naturally allow villagers to bring people when it is dark; in the dark, the girls can't see things clearly, and they can't run far if they want to run. As long as the villagers leave, they will come out to get people, which will not be convenient.

In short, this farce has lasted for more than a year so far.

The villagers in Chenjia Village are also very good at comforting themselves, just like some religious believers: whenever they encounter any good things in life, they will say that this is blessed by the Dragon Prince, and that our offerings are indeed worth it; whenever they encounter some bad things, they feel that we are not sincere enough, and we have to give more offerings next time.

Until...that evening, two people came to the entrance of the village...

…………

After Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai entered Chenjia Village, they casually found a teahouse to sit down, and immediately found out what they saw at the entrance of the village just now.

The villagers didn't hide anything, because in their concept, the Dragon Prince already had a belief here and there was nothing that could not be mentioned. So, even the waiter brought the tea drinkers around him to supplement each other's words and told them all the above.

After hearing this, the first reaction of the modern people who have traveled through time is also conceivable that this is absolutely a human being. Isn’t it just kidnapping?

However, they didn't say anything in front of the villagers, because by observing their expressions, they had already seen that the villagers here were already Stockholm syndrome. If you say in front of them that "Dragon Prince" is not, maybe they will turn against each other.

At this time, it was almost dark, and the two of them hurried to find a family to stay.

After entering the room, Sun Yixie gave the fellow villager some money and told the other party not to disturb them. Then he closed the door and began to discuss with Huang Donglai...

"Brother Sun, do you care?" Huang Donglai asked.

Sun Yixie had a tacit understanding with him, so he naturally knew what he was asking: "Don't worry~" He looked arrogant and raised his eyes to glance at his trident, "We care about the blatant things like Zoumazhai, are you still afraid of these people pretending to be a ghost?" He paused, "Besides, Is it different now, right? With my skills, killing a few bandits is like cutting melons and vegetables?"

"Okay, Brother Sun, that's OK, ah." Huang Donglai said, "I admit that you have made some progress now, but don't have the illusion that you are 'very capable'. Isn't it good to be chasing you and killing me? Then you're going to be chased and cut off?"

"Shut up~" Sun Yixie said in a long voice, "When did I be chased and chopped? Just tell me, are you scared?"

"What am I afraid of? You are not afraid of it." Huang Donglai said, "I just want you to be more cautious and don't be too careless by then."

"If you are cautious, I will be cautious." Sun Yixie raised his eyebrows and said, "Is it okay if you have intelligence?"

"Oh?" Huang Donglai read something from the other person's expression, and his lips raised slightly, "So... Brother Sun, have you planned again?"
Chapter completed!