After chatting with this uncle for a while, the dishes we ordered were served. Jiang Yongguang warmly invited the uncle to sit down and eat with us. The uncle said he had already eaten, so Jiang Yongguang ordered him a bottle of beer, and they drank and chatted together.

The uncle introduced himself, saying his surname was Huang, the Huang with the grass radical, and told us to call him Old Huang.

He had lived by the Mamu River since he was a child and had never left this small plot of land in his entire life, so he was very familiar with the situation here.

After two or three glasses of wine, Old Huang's face turned red, all the way down to his neck.

It seemed he couldn't hold his liquor, not even beer.

But with his face flushed, Old Huang became even more talkative, speaking non-stop, and we couldn't even get a word in. He said with great seriousness, "Don't you believe it, there really is a dragon in the Dead Man's Pit! Everyone here knows it. Just ask any local, and they'll tell you the same."

We didn't want to argue with him, so we could only nod in agreement.

Old Huang pointed to the book Xiao Liang was holding and said, "Look, this book is about Liu Bowen severing the dragon veins of the world! Why did he come here to sever the dragon? Because there really is a dragon here!"

I thought to myself, "The dragon veins that Liu Bowen severed and the dragon that you're talking about don't seem to be the same thing, are they?"

Old Huang raised his glass and clinked it with ours, and then said, "Actually, I've also heard the story of Liu Bowen. It is said that when he was severing the dragon veins of the world, he came to the Mamu River. There was an evil dragon living in the Dead Man's Pit. Liu Bowen fought with this evil dragon for seven days and seven nights, and in the end, he almost lost his life. Finally, he barely won and locked the evil dragon in a well under the Dead Man's Pit. This well is called the Dragon Locking Well!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry after hearing this story.

Good heavens!

Liu Bowen fought a great battle with an evil dragon!

How come it feels like this shouldn't be something Liu Bowen would do, but something Nezha would do instead?

Jiang Yongguang and Xiao Liang were just listening to Old Huang's story as a pastime. After all, the story was too fantastical. If there really was an evil dragon in the Dead Man's Pit, the government would probably have caught it and done research on it long ago.

Wouldn't that be more valuable for research than a giant panda?

But we still had to be polite, so we pretended to be stunned by what Old Huang said and pretended to believe that there really was a dragon in the Dead Man's Pit.

After dinner, Old Huang enthusiastically suggested taking us on a night tour of the Dead Man's Pit.

We also wanted to familiarize ourselves with the route so that we could go to the site for a field investigation during the day tomorrow.

So, we left the small restaurant and walked along the path by the Mamu River towards the Dead Man's Pit.

The night breeze was indescribably comfortable, but there were many mosquitoes by the river. I had only taken two steps when I was bitten twice on the leg, which was very uncomfortable.

The location of the Dead Man's Pit was not too far away. We strolled for about twenty minutes before reaching our destination.

It was a very inconspicuous small pond, not very large, only about ten meters square.

There was a sign next to the pond that said, "Fishing and swimming are prohibited, violators will be fined."

I really couldn't imagine that there would be a dragon in such a small pond. How unambitious would a dragon have to be to live in such a small pothole? Wouldn't that be too embarrassing for a dragon?

Old Huang seemed to think that this Dead Man's Pit wasn't as thrilling as he had described earlier. He quickly said, "Don't you think the Dead Man's Pit is calm now. When the whirlpools start, the commotion is very loud! Very scary! That's the evil dragon inside causing trouble!"

We quickly nodded in agreement and said, "Ah, yes, yes, yes..."

After wandering around the Dead Man's Pit and recognizing its location, we prepared to go back to rest.

Old Huang also said goodbye to us reluctantly. When we parted, he specially invited us to his house for lunch tomorrow, saying that his wife was a good cook and that her dishes were definitely not worse than what we had just eaten.

Jiang Yongguang probably felt that our identities were special and that there were too many of us, so he was embarrassed to cause trouble for them, so he politely declined.

Old Huang was very sad and shook hands enthusiastically with each of us. Finally, he left drunkenly.

After watching Old Huang leave, Jiang Yongguang took us to find a motel nearby. There were four of us, so we definitely couldn't squeeze into one room. It was just right to open two rooms.

But Xiao Liang was a girl, so she definitely couldn't live with the three of us men. After discussing it, we decided that Xiao Liang would live in one room alone, and the three of us would squeeze into the other room.

Uncle Mei and Jiang Yongguang slept on the two beds in the standard room, and I would make do on the sofa for the night.

After a whole day of tossing and turning, Jiang Yongguang drove a long distance, and Uncle Mei drank alcohol. The two of them lay down on the bed without even taking a bath and soon began to snore.

I was also very sleepy, but I took a shower, and after the shower, I woke up.

I was just about to lie down on the sofa and rest for a while when my cell phone suddenly rang. I looked down and saw that it was a text message from Xiao Liang.

In those days, communication basically relied on text messages and phone calls. The cell phone had a monthly package, and the package included how many hours of phone time and how many text messages.

I remember that I used to have a package of three hundred text messages a month. At the end of the month, if I didn't use up all three hundred text messages, I would send some jokes and blessings to my friends in groups, deliberately using up the remaining text messages. I guess friends in that era had this experience.

It was the end of the month, and I thought Xiao Liang also hadn't used up her text message package and was sending me a message to use up the number. But when I picked up my cell phone, I saw that the text message said, "Chen Rongsheng, can you come to my room for a while?"

I was puzzled. Why would she ask me to go to her room in the middle of the night?

Just then, another text message came from Xiao Liang.

"Chen Rongsheng, are you asleep?"

I was afraid that the sound of the text message would disturb Jiang Yongguang and Uncle Mei, so I quickly wiped my hair with a towel, put on my clothes, and walked to Xiao Liang's room.

Her room was next to ours, so I turned left when I went out.

I knocked on the door and said in a low voice against the door, "Xiao Liang, why are you looking for me?"

When Xiao Liang heard my voice, she immediately came over and opened the door. I saw that she had also just taken a shower. Her short, neat hair was wet, and she smelled fragrant, like a lotus flower emerging from the water.

She waved at me and said, "Come in quickly."

I stepped in and was about to ask her what was the matter when Xiao Liang turned around and pointed to the window in the room and said, "There's something wrong with this window. I can't close it. Chen Rongsheng, can you take a look?"

I said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "If there's something wrong with the window, you should ask the waiter. Why are you asking me? I'm a corpse fisherman. Repairing windows isn't my specialty."

Xiao Liang gently slapped me and scolded, "Stop being so glib. Help me take a look. It's not some complicated project."

I went over and took a look and saw that there was indeed something wrong with the window. The latch that locked the window was loose, which caused the window to be unable to be locked and could only be half-closed.

I turned around and said helplessly, "The window is broken. The spring on the window latch is broken. It's not elastic anymore, so it can't be fastened."

Xiao Liang said with a look of despair, "Then what should I do? I can't sleep with the window open, can I? This is the second floor. What if someone climbs in through the window in the middle of the night?"

I looked out the window and saw that it was indeed not safe here. Outside the window was a crooked-neck tree, and there was a carport below. If someone really wanted to come in, they could easily climb in.