Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 939: Crossing the River (Part )

In Cai Ji's expectation, the address of the old shipyard should not be difficult to find at all. The first message from Xiaochu told him that the old shipyard was located at No. 206 Dongyun Road. Although I heard that the roads in the old industrial park were very difficult to identify, and even the information on the navigation map was out of date, the factory was much more familiar to Cai Ji than the intertwined high-rise office buildings in the business district. What's more, buildings like shipyards, even those that can only build small ships, will definitely be built in riverside or coastal areas.

As he walked through the oleander forest on the edge of the industrial park, he still felt that this was a sure thing. However, when he actually entered the area that once belonged to the old industrial park, he still got lost. After more than ten years of desolation, this place is rarely inhabited. The roads are full of cracks, muddy and narrow, which reminded Cai Ji of the stories about dilapidated shops told to him by people in auto repair shops. They said the auto repair shop had some hope of making a fortune because city planning once placed a certain important road leading to the port here. Unfortunately, it didn't happen in the end, because there was a two-story villa across the road, and the asking price for demolition was 300 million. So the road that was finally built went in a small circle, throwing their broken gravel roads and gasoline-smelling air into a corner where no one cared. All the shops on this road suffered as a result, and those selling snacks or retail were all closed, leaving only their kind of business that could still make a living. And the two-story western-style building didn't do much good either. It was as abandoned as a haunted house. The owner of the house rarely shows up, and he may have guessed how much the people nearby hate him.

This is how Cai Ji feels about the old industrial park. All the shops are on the verge of closing down or already being rented out. The white paper with the words "Want Shop for Rent" written on the rolling shutter door has turned yellow and curled. It's probably very cheap to open a store in this place, but unfortunately even if you open a coffin shop, people may not patronize it. This place is completely dead, the residue left behind by the city's metabolism. His fellow villagers always say that cities are ruthless places where factories suck blood from farmland and land, forcing people who work on the land to leave their hometowns. When they grow old, they drive people away like trash. But in fact, cities will also abandon factories, just like the place he walked into. Once new opportunities arise, the old prosperity will no longer exist.

It seemed as if everyone had gone, leaving only the remains of the factory looking down at him from a distance. Most of the buildings that have not been demolished are badly rusted. The bricks and tiles are like rotten wood that has been eaten by insects, and the metal frames are mottled and red, like bloody wounds. This aroused Cai Ji's sporadic memories of the past in his hometown, but he rarely recalled the past. This place was different from what he had initially expected. There were too few people and the roads were difficult to recognize. It would be over if someone discovered him. Therefore, he always stayed close to the walls and shadows, walking attentively and carefully, always listening to the surroundings. The disturbance.

When he discovered that there were no street signs in this place, and the network signal was often interrupted, Cai Ji already regretted taking this risk for Xiao Chu. If he had to struggle so hard to find his way, it's hard to imagine how Xiao Chu would find No. 206 Dongyun Road. Maybe that idiot was kidnapped on the road, or captured by a guy from a car repair shop. He was thinking about how he could take a hot bath when he got back, and lie in bed and watch a football match on his mobile phone, but his feet were still circling these spider web-like thin roads, trying to get closer to those tall and dark factories.

At the corner of a river ditch, he spotted the light of a flashlight emerging from a willow tree from a distance. It turned out to be a middle-aged man fishing. After confirming that the opponent did not bring much equipment and was not much stronger than himself, Cai Ji slowly walked over. When he was still three or four meters away, he coughed on purpose. Only then did the middle-aged man, who was focusing on observing the water, realize his presence. He turned around suddenly to see him and almost fell off the horse.

His reaction made Cai Ji feel safer. In such a remote and uninhabited place, it is much better to meet someone who is afraid of you than someone who is not afraid.

"Just asking," he said, "how to get to Dongyun Road?"

The night fisherman turned his flashlight towards him. The arrow-like beam made Cai Ji a little uncomfortable. In fact, he hates the looks of strangers and doesn't know how to strike up a conversation with strangers. One of his fellow villagers would laugh and stop a passing female student on the road, lie and say that he had been defrauded in the city and was penniless, and then ask the other party to treat him to a meal for twenty yuan. This guy told Cai Ji this as a joke and as proof of his charm, but Cai Ji only felt disgusted and contemptuous. This is what a person who hides a knife in his smile will do. People who don't understand etiquette will suffer. As long as they are not seeking the other person's benefits, there is no need to show off. However, if you want to open a store, you still have to learn how to say nice things to strangers. But he felt that this was a serious matter of making money, which was different from shamelessly begging for food.

After using a flashlight to see Cai Ji's appearance clearly, the middle-aged man was still wary, but he looked relieved.

"Dongyun Road?"

"Yes, the cave in the cave, that cloud in the sky. How to get there?"

"What are you doing there?" the middle-aged man asked. His eyes fell on Cai Ji's hair like most people did, and he probably didn't pay special attention to his age. Cai Ji felt that his question was just casual, so he pretended not to hear and continued to ask: "Do you know how to get there?"

"Just follow the river to the northeast."

The middle-aged man slowly put away the fishing rod from the river, hooked his right foot on the bucket in the grass and put it away towards him. By the moonlight, Cai Ji saw the reflection of the wet carapace inside the bucket, and a crayfish that had climbed to the top was reaching for the edge of the bucket with its black and slender pliers. He couldn't be a liar pretending to be a fisherman. As he thought this, he stopped walking as he was about to walk away.

"What are you doing there in the middle of the night?" the middle-aged man asked again, with a hint of interest in his voice, but not as scared as Cai Ji thought. He wore a fisherman's hat on his head, and his chin was covered with thick stubble, so his appearance couldn't be clearly seen, but his tone of voice was not vicious. Probably seeing that Cai Ji wouldn't answer, he took the initiative and said, "You're here to see that, right?"

"...Which one?"

"He's the one who teaches qigong." The middle-aged man laughed loudly after saying this, as if he thought he had said something very funny. It wasn't until he saw Cai Ji frozen on the spot with no reaction that his laughter stopped. He asked, "So, is that true?"

Cai Ji didn't speak for a while. He considers himself not a quick-minded person, and the other party's words are so incomprehensible. However, considering Xiaochu’s strange message, it can be seen that there is indeed something wrong with No. 206 Dongyun Road. He asked calmly: "What qigong are you talking about?"

"Ah, you don't know?" the middle-aged man said and laughed again. The laughter was loud and hollow. The look of a joke made Cai Ji very uncomfortable. "Then why are you going there so late at night?"

"……Find someone."

"Oh... family?"

There was no need to tell a stranger about Xiao Chu. Cai Ji just lowered his head in silence. In the peripheral light of the flashlight, a slight wrinkle appeared on the middle-aged man's forehead.

"Aren't the people in your family the same ones who went there with cameras a few days ago? Are they going to shoot a show?"

Cai Ji shook his head. He didn't believe that Xiao Chu would take others with him to the old shipyard, and he had never seen Xiao Chu holding any camera. But he remembered that there was an outdoor adventure live broadcast that a colleague in the auto repair shop liked to watch. That's about it. In his opinion, city people always have this kind of crazy behavior. Instead of staying in a safe and comfortable house, they insist on running to various dangerous and remote places. He also said that this is liberating nature. If you really like it, why don't you live in the country? It just so happens that the space can be freed up for those who need it.

There seemed to be a look of disapproval on his face, and the middle-aged man let out a particularly annoying laugh. "There's something wrong with people nowadays. They don't take the rules of the older generation seriously and do things that disrespect tradition all day long. If you ask me..."

Hearing that the other party had some complaints that had nothing to do with business, Cai Ji was uninterested and prepared to leave. "Hey!" The middle-aged man called him from behind. "If you have lost someone at home, you'd better find a few more people to go there during the day. Or call the police." Cai Ji turned around to look at him. "Why do you need more people? What's the problem there?"

The middle-aged man was already immersed in packing the equipment in the grass. Cai Ji couldn't see his face, and could only hear the ankle-high grass rustling in the darkness.

"It seems," the middle-aged man said slowly, "it's not a big problem. It's just that, in the past few weeks, I have been fishing here at night. I probably saw three or four groups of people going there. There were two One said they were here to see the qigong master, and the others said they were here to broadcast the show, and they all looked young."

"so what?"

"I only saw them going there, but I didn't see them coming back."

The restless grass suddenly became quiet. Cai Ji felt like the air he breathed into his lungs was mixed with tiny frost particles, giving him a freezing sting. In the uncomfortable silence, there was only the increasingly noisy chirping of insects, and then the middle-aged man laughed loudly again.

"Anyway, I just didn't see it." He admitted readily, "I probably left during the day."

"...Have you ever visited Dongyun Road?"

"No. What does it have to do with me? I'm just here to fish."

The middle-aged man was quiet in the dark for a while, and then added: "There are so many fish here at night, and there are many kinds of fish...it's really interesting."

After saying this, he grabbed the fishing rod in one hand, picked up the duffel bag with the flashlight and the horse in the other hand, and walked away to the southwest without looking back. He quickly merged into the night like escaping from the plague, but the hollow laughter that seemed to be trying to prove that it had nothing to do with him lingered in Cai Ji's ears, making him feel restless. This man was very strange. He told himself that his words and actions were a bit suspicious, so it was best to ignore them - but another voice told him that this man seemed to be really afraid of something.

Are you afraid of the people in the old shipyard? He was even advised to call the police. But if it was really that serious, why didn't the other party call him himself? That means the other party doesn’t have any evidence, right? And it’s none of my business. If you really want to go to the police, you may be treated as if you are looking for trouble. Even if you really find something, it will only cause you trouble and no good. If you are asked to assist in an investigation or something like that, wouldn't it delay your job search?

But what should Xiaocu do? He hesitated and thought, after all, he was the last person Xiaochu contacted. If he left it alone, others probably wouldn't care much either. Really, he was not particularly close to Xiaochu at all, and he had no financial dealings with her. It was just Xiaochu who gave him the last message out of wishful thinking. This kind of heavy trust does nothing but cause trouble. But... after all, Xiao Chu respected him. No matter in his hometown or here, only Xiaochu regards him as a great person, someone who can be relied on and even respected, rather than a superfluous thing that doesn't matter whether he exists or not. If we can save a handful of little cuds within a safe range, why can't we do it?

Do you really want to go to the old shipyard? Or should we just call the police? He stood on the bank of the river and hesitated. The middle-aged man's laughter just now still echoed in his ears, like a last warning given to him, admonishing him to turn back immediately and never touch the secrets of the old shipyard. Those who passed by at night did not come back... Anyway, people who fish at night can't squat until dawn, right? Or there is another way out. If something happened to so many people, especially people who were involved in outdoor adventure programs, the matter must have spread long ago, and it would not have been so peaceful.

He stood still for a while, and finally walked northeast along the river. The sound of water and the chirping of insects have always been with him, reminding him of the days he spent in his hometown when he was a child. In fact, he has almost forgotten about the days in his hometown, because he never makes any effort to recall them, so he might as well concentrate on living the life in front of him.

However, he found that this trail along the river was very different from the situation in his hometown, and it was also different from those near the sewage rivers in the new industrial park. If we weren't worried about Xiaocu's safety, walking on this road would be a pleasure. At first, Cai Ji suspected that he was confused by fright. It wasn't until he saw pieces of lotus leaf-like aquatic plants floating on the river that he realized that the key was the smell:

Whether it was the pungent smell of industrial waste gas and sewage that he couldn't get rid of in the past, or the fishy smell of mud or feces that he often smelled in his hometown's fields, none of these smells that had been engraved in his bones were gone on the road leading to the old shipyard. . The cool and moist air is very refreshing, and even has a faint fragrance. He sniffed uncertainly, but there seemed to be nothing there. But the missing smell is not an illusion. The air here was strangely cleaner than where he had just walked.

The sky also became clearer. There are no residential buildings anymore on both sides of the river, and low but huge factory ruins are gradually rising. Cai Ji deliberately walked down from the river bank to confirm whether he could still find the street signs and house numbers, but found that the walls of the ruins were covered with countless ivy. The feather-like leaves are stacked one on top of another, shining silver in the moonlight. Cai Ji couldn't help but feel trembling all over. He quietly retreated to the river bank. The air immediately became sweet and refreshing, and the shuddering uneasiness disappeared.

He took a few deep breaths and continued walking along the river bank for half an hour. There were more algae and lotus leaves on the river surface, and the night became clearer and clearer. Although there was no artificial light source, the road and distant views were clearly visible. The red oleander, which can be seen everywhere in the new industrial park to the point of nauseating, is not even seen in this abandoned land. Whether it is a low and broad fence wall or a chimney pipe dozens of meters high, they are all covered with creepers as fine and compact as scales, with countless leaves spreading wantonly, like another world.

In Cai Ji's experience, he has never seen a place like this. It is neither a city scenery nor a pastoral scenery. It is like a scene that can only be seen in a nightmare. Even if this place is temporarily abandoned, can a creeper of this size really grow? Cai Ji didn't dare to think too much, but he wasn't willing to leave just yet. There was something soothing about the air around the riverbank that prevented even fear from rising in him. Surrounded by aquatic life and the chirping of insects, he neither wanted to get close to the ivy-covered ruins, nor did he want to escape by turning back along the river. Just keep going. No matter where the river ultimately leads. He even remembered the boy with guitar who passed by the door of the car repair shop that Xiaochu told him. If he continues along this strange path, he might also meet that kind of person.

However, he didn't have anyone who fit Xiao Chu's description. At the end of the river, the terrain drops suddenly, forming a shallow, clear water. Because it was surrounded by abandoned factory buildings, Cai Ji couldn't tell for a while whether it was a closed lake or an estuary near a canal. He tried his best to look around with his eyes wide open, and saw only a stone building that looked like a trestle on the lake. Under the stone pillars where the trestle enters the water are green algae and lotus leaves, and there is a person standing on the platform at the end. Wearing gray-blue overalls, he originally stood on the edge of the platform looking down at the water, but turned his head when Cai Ji saw him. Even though he was at least a thousand meters away, Cai Ji seemed to be able to see the man's subtle movements clearly. He saw him nodding to him and waving his hand. come on. He vaguely heard the other party say this, as if his voice was in his ears.

Cai Ji took a step back. But he didn't immediately think of running away, he was just surprised that the other party could see him clearly in the darkness. Then he remembered that he shouldn't show up rashly, so he took another step back - and then his vision flew up.

Not his body, nor his head or eyes, only his vision was suddenly thrown out, swaying high like a ghost swept up by the dark wind, spinning and swaying helplessly in the air, flying over the water in an instant. At the same time, his body stayed where it was, still standing, feeling and smelling the calming air, and being slapped on the cheek by the moist night wind. Only vision flies across the water, approaching the person standing at the end of the trestle. The other party was also looking up at him, as if he could see ghosts floating in the wind. He looked to be in his twenties, and his appearance was almost featureless. His face had a calm and thoughtful expression, and there was no hint of the friendliness that Xiao Chu said.

Cai Ji tried his best to retreat. His feet moved on solid ground, his heels hitting some kind of barrier. He felt the imbalance of his body before falling, but his "vision" did not change at all, and it was still drifting towards the trestle in the wind. He wanted to shout out, but couldn't even take a big breath. He felt like he was dead, just like people in movies and TV shows who would see the world turning over when their heads fell to the ground. And his head was cut off, just like killing people with drops of blood or flying swords in the story. His remaining hands were waving in vain in the void, but could not stop the trestle in front of him from getting closer. The man in gray-blue overalls put his hands in his coat pockets, looked at the lotus leaves on the water, and then at his ghost. There was no murderer's pride or ridicule on his face, it was just like a tourist seeing a wild cat passing by by chance - the kind of tourist who has no interest in small animals.

You are not dead. Cai Ji's "ghost" heard the other party say - it was just an optic nerve hijack.

(End of this chapter)