Chapter 58: Big Event (Part 2)

This is part of the green mountain at the entrance to the village, stretching all the way to here.

Originally, the green mountains always give people a good feeling. When I first came here, I didn’t pay much attention to the mountains, but I was curious why there were green mountains and clear waters in a world of yellow soil. Could it be the special hobby of the owner here?

Now, as the boat draws closer to the green mountain, I feel an inexplicable sense of oppression. The closer I get, the more I feel that there is something hidden beneath the green appearance of the mountain. This green is not normal at all, like a freehand splash ink landscape painting that has been forced to be dyed a layer of green.

Neither the green itself nor the mountains match!

I frowned. At this point in the journey, all my negative emotions had inexplicably disappeared, and I had begun to return to normal. I felt like I was experiencing a “last flash of light” for some reason. I didn’t know why I had this thought, but I tried not to think about it and focused all my attention on the strange mountain.

Compared to the strange mountain, the boat we were riding on seemed so small. As I concentrated on thinking, the small boat seemed to be crashing into the strange mountain with all its might.

This tremendous pressure even made me stop thinking, and I inexplicably held my breath. At the moment when the boat was about to crash into the mountain, it suddenly made a sharp turn along the steep bottom of the mountain, and then continued to move forward.

I have to say that the boatman’s technique is very good, but such a sharp turn made everyone on the boat sway back and forth, but it seems that everyone is used to it. After the boat stabilized, everyone stood up silently and sat down again in silence!

The current in this section of the river was already a little bit turbulent, but compared to other sections of the Yellow River, it was still relatively calm. I didn’t know why the boat had to go along the bottom of the mountain, but after going forward for a while, I understood the reason.

It turns out that the mountain range does not completely block the water flow, but leaves a winding gap. Due to the visual blind spot, at first glance, it seems that the mountain range completely blocks the water flow. The reason for sailing close to the mountain range is that this section of the river is winding and twisting. If you don’t sail close to the mountain range, it would be difficult for the boat to pass through this section of the river, even if it is a wu-peng boat.

In these winding waterways along the mountains, the water flows more rapidly and the water becomes yellowish. At this time, you can feel that you are in the Yellow River and can feel the momentum of the Yellow River.

I was just amazed at the skill of the boatman. In such a harsh water environment, he kept the boat steady. It was as if he was a native of the water people who grew up on the banks of the Yellow River. No, it was even better than that. Was it deliberately cultivated by Shengcun?

I also thought of that strange face like a skull… I had the intuition that all these boatmen should be like this! But why should I care about this?

When my thoughts were in a mess, the boat suddenly entered the narrowest part of the river, so narrow that only two such boats could pass side by side. The current was so strong that it was unimaginable. The boatman, who had been very calm until now, became serious. Although I couldn’t see his expression because he was wearing a cloak, my excellent hearing could hear his breathing become rapid and heavy.

I thought to myself, “It must be very tiring to control a boat in such a current.” I began to sway with the boat, and then the violent shaking made it impossible for me to think.

Fortunately, the river was not very long. When I had reached the limit of my endurance and was about to vomit, the boat suddenly came out of the narrow river… I took a deep breath to calm the dizziness in my body, and then I heard the roar of the water and the noisy voices.

Where am I? At this point, I remembered to look around and found that after passing through that narrow stretch of river, we had actually reached a stretch of open water. The yellowish water roared forward, and this was the real Yellow River.

Looking far ahead, I saw an unimaginably huge backwater bay ahead, where the surging river gradually calmed down.

Next to the backwater bay is a huge half-moon-shaped tidal flat with the typical characteristics of the Northwest. On the inner side of the tidal flat is a large, half-moon-shaped open space paved with green bricks. This should be the work of the holy village. It is really a big hand, but it is also enough to be idle!

The noisy voices came from the open space of the blue bricks. At the moment, it was almost a sea of red. The more closely I got, the more I could hear the joyful sounds.

Behind the open space, there seemed to be a tiered stand-like structure, and some people were sitting on it. I wanted to take a closer look, but I was a little far away, so I had to give up for the time being.

The boat was heading towards the tidal flats. At that moment, I realized that the reason for the quiet river was because the mountain blocked the fierce water flow, which is why I thought it was a clear river in the south.

There are many relatively quiet tributaries on the Yellow River, and this one is probably one of the smaller ones. But because of the strange mountain, the quiet tributary, which is equivalent to a “paradise” in the Yellow River, is also well hidden.

No wonder the entire village is also well hidden.

As if I had solved a small puzzle, I felt a little happy inside. At this time, the boatman had already maneuvered the boat very close to the mudflats and then stopped at the edge of the open space with the green tiles.

“Get off the boat.” The village official, who had been waiting here impatiently, shouted at us in the boat. Despite the joy, his voice was full of some kind of tyranny and full of energy.

Since we had already come this far, I naturally didn’t care about the attitude of this village official. I obediently followed the crowd off the boat, and then waited for another group of boats to arrive. After hundreds of people had gathered, the village official led us onto the platform of bricks and into the sea of red.

Without the freedom to sit down, everyone had to stand. People didn’t seem to complain, and I took advantage of the crowd’s cover to start observing the so-called high platform.

At this time, I discovered that at the top of the platform was a large Taoist-style altar. Under the altar were a row of neat VIP rooms similar to a horse stable, and under the stands were the highly-ranked “village officials,” and down the ranks were the village officials.

The grandstand is not large, but it is definitely not small. In short, the core figures of the village’s high-level figures are almost all on the grandstand. However, I know that the most mysterious existence should be in those rooms. This reminds me of the huge mountain venue in the Xueshan Mountain Range. In the same way, the top-level figures are all treated like this.

But it’s funny to think that the top people are destined to be invisible?

At this time, I thought of Xiao Chengqian for no reason. After he was taken away by that strange Taoist, there was no news of him, and our situation was difficult, and we had too much anxiety in our hearts, so we didn’t think about him for a while. In fact, I always believed that he was safe… Today, I really want to know where he is, but those people on the bleachers didn’t even notice Xiao Chengqian’s familiar face.

The gathering process is relatively long, after all, the holy village is also a certain distance from this magical place, plus the river is difficult to navigate, and the transportation is primitive, so I still have to face a relatively long wait to see what this holy event is about, where people marry the so-called gods.

In the meantime, time passed by little by little. I was woken up at 5:30 in the morning and have been tossing and turning until now. The snow has stopped and the sky is a little dazzling and blinding. Before I knew it, it was already noon.

During this wait, some village officials tirelessly patrolled the crowd back and forth. I didn’t care about them at all, so when one of them came up to me and said, “Follow me,” I didn’t react at all.

What I didn’t know was that at this time, with the arrival of the last group of people, the gathering process was almost over.

The so-called big event in the holy village had already begun, but I was still faced with a village official who wanted to take me away. Should I go or not? In a moment of hesitation, the suffocating feeling of panic was about to surround me again.