Tomb Raider: I Can Hear Antiques Talk

Chapter 163 Visiting the Old Village Chief

The jeep stumbled to the entrance of the village, and Xiao Ran saw a simple stone tablet standing on the side of the road, engraved with the words "Futou Village" in Xingkai.

But perhaps because of the age, the edge of this monument has been tattered, and the word "Fu" on the top has lost its head, otherwise, it would probably be targeted by the three bridgemen or other cultural relic dealers.

Although there is no traffic in the village, there is definitely a lot of news, and there are yellow-haired girls eating breakfast in the yard.Although this small village is not very prosperous, it can be called thriving.

As soon as the car drove into the village, Xu Er asked Xiao Ran to slow down the car. Many black, yellow and yellow dogs in the village kept barking around the car, and several larger dogs stood up from time to time. Leaving on the car door, Liu Shengli who was behind was so scared that his face was full of tension.

Many children also chased after the car, taking advantage of the occasional braking gap to touch it.After all, in this day and age, it is rare to see such a car that can only be used by county leaders enter the village.

Xu Er rolled down the car window, yelled loudly, and greeted the villagers in the local dialect.A few young people around his age squatted on the wall or in front of the yard, looking at him with some envy.

If Xu Er was not wearing the same old cotton coat and trousers as them, Xiao Ran would even feel that he was really a driver, and he was pulling Xu Er, who had been promoted and made a fortune, back home.

Looking at the look on Xu Er's face, and the envy and jealousy on the faces of the surrounding villagers, he suddenly understood Xu Er's psychology.After all, according to what he said, only he and his brother were counted as one and a half county people in Futou Village.Although he has been dismissed and returned, he can still bring back a few people from the city from time to time, even in a car.
Having figured this out, Xiao Ran smiled, and asked Liu Shengli to give Xu Er a few more packs of cigarettes, as well as some loose candies and chocolates, and let him go and scatter them by himself, so he could earn enough face.

There was light in Xu Er's eyes, and the "Gang" in his mouth became more intimate, as if Xiao Ran was his half-brother who had been separated for many years.At this time, the car also passed by the threshing field in the village, and Xiao Ran's heart was cast with a shadow.

In the middle of the wheat threshing field, there were indeed a lot of traces of charcoal fires, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous and worried. Could there really be some backward superstitious rituals?

Liu Shengli also saw the charcoal pile on the ground, and said curiously: "Is this still a bonfire party?"

Xu Er turned his head, blinked his eyes, grinned and said, "I know what you're talking about! The county's... cultural department also had a trouble. Ours is booming, but it's more prosperous than theirs. In winter, there are solar terms, th, March th and New Year’s Eve are all going to be very popular. Come today, it happens to be the th!”

Speaking of these, Xu Er's face was full of sunshine, Xiao Ran suddenly felt relieved.

Xu Er guided Xiao Ran to drive the car to the cave of the village chief, who was having breakfast with his family.Before the car stopped, Xu Er jumped out of the car with a "thud" and happily reported to the village chief that there were guests from the capital.

After Xiao Ran and Liu Shengli got out of the car, the village head also got up slowly, glanced sideways at Xu Er, complained in a low voice, and then looked at Xiao Ran warily.

Xiao Ran hurriedly stretched out his hand, wanting to shake hands with the village chief, but unexpectedly the village chief just wrapped himself in the cotton coat, took out a dry pipe, lit it, and smoked leisurely.

Xiao Ran withdrew his hand in embarrassment, it seemed that what Xu Er said was indeed true, the three bridge travelers had a bad quarrel with the people in the village, so that the village chief was a little wary of him.

Xu Er was more anxious than him, and kept explaining in the local dialect.He spoke quickly, and Xiao Ran roughly heard him mention words such as "clothes", "BJ's words" and "jeep". He probably wanted to use these external things to prove that the people who came this time were really serious people from the capital. .

Xiao Ran quickly took out the letter of introduction and carefully handed it to the village chief.The village head smoked a cigarette, took the letter of introduction with one hand, and read it carefully.Xu Er also turned his head to look at it, and kept muttering: "Look, I still have chapters... Look at the pen writing... What is this... University?"

The village chief gave an impatient "tsk", and Xu Er quickly shut his mouth.But this half-true letter of introduction still made the village head's frown gradually relax.He knocked the pipe on the ground, inserted it back into his belt, folded the letter of introduction and handed it back to Xiao Ran with both hands.

"Have you eaten? Why don't you eat something..."

The old village chief's voice was a little hoarse, but full of spirit.While talking, he directly pulled Xiao Ran to sit down, and asked his wife to fill a few more sets of bowls and chopsticks, calling Xu Er and Liu Shengli to have breakfast together.

After a while, the corn mush and steamed bread were served, and there were several plates in the middle containing the farm's homemade pickles and salted eggs.The village chief asked his wife to take the little grandson into the kitchen for dinner, while he accompanied the guests.

After a night of ups and downs and fighting, Xiao Ran and Liu Shengli were indeed hungry.The smoky smell of the corn paste pierced his nostrils, and Liu Shengli was about to pour it into his mouth when he picked it up. The old village chief hurriedly grabbed his arm.

Xiao Ran smiled and said to Liu Shengli: "This is the same as stir-fried liver. You have to suck the side of the bowl in circles, and drinking it directly will burn your stomach through."

Liu Shengli scratched his head in embarrassment, but seeing Xu Er looking at him with a smirk on his face, he immediately sat upright and drank carefully.Xiao Ran was amused in his heart, these two people are about three or five years old, they have very different personalities and experiences, and they have been on good terms since they first met.

While eating breakfast, Xiao Ran chatted with the old village head.But the dialect of the old village chief spoke quickly and contained a lot of local words, so Xiao Ran had to ask Xu Erju to act as a "translator".

From the mouth of the old village head, I learned that this Futou village has a history of at least 2000 years.Although there were wars, famines, earthquakes, floods and other natural and man-made disasters, which caused the population of the village to wither and even migrate several times, they were able to recover and continue in the end, and the migration has been controlled within a range of tens of miles, and sometimes even Moved to former location.

For example, the last time Futou Village was relocated, it was because of the invasion and mopping up of little devils.The current village site is the old place of Futou Village in the former Qing Dynasty.That's why the abandoned tomb where Xiao Ran was last night had tombstones from the Qing Dynasty, and it was so close to the village.

Speaking of the name of Futou Village, Xiao Ran was full of fantasy at first.

On the way here, Xu Er told him two versions of the story. One is that a general of the Yuan Dynasty defeated the Liao Kingdom here and beheaded tens of thousands of people. The severed heads floated on the river and blocked the river. named.The other is that after a certain earthquake, many human skulls floated up from the mud at the bottom of the river, floating on the river like buoys.

Xiao Ran told these two stories to the old village head. After listening to the general idea, the old village head squinted at Xu Er, and said with a smile: "Futouer, Futouer, that's the first one. What are those stories? Xu Er Second child, this little gun is broken and blind..."

Xiao Ran understood this sentence, Ganqing Futou Village was the first village, and he suddenly felt dull.

However, what the old village chief said next aroused his curiosity: "Wow, the matter of the Yuan Dynasty, I also heard from the old man in the village that there is indeed such a thing..."

(End of this chapter)