Leichenbergung

Kapitel 4

Attached are 7 photos from the scene.

Rumor has it that good water produces beautiful women.

Men in major northern cities are generally forthright and can't keep their thoughts to themselves; they like to tell others everything. These days, there are many rumors circulating in the city, mostly about a young woman—very beautiful, in a snow-white dress—who took a taxi home alone at night. When she arrived at her door, the driver asked if she needed him to help her upstairs. The woman rolled her eyes at him and said, "Brother, you're quite kind-hearted!" and went upstairs herself. Just as the driver turned the car around, he saw the woman again, following a man downstairs and past him. The driver noticed her expressionless face, like a wooden doll.

The taxi driver was worried and followed them from a distance to see what was going on, but the two of them disappeared into an alley.

The next day, the taxi driver heard that a woman had been murdered in that alley. When he ran over to see what had happened, he discovered that the murdered woman was very old. The driver was so frightened that he dared not drive again that night.

Those who tell this story say that the men who harm women have a special kind of drug that can turn the women they abuse into old women instantly.

Zhao Yajuan was admitted to the city hospital late at night. By the next morning, her experience had become the talk of the town. Nosy people kept coming to her ward to verify the truth of the matter, which annoyed Zhao Yajuan. Fortunately, there was a kind-hearted woman in the same ward who took the initiative to answer the questions from curious men and women for her.

Anyone who has ever stayed in the hospital and accompanied someone in bed knows that this kind of work is really not for humans. Although it doesn't require much physical exertion and won't kill you, it can be incredibly boring. You'll feel listless, uncomfortable, and unsettled. Now, it has suddenly become a topic of conversation. Almost every ward is talking about the story of Ya-juan being cornered in her room by a scoundrel. They say that the burly man has a master key that can open security doors, making it easy for him to get into the room. He also has drugs that he uses to prey on single women. Once a woman is touched, she immediately faints and is at his mercy.

Since so many people go in and out of the hospital every day, these people take this story out of the hospital and let it take root in society. They say that there was a young and beautiful woman who was targeted by a womanizer. The womanizer could walk through walls and enter houses. In the middle of the night, the womanizer used aphrodisiac to knock the woman unconscious, and then they did *that*.

This version is just one of the most typical versions and does not represent all versions. According to statistics from relevant people afterward, there are more than ten versions in total, but most of them say that there is one man and one woman. However, some say that there are two men and one woman, and that there is also a man keeping watch outside.

The story eventually reached the ears of a journalistic savvy individual, who called the city's evening newspaper with a lead. When female reporter Zhao Xiaowei answered the phone and asked for his name, he refused to give it. At that time, my journalist friend Yang Ming hadn't yet gotten together with the beautiful Zhao Xiaowei, so after receiving the call, Zhao Xiaowei took a taxi alone to the city hospital to interview the person involved. Unfortunately, after much effort and exhaustion, when she finally found Zhao Yajuan's ward, she had already been discharged, and her home address wasn't listed on the discharge slip.

This didn't stump the clever Zhao Xiaowei; she immediately interviewed someone in the know—someone who knew the truth.

The following day, a report was published on the second page of the evening paper in the local news section.

A suspicious man suddenly appeared in the woman's single apartment.

How he entered the room is suspicious.

{Reported by Zhao Xiaowei, this newspaper} Around midnight yesterday, a suspicious man suddenly appeared in the apartment of a single woman in Gujing District. Earlier, the woman had noticed a man following her when she returned home and that the motion-activated lights in the hallway were off. Therefore, she was extra vigilant upon returning home, checking that the security door was intact and informing her neighbors to be extra cautious. Unexpectedly, while she was watching television, the man suddenly appeared inside without any prior warning. It is unclear how he entered the apartment. Fortunately, her neighbors heard her cries for help and promptly called the police (110). The police arrived immediately, preventing a potential tragedy. This newspaper solemnly reminds citizens to lock their doors and windows and pay attention to safety.

Actually, this little-known rumor of just over two hundred words didn't attract much attention at the time. Think about how busy people are these days? Busy with work, busy making money, busy spending money, busy with leisure, busy with beauty treatments, busy buying and selling houses, busy buying and selling cars, busy with car accidents, busy getting married and divorced, busy eating and drinking, busy losing weight, busy scrambling for money, busy finding connections to settle things. Who has time to read rumors? Let alone think about what might be behind them. It was only later that people discovered that this little-known rumor was actually a huge, earth-shattering news story. People had to take it seriously, and the whole city had to talk about it again and again. For a time, it became more important and more terrifying than SARS. But all of this happened later.

I understand that some people questioned this rumor at the time. Some netizens commented online, "If there's a security door, how could someone outside get into the room? The reporter is just making things up! It's a publicity stunt! The manufacturer should sue her for damaging the reputation of security doors!" Other netizens said that the reporter didn't even use her brain to fabricate news, making things so mysterious that it was absurd. "When did Batman come to live with us?"

However, some people say that a master key has been developed that can open all kinds of security doors, and the method is very powerful.

In short, not many people paid attention to this rumor.

However, this incident prompted my friend Yang Ming to delve into the ancient well area, where he managed to uncover ancient stories about the well.

When he told this story, I noticed he was in a very heavy mood, for some reason.

He said, "Does anyone know which important person said our city is known for its beautiful women? Why does our city seem to have a reputation for producing beautiful women?"

According to an 86-year-old man surnamed Bai, when he was young, his grandfather told him that in the past, the land around Gujing was covered with towering trees. People cleared land for farming, but there weren't many people, and the land cleared wasn't much either. Back then, the weather was always favorable, and the seeds would sprout and grow crops as soon as they were thrown into the ground. The black, fertile soil was so rich that the crops grew lush and green without any manure or tending. In the autumn, all you had to do was go to the fields to harvest the crops. The sorghum, soybeans, corn, and millet were all plump and delicious. Unlike the grains and vegetables grown with chemical fertilizers now, which have no aroma at all. This land was paradise. As the news spread, more and more people from Shandong came here to seek their fortune. People cleared land everywhere to farm, and eventually, almost all the trees were cut down. Droughts became frequent. By his grandfather's time, it was drought nine out of ten years. On the one year that wasn't a drought, there would be floods that drowned people and livestock and destroyed houses.

One year, a severe drought resulted in a complete crop failure. People and livestock had no water, and most of the large animals died; those that survived had to be slaughtered for meat. Looking back now, I think his great-grandfather's illness was probably heatstroke—a condition characterized by fever and profuse sweating, followed by days without food or water. His great-grandfather lay on a straw-covered wooden plank bed, his lips cracked and bleeding, unable to speak. His skin-and-bones hands were weak and feeble. He gestured for his grandfather to come closer, but his great-grandfather looked at his grandfather without shedding a tear. The tears of the poor had long since dried up. His great-grandfather pointed to the cow, then to its open mouth. In those days, livestock were a great asset; fearing theft, they lived in the house with their owners.

Grandpa didn't understand what Grandpa meant at all. He was only a teenager at the time, so he just nodded randomly. He couldn't let the old man worry! Grandpa seemed to be smiling. His finger stopped at the edge of his open mouth and never moved away. No matter how much Grandpa cried or called out, Grandpa never changed his smile or closed his open mouth.

With no water and no food, only the prospect of death loomed. As Grandpa stood beside Great-Grandpa, waiting to go with him, he suddenly understood. Father, fearing he would starve or die of thirst, might be telling him to kill the ox, drink its blood, and eat its meat. Thinking this, he burst into tears. The old ox was the inheritance Great-Grandpa had earned through a lifetime of hard work. In Great-Grandpa's youth, they only had one ox leg; back then, four families shared one ox. Great-Grandpa had worked his entire life to earn back those three legs. The old ox had served their family so well; it was a meritorious servant. How could he be so heartless as to kill it? Since they were going to die anyway, they might as well die together!

He hugged the old ox's neck and wept. The old ox seemed to know his thoughts, otherwise why would it kneel down for him and shed tears as well?

Grandpa slept soundly day and night, and in his dreams he would see a person dressed in a beautiful yellow outfit, tall and strong. The person would wake him up, take his hand, and walk and walk, not knowing where they were. Suddenly the person in yellow would disappear, and all he would see was a sky full of colorful clouds, a golden-red and golden expanse. The distant mountains would gradually turn into golden mountains, and the flowers, grass, and trees around him would also be covered in golden-red and golden hues. Looking at his own palms and the backs of his hands, he saw that they were also golden-red and golden, which made him feel so open and comforted.

The colorful clouds slowly settled on the ground, and the wind blew up patches of gold and red. Upon closer inspection, the colorful clouds on the ground turned out to be a large expanse of clear water, so clear that you could see the fish in the water and the pebbles at the bottom. The water was as smooth as a mirror, silent and still. He felt a sweet warmth in his heart and was about to go over to drink some water when he heard the sound of the wind and water. In the blink of an eye, a group of girls appeared out of nowhere. They were all dressed brightly and were very pretty, not like ordinary people.

They probably didn't see him, and quickly took off their gauze skirts, looking at each other.

They were fair-skinned and had willow-leaf eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, red lips, white teeth, high breasts, slender waists, and jade-white skin.

He was breathless looking at her, thinking to himself, "I can't afford to support such a beautiful woman; she's so pitiful to look at."

Nine beautiful women walked hand in hand into the clear water. The water was cool and transparent, and even through it, he could clearly see their fair buttocks and thighs. Looking at the clear water and the beautiful women in it, he forgot his hunger, his thirst, and even the suffering that existed in the world.

After watching for a while, he also wanted to go down into the water to wash himself.

He was startled by his own thought. How dare you think of such a thing? You're incredibly arrogant!

As he was thinking this, the man in yellow came to call him home again.

When he woke up, he heard his old ox mooing.

Not long after, he fell into a deep sleep again, and the man in yellow led him to the clear lake below the colorful clouds.

The Nine Fairy Maidens stripped naked in front of him and bathed in the clear lake, their bodies clean and white.

He forgot his hunger, forgot his thirst, and forgot that there was still suffering in the world.

He had this dream countless times.

Later, God took pity on him and sent rain, and he and his fellow villagers finally survived.

That year, the crops failed, so they had to rely on the mountains for sustenance. In the autumn, they ventured far, far into the mountains, gathering whatever they could find: wild grapes, wild pears, wild mushrooms, wild hazelnuts, pine cones, and schisandra berries; they dug up ginseng, fritillaria, and asarum. At night, carrying heavy loads of mountain produce home, exhausted and hungry, they could barely walk and would lie down to rest. As the sun was about to set, the sky ablaze with golden-red and golden clouds, leaving them speechless. Then, he felt a strange familiarity about this place; it seemed like he had been here often. He looked around and saw that this was a plot of land south of the village; his family's land was north of the village, so he couldn't possibly come here often. Yet, the place still felt strangely familiar.

After climbing the mountain many times, everyone said they wanted to rest when they returned to the south of the village. They said that resting in this spot made them feel refreshed and relaxed, and they no longer felt tired. He also said it was strange, he always felt like he had been here before. Later, he remembered that this place looked very much like the clear water lake that the man in yellow had led him to in his dream. Later, he couldn't help but tell him about his dream of fairies bathing in the clear water lake.

His neighbor's boy, a teenager, grabbed his arm tightly and said, "I dreamt about it too! Nine fairies! Bathing naked!"

He said there were really nine!

Everyone who heard it was stunned. Could such a miraculous thing really happen?

The news quickly spread throughout the village. The learned elders said the Nine Fairy Maidens were goddesses, belonging to the yin element, and that the place where they bathed must have contained sacred water—this had been the custom since ancient times. People lived near water, for water was the source of life. The elders came out and led them to carefully recall their dream, helping them identify the location. Then they said, "Everyone in the village who wants to survive, contribute your grain and your labor to dig a well here! Whoever doesn't do their best will not have water to drink in the future!"

The entire village, young and old, dug for 48 days without finding a single drop of water. On the 49th day, the elders said that if they dug for another day and still didn't find water, they would have to accept their fate, whether they lived or died!

As the sun was about to set and the sky was filled with colorful clouds, a thin, golden spring gushed out. It first swirled in the mud, then gradually grew to be as thick as a chopstick, and in the blink of an eye, it surged everywhere, blooming all around people's feet. The people in the well were hurriedly hoisted out.