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  Yumen, Yinshang, Hongcun, Zhuangyuan Village. During Cha Wenbin's investigation, he also went to Yangguan and Dongbei. A thread seemed to be emerging in his mind, connecting these seemingly unrelated things. He felt that they could be linked together, but the information was too complex and couldn't be clarified for the time being. At least he confirmed a few things: First, the possibility of the husband country existing is very high, so it's likely that the rain-seeking witchcraft recorded in ancient books also existed. Second, some things that appeared in Hongcun can be traced back to a long time ago, and Gu Qing and Zeng once asserted that they were from the Yinshang period. So, did a thriving civilization really exist at the border of Zhejiang and Anhui during the Yinshang period?

  The answer is unknown, but now Zha Wenbin wants to find out where those people who pray for rain come from, why they are in such a hurry, and how they know about this place.

  Unfortunately, Xia Laoliu also had nothing to show for his investigation. All the people in Hong Village knew about those who prayed for rain, but no one had ever had any contact with them. Only an old man who took care of the forest told him that he had once seen a team praying for rain coming from the north along the Tianmu Mountains at night.

  That year's weather was extremely hot, and the number of rainy days in the first half of the year could be counted on one hand. The most common sight was dark clouds covering the sky, with thunder and lightning, but no rain. Old people would sigh quietly while smoking their pipes in the courtyard: "Alas, it's raining somewhere else again, heaven doesn't give us food to eat." That year, Hongcun Village suffered a drought and began to lack grain, the rice in the fields was almost completely lost, and the small amount of corn that grew had very small kernels. The riverbeds were exposed, revealing smooth large stones.

  That year, not only Hongcun, but nearly half of China was plagued by a prolonged drought. The loudspeakers on the utility poles reported every day that people and livestock in certain areas were struggling to find drinking water, calling on the masses to take action to fight for a good autumn harvest. On the second day after Cha Wenbin returned from the provincial capital, Old Xia hurriedly rode his bike to Wulipu, sweating profusely and panting as he knocked on the door. He hadn't been there in quite some time.

  The door opened and he came, Zha Wenbin also felt unexpected, Lao Xia hurriedly pulled his hand and said: "You're not looking for those people who are seeking rain, they've come, quick!"

  Today, Old Xia was still at home, flipping through the pages of a book. He heard the sound of many people talking and laughing outside on the highway, accompanied by the occasional beating of drums and gongs. Old Xia loved to sleep in and grumbled to himself, "Who's making so much noise so early in the morning?" Before long, Old Liu called out to him, telling him to hurry up and inform Zhang Wenbin. Old Xia got dressed quickly and took a look outside. To his surprise, he saw a group of people from who-knows-where lined up in an orderly fashion on the highway. The leader had a water bottle slung over his shoulder, was bare-chested, and had a sedan chair behind him with a woman inside. Those people were singing "yi ya yi ya" in a tune that Old Xia couldn't understand, carrying colorful flags on their shoulders, and several porters carried frames with many things on them. At this sight, it became clear: the rain-seekers had arrived.

  This will surely delight Zhang Wenbin, it's really a case of "the best things in life are free". After calling out to Ye Qiu and Pangzi, the four of them rushed towards Hongcun like flying.

  There were many people following the rain-seeking team, and the children were the most eager to join in the fun. As soon as they entered Hong Village, the porters would continuously scoop out some pastries from the frame. Red-printed buns, strings of zongzi, various types of dim sum - as long as they were thrown, those kids would follow and scramble for them, and the rain-seeking team wouldn't stop them, only focusing on moving forward.

  This scene will continue until the big temple, where children are usually warned not to enter. A few strong men will stay behind to drive people away. The children have benefited and won't give up, so the strong men will give some candies as a way of shooing them off. At this time, adults will also take the children who followed along back home. As for what happens inside, it's very mysterious, with rugged mountain roads that only a few brave adults dare to follow secretly from afar.

  When Cha Wenbin and his group arrived, they had just reached the Grand Temple. From a distance, Cha Wenbin saw people worshiping in front of the large tree, and various offerings were placed at the incense burner by the temple gate. At the outermost area, four or five big men held long spears with bamboo handles, standing in a row. Vaguely inside, someone started to pull up two high white cloth fences, completely blocking the view between inside and outside.

  "It's another group of people jumping and shouting, they're quite enthusiastic. The fatty patted a young man beside him and said: "Why don't you guys go in and take a look?"

  "Foreigners," the young man whispered to Fatty, "those people have sticks in their hands and won't let us pass. Whoever goes in will get beaten."

  "It's really shameful, whose territory is this? This is your own village, and you're letting a group of outsiders swagger around like this?"

  "And you're speaking so lightly, as if it's nothing!"

  The two of them lifted the curtain, and Cha Wenbin's attention was completely focused on what was behind the white gauze, not noticing Fatty at all. As for Fatty, he wasn't intentionally trying to stir up trouble, he just couldn't stand it when others did some mysterious and suspicious things, plus he had been mixing with this generation for a long time and considered himself half a Hongcun person, having a bit of a local snake's mentality.

  "Wait, watch me go take a look." As he spoke, the fatty pushed through the crowd and was about to slip inside, but fortunately Zhang Wenbin caught him in time and pulled him back, saying "You're being reckless again, come back here!"

  "I...I'll just take a look inside, no big deal." The fatty retreated again, but the young people started to get excited, and they all began teasing him. However, Ye Qiu leaned over and whispered to Cha Wenbin: "Let him go in and stir things up, I feel like something's off. Why would they stay in that place for so long?"

  "No, what if something happens?"

  Ye Qiu muttered, "I think those people won't dare to really make a move, and Fatso's skills won't be at too much of a disadvantage. As long as he can rush into that tent, it'll be easy."

  With Ye Qiu's initiative, Cha Wenbin quietly pulled over the fat man who was still arguing with someone: "You go in and think of a way to break through that account, try to protect yourself."

  The fatty had received the verbal order and was just looking for a place to vent his anger, now he was overjoyed and swaggered towards those people. As he walked up to them, the big men neither retreated nor dodged, forming a human wall. The fatty's build was originally wide, where could he find a gap to squeeze through? Thinking that he had come with a mission, he couldn't afford to lose face. So he raised his head and picked out one of the relatively thinner big men, saying: "My family's fields are inside, you people are being unreasonable, how can you set up checkpoints and block people at will? Let me through."

  That man didn't bother with the fatty, seeing that he had been shut out, and the group of fellow villagers outside were all watching him. The fatty wouldn't have revealed his true nature if he hadn't shown off at this moment. He rolled up his sleeves and stood in front of a person who was about the same height as him, poking his head forward and saying: "Hey, I'm telling you, where are you all from? You're lawless and reckless, what kind of world is this? Are you bandits or highway robbers? Get out of my way, otherwise I won't be polite!"

  As soon as the words fell, Fatso's hands were not honest, and he leaned on someone's shoulder, his paws secretly exerting force. He was a master of this kind of thing, ordinary people couldn't get close to him within two or three steps, especially with his self-proclaimed "Iron Sand Palm" technique which was quite impressive. If an ordinary person were grabbed by Fatso like that, they would immediately be unable to withstand the force, but Fatso felt as if he had grasped a rock, hard and unyielding!

  If he stopped here, where would Fatso's face go? One grab didn't work, so he pulled back, tore open a gap, and with a fierce pull backwards, Fatso found that the other party was as still as a Buddha, not moving at all. He then understood about 70-80% of the situation - today he had encountered a tough opponent.

  No use being rash, then just bluff! The fatty didn't care that the other side had more people, he took a few steps back and prepared to charge forward. His size plus strength would have been enough to make an impact, but unfortunately, before he even reached the front of the group, five long spears suddenly appeared, and the fatty slammed on the brakes just in time to avoid becoming a human hedgehog. He didn't expect that those people would really dare to come at him with force.

  Having suffered several losses in a row, the fatty simply stood there and shouted: "You bunch of thugs and bullies from who-knows-where, coming here to bully our local people!" As he spoke, he also waved his arms to stir up the crowd behind him: "Are the old masters of Hong Village really so spineless? This road was opened by us, this area has our fields, our forests, how can it be blocked by a group of unreasonable people like you?! Where are the brave old masters of Hong Village?! Come out and show yourselves! Today, Fatty will make a declaration here: anyone who dares to fight me will get a pack of Old Knife brand cigarettes. One for each person, wait for me at the village entrance's small grocery store!"

  This commotion really brought out some people, onlookers never mind the trouble, someone took the lead and others followed to get benefits. A group of young men from Hongcun village jumped out of the crowd with laughter, they were all around twenty years old, Fatso often hung out in this area and knew quite a few people, gradually, there were more than ten people standing behind him, the tense atmosphere suddenly reached its climax.

  Fatso wasn't stupid, the other party had a few tricks up their sleeve. He turned his head and said: "Brothers, take rocks and smash them, smash these damn bandits who dare to come to our doorstep and show off."

  He picked up the first stone and threw it over, the group of big men on the opposite side couldn't think that there was still a long-range attack here, more than a dozen stones flew together, how could they stop them? The fat man wanted to provoke them, stir up trouble, as long as the opponent dared to come over, he would definitely reveal his weakness, and when that happened, he would rush over with one breath and tear off the account, wouldn't it be easy?

  This abacus is indeed correct, after a shower of stones, the other party has been forced to accept! It's just standing still and letting you hit it, several big men have bruises on their foreheads, some even have blood on their faces, it can be seen that the other party also hates the fat man so much that they are gnashing their teeth. The eyes of the other party are filled with hatred, as if they want to swallow the fat man whole. This little guy is still shouting and provoking over there. At this moment, a small gap was opened in the account inside, and an old man came out from inside. The big men who blocked the way immediately made way for him. As soon as he came out, he said to the fat man: "Friend, we are just passing by here to borrow your precious land for a while, year after year without disturbing the people. If you are in a hurry to enter the mountain, please wait for us for a moment, and I will make up for any losses."

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