This year's drought, the reservoir that has not dried up all year round also revealed the last depression under the water. The village chief decided to drain the depression and figure out a rumor that had been in the village for a long time, that is, whether there were any water monkeys.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > My hometown is in a remote mountain village in Hunan, surrounded by mountains, and there is a reservoir in the upper reaches of the mountain. In my impression, this reservoir has never dried. </h1>
Listening to my grandparents and the elderly elders in the village, there are water monkeys in this reservoir in the village, and many people once witnessed human-like animals "pouncing" and jumping into the water when they passed the reservoir at night. At night, most people dare not pass by the reservoir alone.
Regarding water monkeys, there are many rumors on the Internet, some people say that water monkeys are formed by people who drown in the water, and they need to find a substitute ghost to reincarnate. It is also said that the water monkey is just an animal, as long as they have water, they can travel 800 miles underwater at night.
Grandma Liu in the village said that once she was washing clothes by the reservoir, washing and washing, suddenly, on the opposite shore, a hairy human-like monster jumped into the water with a thud, and she was so frightened that she fled into the wilderness, and her clothes were gone.
20 years ago, the son of the village pig killer Lao Jiang bathed alone in the reservoir, and never came back, some people said that his son was dragged away by water monkeys, and some people said that his son could not swim and sank into the reservoir. Old Jiang invited a lot of people with good water quality to go to the water to salvage, and as a result, it took two days, but it was not found, and finally it was gone.
Two incidents of bathing and drowning in the reservoir followed. Since then, no one has dared to take a bath in that reservoir.
The reservoir in the village was built in the 1950s. According to Grandpa, the construction of this reservoir used more than 10,000 people in the town at that time, and it took a year to complete the repair.
The reservoir runs in an east-west direction, 3600 meters long, 200 meters wide, and the deepest place is more than 150 meters. Because this reservoir does not dry all year round, no one raises fish in it, but only uses it as a reservoir to irrigate the farmland below.
The reservoir has built a dam with a sluice gate that can be used to release water. Water release is responsible for special personnel, generally in summer and autumn, every other week, open the gate to release water.
Grandpa said that although there was no one in this reservoir who raised fish, there were large turtles in it, and someone in the village once caught a turtle the size of a washbasin. He once fished in the reservoir himself and caught a 5-pound turtle.
This year, I just happened to be in junior high school, and in the summer, there was a big drought, for 4 months, and there was not a drop of rain. The reservoir repeatedly opened the floodgates to release water, and the water inside was almost released, exposing the bottom of the water. Many people in the village went to catch fish, although no one kept fish, but strangely, loach, yellow eel, and catfish were found inside.
The old Zhao in the village, very fond of catching fish, this morning, the sky was just dark, he took a fork in the reservoir to look for, suddenly, found a behemoth there slowly moving, he thought it was a black stone at first, so he picked up a stone and threw it over, who knows, the black object ran up quickly, Old Zhao chased up, it turned out that this was a big turtle, a meter wide. In the end, Lao Zhao and the people worked together to catch the turtle, weighed it, and weighed it 30 kilograms.
Later, after another half a month, the rest of the reservoir was completely dry, leaving only the last depression, which was a 10-meter square pool. It looked as if there were fish inside, and someone had tested it with a rope tied to a stone, which was 7-8 meters deep.
Everyone suggested draining this pool and figuring out the legend that has always existed in the village, is there any water monkey?
The village chief agreed, and everyone cheered. So, we found 5 pumping machines to pump water at the same time. It took two days and two nights to drain this depression.
At the bottom of the water, everyone caught more than a thousand pounds of fish and shrimp, and caught more than ten turtles, the largest one weighing more than 30 pounds. I just didn't see the water monkey.
Just when everyone was disappointed, a sharp-eyed young man pointed to a hole in the cliff wall in the corner and said, "There is a deep hole there." ”
Everyone followed the prestige, and sure enough, there was a hole in the cliff wall that was 2 meters high and about 1 meter wide, which looked deep and bottomless.
Everyone took flashlights and, led by a few bold people, entered the cave.
I didn't expect that there were other caves in it, and there were stone stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. Under the illumination of the flashlight, it was glittering, and we seemed to have entered the East Sea Dragon Palace.
Inside this hole is the size of a basketball court, and the cool breeze inside is whizzing and dripping water everywhere. A few of our friends also found crystal stones in the cave, because at that time, I was in junior high school, and the chemistry book talked about crystal stones, and I felt very magical, so I paid great attention to this, and I didn't think that there was really this kind of stone.
A group of us searched carefully in the cave, and there was nothing but stone stalactites and stalagmites, and when we were disappointed, we found that there was also a deep pool inside.
The pool is 6 meters long and about 4 meters wide, and we measured the depth, which is about 5 meters deep.
Some people say give up, there is a pool in the pool, when is a head. But a few bold young people in the village did not die, they said: "It is all at this time, if you give up, this mystery of eternity will never be solved." It is better to drain this pool and see if the water monkey is inside. ”
After some preparation, it took another day and a half to finally drain the water in this pool.
When it was almost time to bottom, there was movement under the pool, and 5-6 strange-looking rat-like animals crawled out of the hole below, making a frightening roar in their mouths. A few of us who were timid ran out directly, waited for half a day, found it safe, and according to the curiosity, turned back.
These monsters are one meter long and 0.5 meters high, and they say that they look like rats and do not look like mice, that they look like cats, that they are not cats, and that they look much larger than cats.
Finally, a few daring people caught the monsters with nets and sent them to the zoo in the city.
After reading it, the expert said that this is an otter. Otter, a national second-level protected animal, is mainly distributed in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Otter heads are wide and slightly flattened. The jaw has a beard, the eyes are prominent, and the ears are short and round. A body of gray-brown hair, the throat, under the neck is generally gray-white, the color of the coat also changes seasonally. It prefers to inhabit freshwater areas such as lakes, river bends, and swamps.
Because of their large size, they are easily mistaken for water monkeys, which climb trees and swim, and often like to haunt in the middle of the night. Adult otters can grow up to 2 meters long and one meter tall.
After listening to the introduction of the experts, we breathed a long sigh of relief, it turned out that the water monkey legend that has always been the otter is actually an otter.
In fact, there are no water monkeys in the world at all, as for someone swimming in the reservoir and drowning, it is likely that it is a sudden leg cramp, resulting in inability to move, although it can swim, and finally there is an accident.