According to legend, in a remote mountain village, people were very poor at that time, and the people in the village only relied on a few acres of thin fields to watch the weather for their meals. Since the village is in a mountainous area, there has been a saying since ancient times that it relies on the mountains and water to eat water.
In order to be able to eat some meat, villagers in the village often go hunting in the mountains or catch fish in the mountain reservoir. The story I want to tell this time is related to this reservoir. This reservoir was built in the 1960s and is mainly used for flood control, irrigation and drinking water. The reservoir is very large and surrounded by dense mountains and forests. Whenever the rainy season is rainy, the clouds and mist are shrouded here, like a fairyland, revealing the mystery.
The children who grew up in the village have heard many stories about the reservoir since they were young. This reservoir is built on the mountain and the water is very deep. The old people said that there was a colorful turtle as big as a nickel in the reservoir. Its cave could reach the underground river. It said that this was a turtle practicing here. It was the god of this reservoir and blessed the villagers with good weather every year. From childhood to adulthood, especially children are afraid of walking around the reservoir and are afraid of being caught by turtle . Such legends may be lies made up by adults to scare their children and prevent them from drowning.
In the past, villagers would only catch very small crucian carp , and there were few big fish. The old people said that big fish were eaten by spotted turtles, so people who grew up in the village had some awe of this reservoir and always believed that there were spotted turtles in the reservoir.
Until a certain year, the reservoir that had not dried up for decades actually dried up in the year. The villagers around ran to the reservoir to see if there were big turtles in the reservoir, but the result was disappointing. They neither saw big turtles like grinding lumps nor saw traces of fish. In the past, when the reservoir was full, although I had never seen big fish, I could still see crucian carp swimming in groups, but after it was dry, only a small number of loaches and shuttled through the mud at the bottom of the reservoir. People are puzzled about this. After the reservoir was dry, some people did not believe in evil, and then took tools to dig deep into the silt at the bottom of the reservoir. They wanted to know if there was an underground river at the bottom of the reservoir.
I don’t know how much silt was cleaned at the bottom of the reservoir. It is said that these people did dig a large iron pot with a large and small spotted turtle. The turtle cover is colorful, like wearing colorful clothes, beautiful and more sacred. This group of people thought that this spotted turtle could be exchanged for money, so they brought the spotted turtle into the county town and sold it. I don’t know how much it sold, and it is not known whether the spotted turtle was eaten by the turtle buyer or released. At that time, when the villagers knew that the group of people dug out the spotted turtles, they advised them to put the spotted turtles back to the reservoir. This is the god of the reservoir and cannot be sold or killed. These people didn't believe this, and did not listen to the persuasion of the villagers, and insisted on selling it for money.
It is said that after the turtle was sold, the person who took the lead in catching the turtle was later mentally ill, and then disappeared into the village and disappeared. The villagers didn’t know where they went? Many of the people who caught turtles later experienced accidents such as falling and fractures, stroke paralysis, etc. Later people said that this was cause and effect.
Later, after a heavy rain, the reservoir was full again. People felt that if the reservoir was gone, the turtle would lose its spirituality and would become a stagnant reservoir, and would not bless people with good weather and good harvests every year. In order to commemorate this spotted turtle, people built a small spotted turtle temple for it with stones on the mountain. People around them worship here during festivals and pray that the spotted turtle will continue to bless the surrounding villagers with a safe and prosperous harvest.
