Chapter 54: The Village of Mysteries

Facing my question, Ling Ruxue hesitated for a moment, then said, “Yes, I have. I have to come here every five years. Not only me, but also people from the other three villages…”

She has been here? And she has to come here every five years? As far as I know, Ling Ruxue is two years older than Yue, and today she is 24 years old. If we count from when she was a child, then she has already been to this village four times.

Even if I don’t show up, she will come to this village next year? What kind of secret is hidden between these villages? But this Black Rock Miao Village is clearly known as the Devil’s Village, famous for its evilness.

Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Ling Ruxue, the Black Rock Miao Village is such an evil village, why do you keep coming here? Can’t you just tolerate some bad things happening under your nose without stopping anything? Are you so indifferent?”

Facing my question, Ling Ruxue just looked at me calmly, unusually calmly, until I felt uncomfortable. Then she said, “You, you really are a headstrong and impulsive man. No, you should be a boy.”

What does she mean? She seems to know me very well. I was annoyed. What she meant was that I was childish, but I don’t want her to think that I’m childish in front of anyone. Besides, I’m already 26 years old.

I said, “Ling Ruxue, don’t change the subject. I’m talking about the big issues of right and wrong. What are you doing to me? This is not being willful or impulsive. It’s just that my master said that people like us, who have inherited different things, should have a sense of justice in our hearts!”

“Oh? Really?” Ling Ruxue’s face flashed with impatience before she said, “How do you know what we haven’t done?”

I was stunned. Yes, how much do I really know? When I thought about this, I felt a little depressed. Could it be that I am really very naive? When I am impulsive, I don’t beat around the bush anymore?

“Remember what I said, no matter what you see, don’t ask too much, just say it, everything will be said in the Black Rock Miao Village.” Ling Ruxue seemed to have no more to say to me, and she turned and walked straight to the front, heading straight for the village. I was mixed up in my heart, the more I wanted to show off in front of this girl, the more awkward I looked.

But now is not the time to think about these things. I put down Huigen, woke him up, and then I followed Ling Ruxue’s footsteps with Huigen, who was still a little dazed.Taoist priest

Walking into this small village, the first thing that struck me was how poor it was.

Most of the houses here are still thatched houses made of mud and straw. If they are not that bad, they are even houses made of tree bark. There are holes in the roof, so they are covered with a piece of plastic, which is pressed down by stones. When the wind blows, the plastic makes a whistling sound. Even standing outside, I can feel the wind and rain leaking in from all sides.

I have never seen such a poor place in other places. Maybe it’s because I have a poor imagination, but I really can’t imagine that in the 1990s, when China was developing rapidly, there were still such villages.

Could it be because of the geographical isolation? I saw the people in this village wearing dirty clothes, even clothes that didn’t cover their bodies, and I couldn’t help but feel very emotional and involuntarily looked for a reason.

But soon I discovered something strange: it seemed that everyone in this village was lazy. When I and Ru Xue walked into the village and walked through most of it, we didn’t see a single person working.

The villagers were either squatting at the foot of the wall doing nothing, or wandering around the village dirt road in dirty clothes.

I also found that there was no lack of land in and around the village, and that the fields were planted with crops and vegetables that were almost submerged by weeds, indicating that they were still farmers who made a living by farming, but the fields were clearly neglected.

Could it be that this is how they really spend their days? Wandering around aimlessly? Or just sitting around the wall, staring blankly?

There was definitely a sense of laziness and decadence in this village, and this feeling made me feel very uncomfortable. It was even more uncomfortable than the endless cycle of death I had seen before. After all, there was still hope of breaking through the endless cycle, but this atmosphere in the village was undoubtedly a kind of despair.

What kind of despair is it? It is the kind of despair that comes from knowing that things will never change, that things will always be the same.

I didn’t want to believe this fact because in my impression, farmers are all hardworking. No matter whether their lives are poor or not, they can’t change their hardworking. I couldn’t help but ask Ling Ruxue, “Does this village live by hunting?”

“No,” Ling Ruxue replied simply, without explaining anything. This feeling was almost driving me crazy.

But I couldn’t ask more questions, because when I entered the village early in the morning, Ling Ruxue told me not to ask more questions or say more, no matter what strange things I saw.

The villagers were not at all curious about our arrival, and I could hardly imagine a closed village where people would come often! Because only in a village where strangers appear frequently will people not be surprised by them.

On the contrary, relatively isolated villages are always full of curiosity about outsiders, including my hometown. At that time, if a city person came, the villagers would always go to watch.

But would people come to this village often? Definitely not, not with those difficult roads!

Then why did the people in this village act like that? I saw their expressions, their eyes, all of them were like a pool of stagnant water, calm and unperturbed. The feeling of depression and despair rose again in my heart.

It was already afternoon, and it was unrealistic for the three of us to go to the next village. We were destined to stay in this village for the night, but in the face of such villagers, I really didn’t want to stay here.

In my frustration, I took out a cigarette. Before I could even light it, I noticed a villager who had been dozing under a tree walking towards me.

He had the same dirty clothes and his hair had not been washed for a long time, looking like a bird’s nest. He came up to me, smiled, showing his yellow and black teeth, and then said to me directly, “Give me some cigarettes to smoke.”

I frowned slightly, not because I thought the middle-aged man was dirty, but because I had never met a stranger who was so brazen as to ask for something.

Ling Ruxue was very calm, as if she had known about this situation for a long time.

As for Huigen, he didn’t have any concept of human nature. When someone asked him for something, he only had two options: he was either willing to give it or not.

I am not a person who can easily refuse people. Looking at this middle-aged man, or perhaps an elderly person, I thought that a few cigarettes was not a big deal, so I gave him the rest of the pack. He took the cigarettes, smiled, and didn’t say thank you, then turned and left.

I couldn’t help but stop him. After all, I was going to stay here tonight. I asked, “Old man, we are passing through here and would like to stay here tonight. Do you know which household here is convenient for lodging?”

The man was greedily sniffing the cigarette. When he heard me ask, he turned around and said to me in a strange voice, “Who are you calling ‘uncle’?”

I was stunned. Is there someone else here? But rural people are somewhat old, and I don’t think anyone would like to be called an old man by others. So I was embarrassed to scratch my head and shouted, “Uncle, I…”

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you calling me ‘uncle’ and ‘uncle’ again? I’m only 28 years old. Cough, cough… How did I become an uncle and uncle?” The man said unceremoniously, but it seemed that his health was not very good, and he kept coughing while talking.

28 years old? I looked at the man in front of me in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that someone who was only two years older than me could look so old!

I really wanted to ask something, but as soon as I saw Ru Xue gently shaking her head at me, I could only keep quiet and didn’t know what to say next.

The man didn’t seem to mind. He waved his hand and said, “You want to stay the night, don’t you? My house is fine. You can stay for 50 yuan, and you can add 10 yuan for dinner. If you want to eat meat, you can get 10 yuan back.”

I was amazed that such a remote village and such lazy villagers could have such a good grasp of money. Even if they had money, where would they spend it? And they could ask for so much. In 1993, fifty yuan was definitely not a small amount for a farmer.

And how can they afford to eat meat?

I had more and more questions about this village, and I wanted to find out the truth.

It seemed that there was no other choice, and I still had some money, so I said to the villagers who had asked for so much, “Okay, you lead the way.”

The villager’s face flashed with a hint of smugness, and then he led the three of us to his home.