Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Returning to Huang Zhishu ‘s house, Jiang Lan and Xue Meng sat down on the stools in the main room. Huang Zhishu’s wife, who had been staying in the back room, brought two more bowls of tea. Secretary Huang was sitting opposite, holding a hookah in his hand and smoking it. The smoke he exhaled enveloped him, making it difficult to see his expression.
Probably because Jiang Lan’s expression remained unchanged from beginning to end, Xue Meng also calmed down. He touched the peace charm in his pocket and did not drink the bowl of tea. Instead, he smiled and talked to Huang Zhishu: “Why were you so quick in coming back?”
Secretary Huang stopped his smoking movements for a moment and said, “You are guests from afar. How can I leave you alone, so I came back quickly.”
“How can we be regarded as guests? It is our job to solve the problems in the village, as we should.” Xue Meng no longer felt close to him at this time, and all he said were polite words. Huang Zhishu was not young, and he had a simple and honest appearance, which made it easy for people to get close to him. Xue Meng was no exception.
But after seeing his ferocious expression that appeared for a moment in the woods, Xue Meng had become more wary and wary of him.
This village looked normal at first glance, but as Jiang Lan said, when you think about it carefully, nothing was right. He remembered that both Zhang Tianxing and Xiao Xiaoyu said yesterday that the village was normal. He didn’t know whether they were deceived by the villagers or whether they were unlucky that they happened to bump into such things today.
Huang Zhishu took another deep drag of his hookah, then putting down the hookah pipe, he stood up, saying, “Everyone is back.”
There were faint sounds of people coming from outside. Xue Meng followed Jiang Lan and got up to look and saw the villagers coming back in twos and threes. There was no longer any sadness on their faces, but instead there was a hint of joy on their faces. But they probably made too many grimaces on weekdays. Even when they smiled, there was still sadness on their faces. Looking at it this way, it was very strange and inconsistent.
Xue Meng quietly moved behind Jiang Lan, trying to maintain a natural demeanor and chatting with Huang Zhishu: “Why is everyone so happy? Did something good happen in the village?”
Huang Zhishu narrowed his cloudy eyes and said with a smile: “This is the custom here. When an old man dies after his sixtieth birthday, it is a happy funeral. For a family, there is no heavy burden. So, after the funeral, the village will celebrate.”
He turned to look at the two of them and said, “There will be a banquet later. You two haven’t had lunch yet, so you can just attend the banquet with us. It’s rare for the village to be so lively.”
Considering the ins and outs of his words, he seemed to be saying that a man over sixty years old was a burden, and his death was a happy event worthy of celebration.
The more Xue Meng listened, the weirder he felt, so he forced a smile on his lips: “We haven’t completed our work tasks today, and we’re afraid that we won’t be able to communicate with the leaders if we go back late.”
Huang Zhishu waved his hand: “This is very easy. I’ll call all the men over, and the women will prepare the banquet. You guys finish your business first.”
After he shouted a few times, the scattered villagers gathered around and looked at them with joy.
Seeing this, Xue Meng looked at Jiang Lan subconsciously.
Jiang Lan nodded to him and said, “Finish the work first.”
Xue Meng looked at him, sorted out his thoughts, and started to give a mobilization speech according to the previously planned plan. Jiang Lan handed out the questionnaire to check their intention to work abroad and asked the villagers to fill it out.
Not all villagers were literate, and there were some villagers who were illiterate. Jiang Lan had to take the form and ask them one question after another, and then fill in the answers on their behalf after the other person answered.
Although there were not many such people, filling out the forms was still a tedious task.
This one asked, that one yelled, and the two of them tossed around for almost an hour before putting all the forms away.
The women in the village had already started cooking, and the rich aroma of the food was filling the air.
Xue Meng and Jiang Lan took a rough look at the questionnaire and found that everyone had filled “No” in the “Are you willing to work outside the home” column.
Under normal circumstances, since they were here to do mobilization work and no one in the village was willing to go out to work, they must find a way to do ideological work. But the situation in the village was obviously not right at the moment. Xue Meng licked his dry lips and asked in a low voice: “Do you want to continue?”
Jiang Lan shook his head and clicked on the basic information at the top of the questionnaire, indicating to him: “None of the people in the village are over sixty, and most of them are between thirty and fifty-five.”
Party Secretary Huang, who they always thought to be in his fifties, was only forty-eight years old. The youngest villager among them was twenty-six years old, but he was a bit stupid.
Xue Meng thought of what Party Secretary Huang said, “It’s a happy mourning when an old man dies after his sixtieth birthday.” His face turned slightly pale. He dared not think about where all the old people in the village who were over sixty had gone.
Jiang Lan patted his shoulder and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, nothing will happen.”
Xue Meng swallowed, nodded, arranged the forms in a decent manner, and put them into his bag.
By the time they finished sorting, the banquet in the village was almost ready. Four tables were set up in the open space in front of Huang Zhishu’s house, and the cooking women had already started serving food.
Looking at the level of poverty in the village, they originally thought that the banquet would not be much of a spread.
But unexpectedly, the four banquet tables were full of big fish and meat, including chicken, duck, pork and beef, and even soft-shell turtle and shrimp. Secretary Huang also took out two bottles of Maotai from his home.
Neither Jiang Lan nor Xue Meng knew much about wine, so they couldn’t tell whether it was genuine Maotai. But considering the level of poverty shown in Sanshui Village, the four banquet tables in front of them were definitely not in line with the economic situation of the village.
They were arranged to sit at Secretary Huang’s table. Xue Meng sat down next to Jiang Lan, like a little quail, not even daring to move his chopsticks.
Except for Party Secretary Huang, the rest of the table they were sitting at were all middle-aged men. It seemed that unlike other villages, banquet seats here were arranged according to seniority and age.
Someone came to persuade Jiang Lan to drink, but Jiang Lan refused because he could not drink and drive.
They didn’t try to persuade him anymore and just drank, ate and chatted on their own. The two men even talked about which woman’s house they were going to spend the night in today.
When Jiang Lan heard what they said, it seemed that the men in the village usually went to any woman they wanted. There was no concept of husband and wife in their conversation. It was more like treating women in the village as public property that anyone could use at their disposal.
And when they talked about this, they didn’t avoid the two of them, as if they didn’t treat them as outsiders at all. This enthusiasm was completely different from the alienation in the morning.
Jiang Lan remained calm, while Xue Meng just pretended not to hear. He pretended to check the time and took out his phone to quickly glance at the message sent to the group. There was a bright red exclamation mark beside the text message.
Looking at the signal grid again, it was still empty.
He didn’t know when the communication signal started to be completely cut off.
Xue Meng set his phone to vibrate and put it back in his pocket.
The man sitting next to him looked back at him with a big smile on his face.
….
The banquet lasted for nearly an hour, and Xue Meng was sitting on pins and needles all the while. He stuffed a little food into his stomach at Jiang Lan’s signal.
After the banquet got over, Jiang Lan suggested that it was getting late and they should go back.
Secretary Huang had drunk a lot of wine and sent them out of the village with a smile on his face.
The nervous Xue Meng first breathed a sigh of relief, and then raised it again. He always felt that these villagers should not let them go so easily.
It was only about 5:30 in the afternoon, which was obviously not too late, but the sky was already getting dark. When they walked to the parking place at the entrance of the village, they saw a light mist rising in the woods.
Xue Meng got into the driver’s seat and started the car. But found that the engine could not be started.
He felt a chill in his heart, but he didn’t feel surprised. He was about to check what went wrong when Jiang Lan, who got into the car behind him, said, “The rear tire is also flat.”
The two looked at each other and knew who had tampered with the car.
Xue Meng glanced at the villagers who had not gone far, cursed in a low voice, and asked: “There is still no signal on the mobile phone, what should we do? Those villagers will definitely not send us out.”
Sanshui Village was too remote, the roads were winding, and there was no navigation. Let alone the dark evening, they may not be able to get out even in broad daylight.
Xue Meng gritted his teeth, took out the two safety charms from his pocket, and gave one to Jiang Lan. He then searched in the car and found a small fruit knife and a wrench. He said fiercely: “At worst, I’ll fight them. I think this place has a lot of yin energy, maybe if I die, I can turn into a ghost and come back to take revenge!”
Jiang Lan laughed with amusement, gave back the peace charm to him, and asked him to hide the fruit knife and wrench close to his body. He motioned for him to pick up his bag and follow him: “Don’t worry, if we can come in, we can go out.”
Xue Meng looked at his thin body. Although he was quite tall, he didn’t have much meat. The people sitting at their table just now were all strong farmers.
“There are so many people in the village. Don’t be brave. If you can’t beat them, just run to the woods. When Xiao Xiaoyu and Zhang Tianxing find out that we have lost contact, they will definitely call the police to find us.”
The more he talked, the more reassured he felt, and his waist became straighter.
Jiang Lan looked back at him and said, “The villagers won’t do anything to us. We have to be careful about other things.”
He told Xue Meng: “I am sure to deal with it, but you must listen to me.”
Xue Meng’s lips trembled when he heard “other things”, but he nodded honestly. Probably because he was too nervous, he spoke more words unconsciously: “Do you know what those things are?”
Jiang Lan shook his head: “I don’t know.”
He glanced at the fog gradually rising around him and said, “But I’ll definitely know it in the evening.”
There was indeed no problem in the village. If his guess was correct, those things only appeared at night. And it was mostly regular. As for what the pattern was, there was too little information to guess yet, but he felt that it was probably related to the death of someone in the village.
Otherwise, there should have been problems yesterday on Zhang Tianxing’s first day here.
Xue Meng:……
Was it really okay to be so reckless?
Probably because his expression was too frightened, Jiang Lan seemed to remember something, and added uneasily: “Tonight, I mean if… no matter what you see me become, don’t scream, don’t be afraid, do you know?”
Xue Meng’s expression suddenly became more frightened: …
He really wanted to ask what “no matter what I become” meant? Weren’t they the same species?
When the words came to his lips, he swallowed them again and let out a weak “Oh”.
His mind was cluttered with thoughts about the thigh he was holding. What kind of leg was it?
Before they could figure out the answer, the two of them had returned to Secretary Huang’s house.
Secretary Huang looked at the two people who had left and returned with surprise on his face: “Why are you back again? Did you leave something behind?”
Xue Meng cursed in his heart that the old guy was quite good at acting, but a smile appeared on his face: “Uncle, our car has broken down, there is no signal on the mobile phone and we can’t contact our colleagues…”
Secretary Huang pretended to ask about the situation, and then said: “Oh, there is a tricycle in the village that can take you out. It’s just that it’s getting late now, the tricycle drives slowly, and there are no street lights on this dirt road. So, it’s not safe. Can you not just make do in the village tonight? Aren’t your colleagues coming tomorrow morning? Ask them to take you back then.”
Xue Meng said that you would be disappointed when my reinforcements arrived, but he had to pretend to be happy and agree.
Party Secretary Huang arranged a temporary room for them in the West House. The bedding inside was complete, obviously it had been prepared a long time ago.
The two of them saw through it without saying anything, but they thanked him and went to rest in the west room.
At this time, it was completely dark outside. Xue Meng looked at the time on his phone and saw that it was only after six o’clock. It was June now, and the days were long and the nights were short. Normally it didn’t get dark until after seven o’clock. But when he looked out the window of the west room, the village was already dark. There wasn’t even a light on.
He shivered and moved closer to Jiang Lan, holding the quilt.
Unexpectedly, he saw a hint of excitement in Jiang Lan’s eyes. He was stunned and asked suspiciously: “Why do I think you are a little happy?”
“Is it so obvious?” Jiang Lan looked at him innocently, and then reached out to touch his face.
“Yes.”
Xue Meng whispered in a low voice: “Although you are a big boss and are not afraid of such things but you shouldn’t be excited, right?”
You really make me feel insecure!
Jiang Lan coughed lightly, straightened his expression, went to the window and looked outside, then clucked his slippers back to the bed, removed his clothes, lay down, and said, “Go to sleep.”
Xue Meng had a wrench under his pillow and a fruit knife hidden in his trouser pocket, so he couldn’t sleep.
And there was such a big lantern hanging outside.
“Don’t you need to get that lantern?” It was as if it was made specially to lure something to them.
Jiang Lan closed his eyes and said, “I’ve seen it. The tea stems in the lantern are just the things soaked in the tea we drank during the day.”
It was called tea stalk, but he didn’t actually know what it was.
But one thing Jiang Lan was sure of was that this thing might attract something. The tea they drank during the day must have left behind a smell, and it didn’t make much difference whether they had a lantern or not.
It was probably just that Party Secretary Huang was worried, so he took out another layer of insurance.
Xue Meng suddenly stopped talking. He turned over a few times and then became quiet.
Jiang Lan was lying on the outside of the bed, with his hands folded on his abdomen, as if he was asleep. He was thinking in his heart, no matter what comes later, it better taste good.
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