mtl008 Chapter 577 Another person died in the village
Chapter 577 Another person died in the village
“If something happens, none of you will be able to find a strong laborer to help.”
"No, my uncle is the village chief, and he makes the decisions on many things. It seems like there's nothing much going on in the village."
Du Mingxian couldn't quite put her finger on what was strange, but she just felt something was off. She walked a little further and saw two children who looked about seven or eight years old, a teenager, an old man, and an old woman, but she didn't see anyone else.
This seems somewhat unreasonable in a village located in a remote area.
"Dahua, let's go find someone to chat with. I love chatting with people and I can't stand being idle."
"Huh?" Da Hua was stunned for a moment, then realized what she meant and looked a little embarrassed. "There's no place in our village where we can gossip."
She hadn't noticed it before, and if Xiao Du hadn't reminded her just now, she really wouldn't have realized it.
"Are there no women in your village?"
"Yes, there are some, but not many, and... women have a lot of work to do at home, so they rarely have the chance to come out and chat."
"In a family, there are parents, children, children getting married and having children, so there are quite a few women involved."
Da Hua also looked puzzled. "You're right, but it seems like our village..." She awkwardly moved closer to Du Mingxian to explain, "...seems to have bad feng shui."
"Huh? What does that mean?" Du Mingxian asked softly.
Everyone has a gossip gene, and when she sees someone chatting with her, Da Hua is willing to chat a bit more.
People die quickly in our village too.
"This is……"
"Sigh, we don't know if our village is cursed or what, but sometimes the women suddenly die on the mountain or while giving birth, so there are more men than women in our village."
"In addition, most of these men go out to work with the villagers, leaving even fewer people in the village."
Du Mingxian sensed something was wrong. "There must be one in every household, right?"
"Not entirely. Some families have no one left, some still have elderly people, and some still have young, unmarried girls."
"Then why don't you get married?"
“Their parents said that their daughter would bring bad luck to her family, and they were afraid that their daughter would bring bad luck to other families after she got married, so they made their daughter swear not to get married.”
A sense of conspiracy was palpable.
Looking at this village now, it's like a shell company, just a facade, a place to deceive outsiders, a place that can be abandoned by those in charge at any time.
"I'm fairly familiar with Aunt Bai. She brought me here. I don't know where she lives."
Da Hua was completely unsuspecting and pointed to a small courtyard in front of her. "That's Aunt Bai's house."
"Shall we go take a look?"
"No, no, you can't go." Da Hua hurriedly grabbed her, desperately pulling her back home. "You can go to other places, but you can't go to that place."
"Why? I just want to say hello to Aunt Bai,"
“We can’t go. Aunt Bai has a sick child. The child’s parents saved the lives of everyone in our village, so no one can disturb the child.”
Du Mingxian seemed to have guessed something, "Da Hua, how long have you been married into this family?"
Da Hua thought for a moment and said, "Da Ya is four years old this year, and I have been married into this family for five years."
Have you ever met Aunt Bai's children?
"No, that child is sick, how could he possibly come out?"
Don't you worship your ancestors during the Lunar New Year?
"Yes, there is a ceremony, but it's all men who go; the women in the family aren't allowed to leave."
Du Mingxian's lips twitched slightly. "The customs in your village are truly unique."
“That’s true. In my hometown village, although women can’t be at the front during ancestral worship, women and children still have to participate. Every place has its own customs.”
Are your family members good to you?
“Oh no, my family is very poor. My father sold me for ten taels of silver, and I have cut off all ties with my family.”
"It's getting late. Since we can't see Aunt Bai's child, let's not bother them and go back first."
"Ah."
As soon as the two returned, their aunt stood in the yard watching. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw them come back. She walked up to Du Mingxian and warned, "I'm telling you, you can move around as you please, but don't even think about escaping the village. You won't get out."
"Why would I run away? There's food and drink here, I'll just stay. Besides... this place is so remote, I can't escape anyway."
"It's good to know."
Du Mingxian settled down at the Qi family's house, and a month passed in the blink of an eye. She never saw Aunt Bai again, and every day she could only see the same few people from the village.
Moreover, she can now walk around the village on her own. When she reaches the village entrance, she can clearly sense danger and that there are people lurking in the shadows.
Therefore, it is certain that this village is just a shell, and the people who remain in the village are all abandoned. If anything really happens, these people will definitely be the first to be pushed out.
There are also people lurking in the shadows; if there's any disturbance, they might attack their own people first.
After a month of investigation, the village was found to have a population of just over one hundred, including about thirty elderly people, a dozen or so boys, and the rest of the villagers were women.
There aren't many women as old as Third Aunt. The rest are a few girls who are said to inherit the family business and are not allowed to remarry. There are also children like Daya. And the rest are all women like Dahua who married into the family.
That day, Du Mingxian was thinking that she had a good grasp of the situation in the village and could go to the mountains to check on things. There must be a reason why they chose to build the village here; maybe there's something in the mountains.
As soon as she stepped out the door, she heard a sound coming from outside. Following the sound, she saw a tense atmosphere. When she got closer, she saw about thirty people gathered together talking.
In the middle lay a body covered with a white cloth, lying on the ground.
"It's so pitiful. Hu Zi is so young. If he passes away, how will his mother and sister survive?"
"Who can argue with that? Things are unpredictable. Quite a few children have died in our village over the years."
"That's right, I don't know what's going on. Even though we know that river can drown people, and we've repeatedly told them not to go, they still won't listen."
Uncle Qi arrived at this moment, accompanied by two men. Seeing the situation, he remained very calm and directly ordered the two men, "Take them away."
"Tiger, Tiger, let me see Tiger."
Not far away, Tiger's mother, who had just received the news, was crying her heart out, with a little girl following behind her, her face also covered in tears.
Someone stepped forward to stop them, saying, "Mother Hu, please accept our condolences. Your child was playing and ran into the forbidden area of our village. He has probably been punished."
"No, no, Tiger has always been a good boy, he wouldn't, he wouldn't abandon me." Tiger's mother cried so hard.