Early the next morning, Mr. Xu was waiting for us outside the guest house. When I saw him, he was a little excited. When we had breakfast together, he also looked uneasy. He looked very nervous.
He wanted to urge us to move faster, but he didn't dare to say it out loud.
Seeing Mr. Xu's appearance, we were embarrassed to delay for too long, so we hurriedly finished our breakfast and set off.
The village that Mr. Xu mentioned is about twenty kilometers away from the town. Although the distance on paper is not too far, because the village is in the nearby mountains and there are no roads, it can only be reached on foot.
In addition, the mountain road is rugged and difficult to walk, so Mr. Xu told us that it would take at least more than two hours to get there.
On the way to the village, I talked as I walked and told Mr. Xu the news I had learned from San Pang last night. When he heard the message online from the man whose girlfriend was missing, Mr. Xu couldn’t help but be shocked.
He shouted, "How come the experience of this man's girlfriend is so similar to that of my wife? Comrade Lin, is there really a women-trafficking gang in that village?"
I shook my head and told Mr. Xu that our police had investigated the case four years ago, but there were no clues. In the end, we discovered that the content of this post might have been forged by someone else.
When he heard the word "forgery", Mr. Xu stopped and looked straight at us. I knew his concerns, so I told him not to worry, that case was that case, but Mr. Xu's case
Bian, we will definitely help him get to the bottom of it.
"But..." Having said this, I suddenly thought of something, "Mr. Xu, assuming that your wife's disappearance is really related to that village, I suggest you not to go into the village with us.
"
"Why is this?" Mr. Xu stared.
I told him that if this incident was man-made, then the villagers in the village would be the most suspicious. If that was the case, Mr. Xu's sudden appearance would most likely make the villagers who know him wary.
So, when we arrive at the village later, it would be best for Lin Qianyi and I to go into the village to investigate for clues.
Mr. Xu nodded and felt that it made sense, but he still felt a little unsure after all. He hesitated for a long time before saying to us: "Okay, then I will send you two to the edge of the village. Then I will return to the town.
Waiting for your news... But Comrade Lin, you two are the last hope for my wife and I. My wife has been missing for almost a week now. It would be okay if she was really abducted. I'm afraid.
I'm afraid she has actually..." At this point, Mr. Xu's eyes turned red.
After I comforted him for a while and assured him that we would do our best, Mr. Xu cheered up and rushed to the front to continue leading the way for us.
The road from the town to the village was relatively easy to walk at first, but after we entered the mountain, it suddenly became much more difficult. It’s not like I have never climbed mountains before, but this was the first time I experienced such a difficult mountain road. Compared with those that have been heavily damaged
The developed tourist attractions are different. There are almost no steps on the mountain roads here. There are only mud roads made by pedestrians after walking too much. These mud roads are not only narrow, but also become very soft because it seems to have rained before.
, I might slip if I'm not careful. My heart was in my throat all the way down.
In order to relieve the pressure, I asked Mr. Xu while walking, why did he and his wife think of going there in the first place when the village was so remote?
Mr. Xu smiled bitterly and said: "Comrade Lin, you think the mountain road is difficult to walk, but in the opinion of our travel friends, the more unknown the place, the better the scenery, because there has not been commercial development and everything remains intact.
Look the most natural." Although I listened to his explanation, I still found it difficult to understand the so-called travel friend's thoughts.
After climbing one mountain after another, almost three mountains in a row, when I was wondering if Mr. Xu had led us on the wrong path, an antique village suddenly appeared not far ahead.
Mr. Xu pointed to the village and said, "You two, that is your destination."
The village is hidden in the valley between the mountains. Looking far away on the mountainside, you can see the small river flowing in the village, shaded by green willows. The clear river water laps at the waterwheel, and the water wheel gurglingly rotates. It looks like a farmhouse landscape.
Other than that, there is nothing suspicious about the scene.
Seeing that the village was close at hand, we said goodbye to Mr. Xu in accordance with the agreement on the road, and the two of us continued walking along the road alone.
In order to deceive others, Lin Qianyi and I had already agreed last night that we would disguise ourselves as a traveling couple and enter the village.
But when we were still a few steps away from the village entrance, I suddenly felt embarrassed. Lin Qianyi took the initiative to grab my hand and pulled me into the village together.
Just like what Mr. Xu described to us, although this village is remote, the environment is very good. It is obviously a small village in a ravine, but because of a river that runs through the whole village, it has a bit of a Jiangnan water town flavor.
Most of the houses here are stilted buildings with wooden structures and wooden decorations, row upon row, making the whole village look simple and peaceful.
After walking a few steps into the village, an old man with a smile on his face came towards us. The old man had gray hair and was very thin, but he walked steadily and looked very energetic.
This old man walked up to us and asked: "Young people... who are you?"
Lin Qianyi replied: "Old sir, my husband and I are here to travel nearby. We heard that there is a longevity village here, so we want to come and have a look in the village. I wonder if it is here?"
After hearing this, the old man nodded and said with a smile: "You are right. When it comes to Changshou Village, within a radius of dozens of miles here, I am afraid that only our village is worthy of this title. Haha... I am the villager here.
Chief, because I have been the village chief for half my life, everyone calls me the old village chief. If you two don’t mind, can you let me take you in for a walk?"
I was a little surprised and said: "Are you the village chief? This... won't trouble you too much, right?"
"It's okay." The old village chief still smiled and said, "As the saying goes, guests from afar are guests. Since I am the chief of this village, I naturally have the responsibility to entertain the guests in the village."
As he spoke, the old village chief turned around and led the two of us deeper into the village. Lin Qianyi and I looked at each other and immediately followed.
To be honest, although I already knew that the bureau had sent people to investigate this village and found no results, deep down in my heart, I held the thought that maybe I could find something in this village.
However, after following the old village chief around the village for almost a full circle, Lin Qianyi and I found pessimistically that we really couldn't find anything in this village.
In fact, this village is no different from ordinary mountain villages common across the country. There are only a few noteworthy places, and none of them have anything to do with the disappearance of Mr. Xu and his wife.
Specifically, these noteworthy places are as follows:
The first and most eye-catching point is the extraordinary lifespan of the residents in this village. Speaking of which, if there is only one village among the many longevity villages in the country that can bear the name of longevity village, I will
I feel that this village definitely deserves it.
Probably because the mountains and rivers here are particularly nourishing, the residents in the village have a very long lifespan. For example, the village chief in front of us, who walks like flying and leads us around the village, has a lifespan of
He is ninety-five years old. And according to the village chief, he is not the oldest in the village. There are as many as 20 elderly people over 100 years old in one hundred households in the village. The oldest one is
He is even over one hundred and ten years old.
The second point worth noting is the composition of the population in this village. Speaking of which, due to economic development in recent years, there is basically a situation in rural areas, that is, in a large village, there are only old people and
Almost all children and young people go to work in big cities.
But in this village, we saw many young and middle-aged people working and farming in the village. When we asked the old village chief, he explained to us that this is because everyone thinks the environment in the village is good.
In the past, some young people went out to work, but they came back soon. Anyone who left the village would eventually feel that no matter how much money there was outside, the living environment was really not comparable to that at home, so even in the village life was hard.
Yes, they would also like to stay here.
As for the last place that deserves our attention, it is a ghost face hanging in front of every house in the village. Some of those ghost faces look like tiger heads, and some have green faces and fangs. They all look ferocious and terrifying, and I don’t know.
Why do people here hang things like this on their doors, and are they not afraid of scaring themselves when they go home in the middle of the night?
However, after listening to the introduction of the village chief, we learned that this ghost face was originally called a Nuo mask. It was a prop used by the Jiangxi generation during sacrificial rituals in ancient times. It also had the function of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits. As for why this Nuo mask appeared in the southwest region,
It's because the residents of this village actually moved here from the Jiangxi area hundreds of years ago to escape the disasters of war.
Strictly speaking, in addition to these three points, there is another place that makes me feel a little strange, or unnatural, and that is that the people in this village are really too enthusiastic towards us two outsiders.
Leaving aside the village chief who came uninvited and took the initiative to act as a tour guide, almost every villager we met along the way greeted us with a smile and took the initiative to say hello to us. Especially especially
The attitude towards Lin Qianyi was even more enthusiastic. Some grandparents who looked to be at least seventy or eighty years old felt as if they were seeing their own granddaughter when they saw Lin Qianyi, and they gave her food.
He was bringing drinks again. After we were far away, he was still pointing at her from a distance with a smile on his face.
In fact, in this village, in addition to Lin Qianyi and I, there are also some backpackers who obviously come from other places, but towards those people, the attitude of the village chief and villagers is obviously much colder.
Already.
At first I thought it was because Lin Qianyi was too beautiful and lovable, but not long after that, I learned the real reason why they were like this... And this reason still reminds me of,