Xu Lang originally thought that Chenjiahe should not be far from Hengtong County. After all, when looking at the mobile map, the distance between the two was indeed very short. However, when Xu Lang and the others rushed to Chenjiahe from the Hengtong County Public Security Bureau, it was enough.
It took a full hour and a half.
When Xu Lang and the others arrived at Chenjiahe, it was just after three o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was shining brightly. However, when Xu Lang and the others parked the car at the entrance of the village and got out of the car, they saw that the sun had already set in the west.
The sun is not as strong as expected.
Chenjiahe is a small village of less than a thousand people, and the residents living here are distributed on both sides of a river.
The river bed was very wide, with a bridge made of cement piers in the middle. At this time, Xu Lang, standing on the road, only saw a small stream on the wide river. Maybe it was because it hadn't rained in nearly a month.
, most of the river bed has dried up, and the round stones are scattered randomly on the river bed, and the small stream is gurgling. When the water passes through the stones, it makes a light sound, which makes people happy physically and mentally.
On the coast, you can clearly see some children in cool clothes, shirtless and barefoot, immersed in the stream turning over stones, and from time to time they let out childish exclamations.
Not far from the group of children upstream, there were several peasant women who were hammering the clothes in their hands with a round piece of wood. They were talking and laughing while hammering the clothes, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
On the bank of the river are lush green fields, where rice and corn are planted. A breeze blows, and they slightly bend their already drooped heads, drifting in the wind. Not far from the fields, there are still
There are several strong cattle and sheep, lowering their heads foraging for food, and in the fields, you can sometimes see farmers wearing straw hats and waving their heads, weeding in the fields.
Xu Lang stood on the road, his eyes a little blurry. He seemed to have returned to the small town of Zhuxi County. In the past few years, Xu Lang had seen similar scenes countless times, with the sun rising and the sun setting resting.
, the laughter of children, the peasant women gathered together and talked about their parents' shortcomings, the men were sweating profusely in the fields, but their dark faces showed smiles of joy and satisfaction. When the sun sets, you can see the smoke rising from every house.
Occasionally, you can hear the barking of dogs and the crowing of roosters. Everything seems so peaceful and harmonious.
In fact, when Xu Lang was young, it was the same scene when he followed his sister back to his grandmother's home in Zhangjiacun. However, at that time, Xu Lang's thoughts every day were about his mother lying in a pool of blood and being raped by the police.
The father who was taken away in handcuffs was very confused and confused at that time, and did not know what was going on. Later, when Xu Lang walked out of Zhangjiacun and returned to S City to live again, he was actually very lonely.
What Xu Lang really yearns for is this kind of life that seems to be the most primitive. Therefore, after that incident happened, Xu Lang took Xiao Yueyue and chose to escape and lived the life he dreamed of in Zhuxi County. Now,
After seeing this familiar scene, Xu Lang couldn't bear to break the long-lost tranquility.
After Luo Jiayan got out of the car and saw the scenes here, her previously depressed mood suddenly became refreshed. She turned her head and looked at Xu Lang's smile, blurred eyes, and three-dimensional profile.
His eyes moved slightly.
"Brother Lang, what are you thinking about?" Luo Jiayan looked at it for a while and couldn't help but ask.
"Ah? Oh, it's nothing."
Luo Jiayan's voice brought Xu Lang back to reality. He looked into the distance with soft eyes, smiled and shook his head.
Chen Bo stood next to Xu Lang. He looked at the scenery in the distance and then at Xu Lang. He felt that this leader with long snow-white hair and coming from the city was a little strange. Isn't that what rural areas are like?
Is it strange? He was a little confused.
"Where should we go next?" Luo Jiayan asked.
"Let's go to the village chief's house."
Xu Lang turned his head and looked at Chen Bo and said.
"The village chief is on the other side of the river, and that house is the village chief's home."
Chen Bo stretched out his hand and pointed at a red brick house.
Xu Lang looked in the direction of Chen Bo's finger. After seeing the red brick house that looked a little out of place with the surrounding brick buildings, he frowned subconsciously, but didn't say anything more.
A group of three people followed a path paved with stones from the highway to the river bank, and walked across the river that could not be called a river on cement blocks.
————
When Xu Lang and others arrived at the door of the village chief's house, they saw a man about forty or fifty years old, sitting on a chair at the door, with his eyes slightly closed, holding a cigarette bag, and having a chat.
The man was smoking a dry cigarette, and there were two chairs beside the man. It seemed that someone had been sitting here just now.
Hearing the footsteps, the man opened his eyes, raised his head, and looked at Xu Lang and the others walking towards him. The man subconsciously stood up and narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Uncle Chen." When Chen Bo approached the man, he walked a few steps quickly and came to the man and shouted.
"Oh, it's Xiaobo from Chen Laosan's family. You're not in the county, so why are you here? Are there any new work instructions?" the man asked.
Although the man was talking to Chen Bo, his slightly cloudy eyes were looking at Xu Lang, looking up and down at Xu Lang and Luo Jiayan.
"There are no work instructions. The city leaders came, and the director asked me to lead them and come over to understand some of the situation." Chen Bo explained.
"Oh, I'm from the city. Let's sit in the house.
Sit inside."
As the man spoke, he let Xu Lang and the others into the house.
Xu Lang looked at the man, then at the red brick house, without any expression, and then entered the house.
Several people sat down in the main room. There was no sofa here, only a few handmade chairs. Xu Lang sat on the chair and could clearly hear the squeaking sound of the chair. It seemed that it could not bear Xu Lang's weight.
After some mutual explanations and greetings, Xu Lang learned that the man's name was Chen Weiguo. He was forty-eight years old and was the village chief of Chenjiahe. He had been the village chief for more than 20 years.
"Officer Xu, I wonder what you are doing here?" Chen Weiguo was the first to ask.
Xu Lang was still holding a cup of steaming tea in his hand. When he heard Chen Weiguo's words, Xu Lang put down the cup in his hand and asked straight to the point: "Is Chen Qiumin from Chenjiahe?"
"Chen Qiumin?"
Chen Weiguo thought for a while and seemed a little unfamiliar with the name. He turned his head and looked at Chen Bo.
"That's Goudan." Chen Bo sat next to Chen Weiguo and explained in a low voice when he saw Chen Weiguo looking at him.
"Oh, it's the little fat guy from Lao Qi's family. He's from our village. What's wrong? Did something happen to him?" Chen Weiguo suddenly realized.
"What kind of person is Chen Qiumin?" Xu Lang asked.
"Oh, Goudan, he is just a little boy, what else can he do? He can eat, he can eat very well, haha... He has been very good at eating since he was a child."
When Chen Weiguo said this, he seemed to think of something happy and smiled heartily.
"Can it be eaten?"
Xu Lang raised his eyebrows subconsciously.
"Isn't that right? When he was born, my wife helped to deliver him. The baby was very thin when he was born, and it was still winter. We all thought that the baby would not survive that winter. Unexpectedly, he actually survived.
Coming down..."
Chen Weiguo seemed to have remembered the past, opened his chat box, and began to tell about Chen Qiumin's past.
Chen Weiguo is about the same age as Chen Qiumin's father. If Chen Jianjun was still alive, he would be fifty years old this year. When talking about Chen Qiumin's family, we have to talk about Chen Qiumin's grandfather.
Chen Qiumin's grandfather left Chenjiahe when he was very young and went out to make a living. They heard that he had served as a soldier and fought in the war. However, they didn't know whether this was true. They only knew that Chen Qiumin
After leaving Chenjiahe for more than ten years, my grandfather returned to Chenjiahe with a lame leg and a woman. The woman was very beautiful, but she seemed to be mute. She also held a boy in her arms, and this boy was
Chen Qiumin’s father, Chen Jianjun.
After Chen Qiumin's grandfather returned to Chenjiahe, he asked people in the village to help renovate the old house that had collapsed, and he has lived here ever since. Chen Qiumin's grandfather was lame in one leg and missing an arm.
, unable to do any heavy work, and at that time, the country's economy was very underdeveloped, and farmers even more so, could only eat in the fields.
The difference from Yangjia Village is that Yangjia Village is close to the sea, so they can make a living by fishing, while Chenjiahe is surrounded by mountains, so they can only make a living by farming, and Chen Qiumin's grandfather cannot do farm work.
The children are all taken care of by Chen Qiumin's grandmother.
At the beginning, she looked very awkward doing farm work. It looked like she had never done manual labor. At that time, people had good relations. Chen Qiumin's grandfather was disabled, and everyone helped him if he could.
, life was getting better, and Chen Qiumin's grandma gradually got used to farm work.
In this way, Chen Jianjun grew up day by day. As his children grew up, they should have gone to school. However, at that time, eating was a problem, let alone studying. Therefore, Chen Jianjun had no education, and when Chen Jianjun was fifteen years old
When he was doing farm work, his mother was stopped on the other side of the river because of a heavy rain. She was anxious to get home, so she planned to wade across the river. As a result, the water was too big, and Chen Jianjun's mother was washed away by the flood.
I don't know whether I'm dead or alive.
After Chen Jianjun's mother was washed away by the flood, people from up and down the Chenjia River helped search for her. However, after searching for a long time, she was not found, and her body was not found. From then on, only Chen Jianjun and his father lived together.
When Chen Jianjun was eighteen years old, he left Chenjiahe with a foreigner who came to them. It was said that this man was a comrade of Chen Jianjun's father, but they didn't know whether it was true or not.
Chen Jianjun was away for several years. When he came back, he not only made money outside, but also brought back a pregnant wife, just like his father.
That winter, the weather was very cold. Chen Qiumin was born here. I don’t know if Wang Qiuju was malnourished during pregnancy or because of something else. When Chen Qiumin was born, she was very thin. The person responsible for delivering the baby thought that
The child could not survive. Unexpectedly, under the care of Grandpa Chen Qiumin, Chen Qiumin survived.
Because Chen Qiumin was too thin when he was born, when they were taking care of Chen Qiumin, they always gave him all kinds of delicious food, which they said was delicious. In fact, at that time, there was nothing delicious in the countryside.
Some chicken, duck and fish, but Chen Qiumin was still young and could not eat these foods. He could only drink some soup. Wang Qiuju also had insufficient milk. It happened that at that time, two women in the village also gave birth to children.
She had plenty of water, so she often breastfed Chen Qiumin. It can be said that Chen Qiumin grew up eating other people's milk.
After Chen Qiumin was born, Wang Qiuju stayed in Chenjiahe, while Chen Jianjun continued to go out to work. Wang Qiuju took care of the young Chen Qiumin while taking care of her husband's increasingly poor health.
In the second year after Chen Qiumin learned to walk, Wang Qiuju went out to work with her husband, and Chen Qiumin was left in the care of his grandfather.
Because Chen Qiumin was very thin when he was a child, and he was worried that he would not survive, he gave him a nickname, Goudan, based on the saying in the countryside. As the saying goes, a nickname is easy to make a living. I don’t know that the name Goudan played a role.
Or because their family loved this child very much, after Wang Qiuju went out to work, Chen Qiumin, who was originally as skinny as a monkey, started to gain weight like he had taken a big tonic pill, and soon, he became
A little fat guy.
When he was in elementary school, he weighed over 100 kilograms. When Chen Qiumin was eight years old, his grandfather passed away. During that time, Chen Qiumin lost weight rapidly. His original weight of more than 100 kilograms was reduced.
He suddenly lost more than 70 kilograms. However, within half a year, Chen Qiumin gained weight again. By the time he entered junior high school, he weighed almost 200 kilograms.
In the impression of the villagers, Chen Qiumin has been a good eater since he was a child, and he has a large appetite. Moreover, he has been naughty and bold since he was a child. He often goes to the river to catch fish and crabs, and to the fields to catch loaches and eels.
They are all mountains, and he often goes to the mountains to play. Every time he goes there, he never comes back empty-handed, either with a few hares or a few snakes.
Everyone in the village knows that Chen Qiumin's grandfather was a soldier, and Chen Qiumin went down the river to catch fish and went up the mountain to catch hares. These skills were taught to him by his grandfather.
After Chen Qiumin's grandfather passed away, Chen Qiumin often went fishing in the river and played in the mountains alone. Especially during the period when Chen Qiumin lost weight rapidly, Chen Qiumin would stay in the mountains for a long time almost every day. No one knew
What is he doing on the mountain?
After Chen Qiumin finished junior high school, he stopped going to school. His parents wanted to take him out to attend a vocational high school or something, but Chen Qiumin refused to go out. His parents had no choice but to let him stay in Chenjiahe, and
During that time, Chen Qiumin often stayed in the mountains.
A villager once saw Chen Qiumin lighting a fire on the mountain, peeling off the skin and cramps of a freshly caught hare, then roasting it on the fire at home, sprinkling some salt, and then started eating it.
The village of Chenjiahe is not big. Although there are many mountains here, when Chen Qiumin was here, he ran almost every mountain. Even though he was fat, he was very agile. In the past, there were always some mountains on these mountains.
Wild animals, however, as time goes by, not to mention the less common animals, even some common rabbits, pheasants and the like can no longer be seen. People in the village say that they are all dog eggs and that boy has eaten them.
.
Until three years ago, the news of the death of Chen Qiumin's parents came back. Someone came back with the ashes of Chen Qiumin's parents. With the help of the villagers, Chen Qiumin took care of the funeral arrangements for his parents. Then, he stayed at home for three years.
After many months, he left Chenjiahe. As for where he went, no one knows. In short, Chen Qiumin has not come back in the past few years, and people have gradually forgotten about him.
————
After listening to Chen Weiguo's story, Xu Lang frowned. Based on this information, Xu Lang summarized a few points.
First, Chen Qiumin left Chenjiahe after the death of his parents, which is consistent with what Xu Lang and the others had previously investigated, which was more than two years ago.
Second, Chen Qiumin was not fat when he was born, but rather thin. He only became fat later.
Third, Chen Qiumin likes to eat wild animals. This is not a habit she formed after going to S city, but has been since she was a child.
Fourth, Chen Qiumin is a good eater, has a large appetite, and is also very fat.
Xu Lang concluded that these points were similar to the previous investigation, and there were no useful clues, which made Xu Lang frown.
"Chen Qiumin has lived in the village for so long, so he must have good friends, right?" Xu Lang asked.
"Oh, yes, there are four people who play well with Goudan." Chen Weiguo said.
"Four?"
"One is named Chen Zhen, who is the same age as Goudan and is also twenty-five years old. One is named Chen Wang, who is one year older than Goudan. The other is named Chen Shan, who is two years younger than Goudan."
"What about another one?" Xu Lang asked.
"Oh, there is also a female doll named Chen Yuzhen, who is as big as a dog egg."
"Are they still in the village now?"
"That's it? Chen Zhen was admitted to college and left Chenjiahe when he was in high school. Chen Wang went out to work with Goudan's parents. He was the one who brought back the news of Goudan's parents' death. Chen Shan
He left the village with Goudan."
Hearing what Chen Weiguo said, Xu Lang nodded first, and then asked: "What about Chen Yuzhen? She is still in the village now?"
"No, she also left the village with Goudan and the others and hasn't come back in the past few years."
"Do they have a good relationship?"
"Yes, the relationship between the five of them is very good. After all, they grew up in the same village."
"Apart from a few of them, who else has a good relationship with Chen Qiumin?"
Hearing Xu Lang's question, Chen Weiguo thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's gone."
"That's it."
Xu Lang pinched his chin and fell into deep thought.