A curse hangs over Longevity Village, and those guilty cannot escape.
"You found her... you saved her..."
"It hurts so much... I'm in so much pain..."
"You will die, all of you will die, they won't spare anyone... everyone will die, everyone will die!"
The voice of the female ghost became increasingly piercing, her hoarse voice penetrating Meng Lan's every pore like torn silk!
Meng Lan didn't want to stay still, but her limbs were frozen and she couldn't move at all!
—Limbs frozen?
Wait a minute!
She had a sudden realization.
Suddenly.
"Lanlan! What are you doing?"
He Huanhuan hadn't seen Meng Lan for a long time, so she came out to look for her. There was no sign of Meng Lan in the courtyard. Boldly, she and Zhang Yizhi separated to search, and not far from the ancestral hall, they found Meng Lan standing stiff and motionless.
She seemed to be in a nightmare.
He Huanhuan woke Meng Lan up with a pat, and Meng Lan broke out in a cold sweat.
"Have you seen a ghost? What's going on?" He Huanhuan exclaimed.
"Sort of."
He Huanhuan's face turned pale with fright. "And what about you?" Her cold fingers pinched Meng Lan's cheek. "You're not dead, are you? Spit, spit, spit, I shouldn't have said that."
"Not dead yet," Meng Lan pushed away her hand. "It's getting late, we should go back."
Inside the village chief's small building.
The village chief came to check on the situation after learning that the young outsiders had refused the aunt's offer to cook. Qi Huan systematically received him, "We're really sorry to trouble you again. We can cook for ourselves, self-sufficiency is enough."
The village chief didn't force the issue any further. "You're free to do as you wish. Did you sleep well last night in the village?"
"With someone dead, what good sleep can we have?" Qi Huan said.
"That's true, but life is unpredictable." The village chief extinguished his cigarette and respectfully stood in front of the altar, offering incense to the Three Goddesses.
At this moment, Meng Lan, Zhang Yizhi, and He Huanhuan returned.
Zhang Yizhi disdainfully glanced at the village chief.
The village chief's eyes were imposing, his voice low as he said, "It seems that the young people have some ideas about me."
Zhang Yizhi licked his lips. He was young and full of vigor, not one to beat around the bush. He was straightforward.
Of course, he had thoughts! If it weren't for those human traffickers, his sister would still be a psychologically healthy girl!
He had had enough!
Thinking of the backpacks he had seen in the warehouse today, sympathy for the abducted girls surged within him. And the village chief had said something about women not being allowed in the ancestral hall, all that feudal nonsense. Didn't the Qing Dynasty collapse long ago? He hated this kind of rhetoric that incited gender division the most.
"I know your secret," Zhang Yizhi said.
Meng Lan looked slightly surprised, with a hint of bewilderment in her eyes. He was indeed impulsive, as evidenced by his actions when he went to chase the child in red.
—But, this impulsive?
He Huanhuan: Warrior! Protect our Zhang Yizhi!
The eyes in the room were all fixed on him, like spotlights.
"Oh, let's hear it." The village chief remained calm.
"We suspect your village is involved in trafficking women." Zhang Yizhi grew up in the city, but that didn't mean his family life was smooth sailing. When he was six years old, his young sister had almost been carried away by a stranger. It was only with the help of a roadside vendor that he managed to rescue her, but since then, his sister had been too scared to go out alone. He harbored a deep hatred for all forms of human trafficking!
If it weren't for his desire to study journalism and become a reporter to expose these gray industrial chains, he might have become a policeman and brought these criminals to justice!
The village chief was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure, his voice old but confident. "We are not involved in trafficking, nor are we suspected of trafficking."
"We saw it, there were female students! And others! We have evidence!" Zhang Yizhi shouted regardless of consequences. He wielded the word 'momentum' perfectly, as if he were a righteous and solemn young police officer.
"We are saving people," the village chief said.
"Pah!"
"There are two girls whose minds aren't quite right, probably born with disabilities. When we went to the county town, we saw one of them digging through trash alone. We helped her find a home. What's wrong with that? There are men to take care of her, and children too." The village chief's tone did not betray any guilt; he seemed to believe he was doing the most righteous thing.
"You see, you've admitted it! Don't try to justify your criminal behavior!" Zhang Yizhi's anger flared up when he saw the village chief's unresponsive expression.
"We're all just trying to survive, for ourselves, for them. I saved them," the village chief said from the bottom of his heart, feeling that his actions were justified for the sake of everyone's survival.
He was working towards a better life for Longevity Village, not committing any crimes. These people had no understanding and yet arrogantly accused him.
Meng Lan didn't expect him to admit it so quickly.
Zhang Yizhi, seeing the village chief's unapologetic and uncompromising demeanor, grew furious and shouted, "Do you have a throne to inherit in your family? Those girls are loved by their parents, but you abducted them to bear children! Is there no justice left?"
"We gave them a new life," the village chief said.
Zhang Yizhi was overcome with emotion, his eyes turning red, and he gasped for breath, pointing at the village chief's slightly stooped figure, "You... You're wrong to do this! Let them go!"
Zhang Yizhi was born into a well-mannered family, not one to curse or use foul language, and now he felt the frustration of his powerless words.
The village chief, upon hearing this, didn't react as expected. "Where have we gone wrong? We just want to survive. There's not much interaction between villages, and the bride prices in neighboring villages are too high. Without finding women, we would have to marry within close relatives, and those children would be mentally challenged, unable to even feed themselves. How would this family survive? Without children or wives, they would be looked down upon."
Zhang Yizhi felt like he was punching cotton, unable to vent his anger. "You... You'll be cursed for this!" He had heard stories of families of abducted girls poisoning wells, and when that happened, no one in this village would be able to escape!
"Cursed..." The village chief's face changed instantly, his emotions suddenly becoming agitated, and he exclaimed angrily, "You know nothing!"
Meng Lan raised an eyebrow, seemingly hitting a nerve with Zhang Yizhi's words.
He Qianqian stared fixedly at the village chief, her pupils dilating for a moment, flashing with a fierce and hateful light.
"All those you've abducted are dead," He Qianqian said coldly.
"They're alive and well!" The village chief, upon hearing He Qianqian's words, shivered involuntarily, feeling a chill down his spine. "They're also family, we wouldn't harm them!"
Zhao Che stood by He Qianqian's side.
The chill emanating from her body made him intensely uncomfortable.
The village chief took a step back, "This is a good village, blessed by the gods."
"Really?" Meng Lan leaned against the wall, suddenly blurting out, "After abducting women, you won't exceed life and death. With such great ability, instead of studying how to give birth to men, it's better to produce and sell them yourself, straight as an arrow without any bends, to avoid extinction."
Qi Huan: ?
Zhao Che: ?
He Qianqian's body trembled, her eyes regaining their clarity.
—Why did the tone suddenly change?
Zhang Yizhi was dumbfounded: "Meng Lan, are you always so eloquent..."
The village chief, who had remained motionless just now, heard Meng Lan's words as if his tail had been stepped on by a mouse. His eyebrows twisted, and he sternly shouted, "What did you say?"
"I said you have a clear head but a rotten crotch, and Longevity Village is shrouded in curses. Those guilty can't escape," Meng Lan replied.
"You!" The village chief was so angry he was about to rush forward, but was stopped by Zhang Yizhi, whose head was suddenly hot.
"You're still going to use force? How can you still use force! If something happens to me, you won't be able to leave!" The village chief's voice unintentionally grew louder.
Meng Lan glanced over, touched her stomach, found no information she wanted, and turned to the kitchen to find something to eat.
She wondered if the word she mentioned had touched a nerve with him, even though his emotions seemed stable at first.
Was it not exceeding life and death?
Was it ending the family line?
Still, men giving birth.
—Shouldn't have mentioned so many sensitive topics.
The living room was in chaos.
Fifteen minutes later, the village chief left, and Meng Lan kept her head down, lost in thought.
"You're quite good at cursing, Lan Lan!" He Wanwan, who had been holding back her feelings, felt considerably relieved hearing her calm voice spew out those nasty words.
"This output is much more impressive than online warriors, hitting the nail on the head with every word," Zhang Yizhi reminisced with relish, "Next time, I'll also directly insult their ancestors and talk about ending their family line!"
"Just you talk!" He Wanwan was amused by Zhang Yizhi's banter, revealing a long-lost smile.
She and Zhang Yizhi attended the same university, and after a day of life and death situations, their relationship had grown closer.
Zhang Yizhi smiled brightly, "You scared me with that sudden question earlier, asking if those women were dead."
He Wanwan was stunned for two seconds, "Me?"
Zhang Yizhi put his hands on her shoulders, "Let's not talk about that anymore, we've cursed enough."
He hadn't eaten much for lunch, and now he was starving, eyeing the rice in the pot.
Meanwhile, Meng Lan was pondering something else.
While it seemed like they were trafficking women, she vaguely felt that wasn't the case.
The village chief's agitated expression didn't seem like a lie. Trafficking was real, but they had stopped.
There must have been something that made the village chief give up the trade of trafficking.
In other words, something had happened a month ago that led to the "curse" of suicide and made the village chief stop trafficking.
It all seemed to make sense now.
Zhao Che watched the village chief's departure and fell into his own thoughts. Although the village chief insisted it was trafficking, after a day of wandering around, he found that the women in the village lived well, and there were no signs of wanting to escape after being abducted, which was inconsistent with common sense.
At dinner, He Wanwan still cooked for everyone, which was reassuring. Because she had prepared ingredients in the refrigerator beforehand, dinner was exceptionally rich.
"It doesn't seem like inbreeding, there are no deformed children in the village," Li Xiaoqing, who hadn't spoken for a long time, finally spoke up, "Or rather, they have been engaging in the trafficking of women for a long time, so the genes are normal."
"I agree. If the victims of failed trafficking end up dead and haunt people, but if there's someone to blame, even they can't be called murderers," Meng Lan expressed her thoughts.
"I found expired medications in the warehouse behind, containing gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, used for date-rape drugs and the like, probably their tools for committing crimes," Qi Huan said.
"Damn, we can't let them off!" Zhang Yizhi gritted his teeth.
The sun was about to set.
The horizon was ablaze with red.
No one had the heart to spend more time enjoying the food.
After finishing dinner, Zhao Che wanted to go back to rest, but he saw Qi Huan opening the door to leave. Zhao Che and Qi Huan were not familiar before, but they got to know each other in the mist, and since the mission started, they had been together, making their relationship closer than with others. Seeing that Qi Huan seemed to sense something, Zhao Che watched the sun still not setting and decided to go out for a walk, following her footsteps.
The small building was on the west side of the village, with a wall and wasteland behind it. Qi Huan walked along the wall with her hands in her pockets.
"Qi Huan! Where are you going? It's getting dark, it's dangerous to go out now," Zhao Che called out from behind.
Qi Huan slowed down and turned around, "I have a guess and need to verify it. I think I know who the murderer is."
Zhao Che was surprised and hurried to catch up.
—Sure enough, experienced "old folks" are different. They're bound to catch something others don't notice!