Chapter 496
Something's Not Right
Chapter 496 Something's Not Right
Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng went to Yashanhou Village.
Yashanhou Village is indeed quite large, but there are very few villagers.
The two people standing on the south side of the village can see directly to the north side of the village.
There is indeed a lot of flat land. At this time of year, some land is barren, while others are planted with vegetables.
The houses in the village are all very new; they must have been built not many years ago.
Almost all the houses here are made of wood, but the houses in Yashanhou Village are made of stone.
The exterior walls of the rooms are made of stone, but it's unclear what the inside looks like. The courtyard walls are also made of stone, and they are quite high.
Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng asked several people in the village.
There were many older people in the village. They answered all of Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng's questions, but their attitude was very cold, as if they were not willing to talk to people.
After asking a few people, the two knocked on the door and encountered a relatively young man.
She looked to be in her thirties.
It looks like she just woke up.
"What's matter?"
“We’re here to get everyone’s opinions, since we’re planning to build roads recently,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.
The man sobered up a bit and looked at them: "Oh. We have no objections. It will be more convenient to go to the city in the future. Road construction is a good thing. If they use our land, they can even give us some money. We have no objections. It's just that we heard that the people in Yashan Village are not allowing it and there's been quite a fuss about it."
Su Miaoyi glanced at the pajamas he was wearing.
Zhuang Yanzheng said, "I see that the houses in our village are all very new. They must have been built in the last few years, right?"
“Yes. There was a big fire here before. The houses were all wooden, and then there was a strong wind, so all the houses burned down and a lot of people died. These houses were all built later, and they've been here for a few years.” The man said, “What? Will the road construction pass through our houses? Where will we live then? We're used to living here.”
"No, I was just asking out of curiosity." Zhuang Yanzheng looked at him after he finished speaking. "Would it be convenient for you to show us around the village? We'd like to take a look at the terrain and environment here and do some research. Yai Shan Village doesn't allow trespassing, so we'll have to go around there. If we do go around, we'll also have to consider how to get around our village and which route would be more suitable."
“Our village has a road that leads directly to the town,” the man said.
Zhuang Yanzheng said, "But it only leads to the town. When we build the road, we also need to consider how to make it easier to get to the county seat so that it will be faster in the future. We came all the way from the south and encountered mostly older people, so we found it difficult to communicate with them."
“Oh, is that so? Our area is quite remote. There’s a village called Yai Shan nearby, but we rarely interact with them. Because we don’t communicate with the outside world much, the people there have become rather strange,” the man said. “I’ll change my clothes, please wait a moment.”
After the man changed his clothes, the three of them walked out of the village.
Su Miaoyi asked, "What do you do for a living?"
"I work on a construction site and just got back yesterday. I got home quite late, so I woke up late today too," the man said.
"I'm sorry to disturb your nap," Su Miaoyi said.
"It's alright, I've slept enough," the man said. "Our village is small to begin with. Firstly, the lighting is poor, and the location isn't great either. Secondly, everyone wants to cultivate more land and harvest more grain, so it hasn't really developed much. Then there was a big fire that killed many people. In recent years, many people have gone out to work and settled elsewhere, so there aren't many people left."
“A lot of people are going out to work these days.” Zhuang Yanzheng looked at the distant mountains. “Are those piles of stones at the foot of those mountains?”
"Yes, when we built the house, we used stones quarried from the foot of the mountain to save money. The unused stones were just piled up there," the man said.
"Can we climb this mountain?" Su Miaoyi asked. "This mountain?" the man said, "You can't climb it from here. It's so steep, straight up and down, it's very dangerous. The children here are told from the time they're old enough to understand things not to try to climb mountains. They might not be able to climb up, but they'll definitely fall, and if they fall badly, they'll either die or be crippled."
Zhuang Yanzheng asked, "Do all the mountains around here have names?"
"The mountains here don't have names; they're mostly named by their location. In other counties, they're named after villagers; whichever mountain a family gets, that's their name," the man said.
Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.
The message Jiang Xutong sent to Shen Yanzhou indicated that they were both looking for something related to the word "immortal".
Police in various parts of Changshi are also asking about it.
Zhuang Yanzheng also inquired about it.
“The eastern mountain of our village, Yashan, is relatively low. Beyond the eastern mountain, it’s all high and dangerous mountains. There’s nothing on the mountains, unlike other mountains where you can grow something. There’s nothing there, and it’s dangerous, so no one used to go up there, and now even fewer people go up there. Young people all want to leave; no one wants to stay in these mountains. Education and healthcare are inadequate.”
Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng followed the man around the village and looked at the land outside the village as well.
“We’ve dug quite a few wells in the fields,” Su Miaoyi said.
The man said, "This is such a large area of farmland, and the crops need watering. It's alright here during the rainy season, but it dries out easily after the rainy season, so we dug several wells for irrigation. People also come here to fetch water from time to time."
“Having a well is indeed much more convenient,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.
After circling around, it was getting a bit dark. Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng acted quite professionally, as if they were there to conduct an inspection.
After having the man accompany him on a tour, Zhuang Yanzheng took two packs of cigarettes from the car and gave them to him before leaving.
On the way back by car.
Su Miaoyi said, "I don't know why, but this village has a strange feeling to it."
“Apart from the man who showed us around, everyone else was indifferent and didn’t really want to talk to us,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.
“And we didn’t see any young women or children in the village,” Su Miaoyi said. “The women we saw were mostly around sixty years old, or even older. Just like the man said, his wife and children live in the county. All the wives and children in the village have gone to the county or city, not one of them has been left behind. This village is amazing, their income is not low. Look at Yashan Village and Yanjing Village, quite a few people go out to work, and the younger children who are not in school are all here being taken care of by their parents.”
Su Miaoyi looked at him: "There are indeed fewer people in the back village, but... I don't have any prejudice against this place or its people, it's just that compared to the villages here, something just doesn't feel right. Of course, it's not impossible that they are all capable and have been able to settle down outside."
After going around in circles, Su Miaoyi had a nagging feeling that something was off about this village.
“I know.” Zhuang Yanzheng understood what she meant. “We need to pay close attention to this village. No matter what, let’s investigate first.”
Back at their lodgings, Duan Wenrui and the others discussed it again.
Huang Qi stayed at home all day, did not go out, and did not contact anyone.
Afterwards, Zhuang Yanzheng also made a phone call to Jinghai to inquire about the situation there.
The person who killed Jiang Xutong has still not been found, and there is still no news about Jiang Xutong's residence.
There's still no way to decipher the text message Jiang Xutong sent to Shen Yanzhou.
After learning about the case's progress, Qi Feng also mentioned to Zhuang Yanzheng that Director Meng had asked him and Chu Xingrou to come over and help them the next day.