village

The village is about a kilometer away from the mountain, but there is a road that can be driven into the village. This is a large village with about 40 to 50 households, and the houses are all modern villas.

It doesn't look like a cottage at all, it's more like a villa area, except that the styles of each house are different, and it's not as luxurious as Wu Yuling's villa area.

Each house in the village has its own small parking lot, and several families' cars are parked inside. Ye Jing'an looked at several cars, all of which were BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes. It seemed that the people living there were very rich.

But strangely, many households kept chickens and ducks in their yards, and some even kept pigs in their pens, making the yards very dirty and smelling of fermented animal excrement, which seemed particularly out of place in such a luxurious building.

Two or three elderly women were sitting on the roadside, chatting, carrying small chairs and stools. Two younger women, dressed in plain clothes, were walking towards them from the other end of the village, carrying bamboo baskets on their backs.

"People here have enough money to buy luxury cars, so why do they still raise chickens and ducks and farm?" Qiu Zimu asked.

"I guess those who have money and nothing to do want to experience rural life." Ye Jing'an said, "It seems that rich people are happy to do this now."

"What do you want?" the woman carrying a bamboo basket walked up to them and asked.

Qiu Zimu noticed that most of the things in their backpacks were duckweed, as well as a variety of common medicinal herbs, with two seven-leaf lily plants sticking out of the backpacks.

Ye Jingan told her that the three of them were traveling and just passed by here, so they got off the car to rest for a while.

"The duck celery you picked is so tender. We picked it there. We also want to pick some and take some home to eat." Qiu Zimu said.

The smiles on the faces of the two middle-aged women froze a little. They waved their fingers at the hills behind them and told them that they had picked the fruit on a mountain far away. They also reminded them not to go into the mountains casually, as they would get lost and meet mountain ghosts. She made it sound magical.

"Mountain ghost? Then I must go and meet him." Ye Jing'an said with a smile.

The two women looked a little panicked and told some strange legends to scare them away. One of them was about a tree demon. They said that more than a dozen people in the village had disappeared without a trace and could not be found even after calling the police. They said that they were eaten by the tree demon in the mountains.

"Then why are you still running into the mountains?" Ye Jing'an said with a strange smile, "You'd better avoid going there. You might be the next one."

"We are locals. We know which places are free of mountain ghosts and tree demons, and we will hide there. You outsiders are different." The two did not want to continue talking to Ye Jingan and the other two. They shook their backpacks and walked forward. "Let's leave quickly."

Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an exchanged a glance, then ran over to stop the two men. "We want to leave too, but we're dizzy from driving all night. Would it be okay for us to have lunch and rest here? Tell us how much it would cost, and we also want to try some of your local wild vegetables."

"Oh, then you can go to my house. My food is delicious."

"We have pigs at home. You people from the city have eaten pork, but you haven't seen a pig run, right? This is a good opportunity to play with a pig."

When the two heard that the money could be freely offered, they immediately changed their attitude and tried to steal the business.

Qiu Zimu was stunned. It was the first time he'd heard the phrase "teasing pigs for fun." There were quite a few people raising pigs in their village, and there wasn't really anything fun about them.

"That's fine. I've never teased a pig before. Where is your home?" Ye Jing'an said.

The woman who didn't raise pigs was unhappy and started complaining about the bad things about her family. The two of them almost got into a fight. In the end, she also ordered meals for Ye Jingan and the other two. It was just enough for one meal per person, so there was nothing to argue about.

"My last name is Zhou, and our house is the one in front of your car." The woman led them to her home. "You can rest in the living room while I go cook."

The house was very ordinary, a world away from the villa Ye Jing'an lived in. The furniture was mostly ordinary wooden furniture. In the center of the living room hung a large wedding photo with a white frame. The woman in the photo was Aunt Zhou, and the man next to her had a dark complexion, a tall build, and a fierce look in his eyes.

"Aunt Zhou, what does your husband do for a living?" Ye Jing'an asked, "Your family is so well off."

"He runs a furniture factory." Aunt Zhou looked at the wedding photo with a happy smile, but after a moment, the happiness on her face dimmed. "I haven't seen him for a long time. I wonder when he will come back..."

"What's going on?" Ye Jing'an asked.

Aunt Zhou told them that more than a dozen people had disappeared in the village without explanation, and her husband was one of them. When they wanted to ask for more details, Aunt Zhou shook her head and didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Ye Jing'an pulled Qiu Zimu out and signaled Liu Muze to come out: "Aunt Zhou, I'm going to check on your pigs."

"Okay, there are vegetables next to the pigpen, you can feed them." Aunt Zhou said.

The pigpen is not big, and there are only two pigs in it. Maybe the owner likes cleanliness, so there is no pig manure in the pigpen, and it doesn’t have the stinky smell as imagined.

"Don't you feel that something is wrong here? They seem to be hiding something." Ye Jing'an said.

"Absolutely! I suspect they're a bunch of bandits who stole someone's house and took it for themselves." Qiu Zimu whispered, "Who drives a Mercedes and lives in a villa and still uses firewood to cook?"

"Brother Liu, what do you think?" Ye Jing'an asked.

"They must have done something extreme and offended the earth spirit that protected them. The missing people were probably captured by the earth spirit." Liu Muzhe said.

Just as Ye Jingan was about to say what else he'd noticed was wrong, he caught a glimpse of Aunt Zhou taking off her apron and coming out. "I just cooked the rice. There's only one kind of wild vegetable as a side dish. I'll go to the fields and pick some more. What vegetables do you like?"

"Auntie Zhou, where is your land? Let's go with you to take a look." Ye Jing'an said.

Aunt Zhou pointed to the sloping field next to her: "That's it, the third field up is ours."

This sloping land has been cultivated into terraced ridges, planted with a variety of vegetables, from peppers, garlic and coriander as side dishes to various seasonal vegetables.

Ye Jing'an sighed in his heart that this place was like a fresh vegetable market, with everything you wanted. No wonder Aunt Zhou asked them what vegetables they liked to eat.

"Aunt Zhou, are the vegetables here grown by you guys?" Qiu Zimu asked.

"Yes, they are not sprayed with pesticides, so you can eat them with confidence." Aunt Zhou said with a smile.

"What kind of machine do you use to plow such a large piece of land?" Qiu Zimu asked again.

"Dig it yourself with a hoe and a shovel," said Aunt Zhou.

Ye Jingan and Qiu Zimu were shocked. How long would it take to dig? Wouldn’t their hands be torn apart?

Aunt Zhou picked some peppers and garlic and put them in her backpack. She also dug out a large cabbage and showed it to Ye Jingan and the others: "How about some cabbage? Our cabbage is very crisp and sweet."

Ye Jingan took the cabbage and saw that the skin on Aunt Zhou's hands was very rough, covered with calluses and a few scratches. He asked, "Aunt Zhou, what's wrong with your hands?"

"Hands from people who farm all year round are like this," said Aunt Zhou.

"Your family drives luxury cars, but you still need to farm your own land?" Ye Jing'an recalled the time when he went out for social events with his father. The hands of the wives of those big bosses who were dressed in gold and silver and covered in mink furs were more tender than those of a teenager like him.

"The money is saved." Aunt Zhou smiled.

Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an were speechless. They had never heard that planting this one acre of land could save enough money to buy a BMW. After helping Aunt Zhou carry the vegetables back home, they sat in the yard to rest and wait for dinner.

Ye Jingan was standing outside the pigpen, teasing the pigs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Qiu Zimu standing next to him, holding up a phone. "What are you filming?"

"Take a photo of you and the pig gazing affectionately at each other and post it to spread rumors." Qiu Zimu said with a smile, "Is its nose nice to touch? It's a turd."

"Get out!" Ye Jingan grabbed a handful of vegetable leaves and threw them at his face.

"The meal is ready, come in and eat." Aunt Zhou called.

On the dining table sat a large clay pot, stewing cured pork knuckle with kelp. Aunt Zhou placed washed cilantro, garlic leaves, and various seasonal vegetables in a stainless steel basin, placed it next to the hot pot, and said to eat them right away. She also gave each person a small dish of chili dipping sauce.

Surrounding the hot pot were four porcelain plates filled with freshly picked celery from that morning. Most of the leaves had been removed, leaving only the stems. Stir-fried with dried chili peppers, they had a distinct herbal aroma that was quite appetizing. Other dishes included stir-fried bamboo shoots with meat, smashed cucumbers, and a plate of something brown.

Ye Jingan didn't recognize it and asked curiously: "What is this?"

"Wild onions are sour. They are pickled by ourselves and are delicious," said Aunt Zhou.

Twenty minutes later, the dishes on the table were almost finished. Aunt Zhou had obviously not expected the three of them to be such big eaters, and she hadn't cooked enough rice. After the three of them had eaten and drunk their fill, Ye Jing'an took a break and suggested going out for a walk.

Liu Muze was unwilling to go, and was dragged away by Ye Jingan: "Your laziness needs to be cured!"

The three of them walked slowly around the villa and came to the forest where Aunt Zhou had just picked wild vegetables. There was also a lot of vegetation here, but it was not as dense as the vegetation on the mountain where the mountain temple was.

As the path neared the top of the hill, wisps of green smoke drifted above the trees ahead. At the top, a large clearing appeared before us, the ground covered with gravel. To the right of the clearing, a path led down to a ruined area. The houses below had been demolished, and the broken bricks and tiles were scattered everywhere, uncollected. A small house stood in the center of the ruins. In front of the door, a little girl was cooking over a firewood stove.

"Why are there still people here?" Qiu Zimu said, "Aunt Zhou also said there were wolves, tigers and leopards in the mountains. It seems that she doesn't want us to come in to pick wild vegetables and herbs."

"Let's go and take a look." Liu Muzhe said.

When they approached, the little girl was busy cooking with her back to the others, oblivious to them. She was wearing a white T-shirt and blue pajamas with white dots. They were stained with mud and charcoal ash from the bottom of the pot, looking filthy and unwashed. Her hair was a mess, with two broken, dead leaves clinging to it.

"Little girl, why are you cooking here alone? Where are your parents?" Ye Jing'an asked softly.