Chapter 49: Happy Event in the Mountain Village 9 Baichuan’s gaze fell on the pair of petal-like…

"There aren't many families in the east part of the village, so the village primary school takes up quite a lot of space," Su Ming reported after recovering from his shock. "When we went there, the school was in session, so we couldn't get in. But thanks to my sister Yirou! She's so awesome! Guess what she's like!"

Hearing this, An Rao quickly waved his hand: "Don't say anything yet, wait until everyone is here."

"Then..." Su Ming was a little embarrassed.

"It's okay. I know my limits." An Rao tapped the table with his fingers again.

After a while, everyone came back.

"Let's talk about them one by one in the order of east, south, west, north and center." An Rao leaned back in his chair leisurely, tapping the table lightly with his hands on the table, making a very rhythmic but not noisy sound.

"Let me do it," Shi Yirou held Su Ming's hand, "There are not many people living in the East District, and most of the land is farmland. I think this is a natural barrier set up for us by the haunted house. There is a village primary school in the East District, and because there are not many children in the village, there are no classes. The school was in session when we went there.

"This primary school is the only school in the village. All children in the village must complete their primary education here. Therefore, the school has the school records of all children, and of course it should have relevant information about the bride. I said I could get sponsorship for the school and asked to talk to the principal, so I was allowed to visit the school.

"The school has a library. According to the principal, for the convenience of management, archives such as the Xingfu Village Chronicles are also kept in the library for management. The most important discovery we made today is that the owner of this house, Mr. Zheng, is the village chief of Xingfu Village. He has a son who studies in this school. However, the strange thing is that his son has a record of attending the school, but his daughter does not. His daughter did not study."

The daughter didn't go to school? This doesn't seem to fit in with Mr. Zheng's doting on his daughter, unless he felt that the school's teaching level was too poor and hired a teacher to teach his daughter at home, but this possibility is very small in the mountains.

"How are the academic performance of the village chief's son?" Baichuan suddenly asked.

"Very good. He is now in the third grade and his test scores are usually over 90 points." Shi Yirou's extraordinary photographic memory played a huge role at this moment.

An Rao and Bai Chuan looked at each other. This result was not something that the sloppy boy who couldn't even focus his eyes just now could achieve.

"What's his son's name?"

"Zheng Duoyu."

What a strange name. Who would name their beloved son “Duoyu”?

An Rao said nothing more, and turned to look at Gao Zhifei and He Xin and his wife: "Is there anything special about the South District?"

"There are more people living in the South District, but we didn't meet anyone. I guess everyone was still on their way back from Lao Zheng's house after having breakfast. We saw a strange temple on the east side of the South District." He Xin stopped saying this.

"A strange temple?"

"Ah! I saw it! Is it a dark building right next to the school?" Shi Yirou said in surprise.

"Yes, the statue enshrined inside is something I have never seen before. It is an animal that looks like a snake," Gao Zhifei continued.

"Something that looks like a snake?" Everyone looked solemn. Snakes were not a good sign, especially Cheng Lin. He started shaking when he heard that snakes were enshrined in the temple.

"But the temple is a place of gods and ghosts after all, and my wife has difficulty walking, so we didn't go in."

An Rao nodded: "It doesn't hurt to be cautious. The school and the temple are adjacent to each other, which is interesting... Is there anything unusual in the west district?"

"No." The scarred boy uttered those two words and stopped talking. He began to scoop soup and eat his meal. However, Cheng Lin's expression began to become more unnatural. If he was just absent-minded before, now he was simply fidgeting.

An Rao had no intention of continuing to explore, and didn't even ask a question. His eyes turned directly to Wang Quanmin and Fang Qingqing: "North District?"

"Cough, cough, cough," Wang Quanmin coughed a few times while supporting himself with his cane. After calming his breathing, he said, "The North District is full of residential houses, but Xiao Fang and I saw a large ancestral hall with an ancient shape outside the village. It looked quite old."

"How do you know it's outside the village?" An Rao asked.

"When we appeared in the haunted house, we were actually already inside the village. There is a wall around the village. It's not high, but it's there. We also asked several villagers who passed by, and they said it was built to prevent wild boars and other beasts from attacking the village houses." Fang Qingqing added.

Xingfu Village is located deep in the mountains, and it is indeed necessary to build a wall to prevent wild beasts from attacking the village. An Rao frowned, the irony of this village is that it is unreasonable to build a wall in the village, but there is a reasonable explanation, it is unreasonable not to step on the middle of the courtyard, but there is also a reasonable explanation, and the existence of the seemingly reasonable concept of equality between men and women does not have a convincing explanation under the premise of the closed village environment.

"By the way, when Grandpa Wang and I were wandering around the village, we discovered a strange phenomenon," Fang Qingqing added, "The villagers are all fanatically fond of daughters, but are indifferent to sons."

As soon as these words came out, to An Rao's surprise, the other players present - except the scarred man and Cheng Lin - all nodded in agreement.

"This may also be a clue," An Rao knocked on the table, "Let's eat quickly, I want to go to the temple and ancestral hall this afternoon."

At this time, the bride's parents, Lao Zheng and Sister Wang, walked over with wine glasses in their hands. Their big, broad hands, which were used to doing farm work, suddenly pressed on An Rao's shoulders. The originally thin, right-angled shoulders looked even thinner and more fragile under the village chief's rough hands.

"Good afternoon, distinguished guests!" Village Chief Zheng greeted everyone with full energy.

Last night when Lao Zheng and Sister Wang came, the lights were just coming on. In the dim light of the red lanterns, Lao Zheng's face did not look real. But now in the bleak sunlight at noon, Lao Zheng's stiff smile formed a sharp contrast with his deep and hearty voice, as if everyone was in a puppet show with real-person dubbing. His stiff and dull expression and body movements made him look indescribably inhuman, which made people's hair stand on end. Baichuan looked back at the other tables and found that the body movements and expressions of the villagers who came to eat and drink were very normal.

Cheng Lin, who had been keeping his head down, was stunned the moment he looked up and saw Lao Zheng. He stared at Lao Zheng blankly with his eyes wide open and his mouth open, not knowing whether he was scared by Lao Zheng or what.

"Hello, Village Chief Zheng." An Rao stood up and handed the glass filled with orange juice to Old Zheng.

"Hey? What's going on? Do you look down on me, Old Zheng?" Village Chief Zheng snatched the wine glass from An Rao's hand with great dissatisfaction, poured out the orange juice and filled the glass with white wine, "If you are a man, drink!"

Baichuan watched An Rao take the full glass of white wine handed to him by Lao Zheng with a blank expression, sip his lips, and then drink it in one gulp.

"Cough, cough, cough!" The handsome young man's originally pale face turned red due to choking on the spicy homemade white wine.

"Hey! That's more like it!" A big hand patted An Rao's shoulder stiffly. An Rao, whose legs were weakened by the liquor, was caught off guard and staggered forward a step. Fortunately, Bai Chuan reacted very quickly and grabbed him, so An Rao barely avoided falling onto the dining table in front of him.

"Drunk?" Bai Chuan looked at An Rao. The redness on his skin quickly spread to his slender neck, following the graceful lines of his neck and disappearing under the white shirt collar.

"You can't refuse the staff." An Rao did not answer Bai Chuan's question.

"Old Zheng! You're bullying the city kids again!" A high-pitched female voice came closer. Sister Wang came over with a pile of colorful fabrics in her hands and pushed Village Chief Zheng away. "Go away, stop forcing them to drink. We have something else to do this afternoon."

This village really is one where women are superior to men.

"Ah!" Cheng Lin screamed, stared at Sister Wang and stepped back repeatedly, and with a "bang" he fell to the ground with the chair.

The corners of Sister Wang's mouth, which had been mechanically curved upward, drooped little by little until it turned into an ugly crying face. Her high-pitched voice became gloomy: "What's wrong? How could you be scared on such a festive day for our family?"

Oops!

Shi Yirou was quick-witted. She rushed over and affectionately took Sister Wang's arm and said, "Don't be angry. He doesn't drink. He heard that he had to do some serious work today, and then he was scared when he saw the wine in our village chief's hand. He was afraid that he would get drunk and mess up things!"

Hearing this, Sister Wang's crying face slowly turned back into a smiling one. She turned her head and glared at Lao Zheng with a look of reproach, then walked to the table and placed the pile of colorful fabrics in her hand on an empty chair: "There is a custom in our village that the family marrying off their daughter must ask a blessed person to help sew a quilt of blessings as a dowry, and sew everyone's blessings into the quilt, so that the son-in-law knows that the bride's family has someone to support her."

Sister Wang embraced Fang Qingqing and Shi Yirou with her arms warmly: "I was thinking, you are all my daughter's closest friends. You have come all the way from the city to our village to attend our daughter's wedding. You are the best candidates to sew the Baifu quilt!"

The NPC started issuing tasks, and everyone stared at Sister Wang and didn't dare to interrupt.

"This Baifu quilt is actually very simple. Originally, we wanted to ask each distinguished guest who came to sew the Baifu quilt to give out a piece of clothing, and then use their clothes to sew the quilt. However, the clothes of you city people are expensive, so we prepared the quilt materials ourselves. All the distinguished guests need to do is sew them together into a quilt!"

Sister Wang was distributing materials to everyone while talking. He Xin took the cloth in her hand and rubbed it carefully. It was a rectangular piece of cloth, sewn with old cloth from nowhere, and stuffed with something. He Xin put it to her nose and smelled it. It should be the best fresh cotton. Mr. and Mrs. Zheng really valued their daughter's wedding! If I... If it weren't for the car accident, my child with Lao Gao should have been born. I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. If it's a girl, when my daughter gets married, I and Lao Gao will definitely do our best to arrange a dowry for her. I hope she can be happy forever.

Thinking about the child who died before he was born and herself who lost the right to stand from then on, He Xin was most relieved that she did not make a mistake and married a good family. Gao Zhifei was an ideal husband who still cared about her and never left her even though she could never stand up again and even though he could never have a child of his own.

For a woman who chooses to get married, this is probably the greatest luck and the best destination.

Baichuan looked at Anrao, whose fingers had turned light pink and whose movements had become sluggish, and frowned: "Can you sew?"

"Hmm?" An Rao slowly raised his head and looked at Bai Chuan. His almond-shaped, round eyes were full of water, and his delicate nose and thin cheeks were flushed, as if he was about to cry in the next second. The always shrewd lawyer An asked in a daze, "What are you sewing?"

Bai Chuan's eyes fell on the pair of beautiful lips that were as delicate as petals. After a long while, Bai Chuan took the teapot on the table and poured a cup of tea to An Rao: "It can help you sober up."