Seeing the villager leave, they finally breathed a sigh of relief. But what should they do next?

Before they could figure out what was going on, someone came out of Cao Guohua's yard.

The person who came was an old lady with gray hair, probably Cao Guohua's wife.

The old lady asked, "Who are you looking for?"

The few of them had no choice but to ask for directions.

Sun Aimin, still sitting in the passenger seat, led the way. He opened the door and got out, saying to the old lady, "Auntie, we're here to visit a relative. I've never been to that relative's house before. My mother came once about 20 years ago, back when we were still working in the production team. She said her house seemed to be in the far corner of the village."

The old lady asked again: "What are your relatives' names? Let me see if I know them. I know most of the elderly people in the village, but I can't recognize all the young people now."

Sun Aimin replied, "It's an old sister from my mother's village, surnamed Qin. She said she married into this village and asked me to come and see her. She's old now, and in recent years she's been thinking about her good friends from the past. She wants to know how they're doing now, and if they had a phone at home, she could still keep in touch. My mother can't remember the family's last name."

The old lady felt a little emotional when she heard Sun Aimin say this. Who hasn't been young and had a few good friends? But the women who married into the village basically hid their names automatically, and when they were introduced, they would just say "so-and-so's family."

Especially for older women, except for their own family, almost no one knows their names. This makes the old lady a little troubled.

She said to Sun Aimin, "Young man, if you don't know the man's surname and name, it will be difficult to find him. Not to mention us, even the village chief can't figure out the surnames and names of us old ladies."

As she spoke, the old lady pointed to an alley not far from her home and said, "Go out from here and keep going straight. When you reach the end, turn along the road and you'll reach the innermost part of our village. Ask the Li family or the Han family which one has the person you're looking for. Those two families have the oldest members."

After listening to the old lady, Sun Aimin and the others thanked her repeatedly and drove along the road the old lady pointed out. Of course, they still drove slowly to find the van.

Compared to the densely populated residential areas in the village, the place the old lady described seemed a bit desolate. It was mostly filled with dilapidated old houses, and some were empty, apparently uninhabited, as could be seen from the dense, tall grass growing in front of the doors.

Master Chen parked the car at the base of an uninhabited house and turned off the engine. After getting out of the car, the men began to inspect the courtyards one by one. The walls of the old houses were relatively low, which made it easier for them to find their way.

It is also because this place is relatively remote that they are now a little bolder.

Unlike later-built houses, these old houses were not single-story, with separate entrances and courtyards. Instead, they had several houses in front and back yards, forming a long strip. They could only see the outermost house, but not the inner second and third yards.

Just as they were cautiously circling the walls of the houses, they heard the creaking sound of a door opening, and they were all startled.

Master Chen signaled Sun Aimin, Wu Xing, and Zhao Hongjun to stay behind the courtyard wall. He then walked out and saw a man in his seventies opening two wooden doors across from him, a hoe slung over his shoulder. Apparently, the weather had cooled a bit, and he was getting ready to do some farm work.

Master Chen walked over and took the initiative to greet the old man, and asked in the local dialect: "Uncle, are you going to the fields?"

The old man looked at the man in front of him and felt that he was unfamiliar. He nodded and said "hmm", then asked: "Whose family are you from? Why haven't I seen you before?"

Master Chen replied, "Uncle, I'm not from Shengli Village. I live in the city. Cao Guohua is a relative of mine. I heard from him that there are some old houses here that are unoccupied, so I came to take a look. I'm thinking of buying a small yard here and renting some land so that my parents can come and live here in their old age. They also left the village and couldn't stay idle after retirement, so they insisted on coming to the countryside to farm."

The old man heard him say this and replied, "The old houses here are old. Many families have moved away and built new houses elsewhere. They're deserted and deteriorating quickly. Some are about to collapse and are uninhabitable. If your parents want to come live in the village, you can ask the village chief to help broadcast an announcement and ask if anyone has a decent vacant house for rent."

Master Chen thanked him repeatedly: "Thank you, uncle, you go ahead and do your work, I will go to the village committee to ask now."

After the old man walked away, Master Chen turned into the corner, and the others began to walk around the surrounding old houses cautiously.

But whether we can find those people with such a random search is another matter. There are suddenly a few sneaky strangers in the village. If they are mistaken for bad people with ulterior motives, it will be a big trouble.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Wu Xing glanced at the grass behind him that had just been trampled down and suddenly had an idea.

He whispered to the others, "I think we should focus on looking for wheel tracks. There's either no grass growing where people have been coming in and out, or the grass has been trampled down."

Several people slapped their foreheads in surprise: "Oh, why didn't I think of this just now?" They were so nervous that they overlooked such an obvious clue.

Once we had a clue, things became much easier. To improve efficiency, several people discussed and acted separately, and shouted if they encountered any danger.

Soon, Zhao Hongjun found tire tracks, which were separated from the path they had driven by, with four courtyards between them. Following the tire tracks, they found that the two tracks continued along the path out of the village. Going further, they should be the road to another village.

He hurried back to meet up with the other three and briefly explained the situation.

Apart from this clue, the few people did not find anything else, so they quickly returned to the car. Master Chen started the car, increased the horsepower and drove along that road.

They found that the road was very long, with fields on both sides and no trace of houses at all.

When the path almost came to an end, a large orchard appeared in front of us, and the path continued into it. Here, a wider road appeared, intersecting the path perpendicularly.

A few people stopped the car to check the tire tracks and found that continuous tire tracks led into the orchard, so they followed them into the orchard.

The fruit trees are growing very lushly in this season, with many fruits hanging on the trees. You have to go in to understand what is going on inside.