The educated youth searched for their letters in the room, recalling the number of times their families had mailed them since they went to the countryside, and the discussion was lively.

"Dongmei, how did you discover that your letters were missing?" As soon as she asked, several pairs of eyes in the room stared at her.

Chu Dongmei looked at everyone and said, "Isn't this my friend Mo Xue coming to see me? We were chatting and she mentioned that she had written to me, but I hadn't. She knew that I wouldn't ignore her letter, so she thought I was in trouble and came. It was only when we talked about it that I realized I had no idea about the letter she wrote to me. I went to the village office this morning to ask, and Accountant Huang said he hadn't seen it, and the village chief also said he hadn't seen it. So I went to the post office to check, and it turned out that not only was the letter lost, but also the package and the money order. The post office staff said that as long as the person with the name on the money order is identified, even someone other than the person who wrote it can collect the money order."

"That means someone can get your remittance slip and a letter of introduction with your information, and then withdraw the money from the slip."

"Yes."

"My God, if that's the case, then anyone who has a receipt and can issue a letter of introduction could be fraudulently claiming the money!"

"Yes! You tell me, who stole Chu Dongmei's emails? Are ours also missing? If so, this is terrible."

"Hers are already lost, so ours are very likely to be lost too, especially those from well-off families."

"Yes, that makes sense. We should all look into it."

"Yes, check it out."

In the time it took to say a few words, the female educated youths picked up their letters, got dressed, and prepared to leave. Several of them filed out, and in a short while, only An Moxue and Chu Dongmei remained in the room.

The kitchen was noisy, not only the female educated youth, but also the male educated youth dressed and ready to go out.

The two exchanged a glance, and Chu Dongmei took her letter and went out with An Moxue.

Seeing that everyone took this matter seriously, Chu Dongmei said, "Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me. The police will be here soon. I'll go to the village entrance to wait. When the police arrive, they'll record your mail receipts, and it will be much faster for them to investigate than for us to do it ourselves. Let's inform all the educated youth. What do you think?"

Everyone looked left and right, and someone said, "That's fine, otherwise we can just check at the post office, and if they find a problem, we can report it to the police. What do you all think we should do?"

"That works too."

"OK."

"OK."

......

Everyone unanimously decided to do as Chu Dongmei said.

Some people went back inside, while others went out to find other educated youth. An Moxue and Chu Dongmei left the house and walked towards the village entrance.

An Moxue asked Chu Dongmei, "Dongmei, what's the situation with that guy surnamed Huang? Where do they live?"

"They're a huge family, and everyone in the family acts arrogantly because of Accountant Huang. Even their relatives are like that. He's Accountant Huang's nephew, and he's even more domineering because he's the only male in the family. His family lives in the back, not in this area."

"How did they start targeting you?"

"They think I'm easy to bully just because they have a good temper!"

"There are still conditions, okay!"

"Hmm, a toad trying to eat swan meat, what a pipe dream."

"You'll find people like that everywhere you go, so don't be sad."

"I'm not sad, but he's really annoying. He's disgusting and irritating."

"And you? How are you doing over there?"

An Moxue thought for a moment and said, "It was quite an exciting time. There were some scoundrels like that, but they succumbed to my force and didn't dare to show their faces. However, the village cadres there were much better than those in this village. I received a lot of care over there and met many people who helped me. If possible, could you come and spend the New Year at my place? I live alone and am very comfortable."

"Sure! I'll see if I can get some time off. It's exhausting being surrounded by people scheming against each other all day long. I'm fed up with them."

"There's no way around it, wherever there are people, there's a world of its own. Why didn't you consider moving out? It would save you a lot of trouble. But you'd have to be careful of local bullies and scoundrels. If you can handle those kinds of people, you'll have no problem living on your own."

"Don't even mention it. There are no vacant houses in the village, so how can we move? Building our own would be too conspicuous. Going to the villagers' homes is not as good as staying at the educated youth settlement! Moreover, this village is basically made up of a few large families, so there is serious xenophobia. It is really not easy for educated youth to get anything done here."

"The villagers don't even know I lost my things yet! If they do, they might ask me to drop the case! That would be a real mess!"

"That's a bit unreasonable!"

"Everything is resolved by the villagers, especially when it comes to wife-beating, you wouldn't believe it. When I first came here, there was a family surnamed Huang. The man in the family was just drunk and annoyed that the child was crying and disturbing his sleep. He beat the one-year-old child mercilessly. The mother was trying to protect the child and was beaten so badly that she couldn't get up. Not a single member of the whole family intervened. When we educated youth went to say a few words and try to stop them, what do you think happened?"

"how?"

"They asked the male educated youth who was trying to persuade him if he was having an affair with his wife. The male educated youth was so scared that he didn't dare to say anything and stayed far away. What's even more bizarre is this woman, you know? She believes that it's right for men to hit women. Once the men have hit enough and vented their anger, that's enough. And it's not just her who thinks so; many people here think so too. I didn't know this when I first came here; I only found out over time."

"In this way, isn't feudalism and the preference for sons over daughters also serious?"

“Some families throw away their newborn daughters on the mountain. Look, over there, that’s a mass grave. They just roll them up in a straw mat, tie them with two or three sections of rope, and throw them away. They don’t even bury them,” Chu Dongmei said, pointing to a mountain to the east.

An Moxue looked in the direction she was pointing, but all she could see was a vast expanse of white.

"Didn't anyone report it to the police?"

"No, there are things I don't like, but I don't care about them."

"That can't be right. Feilong Province and Hai Province aren't that far apart! How can their local customs be so different?"

"It is said that the villagers came here from the early years when they fled from disasters, or from the famine years when they migrated. There are not many local households. The major surnames now are all from later generations."

“I see. In my village, most of the inhabitants were original residents, and some moved there later, but not many. This village is different. Poor and harsh environments breed unruly people. They've all been through mud and water, so they're naturally not easy to deal with. Some are even unreasonable and only follow their own rules.”

"That's right. I heard from the old folks here that this village used to have only a dozen or so households, but now it has more than a hundred. You can imagine that people from all over the world have come here. In order to live a better life, they will definitely fight for resources and then band together to bully newcomers."

"In a village like this, you shouldn't be too easygoing, or you'll easily get taken advantage of. If anyone provokes you again, you have to be very tough. The tougher you are, the more they will fear you, and the safer you will be."

"I think so too. Hey, look, the police are here!"