Chapter 188 Punishment
Mao Ya was stunned for a moment, then shook her head.
"Auntie Feng...has she ever been to your house?"
Mao Ya still shook her head.
"Do you remember when you met Aunt Feng?"
Still shaking his head.
"Mao Ya! Come out! Don't disturb your aunt's sleep!"
Aunt Ge seemed to be grasping the time and shouted loudly outside.
Mao Ya shrank back, then turned around and left silently.
"Mao Ya!"
Su Tong sighed, called the little girl to stop, and handed her the mint candy with a piece missing, "Take it and eat it slowly."
Mao Ya turned around, took the mint candy, pulled out a small cloth bag from her cotton-padded jacket pocket, and stuffed the mint candy into it.
A thin rope is passed through the mouth of the cloth bag, which can be tightened by pulling it. The other end of the rope is wrapped around the buttonhole to prevent the cloth bag from being lost.
Seeing that she took the candy so solemnly, Su Tong turned around and took two more pieces and handed them to her.
Mao Ya was very happy. She carefully put all the candies into the cloth bag and suddenly said something in a low voice.
"Yes! Brother Huzi and I exchanged the candy with Aunt Feng."
Although Su Tong did not understand what Mao Ya meant at the moment, he did not miss the opportunity to ask questions and immediately continued:
"What did you exchange it for?"
"Empty bottle."
"Where did you change it?"
"Back mountain."
"Mao Ya——" Aunt Ge's voice was obviously filled with anger.
Mao Ya shuddered, but hurriedly added:
"Don't tell grandma! Don't tell anyone! Brother Huzi said this is a secret between him and me!"
Then he turned and ran out.
Su Tong sat there, feeling a fog in front of his eyes and a little confused.
Qin Yi came back before lunch, followed by Cheng Gang, Lin Li and Zhou Jin.
No matter how cheerful they are on weekdays, when facing a task, their brows and eyes are calm and sharp.
They were all experienced and excellent soldiers, and the information they were asking about was not top-secret. It was not difficult to get some useful information by spreading out in the village.
Everyone met briefly and found that the villagers were very secretive about the disappearance of the two staff members and were unwilling to talk about it.
An elderly villager explained that everything is based on cause and effect. The two men disappeared on their way to Wushan'ao, and the result was nothing more than death, and no one found their bodies. These wronged souls will eventually come to Wushan'ao to take revenge, affecting the fortunes of the village. It is unlucky, so no one wants to talk about it.
Even fewer people know the names "Yu Fengzhi" and "Yang Huilin".
Qin Yi said: "The villagers' reactions are very real. It seems that the villagers have never seen the two staff members. Many people participated in the search that year, but they didn't find them in the end."
Su Tong felt a little confused. "Then what are they hiding? If they don't have something to hide, why would they be afraid of seeing outsiders?"
Qin Yi looked at Cheng Gang, who nodded and said:
"We are looking into this aspect. It all started with Baogen's illness. After piecing together the information we learned today, this is roughly the situation..."
"This Baogen is the grandson of Village Chief Ge. He has been arrogant and domineering since he was a child. He often does things that go against the rules and are reckless. Last year, the first day of October was the Ghost Festival in the village. The hunters in the village caught a small wild boar as an offering in advance, preparing to offer it to the ancestors for rituals. Unexpectedly, the wild boar was stolen by Baogen and his buddy named Sanniu early in the morning, and they even went up the mountain to roast it and eat it."
"Village Chief Ge was furious about this and said they would be punished for disrespecting their ancestors. They didn't take it seriously at first, but they started having diarrhea and vomiting at night. Baogen and Sanniu had the same symptoms, and the disease didn't get better from the beginning. On the 15th day, they started complaining about headaches and talking nonsense, and kept saying they saw someone standing in front of their bed, wanting to take them away."
"There has always been a saying in the village that if descendants disrespect ghosts and gods and ancestors, the whole family will suffer. Because the two of them fell ill at the same time, the villagers thought they stole the ancestral offerings and offended the ancestors. Their illness has not always been like this. It has been getting better for a while, but it has suddenly become serious recently, and medicine is no longer effective."
"Just three days ago, Sanniu had already breathed his last, and before he died he was still shouting something like 'Don't take me with you'. When Sanniu died, everyone in the village was terrified, thinking that the old ancestor had come to take his life. Village chief Ge also panicked after Sanniu's death, and sent Lao Wu into the mountains to look for herbs, and then asked Da Kui to go out of the mountains to see if he could bring back some life-saving medicine. After all, he only had this one grandson, and no matter what the reason was, he wanted to protect Baogen's life."
"Last night, seeing that Baogen was dying, they asked the village witch to perform another ritual, hoping that the whole village would collectively pray to the ancestors for forgiveness and spare Baogen's life. Even if they really couldn't keep him alive, they didn't want to bring the blame to the village and implicate other members of the tribe. This is why they didn't send Baogen away even though he had been ill for so long."
"Because they believe deep down that Baogen is not a disease, but a punishment."
After Cheng Gang finished speaking, everyone was silent for a moment.
Su Tong said: "So, what they are afraid of is not that outsiders will enter the village, but that the death of Baogen and Sanniu has angered the ancestors, and they are worried that the tribe members will be punished in the same way next."
"Part of the reason is that they don't want outsiders to know the privacy of their village. After all, it's not a glorious thing. Besides, the crackdown on feudal superstition is also serious. They accept government subsidies every year, but they still believe in these things privately. It's not a good thing to let outsiders know."
"If the two staff members really disappeared on the way into the village, then who was Aunt Feng that Mao Ya saw?"
Su Tong told the information she got from Mao Ya, "Mao Ya said that Aunt Feng was in the back mountain with her and Brother Hu Zi, exchanging candies for empty bottles. Could Aunt Feng be someone passing by the village?"
“There is no road in the back mountain.”
Qin Yi said, "We entered the village from the east. When Lao Li and the hunters in the village set out to explore the way in the morning, the hunters said that there was only one way into the mountain from the west, and it was blocked from the back mountain. If Aunt Feng was passing through the village, she would have stayed in the village like us. It doesn't make sense to go to the back mountain."
Su Tong said, "Auntie Feng's story was originally just speculation, but this is another story. If the village was performing a ritual last night because Baogen stole the offerings, why was there a fountain pen on the altar? What is the meaning of this fountain pen?"
Cheng Gang said, "The eldest brother specifically told us about the fountain pen, so we went to the witch's place. She is mute to begin with, and was said to have been too frightened last night. She is still lying on the kang. A younger generation is taking care of her at home. We couldn't find an excuse to go in, and we didn't see the fountain pen, nor did we find any clues."
Qin Yi thought for a moment and said:
"Time is limited, so we should act separately. Cheng Gang, go and try to find Brother Hu that Mao Ya mentioned, and see if you can find out more about Aunt Feng."
"Lin Li, go to the back mountain and see if you can find any clues related to Aunt Feng. Zhou Jin, go to the village and ask around. Since the two children can see Aunt Feng, there must be other people in the village who can see her. Our main goal is to determine whether Aunt Feng has any connection with Yu Fengzhi."
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