Ju Jingbai opened her eyes and looked at the competition environment in front of her. The surroundings were lush and green, and the air was extremely fresh. She sat on a small stool by a river, where five or six women were washing clothes. Gazing into the distance, she saw a small village not far away, filled with the atmosphere of life, with wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys.
The loudspeaker said that this competition is to comprehensively examine the contestants' abilities in all aspects. Villages like this one are more likely to be filled with ghosts, evil spirits, or feudal superstitions, right?
Ju Jingbai thought about it and looked carefully at the woman next to him.
"Sister Qian, are you done washing? If you are, go home quickly. Your son is still waiting for you on the kang. I heard Aunt Tong say that when she came, she heard your son Goudan crying." A middle-aged woman wearing a white floral shirt next to her reminded Ju Jingbai.
"Ah?" Ju Jingbai was stunned. "Are you talking to me?"
"Look at what you're saying. Who are you talking to?" the woman said, and she and another woman washing clothes nearby burst into laughter. "Sister Qian, are you possessed? You're daydreaming, and yet you're speaking Mandarin? And don't even mention the tone you're speaking. You've copied the intonation of the women in our village tenfold. The mannerisms are uncanny."
"That's right, they look so much alike, I'm so happy." The person next to him echoed with a smile on his face.
Ju Jingbai figured out what was going on and quickly checked her current appearance through the slowly flowing stream. She had turned into an ordinary-looking middle-aged woman, with a big black spot between her lips, which even made her look a little ugly.
Ju Jingbai's eyes twitched. So all the contestants this time became different people, even their names were different?
Is she Qian Meizi? Who are the others? Are there still people in the village speaking Mandarin?
Who was it? The Kidnapper Village? Ju Jingbai's mind raced. His first reaction was to one of those stories you occasionally see in the news about villages where women are hard to find in the mountains. They buy women from kidnappers, tie them up after they're brought home, and break their legs if they try to escape. They're forced to marry and have children, never having the chance to leave the village.
It is even possible that the people in the mountain village are related to the police station below.
"I just learned a few lines because they sounded nice." Ju Jingbai said as he stood up and picked up the wash basin and small stool. "I'll go back first. Goudan is still waiting for me at home. I have to go back quickly."
"Hey, you'd better go quickly. That's my brother Qian's only child. Next time you go out, entrust Goudan to the care of Aunt Song from our neighborhood. Aunt Song has to take care of the children anyway, so you don't need one more. It will be easier to have someone watching over you. You won't be worried when you go out!" another woman said.
"Okay." Ju Jingbai nodded, took his things and left.
What she didn't know was that after she left, the women started talking non-stop.
"This widow is so pitiful. Brother Qian left after only two years of marriage."
"She did it herself. I heard from my family that Brother Qian slid down the mountain to pick mushrooms for that woman."
"It was quite a big fuss at the time. Brother Qian's family secretly called her a jinx."
"This daughter-in-law from outside the area is just no good. She's no match for our native daughter. Look at Aunt Wei's Juzi, she's tall and slim, with a big butt, can work in the fields, and is easy to bear children. The villagers are just superstitious. What about bad genes? Oh, the prettiest one can't marry? I think it's all feudal superstition. I think it's fine."
"If you have the guts to say that to your boss, he'll beat you to death."
Ju Jingbai responded to the enthusiastic greetings from the villagers and walked silently into the village. She didn't know where her home was yet, so she could only take a walk around first.
The village is a very ordinary village. It does not look poor and even looks like an ordinary rural village in the 21st century.
Moreover, the people in this village, both men and women, are dark-skinned but tall, and few of them have ugly facial features. They all have smiling faces and look warm and simple.
Ju Jingbai walked for a long time and didn't even feel that there was anything wrong with this place.
There were too many people named Goudan in the village. When children ran past Ju Jingbai, the villagers started calling out Goudan one after another.
When Goudan called out, three of the five children turned around.
The remaining two were a girl and a baby who couldn't understand.
Ju Jingbai stood up with the help of the wall. She had just triggered the task of practicing the ghost formation, finding Goudan, defeating Goudan, and rescuing the girl.
Ju Jingbai felt his head buzzing when he looked at all the dogs in the village.
Where could she find one? A girl? There weren't many girls around twenty years old in the village. She had only seen one after walking around for half a day.
"Hey, big sister, what's wrong with you? Is your old illness coming back? Auntie will help you go home." A woman in her fifties who was feeding chickens came over and helped Ju Jingbai to turn aside and enter the nearest door that didn't have red couplets on it. "How did you get here? You've been taking care of the family and making money lately. It must be too tiring, right? Auntie will help you change Goudan's diaper ring. Don't worry about Goudan."
"Okay, thank you, Auntie. I'm just a little tired. Just lie down." Ju Jingbai followed what the auntie in front of him said. When he walked into the house, he saw a child lying on the kang. The child didn't look very big. He was covered with a thin quilt. His lotus-root-like arms stretched out from the quilt, white and tender. He was biting his little fists while sleeping.
Ju Jingbai was lying on the bed. When she heard the iron door outside being closed, she suddenly sat up and looked around the room.
The room was not shabby, with white tiles and brand new wooden furniture. The kang led directly to the kitchen next door, which was also kept clean. Fresh vegetables were placed in baskets, and the cabinet contained several cans of milk powder, complementary food biscuits, and even half-eaten potato chips for the baby.
There was no sign of a man living there, and combined with what the people around her said, the husband of this body must have passed away.
"I don't know who the boss has become." Ju Jingbai muttered as she walked back to the room. She poked Goudan's soft cheek on the bed. If she couldn't see anything strange during the day, she could only wait until night when everyone around was asleep, and then she would go out for a walk.
In the afternoon, someone from the processing factory brought over a sack of dolls. They had to sew eyes on the dolls for three cents each.
Ju Jingbai entrusted Goudan to Aunt Song next door, and spent the entire afternoon sewing with the group of old ladies under the shade of a tree. His hands were almost worn out from sewing, and he listened to a lot of gossip.
"You know what? Feng's son Goudan is frail and sickly. I'm afraid he won't be able to attend this year's Qixi Festival."
"Hey, I just saw Goudan this morning. He was able to run and jump. Sister Feng just doesn't want her child to participate in the Qixi Festival. She thinks it's not right for us to drink the holy water. People from outside just think it's feudal and superstitious. Oh, she even uses her phone to check the patient. How can she be better than us?"
"How many days are left until the Qixi Festival?" Ju Jingbai was awakened by the holy water. He stretched his fingers that were sewing and asked.
"It's the day after tomorrow. There are so many fun things to do at the Tanabata Festival. You didn't attend last year because you were pregnant, so this year we have to make it a really lively occasion."
"That's right. By the way, big sister, you may not know this, but your brother-in-law has married a new wife. I've seen her, and she's so pretty."
"Really? I don't even know when the wedding will be held?" Ju Jingbai said casually.
"No wedding banquet. Why would I hold a wedding banquet for a second marriage? I just set up a table of food at home and let the relatives recognize the new bride."
"This is the third wedding this month, right? Marriage is great! I love seeing all the little kids running around in our village. It makes me happy when I think about it. When we were young, we didn't dare have more children because we couldn't get enough to eat. Every day I took people up the mountain to dig wild vegetables, but gradually there were no more wild vegetables left, so we had to survive by gnawing on tree bark..." Grandma Zhou started to laugh as she spoke. "Let's not talk about these old things. Second brother's family, wasn't your second son sent to the hospital with a stomachache a few days ago? How is he doing?"
"Hey, it's nothing serious. My wife always makes a fuss. She sent him to the hospital because of something she did in the toilet."
"It would be reassuring to send him to the hospital for a check-up!" Grandma Zhou said with a smile.
Ju Jingbai couldn't help but smile too. Although these mothers-in-law were a bit gossipy, they had the eyes and facial features of beautiful women of grandmother's age. The more she looked at them, the more she felt that these old people were quite kind.
It was already around four or five in the afternoon when Ju Jingbai finished sewing the eyeballs.
She stood up and stretched her back, said goodbye to her mother-in-law and grandmother who were sitting there, and then carried the small stool home.
As soon as she left, the female compatriots who had gathered together looked at their watches, packed up their things and went home.
"Waaaaaa." Ju Jingbai just returned to the door of his house when he heard Goudan crying. Aunt Song from next door hurried out of the room. She saw him and shouted, "Aunt Song, go and do your work. I'll go in and comfort him."
"Hey, Xiaoqian is back, so I'll go cook. Zhenzhen went out to play. I just came over to wash the vegetables while Goudan was asleep." Aunt Song explained.
"Okay, I understand." Ju Jingbai nodded quickly.
"Who is in this photo? She looks so familiar." When Ju Jingbai walked in, Goudan had gradually stopped crying. She was holding a five-inch photo in her hand and muttering. She leaned over to take a look. The person in the photo was a pretty little girl. She had never seen her before, but she looked a little familiar.
"Mom...Mom!" Goudan uttered a single sound and called the person in the photo in a baby voice.
The author has something to say: Good night~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
