Mud Spirit
Wen Dai, who was called, had a conscience. She glanced at the old man who was still struggling to push himself up the ground and try to squeeze through the window, then went to the old woman and pointed to the left, saying, "Uncle is trying to squeeze through the window."
The old woman seemed unfazed. She reached out and grabbed Wen Dai's arm, pulling her inside. Then the door was gently closed. "Don't worry about him. He just likes to use the side door."
So only Wen Dai was taken to the main room.
The front door was bolted from the inside. Inside the main room, two elderly people with similarly white hair sat on a bamboo and wooden bed, which was just like the one at the old lady's house. Their frail bodies were wrapped in thick cotton clothes. The old man, holding a cane, sat on the bed.
The old woman, her hands trembling as she poured water, hunched over. She handed the cup to Wen Dai, her hoarse voice straining, "Drink, drink water."
Wen Dai picked up the water glass and nodded repeatedly to the old lady in front of her, saying, "Okay, thank you." With her other hand, she slipped into her pocket, quickly flipped to the recording app on her phone, and started recording.
After drinking a few sips of water to moisten her throat, Wen Dai was pulled by the old woman to sit down on another bamboo bed opposite the first one, and she recounted the whole story.
However, the two elderly people simply nodded.
The old woman patted Wen Dai's arm, tilted her head and leaned closer to whisper, "It's alright, their reaction time is just a bit long."
As the old lady said, by the time the old man who had crawled through the window came in panting, the two elderly people had also finished processing what had happened.
I thought the old man with the cane would be slower to react, but he was the first to speak.
"Change your clothes, they'll catch your eye and make it obvious you're from out of town. You'll stay here with my daughter, just don't go out. Those people are really fierce." His Mandarin wasn't perfect, but it was understandable.
"There are three or four houses where those people are locked up, with only a few people living in each house, but there are many people in charge of them. The girl you're looking for, fourteen years old, there should be some, I've seen some around that age, but I don't know if she's the one you're looking for," the old lady said, scratching her head.
The few words made Wen Dai's heart sink. She let out a long breath and stared at the two old people opposite her, saying, "Whether it is the person I am looking for or not, there will be no more chance for things to hide in the shadows. Now that it has been confirmed that those people are involved in human trafficking and imprisonment, they cannot escape."
The old man tapped his cane on the ground twice, then shook his head as if to deflate her spirit: "This matter is not so easy to handle. If reporting it to the police were effective, how could they have been doing this for so many years? It's because some of those big shots were also involved in this."
"In recent years, the country has invested a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources in the fight against organized crime. The past is the past. I believe that those things that have been hiding in the shadows will eventually be exposed to the light. They can't escape." These words were meant for them, but even more so for herself. Wen Dai's hands clenched into fists, the flesh of her palms being pricked by her nails urging her to stay awake.
Of course she knew that those greedy "big shots" who colluded together were full of scheming and despicable individuals.
But the fire that took her parents and destroyed her home needed to be extinguished. This year marks the twelfth anniversary of the fire, and there was a chance to put it out before she left this world. They couldn't escape it.
No one responded in the main room. He remained silent for a long time before leaving, letting out a few sighs.
An old man, who had moved a stool to sit on the edge of the bamboo bed, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and the lighter clicked and clicked, the flames of which were the same color as the lights in the room.
He took a deep breath, the smoke finally escaping through his nose, while a thin wisp of white smoke billowed from his mouth. His throat, roughened by the smoke, became even more gritty: "You don't know. We grew up in this village, we've lived here for decades. You see, even after all these years, we still see those people bringing back wave after wave of others, but we've never seen a single investigator come. Nobody cares."
“But look, I’m here now, aren’t I? Believe me, if things go quickly, an investigator will be here tomorrow.” Wen Dai turned her head away, looking directly at the old man who had lost his temper again. Her firm and resolute tone left everyone speechless.
It seems that plans can never keep up with changes.
After removing her makeup, Wen Dai sent the recordings, location data, and photographic evidence to Cai Qi and Chen Sizhe. The signal was poor in the mountains, so she stayed up until the messages were successfully sent before she could finally go to sleep.
It was probably the exertion of the night that left her exhausted. When Wen Dai finally woke up, it was already 10 a.m. the next day.
On the wooden cabinet by the bed were a floral blouse and a bottle of foundation in a strange shade, with the note pressed under the foundation.
Wen Dai rubbed her sleepy eyes, propped herself up on her elbows, and reached out with her other hand to pull the note over. She pried the paper open with her knuckles, revealing crooked and large characters written on it, mixed with pinyin, which was still wrong.
Fortunately, Wen Dai could barely piece together what the writer wanted to express—after waking up, go around to the back to wash your mouth and face, wipe your face, wear the clothes I gave you, and don't go out.
Wen Dai put down the note, glanced at the floral blouse, picked it up and opened it to take a look. The pattern was made of dark blue and emerald green, but the base color was dark yellow. At first glance, she thought she had traveled back to a mountain village decades ago.
The room the old lady arranged for her was near the back door of this wooden-tiled house, the same room where the old man had climbed out of the window in the middle of the night. The room was divided into two parts: the inner room had a window; outside the inner room was a sink where one could wash up, and opposite the sink was a pile of miscellaneous items placed against the wall.
After putting on her clothes, Wen Dai wrapped a floral blouse around herself. When she went to the outer room to wash up, she keenly heard the conversation and stopped brushing her teeth halfway through.
Her ear was close to the crack in the outer room door; the cold air touched her ear, and at the same time, a noisy conversation entered her ear.
"You're both getting on in years, so stop arguing. Are you still thinking about your sex life at your age? Do you want to give Uncle Gen another grandson? Why didn't you have one earlier? Now you're all lovey-dovey." The slightly shrill female voice was unfamiliar, and judging from the voice, she was probably around fifty years old.
"Exactly! So what if he has someone else? Does that mean he'll divorce you? No way! Look at us, we're with pretty girls every day. We bring the good-looking ones over, and we do things with them, but look at us, we're divorced! It's a completely different story!"
The man who said this was probably chewing on something, and his voice sounded like a hoarse duck.
The conversation was completely baffling. After recalling the plan the old man had proposed in the early morning, Wen Dai understood. She tiptoed back to the sink to continue washing up, then hurriedly went back into the room and painted her face a deathly yellow color once again.
Several more messages appeared in her WeChat chat. Wen Dai clicked on the chat box with Cai Qi first, and the message she received was reassuring.
[Cai Qi: I showed your message to the higher-ups, we had a meeting, and finally decided to send someone over. Better to be safe than sorry. PS: Your photo made our usually stern leader burst out laughing.]
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Wen Dai pursed her lips, staring silently at the words with a tight mouth, her fair ears gradually turning red.
One should indeed avoid doing anything impulsive in the middle of the night, especially when sleep-deprived and not fully alert. The saying "think thrice before you act" is truly apt.
The next message was sent half an hour ago.
[Cai Qi: I'm here too! We're on our way, you must hang in there! Take care of yourself!]
Wen Dai replied with "Okay" and then switched to the chat page with Chen Sizhe.
The first thing that catches the eye is his reply regarding the photo she took in the early morning—
Chen Sizhe: ?
Chen Sizhe: What do you want me to reply to?
[Chen Sizhe: Mud Spirit.]
"..." Wen Dai clicked her tongue and slapped her forehead. She finally understood what it meant to be filled with regret.
Looking down, thankfully, this guy only quoted her photo three times, and the subsequent messages simply indicated that he knew about it. The information that ended the conversation was somewhat human.
[Chen Sizhe: Be careful and prioritize your own safety. I'll be there as soon as I finish my work, and I'll try to arrive before the afternoon.]
Wen Dai responded with an OK emoji, seemingly indifferent, to indicate that she was still alive.
If you want to get there before the afternoon after finishing your work, this guy would have to speed.
You should know that she set off from Feng'an District at eight o'clock yesterday morning. Although she started walking when she reached the towns and villages in this area, it took her an hour and a half just to get from the city to these towns and villages. After that, she walked on her own two legs from morning to afternoon.
She slipped her phone under her blouse, put it in the pocket of her inner coat, then got up and walked to the window, glancing out at the view.
In the darkness of the night, everything was blurry. Only now, with the bright daylight, do I realize how dangerous it was for me and the old man.
Behind the cement-enlarged courtyard is a slope, where trees grow close together and stones stuck in the ground can be seen from afar. Overgrown weeds partially obscure the tree trunks—a perfect habitat for snakes.
The tingling sensation on her scalp made Wen Dai shrink her shoulders; she was really lucky not to have been bitten.
Although tall grass is a popular hiding place for snakes, it is also a good place for people to hide. Wen Dai lowered her eyelashes, raised one hand to her chest, and the violent throbbing under her palm seemed to foreshadow the danger to come.
The old house wasn't very soundproof, so Wen Dai could clearly hear the sounds of obstruction and footsteps.
"There's a lot of random stuff in here. Don't go in. What would you do there? There's nothing for you anyway."
“I’ll just go in and take a look. Your family is the only one in the whole village that hasn’t built a new house. We’ve become rich, so we can’t just watch you stay poor. We’re all from the same village. I’ll see how your room is. If it’s cluttered with a lot of stuff, then you might as well build a new one. We’ll pay for it to help you.”
"There's still room... Hey! What are you doing? Don't move!"
The door was slammed and banged on several times.
"Why won't you let us in? Are you hiding someone inside? Unlock the door!"
The only two identifiable voices in the conversation were those of the elderly woman and man; the other male voice was highly likely that of someone involved in human trafficking in the village.
Wen Dai, who was in the inner room, curled her hands and looked back at her backpack on the bed.
The elderly couple standing at the door of the outer room were separated from Wen Dai by two doors. Just moments ago, they were acting out a marital discord, but now they were united as husband and wife. The elderly woman pressed her strong body firmly against the door, preventing the tall, thin man next to her from pulling her away, while the elderly man kept trying to pull the hand of the short, thin man on the other side.
Hearing the commotion, she hurried over. The woman had a sharp face, and her triangular eyes swept over the old woman who was leaning against the door.
Wearing a dark green sweater and a red wool suit, her arms were folded at the elbows as she crossed her arms. She said with a half-smile, "Oh dear, what's going on here? I've never seen you keep a small hut from people before—what? Are you hiding someone in there?"
"What do you mean, 'hide someone'? Don't talk nonsense! I don't hide people. If anyone is going to hide someone, it's this damned bastard!" The old woman's yellow skin spread red from her neck, gradually rising to her face. She raised her chin and shouted at the top of her lungs, even her eyes seemed to have a faint red tinge. Her rather ample breasts rose and fell with her rapid breathing.
The old man, quickly getting into character, grabbed the short, thin man's hands tightly and pulled him to the side, slapping and shaking them occasionally, while his face turned towards the old woman from time to time. "Stop talking nonsense. Does not touching you mean I'm hiding someone? Does that mean I can't have a break? I work myself to the bone all day and still have to serve you at night. Am I your slave?"
Unfortunately, their bickering drama didn't get the others excited. The old man and woman with canes wanted to join in, but they were stopped by the people who stayed in the main room.
The tall, thin man took out a cigarette case from his pocket, casually pulled out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, held it in front of his hand, and lit it with a lighter in the other.
The smoke from his cigarette blurred his vision, and when he spoke again, his voice was much hoarse: "Get out of the way."
He raised his hand and waved it, his gestures and the undeniable tone of his voice making it seem more like he was telling someone to get lost.
Continuing the performance at this point would be futile, and might even backfire. But the old woman still pressed her chin firmly against the door, taking advantage of the fact that the door was open outwards.
Women who work in the countryside for a long time are generally strong, and the older woman had the advantage of being physically larger, but she was outnumbered.
Seeing the two men reaching out to pull the old woman away, the old man wanted to help, but the short, thin man he had previously stopped now took the initiative, leaving him only able to watch helplessly as the old woman was forcibly pulled away by the tall, thin man and the woman in the red suit.
The two men pressed the old woman against the wall at one end while simultaneously reaching into her pockets, forcing her to cry and scream, "They're not human! All the friendship we had growing up together is gone! We talked about lifelong bonds when we were kids, and this is how they treat me now? It's heartbreaking! They're not human—"
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