Nighttime visit to the village of human traffickers
The word "boyfriend" immediately brought Wen Dai's smile to an abrupt halt. Her expression changed so quickly that it would earn her a high score in a drama academy's entrance exam. She blinked twice and denied it without hesitation: "I wasn't thinking about anything. I wasn't thinking about a boyfriend. I don't have a boyfriend."
The old lady didn't think much of it, but casually said, "Oh—the way you smiled just now, it looked just like how young girls smile when they're first falling in love. I figured you must be thinking about your boyfriend."
"Unintentional" always refers to someone who speaks without malice.
With her chin tilted back, gazing at the dark blue sky dotted with thin clouds, Wen Dai clasped her hands together on her thighs, her heart beating strangely to the left.
For the first time ever, Wen Dai, who had never thought about romantic love, broke a string of emotions.
Oh no, could she possibly like Chen Sizhe?
But she soon ran out of time to think about the problem.
Just as the tricycle was about to enter the village, the old woman suddenly turned halfway around, patted the back of the chair several times, and urged in a low voice, "Lie down, lie down! Girl, quickly lie down and don't make a sound! Oh, there are people chatting at the door, let's hide under the cover of darkness."
The old man, whose mind was working quickly, stopped the tricycle. He let go of the handlebars and said decisively, "You ride the tricycle in, and I'll take this girl on a detour to your parents' house. You'll say we had a fight, and the reason for the fight... you'll say we're not getting along in our sex life, that I don't want to do 'that' with you, and then you'll come back because you think I'm seeing someone else."
Wen Dai, who had just knelt down, raised her head in disbelief. What is this? This is what you call heroic sacrifice, selflessness and altruism!
"Huh? Why?" It's true that the collision of darkness and a sleepy brain can easily cause one's thinking to go on strike. The old lady stared blankly at the old man.
The old man glanced at the village some distance away, then leaned closer to the old woman, making eye contact with her, and said, suppressing his rising voice, "Think about it, you've come to your parents' home. We're not that far from here. Is it really necessary to come all the way here in the middle of the night?"
"Besides, what's the point of this girl lying in the back? What if those people come looking with flashlights? We're all doomed. So the only solution is for you to pretend you had a fight with me, that you're getting a divorce now and that's why you came back, and then we'll explain to your parents later."
The elderly woman, seemingly understanding but not quite, scratched her head and remained silent for a moment, perhaps coming to her senses or perhaps imagining something else. In the darkness of the night, her gaze gradually hardened.
The old lady immediately reached out and grabbed the handlebars that the old man had let go of. She tossed her head and said cheerfully, "Okay! I'll take care of this. You guys go around to the back and be careful."
Wen Dai scrambled to her feet and got out of the car, while the old man limped and stretched out his leg to land on the ground.
He stretched out his arm and lifted the milk cart behind him, then raised his chin and said to the old woman in a low voice, "I'm taking the milk away. If you start arguing with me, you won't be in the mood to pick up the milk anymore. You'll be lucky if you can even put your clothes on..."
"Oh, right, if they ask about you not taking your clothes, just say you left in a hurry, and it's best to squeeze out a few tears. Isn't that how it's portrayed in all those TV dramas you watch all day? Just do it like that!"
The old woman didn't say anything, but instead turned the handlebars and drove away with a creaking sound, giving off a sense of sacrificing herself for her cause.
Patting the dust off her chest, Wen Dai swallowed. She was genuinely curious about what the old lady and the old man had imagined, and she herself felt a vague sense of being in a spy movie.
The old man carrying the milk shook his head vigorously in the dim light, pointing in another direction. "Girl, come with me quickly, let's slip through the alley."
Even though it was pitch black and blurry, Wen Dai could still see the old man's tightly furrowed brows and his anxious eyes were very clear.
She quickly agreed and followed the old man into the pile of weeds that was almost as tall as a person.
The two people who were traveling at night went undercover, while the old woman who openly rode in on a tricycle was, as expected, stopped by a group of people chatting at the entrance.
Of the three men, two were thin and one was fat; the thin one was tall and the fat one was short. The fat one was about the same height as the short one.
The tall, thin man standing in front of the tricycle, holding a cigarette, raised his hand, brought the cigarette to his lips, took a deep drag, and then exhaled, his eyes scanning up and down at the old woman with her red eyes.
As the old man expected, the remaining two short men each held a flashlight and slowly circled the tricycle.
The shorter, fat man stood on tiptoe and tilted his chin up, as if he wanted to throw his upper body into the back of the tricycle. When he couldn't see anything, he slowly looked at the old woman sitting in the front, wiping away tears and sniffling.
It was the short, thin man who spoke first. He flicked the ash from his cigarette, tilted his head, and leaned closer to the old woman, asking, "Oh, you're Uncle Gen's daughter, right? Why are you crying when you come back? Didn't you used to think the village was too noisy, so you moved out with your husband?"
The old woman gritted her teeth, but now was not the time to dwell on the sarcasm in his tone.
She burst into tears with a sob, wiping them with her sleeve with her free left hand, and choked out, "You men are all the same! Good heavens, it's all because of my husband. Now that he sees I'm old and faded, he won't even touch me. We sleep back to back every night. Is this what a husband and wife are like? Anyone who doesn't know better would think we're just sharing a bed!"
She sniffled hard, swallowed, and tears welled up in her eyes, squeezing into her wrinkles. The second layer of flesh under her chin was also exposed by her open mouth.
“You men are all the same! Good heavens, he showered me with sweet words when we got married, and even sang love songs when he proposed. Now that I'm old and faded, he won't even touch me. We sleep back to back every night. He must be having an affair! I came back today to tell my parents about this. I want a divorce!”
Seeing that the old woman's emotions were getting more and more agitated, the men who wanted to make things difficult for her couldn't even keep their cigarettes burning anymore. They put out their cigarettes one after another and threw them aside.
The tall, thin man standing in front of the car unusually showed a troubled and troubled expression. He clicked his tongue and hissed, and his raised hand hung in mid-air, sometimes high and sometimes low.
As the saying goes, it's better to tear down a temple than to break up a marriage. The three men reached a silent agreement. The short, fat man stepped forward and said in a rough voice, "No, you can't think like that about your man, you know? Men don't have desires every day. If you think about that kind of thing all the time, you'll become an animal."
Unfortunately, the house they had been guarding at the door suddenly emitted unspeakable groans.
The old woman paused in wiping away her tears, and the expressions of the other three men also changed abruptly, though their eyes turned cold.
The short, thin man reached into his coat pocket, slowly pulling out what was inside, revealing a gleaming silver blade.
But the old woman didn't ask what the sound was. Instead, she slapped her thigh and howled even louder.
She cried out, "You men are all the same! Good heavens, listen to what's going on in this house! Do you think you have no desire? If you had no desire, would you be lining up outside this woman's house? Are you animals? My husband is definitely having an affair!"
The three men, whose heads were throbbing from the howling, rubbed their ears in unison, and the short, thin man put the knife back in his pocket.
The tall, thin man stepped aside to make way for her, his tone full of impatience: "Oh dear, I can't persuade you anymore. Go back and talk to your parents. They're so old, yet they act like children. They're still making such a fuss after getting married. Don't they think about what their married daughter will think..."
"What do you know?! None of you men are any good! You're all definitely on your own side. I'm getting a divorce, I'm going to live for myself this time!" The old woman roared, her eyes almost bloodshot, and the snot she hadn't had time to wipe almost flew out with her head-shaking movements.
After speaking, she ignored the three men's expressions, twisted the handlebars, and rode away with a creaking sound.
Although they knew each other from childhood, it had been many years since they last met. The tall, thin man frowned, glanced at the departing tricycle, then looked up at the short, thin man, his brows furrowed with incomprehension and disdain. He raised his voice, "Was she always this neurotic?"
"Otherwise what? She was always so crazy when she was little. You forgot that everyone called her a crazy girl when she was a kid? I thought she would get better after she had children and raised them, but I didn't expect her to get worse as she got older. Oh dear, I'm so glad I don't have a daughter. If I had a kid like her, I would go crazy."
Seemingly disgusted, the short, thin man, with a look of revulsion on his face, raised his foot and vigorously ground the cigarette butt he had previously thrown on the ground.
The door to the house behind them was pulled open, and after a jarring creak, a man emerged, fastening his belt. His lips, framed by a messy short beard, were slightly parted, and yellowed teeth were biting a lit cigarette. His face clearly showed his satiated desire.
Seizing the opportunity, the short, stout man ran into the house ahead of them, saying, "You guys keep chatting, I'm going in to enjoy myself!"
The tall, thin man and the short, thin man exchanged a glance and both gave each other a helpless smile. The tall, thin man put his hands in his pockets, straightened his back, raised his head, and looked up at the sky, sighing, "I think it's normal for that crazy woman's man to have someone else; after all, having a wife like her, who's so hard to sell, is a disgrace to a man!"
The other group, which had split into two, faced a bumpy and tumultuous journey, mainly consisting of falls and rises—either she would fall and rise again, or he would fall and rise again.
"Oh my!"
"Holy shit!"
The first sound belonged to the old man who tripped over the overgrown weeds, while the second sound belonged to Wen Dai who tried to go around the old man but was stopped by a stone, especially since the stone looked like it had grown out of the ground.
My arm slammed onto the yellow earth covered with small pebbles, and it felt unpleasant. Although the weeds lying across the ground softened their sharpness, the sharpness of the weeds themselves should not be underestimated.
Wen Dai propped herself up and patted the sleeves of the coat she was wearing. She felt the surface of the coat with her fingertips and thankfully it wasn't scratched by the weeds. Otherwise, she would have been heartbroken to have ruined a piece of clothing.
The old man leading the way had a blurry silhouette that always gave off a desolate feeling.
Wen Dai squeezed through the tree branches that occasionally slapped her as she made her way forward. Because of the uneven terrain, each step she took was sometimes high and sometimes low.
After the series of falls, the atmosphere fell silent. Wen Dai spoke up in a low voice, "Uncle, you seem quite familiar with this place."
The old man's tone held a hint of pride: "That's right. Before your aunt and I got married, I would sneak up to her house in the dark to find her. Back then, I was practically a superhuman. But over the decades, things have changed a bit here, and it's not so easy to walk around anymore."
Holding onto the tree trunk the old man had previously leaned on, Wen Dai carefully followed him step by step. After several more falls, she and the old man finally arrived at the back door of a house with orange-yellow lights.
The other houses in the area are quite large, and some self-built houses have even been transformed into well-designed villas. However, this house is still a low wooden and tiled house, and the small courtyard that has been expanded is also made of cement.
The old man stepped forward and pulled on the small iron gate, but it was locked and could not be opened. Then, in front of Wen Dai, he performed a program called "Still Vigorous in Old Age".
The man braced himself against the low wall, lifted his right leg and hooked it upwards, becoming a long, thin figure clinging to the wall. Then he flipped inwards and entered the walled area—though he stumbled several steps.
He turned around, panting heavily, his face tense and his chest out, giving the impression that he was about to take an oath.
Wen Dai walked to the low wall, which was about chest height, and said in a low voice, "Uncle, you really are someone who could almost fly over walls when you were young. You're still as sharp as ever."
The light was too dim. When Wen Dai followed the old man's example and climbed over the wall, she realized that the floor inside the wall was lower than the floor outside!
The foot that landed unexpectedly throbbed with pain, and Wen Dai, just like the old man before her, staggered several steps.
Just as Wen Dai thought the old man was about to knock on the door, she watched as he walked to a window next to the low wall on the left. She couldn't see what he did to the window, but after fiddling with it and exerting force a few times, the wooden window frame, which was unable to resist, was lifted up.
The old man was lean and wiry. He didn't look at Wen Dai, but instead climbed in through the open window, saying, "Wait outside for me, I'll go in and open the door for you."
Judging from the window's position and the back door's location, the window should be in the room on the left side inside. Wen Dai had just responded with an "Eh" when she noticed orange-yellow light shining through the small lattice window above the back door. The next second, the door opened.
The old woman standing in the light and shadow had eyes that were still swollen and a little red. She peeked out and looked around the backyard. When she saw Wen Dai, she waved to her.
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