Transformation
The kitchen was lit by a cool-toned incandescent light, and the food on the table, like the table itself, was covered in oil.
"Why is it difficult to handle if we don't arrive by 5 a.m.?" The old man repeated Wen Dai's question. He turned his head back, lowered his head to face the bowl he was holding, and picked at the last garlic sprout in the bowl with his chopsticks. "Well... it's hard to say."
The old woman quickly shoveled rice into her mouth with her chopsticks, lifting her face from behind the bowl in front of her. She lowered the bowl slightly with the hand holding it, and gave the man opposite her a displeased look. "What's so hard to say? You're just too lazy to say it."
Turning to face Wen Dai, she smiled again, raised her chin, and said, "Don't listen to your uncle's nonsense. Why do we have to get here before dawn? You can guess by looking at the Buddha statue in my house, right? In our area, almost everyone has one, especially in the village we stayed in before, which is the village you're going to."
“I believe the older generation’s genuine faith in Buddhism, but who in the next two generations is truly sincere? They only believe because they’re afraid of retribution. I guess they know that themselves. About twenty years ago, not long after they started their careers, one of the leaders suddenly got into trouble. When he was found, he was dead in the field, with no wounds on his body. Isn’t that strange?”
The old lady didn't even bother to eat. She put her bowl on the table, held her chopsticks on the rim of the bowl, and tapped them a few times when she got excited talking.
"People say he went out for a smoke because there was a cigarette butt on the ground. But who knows he went to have an affair with the village widow... The widow went home early; she said he wanted to get some fresh air in the fields."
"Can smoking kill someone? And a breeze can't possibly kill a living person, right? I've lived for over fifty years and I've never seen it."
"Later, everyone guessed that this person must have committed too many sins. After that incident, they would burn incense and pray to Buddha before and after the incident. Every morning at six o'clock, they would get up and not only burn incense and pray to Buddha themselves, but also force the people they had abducted to pray together, making them say that they came voluntarily."
Holding chopsticks, Wen Dai stirred the food in her bowl, her eyelids lowered, her thoughtful pupils reflecting the lower part of the sky. She forgot to ask Chang Xi what she had experienced while in the hands of human traffickers—the immortal hadn't told her either.
The old woman's throat was dry from talking. She got up, went to the sink, turned on the tap, took an empty bowl from the cupboard, filled it with water, took a couple of sips, and continued, "I heard that some people weren't brought here. Those people are a little better off; they won't be sold or forced to do a lot of disgusting things."
"Anyway, the people who were brought into the village didn't have a good life. Every day at dawn they would play the suona and sing that tune, which I couldn't understand, all the way from the village to the foot of the mountain, and they would sing all the way back. On the way, they would bring along those who had been abducted."
"Around dawn, that's when they do these things. First, they catch people worshipping Buddha, then they sing and play music. If we happen to go there at that time, wow—"
The old woman put down her bowl of water, and as the water rippled, she clapped her hands together forcefully, glaring, tilting her head slightly, and speaking in an exaggerated tone:
“You’re doomed, I’m doomed, we’re all doomed. They’re so sensitive. They won’t welcome people who aren’t from the village anyway. And if you happen to be caught doing that kind of thing, with your pretty face, you won’t be able to escape.”
Meeting the old woman's slightly yellowish eyes, Wen Dai swallowed hard. At the same time, she heard the old man sigh, and she turned her gaze away.
The old man seemed bored and put down his chopsticks. He raised his chin, turned his face to Wen Dai, and said, "They have the simplest way to turn you into one of their own. Especially since you're so good-looking..." His voice trailed off.
His brow furrowed, and he tilted his head, touching his chin as he looked at Wen Dai's face. He stared at her so intently that she wanted to run away on the spot before he finally spoke: "You need to cover your face before you leave tomorrow. Covering it in mud won't do; it'll be too obvious."
The chopsticks were placed on the bowl, and the old man raised his hand to measure. He hunched his neck and squinted as if observing, looking at Wen Dai in front of him whose face was half covered and only her eyes were visible. He hissed and said, "This is terrible. Even with the lower half of your face covered, you can still tell that you are beautiful."
The old woman, with her arms crossed and leaning back slightly, was also sizing up Wen Dai.
She pinched her forehead, pouted her lower lip, thought for a moment, then suddenly turned her head to look at the old man and said, "Hey, didn't your daughter give me that foundation before? The one that makes you look like a terribly yellowish color when you put it on? She said she wanted to buy a foundation that matches her skin tone, but she gave me this terribly yellowish one. What do you think if I put that foundation on this girl?"
The old lady's idea was clearly spot on. The old man slammed his hand on the table and his loud voice echoed, "Great! That's it, that's it. Before you leave, put on this aunt's foundation, otherwise your skin will be too white."
Wen Dai stood there dumbfounded on the stool, completely taken care of.
After a quick meal, Wen Dai took a bath and returned to the room her aunt had prepared for her.
My phone, which I hadn't checked much all day, had a lot of messages. Some were from Cui Lin, some from Chen Sizhe, and some from Cai Qi, the female investigator I had just added on WeChat before Wen Dai left—the one who handled the case of the lonely elderly man who died last time.
She briefly replied to Cui Lin's concerned message, without directly stating that she had found the human traffickers' hideout; if Wen Weiwei wasn't there, it would be even more disheartening to be disappointed.
The female investigator confessed truthfully, and she frankly told him that she would be leaving for the human traffickers' hideout early the next morning. The secretly recorded conversation was also transmitted to the female investigator.
At the same time, she also sent her current location—better safe than sorry, if something happened to her, she should rely on the case officer the most.
[Cai Qi: The evidence is quite sufficient. If you can take photos after you arrive, please send them over as well, so I can find a reason to send police officers over.]
[Cai Qi: Protect yourself]
Wen Dai replied with "okay" and then switched away from the chat window with Chen Sizhe.
This person still wasn't very good with words. She snorted and pressed the voice button with her fingertip, "Don't curse me! Who would tell a kind woman who wants to rid the people of public nuisances, 'Be careful, don't become one of those who get abducted'?"
It's unclear whether Chen Sizhe listened to her voice message or not, because he replied instantly.
[Chen Sizhe: Eliminating public nuisances for the people without ensuring one's own safety is called sending oneself to one's death.]
Wen Dai felt a lump in her throat. She uttered the word "get lost" and tried to end the conversation with Chen Sizhe. Otherwise, she thought she might argue with Chen Sizhe until the next day when they set off.
But this person seemed to completely ignore her "get lost" instruction, and a message popped up in a white bubble immediately afterward: "[I'll handle the cases at hand as soon as possible. If you find Wen Weiwei, don't act rashly; prioritize your own safety. I don't want to lose my partner so soon after we've started working together.]"
As her gaze traced the words on the message, Wen Dai's lips curled up unnoticed.
This guy's way of expressing concern is as despicable as ever.
She leaned back and fell onto the soft blankets, her toes no longer hooked on her shoes, and her exposed feet followed her curled-up legs onto the bed.
Wen Dai, who had crawled into bed, replied to him with a "goodnight" as if possessed.
She didn't check the messages after that. She locked the screen, put the phone aside to charge, and casually turned off the light switch.
The moment she closed her eyes, her phone, which had been off-screen, lit up with a long-awaited message—
[Chen Sizhe: Sweet Dreams]
Perhaps thanks to Chen Sizhe, even though Wen Dai didn't see his rare message of blessing, she still had a wonderful dream—she was no longer alone in the dream, but had her parents who had been with her since she was a child, instead of being forever stuck at the age of ten.
Dreams always end, and she woke up on her own, only to hear a knock on the door.
The old woman's voice was no longer as bright and cheerful as during the day; it carried a hint of drowsiness and hoarseness: "Little sister, little sister! Wake up, little sister!"
Wen Dai stretched out her arm and turned on the light switch. She moved her legs off the bed and mumbled a strong "hmm" in agreement.
After a hurried wash, an older woman with foundation was waiting for Wen Dai. She unscrewed the cap and handed the foundation to her. "Here, put it on quickly. I called you an hour early because my daughter said that makeup takes a long time. Sigh, she used to insist on doing my makeup, and my butt hurt from sitting so long."
Originally, Wen Dai had no concept of what "dead yellow" meant, but she frowned after seeing the color of the foundation in the jar.
It's not quite brown; the yellow is a different kind of yellow, making one feel as if the mud underfoot is mixed with the color of tree bark.
She sat on the bamboo bed, holding her backpack on her lap, while the old woman took the mirror and looked at herself in it.
Wen Dai thanked her and went through the entire pre-makeup routine before applying the foundation. Only after applying sunscreen did she put on the dull yellow foundation.
The feeling of watching yourself in the mirror undergo a dramatic transformation is indescribable. Your once fair skin has turned into a mixture of mud and tree bark, and your features, which are less prominent due to the darker skin tone, have instantly lost their striking appeal.
She now felt like a refugee from some remote tribe in Africa—no, given her status, she should be a high priestess.
To make the mirror match her skin tone, the old woman handed the mirror back to her, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a floral handkerchief.
She gathered Wen Dai's waist-length hair into a conch shell shape, wrapped it around a few times, and secured it with her own black hair clips. Finally, the floral handkerchief in her hand came in handy to hold the hair in place.
She absentmindedly raised the mirror on her lap, and when Wen Dai saw the person in the mirror clearly, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
Unable to hold back her laughter, she burst into laughter, revealing her teeth. Beneath the dark green headscarf adorned with red flowers was a deathly yellow face, which appeared even more sallow against the backdrop of her exposed white teeth.
The old woman shrank back a few steps away from her, watching the person suddenly burst into inexplicable laughter. She glanced at Wen Dai with a strange look on her face and asked suspiciously, "Little sister, do you have any mental problems? I don't mean anything by it, don't worry. You'll see something really scary!"
Thinking that abs were about to appear on her stomach, Wen Dai covered her aching lower abdomen from laughing. She yelped, rubbed her stiff and sore stomach, stood up, turned her neck, grinned at the old lady, and her bright white teeth popped out.
"It's nothing, it's just that it's the first time I've seen myself like this, so it feels novel."
The old man, who had packed some things, was still muttering to himself as he came out: "How about you take these with you? There are still some gifts left over from the New Year at home. Take this milk to your parents..."
As he slowly raised his head, he unexpectedly bumped into Wen Dai's face, who was still smiling. Instantly, the milk he was holding fell to the ground.
The cold, incandescent light shone on that strangely yellow face, the most striking features being those bright, black almond-shaped eyes and those large, white teeth.
It's not that she's ugly, but having seen what Wen Dai looked like before, it's hard to believe she looks like this...
The old man patted his chest, still shaken, and said, "Thank goodness I don't have a heart condition... No wonder people say makeup is evil magic. Hey, tell me, how is there any difference between you and a completely different person?"
"Don't you know that's how you avoid attracting attention? It's all thanks to me." The old lady rolled her eyes at him, walked over, picked up the milk that had fallen on the ground, and called the two of them out the door.
The tricycle was set off, with the elderly woman and man sitting together in the front, while Wen Dai and the gifts they were going to deliver were carried in the back.
Wen Dai held up her phone, turned on the flash, and took pictures of the surrounding environment. While taking pictures, she also used the light to survey the environment along the way.
The area is no different from other villages. Coming down the slope, the road is flanked by farmland. Looking ahead, there is a lush green forest below, which surrounds the only cement road. Looking up, you can see villages scattered on the mountainside.
Although it's called a mountainside, this mountain isn't actually that high, and it's incomparable to the Ten Thousand Mountains in the southwest.
She sent all the photos to Cai Qi, not caring that it was past 1 a.m., because if something unexpected happened later, she might not have another chance to send them out.
The so-called filming environment was merely to provide Cai Qi with evidence to prove that her claims were true and that the recording was not fabricated. When testifying to investigators, the final result usually requires further evidence to strengthen the argument.
When the tricycle creaked and groaned its way down the mountain, Wen Dai casually tossed out a location tracking number. Her finger, which was about to press the power button, suddenly stopped, and a mischievous thought popped into her head.
She took a picture of herself with her phone, grinning mischievously as wide as possible, seemingly unaware that this might become an embarrassing photo in her past. She sent the photo to Cai Qi and then to Chen Sizhe.
The message left for Cai Qi indicated that she was very careful and consciously concealed her appearance.
The reason she sent it to Chen Sizhe was simple—she just wanted to scare him. So there was no other information besides the photo.
I imagined Chen Sizhe just waking up, or waking up in the middle of the night, and his reaction when he suddenly saw this photo on his phone. Wen Dai's eyes curved along with her lips, and she tilted her head back, laughing to herself.
Since the driver had become an old man, the old lady turned around when she heard bursts of laughter. She twisted her neck and glanced at Wen Dai, unconsciously curling up the corners of her mouth as well. She teased, "Smiling so brightly, what are you thinking about? Thinking about your boyfriend?"
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