West City
The airport was filled with the sounds of announcements and the clatter of suitcase wheels rolling across the floor, creating a symphony. Wen Dai carried her bag on her back, her phone displaying a call screen in her hand.
The voice coming through the receiver, though electronically converted, still retained its magnetism: "Are you sure you want to go alone? I've checked. Xicheng is an autonomous region for ethnic minorities, and Pulai is the poorest township in Xicheng. You can't even find information about Nakamu Village online. They want your help and they even want you to pretend to be their son's online girlfriend. Aren't you afraid you won't be able to get out?"
Even just a phone call was enough for Wen Dai to imagine Chen Sizhe's demeanor in front of her through his solemn yet anxious tone—he must be frowning, and looking at her as if she were mentally challenged.
"What's there to be afraid of? Many things in this world are inseparable from fate and destiny. Do you understand fate and destiny? Since I've had the idea to help them and I've taken action, it means it's my destiny to have this path. I don't care about the outcome, as long as it's beneficial to me. If it's not beneficial, the deities behind me will give me a hint. Don't worry about it, just focus on your case, lawyer." Wen Dai paced aimlessly in the waiting area, unable to find an empty seat, so she simply stopped in front of the flight information screen.
She turned her gaze to the outside of the glass curtain wall, where the indistinct noise of an airplane engine slowly taking off vibrated in, and the sky was unusually clear and cloudless.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the office, Chen Sizhe's appearance was exactly the same as Wen Dai's imagined one. His dark eyebrows were almost tied together, and his fox-like eyes were filled with barely concealed restlessness. He looked at the bright sun on the horizon and clicked his tongue, saying, "Forget it, I can't reason with you. Share your location with me and set it to indefinite sharing. I'll come find you after I finish this case. Women should be more concerned about their personal safety. As your partner, I won't let you risk your life alone."
Listening to his incessant rambling, Wen Dai felt a complex mix of emotions for no apparent reason, as if her parents were still alive, as if she were no longer alone—indeed, she was no longer alone. She hadn't felt this way before she partnered with Chen Sizhe; it was only when he reminded and warned her that she suddenly realized she was now a companion on the same rope.
"Okay, okay, I'll hang up now. I'll set up location sharing right away. Chen Sizhe, I never would have guessed you had such a motherly heart." With a cheeky grin, Wen Dai quickly pressed the hang-up button and shared her location with Chen Sizhe. Her fingertip paused slightly as she switched to the location sharing feature.
When she was little, her parents would also enable location sharing on her smartwatch. As a child, she felt like she was being monitored, and would occasionally secretly turn it off. Now, she would rather be monitored, desperately hoping that they would always be watching her, instead of closing their eyes and sealing her in a box.
-
As an autonomous region, the western city is located in the central part of the empire's territory, surrounded by mountains. The mountains of the Boshu Yunwei region rise one after another, like fixed green waves.
The view from the plane was breathtaking enough, but standing amidst these mountains, Wen Dai looked towards the other side and felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of unease. She knew there were countless mountains beyond that, mountains that could never be climbed. Those inside lived in their own self-imposed prisons, and those outside who tried to enter were mostly put in shackles.
The latecomer, still on guard, went to work. Wen Dai asked the fairy again, "Isn't it true that I'm going to die and never come back?" She stood at the bus station in Puleti Township, looking around.
What comes into view are low, flat brick houses and old tile-roofed houses. The cement floor has been repeatedly repaired, with incongruous boundary lines; in a daze, it gives one a feeling of stepping back to the beginning of the century.
"Didn't you tell people it was all a matter of fate? Now you're scared? Nothing will happen." The voice echoed in her body. Although Wen Dai received confirmation that she was alright, she inexplicably felt that this matter might not be so easy to handle; the so-called "nothing will happen" probably meant that she would ultimately be alright.
However, she had no right to back down; she was already here.
The sounds of motorcycle horns rose and fell, mingling with the roar of engines, and occasionally a few four-wheeled vehicles squeezed past. Wen Dai squatted by the roadside, idly counting the ants moving on the ground, when suddenly, the sound of a car braking to a stop rang out, and the sunlight in front of her was blocked.
The van parked in front of her opened its door, and a boy of about eighteen or nineteen years old got out of the driver's seat. He had honey-colored skin, and beneath his short, neat hair was a handsome face. He walked somewhat awkwardly to Wen Dai, and after she helped herself to her feet, the boy spoke in slightly accented Mandarin: "Hello, Dai, Dai Dai. Sorry to keep you waiting. It takes us a long time to drive out of the mountains, and we didn't calculate the time properly."
The names they used were agreed upon on WeChat. The person seeking help was named Duolan, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Naduo, had an accident. According to her, it takes more than six hours to get from their village, Kamu, to the town, and it's almost impossible to find without a guide. Therefore, the village chief has immense power; he's practically the local tyrant. Threatened by the village chief and his henchmen, she and her family dared not report the incident to the police. To bring Wen Dai, an outsider, into the village, they had to reluctantly have Wen Dai pretend to be her son Yongzha's girlfriend.
Wen Dai's gaze casually swept over the yellow mud rolling on the wheels, and as she lifted her head, she peered into the back seat through the opened door, her peripheral vision catching a pair of sharp, menacing triangular eyes.
She made up her mind, looked up at Yongza and smiled, "It's okay, Yongza, I didn't wait long. I've never been to Puleti before. Let's buy some food on the way, some local specialties and fruits; after all, you see, I didn't buy anything for my aunt and uncle this time to keep things light."
The man sticking his head out of the car had a face as wrinkled as tree bark, and his triangular eyes were fixed on Wen Dai. He grinned, making the wrinkles on his face even more pronounced, and his rough voice was very unintelligible: "You're a clever girl. When we pass through town, I'll have A Yong come with you to buy some good food; there aren't many snacks in the mountains, so we should buy some!"
Yongza glanced at the man out of the corner of his eye, pursed his lips, and then said in a low voice, "He is the village chief of our Kamu Village."
"Okay, Uncle Village Chief." Wen Dai smiled calmly, her little tiger teeth and dimples giving off an innocent vibe, making her look like a simple and easily fooled person.
Dolan, who was sitting in the passenger seat, gave up her seat to Wendai and went to the back seat to sit with the village chief and her husband, Zhagang.
The village chief sat diagonally behind Wen Dai, his gaze never leaving her. Suddenly, he asked, "Your name is Wen Dai, right? You and Yongzha have only known each other online for three months, yet you dare to come and find him? Do your parents approve?"
Sitting next to her, Dolan unconsciously clutched the fabric of her pants, her eyes almost pleading as she stared at the back of the car seat where Wen Dai was sitting.
Yongzha, who was driving, seemed reserved and easily embarrassed, but he was surprisingly calm at the moment. His hands on the steering wheel remained still, and he only glanced at Wen Dai with his eyes.
"That village chief is really cunning," Wen Dai thought to herself, but her smile remained unchanged. She adopted a clear, light tone and said, "It's not just three months. A-Yong and I have been chatting online for a year, and it's been about six months since we started dating. My parents approve, but my brother doesn't. I'm worried he might come looking for us in a few days. If he comes, could he stay in the village with us? It'll be good for him to experience the local customs. He's got a really strange temper, and he's very prejudiced against outsiders. He only trusts himself!"
"Oh! It's half a year, it's half a year. I'm getting old, I misremembered. Ah Yong just told me about this again yesterday. Look at my memory!" The village chief leaned back in his chair, laughing. His triangular eyes seemed to be separated from the lower half of his smiling face, unmoving, and his dark pupils under his loose eyelids were like still water.
When the van arrived at the town's market, Yongza and Wendai got out together. First, Yongza made a move to follow, but then Dolan stopped him, saying, "Why are you going? Don't go. Let the young people shop together."
The village chief paused on the inner doorknob, then placed his hand back on his thigh. He glanced at the couple standing side by side with a half-smile. "This girl looks like she comes from a wealthy family. She has fair skin and is beautiful. Your Yong is lucky; she's probably going to rise to great heights. Remember what I said before? Don't dwell too much on what you've lost. Fortune and misfortune are intertwined, you know? From now on, just live your lives normally. When you have money, burn some offerings for Ana. If you keep clinging to the past, you might lose everything."
Inside the tranquil van, light was blocked by the blue-tinted windows, and the village chief's meaningful speech unfolded.
In the bright light beyond the darkness, Wen Dai and Yong Zha were walking together in the small market.
This small market consists entirely of roadside stalls. Even if you put all the areas together, it's still smaller than a shopping mall in a first-tier city of the empire. The tallest buildings are only four or five stories high, and the stalls are all set up outside other people's homes.
“The village chief is very suspicious, so you have to be careful. You’ll have to share a room with me tonight. I’ll sleep on the floor. I’m afraid something might happen to you if you stay in another room. It’s dangerous for girls in our village.” Yongza, walking beside Wen Dai, said in a low voice. He didn’t dare to think about what the inside of Kamu Village was like, which was why he was still cautious even when he was out of the village chief’s sight.
Wen Dai nodded and stopped in front of a fruit stall. She bought three baskets of fruit, even though she only recognized apples among the three types of fruit.
The woman who carried the fruit out of the mountains to sell and her young daughter were both flattered, especially when Wen Dai handed her four red banknotes. The woman raised her hand to push the four hundred yuan back, anxiously dissuading Wen Dai in her local accent: "No need for so much, no need. If you don't have change, you can pay by scanning the code." She freed one hand to hold up the QR code sign hanging on her chest.
Wen Dai ignored the QR code sign the woman was displaying. She stuffed the four hundred yuan into the hand of the bewildered little girl standing next to the woman. Then she approached the woman and whispered, "Sister, don't be polite with me. Consider the extra money as payment for your help."
The woman, who had been bending over to take the money from her daughter, paused. She pulled back and looked at Wen Dai with a puzzled and surprised expression.
Wen Dai asked seriously, "Sister, do you know about Kamu Village? Or do you know anyone who knows about Kamu Village?"
The bewildered woman scratched her head, her brow involuntarily furrowing like Wen Dai's. "I know, this village is in some remote mountain village; my sister-in-law married into our village from Kamu Village, what's wrong?"
“Here’s the thing, I need you to guide someone else to Kamu Village. A man, fair-skinned and very handsome. You’ll know it’s him as soon as you see him. I don’t know when he’ll be here.” Relieved by the unexpected coincidence, Wen Dai looked intently into the woman’s eyes and instructed, “Please come every day, at most five days. This is very important to me. If you don’t have enough money, I can pay you more by scanning a QR code.”
She leaned over and whispered a few words in the woman's ear.
The woman's eyes widened slightly, and her clenched fists suddenly shrank back to her chest and abdomen. When she looked up again, her eyes were filled with trepidation. She glanced at Yongzha, who was standing behind Wen Dai, and whispered, "Sister, I don't know what happened to you, but don't worry, even if you don't give me money, I will come here every day. I will definitely help you with this."
Wen Dai smiled at her, then turned and went to another shop to pick up some local snacks and put them in a bag. While paying, she took a picture of the small market for Chen Sizhe and recorded it as a video. She also took a separate photo of the woman selling fruit with a basket on her back.
Just in case, if you can't reach me, remember to bring your investigator and find this woman; she'll show you the way. Even if you can reach me, you still need to find this woman to guide you. I can't leave you a mark; the village chief of Kamu Village is watching me from his car. Whether or not you bring your investigator depends on our subsequent communication. If I don't reply to your message for more than half a day, I'll have to trouble you to rescue your poor partner.
Location sharing is certainly a precaution, but what if the phone is damaged? Besides, what if you only have the location but the navigation can't find the place?
She sent the van's license plate number to Chen Sizhe, but there was no reply yet; he was probably busy with work.
Wen Dai put her phone back in her pocket, picked up the snacks that the stall owner had packed for her, lowered her eyes, and followed Yongzha back.
Wen Dai carried the local snacks into the car, while Yong Zha placed the fruit in the back seat for Duo Lan and the others to watch over in case it got damaged.
"Oh my, little girl, how much did you spend on all this fruit?" The fruit took up space on his feet, and the village chief, shuffling in his muddy military cloth shoes, glanced at Wen Dai in the front seat with his triangular eyes.
Wen Dai, holding the snacks in her arms, took out a bag and stretched out her arm to hand it to them, "It's not much, just a few hundred yuan. Uncle and Aunt, you should eat with us too, you'll probably have to go through a lot of trouble to get back later."
The village chief took two bites of the glutinous rice ball in his hand, his dark earth-colored face bulging with each chew. He smiled and stared at Wen Dai, saying, "It will take some effort. This car can't drive into Kamu Village; it can only be parked in another village down below. The rest of the way is by motorcycle, and in some places you have to get off and climb. It's not easy to ride a motorcycle with passengers. So, generally, people who go into the mountains find it very difficult to get out, especially city dwellers from other places."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
