"What? No, who knows what other people's surnames are in other villages these days? They're all outsiders," the uncle said, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. "What are you doing here? Going to the tourist area for sightseeing!"
"We're looking for someone!" Wang Zixuan poked his head out.
"Who are you looking for? Don't you have a phone?"
Mo Man said softly, "There's no phone. We're looking for... Lu Amian."
I asked several people, and they were all completely baffled.
An elderly man selling melons said that there are few people left in the village now, mostly elderly people, and not many young women. They definitely won't find the person they're looking for.
Yuan Hua and his group were very disappointed. They tried their best to think of any other landmarks and remembered that there was a stream behind A Mian's house.
They immediately perked up and started looking up nearby streams on their phones.
As it turned out, they actually found it. Yuan Hua drove at breakneck speed all the way to the destination, only to be dumbfounded when he arrived.
"I thought there was a river, and maybe I could find it by searching along the river..." Yuan Hua got out of the car and looked at the industrial park in front of him. "Wait, where did the stream go?!"
The security guard at the gate took a cigarette from Wang Zixuan and pondered for a moment: "Yes, there used to be a stream. But that was many, many years ago. The riverbed here has been filled in, and the land is now used for construction."
Back in the car, a series of setbacks left Wang Zixuan hanging his head, after all, it was he who had said he was coming to find A-Mian.
“There’s no way, we really can’t find it…” Yuan Hua tried to cheer herself up: “Let’s go to some tourist attractions.”
There's a 5A-level scenic area nearby, and also a rather popular mountain, quite steep and heavily commercialized. It's said that those who climb it can determine if they're destined for someone special. However, someone like Dr. Mo can take the cable car up.
The carriage was heavy with tension. Aunt Liu said, "Forget it. Actually, I had a feeling it would be like this before we came. And you know what? Even if you asked me to find where my great-grandfather is buried now, I probably wouldn't be able to."
Upon arriving at the scenic area, it was packed with people. Yuan Hua bought a bag of drinks and ice water, and stood at the foot of the mountain looking at the promotional signs.
The gist of the story is that this area was originally a poor mountainous region, but through the arduous efforts and ecological restoration of several generations, it has finally been transformed into a beautiful resort destination...
“In the 1950s, this was an important mining area. Model worker XX came from here, and he embodied the spirit of ‘protagonist’…” Yuan Hua slapped his head and shouted, “It’s around here, it must be around here! I remember A-Mian used to pick up some shiny stones at the foot of the mountain to play with!”
By sheer chance, they actually found the general area.
Dr. Mo also decided against taking the cable car, and the group began their leisurely ascent. As they climbed, they gazed into the distance.
"The ruins of that small town are completely gone, but I feel, you see, that town, isn't it still a residential area? It's just expanded many times over..."
Mo Man was a little tired, so she sat on the steps and quietly looked at the area.
She also had a vague feeling that it must be the small town where A-Mian used to run her shop.
Nowadays, the food street is definitely long gone, and the blacksmith shop, tofu shop, and even her pharmacy no longer exist.
It's such a pity that only a handful of people have ever known about the love, sorrow, trust, and struggles of those young people.
"Let's go to that small town. We're sure we're heading in the right direction. We should be able to find her house in less than five minutes by car."
Wang Zixuan finally put his "sense of direction" to good use, confidently directing Yuan Hua to drive, "That's right, that's right, just keep going forward and we'll be there. I was tied to a donkey cart back then, so I'm sure I'm on the right track this time! It's just that slightly bumpy feeling..."
When they reached roughly the edge of the town, Wang Zixuan shouted, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"
He got out of the car and ran to the convenience store, returning a while later, panting: "It should be right. This used to be a village called 'Dashan Village,' which is only one character different from 'Qingshan Village.' You see, there's another mountain foot not far behind here, but it hasn't been developed into a tourist area."
"The shop owner said that rock climbers often come to hike in the wild mountains, and he thought we were one too. He told us to be careful, since the mountains that haven't been developed for tourism are quite dangerous..."
Yuan Hua parked the car, looked around, and wandered around the neighborhood by feel. "Ah."
The streets were lined with dilapidated tenement buildings, and small advertisements were plastered all over the sides. He felt that this was Ah Mian's home, but it had changed so much.
Li Jianguo suddenly asked, "Why hasn't this area been developed for tourism?"
After all, tourist attractions are usually a good thing for locals, as they can earn a substantial income without having to leave home to work far away.
He and Wang Zixuan asked a few more people and finally found a local, an elderly sanitation worker, who was resting in the shade of a tree.
"Hey, why wouldn't we want to develop it? It should have been developed a long time ago. Thirty or forty years ago, the higher-ups said they wanted to develop it. Back then, this was still a remote mountain village. But guess what? All the villagers disagreed. They almost killed someone with their hoes... On the development plan, there was a ancestral graveyard. Anyway, they wouldn't allow anyone to touch the ancestral graveyard. As soon as a car came, they would drive people away."
"Then why did Dashan Village disappear later?"
The old woman drank the water Yuan Hua handed her, her smile simple and kind: "What else could it be? Later, the area was demolished, and everyone moved to the new city. Two years later, the ancestral graves were torn down."
Therefore, it was impossible for them to find a cemetery.
Having come this far, it felt like there was nowhere left to look.
"Should we go back?" Granny Liu asked.
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