The old man waved his hand decisively and said, "No, no, young man, please go away. There is no such girl as you mentioned in our village. There are no young girls in our village. As you can see, our village is rather run-down. The only people living here are the old, weak, and disabled. There are no girls as young as sixteen or seventeen as you mentioned. Not even one. Please leave now."
Gu Yuan frowned, "Old sir, are you sure there really isn't such a girl living here?"
The old man continued to wave his hands, and said impatiently, "Really, there's nothing here. Please leave now. There are no young people in our village. Not to mention young girls of sixteen or seventeen, there aren't even any young people here. There are only old men like me here. Please leave now."
Gu Yuan suddenly felt that the old man in front of him seemed extremely impatient with him, so he felt confused.
He said again: "Old man, it seems that you don't have many people here. Can you do me a favor?"
The old man looked at Gu Yuan and asked, "What help can I give you? I'm an old man who barely has the strength to hoe the fields. How can I help you? If you want to beg for food, I suggest you go to the village next door. There are more people there, and some of them go hunting in the mountains. You have plenty of meat to eat, and we really can't satisfy you."
Gu Yuan waved his hand and said, "Old sir, you misunderstood. I'm not begging for food. I want to ask you for a favor. Could you please call everyone in your village out so I can see if my friend is here? Because my friend may not have the name I know, so I need to confirm her appearance. If I am sure that she is not here, I will leave immediately and will definitely not harass anyone in the village. I wonder if you can agree to this?"
The old man's eyes grew more alert. He gripped the hoe tightly and said, "Young man, I advise you to leave here quickly. There aren't many young people in our village. Leave now!"
At the same time, he looked towards the houses beside him and shouted, "Xiao Si'er, tell your father to come out. There is a young man here looking for his friend. Tell your father to come and see him."
Just as the old man shouted this sentence towards the house next door, everyone in the village came out immediately, with full vigilance on their faces, holding some sickles, hoes, shovels and other farm tools in their hands.
Gu Yuan looked at them in confusion, not knowing why their eyes were filled with such vigilance. He smiled bitterly and said, "Old sir, I don't mean any harm. I just want to see if my friend is really here. Before my friend left, he seemed to have injured his head. What I fear most is that he has lost his original memory and doesn't know his previous identity. That's why I want you to call out the people from your village so that I can take a look. If I'm sure that they are not here, I will definitely leave immediately."
The old man, hoe in hand, ran directly into the crowd of villagers and said, "Leave immediately and stop asking about the young people in our village. We don't have any young people. You are such a wicked horse thief. You have done so many evil things to the girls in our village, and yet you still come to ask about it. How many more evil things will you do before you stop? Haven't you harmed our village enough?"
Gu Yuan frowned and asked in confusion, "Horse thieves? What horse thieves, old man? I'm not a horse thief. I just came from Gumo City to look for someone. I don't know what horse thieves are."
Xiao Si's father came out of the room. He was a middle-aged man. He helped the old man to his side and sneered at Gu Yuan, "You hateful horse thief, stop pretending! Isn't this your usual trick? You often send people pretending to be passers-by to come to our village, begging for food or asking for directions, and then ask if there are any young girls in our village. If there are no young girls, you will take away all the chickens and ducks we raise. If there are young girls, you will notify your horse thieves to kidnap our girls. These are already old tricks you have used up. Stop pretending, you hateful horse thief."
Gu Yuan smiled bitterly and quickly explained, "Fellow villagers, I'm really not the horse thief you're talking about! I don't even know what you're talking about. Could it be that our village is often harassed by horse thieves?"
Xiao Si'er's father sneered, "Who said you are us, you horse thief? Leave our village immediately. Otherwise, even if there are no young people in our village, we will still not be polite to you. Go back and tell your leader not to think about ruining the young girls in our village. Otherwise, the young girls in our village will never submit to you even if they die."
The old man's face suddenly changed drastically. He scolded and said to Xiao San'er's father: "Nonsense, there are no young girls in our village. There are no young girls in our village anymore."
The middle-aged man nodded hurriedly, suddenly realizing, "That's right! There are no young girls left in our village anymore. You've ruined them all. Why are you standing here? Are you waiting for us to chase you away?"
Gu Yuan looked at the expressions on their faces. They didn't seem to be fake. According to Gu Yuan's guess, this village was often harassed by horse thieves. Those horse thieves were extremely hateful. Not only did they take away poultry such as chickens and ducks, they also robbed young girls from the village.
If that were the case, those horse thieves were really despicable, so he certainly wouldn't easily say, "Old man, you must have misunderstood. I'm really not a so-called horse thief. Do you think I'm so young and the clothes I'm wearing look like a horse thief?"
Gu Yuan showed them the clothes on his body. He had nothing on him to prove his identity, so he could only use this method to make them believe
Those people looked at each other in confusion. The middle-aged man looked at the old man and whispered, "Uncle, what that young man said seems to have some truth to it. Look at the silk and satin he's wearing. It doesn't look like something those bandits can afford. They fight and kill every day, so how could they have the chance to wear such things?"
The old man scolded, "Don't let your guard down. Those bandits are capable of anything."
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