“The old men in the village think the outside world must be much better, otherwise they wouldn’t all leave and never come back. So the old men want the younger generation in the village to go out and not have to suffer in this backward little village for their whole lives.”
"The only way to get out of here and make a name for themselves is to study. But the nearest school is in the town, which is 30 or 40 kilometers away, and the roads are all difficult to travel. Studying in the town costs a lot of money, and they simply don't have that much money."
"The only source of income for everyone is the mushrooms and some herbs that we pick in the mountains. After drying them, our uncles regularly take them to town to sell. After exchanging the money for daily necessities, there is hardly anything left. We can't save more than a few hundred yuan a year, which is not enough to go to school."
"So the old folks always wanted to bring in a man or woman from outside to teach the children to read, so that they could be successful and leave this place."
Sou? ? ?
"So you decided to take a roundabout approach, abducting respectable men and women from outside? And he just happened to become this 'great scoundrel' who fell from the sky?"
From the village's perspective, these elderly people are quite admirable. However, he also realized a more serious problem: they had never been to school, had never integrated into society, and therefore had no legal awareness whatsoever. They were completely unaware that what they were doing was wrong.
Perhaps the small town that Sangsang mentioned is just a remote mountain village, only relatively better than their place.
It's strange that this small mountain village, which has been neglected by the government, is a place that local governments in remote areas would provide with subsidies and support and would never let go of. But here, it's as if someone deliberately hid it away.
After asking a few more questions, he discovered that most people here didn't even have ID cards, and many children were abandoned by their parents at birth and had never been issued one.
Eighty or ninety percent of the people in this village are unregistered.
Sangsang's emotions gradually stabilized, and she not only told her a lot about their village, but also expressed her own hopes.
If she has the opportunity, she wants to go out and study, find her parents, and become a doctor.
This is a rare idea: "Why does Sangsang want to be a doctor?"
The girl in front of me was reminiscing about the past.
"When my parents first took me to town, there was a grandma with a bag of fans. She kindly gave me one. The fan had a string of numbers 000 printed on it. Next to it was a woman in white clothes. She was very clean and pretty. I asked her who she was. She told me that she was a very skilled doctor who could cure men's and women's childbirth problems, so that not so many younger brothers and sisters would die after birth."
Li Sheng guessed that there were also some terms related to male disorders and female infertility written on it.
A little while later, Grandpa Ada came in again, this time bringing in even more people. Besides a few men, there were seven or eight women, ranging in age from thirty to forty, with the youngest probably being two years younger than Sangsang.
Ada talked to Sangsang for a long time, and the child, who had been gradually stabilizing, started to cry again. It was clear that Sangsang had tried to persuade her grandfather, but to no avail, and was eventually convinced by him.
"Brother Sheng, I don't blame you if you don't like me. My grandpa has called all the women of the right age in the village for you. You must choose one to get married. If you don't obey, grandpa will beat you."
Ada: "!@￥@￥#%￥()%."
Sangsang: "It doesn't matter what kind of woman you marry, they can all have children anyway. Although they are not well-educated and are not as delicate as city girls, they are all hardworking and capable. You will definitely not be shortchanged. I'll give you three days to think it over. Otherwise, we'll draw lots. Whoever you draw is who you will be. You can still pick someone you like now, but you won't have a choice later."
"Brother Sheng, just be Sangsang's man. At least with Sangsang around, no one will hit or scold you, and Sangsang will never let you go hungry."
He didn't know whether to be sad or touched.
To be honest, these old men are quite kind. Although they pressured him, they at least gave him a lot of choices.
so.
"I won't choose any of them, so what can you do to me?"
The process is similar to the previous round.
When persuasion failed, a threat was made; when that failed, harsh words were uttered, and the person left in anger.
If no one is chosen after three days, he and the milk ball will be thrown into the pigpen to eat and sleep with the pigs. It's the same routine over and over again, and he even feels like laughing a little.
Before leaving, he left some medicine for his wounds, asking Sangsang to apply it to him again.
He was ignorant and legally illiterate, but deep down he was kind and had no intention of harming anyone; otherwise, he would have been furious long ago.
He was injured, but 60-70% of the villagers were elderly like Grandpa Sangsang, and the remaining 20% were children and women with only a few able-bodied adults. They couldn't possibly trap him.
However, although Sangsang was sad and upset, she seemed very worried and anxious.
She felt that her grandfather was wrong, and she didn't want Sheng Ge and Nai Tuan to be trapped here. She could understand why Sheng Ge disagreed; he was a city dweller and lived such a good life that he shouldn't be trapped here.
She didn't want to see the person she loved sad, so she was going to make a rebellious decision, even if everyone in the village was angry and might even lock her in the pigsty.
"Brother Sheng, if you don't want to stay here tonight, you can run away with the milk ball. I will help you, prepare food and water for you, lead the way, and take you to the town. But you'll have to walk the rest of the way yourself. The furthest I've ever been is to the town."
Li Sheng smiled, without any other meaning, simply because he felt happy, happy for the kindness the girl in front of him had shown him.
His tone lightened, and he started joking.
"What if we get caught and brought back? Will we get beaten up? Sangsang has to protect me and Naituan."
Sangsang shook her head as if she were about to rattle a drum: "I won't let Grandpa and Uncle beat you up. They'll be very angry. They'll just lock you in the pigpen for half a month. Then we'll let you out and take you away. There'll always be a chance to escape."
The girl stood up, put the baby on her back, and stared at Li Sheng's face: "Grandpa is not home now, let's go now, I'll take you and the baby away."
That serious smile showed he wasn't joking, but he really didn't want to be dragged back to sleep in the pigsty.
The little girl didn't understand why her father disliked her so much. She thought the grandpa, grandma, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters here were all very nice. They talked to her and played with her. Grandpa Ada even gave her a rattle drum, saying it was the thing that her older sister Sangsang liked the most when she was little.
Sister Sangsang was kind to her, giving her delicious food and singing folk songs to her, even though she couldn't understand them.
A sincere suggestion: "Dad, why don't you just give in? Naituan thinks it's pretty good here, better than before. No one is mean to Naituan and Dad, or trying to make Naituan and Dad leave."
What's wrong with this little brat? They went through thick and thin together for a month, and she betrayed them in less than a day.
"You wouldn't understand what's going on with the Milky Man."
"Sang Sang, thank you for your kindness. I plan to stay here to recover first. My friends should be coming to pick me up soon."
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