Chapter 44 He's not a good person
Cheng Ying noticed several Miao people following behind the young woman, all dressed quite formally. Curious, she asked Long Buxi, "Someone's calling you. Who's that girl? She's really beautiful, and her clothes are so pretty. Is there some kind of event or ceremony going on in your village recently? Or is that girl getting married?"
Long Buxi frowned and remained silent.
Seeing his pale face and gloomy eyes, Cheng Ying didn't know what he was thinking and didn't press him for an answer.
Until the girl lifted her skirt and ran down from the mountainside, she dashed up to Long Buxi, affectionately took his hand, and looked at him with a coquettish expression, saying, "Brother Arno, I called you, why didn't you answer me?"
She was actually speaking Miao, but Cheng Ying could roughly guess what she was saying from her tone and expression.
Long Buxi pursed his lips, reached out and pried her fingers apart, and said something to her in Miao language.
The girl stomped her foot in anger, glanced at Cheng Ying with an unfriendly look, and said to her in broken Mandarin, "Why are you still in the village?"
Just as Cheng Ying was about to speak, Long Buxi suddenly said something to the girl, then turned to Cheng Ying apologetically and said, "I have to go to Lizhai and might not be back tonight, so I can't keep you company. Make sure you cook lunch and dinner for yourself; we have rice, noodles, meat, and vegetables at home. After you deliver the mail, come back to my house. Don't wander around alone, and don't eat anything given to you by strangers. Remember to lock your door when you go to sleep tonight; I'll try my best to be back then."
Cheng Ying didn't ask him what he was going to do in Lizhai or why it would take so long; she just nodded to indicate that she understood.
Regardless of what the two were saying, the Miao girl spoke a few words in Miao language to Long Buxi, then took Long Buxi's arm and started walking up the mountain.
Long Buxi followed her for a few steps, then turned back with concern and instructed Cheng Ying, "Remember what I said, don't run around."
"Okay, go ahead and do your work. I'm not a three-year-old child, I can take care of myself." Cheng Ying waved to him.
After they left, Cheng Ying first gave the money Cheng Jiantong had given her as a thank you to the people who saved her life to the three people who had kowtowed to her the day before.
Except for Yalin's father, who declined, the other two accepted the money without any politeness.
Cheng Ying had originally wanted to ask Ya Lin if she had time to accompany her to deliver mail and take a walk around the village so she could get to know the families who might write to her.
As it turned out, Yalin's father said that Yalin had gone to Lizhai to help out early in the morning. As for what kind of help she was doing, Yalin's father didn't say, and Cheng Ying didn't feel comfortable asking. She could only look at the address of the two letters and the parcel in her bag and head towards the third low hill.
The first letter was to be delivered to the mountaintop, to the home of a man named Baolai.
Judging from the crooked and messy Chinese characters on the envelope, it should be the letter that Long Buxi mentioned, written to his father by four Miao soldiers from his village who were serving in the army.
Cheng Ying walked up the mountain along the road, which also had many stone steps. She attracted many Miao people who were having breakfast at home. They stood on the corridor with their rice bowls in their hands, eating and watching her.
She was already used to it and ignored the strange looks from the Miao people. She handed the letter to a middle-aged man named Baolai, who was about fifty years old, and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Uncle. Because I fell down the mountain and got injured, your letter was delivered late. Please forgive my mistake. Do you have any letters that you need me to mail? Please give them to me."
Baolai is a native of Pucangzhai Miao Village. He has never left the village in his entire life, living a simple and honest life by working from sunrise to sunset, supporting his children and wife through farming.
He doesn't know Chinese characters or understand Mandarin, but since three years ago, his eldest son, influenced by Cheng Jiantong and the government officials sent to promote literacy, decided to join the army with three other young men of similar age. Every one or two months, he would write to him or send him a registered letter, and Cheng Jiantong would collect the money and deliver it to him. He and Cheng Jiantong gradually became familiar with each other.
In order to understand what Cheng Jiantong was saying and to communicate with him, he painstakingly learned some Mandarin. Now he can understand Mandarin and speak some simple Chinese.
Bao said, "I won't send letters. My son knows what I'm doing."
Cheng Ying then asked, "Do you need me to read your letter to you?"
It seems that Bao Lai lives alone. I didn't see his wife or his other children. I wonder if he lives alone. Cheng Ying is just being kind, worried that he can't read.
Bao Lai shook his head: "No need, my son writes in Miao language, I can understand it."
Cheng Ying knew that the Miao people had their own language and culture. Hearing him say that, Cheng Ying felt relieved and immediately picked up her mailbag and prepared to leave.
“Ah, girl.” Bao Lai called out to her, “After you recover from your injury, try to stay away from Arno. Don’t be with him. He’s not a good person.”
"Why? Why did you say he's not a good person?" Cheng Ying asked, turning around.
Bao Lai hesitated, remembering that Cheng Jiantong was a good person, and Cheng Ying was his daughter and a retired female soldier. Bao Lai gritted his teeth, looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and then whispered to Cheng Ying, "In our village, every clan chief has been able to refine, raise, and control Gu worms. Arno is the next clan chief. He's been refining Gu since he was a child. The Gu he refines, like him, is extremely sinister and evil. His parents and his older brother all died from his Gu worms back then..."
He paused here, his voice low, "His parents and older brother all died tragically. His aunt noticed that his parents and family hadn't left the house for several days, so she went to check on them and found his parents and older brother lying in pools of blood. His older brother's head had been chopped off, and he was holding a bloodstained axe... According to our clan rules, when clan members kill each other, our elder clan chief throws them into the Gu pool to end the tragedy. But he was thrown into the Gu pool, and not only did he not die, he also refined all the Gu worms in the pool into his own Gu worms, and led them out. Our elder clan chief saw that he had an extremely high talent for Gu refining, and coupled with his self-defense that he hadn't killed his parents and older brother, our elder clan chief thought that none of the young people in the village were better at Gu refining than him, so he overruled everyone's objections, kept him in the inner village, and made him the young clan chief."
Cheng Ying: ......
She simply didn't know what to say.
What Bao said sounds pretty eerie.
They made Long Buxi sound like a murderer.
But as a native of Pucang Village, why would Baolai so casually tell her about their village's practices of refining and raising Gu, what kind of Gu pools they had, and even the secrets of their future clan leader? Was he really thinking of her?
Regardless of Long Buxi's past or character, he at least saved her and Dahuang's lives, and indirectly saved her father's life with his medicine. She believed that Long Buxi must have his own reasons for doing things.
If he were truly that kind of heartless and insane murderer, how could the old clan chief have made him the young clan chief, entrusting the lives of all the Miao people of Pucang Village to his hands?
There must be some truths about what happened back then that outsiders don't know.
Cheng Ying didn't completely believe Bao Lai's words. She remembered that Long Bu Xi had said that he had an aunt named Mei Shu, who had seen the tragic state of his family when his parents and older brother died.
Perhaps his aunt knows some things from back then.
After delivering the remaining letter, Cheng Ying inquired about Mei Shu's address from the recipient. She learned that Long Bu Xi's aunt lived in a secluded place far from the surrounding villages, in the dense forest on the left side of the canyon, near the stilted house where she had delivered the remaining package. So she followed the path pointed out by the Miao villager.
According to the Miao villager, Pucang Village, like the outside world, is a small society with all sorts of people and conflicts. Many people, due to family conflicts, their own personalities, or other reasons, are unwilling to live together with their clansmen. They would hate seeing each other all the time, so they would choose to build stilted houses far away from crowded places and live in separate households.
However, because the land in the village is limited, the good places and soil have been cultivated to grow crops. Those who live separately must build their stilted houses in places that do not occupy good land. They usually choose to build on cliffs or on the edge of dense forests where there are snakes, insects, ants, rats, and many wild animals.
Mei Shu's house and the house of the owner of the package are both located near the river in what the Miao people call "Zuowulin," about a kilometer away from the outer villages.
Zuowu Forest, as its name suggests, is shrouded in mist all year round. It contains not only water mist, but also miasma unique to the southwest region.
People in the village rarely walk around here because there are too many snakes, insects, and rodents. People can easily get bitten if they walk in there. Also, it is shrouded in fog, and it is easy to get lost if you are not familiar with the area.
But the people who live in the dense forest are very familiar with the paths here, and they have homemade insect repellent or venomous insects that can control snakes and insects in the forest, so they have no problem walking around in there.
In the past, when people living in the dense forest had mail or packages, Cheng Jiantong would always ask them to come to him to pick them up, or ask someone from the village to help deliver them. He himself would never step into the dense forest.
Now that Cheng Ying has replaced him as a postman, she could easily follow his example and have the recipient come to her to pick up the package.
Cheng Ying had doubts and wanted to find Mei Shu along the way to ask about the truth behind the deaths of Long Bu Xi's parents and elder brother. She also wanted to see different places in the village, which is why she chose to go into the dense forest.
Instead of wandering blindly through the dense forest, she followed the riverbank at the edge of the forest, so that she would not get lost in the fog and would not encounter the terrifying snakes, insects, and rodents that the Miao people spoke of.
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