"Uncle Liu, the three of us are going to the fishing village. Could you give us a ride?" He Caiwei took out a dollar and a small bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor). When Uncle Liu saw the bottle of Erguotou, his face lit up with a big smile.
"Alright, alright, we'll go right away." This is the old man's favorite drink, but now that Old Man He doesn't sell wine anymore, he doesn't know where to get any, especially during the New Year season when he's really craving it.
The old man led the three of them for another hour or so before finally arriving at the fishing village. The entire road was deserted and quiet along the way.
Lu Qingzhu leaned against the carriage window, looking at the deserted streets outside, and said with a sigh, "Why are there so few people here? I can't see a single person on the whole street."
"It's all because of the heatwave there. Those commune members whose household registration isn't here can't reclaim wasteland or run private businesses. They can't even get a plot of land for themselves. You know, we're near the sea, and many places can't grow crops because of the seawater. If we don't go fishing and don't have our own land, the harvest we get each year isn't even enough to feed a single person in our family." He Caiwei was also very helpless. She wanted to help, but she really couldn't. Everyone had run away, so even if she wanted to help, she was powerless.
"Is the whole village really empty?" Lu Qingfeng also wanted to know. Had the entire village really run away? What about the household registration?
"Uncle Zhang said the whole village is empty. I haven't seen it yet, but my classmate's village is half empty. I haven't been there for more than half a year, so I really don't know what happened afterward." He Caiwei really didn't know how many people were left in Zheng Mingyue's village. However, when they last went there, half of the villagers had already left.
"What if they don't have a household registration when they go there? Can they re-register their household registration there?" Lu Qingzhu was a little confused. If they go there without a household registration or food, how will they survive?
"Are you stupid? Having a household registration doesn't mean you're illegally crossing the border." Lu Qingfeng really wanted to knock him on the head to see what was going on in this guy's head. How could having a household registration mean you're illegally crossing the border?
"Yeah, I was wrong. That makes sense, the household registration checks here are too strict, that's why I remembered this." Lu Qingzhu had an indifferent expression, which made Lu Qingfeng want to kick him off the stage.
"Uncle Liu, here are two scallion pancakes and a steamed bun. Can you wait for us here? We'll be back in about an hour or two." He Caiwei took two scallion pancakes and a steamed bun from her small cloth bag—actually from her spatial storage—and prepared to have Uncle Liu wait for them.
"Sure, sure, I'll wait for you here for two hours. If you don't come up after two hours, then I won't wait any longer."
This is by the sea, so there's no shelter from the cold wind, making it colder than in the city. They were just sitting in the carriage, wrapped in blankets.
"Uncle Liu, I have a blanket inside. Why don't you rest for a while?" He Caiwei pointed to the blanket she had left in the carriage, so that the old man could use it.
"I know, I know, you can all go do what you need to do." The old man waved them away, then pulled out a bag of peanuts from some corner, took a sip of the Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) He Caiwei had just given him, and happily ate half a peanut.
He Caiwei was afraid that someone would see them, so she went around to Zheng Mingyue's house, only to find that the house was occupied by someone else.
Judging from their accents, they weren't from Pengcheng.
Fearing they might encounter people trying to illegally cross the border into the village, He Caiwei led them directly to the beach via a small path behind the village.
This road goes around the entire village, and you can also take the opportunity to check out the village. Along the way, there are only a few courtyards in the village. The larger houses are inhabited, but the other houses are empty, which means that the village is deserted.
In other words, the people currently living in Zheng Mingyue's house must have come here illegally. They just broke into the house because they saw that the whole village was deserted.
"I don't know if the people who retrieve the bodies are still here. If they're not cleaning it every day, this section of water is completely untouchable." He Caiwei was genuinely worried that no one would retrieve the bodies, as it would pollute the seawater.
"Didn't the police do anything about it? These people were probably hired by the police, right?" Lu Qingfeng felt that things like this should be handled by the police.
"Of course, the police used to patrol this area 1-2 times a day. Of course, if they saw a body inside, they would send someone down to retrieve it. But the police officers also need to take a holiday during the Chinese New Year."
They arrived at the beach and cliff edge in the time it took for them to talk.
The dense crowd on the beach startled them all. The people standing there, and the corpses piled up nearby, gave Lu Qingzhu goosebumps.
"Are all these people here to smuggle themselves in? It's so cold now, the seawater must be freezing. And those corpses are all over there, why are these people still so determined to get over there?" Looking at the corpses, Lu Qingzhu completely dismissed all his thoughts. He didn't want to be one of those piles of corpses.
Lu Qingzhu couldn't understand why these people weren't afraid that they would be next when they looked at those corpses.
"I heard that some relatives over there wrote to say how good life is there, how high the wages are, and that someone even received a remittance from them at the post office. I heard it was quite a lot." He Caiwei was talking about historical facts. He didn't know much about the situation here now, but judging from the current situation, it was pretty much the same as described in the book.
In Zheng Mingyue's village, not even the elderly, weak, women and children remained; the entire village was deserted.
"Lu Qingzhu, throw all the thoughts in your head into the sea right now. If you dare to have any thoughts, I'll break your legs, you believe me?" Lu Qingfeng looked at the expression on his younger brother's face and knew what he was thinking. He reached out and grabbed his ear, ready to bring him back to his senses.
"Aww... Brother, let go first, let go first! My ears, my ears are going to fall off!" Lu Qingzhu knew that the place they were in was relatively secluded, so even though he was howling over there, he only covered his mouth with one hand and howled softly.
"Speak quickly."
Lu Qingfeng was not fooled by his howling. He had to nip all of this kid's ideas in the bud and not let him get a chance, or he really didn't want to think about the consequences.
Lu Qingfeng knew he had this idea mainly because his two childhood friends were in Hong Kong. Ever since they left, he had been itching to do something.
No, their father is in this position now, he can't be smeared, he must have run away long ago.
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