Nanming Village was much more remote than she had imagined. Yunmiao Mountain, where Li Xiao lived in her original world, was already considered remote. Compared to Nanming Village, it paled in comparison.
She first took a plane to W City, and then took a bus from the city to the county where Nanming Village was located. She asked around and found out that Nanming Village was on the mountain. It would take half a day to get there by bus, and this bus was only available once every seven days. Li Xiao was lucky. When she arrived, there was a bus the next morning, so she didn't need to wait for another seven days.
She felt that this must be because she had touched the little lucky Cang Hai before she went out.
This time, she brought Zhang Yan and another little brat, Mao Ruxin, with her. It was convenient for them to act as her informants. Her face was too beautiful, and she looked like she had been spoiled since childhood. It was easy for people to stare at her when she walked outside. Li Xiao was not afraid of those malicious intentions, but she was too lazy to deal with them all the time. Her current level of illusion was very good. After arriving at the county, she simply changed her face into an ordinary one.
She asked the people in the county about Nanming Village. Because Nanming Village was too remote, she couldn't find any information about it on the Internet. At most, she only knew that many local villagers made a living by weaving bamboo baskets.
The owner of the hotel where she lived was a young girl who had just graduated from university. She was quite talkative. Perhaps it was because it was rare for someone of her age to come, or perhaps it was because Li Xiao gave her a lot of money. When Li Xiao asked her, she basically told her everything she knew.
She said to Li Xiao privately, "I remember that their village was very patriarchal. Many girls were directly thrown into the well when they were born, which made it difficult for the people in their village to marry a wife unless they spent a lot of betrothal gifts. There were also some families who chose to raise their daughters well, and then use them to exchange for betrothal gifts for their sons to marry a wife. "
"Something like this happened five years ago. All the girls in the village disappeared overnight. The police went there and searched for them for several months, but they couldn't find them. No one knows if they escaped or if something happened to them."
As the lady boss spoke, she seemed to have frightened herself. She couldn't help but tremble. She continued, "But I heard that things have gotten a lot better in the past few years. The government often sends people to do publicity and keep an eye on them. So, there haven't been many cases of drowning girls in the past two years. But strangely enough, the number of female babies born there has been decreasing over the past few years. "
Li Xiao had a rough idea of what was going on.
She continued to chat with the proprietress, and when it was late at night, she returned to her room to rest.
The next day, Li Xiao got up early in the morning to wait for the bus. The bus left at eight in the morning. After she got into the car, she found a seat near the window and sat down. She originally thought that there wouldn't be many people on this bus. After all, according to the proprietress of the hotel, Nanming Village didn't have any special attractions. It was remote and there was nothing to see, so there weren't many tourists. In the end, a lot of people came. They looked like young people, and their faces were full of vitality.
Li Xiao asked them and found out that they were teachers who were going to teach there. As the saying goes, no matter how poor you are, you can't be poor in education. No matter how hard it is, you can't let the children suffer.
There was also a girl who looked very lively who asked Li Xiao if she was a local.
Li Xiao thought for a moment and casually made up a reason for herself. "I heard that the baskets they weave are very special, so I want to go and see."
With these young people, the road became a lot more lively. The mountain road wasn't easy to walk on. There were many potholes, and there were a lot of bumps along the way. When the bus arrived at Nanming Village, it was about four in the afternoon. Li Xiao couldn't help but remember what the proprietress had said before about the missing girls case five years ago. With so many girls, who knew how many days it would take to walk from Nanming Village to the county town just by walking. There would definitely be traces left on the road. However, they seemed to have disappeared. There was no sign of them alive or dead. It was no wonder that the proprietress sighed when she mentioned them and felt that they were all doomed.
Li Xiao looked at Nanming Village. The houses in Nanming Village were basically mud walls made of loess. The roof tiles were very old, and the places near the chimneys were black. She basically hadn't seen a house with more than two floors here. The whole village was filled with a depressing atmosphere. That's right, it was depressing. Even the people here gave people a feeling of listlessness.
When the villagers saw them get off the bus, their eyes lit up.
"Are you new teachers?"
"Teachers, my Dahu is very smart. You have to teach him well. I'm counting on him for the rest of my life. "
"We finally have new teachers. That's great. When can school start? "
The young people who were willing to come over to teach still had passion in their hearts. Seeing that the villagers were so supportive of their education, they couldn't help but smile brightly.
"Don't worry, we won't let you down. We will teach your children well."
"Yes, yes, yes. We can start classes in two days. Children who don't study at home can be sent over."
For a moment, the scene seemed to be very harmonious.
A young girl walked to Li Xiao's side and whispered, "Don't you think that this village is a little strange?"
Li Xiao remembered her. After she got on the bus, she introduced herself as Tan Ying.
Li Xiao already knew. She really hadn't seen a girl in this village. The previous missing girls case happened five years ago. Logically speaking, there should be more or less new girls born in these five years. In any case, she should have seen three or four year old children. At that time, she only saw little boys wearing open-crotch pants with snot running down their noses.
However, if a newborn girl was killed, there would definitely be a lot of resentment in the village. However, Li Xiao didn't feel any of this.
She nodded slightly. "I haven't seen many girls."
Tan Ying also thought so. However, looking at her enthusiastic friends and enthusiastic villagers, she didn't want to pour cold water on them.
Soon, the village chief came out. The village chief was Ji, who was in his early sixties. He led the volunteer teachers to the school to have a look. The so-called school was actually just two yellow mud houses and two shabby houses that served as the teachers' dormitories. This time, there were a total of five volunteer teachers, two men and three women.
After the village chiefs asked, they found out that Li Xiao was not in the volunteer teaching team. She was just here to have fun. There was a hesitant expression on his face, as if he was thinking about how to arrange Li Xiao.
"Village chief, there is an empty house in my house. This girl can live in my house."
"My mother-in-law's bed is big. She can also sleep with my mother-in-law."
These villagers were very enthusiastic and recommended their houses. They looked very warm and hospitable.
Tan Ying pulled Li Xiao's hand and said, "It's okay. She can sleep with us tonight, right?" She couldn't help but look at her other friends.
The other girls also nodded. "It's okay. We girls are thin. Two beds in the room are enough for us to rest."
Since they said so, the villagers were a little disappointed, but they didn't say anything.
In the evening, they slaughtered chickens and ducks, took out their home-brewed rice wine, and entertained the volunteer teachers with a good meal. Even Li Xiao ate with them.
When they returned to the house late at night, Tan Ying said to Li Xiao, "I'm not saying that they are bad, but we can't be careless. I think it's better not to live in their house." Before Tan Ying came to the volunteer teaching team, she had asked some friends. Some friends told her that in some places, they were so poor that they couldn't even afford to marry a wife. Therefore, they would use underhanded means to make the volunteer teachers stay.
Although these villagers looked very warm, they still had to put safety first. Besides, they had just come to the village, so they still had to be careful.
The other girls also nodded.
"Yes, my senior told me that if we want to take a bath, it's better to have a friend with us. One of them can help keep watch. In the future, we have to go out together. "
Because there were only a few girls here, Tan Ying mentioned her discovery.
"Have you noticed that not only are there no young girls in the village, but I also haven't seen any girls."
The youngest ones were the few daughters-in-law who had just married.
Li Xiao mentioned what the proprietress of the hotel had told her. Tan Ying and the others felt a chill on their necks, as if a cold wind had blown past. In one night, all the girls in the village had disappeared. No matter how one looked at it, there was something strange about this. They couldn't help but regret coming here.
"Don't talk about this. Let's sleep first."
The girl with the ponytail blinked and said. Even if they regretted it now and wanted to run away, the next bus would be in seven days. In these seven days, they had to wait and see.
She turned off the light, and the room fell into darkness.
Li Xiao didn't fall asleep. Or rather, it was late at night, and it was convenient for her to see what was going on in Nanming Village.
A Sleeping Charm was lit, and the three girls fell into a deeper sleep. Li Xiao got up and used an Invisibility Charm.
After walking out of the room, she set up a Bounded Domain in the room, in case someone broke in and did something bad to the girls. There was a strange atmosphere in the village, and she didn't want anything to happen to the girls.
She told Zhang Yan and Mao Ruxin to go around and see if there were any new discoveries, and she was thinking about going to the back of the mountain to look for the cave residence. After all, the main purpose of her trip was to use the Space-Breaking Charm, not to solve the mystery of the village.
****
In a shabby house, under the dim yellow light, an old granny was skillfully weaving a basket.
She said to her son, "After we sell all the baskets and save the money, we should be able to buy you a wife."
Her son, Zhang Dong, was a dark-skinned man in his late thirties. "Mom, the betrothal gifts for daughters-in-law are much more expensive now. Last month, Ah Hui's new wife cost him a total of 300,000 yuan. She emptied his house. "
"Aiyo, girls nowadays are really something. Why do they have to spend so much money? Just like me, your father married me with a bag of sweet potatoes. " She sighed. "If only your sister was still here. She's 18 now and can get married."
"That heartless girl. I don't know where she went. She's so useless even though we raised her." She thought for a while and said, "Look at the female teachers who came today. They look like they can give birth easily. If you can coax one of them to come home, you can save on the betrothal gifts. I heard that girls in big cities don't need money to get married. "
Zhang Dong fell silent. Suddenly, he said, "After I marry a wife and have a daughter, what if my daughter goes missing?"
The old woman didn't stop what she was doing. She said, "That's a good thing. You don't even need to raise her. What's so good about raising a loser? It's a waste of money. The Fengshui here is good, so we have more sons than other places. "
When she said this, she sounded a little proud.
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