It was spring in Yunnan in March and the unique gorse flowers were blooming everywhere. Chen Chen and Ah Zi stayed in the provincial capital for a night and then took a plane to the ancient city.
"The craftsman I found on the Internet lives here!" Chen Chen gestured a piece of tie-dyed cloth. "Does it look good?"
Ah Zi was looking at a hand-painted lantern and glanced at Chen Chen. "It looks good. Let's each buy one as a scarf."
After shopping for a whole morning, the two women became beautiful girls of the Bai nationality, wearing a narrow skirt, a belt, and a fancy hat.
"Here it is!" After dinner, Chen Chen wandered through the alleys and finally found the shop mentioned on the Internet, but the door was locked. Ah Zi looked through the crack of the door. "No one seems to be here."
Chen Chen looked around. "What should we do?"
"Ask the people next to you." Ah Zi went to a wood carving shop across the street and asked about it, but the shop owner said something happened and the owner went back to his hometown a week ago.
"Do you know where his hometown is?"
"It's in Lai."
They found an inn in the ancient city and sat in the quaint yard with the Milky Way hanging upside down and fireflies flying around.
Chen Chen lay on the bamboo chair and sighed. "When we're old, we'll buy a wooden house here. Then we'll get up at sunrise and sunset and say goodbye to the world slowly."
"Come on, it's too early for you to be old!" Ah Zi caught a firefly and put it in a glass bottle. "I've checked on the Internet. There's a half-developed ancient road near the small town called Lai. We can go there and have a look."
"Um …" Chen Chen's voice was a little drowsy. Ah Zi turned around and found that she was about to fall asleep.
When Chen Chen woke up the next day, she found that she and Zi were still sleeping in the yard with a woolen blanket over them.
"You woke up in the middle of the night and still remembered to get us a blanket. Good job!" Ah Zi praised her. "Or we'd definitely catch a cold."
"Didn't you get it?" Chen Chen murmured with mouthwash in her mouth. "I was sleeping so soundly. How could I wake up?"
Ah Zi looked at her. "Then who covered us with the blanket?"
"Maybe the owner of the inn." Chen Chen thought for a while and said, "The old couple looked very kind!"
"Yeah!"
After breakfast, the two of them got on the bus and headed to Lhasa. It was already dark when they arrived. Ah Zi rubbed her waist, found the inn they had booked online in advance, and fell asleep without saying a word.
Chen Chen insisted on taking a shower and then lay on the bed. In a daze, she felt as if someone was pushing her. She wanted to open her eyes but was too sleepy, so she just went back to sleep. When she woke up in the morning, she found that the towel she used to wrap her hair had fallen to the ground.
"Fortunately, I dropped the towel. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to dry my hair overnight."
This small town was close to the Sino-Burmese border. The village they were looking for was on the ancient road, and the only means of transportation was horses.
After hiring a local villager as a guide, the two of them spent an entire afternoon on horseback before they finally found the village called Daye. There was only one inn in the village. Chen Chen and Ah Zi were surprised to see the owner of the inn.
"Wow, what a beautiful female boss!" Chen Chen whispered, "She doesn't look like a minority!"
Ah Zi nodded. "I didn't expect there to be beauties in such a place."
"Are the two ladies here to have fun?" The lady boss smiled and gave them a bowl of milk tea.
She had a fairy-like appearance, and her smile was even more stunning. In particular, she was wearing a local colorful dress, which swayed as she walked, making her look like a goddess descending to the earth.
"You're so beautiful!" Chen Chen couldn't help saying, "Are you Han Chinese?"
The lady boss chuckled. "Thank you, but I'm Han Chinese. I'm not as beautiful as you girls!"
"You're also a girl!" Ah Zi looked at her. "You're about our age."
"I'm over thirty. I'm not a girl!" The lady boss seemed to be in a good mood and served them a plate of milk tea. "Here, have a taste. It's made at home."
Chen Chen looked at her in surprise. "I didn't expect that. You look about our age. Then why are you here?"
When the lady boss was about to speak, a man came in. He was thin and tall, and his inverted triangular eyes swept across Chen Chen and Ah Zi, which made them feel uncomfortable.
"Ah Yue, we have guests today!" The man seemed to be very familiar with the lady boss. He walked to her and leaned his face forward.
"Lao San, it's so late. What's the matter?" The lady boss stepped back and asked with a frown.
The man called Lao San smiled obscenely. "I went to see Brother Pao today. He said that he was busy these days and couldn't come to see you. He was afraid that you would be anxious, so he asked me to bring you a message."
"I see." The lady boss pushed him to the door. "I have guests today. You should leave now."
Lao San walked away slowly. When he reached the door, he looked back and smiled at Chen Chen and Ah Zi, which made them shiver.
"Let's have a rest!" Ah Zi pulled Chen Chen. Chen Chen nodded quickly. The lady boss had locked the door. Hearing that they wanted to have a rest, she handed them a copper pot. "There's hot water in it. There's a hot spring behind your room. You can take a bath."
They had a good sleep in the hot spring. The next day, the lady boss prepared breakfast for them. Unexpectedly, when they were about to finish eating, two more people came in.
"Lady boss, check in!"
One of the men was 1.9 meters tall. He was tall and strong, and his loud voice was heard in the courtyard.
Ah Zi was shocked. She turned around abruptly and found that it was a strange face. She murmured in her heart, "Why does his voice sound so much like that of Bear …"
When the two men walked into the room, Ah Zi felt that the guy even had the same figure, but his facial features were uglier than Bear's. The one beside him had been silent. Except for his sharp eyes, he looked very ordinary. He was the kind of person who couldn't be found in a crowd.
"Hey, what's wrong? Usually, no one comes here for a month. It's so crowded today. The lady boss ran out of the kitchen. "Come on, come on. Go in from here and choose your room.
Chen Chen suddenly shouted, "The two innermost rooms are ours."
"Don't worry. We can't compete with the little girl!" The man who looked like Bear smiled at Chen Chen happily. Chen Chen smiled back politely.
Ah Zi glared at her. "Don't smile at others. He looks like a bad guy."
Chen Chen made a face. "All right, all right. Are you full? Let's go to find the boss!"
They asked the lady boss where he lived and found a craftsman in the west of the village. However, he came back home to take care of his sick mother and wouldn't return to the ancient city for a while. But he recommended another person to Chen Chen, who also lived in the ancient city.
"Alas, why don't they have a phone? Otherwise, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble. "Ah Zi picked a small flower from the roadside." Let's stay here for a couple of days. Otherwise, it'll be a waste of time. "
Chen Chen put away the address that the man wrote for her. "Then let's go to the border. We can also watch the stone gambling."
"Let's buy one, too. Maybe there's jade in it!" Ah Zi said excitedly, "There seems to be a historical building nearby. Let's go there first."
They walked for more than an hour in the direction pointed by the villager and saw a building that looked like a temple hidden in the lush forest.
"Why are they here?" Ah Zi pointed at the two men not far away.
Chen Chen also saw them. "Maybe they're here for fun."
The bear-like man saw them and waved at them with a grin. "Hey, what a coincidence!"
Chen Chen glanced at the silent man next to her. She always felt that the man was so strange that she felt inexplicably nervous.
"It's not a coincidence at all." Ah Zi pulled Chen Chen away. "Let's do our own thing. Don't follow us!"
After they entered the temple, the silent man slowly followed them. The four of them wandered in the historical site at a distance.
"Those two guys are definitely not good people." Ah Zi secretly looked back. "Tourists don't come to this place." She suddenly stared. "Are they here for drug trafficking?"
Chen Chen covered her mouth. "Keep your voice down!"
"It's terrible." Ah Zi lowered her voice. "Should we call the police?"
"Do you have any evidence?" Chen Chen rolled her eyes. "Maybe they're here for someone like us."
Ah Zi curled her lips. "Anyway, they don't look like good people. Let's stay away from them."
"Okay." Chen Chen pulled her and kept walking. "We'll go to the border tomorrow."
However, the next day, when they went to the border by boat, they met the two men again.
"Hey, what do you mean?" Ah Zi stood at the bow and didn't let them get on the boat.
The bear-like man still laughed happily. "It's faster to go to the border from here! We can't go back to the town. "
Chen Chen secretly glanced at the other man, but was stared at by him. She hurriedly looked away and didn't notice that the man raised the corner of his mouth.
"Hurry up. If you don't leave now, you won't be able to catch up." The man who was rowing the boat shouted at them. "There's a market today. There's a stone market!"
Ah Zi reluctantly let them get on the boat, and then pulled Chen Chen to sit at the bow far away.
"Let's stay away from them later. The more we look at them, the more suspicious they are."
Chen Chen nodded. Her heart was still trembling. The man's eyes just now made her nervous, so she had to lower her head and stare at her hands. Finally, the boat reached the shore. She pulled Ah Zi and ran.
"Okay, okay!" Ah Zi let go of her hands. "Take a break. I'm so tired."
Chen Chen also took a breath and found that they had run to a street. There were stalls on both sides, with large and small stones on them.
"Eh?" Ah Zi pointed not far away. "Is … is that the old bridesmaid?"
"It's impossible!" Chen Chen looked over. "Ah, it's true."
The hostess's colorful dress was very conspicuous. She was being pulled by a man. Obviously, she didn't have enough strength and was soon pulled away by the man.
Chen Chen was worried. "Will she be okay?"
"Then let's go and have a look?" Ah Zi suggested. "The hostess is so beautiful …"
The two hurried to the place where the hostess disappeared and found that it was the entrance of a small alley. It was daytime, but they were not afraid. They walked slowly along the wall. There were many smaller alleys in the alley.
After walking for a long time, they suddenly heard a woman's voice.
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