Chapter 363: Avoiding Deep Reflection

Hearing such eerie stories made the few youths both nervous and excited; the desire for knowledge has always been a deeply ingrained human instinct, and the more unknown and strange something is, the more they crave it.

Humans are so keen on the hunt for the unknown and the side of things that involves collapse, and the reason, upon investigation, is that they can derive satisfaction from it; whether it is exploring to find the answer to an unknown truth, or standing on a moral high ground to hold forth and pass judgment, a sense of conquest and superiority has always been the most excellent yet most base quality deep within the human soul.

Wei Chengye said with a sigh, "I never thought such a thing could have happened in our village; it's truly bizarre."

"Isn't it? I felt amazed the first time I heard it too." Suotou and Yumi hunched their shoulders and hugged their arms, looking as if they were cold and freezing.

Sanmao rubbed his goosebump-covered arm and suddenly asked, "Hey, tell me, what if that Wang Bozi's family really did buy someone from human traffickers back then..."

"That wouldn't be hard to understand either. Just listening to my dad, that Wang Bozi wasn't just lame, his brain wasn't too bright either, and he didn't look like much—truly a crooked melon or a split date. With him like that, under normal circumstances, what girl would have taken a fancy to him, and who would have been willing to marry their daughter to him? Buying a wife is much simpler." Shougou waved his hand, his tone calm.

"Oh, that's true too." Sanmao, Suotou, and Yumi nodded, actually agreeing with this explanation.

Hearing these children speak so calmly about human trafficking, Wei Chengye felt a chill in his heart and couldn't help but remind them, "Human trafficking is against the law..."

At this, he noticed his companions all looking at him with surprise, then they laughed and said "they know that, of course," before happily talking about roasting sweet potatoes later, dividing up the work to go gather some firewood and dig out some bird eggs to eat.

Wei Chengye felt a sense of silence toward their behavior of avoiding this topic, whether intentional or not, and at the same time, he suddenly had a deeper reflection on the matter of having just said "human trafficking is against the law."

Children know it's against the law, and the adults in the village must certainly know it too, so why did no one report it back then? The whole village... a village of that size, with over a hundred people, did no one want to go and rescue that girl who hadn't yet become Wang Bozi's wife?

The people in the village, the people in the village at that time, my own relatives... what role did they play in this incident back then?

The more he thought, the more chaotic he felt; for a moment, he was unable to find any warmth or sunshine in his memories of being with his family, only feeling that everyone now was smiling so meaningfully in a world of black-and-white negatives...

People will evade, and children are even better at choosing to evade than adults.

Wei Chengye twitched the corners of his mouth and quickened his pace to catch up with his companions, who were walking further ahead and gathering closer together; he managed to squeeze into the gap that was gradually becoming too small to accommodate him, and laughed, "How are we splitting the sweet potatoes later? There are big ones and small ones, and I don't want to eat the small ones."

If only that girl back then hadn't been bought; maybe she was willing to marry such a lame man. Perhaps that lame man was ugly but kind-hearted, and maybe he wasn't born lame and ugly; perhaps he was once good-looking too, and had known and fallen in love with that girl.

Everyone must be kind.

Hearing this, the companions' mouths split into even wider grins. Shougou patted Wei Chengye on the back and said, "That works too. Anyway, we have to dig for bird eggs later, so if the sweet potatoes are small, you can just eat more of them and eat fewer eggs."

"Fine, I don't really like eating eggs anyway," Wei Chengye laughed. He kept feeling a prickling sensation on his back, as if someone were staring at them, but when he looked around, he didn't see a single pair of eerie eyes; instead, the cawing of the crows grew louder and more chaotic.

They arrived quickly. The Old Crow House was not as old and dilapidated as Wei Chengye had imagined, and there was surprisingly no dust in the courtyard. It was actually quite clean, save for a strange, indescribable odor drifting in the air.

Unpleasant, yes, but not so repulsive that it couldn't be accepted.

The kitchen of the Old Crow House was right next to the woodshed, and that rusty pot was still sitting on the stove. They went into the kitchen first to take a look around, then came out to check the woodshed, but the firewood inside had long since been cleared out.

"Who's going to dig for bird eggs?" Sanmao asked. He was the first to raise his hand enthusiastically, "I will, I said it first."

"I'm going too. When it comes to finding birds and climbing trees, I'm the best in our village." Shougou held his head high and puffed out his chest, looking so spirited that he seemed to grow a few inches taller in an instant.

Suotou and Yumi looked at each other, baring their teeth and grinning as they vied to go as well.

To this, Wei Chengye laughed and said, "You four go together. I see there are plenty of branches and wood to pick up nearby, and gathering firewood is simple enough; it doesn't need many people, I can do it alone. Besides, I've never climbed trees to dig for bird eggs and I'm not good at it; I don't want to fall and hurt myself."

Hearing this, Suotou and Yumi's expressions relaxed, and they happily indicated they had no objections.

"That works too," Shougou nodded, feeling it was no problem.

Sanmao, however, gave him a strange look, stammering and hesitating. Just before the four of them walked out the door, he was the last one to leave, and only then did he dare to ask Wei Chengye, "Are you sure you're okay by yourself?"

He was very wary of the Old Crow House, and the echoing caws of the crows all around seemed to make him very uncomfortable.

Wei Chengye laughed and said that he was certainly fine, he wasn't afraid.

Sanmao scratched his head and said nothing more, only reminding Wei Chengye to be careful when picking up wood by himself, as there were plenty of snakes and insects now, and he shouldn't get bitten.

Wei Chengye replied that he understood. Watching his companions walk away, he lingered in the house, not in a hurry to leave. Gathering firewood was easy, and he wasn't in a rush to do it; instead, he was very interested in the Old Crow House and wanted to take a closer look.

He pushed open the doors to the other two rooms in the Old Crow House: a main room and a side room.

The side room was small, and once pushed open, it could be seen at a glance. The furnishings were very simple, mainly a bed, a wardrobe, and a vanity mirror covered with the room owner's belongings. There were blackened stains on the bed that outlined the silhouettes of two people, and the smell of mold was thick. This must have been where Wang Bozi's parents lived before they died; Wei Chengye knew the village had a custom where, after the eldest son married, the larger main room would be given to the children, and the parents would move into the smaller room.

Wei Chengye looked at the two human-shaped stains on the bed, and his whole body trembled for no reason. The stains showed the final outlines of the room's owners before they died; it was so struggling, so twisted... They seemed to have wanted to escape, but couldn't even get off the bed.

The main room was the same, with traces of two figures, one large and one small; he guessed those were Wang Bozi and his short-lived child.

Wei Chengye couldn't figure out how those stains were left behind, but he didn't dwell on it. He just looked curiously at the beams on the ceiling and at the bedding, looking left and right, feeling very puzzled.

The bedding was intact, and there were no scratch marks on the beams from anything heavy having been hung there.