bookcurios Chapter 173 Someone Died in the Village
Chapter 173 Someone Died in the Village
After working for four or five days, they hadn't built many fences, but they had managed to dig a latrine.
Men find it more satisfying to defecate in the open, but it's always inconvenient for women, so in the end, they still built a latrine first.
That night, Xu Dazhu and Lin Cuiniang began to talk.
“We’ve been away from home for so many days, and I don’t know how things are in the village. Xiao Yuanshan hasn’t come either, so I think it shouldn’t have any impact.”
Lin Cuiniang did not speak.
A moment later, Xu Dazhu suddenly burst into laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" Lin Cuiniang turned to look at him.
“Wife, do you think we’re just playing house with a few children? Why don’t we stay in the village and come up to the mountains to live like wild people?”
“This…” Lin Cuiniang didn’t know how to respond.
She's had the same feeling these past few days.
The mountains were so peaceful that she felt the whole world must be just as peaceful.
"Tell me, are we out of our minds? How could we believe our daughter when she said there would be disaster?" Xu Dazhu turned to the side and put his arm around his wife's waist.
"I don't know either, but we're already here."
"Yeah, we're already here." Xu Dazhu sighed softly, turned over to sleep, "Go to sleep, we still have to drive piles tomorrow, it's even more tiring than plowing ten acres of land."
……
A crescent moon hung in the sky, and as far as the eye could see, the whole world was pitch black.
Using the dim moonlight, Yang Fenglan crept into the outhouse in the dark. Before she had finished relieving herself, she heard a rustling sound.
He hurriedly wiped his bottom with a leaf and put his pants back on.
The rustling sound grew closer, and Yang Fenglan felt a chill run down her spine. She didn't dare leave the outhouse and listened intently to the sounds outside.
Something is indeed heading towards the mountaintop.
Judging from the sound, it's still some distance away.
However, there is some distance between the outhouse and the house.
Thinking that it might be a wild animal attack at night, Yang Fenglan didn't care about anything else and ran towards the house like a gust of wind.
"Get up! Something's here!"
A roar pierced the night sky.
Immediately afterwards, another panicked voice rang out.
"Ah! Father! What is that?!"
It was a girl's voice.
Yang Fenglan paused, then slowly turned around.
Under the moonlight, three dark figures, one large and two small, emerged from the only entrance.
"It sounds like Aunt Yang. She's still so timid," came the little boy's voice.
Yang Fenglan then recognized that the visitors were Xiao Yuanshan and his two sons.
She coughed awkwardly twice, "Ahem, I'm sleepwalking, leave me alone."
Oil lamps were lit inside the house, and Xu Dazhu rushed out, carrying a sickle and holding a lantern in one hand.
Zhou Jingyi also came out of the house with a bow and arrow.
When they saw that it was Xiao Yuanshan who came, the two of them looked at Yang Fenglan speechlessly.
"Yuanshan, why are you only coming so late at night?" Xu Dazhu asked.
Xiao Yuanshan remained calm. "It happened suddenly. Let's go inside and talk."
Yang Fenglan's loud shout woke everyone up, and they all gathered in the dining room.
The table and chairs belonged to Xiao Yuanshan's family; they were disassembled into wooden planks, moved upstairs, and then reassembled.
Seeing Xiao Yuanshan's solemn expression, no one dared to speak, and they waited quietly to watch him.
Xiao Yuanshan poured himself a bowl of cold water before speaking: "Someone died in Qingshui Village."
"What?" Lin Cuiniang asked in surprise.
Xu Dazhu was quite easygoing. "Don't be so alarmed. People die in the village every year."
Birth, aging, sickness, and death are all normal occurrences.
Xiao Yuanshan shook his head, his eyes sweeping indifferently over everyone present. "Gu Laosan is dead, his whole family is gone."
"Who are you talking about?" This time, not only Lin Cuiniang, but Yang Fenglan was also frightened.
"Yesterday he went into the city to buy things for someone and brought back a girl, saying that he picked her up on the road. The girl was dressed in rags and was so thin and pale from hunger that Gu Laosan took her home because he felt sorry for her."
“Yesterday, the villagers joked with him, asking if he had found a wife for his son. Gu Laosan didn’t say anything at the time, but I think he must have had that thought.”
Xiao Yuanshan paused, "However, this morning someone discovered that Gu Laosan's entire family had been murdered, their house had been ransacked, and not a single penny was left. The girl has disappeared."