Chapter 47: Chapter 047 I Have a Secret to Tell You
Tang Zelin didn’t respond but took a harsh drag on his cigarette and slowly exhaled, then suddenly turned to stare at Yuan Xiao.
Yuan Xiao tingled with nervousness at his gaze, “Bro, don’t look at like that, it’s freaky in the middle of the night.”
“Erfat, let ask you, do you believe in all that supernatural mumbo jumbo?”
“No way! Born in the new China, raised under the red flag, descendant of the red army, my belief is in communism, and my ideal is to strive for the rise of the motherland using Renminbi!”
“Do you still want to sleep in this room?” he glared threateningly with narrowed eyes.
Yuan Xiao honestly said, “You’re allowed to bear arms and stand guard for the country, but you won’t allow Comrade Xiao Yuan to contribute to the GDP of the country? That’s dictatorial!”
...
“I’m serious here.”
Yuan Xiao seriously replied, “I don’t believe.”
“Hmm,” Tang Zelin frowned.
In his dream, Peng Xiaojun kept telling him to hurry up. Why he urged him to hurry up, which related to the dream Peng Laosa had—different words but similar anings—confused Tang Zelin in the dead of the night.
Yuan Xiao also took a cigarette from his pack and said beside him, “Although I don’t believe, after wandering around for a few years and coming back, I’ve had a profound thought.”
Tang Zelin looked up at him lightly, signaling him to continue.
Inspired, Yuan Xiao expressed his opinion, “My thought is, the more a place leans towards a primitive lifestyle, the more room there is for such things to exist and develop. Like us, living in cities saturated with modern technology, such phenona lack the space to exist and grow, and if they do, it’s minimal. That’s why many of us don’t believe. Look, a village like Peng Village that can still largely sustain itself is honestly rare nowadays, with every household having electricity and internet. Keeping ancient customs in a village today? It’s too hard.”
“But today, I talked with the Village Chief of Peng Village for most of the day, and I noticed sothing really strange.”
Tang Zelin took a drag on his cigarette and pointed to a can of beer by the side of the Kang bed. Understanding his cue, Yuan Xiao picked it up, opened it, and handed it to him. Tang Zelin drank as Yuan Xiao continued.
“I heard from the Village Chief that Peng Village didn’t have roads for vehicles to enter the mountains before. Your car, had it been four or five years ago, couldn’t have made it in at all. To enter the mountains, one had to climb and cross ridges, am I right?”
“Right,” he had walked the mountain paths when he ca to visit Grandpa Peng so years ago.
Seeing no reaction from him, Yuan Xiao felt disappointed when his big reveal didn’t get the expected response and continued, “There’s a mountain spring in the back mountains, did you know?”
“I knew.”
Yuan Xiao was internally devastated: …
How could he continue this conversation when he thought he had new information?
After finishing the beer and flicking cigarette ash into the empty can, Tang Zelin said, “I know every plant and tree in these mountains better than you do with my eyes closed. Cut the nonsense and get to the point.”
Yuan Xiao said, “When you went up the mountain in the evening to see your comrade-in-arms, I heard sothing particularly interesting from the Village Chief, sothing that has happened recently. I’m sure you don’t know about it.”
“Go on.”
Just as Yuan Xiao was about to speak, a sudden noise outside startled him, “Hold on, I’ll go check it out.”
Without a second thought, he hopped off the Kang, shuffled in his slippers to the window, listened for a while, still uncertain, and then stealthily pushed open the door to check outside. Tang Zelin sat on the Kang, watching his brother’s superstitious antics, curious yet he didn’t call out to him.
Only when a cat’s ow ca from outside did he hear Yuan Xiao co back in, shivering and breathing heavily, and he climbed back under the covers to warm up.
“It’s nothing, just a cat on a midnight walk. Anyway, where did I leave off?”
“You said you heard sothing interesting.”
“Ah, right! I rember now, continuing on, after you left, I had a casual chat with the Village Chief. As the conversation unfolded, we touched upon the locally grown rice in Peng Village that’s currently in high demand, apparently, they’ve taken on quite a few large orders recently.”
Tang Zelin frowned, “What’s so peculiar about that?”
“The peculiar part is, after the first large order was made, the elderly in Peng Village began to have the sa dream. Now, isn’t that strange?”
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