prefer silence

On February [-]th, Chen Zheng and I took the high-speed train to Guling County, X Province.

The drive is short, only two hours.

Chen Zheng and I shared the same pair of wireless earphones to listen to music. We played bandari music from the last century randomly recommended by the music library, which is famous for its soothing and tranquility.

The mood is very heavy.

When I went to Yuanjia Village this time, I felt quite a heavy burden.Many hopes for solving troubles are hidden in that small village. I desperately want to find it, and there is no shortcut.

The bus to the countryside took us to a slightly dilapidated bus station, and a wide road beside the station stretched into the snow-covered woods.

"Within less than a mile, we will arrive at Yuanjia Village." The driver opened the window and took a puff of cigarette, stretched out his arm and pointed vaguely.

"Thank you."

Chen Zheng got out of the car first with his bag in hand, and I followed behind.

After walking only a few hundred meters, the trees on both sides became more and more sparse.A tall white stone archway stands on the side of the road, and four gold-carved large characters in a raised body are squarely placed in the middle of the archway - farming and reading people.

"This is Yuanjia Village?" I wondered, I thought there would be a sign saying "Yuanjia Village" at the entrance of the village.

"It should be." Chen Zheng said as he walked, "When we ask the villagers to ask questions later, we will adapt accordingly. I don't know if the people here are against foreigners. If they are, we will say that we are Yuan Sihua from other places. Relatives from far away, come to see him, if you don’t reject him, we can be called reporters.”

"Yuan Sihua was released from prison and returned home. A few days ago, the local news station in province X reported it. We may not be the first batch to come."

"When did you find the news?" I glanced at him dissatisfied, "Why don't you let me read it too?"

Chen Zheng: "You're too nervous, why don't you relax for two more days?"

I knew that Chen Zheng was doing it for my own good, "But it makes me look so useless."

"Why are you useless? You are the most useful. You reminded me of the cold medicine I forgot before going out." Chen Zheng coughed deliberately, reminding me that he was still in the cold phase.

In other words, I passed Chen Zheng's cold to him. I didn't pay attention during Chinese New Year and caught a cold. When I recovered from my cold, Chen Zheng caught a cold.

"Your hat is not on right." I stood on tiptoe and helped Chen Zheng pull down the fringe of the black woolen hat, covering half of his eyebrows.

At this time, a small electric donkey passed by the two of us.A man sat in the back seat of the little eMule, with a camera on his shoulder.

Chen Zheng and I looked at each other tacitly, they are the real reporters.

There is only one road from the entrance of the village to the houses in front, so we walked slowly, stopped a man who looked younger, and asked, "Brother, do you know where Yuan Sihua's house is?"

The elder brother pointed the way impatiently, "Go along this road, turn right at the first fork, the house with red lanterns hanging at the door, and the most parked car is his elder brother's house, he is there, you are the third wave of questions I'm the reporter for this question."

It seems that this big brother tacitly accepts that we are reporters and is no longer surprised.All the predictions we made before were invalidated. This is a good thing, which shows that the village is not united and has become accustomed to reporters' visits.

"It seems that you are new faces, this is the first time you come here?" The eldest brother winked, "Be prepared for the opening fee, at least this amount."

He compared a five.

"Thank you for reminding me, brother. Let's go." Chen Zheng squeezed my hand calmly, and we followed the path pointed by brother, and successfully found brother Yuan Sihua's home.

The two bright red lanterns at the door were blown up by the wind, swaying left and right.

The door was open, and as soon as we got to the door, a woman's foot came out from the door, "Hey, which station are you from?"

I was stunned for a moment, Chen Zheng said seriously: "We are the evening news column of City A."

"An out-of-town station?" The woman twitched her lips, "Someone is picking it inside. It just so happens that you pay first, 6000 yuan for half an hour."

Six thousand?Didn't the big brother compare five before?This woman saw that we were from other places, so she added an extra thousand.

"I don't have cash, can I transfer money by mobile phone?"

"Yes." The woman took out her mobile phone, fiddled with it for a while, and showed us the payment code.

Chen Zheng transferred the money, and the woman's mobile phone loudly reported the amount, "6000 yuan has arrived on WeChat."

The woman smiled, "Come in, you have to wait for another 40 minutes, come in and drink some water."

"His room is upstairs." The woman led us into the living room on the first floor. There were two young men sitting there. They were the same men sitting on the little electric donkey that Chen Zheng and I met at the entrance of the village.

Chen Zheng and I just nodded to them to say hello, we didn't dare to say anything else, for fear of revealing our secrets.

The woman filled us with disposable cups of water and put them on the coffee table, and then went out to guard the next batch of possible "customers".

"We were unlucky. We were the first to arrive, but the equipment broke down..."

The fellow journalists were unwilling to be lonely, and began to pull us to chat.

I responded humbly, looking around at the surrounding environment.

The living room is not too big, with a long sofa and a bulky TV cabinet, almost occupying the entire space, it is very cramped.

There is a photo frame shining brightly on the TV cabinet, inside is a family portrait.Some distance away, the faces above are not very clear.

I stood up and walked over, trying to find out who Yuan Sihua was.

The quality of this family portrait is fuzzy, it may have been taken a long time ago, there are three rows of heads, I looked at them row by row, and compared them with the wanted photos on my phone, I can’t be sure, I think several of them are similar , and nothing like it.

As I was about to give up, a woman holding a child caught my attention.

This woman is a bit fat, and her facial features are very similar to the woman who just stopped us from asking for money, probably when she was young.

And the child in her arms...

My eyes gradually widened, I grabbed the photo frame and wiped off the dust on my face, and took a close look at it from head to toe.

I can't remember his face wrongly. I have seen the photo of my mother hugging my brother countless times, and that young face has long been engraved in my mind.This is the lost child! It is my parents' own son, my brother!

The author says:

This chapter has a very rural feeling. I tried my best to speed up the pace of the plot.