A chance encounter with 'beauty' in a sweet potato field

  Shu Xia State

  Mao Mountain Village 100 miles away from Beijing

  Sixteen years ago, a woman settled down here with a two-year-old girl. Six years ago, the woman mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind only this twelve-year-old girl living alone.

  The girl's mouth cannot speak, her ears cannot hear. She is the famous deaf and dumb girl in Maoshan Village. No one knows the girl's identity, only that she has been living here since she was very young. No one knows where the woman went, only that this abandoned girl is pitiful.

  So, in this closed and impoverished village of Maoshan, the girl grew up eating "ba jia fan".

  ……

  At the foot of the mountain, there is an old adobe house with a long history. The walls are cracked and broken. Inside the house, there are all sorts of remnants, also all sorts of tragic things.

  Two houses and one kitchen. One house is a hall, one house is a bedroom, and there's also a small kitchen that can't be used when it rains.

  In the hall, there was a table with three legs, and a bamboo stick served as the fourth leg. There were four stools, each with a stone under it.

  In the bedroom, there is one wooden board and one quilt.

  During the day, you can bask in the sun through the roof, at night, you can appreciate the twinkling stars through the roof, when it rains, you can take a shower at home and enjoy the feeling of taking a bath under a waterfall thousands of years later.

  Outside the door, cats and dogs were making a racket together.

  The girl in the bedroom was awakened by the sound of cats and dogs fighting outside, and she involuntarily picked up the broom by the door, opened the door and threw it at the cat, scolding:

  "Good fortune comes from death, can you survive a single day without provoking Wang Cai?!"

  This damned cat, relying on its ability to climb walls and trees, goes to provoke the watchdog every day. Shameless, no, this cat's skin is too thick!

  The kitten let out a "meow" and took one look at her fierce appearance, then jumped and ran into the house.

  The girl looked up at the sky, then touched her belly and let out a long sigh.

  The sky is getting dark, it's time to cook dinner again...

  What's good for dinner tonight?

  Squatting down, the girl stroked the little yellow dog's head by her feet: "Wangcai, there is no rice in the rice jar, only a bowl of broken rice flour sent by Zhang Danniang. Sister will go to the soil to dig some sweet potatoes, and tonight we'll have roasted sweet potatoes."

  The little yellow dog barked "Woof woof" twice and wagged its tail as it ran around the girl.

  She picked up a worn-out small backpack from the yard, put in a half-rusted sickle, and slung the backpack over her shoulder. The girl carried a hoe and walked towards the left of the earth house.

  Her name is Bai Xinyan, and she was called that even in modern times. She inexplicably crossed over and took possession of the body of a girl who had drowned to death. It wasn't until she relied on the girl's memories that she realized they shared the same name and surname.

  In this village, no one knows her real name, and no one has ever called out to her face-to-face. The old and young in the village all know that she was born deaf and mute, but behind her back they call her "Deaf-Mute Girl".

  As soon as she thought of this name, Bai Xinzhi felt a wave of bitterness and for the nth time looked up at the sky: Oh heavens, you allowed me to cross over but didn't have to make me an empress or princess, couldn't you just let me be a normal person?! You've made me both deaf and mute, how am I supposed to survive?!

  It's been two years and she hasn't communicated with a single person except for talking to cats and dogs.

  It's not that she didn't want to speak, but this body, this life of a white-hearted person who drowned...

  Sweet potato field

  Bai Xin was digging in the soil with one hand and tidying up the sweet potato vines on the ground with the other.

  Suddenly, a heavy object fell to the ground behind her, she was startled and turned around with a hoe in hand.

  Before the hoe in her hand had even fallen, she hadn't even seen what thing was running out to scare her, and in an instant her hand was empty, the hoe flying out of her hand. Then a black shadow quickly covered her field of vision, pressing her down onto the sweet potato vines.

  "Shut up, or I'll take your life!" A male voice rang out, low and cold words full of menace.

  Listening to the other person's voice, breathing irregularly, panting continuously, looking at the other person's face, seemingly in pain and suppressed, somewhat like constipation.

  Bai Xin would naturally not make a sound, she had always remembered that she was a mute girl and had long been trained to be calm in the face of thunder and lightning. What could a wounded man do to threaten her?

  It's just...

  Her white dumplings were grasped by someone's hands, this is a bit unbearable...

  Looking at the man who was staring blankly at her, she finally couldn't help but speak up after two years of not speaking to anyone: "Sir, how long do you plan on grabbing my chest?"

  This man is handsome, but he can't just take advantage of his own charm, right?

  The man suppressed a painful gasp, his sharp gaze fixed tightly on the woman below him. Just as he was marveling at her calm and courageous demeanor in the face of danger, he suddenly heard her words and stiffened, almost choking to death.

  "Cough"

  Even the sound of coughing was so suppressed, Bai Xin heard the bloody smell on his body, although he was wearing a black suit and couldn't see where he was injured, but she could guess that this man must have been seriously injured.

  It wasn't that she didn't want to save face, but she pushed him and it was no use. The man on top of her was breathing erratically, but his massive body was as heavy as a cow.

  Can't push it open!

  His own white dumplings are his future son's food, can't let him be pressed like this all the time?

  Just as she was about to remind him again, the man suddenly turned sideways and lay on his back.

  With just this movement, Bai Xincheng heard him exhaling but not inhaling.

  Afraid that this person would die on her own land and bring trouble to herself, she quickly turned over, squatted beside the man, and pinched his people.

  "Get out of here and die somewhere else, do you understand? I don't have money to buy a coffin for you. If you die, the most I can do is dig a hole in the ground and bury you."

  "Cough, cough!" The man suddenly coughed even harder than before. Although his whole body seemed to have lost all its strength, those eyes of his were staring at her with an increasingly fierce glare.

  At this time, Bai Xinzhu's sharp ears heard the village chief's voice coming towards them, and there were even voices of other strangers.

  She hastily covered the man with the sweet potato vines and leaves she had cut earlier, looking at his painful face staring at her.

  "If you don't want to die, shut up!"

  She thoroughly concealed the man, grabbed a few sweet potatoes dug out of the soil, and sat down with her buttocks facing the location of the man's head. All that could be heard was a muffled hum, followed by a "crack crack crack" sound, like the sound of finger joints being pressed.

  Fortunately, at this moment the sky was slightly dark, and except for the dense sweet potato vines and sweet potato leaves all over the ground, nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.

  And she sat on the man's face, calmly and quietly scraping the mud off a sweet potato.

  The dug-up sweet potatoes were covered with soil, and the mud was even more sticky due to the rain two days ago. Each sweet potato had to be manually cleaned of the mud.

  After digging one up, she threw it into the broken basket she had brought out, grabbed another by her feet and continued to dig.

  Until the fourth one—

  "Hey, have you seen any men appear here?" a man with a knife spoke up and asked Bai Xincheng.

  Bai Xin lowered her head and continued digging the mud off the sweet potatoes.

  "Hey! I'm asking you something——"

  "Third Master, don't ask her, she can't hear." The village chief interrupted the man for the second time and pointed to his ears and mouth, saying, "She is our village's deaf-mute girl, her ears can't hear and her mouth won't speak, it's useless to ask her."

  The man glared at Bai Xincheng. He naturally believed the village chief's words, after all, the village chief was also helping their master with things, and it was impossible for him to betray his master!

  "I've asked many households, but there's no sign of him! It's really strange and bizarre, could he have flown away?! Village chief, what do you think we should do? If this person can't be found, the master will blame us, don't say that Third Master won't help you, after all, this is your jurisdiction, the person disappeared in your area!" The man's face was cold and somewhat arrogant.

  The village chief's eyebrows were tightly furrowed, his face full of wrinkles. Upon hearing the man's words, he hastily wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "Let's search again, since the person has entered our Maoshan Village, they must be somewhere. As long as we carefully search, we'll definitely find them... Let's go to the next house and ask."

  The man sighed and followed reluctantly.

  Watching the village chief walk away in the distance, Bai Xincheng slightly furrowed his brow.

  The body she now occupies, two years ago, except for eating and drinking, was really unable to hear external voices, nor could it make a sound to communicate with people. In this closed and impoverished mountain, it's like living the life of a dead person.

  Before the age of twelve, there was a woman who took care of her. She knew that the woman was not her real mother, but just someone who took care of her. However, in the end, the woman could not bear the poverty here and left. Leaving behind a twelve-year-old deaf-mute girl to live alone, relying on villagers' charity to get by.

  Two years ago, she was reborn into the body of a deaf and mute girl who had drowned, but for some reason, she didn't dare to reveal that she was normal, so she could only pretend to be deaf and dumb to get by.

  From that day on, she took the place of Bai Xinzhen to experience the coldness and warmth of human relationships in this world, to feel the kindness and goodness of the villagers here, to feel everything about this life that originally did not belong to her...

  Mao Mountain Village, it can be said that it is a village forgotten by the Shu Xia State. Moreover, the surrounding mountains are steep and closed, making this place backward. More than 20 households live here, although they are not rich, but diligent and kind, their food and clothing are also self-sufficient...

  Bai Xin was confused at this point.

  How did the village chief get into a fight with outsiders? And they were carrying knives...

  She's no fool and naturally knows who they're looking for. Because this "who" can be told by appearance and attire that it's not a person from Maoshan Village.

  Bai Xinzhen suddenly jumped up because she found that there was no movement under her buttocks.

  Putting aside the sweet potato leaves, as expected, the man had fainted, but how he fainted, she didn't pursue for now, anyway, after finding out that the man was still breathing, she felt relieved.

  After searching the man from head to toe, they found that apart from a letter on him, there were also several tens of taels of loose silver.

  Seeing what's in his hand, Bai Xin's eyes were filled with stars, twinkling and sparkling, it was dazzling.

  She put the letter and silver back into the man's arms, and then pinched his Adam's apple while slapping his face.

  "Wake up! Wake up quickly—"

  A moment later, the man slowly opened his eyes with a stifled cough.

  Seeing this, Bai Xinzhen didn't bother arguing with him either and asked straightforwardly: "Do you want me to save you?"

  The man narrowed his eyes, his gaze cold and full of vigilance as he swept a glance around, seeing only her alone, with a painful expression like constipation, nodded slightly.

  "Alright, I can save you, but you have to give me all the silver on your body." This was her intention!

  She is short of everything but what she lacks most is money.

  She can't spend her whole life in Maoshan Village, nor does she want to be a deaf and dumb fool for the rest of her life. The coldness of her family makes her not want to go back and recognize her ancestors either.

  She wants to leave here, leave this place where she doesn't feel safe.

  Ke Su doesn't have money...

  This man has money, but can't he just kill someone for this little bit of money? If he steals his money, he's also afraid of being retaliated against in the future.

  The best way is to let him hand over the silver voluntarily...

  The man's sword-like eyebrows were slightly furrowed, his sharp gaze carrying a hint of gloominess as it swept back and forth across Bai Xin's pale face.

  But in the end, he still nodded lightly with a slight cough.

  Her heart was filled with joy, her eyes sparkled like flowers. Without waiting for the man's consent, she reached into his bosom and took out the bag containing scattered silver pieces, weighing it in her hand, overjoyed.

  Wait until night falls

  Bai Xinzhi supported the man and led him into his own earthen house.

  "Woof woof woof~ Woof woof woof~"

  The little yellow dog guarding the house suddenly rushed over and barked loudly at the strange man.

  Just as Bai Xinzhen was about to train it and calm it down, the little yellow dog let out a "whimper" and fell to the ground, without even struggling for a moment, directly "passing away".

  " Wangcai? Wangcai? Wangcai?! " Without caring about the man who had just taken her dog's life, Bai Xiner rushed over and hugged the little yellow dog, bursting into tears. "My Wangcai... how could you leave me like this... without you, how can sister go on living... my poor Wangcai... why didn't you take sister with you..."

  With a "thud", the man suddenly fell to the ground——