Chapter 429: Yearning and Suspicion
Chapter 429: Chapter 429: Yearning and Suspicion
The Little Red Carp saw that Zhao Xiaohai was quite clever, but at nearly ten years old, he was still illiterate. She found it a pity, as he would only grow up to be an uneducated man. She tried to persuade him, saying, "Xiao Hai, the world outside is amazing. You’ve never left Nianqiao Village, so you don’t understand. You have to study hard and make something of yourself so you can leave this small mountain village."
"Study?" Zhao Xiaohai scratched his head, not quite understanding. "But the school isn’t open. I don’t know who to learn from."
The Little Red Carp frowned, then her eyes suddenly lit up. "You’re so silly! There are so many literate people in the village; you can go learn from them. You might be shy at first, but to gain knowledge, you have to be bold and take that step. The world outside is truly wonderful. There are so many things you’ve never seen and so much delicious food you’ve never eaten."
"Mhm!" Zhao Xiaohai grew excited. "Okay, Little Red Carp, I’ll work hard! I’ll learn to read with Jianjun. In the future, I’ll come to Jincheng City to visit you."
"Okay, I’ll be waiting for you." The Little Red Carp nodded repeatedly, a wide, happy smile on her face.
She had no idea that her casual words had just changed the entire life of an ordinary village boy.
Li Xiaoyu and the Little Red Carp exchanged addresses, promising to write letters to each other. If there were characters they couldn’t write, they could use Pinyin or have their parents write for them. A small friendship was thus formed.
That night, the Little Red Carp and Zhao Nuanyue faced the Dragon King Statue in the main hall of the Dragon King Temple. They kowtowed deeply several times and remained silent for a long while, filled with reluctance to leave.
The next morning, Miao Dahai and Li Jianjun personally saw them off. The oxcart was packed full, and they escorted the group all the way to the train station. The two men helped them carry their luggage onto the train.
Through the train window, Miao Dahai and Li Jianjun were still unwilling to leave. They stood outside, talking to them and reminding them to be careful on their journey.
It wasn’t until the train whistled and slowly began to move that they finally waved, calling out their goodbyes again and again.
Zhao Nuanyue felt a pang of sadness, but she knew that the sorrow of this departure was necessary for the joy of their next reunion.
The Little Red Carp said nothing, simply nestling into her sister’s embrace.
The sadness lingered, but Zhao Nuanyue remained quiet, letting everyone slowly absorb the feeling. Sadness wasn’t necessarily a bad thing; it made them cherish their friendship and the opportunities to meet again even more.
Birth, aging, sickness, and death; joy and sorrow, separation and reunion—these were all the myriad states of life they were bound to experience. Since that was the case, why not feel them deeply?
Meanwhile, after Zhao Nuanyue’s group had departed, Li Qiong went to find her mother-in-law and spoke to her about the issue of education in the village.
After listening, Li Guihua waited a good while before slowly nodding. "Nuanyue and those elders are very farsighted. Since it was Nuanyue’s suggestion, I think it’s absolutely necessary to set up a literacy class."
"Yes. We’ll organize all the children in the village to learn systematically, starting with Hanyu Pinyin. That way, when the schools officially reopen, the children of our village won’t be left behind," Li Qiong said. "Jianjun and I have already mastered our high school textbooks, and he’s even started studying more advanced subjects. We have time to teach the children, so you don’t need to worry about not having a teacher."
Li Guihua listened and nodded. "Mhm, alright then. I’ll talk to Miao when he gets back from the county seat. Having the children study is a good thing, after all. We can’t let them be so ignorant that they leave the village knowing nothing. That’s unacceptable."
"Exactly. Nuanyue said that education has been incredibly important since ancient times." Influenced by Zhao Nuanyue, Li Qiong now placed great importance on education.
When Miao Dahai returned, Li Guihua arrived before he could even catch his breath. After hearing her out, Miao Dahai called a few people from the village to discuss the matter. In just one day, Nianqiao Village’s literacy class had begun.
Miao Dahai was a clever man with foresight, and his frequent trips to the county seat gave him access to more information. The county seat was now placing more emphasis on the economy, and the political assistance campaigns of the past had disappeared.
There were more smiles on people’s faces; they were no longer as cautious as before.
Society as a whole was constantly changing. As a village with a thousand-year heritage, they couldn’t just cling to the old ways; they had to change as well. They would strive to make Nianqiao Village’s future even more brilliant and add to its long and storied history.
Zhao Nuanyue knew nothing of the changes in Nianqiao Village. By now, they had been on the train for an entire night. The melancholy in her heart had faded, replaced by exhaustion. Fortunately, Zhao Nuan Yang and the bodyguards were there to fetch their meals and get hot water, making things much easier for Zhao Nuanyue.
When the train stopped at a station, many people got off, and many others got on.
Coincidentally, among the new passengers were three women wearing headscarves, each holding an infant less than a year old.
Holding an infant was one thing—after all, plenty of people traveled with children. There were other women in the carriage with kids, some a few months old, some two or three, some five or six. The sounds of children laughing, playing, and crying rose and fell in a constant stream.
When Zhao Nuanyue got up to use the restroom, she passed the three women for the first time. She noticed they were silent and the babies in their arms weren’t fussy, so she just assumed the children were well-behaved. Two or three hours later, Zhao Nuanyue took the Little Red Carp to the restroom. The three women were just as they were before. But what Zhao Nuanyue found extremely odd was that the infants in their arms still hadn’t made a single sound.
A suspicious look crossed Zhao Nuanyue’s face. She recalled the human traffickers on trains from her past life, who would give children sleeping pills to keep them docile and prevent them from crying throughout the journey.
The Little Red Carp pinched her nose as she left the restroom. Seeing her sister’s frown, she asked, "Sister, what’s wrong? Why are you frowning?"
At her question, Zhao Nuanyue leaned in and whispered in the Little Red Carp’s ear, "Do you see those three women sitting together holding babies? I realized the infants in their arms aren’t crying at all. I think it’s very strange."
The Little Red Carp followed her sister’s gaze and glanced over. Her entire body jolted. She grabbed her sister’s hand tightly and said, "Sister, I can sense that those babies aren’t sleeping normally. They must have been given some kind of drug!"
Zhao Nuanyue knew of the Little Red Carp’s abilities and understood that there was truly something suspicious about those three women.
"But if we go to the police with no evidence, they won’t believe us," Zhao Nuanyue frowned. "Can you see if they’re carrying any drugs on them?"
The Little Red Carp concentrated for a moment, then shook her head. "Sister, I can’t sense any. But I see they’re getting ready to feed the babies formula. They’ll probably put the drug in the formula. That way, we can catch them red-handed."