UCS Chapter 102

cw: Graphic descriptions of infanticide

 

“I’m exhausted, finally arrived!”

 

Yun Zhiyi jumped down from the mountain vehicle driver’s seat, then hauled the half-dead Zhou Jing down from the back seat.

 

“Glasses, drink some water and catch your breath.”

 

Looking at Zhou Jing’s pale face, even though he had decided to come along himself, she couldn’t help feeling guilty.

 

Mo Hua and Sun Jun jumped down from the vehicle. Tian Mian, Yun Zhiyi’s childhood close friend, also got out. Everyone’s faces looked unwell—the bumpy ride had nearly jostled their stomachs out.

 

This really couldn’t be blamed on Yun Zhiyi’s driving skills—mainly the mountain road was truly difficult to traverse.

 

Yun Zhiyi felt somewhat annoyed.

 

After agreeing to visit her cousin’s film set, she remembered from behind-the-scenes footage she’d seen that the crew was filming in the mountains, where the road probably wouldn’t be good. She asked about it, and at the time, her cousin’s reply was straightforward.

 

[This village is easy to find. When the crew came, they trimmed the weeds and branches on the road. The mountain road leads directly here.]

 

Then there were no more messages.

 

Yun Zhiyi thought perhaps her cousin was busy, or the mountain signal wasn’t connecting.

 

She asked her friends whether they wanted to visit the set together, since the volunteer activity couldn’t continue anyway.

 

The group had specifically cleared time for the volunteer activity and had nothing else to do, so they set out together. Yun Zhiyi also called Tian Mian. Tian Mian was a devoted fan of Xiao Yusheng and excitedly agreed immediately upon hearing about the set visit.

 

Although Yun Zhiyi didn’t have a good impression of Xiao Yusheng, since her close friend liked him, she naturally wanted to help.

 

Considering they were going to a place in the mountains where some things might not be available, they did research beforehand and prepared thoroughly.

 

Probably to avoid disturbances during filming, the mountain the crew chose was barely mentioned online, let alone any guides. So when they reached the mountain’s base, they were shocked.

 

This mountain range showed almost no signs of human activity. Though they could indeed see a mountain road, it was extremely difficult to traverse. If people had to climb it, they’d probably need three or four days to see the village her cousin mentioned.

 

As for Zhou Jing with his skinny arms and legs from staying in the lab all year, the village might not be found before he collapsed first.

 

Yun Zhiyi simply called the nearby family business branch, had them buy two mountain vehicles, and sent five bodyguards over.

 

The mountains were too underdeveloped. Worried about encountering danger, Yun Zhiyi also hired an outdoor survival expert.

 

During the preparation process, Yun Zhiyi received another message from her cousin.

 

[Zhizhi, come quickly, I’m so sad.]

 

Her cousin hadn’t replied to any of Yun Zhiyi’s previous messages, only abruptly sending this one.

 

Yun Zhiyi sensed something was wrong. She asked again, but received no reply.

 

The entertainment industry was chaotic to begin with—her cousin was probably being bullied.

 

They took turns driving and spent a full day and a half before finding the crew.

 

While patting Zhou Jing’s back, Yun Zhiyi looked up and around, and by coincidence, spotted her cousin.

 

“Sister!”

 

Yun Zhiyi was delighted and waved at her cousin.

 

Her cousin looked back, was startled, then ran toward them in small steps.

 

Whether because the weather suddenly turned cold or because night was falling and the sky was overcast, Yun Zhiyi inexplicably felt her cousin’s smile had a trace of stiffness.

 

After introducing everyone to each other, Yun Zhiyi walked ahead with her cousin and complained, “Sister, why didn’t you reply to my messages?”

 

Her cousin touched her head and smiled bitterly, “The signal here is too poor. I originally wanted to say the mountain road was cleared but somewhat rough, and if it was inconvenient you could forget it, but it wouldn’t send.”

 

Yun Zhiyi took out her phone and saw that indeed, the further they walked toward the crew, the weaker the signal became.

 

No wonder her usually thorough cousin had misled them this time.

 

Yun Zhiyi asked in a low voice, “Sister, did someone bully you? I’ll stand up for you.”

 

Her cousin looked surprised, “No.”

 

She smiled, “The seniors in the crew are all very good-tempered and kind.”

 

Yun Zhiyi looked at her phone strangely, “Then sister, why did you send me this?”

 

Yun Zhiyi showed her phone. Her cousin’s message was on the screen.

 

[Zhizhi, come quickly, I’m so sad.]

 

Her cousin also looked surprised. She took out her phone. On the chat record page with Yun Zhiyi, there were many red exclamation marks—all messages her cousin had tried to send to caution Yun Zhiyi, but that hadn’t gone through.

 

Only that message [Zhizhi, come quickly, I’m so sad.] was missing.

 

…

 

Night deepened.

 

People in the village seemed to go to sleep very early. Outside was completely silent, with only faint sounds from the neighboring film crew audible.

 

The wind was no longer as strong as during the day, and those tiny snow pellets that stung people’s faces had transformed into large snowflakes like goose down. These snowflakes were light and soft, surprisingly large. The snowy ground reflected light, making the sky appear even darker. Flakes drifted slowly through the air—it looked rather romantic and beautiful.

 

In the expanse of white, Ying Bujie and Gao Shi walked along the path. An invisible barrier rose around them. They left no traces in the snow—the snowy ground bore no footprints.

 

Gao Shi had some suspicions in his heart that needed verification.

 

They walked to that small courtyard. The watchdog seemed to sense strangers’ presence. It straightened up and looked left and right but saw no one. Yet in that instant, it sensed the same terrifying aura from daytime. It immediately tucked its tail and scurried back into its little house.

 

Gao Shi recalled where he’d seen the old woman bury something during the day. A layer of snow had already accumulated there. At first, when it wasn’t cold enough, the snow melted as it fell. The snow close to the soil turned into dirty clumps, and the earth became sticky.

 

This was the place.

 

Gao Shi took out his portable climbing shovel and dug with Ying Bujie.

 

They worked quickly. In the blink of an eye, they’d dug a very deep pit. Gao Shi felt the shovel touch something. He gently brushed away the soil, wrapped it in a towel, lifted it from the pit, and carefully swept away the dirt. The thing’s full appearance finally unfolded before their eyes.

 

A baby girl.

 

This was a very small infant, appearing to have been born just about a day ago. Her skin was still wrinkled, not yet stretched out.

 

The little baby who should have been nursing in her mother’s arms had her belly cut open, her internal organs hollowed out, and her eye sockets empty—only two black holes remained.

 

The moment he saw this baby girl’s corpse, all previous suspicions were confirmed.

 

Why had he only seen boys in this village, no girls?

 

Why were only males walking around outside in this village?

 

Because gender preference in this village was extremely severe—so severe they would kill newborn baby girls.

 

Long ago, there was such a rumor that the same girl would reincarnate into a family repeatedly. So if you didn’t want girls, you had to scare away this reincarnating baby girl.

 

After the baby girl was born, they would hold her head upside down in a urine bucket to suffocate her, then bury the infant deep underground to be trampled.

 

Or they would throw the baby in the river, feed her to livestock, gouge out her eyes—trapping her in the river unable to reincarnate, sending her into the animal realm unable to become human, blinding her so she couldn’t see the path to rebirth.

 

Gao Shi never imagined that people would actually believe such a ridiculous claim.

 

Especially since this village’s economic situation was quite good—they could completely afford to raise several children.

 

They only wanted boys, not girls. For such a ridiculous rumor, they inflicted all these punishments on a newborn child, continuously manufacturing baby girls’ corpses.

 

Gao Shi held this tiny corpse, his hands trembling slightly.

 

Her blood had long since drained away. The small body resting on the white towel left only a dark, filthy stain.

 

This wasn’t all.

 

This couldn’t be all.

 

In such a severely patriarchal, remote village, outside girls wouldn’t willingly marry in, and the village girls had already returned to reincarnation through rivers and soil. So if they wanted to have children to inherit their “thrones,” they could only buy people from outside.

 

Ying Bujie and Gao Shi passed through one tightly closed door after another. Walls were as nothing to them. Their bodies passed straight through grand gates, through tall perimeter walls, through exquisite houses, and finally in filthy pigsties and squalid partitions, they saw the women of this village.

 

Why had they only seen men in this village and almost no women?

 

Because this village’s women were bought. They feared these expensively purchased women would run away, feared the neighboring film crew would notice something amiss, so of course they didn’t dare let them show their faces.

 

The room before them adjoined a chicken coop, the entire room reeking of chicken droppings. Tattered clothes and food scraps mixed together on the floor, fermenting through a summer, emitting a nauseating stench.

 

In this very room, a woman was curled up on a pile of dried straw, her hair so tangled her original appearance was unrecognizable, dirty and matted in clumps, her body wrapped carelessly in a cotton jacket with stuffing exposed.

 

Even in sleep, her brow remained furrowed.

 

In that pile of straw was a yellow plastic card. Gao Shi wanted to reach out and touch it, but saw the sleeping woman suddenly awaken. Though she couldn’t see the two of them under the spell’s effect, she still vigilantly grabbed the plastic piece and hid it under her body.

 

The moment she grabbed it, Gao Shi saw the plastic piece’s full appearance.

 

It was a student ID.

 

The girl in the photo had a bright smile, beautiful and radiant.

 

The woman was like a broken stuffed toy thrown beside a trash bin, threads coming loose.

 

But that student ID was intact and clean, as if someone wiped it every day.

 

Gao Shi glanced once and couldn’t bear to look again.

 

Fury surged in his heart, burning until his temples throbbed with pain.

 

With this, Gao Shi also had a general idea why those able-bodied young men stayed in the village.

 

This village’s severe gender preference had probably led to a scarcity of adult women, with a serious gender imbalance. Outside women naturally wouldn’t marry into such a village, so human trafficking began.

 

The confiscation of firearms, the decrease in rare medicinal herbs, and the expensive cost of buying wives—these factors combined, and the villagers began scheming crooked plans.

 

Whether self-taught or led by someone, they transformed from buyers into sellers.

 

The entire village was complicit. Through human trafficking, they made a fortune together, which is why they had money to build new houses around the same time.

 

…

 

Gao Shi left the house. Dark clouds hung heavily overhead, as if about to collapse at any moment.

 

He looked into the distance—the exquisite two-story houses along the road, the latest model phones in men’s hands inside rooms, designer watches hidden in closets. All of this was obtained by trading away the futures of young women, one after another.

 

Gao Shi’s gaze was heavy. He swept his eyes over house after house. The small axe hanging on his keychain glimmered faintly with golden light, like a wildly burning candle in the dark night.

 

“I will make them go where they should go.”

 

Ying Bujie’s eyes were cold, yet the palm pressing on Gao Shi’s shoulder was burning hot.

 

“I will help you.”

 

Gao Shi sent information through his phone to the nearby police search team, informing them of this village’s situation.

 

Due to heavy snow blocking the mountain roads, their arrival might be slightly delayed, but they would travel through the night and arrive before noon tomorrow to catch everyone in the village in one net.

 

Putting away his phone, Gao Shi looked up at the sky.

 

On the other half of the village, key lights, fill lights… various lights illuminated that half brightly.

 

Standing at the boundary line between the two areas, he could still hear actors rehearsing lines and the director shouting.

 

How ridiculous.

 

A film promoting anti-trafficking was being shot at a trafficking village.

 

***

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