The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

"Stop, stop, stop. Let's not talk about that anymore. Next, I'll talk about some interesting things you've seen before, things you've never seen before, things you find strange, preferably things that no one has ever seen before."

The children tilted their little heads, wondering what other interesting things were going on. Little Tiger raised his hand and said to Bao Ya:

"Sister Baoya, I'll talk, I'll talk."

"Okay, go ahead."

"I saw the lame man from Beishan Brigade walking like that on the mountain that day."

As she spoke, she even got up and took a few steps, which was quite strange. Bao Ya didn't understand what she meant at first.

"Haha, haha, even a cripple can't learn."

"Exactly, exactly, haha."

"Nonsense, I will learn it, that's exactly how it is."

Little Tiger argued with everyone, his face flushed red.

"Stop making noise, do it again, slowly, so we can see it clearly."

"Okay, so it's like this first, then like this, and then like this again."

After watching the way she walked, Bao Ya's heart skipped a beat. The child first took a few steps normally, then started limping on her left leg, suddenly stopped, looked around, and then started limping on her right leg.

No way, it's that obvious? Could we have really discovered a spy?

Historically, there were many spies at this time, so catching spies remained an important task for many years afterward.

Bao Ya continued to ask:

"You went to the mountains to the north? When did you go?"

"I didn't go north. I saw it from that big locust tree on the mountaintop. It was a few days ago at noon when we were playing hide-and-seek, and I was hiding in the tree."

Little Tiger pointed to two large locust trees on the mountaintop in the distance. From afar, the two large locust trees on the mountaintop looked quite conspicuous, with dense branches and leaves, and a small child hiding in the trunk could indeed not be seen.

Is anyone else around?

Little Tiger thought for a moment and said, "No, it was just a few of us playing on the mountain. They couldn't find me."

"Did you see what that cripple was doing up the mountain? Was there anyone else with him?"

Fang Mingda, who was behind him, couldn't help but ask a question as well.

Little Tiger shook his head: "No, it was just him."

Seeing that he didn't know, Fang Mingda didn't ask any further. Bao Ya gave him a piece of candy and told everyone to keep thinking.

Bao Ya was shocked to find spies even in the countryside. She felt a chill run down her spine. She was usually able to bully others in the village, but against real criminals, she was no match for them.

Thinking of this, Bao Ya unconsciously turned her head to look at the two people behind her, only to see that they both had solemn expressions.

After watching the child's demonstration, Wang Xiao and Fang Mingda realized the problem: why would a normal person pretend to be lame for so many years? When Bao Ya turned to look at them, they gestured for her to continue.

Bao Ya didn't continue talking about the lame child, but instead gave a piece of candy to the next child who had just spoken. Then she continued:

"Is anyone else going to say anything?"

A little girl who hadn't spoken until now asked, "Sister Baoya, does what I heard still count?"

"Tell me about it."

"I heard from my mother that Li Jinbao said that you can earn a lot of money by delivering things to people in the commune or the city."

Who is Li Jinbao?

"He's your aunt's nephew from her maternal side."

One child quickly answered, "They know our relatives better than we do."

"What kind of gifts can make a lot of money?"

"have no idea."

The little girl shook her head. Then she lowered her head, twisting the hem of her clothes in her hands. Seeing that she couldn't get anything out of her, Bao Ya gave her a piece of candy.

"Li Yinbao also said, and my grandma said, that they must not have done anything good. They don't work all day and just wander around."

One of the little kids said, his eyes full of disdain.

Seeing that they had seen enough, and with nothing more to say, Bao Ya picked up the bag of candy, intending to divide the remaining candy among herself.

Dog Egg suddenly appeared:

"Sister, sister, Widow Qin said that Liangzi is our uncle's son."

"Get out of here!"

In the end, in the very last moment, this stupid younger brother still had to blow up a latrine.

Bao Ya's head was buzzing. She was just playing a murder mystery game, but it had somehow ended up in reality. How could she not panic?

Bao Ya gave the children the remaining candy and told them to go play by themselves.

After the children left, Bao Ya turned to look at the two behind her. Now that there was a clue, she didn't want to get involved anymore; her life was more important.

"My lords, I've completed my mission. I'm going home..."

"sit!"

Before Bao Ya could finish speaking, Wang Xiao pointed to the spot where she was standing and said to her.

Bao Ya thought for a moment, then sat down cross-legged.

"Who is that cripple they're talking about?"

Bao Ya thought for a moment and remembered that there was indeed such a person: "He was the livestock breeder of Beishan Brigade. It seems that he lived alone in a small house next to the livestock shed."

Bao Ya thought for a moment, "It seems like he's been there for a long time. I saw him when I was little."

Following the original owner's memories, Bao Ya seemed to recall hearing about a lame man who raised livestock when she was young. If that were the case, then that spy had been infiltrating before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Thinking of this, Bao Ya felt a chill run down her spine.

How much do you know about the Beishan Brigade?

As she was thinking, Fang Mingda asked again.

Bao Ya shook her head.

"Not much. Our two brigades don't get along well, and we rarely even interact within the brigades."

Fang Mingda wasn't in a hurry and waited quietly for her to continue:

"My maternal grandmother never allowed us to play in the North Mountain area when we were little. The south side of this mountain belongs to our brigade, and the north side belongs to them. Logically speaking, their land is no less than our brigade's. If they farmed well, they would have no problem eating their fill."

But their brigade was one of the poorest villages, even worse than Kaoshan Village behind it, which had only half the arable land of our brigade.

Another problem is that there are a lot of idle loafers in the village. Other villages might have one or two, or at most three or four, but this village has at least twenty.

Our two villages are close to each other, and we've fought over water resources. During a famine, some girls from the Beishan brigade who had married into the village brought their families to steal our grain. Several fights broke out, and people almost died. Later, those treacherous wives were all sent back to their parents' homes. After that, the two villages had even less contact.

"They were divorced? And they never came back?"

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, very few women were divorced; most went to the commune to get a divorce.

"They're divorced, so what's the point of them coming back? They were sold to the mountains by their wife's family a long time ago. Do you think they'll be treated like heroes if they go back?"

Bao Ya tried her best to gather useful information from the original owner's mind, hoping it could help her catch the spy as soon as possible.

"In recent years, our brigade has stopped hiring women from Beishan brigade. Apart from a few women who married into our brigade before, we have little contact with them now."

The wives who married into the Beishan Brigade all loved to subsidize their parents' families, almost as if they had been brainwashed. This was one of the reasons why Granny Lin wasn't liked by her mother-in-law when she was young. Li Jinxiang also liked to subsidize her parents' families, but she toned it down considerably after several years of famine.

Several other families with wives from the Beishan Brigade had also separated early on.