Madness of the Heart

Chapter 31 Demon Hunting (31)

“Southwest? Or the southwest border?” Ming Shu puts his right hand into a fist against his lips, “Why does Luo Xiangfu send street photos to such a place?”

Yi Fei said: “Da Xu has already passed by with his brothers from the field team, but the traffic in the southwest border is very inconvenient. Daxu and the others are worried that they will startle the snake and they dare not rashly use the power of the local police. They have not arrived in Shetu Village.”

“Shooting the grass and scaring the snake?” Ming Shu grasped the key words in Yi Fei’s words. “So you think Luo Xiangfu’s post of the photo is to cooperate with a certain force in Snake Town?”

Yi Fei nodded, “To be precise, I think it may be human trafficking. Taking pictures and sending photos by Luo Xiangfu is equivalent to helping locals screen targets. Besides that, I can’t think of a reason for him to send photos.”

Ming Shu frowned and was silent for a moment, “The possibility of human trafficking is unlikely.”

Yi Fei raised his eyes, “Huh?”

Mingshu swiped his thumb on the phone to find the location of Shetu Town. “Here is a mountain and it is a foreign country. I have been to many border villages and towns. People in these places have some characteristics, that is, they do not have a strong sense of belonging to the country and live together. , Folklore is greatly influenced by neighboring countries. Neighboring countries still practice polygamy and multiple concubines. Shetu Town, no, it should be the villages and townships below Shetu Town, and it is likely that the illegal one-husband-one husband-to-one relationship continues. The system of multiple wives.”

Yi Fei was puzzled, “This doesn’t conflict with my judgment. If there are multiple concubines and multiple females serving one male, isn’t the local demand for women more vigorous?”

“But this kind of place is generally poor.” Ming Shu put down his mobile phone, “and it should be very poor. They have the need to buy women, but they don’t have the financial strength to buy women from the big cities.”

Yi Fei’s pupils tightened.

“Understand? The people in Shetu Town may buy women from neighboring countries, or they may sell their own women to neighboring countries-this may not be enough for the locals to buy and sell, but it is just a long-standing habit. There is a possibility that they will carry out human trafficking in the same remote and backward places.” Ming Shu continued: “As for trafficking in people in big cities, I think this possibility is very small. Criminals will measure the cost of crime and economic benefits. In this era, if a confident, beautiful, and educated woman is taken from Dongye City, and then sold to the southwestern border, the risk is too high, and the only one in Shetu Town that can pay for the high population transaction costs is probably only Their local snake, or some kind of “prince”. If you were a human trafficker, would you do such a high-risk, low-return business?”

Yi Fei pressed his forehead and thought for a while, “It makes sense, but if it is not for human trafficking, what is the purpose of Luo Xiangfu’s sending photos?”

“Don’t worry.” Ming Shu patted Yi Fei’s back twice, sat down, opened the notepad he was carrying, and said while writing: “Now we have one more clue. First, the person who killed Luo Xiangfu Similar to Lu Kun and Li Hongmei, because he hates the group of elderly street photographers, he thinks Luo Xiangfu deserves to die. However, this murderer is obviously much more’professional’ than Lu Kun and Li Hongmei. Lu Kun is a typical passionate crime, and Li Hongmei has struggled. There is a plan, but there is also a passion for committing crimes. The murderer is very calm and hides himself almost perfectly. He has not shown his feet until now. He has the characteristics of a serial killer.”

Yi Fei said, “Well, we have been looking in this direction before.”

“Second, the person who killed Luo Xiangfu was related to the town of Snake.” Mingshu’s thinking became clearer, “If this is the case, then we can only overthrow the past thinking. Objectively speaking, the first situation is similar to finding a needle in a haystack, and second This situation is actually more conducive for us to find the murderer. By the way, does Kang Yu know about Luo Xiangfu’s sending photos to Shetu Town?”

“I asked Kang Yu and Luo Xiaolong, but neither of them knew.” Yi Fei said, “But Kang Yu gave a piece of information that might be useful-at the beginning of last year, Luo Xiangfu traveled to the southwest in the name of collecting the wind.”

Ming Shu asked, “Have you been to Shetu Town?”

Yi Fei shook his head, “Kang Yu doesn’t know.”

“I have been to the southwest and sent photos to the southwest…” Mingshu paced back and forth, tracing the local customs and bad habits in his mind, and the beautiful women photographed by Luo Xiangfu flashed in front of him, and suddenly said, “I thought of a possibility. .”

As the head of the field team, Xu Chun spent very little time in the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Basically, as soon as a case was handed over to the crime team, he had to take the lead and take his brothers on the road.

He has been to this land in the southwest many times, searching for clues about drug dealers, smuggling, and human trafficking… In short, he is half an acquaintance, and he doesn’t even need to hire a local driver when he is driving through the rolling hills.

But this time, the difficulty of walking on the mountain road to Shetu Town has trapped him, an experienced and veteran fieldworker.

Shetu Town belongs to Liuqi City. Liuqi City is a city in name, but its scale is less than one-tenth of that of Dongye City, and its economic development level is at the lowest level in the country.

From Liuqi City to Shetu Town, only one-fifth of the roads have a highway, and the rest are all dirt roads. To drive in, a car must go over the mountains and mountains.

The summer in Dongye City is the rainy season in Shetu Town. Heavy rains washed away the only road. The rocks and broken tree trunks rolled down from the mountains lay across the ground. It was the afternoon, but the sky was sinking like it was about to collapse.

“Boss, what should I do?” A team member said: “There will be ghosts if the **** gets in!”

Xu Chun reluctantly drove forward a few steps with his car lights on, and finally stopped, trying to report to Yi Fei, but the phone did not have a signal, “Fuck! Now I have to catch my life when I go in. Go to Qiantan Town to take a rest, it’s raining. Act when you are small.”

Qiantan Town is located in the middle of Shetu Town and Liuqi Town, and the geographical environment is better, not as closed as Shetu Town.

If the residents of Shetu Town want to get out of the mountains, they must pass through Qiantan Town, and many people will stay in Qiantan Town to provide supplies.

Although the distance is not far in a straight line, the mountains and mountains have almost isolated Shetu Town and Qiantan Town into two societies. People in Qiantan Town mostly hate the people of Shetu Town, and even regard them as “foreigners”, fearing that they will bring weird vices into their town.

The sky is getting more and more cloudy, and the rain seems to drag down all the black clouds of the entire sky.

Xu Chun drove wildly. The team members swayed in the car. From time to time, someone shouted: “Boss, do you want to kill us?”

Suddenly, the off-road vehicle made a sudden brake, and the team member who had just complained almost hit the window glass, “Boss, you…”

“There is someone there.” Xu Chun slid down the car window, and the dense rainwater like steel needles rushed into the car in an instant.

Everyone hurriedly looked out of the car window, and saw a woman lying in a mud puddle not far away. She hadn’t died, but was struggling slightly.

“Save people!” Xu Chun shouted, pushing the car door and breaking into the rain.

The woman was dying and unconscious. When she was rescued into the car, her pale lips suddenly opened and closed, and she said, “Luo, Teacher Luo…”

The team rushed her to the only hospital in Qiantan Town. While going through the hospitalization procedures, Xu Chun found her ID, a stack of envelopes and photos from her bag.

Her name is Wenli.

The mailing address written on the envelope is Dongye City.

Three days ago, the heavy rain did not fall in Shetu Town.

Wen Li leaned forward and stood by the letter basket of the town post office, wiping his sweat with one hand while rummaging in the letter basket.

“Don’t look for it, you see that your hands are so dirty and sweaty. After a while, you will get someone else’s letter dirty and broken. If someone can’t find you, you have to come to me for trouble.” A short staff member was impatient. Said: “The letter from your village was sent the day before yesterday. If you didn’t have it, you didn’t have it. If you tell me all the letters, it’s impossible. Save your energy. You can leave me alone on such a hot day. Here is heat stroke! Go back early, and a few hours later, when the heavy rain comes down, you can’t go back if you want!”

Wenli read every letter, and indeed there was no one from Teacher Luo.

She had to straighten up and asked unwillingly: “Elder sister, could it be that the distribution was wrong? Did our Maoyi village send it to another village?”

“Hey! What’s the matter with your little girl? I questioned our job?” The short woman stood up from the wicker chair and looked at Wenli. “I have worked here for more than 20 years. , There has never been a mistake! If you don’t believe me, don’t go back tonight, just stay here, and see how I divide the letter and send it tomorrow!”

“I didn’t mean that.” Wenli was anxious. “Mr. Luo will send letters to the children and girls every month. You have divided it several times. You must be clear, but he has not sent letters this month. I …”

“Don’t you ask yourself?”

“I don’t have his contact information.”

“That’s weird. He sent a letter to your village. There is no address on the envelope?”

“Only the post office address. Teacher Luo said that we would not let us contact him.”

The short woman shook the fan slowly, “Then there is no way. Hey, isn’t it just a bunch of photos? If you didn’t send it, you didn’t send it, and it’s not money. When he didn’t send you photos before, you couldn’t get by. Good?”

Wen Li bit her lower lip, seeing that she couldn’t find a letter, so she turned and left the town post office.

It was the rainy season, and the heat and humidity of Snake were too cold. Wen Li was wearing long-sleeved trousers and a straw visor. After walking in the sun for a while, she felt a little unbearable and hurried to the shade of a tree. , Take out the thirst quenching in the back basket.

Shetu Town is separated from the neighboring countries by a mountain, far away from the domestic economic and culturally developed central cities. People can pass by and have a blocked view. The situation in the town is relatively good, but the following villages have followed the bad habits of the past few hundred years. .

It is not terrible to be poor, but the terrible thing is to be poor without thinking.

It is forgotten by the whole society.

Wenli is not from Shetu Town, but a volunteer who came here to participate in poverty alleviation three years ago.

When she first arrived, she was ambitious. After staying for a month, she gradually doubted that she could not help the people living here.

In recent years, she has taken root in Maoyi Village and Maoer Village. She has seen girls here being sold to neighboring countries and called by men at will.

Both villages practiced the system of polygamy and multiple concubines, which violated the law but was unmanaged. Many girls who were accepted as concubines were under 14 years old and had to bow down to their husbands to show their loyalty when they got married.

The right to be educated is a fantasy for them, and most of them no longer regard themselves as humans even during long-term cultural brainwashing.

This means that they will not fight for any rights and future for themselves, or even discover their beauty as women.

Wen Li wanted to help them, but he didn’t know where to start.

There is an old saying among the folks, “It is better to teach them to fish than to teach them to fish.” But Wenli tried to collect donations for them, and also tried to teach them to study, and even asked artisans to teach them to make souvenirs with hometown characteristics, but there was still no light in their eyes.

Wen Limingbai, the fundamental reason lies in their thoughts. They are already slaves of patriarchy and patriarchy. If their thinking does not change, it is useless to teach them how to fish.

But how can thinking change?

Take them to see the outside world?

Let them understand how normal women live?

The former can’t do it, and they can’t leave this huge mountain at all.

The latter can be a try.

Wenli kept explaining to the women in the village the appearance of the city, explaining what women of the same age were doing every day.

But there are very few people willing to listen, and very few people are willing to think after listening.

At the beginning of last year, Wenli was desperate about the status quo. She felt that she had done everything she could, and still couldn’t change this place—not even one person.

She intends to leave Maoyi Village and Maoer Village, and never step into Shetu Town again.

But just as she was preparing to leave, an elderly tourist group came to the village.

They came from all over the country, all men in their 50s and 60s. They formed a group in Liuqicheng. Many people carried professional cameras and said they wanted to take pictures of the beautiful scenery here.

There are few guests in Shetu Town. As a volunteer for poverty alleviation, Wenli is one of the few people in the town who can speak Mandarin fluently, so he was called by the town officials to show them around.

Wen Li’s ambition is no longer in Shetu Town, so he led the team reluctantly, and was spoken several times by a man surnamed Luo on the way.

“Your outfit is very distinctive, please be a model for me,” the man said.

Wenli has good features and looks not particularly attractive in the city, but in the beautiful mountains and rivers in the countryside, it looks particularly dusty.

She did not resist taking pictures, and chatted with the man casually after the filming.

Men claim that their biggest hobby is street photography. Every day as long as they have time, they go to the street to take pictures of beautiful girls.

Wen Li knows street shooting, but when he hears the man say this, he is still a little surprised, “You are in your sixties, right?”

“What about the sixties?” The man Zhile said, “You can discover and appreciate beauty in your sixties! Me, I have no hobbies in the first half of my life, I only know how to make money to support the family, so that my mother-in-law and son can live without worrying about food. Wearing life. As for myself, I have a little hobby, and I don’t even think about it. I have only suddenly figured it out when I live at this age. I have to have a hobby!”

Wenli was vaguely inspired.

“Come on, little girl, show you the photos I took.” The man said and pointed out the photo albums in the camera, and showed Wen Li one by one. When they are so energetic, they feel energetic too!”

Wenli looked at the bright women in the album, and suddenly thought of the dull-eyed women in the village.

For a long time, she has devoted herself to telling them the beauty on the outside and describing the life that modern women should have.

But she doesn’t have the most intuitive image!

The stars on TV are glamorous, but they are too far away, and things that are too far away are not enough to shock people.

Isn’t she missing pictures of these ordinary women?

When they see these photos and stimulate the senses over and over again, will their thoughts change?

Do they still think that they should have been born in this small village and dedicated their lives to their husbands, fathers, and brothers?

Wen Li suddenly felt that her blood was burning angrily. She emotionally told the man what she had seen and heard here and the efforts she had made. Her eyes flushed several times until she couldn’t help but tears.

The man heard it in the cloud, then his expression gradually became focused, and finally nodded frequently, took out a pack of tissues, and handed it to Wenli.

“I used to be a teacher.” The man said, “I’m just an incompetent teacher. If I don’t teach well, I can only draw blackboard newspapers. But…”

The man’s tone changed, “I still remember what the old principal told me when I left school to find another way out. He said—teaching is about educating people, but educating people is not limited to school. Ronaldinho, the teachers are poor, you have to do I won’t stop your wife and children looking for the future, but I hope you remember that when you have the ability in the future, you should help those who can help. This is also a form of educating people.”

Wenli whispered: “Teacher Luo…”

“Is there a place to print photos in town?” the man asked.

“Yes!” Wenli said excitedly: “I will take you there!”

That day, the man printed all the photos on the camera, and Wenli showed it to the women in the village.

Before leaving, the man said, “I still have a lot of photos at home. I will sort them out when I go back and post them once a month. I hope I can help the women and children here.”

“Yes!” Wenli burst into tears, “Teacher Luo, can you give me your contact information?”

The man hesitated for a while, and declined: “I don’t want my family to know, my wife…may not understand.”

Because of the photos and the renewed hope, Wenli did not leave Shetu Town as planned. When the men were not at home, she looked through the photos with the women and repeatedly told them-you weren’t born to be like this.

The visual stimulus is amazing, no one will not be moved by beauty and vitality, so they can look forward to and yearn for it.

This process is slow, but it is happening-Wenli has noticed that the eyes of young women and little girls have changed first, and then older women. They look bright when they look at the photos, as if they are imagining themselves in beautiful clothes. , Put on popular makeup.

They asked carefully: “Are the people in the photo really the same age as us? They are not stars? Just ordinary people?”

“Yes!” Wenli said: “They are all ordinary people in big cities, ordinary people like us!”

The atmosphere in the village and town is slowly changing. What women look forward to most every month is to receive photos from Teacher Luo.

In the past six months, there are not only foreign and confident women in the photos, but also cute and beautiful children.

Teacher Luo said in the letter: It is difficult to change the previous generation, but it is much easier to change the new generation. Let the children also show pictures of children of the same age. I hope they have dreams since they were young.

More than a year of nurturing has already seen initial results. A 13-year-old girl refused to marry and fought hard. With the help of her mother, she fled from Maoyi Village to the town government of Shetu Town. She is now studying in Liuqicheng where Shetu Town belongs.

Wen Lai wanted to tell Teacher Luo about this matter, but was unable to contact Teacher Luo. This month, Teacher Luo’s letter has not arrived.

“What’s wrong with you?” Wenli said anxiously under the shade of the tree, and finally made up his mind when a muffled thunder rolled across the horizon—

“I’ll find you!”