Chapter 1: Kidnapped in the Mountains

1963

Early April on the Gregorian calendar marked the season for spring plowing. Every team was busy hoeing the fields, breaking up clumps of soil, and sowing seeds.

The whole village was bustling with activity, everyone too busy to catch a break.

After enduring the past few years of famine, where even tree bark seemed appetizing, even a three-year-old understood that food was the most important thing.

Only by planting well and ensuring a good harvest could they have enough to eat the following year. That was why everyone showed up for work with great enthusiasm during this season. There was no need for the brigade leader to shout at them to get moving. Even the usual loafers who dragged their feet on workdays were suddenly diligent.

During the day, they toiled under the scorching sun, backs bent toward the earth. After such exhausting labor, they naturally slept like the dead at night.

However, there was always an exception to everything.

Unlike the brigade, which was shrouded in complete darkness and eerily silent—even the dogs and chickens were asleep—there was a faint flicker of light on a nearby hillside.

Behind the dim glow were two men, one tall and one short. The shorter man held a flashlight that looked like it was about to give out. The casing was rusted, and the bulb flickered occasionally, as if the filament was about to break or the battery was loose.

When the flashlight completely stopped working, plunging them into darkness, the short man cursed under his breath and stopped in frustration. He shook the flashlight violently, his face full of impatience and irritation.

His facial features were naturally simple and honest, but at that moment, they were overshadowed by a sinister expression.

After shaking it a few times with no success, he banged the flashlight against a tree, denting the outer casing.

“Damn it! Do you have to be so rough with it?” the taller man growled in a low voice, unable to hold back his frustration.

Just as he finished speaking, the flashlight flickered back to life. The weak beam of light landed on his back, revealing a small girl sleeping soundly, draped over his shoulders.

At the same time, the shorter man bent his waist slightly and gave a harsh, impatient shake, grumbling, “Damn it! You carry this brat then! She’s heavy as hell, my back is killing me!”

Beyond the reach of the flashlight’s glow, another little girl was slumped over the short man’s back.

She was visibly older and chubbier than the girl on the taller man’s back. Her round face still carried some baby fat, and the back of her small hands showed faint dimples at the knuckles. Though not deep, they were clearly visible.

In a time when most families could not even afford enough food, a child who looked this well-fed was clearly from a good home, likely pampered and cherished.

The taller man did not respond. He limped forward, his movements uneven, revealing a noticeable limp in his right leg. Given his condition, walking on mountain paths in broad daylight was already a struggle, let alone in the dark.

This explained why he was carrying the lighter child.

The shorter man, unwilling to let it go, continued to grumble, “I told you not to be reckless, but you just had to do it! Snatching two girls is just making things more complicated!”

He cursed non-stop, venting his frustrations.

The taller man, leading the way, did not turn back. He focused on the ground, careful not to trip over branches, while also muttering under his breath, “Enough already! You’ve been nagging the whole way. Aren’t you sick of it? Because I sure as hell am.”

Their bickering grew louder and louder, disturbing the stillness of the night. Birds took flight from the trees, their sudden movement proof that their rest had been rudely interrupted.

Yet, the two little girls remained completely unresponsive, as if they were in a deep sleep. At the foot of the mountain, the Hongqi Brigade remained silent, completely unaware of what had transpired. Not a single light flickered in the entire brigade. Everyone was fast asleep.

However, twenty kilometers away, the Qingfeng Brigade was in complete chaos, the entire brigade in an uproar.

Mu Fugui’s daughter, Mu Mian, and the brigade leader’s youngest daughter, Xu Lele, were missing!

—

The story begins in the evening.

During the spring plowing season, all the adults were busy. Except for the elderly who couldn’t handle heavy labor and the children who were too young, all the able-bodied men and women had to work in the fields.

When adults got busy, they naturally couldn’t keep an eye on the children.

Besides, in those days, children in rural areas matured early. Even if they couldn’t do farm work, they would still help out in any way they could, like collecting firewood or digging up wild vegetables.

Since they were always running around outside, the adults were used to it. If they couldn’t find a child, they just had to stand at the edge of the field and shout a couple of times, and no matter what the little troublemakers were doing on the hillside, they would hear it.

The brigade wasn’t that big, so normally, there was no need to worry about children getting lost.

The first to notice that the two little girls were missing was the old lady of the Mu family, Zhao Meihua.

Old Man Mu had passed away early, and after his death, the Mu family had split up. Zhao Meihua lived with her eldest son, Mu Fugui, and his wife, Liu Shuangcui. She was already quite old, so she mainly helped with household chores and looked after her granddaughter.

It just so happened that today, aside from the busy spring plowing, her younger daughter-in-law, the wife of Mu Xinglong, had gone into labor. She was carrying twins, which made the situation very risky. Because of this, Zhao Meihua had spent the entire afternoon helping out at her younger son’s house.

By the time she finished and returned home, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t seen her usually quiet granddaughter all afternoon.

After asking the other village children, she found out that her granddaughter had gone to collect firewood with the brigade leader Xu Yongshou’s youngest daughter, Xu Lele.

At first, neither family thought it was a big deal. They assumed the two little girls had either lost track of time or gotten distracted by something fun, causing them to return late.

But as the sky grew dark and all the other children had made it home, the two little girls were still nowhere to be seen. That’s when the families realized something was wrong. It was rare for them to stay out this late.

Mu Fugui had just returned from the slaughterhouse. Without even changing his blood-stained clothes, he rushed up the mountain and began searching everywhere.

Soon, the entire brigade was alarmed. Everyone who could help joined in the search. The brigade leader’s eldest son, Xu Gaoyi, along with another young man, ran to report the matter to the police.

After searching for several hours with no sign of the girls, it became clear that they hadn’t simply wandered off. The remaining possibility was one that neither family wanted to consider.

Qingfeng Brigade wasn’t close to the commune, and it was already late at night. Though the two young men were fast on their feet, by the time they returned, it was already the latter half of the night.

Meanwhile, on the hillside, the search continued. Some held kerosene lamps, others carried torches, and voices calling out for the girls echoed without pause. But still, there was no sign of them.

Mu Fugui was the first to spot Xu Gaoyi and the other young man rushing back. He immediately ran up to them and asked anxiously, “How is it? Were there officers at the station? What did they say?!”

The brigade leader, Xu Yongshou, also stared intently at his eldest son.

Xu Gaoyi’s face was grim. He took a deep breath before speaking. “The police said that a group of child traffickers recently escaped into our area. It happened just in the past couple of days. They only received the information recently and were planning to track them down, but they haven’t found any leads yet.”

Both Mu Fugui and Xu Yongshou turned pale.

Old Lady Zhao, who had weak legs to begin with, had been searching all night and was already exhausted. The moment she heard this, her worst fears became reality. Overcome with panic, she burst into tears and fainted on the spot.

“Mom!”

“Aunt Zhao!”

“Oh my goodness!”

Cries of alarm rang out.

Mu Fugui reacted quickly and caught his mother just in time, pressing his thumb against her philtrum. It took a while before she finally regained consciousness. Clutching her chest, she wailed in despair. Some of the more soft-hearted villagers also wiped at their eyes.

“Those heartless bastards! Why did they have to come here?!”

“My boy Dazhuang said he saw Mian girl and Lele girl when he was carrying firewood home. If we think positively, maybe they just got lost and fell asleep somewhere.”

“A seven- or eight-year-old girl wouldn’t have wandered too far on her own!”

“We definitely can’t let the kids go up the mountain these days.”

“This is a disaster. If we don’t find them, Aunt Zhao won’t be able to bear it.”

Everyone in the village knew how much Old Lady Zhao treasured her granddaughter.

Mu Fugui and Liu Shuangcui only had two children. When Liu Shuangcui gave birth to their firstborn, she suffered complications that affected her health, leaving her unable to conceive again. It wasn’t until nearly ten years later that she finally got pregnant with their second child—Mu Mian.

A daughter born in their later years, the family adored her. The little girl was fair-skinned and delicate, easy to dote on. But she didn’t seem very bright. Even at two years old, she barely spoke. When she sat quietly on the doorstep, she looked just like a porcelain doll.

At the time, there were plenty of gossipy folks who said she probably wouldn’t make it past childhood. But Old Lady Zhao and her daughter-in-law fiercely defended her, driving away anyone who dared to say such things.

As she grew older, Mu Mian eventually learned to speak, but she remained a quiet child. She only really talked to her family and rarely spoke around strangers.

She was a quiet yet extremely well-behaved child. Always neat and clean, she was likable to everyone, let alone her doting grandmother.

Old Lady Zhao truly treated her like the apple of her eye. When she was two or three, she took her everywhere. It was only when she got a little older and started running around on her own that the old woman stopped acting like she wanted to tie the child to her waist.

Who could have imagined that in just one afternoon of inattention, the little girl would go missing?

—

While the villagers of Qingfeng Brigade spent a sleepless night searching, on the other side, Mu Mian was in a daze, feeling unbearably hot.

Her head felt heavy and muddled, and she could faintly smell dust in the air. It was similar to the scent of dirt kicked up by street cleaners sweeping the road—so thick that it made her throat itch.

That didn’t make sense. She was supposed to be in her own room. Where was this choking smell coming from?

And besides, even though the rain over the past couple of days had brought a slight drop in temperature, it shouldn’t have been enough to make her catch a fever after just one night’s sleep, right?

Her eyelids felt unbearably heavy. Just as Mu Mian struggled to open them, a sudden sharp pain shot through her head, and countless images flashed uncontrollably before her eyes.

In the blur of it all, an inexplicable sense of both familiarity and strangeness welled up in her heart.