Chapter 127: Birds of a Feather

2022-05-20

The old Village Chief told us that there’d once been incidents of wild dogs attacking people here, so Tougouzi Village stopped keeping dogs long ago. The only exception is a small supermarket on the east side of the village, right by the highway. Since it’s so close to the road, with cars constantly coming and going, it makes sense that all sorts would come through.

That’s why keeping a dog for protection is necessary. The Village Chief explained that the supermarket owner, Zhang Ke, has a huge wolfdog that’s almost one point eight meters tall when it stands on its hind legs. If there’s any dog left in this village, it’s that one.

If not, then whatever attacked us wasn’t a dog from Tougouzi Village.

But given the situation with the roads, if the Killer isn’t hiding in the village itself, he has to be somewhere nearby.

The old Village Chief said, “It’s already midday. If we’re going to investigate that supermarket, we should get going soon. There and back, it’ll probably be dark before we’re home. With this dreary weather, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a heavy snow tonight.”

Then he glanced at all of us and added, “Looks like you folks won’t be making it home for a few days either.”

At his words I looked up at the washed-out sky. The heavy clouds meant the snow wasn’t far off. For a moment, the whole world felt close and suffocating, and a certain pressure hung over everything.

I couldn’t shake this weird feeling—like the entire village was shrouded in something dark and cold.

Blowing warm breath into my hands, I finally felt some sensation in my frozen fingers. I waved my hands and said, “Alright, let’s get moving. Looks like we’ll be staying in Tougouzi for a while, so we might as well pick up some essentials at the supermarket. Warm gloves too, if they have any.”

Guan Zengbin’s cheeks were bright red from the cold, and she was still carrying that severed arm. “Let’s store this arm somewhere cold first.”

The old Village Chief put the arm in a sloped cellar, then led us east toward the supermarket.

While we walked, he handed out some worn-out gloves. “Sorry, you’ve been here this long and I never even thought about this. Wear these for now—buy new ones at the store, and grab whatever else you need. Just put it on my tab.”

So we pushed the old Village Chief along the road heading east. It would take over an hour, so we made small talk along the way.

“Village Chief, why are there so many disabled people in this village? Are there any able-bodied folks left? Do people without disabilities just move away once they hit a certain age?” I asked.

He shook his head. “There are still some able-bodied people, maybe about seventy percent, the rest are disabled. For example, Sun Kangning’s father is healthy. His son was born with only one arm—you’ve all seen that. Outside the village, Sun Kangning stands out. His father didn’t want him to grow up under those stares, so they moved here.”

I nodded. “So people living here aren’t all local?”

The old Village Chief gestured to a cluster of houses off in the distance. “Like I told you before, this village isn’t short on houses. Even if a hundred more people showed up, there’d be room. Starting from the 1980s, healthy folks gradually moved out and more disabled people moved in.”

“It’s odd, isn’t it?” Gu Chen commented. “Life isn’t easy here, yet they all choose to live together. Who ends up looking after who?”

The old Village Chief couldn’t see Gu Chen’s expression but heard his question and sighed.

“Let me tell you a story I once read in the paper,” he said. “There was an old woman who got on a bus and stood in front of a young man. The guy sat there without offering his seat.”

Gu Chen nodded. “A lot of young people today have poor manners. Giving up your seat for the elderly is our tradition.”

The old Village Chief smiled, like he’d been waiting for that reply. “Right, that’s what everyone else on the bus said too. They piled on, scolding the young man until he turned red and hopped up to let her sit.”

It felt like he had more to say than just about seats and manners.

“But that wasn’t the end of it,” the Village Chief went on. “Finally the pressure forced the young man off the bus. When he got home, he rolled up his pants leg—it turned out he wore a prosthetic. He was disabled himself, but never tried to explain.”

“If he was elderly or frail, he should’ve said so,” Gu Chen insisted. “If he’d been upfront, that awkward scene never would’ve happened.”

The old Village Chief shook his head. “But when he got home, he burst out laughing. He was truly happy. Gu Chen, do you get why?”

“Happy?” Gu Chen stared at him, clearly confused. “If that were me, I’d feel hurt or angry after being misunderstood like that.”

The Village Chief smiled and waved his hand. “But he was happy, not angry or sad. That’s the difference between us and you. We see the world from different perspectives. You know, what scares disabled people most isn’t discrimination—it’s pity.”

He spoke slowly, “Pity comes from deep inside, that sense that ‘he’s not like me.’ It’s the most honest feeling and can’t be faked. Sure, he was scolded and misunderstood, but he laughed. Because not a single person saw that he was different at all.”

We fell silent.

The old Village Chief went on, “People are social creatures, and being different feels like a denial of self. That’s why the healthy left and the disabled moved in. Once there were enough of us, the able-bodied folks started to feel out of place, you know?”

We nodded.

“So in this village,” he said, “people like you are actually the odd ones. If Sun Kangning never leaves Tougouzi, he’ll be normal his whole life. But if he ever sees the world outside, suddenly he’s the outsider.”

Suddenly I thought of something Team Leader Shao always says—sometimes the reason people aren’t happy is that they know too much. If you never see the world beyond your doorstep, maybe that’s happiness in its purest form.

But could we really say they’re unhappy? Maybe that’s what happiness really means to them. In a world where everyone sleeps, being awake alone is painful. Sometimes it’s better to die in your dreams—perhaps that’s the life most people truly want.

Captain Zhou, listening in, grew pensive. “Yeah. Different environments create different values and worldviews. What’s normal, really?”

Captain Zhou spoke with a touch of helpless sorrow.

“That’s why more and more disabled people move here,” said the old Village Chief. “Lots of people have heard of this place near Yumu City and settled here. Of course, whether healthy or not, some folks still leave and find new lives elsewhere.”

We kept heading east, listening to the Village Chief’s words.

His story left me with an ache I couldn’t explain. I figured the others felt it too. Sometimes, people just see the world in totally different ways. For someone who’s colorblind, our world of endless colors simply doesn’t exist.

After finishing, the old Village Chief turned back to me. “So most of the time, don’t just guess at things. Your eyes can lie to you, and for your job especially, never just guess.”

He turned away and fell silent.

He looked like he wanted to tell me something deeper, but I couldn’t tell if he was just sighing about life or if there was some unspoken reason.

The rest of the walk, no one spoke. We hurried onward toward the supermarket.

By almost three in the afternoon, we finally reached the end of the road and saw the little supermarket at last. It looked tiny, maybe a hundred square meters at most.

From outside, the paint was peeling from its walls, exposing the bare gray cement underneath. Stickers for local jobs and services were plastered everywhere. There was a plastic sign tacked to the wall—’Erxiao Supermarket.’

All the little details showed the shop had been here forever—probably open for decades.

The supermarket sat along a small lane, and beyond it ran the north-south highway. Now, not a single car passed by. Given how heavy the snow’s been, no one’s out driving in this weather anyway. Even if anyone braved the roads, they’d be rare.

The old Village Chief pointed to Erxiao Supermarket and said, “The guy who runs this place is called Zhang Ke, but we all call him Erxiao. He’s the one with the wolfdog.”