I saw five figures from a distance, four men and one woman. One of the women stood out in particular. She wore a white trench coat and a beige round-brimmed hat, revealing half of her brown curly hair. "This woman has a good figure!"
Fatty Yu smiled and said, "You have really been dry for a long time. I tell you not to make any plans for her. This woman has a lot of background. You can't afford to offend her!" After saying that, he greeted her with a smile, "Miss Huai, Let me introduce you to a new friend."
"You must be the Mr. Li Rui that Brother Yu has been talking about, right? My name is Huai Rujin, nice to meet you." She took the initiative to extend her hand, "I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation!"
I kept looking into her eyes, coldly and politely. He just raised his hand and touched her fingertips, and said with a smile: "The fat man is my buddy. It's just a coincidence that I am here. If we are destined to be together, then treat it as making friends! Miss Huai, what do you think?"
"It seems that Mr. Li is very good at joking." Huairu Jin said with a smile, "Why don't we sit down and chat inside?"
"Okay." I nodded, "But my car is out of gas. I wonder if you have some spare, could you give it to me?"
Huai Rujin glanced at my car and said, "It doesn't matter, our car still has room, so you can take our car."
Fatty Yu patted my shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't be so outspoken. To be honest, you're not as good as me at driving. The road into the mountains is even more steep. I'm really afraid that you can't do it!"
"Yes, Brother Yu's driving skills are still very good, I can guarantee this."
I observed the four people around Huai Rujin for a long time. During the conversation with him, they said nothing.
"Are these people her bodyguards?" I asked softly.
"No, the black and thin one is a bodyguard, and the other three are masters she called to fight upside down!" Fatty Yu whispered, "Okay, stop asking, won't you know everything in a while?"
"A young rich second generation brought a group of tomb robbers to Sichuan to fight. Don't you think it's strange?"
"Is it weird? The Huai family is a family of tomb robbers. Let me tell you, what a rare opportunity it is for her to take action this time. Do you know, you, you, you, don't ask me here, you can ask her yourself later. That’s it!”
Yunhe Canyon has high mountains and deep valleys. The Yi people here have lived here for generations, isolated from the world, like a paradise. Although the road has been built outside the village, due to the rugged terrain, there is still only an unpaved dirt road connected to the outside world. The relatively closed environment has also created unique folk customs here.
The houses in the village are basically brick and wood structures, most of which are more than half a century old. The outer walls are covered with moss and weeds. Unlike some other villages in Bashu, the village here is built on a hillside, high in the north and low in the south. Looking up the mountain from the canyon, the rows of houses are built at random, but they look like a castle, majestic and magnificent. style.
There is also a water village at the foot of the hillside. The villagers there are of the same clan as the villagers on the mountain. The villagers in the water village serve as defense for the mountain and fish as their daily occupation. The open land in the river valley not far from the water village is a treasure land with rich water and grass and fertile soil. The villagers on the mountain rely on the ground for food and cultivate land here.
In the evening, a bonfire was lit in the village. The women in the village began to get busy, welcoming guests from afar. This Yi village still retains more traditional clan customs. The township research team came here in the early days of liberation, but because the sky was high and the emperor was far away, the policy of changing customs was only implemented on paper. The villagers still follow the tradition of female deities from generation to generation, which can also be seen in the location and layout of their houses.
Fatty Yu became more energetic in the evening and sang and danced excitedly with the girls in the village.
"Li Rui, did you see that the girl here is pretty, right?"
I nodded, and the flames of the torch flickered, flickering on people's faces, but it still couldn't hide the handsome face and graceful figure of the Yi girl. "Where are the men here?" I looked around for a long time, but there were few men around. Apart from the middle-aged men passing around tables and pans, there were some children.
"You still don't know the customs here." Fatty Yu smiled and patted my shoulder, "To be honest, this place is simply a paradise for men, no, to be precise, it's a paradise for us."
I was even more confused, "What do you mean?"
"Do you understand matriarchal society? You should know this better than me, so I won't talk to you about useless things." Fatty Yu smiled and poured a bowl of wine into my mouth, "This is right here, this is from this village. In the center is a square, where people in the village arrange sacrifices, celebrations, prayers, and other gatherings. But! But what? "
"Don't show off!"
Just as Fatty Yu was about to speak, Huai Rujin had already spoken first, "But there is a rule in this village. Except for the middle-aged and underage children who are responsible for helping, all men are not allowed to come here, even the youngest in the village." Not even the biggest men.”
Huai Rujin raised his glass, clinked it against my glass, and drank it all in one gulp.
"I didn't expect that Miss Huai is also a generous person. Aren't you afraid of getting drunk if you drink such strong liquor from the Yi people?" I said with an apologetic smile, "I thought I was an average drinker, but now I am even more embarrassed."
Huai Rujin twitched the corners of his mouth slightly, "Wine is for fun, not to anesthetize yourself. All the women in this village drink, and they never get drunk."
"Yes, as the saying goes, everyone gets drunk without being drunk. With such beautiful mountains, rivers, beautiful scenery, and the company of beautiful women, it is indeed time to have a good drink." As I said that, I drank it all.
"The layout of the houses here also has another characteristic. Although they were built in different years and families are different, they generally follow one rule: they spread out around the central square. The closer you are to the center, the more prestigious your status is and the older you are. , and their houses are being built all year round, and the older the owners are, the higher they will build their houses to show their status.”
Fatty Yu smiled and said: "I have to add, don't think that if this old woman lives to be seventy or eighty years old, this house will have to be built dozens of meters high? I heard from the girls here that women are in charge here. The family is passed down from daughter to son. When the original owner turned thirty, he passed the family home to his daughter and lived in the water village. The houses here have no roofs. For the convenience of building heights, they are all covered with thatch. And there is only one more layer of bricks laid every year, so it is not much taller in more than ten years. Most of the dilapidated houses like this are not more than a hundred years old. The tallest house here is the one in the northwest corner, which is only about ten or twenty meters. .”
"Where do the men here live?"
Huai Rujin pursed her lips and glanced at me, "The way of marriage here is still the ancient walking marriage, polyandry, men do not have formal wives, and if the mistress of each house gives birth to a child, she does not know about it. Who is their father?" She smiled bitterly, "Doesn't it look foolish to you? But sometimes I find that this is also very beautiful. Without the constraints of marriage, I feel that there are fewer worries in the world."
I nodded, feeling that there was something in her words, probably hiding something on her mind. But I didn't ask. The woman in front of me made me confused. "Then how do they distinguish blood relationships? What will happen if close relatives get married in the future?"
"Why should we distinguish between these? Women here can have children after they are sixteen years old. Basically every night, men climb from the outer wall into the window on the top floor. They regard childbirth as a ritual. For those who are born due to the pairing of close relatives, They abandoned the bad babies born with extreme cruelty and piety. Therefore, in the end, the men and women here still maintained a normal and harmonious level."
I just felt my scalp numb and a chill in the back of my head. "What are they doing for such a reckless birth, and such a cruel end to a life that was wrongly born due to lack of rational thinking?"
Huai Rujin's eyes were a little confused. She didn't know what to say. She glared at me, and then uttered a sentence, "Perhaps, because of the strict hierarchy, men and women cannot experience love. Without love, You don't know what's left of men and women, right?" Her words were cold, shining like sharp ice.
I fell silent, thinking over and over what she meant, thinking: "Maybe she has her own story, otherwise how could she be so moved?" I nodded with satisfaction at my reasoning, but it seemed like I was right. Huai Rujin’s words are deeply appreciated.
Huai Rujin left thoughtfully, and glanced at me before leaving. Her eyes when she looked at me were very sad, like cracks in a broken glass bead.
"Hey, Miss Huai is leaving now?" Fatty Yu called, but her retreating figure never looked back, "Hi, really, we had a good chat just now, and she was having a good time and she left. It's okay to leave. , how are you, Xiao Li?"
"How about what?" I was asked inexplicably, "Also, don't call me Xiao Li Xiao Li, because it will make you and I have a similar relationship."
"Didn't you say that you are almost wilting from the drought recently? How about we go upstairs tonight?"
"Who the hell is wilting!" I pushed Fatty Yu hard, "Isn't it embarrassing for you to climb someone else's building in the middle of the night?"
"This is the custom here. I have made an appointment with the girl, and I have to keep it tonight!"
"Fuck you, you're just a newbie than me. How can you do this so quickly? Also, this is a Yi village, and foreigners can't intermarry, right?"
"Hey, hey, I won't talk to you. The last words Miss Huai just said are very good. Without love, what do you think women have left? It doesn't matter whether you are a foreigner or a foreigner. Isn't this obvious? Love is about to break out. Don't worry, the girls here are very open-minded." Fatty Yu smiled and stuffed something into my pocket, "I know you have moral integrity, so it's okay. Take it with you. Just in case.”
I touched it in confusion, "Damn, why are you ready with all this when you go out?"
Fatty Yu smiled and said, "Originally I prepared it for Miss Huai, but now that I'm thinking about how much she loves me, I guess I won't need it anymore!"
"Hey, you kid... I really don't know what to say about you!"
While I was hesitating, Fatty Yu thought to himself, "You're not afraid, are you? But you said you were looking forward to the rain. This is a timely rain. If you run away now, you are no longer my brother!"
I snorted, "You're the one who's scared. I'm worried about you. You'll be climbing up that building soon. You're so tall. Can you go up there with your size?"
"You are looking down on me. I, Fatty Yu, have also practiced. When we were eight years old, we even won the Beijing Children's Gymnastics Championship!"
