Bai Youwei and Shen Mo had no idea what was happening back at the house. They made their way into the village and found that the household struck by misfortune the previous night had also begun holding funeral rites.

White lanterns hung inside and out, mourners filing in and out just as they had at the village headman’s home before.

If the pattern continued at one death per night, sooner or later every household in this village would be holding a funeral.

Following the register of names, Shen Mo tracked down the women who, like the woman known only as “Li,” had no given names of their own.

While the men attended the mourning, the women gathered in small clusters of three and five — drying beans, washing clothes, watching grandchildren.

They had all arrived as brides at the tender age of fifteen or sixteen. Now the oldest was past seventy, and even the youngest had crossed fifty.

Even those women barely in their fifties looked withered and haggard, their hair white as snow, hardly distinguishable from those twenty years older.

Shen Mo asked them about the woman known as Li.

Not one of them claimed to know anything.

They all said they had no familiarity with her, no connection to her — only that she had been a wife Li Laizi had brought in from outside.

One woman said, “Li Laizi was too poor — no trafficker would bother doing business with his family!”

Another mocked, “Lazy and broke, and still dreaming of buying a wife — that’s just a toad lusting after swan meat!”

“But he managed it in the end, didn’t he?” An old woman with a face full of deep creases made a disapproving sound. “What a fool — not even afraid of bringing trouble on the village. He went and abducted someone from outside. Lucky for him, though.”

Another woman sniffed dismissively, “Lucky for what? She couldn’t produce children — a complete waste!”

That was the attitude of the old era — women who bore no children were regarded with utter contempt.

Bai Youwei looked them over and asked, “After so many years in this village, didn’t any of you ever think about going home?”

“Going home?” The old women exchanged glances, all of them shaking their heads. “What would we go back for? Home was poor too — no grain to spare feeding idle mouths. Even if we went back, we’d just be driven away again.”

Bai Youwei asked, “Did the woman known as Li ever go home?”

This time, they looked at one another, and fell into a silence that needed no organizing.

Bai Youwei watched them and said, “That question has three possible answers: ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘I don’t know.’ You just told me you weren’t close to her, so ‘I don’t know’ would be the natural answer — but not one of you has said a word. That means the answer falls somewhere between ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ If the answer were simply ‘no,’ you’d have no reason to be evasive. The fact that you’ve gone quiet tells me the most likely explanation is that she tried to go home — but you stopped her.”

“No, no! Nothing of the sort!”

“We would never do such a thing! Young lady, don’t go making wild accusations!”

“Exactly — we had more than enough housework to deal with every day. Who had time to bother about whether she went home or not…?”

Bai Youwei tilted her head and thought for a moment. “Perhaps you didn’t stop her directly. But the men in your households did.”

The old women fell silent again.

After a pause, the youngest among them spoke: “You can hold someone back for a little while, but can you hold them back forever? Young lady, don’t paint us as heartless. A woman who has lost her virtue — even if she runs home, what kind of future awaits her? Better to settle down properly, bear a child or two to lean on. That’s the sensible thing.”

The other old women nodded in agreement.

Bai Youwei asked, “So are you saying that in the end, the woman known as Li chose to stay in this village of her own accord?”

But the old women stopped paying her any attention. They turned back to their work — drying beans, washing clothes, watching grandchildren.

Unable to extract any useful information, Bai Youwei exchanged a glance with Shen Mo, and the two had no choice but to leave.

Walking along the country path, Bai Youwei suddenly smiled.

“What came to mind?” Shen Mo asked.

“Mm~” Bai Youwei looked up at him, the corner of her mouth curving slightly. “I just realized — the old women in this village have given us more useful information than the old men. Do you remember last time, when we went to the neighbor’s house and asked Old Liu those three questions?”

—