Chapter 51 - 51 50 Oh if only someone could help me

Chapter 51: Chapter 50 Oh, if only someone could help me Chapter 51: Chapter 50 Oh, if only someone could help me “Granny, not every work has the same theme, and not all films need to be shot in the city.”

Wenyan gave Granny Zhou a brief introduction to the story of “Lost Voice.”

Then she said, “However, I can’t reveal the specific details of the filming. I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement with the crew. There are some things I can talk about and others I can’t.”

Granny Zhou nodded, “City folks sure have a lot of rules. But don’t worry, I won’t blab about what you’ve told me. Yet what you’re acting out is quite realistic. Things like that have really happened here, and not just once or twice.”

“Not just once or twice?” Wenyan was somewhat shocked.

Just now, she had been telling Granny Zhou how she was playing a mute woman who was kidnapped by human traffickers into the deep mountains and, while attempting to escape, was captured and brought back!

“Yes,” Granny Zhou confirmed firmly.

“Years ago, it was difficult for men in the mountains to find wives. No one wanted to marry into a poor mountain area, so they bought wives. But if you think about it, no decent family would sell their daughters to someone else, so most of them must have been kidnapped.

“Just like what you’re enacting. Most of the women sold here were disabled, either unable to speak or couldn’t hear, had a limp, or were simply mentally unclear fools.

“The single old men in the mountains weren’t too picky. All they wanted was a wife that could bear children and carry on their family line. I remember there was a lot of wife buying in the mountains over a decade ago.

“There were also women who tried to escape as you portray, but those who were caught had a terrible fate. I’ve heard they might be stripped of their clothes and tethered inside the house, or had their legs broken. Over time, especially after having children, they slowly gave up the thought of escaping.”

“……” Wenyan felt a chill, “Turns out the plots in films and TV shows aren’t entirely made up. Didn’t anyone report these incidents to the police?”

“What police report? Back then, we didn’t even have a phone. Besides, everyone around here is from the same village. I’ve lived in these mountains for most of my life and never once saw a police officer come by. If you actually reported it and got someone’s wife taken away, they would kill you for it.

“However, there were also people who got the short end of the stick in buying wives. There was a time when cracking down on human traffickers became strict, so they started buying wives from Vietnam through middlemen. But most of these were scams for dowries.

“They seemed obedient, and after getting ahold of the family’s money, they’d say they wanted to go to the market. Once they reached a crowded place, they’d slip away, taking the family’s money with them.

“But such incidents are virtually nonexistent now. Aside from us old folks, who else lives in the mountains these days? The younger ones all go out to work. With money they earn outside, they can find partners on their own.

“But going out to work doesn’t necessarily mean meeting good people. Even though the outside world is big, people are shrewd, and there are plenty of swindlers.

“I remember five or six years ago, some factory owner came to the nearby villages to recruit workers, claiming to need dozens of workers for a garment factory. That boss didn’t want men, only women, and many desired to go.

“Three women from our village went, but not one of them has returned. Some say they ran off with other men out there, others say they died. In any case, they couldn’t be found.

“In my opinion, that’s no garment factory owner, but a swindler, a human trafficker. Otherwise, why would she only take women and not men? Her intention was to take the women out and sell them!”

The thought was chilling.

Unable to help herself, Wenyan asked Granny Zhou, “Didn’t anyone realize that the recruitment boss was a swindler at the time?”

Granny Zhou shook her head, “It wasn’t so much a realization back then. In those days, we hadn’t seen much of the world; the town was the furthest place we’d gone. When the factory boss came, many called her a swindler and didn’t dare to follow. Those who went were the brave ones, looking to make a big fortune out there.

“One thing I clearly remember is that this boss came with her family. She brought a daughter who seemed about fifteen or sixteen, and very pretty at that. You tell me, what kind of swindler takes her family along on a scam?

“That’s how she fooled us mountain people completely. We’re all women; how could a swindler be so heartless, especially targeting the inexperienced women from the mountains like us.”

“A woman? Granny, you’re saying this garment factory boss was a woman? Did she by any chance have the last name Zhao?”

For some reason, upon hearing these keywords, information about Shen Zhirou’s foster parents instantly sprang to Wenyan’s mind.

Because they also happened to run a garment factory.

Last time in the supermarket, the man speaking the dialect had mentioned a “Boss Zhao” to Shen Zhirou.

He asked Shen Zhirou if she was the daughter of Boss Zhao, although he didn’t specify whether this boss was her father or mother.

And Shen Zhirou’s foster mother was named Zhao Jing.

But with so much time having passed and scarcely any contact between them, Granny Zhou couldn’t possibly answer this question.

“I don’t know her last name, maybe I knew it before, but now I really can’t remember. Why, do you know this person? I shouldn’t think so; back then you must have been around fifteen or sixteen, probably still in school.”

“Right, six or seven years ago I was still in high school.”

But as for where Shen Zhirou was six or seven years ago, she had no idea.

–

That night, Wenyan still had night scenes to shoot, but she was somewhat distracted while waiting.

On one hand, she was empathizing with her character and the real-life women who had been kidnapped into the mountains.

On the other hand, she hadn’t given up on trying to dial that phone number.

After being informed by the mechanical female voice that the number was no longer in service once again, she couldn’t help but furrow her brow.

As she fretted, Shen Jinghe’s voice suddenly emanated from beside her.

“Who are you calling?”

Wenyan widened her eyes at him, “You startled me, Teacher Shen!”

“Acting, keep acting!” Shen Jinghe sneered, “If you were really startled, the name that would have instinctively come out wouldn’t have been ‘Teacher Shen.'”

Wenyan thought, [Not only does this man have a sharp tongue, but sharp eyes too; he’s caught on.]

“So, who are you calling? If I remember correctly, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you with that expression while making a call. But it seems the person on the other side has never answered your call.”

[Sigh] Wenyan sighed deeply in her heart [Looking into these things alone can feel so helpless, how great it would be if Teacher Shen helped me.]

[Too bad I haven’t even figured things out myself, it’s like a tangled mess.]