On the southern border of China, in an extremely remote village, where the people live a primitive life without electricity and running water, as if forgotten by the real world, these 50 families live the most traditional life of male farmers and female weavers.

For this remote region that climbs over an uninhabited mountain and is another country, the most novel thing is that every once in a while, those "fresh goods" from distant cities are the only way for them to understand the world.

And the most important of them are the children and women who were "brought" from the city.

On this day, it was very lively on the side of the dirt road at the entrance of the village. A large group of villagers were gathered around a light truck with a foreign license plate.

A dark, strong man in a red vest was standing on the edge of the carriage.

In the carriage, there were several children who were trapped and dirty, generally aged 5-6 years old, and a group of teenage and twenty-year-old girls.

The man shouted, "These are all brought from the city, look at them, how tender they are." The price of the girl is 3,000 yuan, and the other children, the girl is 1,000 yuan, and the boy is 2,000 yuan, hahaha......"

The man smiled excitedly as he pointed to the "goods" next to him, as if he had seen a large amount of money beckoning to him.

In the carriage, whether it is a girl in her 20s or a child who is only a few years old, they all curled up with frightened expressions, staring nervously at the outside of the car, as if they were picking out new goods.

"I think, I want that to be my mother-in-law!"

A thin and somewhat rickety old man in his forties, with a greedy and lustful expression, stared at one of the young girls, about 19 years old, and his wrinkled triangular eyes released a devouring light, as if in front of him was a bride with a hijab.

"Yes, good eyesight, this girl is very tender!"

The strong man smiled and grabbed the woman that the old man liked like a commodity, wiped the woman's tear-stained and fearful face with his rough palm, and continued: "Take it back and wash it well, ensure that it is beautiful, or it won't be long before I can give you a big fat boy!"

The old man smiled stupidly, staring intently at the girl's frightened and extremely reluctant expression, and hurriedly took out a large stack of crumpled banknotes from his pocket, which he had saved for nearly half of his life.

In the eyes of the others around, there was envy, jealousy, and the novelty of simply watching the excitement, but there was no sympathy for the girl's tragic plight, and she was allowed to cry and plead helplessly.

The girl's dirty face, although vaguely delicate and white, has long lost the youth and innocence that a 19-year-old city girl should have.

When the old man handed over the money, he couldn't wait to carry her on his shoulder, laughing and walking in the direction of his house, no matter how the girl twisted her body or patted the old man's shoulder, it was to no avail, but it seemed to ignite the fire in the old man's heart, so that he quickened his pace.

And the surrounding crowd was full of cheering shouts: "Gao Laohan, you have finally married a daughter-in-law, be careful of being squeezed dry tonight." ”

Another burst of laughter filled the air over the desolate village, completely drowning out the girl's feeble cry.

After a while, the women in the freight car had been carried away one by one, and the children had been sold a lot, and the crying continued, but only one boy never shed a single tear.

The boy also had a dirty face, and his thin body looked weak, but he kept hugging the short-haired girl who was curled up beside him, about his age, and stared with resentful eyes at the strong man who had already collected a full bag of banknotes, and continued to introduce these companions to the villagers with a greedy and disgusting smile, as if he wanted to eat him alive with his eyes.

This detail was only seen by a middle-aged man squatting on a grain pile smoking a dry cigarette not far away, and slowly revealed a satisfied smile.

"I want a child, just that boy!" shouted an ugly-looking woman, pointing to the last and only boy in the carriage who was not crying.

The strong man immediately waved his hand and said, "Auntie, this boy is not for sale." ”

"Why? Why don't you sell it? Why don't you sell it, you brought it here to be sprinkled?" The woman immediately revealed the nature of a shrew, and shouted forcefully with one hand on her waist, "I don't care, I just want that boy." It was robbed by other people just now, and I must ask for it this time, and the money will not be less!"

"Auntie, this child was specially instructed by someone else to take me abroad before I could sell it. The strong man continued to explain with a smile.

"I don't care about you, I just want a son. "Women still won't budge.

"Otherwise, you pick a girl, I really can't sell this child, otherwise something will happen to me. The strong man continued to explain.

"Then what's the matter, the girl is all money-losing goods, and she can't do the work, why are you going to do it?"

"Then you don't want to forget it, no one is reluctant. The strong man didn't bother to explain any more, threw the woman an impatient roll of the eyes, took out a cigarette and smoked: "The sun is about to set, and I have to close the stall." In this way, the remaining girls, all of them are only sold for 800, don't pull them down!"

"I want me!" There were several more shouts from the crowd, one or two of them were still about 20 years old, and they wanted these girls not to raise a girl for themselves, but to satisfy the restless Xia body.

And the price of the girls is just within their affordability.

Seeing that everyone around her grabbed it, the aunt finally compromised, bared her teeth and grinned: "Alas, forget it, just raise the girl as a boy, I want that short-haired girl!" The woman pointed to the short-haired girl who was curled up next to the boy and was trembling slightly, and shouted.

"Okay!" the strong man regained his excitement and picked up the girl with a cigarette in his mouth.

Although the girl and the boy hugged each other and refused to let go, the strength of the strong man was too much greater than theirs, and there was no suspense in such an entanglement.

As the girl's heart-rending cry rang out, the boy suddenly rose to his feet, grabbed the strong man's belt, and slammed his small fist into his waist.

Similarly, he was only 7 years old, and the punch he threw out with all his strength almost tickled the strong man, and he dragged the strong man's waist with his hand, which made the strong man extremely upset.

"Stinky boy, get out of here!"

The strong man lifted his kick and kicked the boy's thin body back into the carriage, and then quickly handed the crying short-haired girl to the woman who gave the money.

Looking at the girl's extremely sad crying face, the boy gritted his teeth and endured the pain in his abdomen, rushed to the strong man again, and waved his slender limbs vigorously.

"Hey, you're getting arrogant......"

The strong man grabbed the boy by the hair and slapped him in the face. He rolled around before falling to the ground, bright red blood spilled from the corners of his mouth, and his immature face was exaggeratedly red and swollen.

Perhaps because of the pain, tears finally overflowed from the corners of the boy's eyes, but the resentful and stubborn expression still did not weaken, but forcibly supported his body, wanting to fight with a strong man who was several times taller than him again.

"Get back inside for me, be careful that I don't give you food at night!" the strong man pointed at the boy and scolded loudly, and the villagers who were watching the lively scene around him did not persuade him because of the boy's injured appearance, but just watched with an indifferent expression.

While the strong man was not paying attention, the boy hugged the strong man's leg and bit on the tendon of his calf. The strong man screamed in pain, raised his leg and shook it, kicked the boy out, and slammed it against the wall of the carriage, almost knocking his teeth out.

"Holy, you're a dog!" the strong man looked at the row of not-so-deep tooth marks on his calves, and once again angrily raised his foot and kicked the boy's back.

At this time, a dry tobacco stick flew from not far away, hitting the strong man's head, stopping the strong man's kick in time and knocking him to the ground.

"Who, who's going to throw me with a cigarette stick!" the strong man touched his numb head, and then looked at the villagers around him who were gloating and laughing, and roared in annoyance.

"I want that boy!"

It was the middle-aged man who had sat on the grain pile and smoked a cigarette before, and he limped into the crowd.

The onlookers also consciously gave way to him, as if they were very afraid of him.

Indeed, the man's face has a fortitude that these simple villagers do not have, and there is an invisible sense of oppression, especially the ten-centimeter-long scar that crosses half of his face between his eyebrows, showing a kind of fierceness and unkindness.

This made him not tall, but a little rickety, exuding a huge sense of oppression.

The strong man seemed to be shocked by the invisible energy he emitted, and he was stunned for a while, and when the man walked in front of him, he reacted and said: "I said before, this boy is not for sale, I have to take him abroad." ”

"I'll pay 6,000 yuan!" The man didn't care about the strong man's words, and directly offered the conditions.

The strong man was obviously a little shaken after hearing this, you must know that in that era, the average white-collar salary was generally only about 1,000 yuan, 6,000 yuan, which was definitely not a low number in many families at that time, and for this extremely remote and even primitive village, 6,000 yuan was completely astronomical.

The strong man thought for a while, obviously showing a look of disbelief, and said: "Big brother, don't tease me, this money is enough for you to buy two daughters-in-law, and you are afraid that you won't be able to give birth to a boy when the time comes?"

"The price is 6,000 yuan, I'm not kidding!"

The man pulled out a bulging pocket from his shabby and somewhat whitish-worn camouflage uniform, revealing a large stack of hundred-dollar bills inside, and said, "Pay the money with one hand and hand it over to the other." ”

The people around him, when they saw the banknotes in the man's hand, all had their eyes shining, but they soon laughed at this usually unsociable and somewhat chattering man.

"Brother Zhang, you think your son wants to go crazy. The people around him began to say in a sarcastic tone: "You might as well have a daughter-in-law, do you like children?"

They really can't understand why a man pays such a large price for an ordinary boy, and even if a family wants a child, they will wait for the arrival of a new child in a few months, and not increase the price by several times.

The man, who was called Brother Zhang by others, didn't seem to care about the cool words of the people around him, and said to the strong man again: "To sell or not to sell?"

"Are you serious, buy this child for 6,000 yuan?"

The strong man asked again, in the face of such a high price, he really had no resistance, originally the previous employer asked him to send this child abroad to sell, but now he thought that he had arrived in the border area anyway, and no one around here would go to the informant.

And when he really went abroad, the boy must not be worth so much money, so he decided to pocket the 6,000 yuan in front of him.

"Stop talking so much nonsense. The man threw the money bag in front of the strong man: "You order first, and then give the child to me." ”

"Okay!" the strong man excitedly took out the money in the money bag, held them one by one in the sunlight to determine the authenticity, and only after making sure that the money was real and correct did he push the boy to the man.

"Zhang Laohan is so rich!"

"That's right, I usually don't speak and don't get angry, but now I'm so generous for a boy!"

"Maybe he has some quirks...... Whatever, I have to go home and cook. ”

…… The surrounding onlookers also smiled and shook their heads and left one after another.

The man slowly picked up the old cigarette gun he had thrown earlier, rekindled it, and spat out a thick cloud of smoke before looking at the boy.

Seeing that there was not the slightest fear in his eyes, but a tenacity and unyieldingness, the man smiled with satisfaction and said, "Child, don't you know your current situation?

The boy didn't respond to him, instead turning his head to look in the direction where the girl had gone.

The man also glanced at him, and then continued: "You can't even protect yourself now, what do you want to do?

"Why should I go with you?!" the boy finally spoke, but there was a thick resentment in his immature voice.

The man smiled coldly and said, "Because I paid!"

As he spoke, he lifted the boy up with ease, and let him struggle and slap continuously, ignoring it, and continued to walk towards the village.

The monotony and calm of this poor and quiet village have returned, and no one is happy or sympathetic to the fact that these children and girls have moved into this "new home".

They are just a product bought with money, maybe they will slowly integrate into this village, become farmers facing the loess with their backs to the sky, slowly forget everything in the past, and start a real life that is not their own but can only be accepted calmly.

Perhaps, they are just reduced to a tool for reproduction, for the men to vent their anger when they return home.