I was amazed and amused at the same time. The group was kneeling in front of a sheet and muttering something, and it was a sheet stained with virgin blood.

In fact, I still don't understand why this strange ritual is related to the fertility cult of ancient times.

I saw the chief steward standing on the other side of the stone platform, also watching.

After a while, more than a dozen girls began to dance around, and called it dance! In fact, it's more like a dancing god.

The final part of the ceremony turned out to be the burning of the sheets, and a crowd cheered and burned the sheets that I was proud of......

Soon, as in the first village, Mara organized a bonfire party for the villagers, and dozens of people gathered around, singing exotic songs that I did not understand, and dancing strange dances with a very strong primitive taste.

To my strange and embarrassing part, Eva had been by my side for an hour or two, docile as a sheep.

"Eva...... What's wrong with you? I asked. Ever since I had a skin-to-skin kiss in the afternoon, I suddenly felt that she was a lot closer.

"I ...... I'm your man...... Grandma said I have to follow up with you......" Eva turned out to be shy.

It is the woman who makes a man mature, and it is possible for a woman to mature overnight.

The opposite of Eva was Yu Lina, who stared at me like an enemy all night, and it is estimated that the chief steward already knew about the events of last night, and taught her a hard lesson, and must have said something threatening.

Mu Zi kept smiling at the Belarusian girls and boys singing and dancing, with a very indifferent expression, as if he was thinking.

I was in the middle of a fugue when I heard Mara whisper from my side, "If you are tired, you can go and rest...... Eva! Take the little brother to rest. ”

I'm not tired, but my mind has been haunted by a lot of things, and I want to be quiet by myself, and I can sort out my thoughts by the way.

I followed Eva out of the square, and gradually the surroundings fell silent, and when I took the lead to look, I came to the stone house again.

Eva's face was already flushed, and when she opened the door, she looked down, not knowing what was going on in her head.

As soon as I entered, I saw a new layer of sheets on the bed.

"Eva, talk to me!" After two or three minutes of silence, I opened my mouth to break the silence.

"Good! What does the little brother want to talk about? Eva smiled, as if at once relaxed.

Photo? I thought of the photo of the wall I saw in the first village, and I casually asked, "Do you have any pictures in this village?" ”

"Yes!"

Unexpectedly, Eva replied casually.

"Where's it? Take me to see it, right? ”

"Oh, that's fine! It's in the house where my grandma lives—she doesn't allow ordinary people to come near hers—and if my little brother wants to see it, it should be fine. ”

He pursed his lips and smiled.

We left the stone house again and made a few detours along the path to a black house.

My gut told me that this was the house where Mara lived.

In fact, from the scene of the worship ceremony this afternoon, I feel that Mara and Grandma are somewhat similar, probably the women in charge of the family have a cold temperament, and now when I see this black house, I feel that the two are more alike.

Could it be that in their culture, black represents power and status?

It's quiet around the house, and most of the people in the village should be at the campfire! Eva led me into the house and opened an inner door. At a glance, I saw the black-and-white photographs on the walls of this inner room, although not as many as in the first village, but there were more than a dozen.

After a glance, it is not difficult to identify that most of these photos are the same as the previous ones, and it should be that antique Li washed several copies at the same time and gave them as a commemorative gift.

I first found the antique Li and Yang Guoshan in the photo, and I also saw the familiar back again.

The previous confusion immediately surfaced, who is this person? Why is it so familiar!

Although it's the same photo, it may have been saved by Mara! This photo is obviously clearer than the one I saw before, I stared at it carefully for a while, and suddenly a lightning bolt flashed in my head - isn't this Wang Jiliang? Could it be that he was here twenty or thirty years ago?

At that time, my brain exploded, and in this day or so, I have accepted the fact that antique Li Zhen has been here, and I have also accepted that Yang Guoshan has been here, after all, they are all engaged in archaeology-related professions. But in any case, I can't accept that Wang Jiliang came here more than 20 years ago.

How is that possible? Wang Jiliang is just a farmer! At best, he was just a village secretary, how could he have been here?

Gathering my attention, I took a deep breath and looked at the black-and-white photos on the wall again, trying to find a few different ones from the previous ones, and maybe new clues.

I looked at them carefully twice and found that the versions of these photos were on the walls of the previous village.

Just when I was a little disappointed, I suddenly saw a photo with what seemed to be handwriting on one side.

It was the handwriting of the fountain pen, and it could be vaguely seen that it was blue, probably because it had been too long and the handwriting had become blurry and illegible. I reached out and gently took the photo, walked to the door and made out the time, "1974" and a few words - "Li", "Mountain" and "Nian".

Could it be that the gist of this sentence is: the names of antique Li (what should be written on it), Yang Guoshan and several others, the suffix is to take a photo at a certain place.

I put the picture in my jacket pocket and went back to the stone house with Eva.

As soon as we got to the front of the house, we saw the chief steward, Mara, and a few other people, presumably coming to the house to look for us, and seeing that there was no one inside, they were waiting at the door.

When I met and asked, it turned out that according to the convention, the village accountant had to report the accounts.

I lay in bed that night and pieced together all the clues, and the more I analyzed, the more weird I felt.

If Wang Jiliang also came to this valley twenty years ago, the only possibility is that he and Yang Guoshan were comrades-in-arms, and the young people were both soldiers, and I even suspect that the place where they served as soldiers was in Ningxia.

But what kept me confused was that it was as if these things had been erased from their minds.

When I have nothing to do, I have heard Wang Jiliang tell a lot of his past events, such a memory, it is true! He never seemed to mention where he was a soldier.

It still doesn't seem right to think about it, even if the antique Li and Yang Guoshan deliberately concealed me, but Wang Jiliang is not like it! Suddenly I thought of another possibility, could it be that these memories had really been erased from his mind?