I Have Yet to Become a Doll Today

If the death toll kept mounting at the rate of one per night, soon every household in the village would be holding a funeral.

Following the name list, Shen Mo sought out women like Mrs.Li who were nameless and obscure.

The men were paying their condolences while groups of women were sunning beans, washing clothes, or looking after their grandchildren.

They were all blossoming teenagers when they got married. Now the oldest among them was over seventy and the youngest was over fifty.

Even the village women who were only in their fifties appeared worn out and gray-haired, hardly distinguishable from those in their sixties or seventies.

Shen Mo inquired about Mrs. Li.

None of the village women knew anything.

All of them revealed that they were not acquainted with Mrs. Li and had no interactions with her, only knowing that she was the wife Li Lai Zi had acquired from outside the village.

One of them remarked, “Li Lai Zi was so poor, no matchmaker would work for his family!”

Another woman scoffed, “Lazy and poor, yet he desires to buy a wife, just like a toad wishing to eat swan’s meat!”

“Yet he finally did get one, didn’t he? ” An old woman with a face full of wrinkles tutted, “What an idiot, bringing trouble to the village by kidnapping a woman from outside. You may consider him lucky anyway.”

Someone else remarked disdainfully, “Lucky? She did not bear him any children. Such a waste!”

Old customs have it to scorn women who could not bear children.

Bai Youwei looked at them, asking, “Having spent so many years here in this village, haven’t you ever thought of going home?”

“Returning home?” The old women looked at each other and eventually shook their heads, “What will we do after going back? Home is also poor, there’s no surplus for a mouth with no use. Even if we return, we’ll be driven back here.”

Bai Youwei asked again, “Did Mrs. Li ever go back home?”

This time, the women exchanged glances and simultaneously fell silent.

Bai Youwei said, “This question can be answered with ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘I don’t know’.

You all said that you were unfamiliar with Mrs. Li, thus the appropriate answer should have been ‘I don’t know’. But none of you uttered a word, which implies that the answer lies between ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

If she “didn’t” go home, there’s no need for you all to beat around the bush. Your silence most likely suggests that she was trying to return, but was stopped by you.”

“No, no!”

“Why would we do that? Young lady, don’t talk nonsense!”

“Yeah, we are busy with our household chores every day, who would care if she wanted to go back home…”

Bai Youwei tilted her head considering this, then said, “Maybe there was no obstruction from you all, but your husbands stopped her.”

The old women once more fell silent…

After a while, the youngest old woman among them spoke, “Can one be stopped forever? Young lady, don’t portray us as heartless. What future does a dishonored woman have by returning? It’s better to settle down peacefully, having a son and a daughter is what counts most.”

The other old women nodded in agreement.

Bai Youwei asked, “So, according to you, Mrs. Li later willingly stayed in the village?”

But the old women no longer paid her any attention, carrying on with their own tasks, sunning beans, washing clothes, looking after their grandchildren.

Bai Youwei couldn’t extract any useful information, signaling to Shen Mo with her eyes, they had no choice but to leave.

Walking along the country road, Bai Youwei suddenly laughed.

“What are you thinking about?” Shen Mo asked her.

“Hmm…” Bai Youwei looked up at him, the corners of her lips curled up slightly, “I just realized that the information given by the old women in this village is more useful than that by the old men. Do you remember the three questions we asked that elderly Liu when we visited the Li family’s neighbor last time?”