Chapter 660 They Are Stupid
“Sir, what should we do about the two blokes coming to our village?”
“Yeah, Sir, a few people came here to arrest the old village head and Niu before. Who are these two people?”
Listening to Song Yuan interpreting for him, Gao Ge is a bit confused.
“What is the dialect they are speaking? Where on earth are they from?”
“Ahem. Maybe it is a mixed dialect,” Song Yuan says.
Gao Ge is amused.
Not intervened by Gao Ge, Song Yuan continues interpreting. Gao Ge also stares into the mirror as if watching a monitor.
No one notices that there is a light spot at the crack of the door.
“Sir, I think we must be careful in case they piss off Water Dragon King. By then, Zhaojiagou will be doomed,” a skinny middle-aged man whispers. After saying that, he starts to cough heavily, who looks seriously ill.
“Yeah. In my eyes, we should take the initiative…” Another man is interrupted by the old man before he finishes talking.
He puffs out a cloud of smoke and snaps, “Nonsense! Take the initiative? What? Xiaowu, you want to kill them?”
The man blushes. “I was just saying. How can I dare to… But we must be wary of them, right?”
“We can’t kill anyone,” the village head heaves a sigh and says. “The death of Wang Quan was not our fault. He irritated Water Dragon King and he was also bewitched. He insisted on running away. If he was not burned to death, the whole village would be finished…”
The rest of the people are silent.
“Although Wang Quan was not a local of Zhaojiagou, who was a matrilocal son-in-law of a villager, he was kind of one of us. Alas… If possible, I also wish he could be alive! However, he was bewitched to run away from the village. By the way, Laoqi, listen carefully! You can’t occupy Wang Quan’s house! He is dead indeed but the house is his. We’ve done wrong to him once, which can’t happen again! Besides, as to his ancestors’ graves, we have to pay our respects at the Spring Festival.”
“Yes, sir!” A middle-aged man says with a blush. “Actually, I occupy his house for no other reason than avoiding it from getting dusty for being empty for a long time. I also set up a memorial tablet in his house.”
“It’s kind of you…”
“Don’t mention it.”
The village head heaves a sigh and continues saying, “As to the two outlanders, let’s wait and see first. If they are really passing by, they will probably leave tomorrow. If they are not leaving, let’s stun them and send them out, okay?”
“Okay!”
“Well, that’s all for today. Dismiss…”
They walk out of the room one by one.
The mirror is put away by Song Yuan. Gao Ge finds that he looks quite complicated.
Gao Ge also knows what Song Yuan is thinking about. Then, he says with a smile, “Do you think that the villagers of Zhaojiagou are not ill-intentioned?”
Song Yuan feels a bit embarrassed. He nods his head.
Actually, he doesn’t know why he suddenly has such an idea.
“In fact, there is nothing wrong with your thought. They are not bad people indeed,” Gao Ge says, “but they are really stupid.”
Song Yuan hastens to nod. He totally agrees with that.
If they are not stupid, how can they believe the nonsense of Water Dragon King? And how can they sacrifice young girls to the so-called Water Dragon King?
How can they think that Wang Quan was bewitched and even burn him to death?
In fact, the only one sober in the whole Zhaojiagou was Wang Quan. It is the typical case where everyone is drunk except for only a sober man. This is not a good thing because when only one man is sober, he will be defined as an outsider. He will end up dying for sure.
This is the essence of the saying that ignorance is bliss. However, since the villagers of Zhaojiagou targeted his daughter, he couldn’t feign ignorance so he chose to take the risk. Unfortunately, the problem was not solved. And worse still, his whole family was killed.
“They are not ill-intentioned but what they did was really bad. Maybe they are bewitched but shouldn’t they bear any responsibility? Why is it so easy for them to be bewitched? Why do they never suspect?” Gao Ge heaves a sigh, throws the cigarette butt to the ground and steps on it. Then, he says to Song Yuan profoundly, “They are not bad but they are stupid. In the normal case, being stupid is even worse than being bad, because when doing a bad deed, people will realize it is not a good thing and feel guilty about it. Yet, do you think they are really guilty? They don’t think that having those young girls eaten by Water Dragon King is an utterly heartless thing. Instead, they insist that they are doing this to protect the village.”
“Do they find burning Wang Quan and his family to death wrong? They don’t. They still insist that Wang Quan was bewitched and thus had to be burned to death. They think that they did the right thing.”
In the dark, Gao Ge’s eyes are glistening. He looks at Song Yuan and asks seriously, “So do you think they deserve sympathy?”
Song Yuan is mulling over what Gao Ge just said repeatedly.
The most important part is that being stupid is even worse than being bad.
Gao Ge said that before but this time, it has been well proven here.
It becomes the genuine summary of every villager in Zhaojiagou.
If someone stands up and points at their noses, saying they are wrong, they will not feel ashamed or agree with him. Instead, they will feel that he doesn’t understand their motives and must be bewitched. In their eyes, he is an outsider who should be burned to death.
Just as what they did to Wang Quan.
After being silent for a long while, Gao Ge says, “Let’s sleep first and leave everything until tomorrow.”
“Then, we…”
“Rest assured. If they really want to do anything, I can feel it,” Gao Ge says smilingly.
Song Yuan nods his head and says nothing more.
Gao Ge falls asleep very soon while Song Yuan keeps tossing about in bed and can’t sleep.
What Gao Ge said just now stirs up a ripple in his heart.
He was sympathetic about the villagers of Zhaojiagou but on second thought, he feels that they don’t deserve it.
Ignorance can’t become anyone’s excuse for making mistakes.
Is it because they are ill-informed that they can kill others randomly?
Just because they are afraid of the unknown, they can hurt the others at will?
No, they can’t…
He is still pondering…
Gradually, he falls asleep.
The next day, they are awoken by the knock on the door.
“My dad asks you to get up and have breakfast!” A girl who is about 17 or 18 years old stands at the door, sticking out her head and saying with a bashful face.
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