The young man received the cigarettes, which would make things easier for us.

He gave it some thought, then pointed at the Northeast. “I’m just a rough guy. I don’t know what is beautiful to you, but the woods over there look nice.”

I seized the opportunity to probe. “Brother, it’s relatively late now. Why would you work in the field at this time?”

The young man was instinctively annoyed when he heard my question. “It’s because of Old Wu’s family. His daughter went missing. We mobilized people in the entire village to search for her.”

I pretended to look startled. “Did you find her? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, we did.”

The young man began to tell us the story, “I can’t live in this village anymore. I’m thinking about moving...