Chapter 1358: The Story of Ling and Heng (621)
The car drove for a whole night. When she arrived near Gorkin Farm, the desert in front of her finally turned into a very normal farm town. However, this town seemed to be very poor. It was surrounded by green land, and all kinds of crops could be seen. There were also many people working hard.
Feng Ling drove the car over and found a young man with dark yellow skin. He had the typical skin and facial bones of a country like this. She looked at the others and found that they were all the same. It seemed that the people in this farm were all born and bred here and were not foreigners from other countries.
When the young man saw Feng Ling, he was a bit confused. Feng Ling tried to speak to him in English, but the other party obviously didn’t understand her. He turned back to talk and laugh with the old men beside him. In the blink of an eye, he left her here and completely ignored her.
Feng Ling guessed that they didn’t understand English, but she didn’t know the language of this country. When she drove past this barren town, many old people and children were watching her with fear or curiosity.
After all, this was a war country. Everyone was afraid of any external interference. Based on the situation here, they should have been affected by the war. When she passed by, she could see some old traces of gunpowder and black soil, but this place should have been peaceful for a long time. However, the old people here were still afraid. Seeing such an unfamiliar large off-road vehicle driving in, everyone’s eyes revealed various emotions.
Unable to drive on the road ahead, Feng Ling had no choice but to get out of the car. In order not to let these people be wary of her, she took out some biscuits and food from the car and handed them to the children around her. The children were about to come over excitedly, but they were all forcefully pulled back into their arms by the elders. Then, with a wary expression, they dragged the children away, not allowing them to approach her.
Only a boy who looked to be about twelve or thirteen years old, with dark yellow skin and thin bones, came over. He must have been too hungry, and when he saw that she really wanted to give him a biscuit, he quickly took it and stuffed it into his mouth.
Feng Ling looked at him, took out a bottle of water, and handed it to him. The skinny boy took it and ate the biscuits and drank water with all his might. After he finished the two packets of biscuits, he squeezed the mineral water bottle in his hand and stared at her with his black, bright eyes. Finally, he spoke.
However, Feng Ling could not understand his words.
She asked the boy softly in English, “Do you people here not understand English at all? Or, do you know other languages?”
The little boy looked at her for a long time, took a sip of mineral water, and then looked at her with his bright black eyes. Feng Ling paused and understood what he meant. She handed him two bags of biscuits and two bottles of water.
The little boy happily held the food and drinks in his arms and suddenly said in Chinese, which was not very fluent but barely understood by Feng Ling, “Do you know… Chinese?”
Feng Ling was startled. “I do.”
The little boy nodded hard and suddenly pointed to the road in the town. “There…”
“What’s going on there?”
“There’s… a… who knows Chinese…”
Hearing this, Feng Ling didn’t ask any more questions. She nodded gratefully at the little boy and parked the car in an open space that wouldn’t affect their entry. Then she took out some food for the little boy and asked him to look at the car for a while. She then explained that she wasn’t a bad person and wouldn’t hurt them. She told him not to be afraid of her and then quickly walked in the direction he mentioned.
When she arrived outside the house, she didn’t expect to see a typical red word ‘Fu’ in front of this family’s courtyard. It looked a bit old and should have been pasted during the New Year. It had been many months since then, and the red and black characters had faded.
And from the looks of it, the words were written by the owner of this place. They were not very nice to look at, but they were at least Chinese.
Feng Ling knocked on the door. After a long time, about four or five minutes, an elder with gray hair in her seventies came out. Her back was heavily hunchbacked and she needed to raise her head to look at her. She stared at her for a long time, staring at the color of her skin and hair. After a long while, she said in Chinese with surprise, “You…”
“Hello, granny. Sorry for disturbing you,” Feng Ling said. “I heard that there’s a granny here who knows Chinese, so I came here rashly. I’m sorry for disturbing you, but I have something urgent to attend to, so I had to…”
The old lady saw that she was polite and nodded. She turned around unhurriedly and walked into the courtyard with her walking stick. “Come in and sit.”
Feng Ling was very anxious, but seeing that the old lady couldn’t rush her, she walked in.
“Recently, this lousy farm is really interesting… There has never been a place where Chinese people come in and out, but now there’s a Chinese…”
Feng Ling’s brows twitched.
At this moment, the granny turned around and glanced at her. “What urgent matter do you have?”
“A friend of mine was seriously injured by the war in Jerusalem. He must have been washed down the river. Everyone thought he was dead. I couldn’t accept this result, so I came all the way here and found that the end of the river was near here, so I…” Feng Ling paused and reorganized her emotions and words.” I guessed that he would be here. I wanted to look for him here, but the people here are illiterate and can’t communicate in English, but I didn’t expect that there would be a granny who can speak Chinese…”
“Ah, I came here when I was very young.” The old lady’s voice was old, and her words were unhurried. “When I was young… At that time, we didn’t have much freedom to love. I was forced to marry at home, and in a fit of anger, I escaped. I used that little bit of money to escape to Europe, and then I wandered all the way here… At that time, there were still a lot of people in this farm, and it was a very prosperous farm. However, the war became too frequent, and the dead and the escapees became so desolate. I married a farmer here, had a child, and had a granddaughter. I lived here for generations. Did you come into contact with the children wandering here? Only those children often came to look for me to eat, and they also learned some Chinese.”
Feng Ling nodded. “Yes.”
The old granny nodded and stood there with her walking stick. After thinking for a while, she said, “Is the person you’re looking for a man?”