His decision to leave the village was not a whim.

On the day his mother and father were buried, he hid behind the coffin and cried, and overheard the village chief and his group chatting.

The funeral was organized by the village chief. The moon was very full that night, and my father's body was already white and swollen and was placed in the coffin.

After the adults left, only the village chief and a few confidants were left.

"We have to discuss what to do after the watch."

The village chief discussed quietly with a few people.

"From now on, it will cost money to go to school, eat, and marry a wife. Who will pay for it?"

Several people started chattering and became a little noisy for a while.

"If you want me to tell you, each family should raise them for a while, taking turns. It won't cost much even if the children are young."

"I think it's better to stay in the same family. If the money is shared evenly, the children won't be able to eat much."

"I don't agree to take turns taking care of her. You have harmed someone. Her son is dazzling in front of your eyes all day long. You can't stand it."

The old patriarch shouted angrily.

"Shut up! I told you he fell down by himself!"

The person who spoke was scolded, and his tone became a little humble.

"We are all our own people, what can we pretend to be? We were all on the same boat at that time, and you all took action!"

The old village chief stood up and slapped the man.

"Pa—" a crisp sound.

The whole world is quiet.

"I'm warning you, you idiot, take this matter into the coffin! Don't go out and talk nonsense!"

The man was beaten and felt extremely wronged.

There was someone comforting me.

"His sacrifice was not in vain. Didn't we win? Without his sacrifice, those people could not have been driven away."

His voice suddenly dropped a bit.

"We help take care of his son. It's a retaliation."

Yuan Qi's mind went blank.

He understood every word.

It turned out that it was not an accident that my father fell into the water. It was these people who pushed him down.

As for why, it's simple.

An accident is needed to drive away the outsiders and protect this sea area.

The blame falls on those outsiders.

Several people chatted until late that night.

Yuan Qi never left the coffin, and no one knew he was there.

Later, in the middle of the night, with the moon high in the sky, someone suddenly ran in and shouted.

"Come and see! The clams have landed!"

The village chief threw the pipe aside and took the people out to see.

Yuan Qi heard the sound and followed him out.

He heard from his father that old clams would come to the shore with their shells open as if they were basking in the moon.

The villagers came to the shore and saw not just one, but several.

There are losers who are flattering in front of the village chief.

"This is a sign of a good harvest! Village chief, we will definitely make a lot of money this year."

The village chief's nose and eyes wrinkled up with laughter.

"It's indeed a good sign. Let's all go home and get some tributes and pay our respects by the side!"

Yuan Qi thought to himself, how ridiculous.

Your victory was won at the cost of human life.

Your god is the clam.

He had an idea in his mind and ran home after saying that.

He opened the jar of wine brewed by his father and carried it on his shoulder.

Move to the shore step by step.

That night he poured wine over every clam.

Holding the huozhezi in his hand, when he saw people from the village coming, he ran over and lit them one by one.

He personally lit the clams that were the lifeblood of the villagers.

The clam was burned so hard that it slammed its shell shut.

The people in the village were immediately dumbfounded.

"Whoever is causing trouble there! Get out of here!"

The moonlight shone brightly, making it difficult to see faces from above.

No one knew he did it that day.

Later, he pretended to be fine, and several families took turns raising him.

He is not polite, eats the best, wears the best, he knows these people owe him!

Later he was admitted to college and the village chief gave him a sum of money.

That was his tuition for four years.

"If you pass the exam, don't come back."

The village chief looked at him for the last time and said only these words.

He really never went back.

No matter how hard it is outside, when I think of that place, there are only four words that come to mind.

That damn place.

After gathering his thoughts, Yuan Qi drove to Mo's house.

After helping to move things into the car, the three of them decided to skip lunch and set off directly.

Yuan Qi was still a little uneasy, after all, he was the one who said he would not go back.

"How about I buy a wig? I'm afraid of being recognized."

Ruan Xia was sitting in the back seat, leaning forward and looking at Yuan Qi with her head tilted.

"You call it homely cowardice, I understand, but a wig is not necessary."

After so many years, the village chief will not still remember those words.

Besides, there is no reason not to let people go home.

Ruan Xia fell asleep on the road. The road was long. Mo Tingye and Yuan Qi drove alternately, and the back seat became her territory.

She woke up from sleep, and her body's spiritual roots were restored through her sleep, which made her unable to control her sleepiness.

After driving for two days, the car finally arrived at Mogan Village. The rising sun hung like an egg yolk on the sea.

Yuan Qi got off the bus first.

He froze.

There is no memory of smoke and bustling morning market.

There is no crowing of cocks or barking of dogs, or even popularity.

Those houses were dilapidated and looked like they had not been inhabited for a long time. Some of them were still locked, and some simply had their doors open, and the doors were rotten.

More real than a dream, that ghost place has truly become a ghost place.

Yuan Qi cried "Wow".

He knelt at the entrance of the village and cried loudly.

"Where are the people? Where are all the people!"

His face turned pale, obviously unable to accept this fact.

His cries attracted fishermen on the shore, and some people came up to ask.

"What's wrong? Are you looking for someone?"

Mo Tingye stepped forward and asked, "Where are the people in this village?"

The fisherman brother thought for a moment.

"Is this your first time here? Everyone in this village has left. They were vacated a few years ago."

Ruan Xia glanced at the rough sea.

"Why did you move away? What happened to the village?"

The fisherman brother scratched his head.

"I haven't heard anything happened. I'm from a neighboring village. I heard that one year they fought for land from outsiders and people died. The clams were even burned. After that, they gradually stopped producing pearls."

"If you don't produce pearls, you can only go out to work, and people will gradually leave."

"If you make money outside, you won't come back. Now that there are so many opportunities outside, who would want to guard a run-down village."

Yuan Qi felt sluggish. The year he left, he heard people in the village say that this sea was probably ruined.

I didn’t expect that I would be completely unable to produce anything later.

"What about the village chief?"

Yuan Qi grabbed the fisherman uncle and asked excitedly.

"Village chief, he refused to leave. I heard that he went out to sea with his ancestral tablet on a fifteenth night. He said that the goddess likes to bask in the moon when the moon is full, and he will definitely find the goddess to seek refuge."

"Then, did he see the goddess?"

Ruan Xia asked curiously.

She knew in her heart that everything in the world had its own rules.

The lack of pearl production must be due to over-exploitation in the past, and it is not karma.

The fisherman uncle thought for a moment.

"There was no goddess, and the ancestral tablets failed to protect him. The boat capsized not long after he reached the sea."

Yuan Qi's heart skipped a beat.

"After guarding the village for a lifetime, no one even collected the bones."

"Why--"

The fisherman uncle sighed, shook his head and walked away.

Yuan Qi was helped up by Mo Tingye, his face already full of tears.

Ruan Xia handed him a bottle of water.

"Don't be sad, this is inevitable, any resource may be depleted."

Yuan Qi adjusted his mood and stood up.

"Let's go, I'll take you to the ancestral hall. There is a sculpture of the goddess there."