Mr. Fang pursed his lips, unable to argue with Liu Yufei since every word struck close to his heart. Zhao Xinli waved his hand and approached with a smile.
"Mr. Fang, don’t worry or get upset. Mrs. Fei’s identity as a tourist makes her the safest among us. We’ve been here for several days, and whether it’s the rchants or any of the locals, when they hear our accents, they try to speak Mandarin. They’re extrely welcoming, almost to the point of being too much.
When we visited the Colorful Danxia area, although it was sparsely populated, we encountered many herders during our drive. From a distance, they greeted us and asked for photos together, even offering us food and drink. The locals are indeed very simple and honest. They understand that these tourists bring them money and help boost the local economy. They welco us from the bottom of their hearts."
"We’re in the 21st century, not an age where people can’t recognize characters or live in isolation. Don’t talk to about the ideology and beliefs of suffering in this life for happiness in the next. That’s a vision from when tis were tough. Now, who doesn’t know to live in the present and change their lives with their own efforts? Why endure hardship and cultivate oneself for a future life when it’s uncertain if one will even be human? Isn’t it better to enjoy life through one’s own hard work?"
You have to admit, Mr. Zhao has a real knack for comforting people.
Although there are still disputes over grazing and other issues at present, and occasionally even ard fights, doesn’t it all boil down to money at its core?
During the early days of the establishnt of the nation here, in order to respect ethnic characteristics and because there was no extra money for settling their lives, the nomadic migrations were rely to let the livestock graze more so that they could trade pastoral products for necessary materials.
Now, there are brick and tiled houses everywhere, and grazing is done collectively in cooperatives. They scientifically manage the grasslands, harvesting fodder for feeding, and add various grains and necessary feeds so that cows and sheep won’t die of minor illnesses.
Life is affluent, with many families building small western-style houses, owning cars, and buying properties in the cities. So people have even gone out to broaden their horizons and started their own tourism and unique cultural industries."
Mr. Fang looked at Mr. Zhao and burst out laughing.
"I didn’t expect that after just three days, Mr. Zhao has seen through things more clearly than I have. Just like the elder lady said, there hasn’t been any ritual activity here for sixty years.
The reason is actually very simple, it’s unnecessary. What family clan, what next life, what prayers—none of it is as practical as doing sothing solid and real for oneself.
If you want to disguise yourselves as tourists to investigate, I won’t oppose it, but we’ll have our people follow at a safe distance for protection, to prevent any accidents, and to ensure we can provide support if necessary."
Liu Yufei gave an OK gesture while Zhou Ning pursed her lips, remaining silent for so ti.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, what are you thinking?"
Zhou Ning shook her head.
"It’s not sothing I thought of, but rather I feel that, according to the elder lady, if these holy knives genuinely have the power to summon Asura through ritual activities, then that would count as a heretical cult practising deification.
Wouldn’t such a thing need to spread, to have believers? This place is considered the origin, yet without followers, running such a ceremony alone is aningless, isn’t it?
But from the expression on the elder lady’s face, it seems that such events have never occurred around Ganzhou. Even though this area is called Ganzhou Su’nan Yugur Autonomous County, the map shows there are many ethnic enclaves around, where beliefs are inherently complex. How could a cult without basis propagate itself?"
Everyone fell silent. The question posed by Zhou Ning was very crucial. No matter how mysterious and solemn the cult is, if no one has heard of it, then what kind of heretical cult is it, and what influence does it have?
Zhou Ning paused for a mont, then continued:
"I believe we can report this matter and request information on heretical cult organizations within Hua Country’s borders over the last twenty years, even those located in areas separate from Hua Country, to see if there are similar beliefs.
Moreover, didn’t Mr. Fang contact people from the religious association? They might have their own views on this. We need to move forward with the process of opening the coffins."
We can also conduct a second examination of the scene and retrieve the remaining cocoons, continuing to explore the western cave—after all, there’s a draft in there, which makes think there’s another exit."
Fang Dongsheng was overwheld and made a note before saying:
"In that case, I’ll invite our bureau chief over right away and hold a special case eting. Whether it’s reporting for information on the "Xie teaching" or embarking on a second examination, we need the support and advancent of our leaders. As for the coffins, that’s an easier matter. What do you all think?"
Liu Yufei waved her hand.
"We have no objections, it’s getting late, so let’s hurry up and arrange it so that we can split into two groups to follow up with the investigation early tomorrow morning—after all, I don’t want to lose our only lead."
Fang Dongsheng went to make a call for instructions; Liu Yufei set out to arrange the following day’s tracking efforts. She was ready to leave at any mont, but Chen Cheng was not a professional, so how to appease and motivate him was sothing Liu Yufei would need to discuss.
Mr. Zhao followed Zhou Ning; as they returned to the small two-story building at the back, so people were observing around the Lu Feier formula bucket, while others were examining Zhu Xingxing’s autopsy records in front of a whiteboard.
Mr. Qu was huddled over his laptop, seemingly busy with sothing along with Xia Momo. Peng Shinian stood beside him, joyfully observing through the microscope—probably still those plants.
Mr. Zhao cleared his throat towards Mr. Qu, prompting everyone to turn their heads. Mr. Zhao glared at them.
"What are you looking at? Get back to your own work."
Zhu Xingxing and Xia Momo followed him, curiously looking at Mr. Zhao. He gave them a look and the group moved next door, closing the door behind them. Zhu Xingxing eagerly asked:
"It seems that old lady has left. What did you find out?"
"Don’t ask so much. The old lady said a lot; it’s not sothing I can explain in a few words. But get ready, we’re going to revisit that cave for inspection, and this ti, there will be more personnel."
Xia Momo turned her laptop around for everyone to see.
"Mr. Qu and I adjusted the software paraters; these are the facial reconstruction results of two mummified bodies. After all, this is our first ti doing facial reconstructions on individuals under ten years old, but look at the faces of these two children—don’t they look different from the Han ethnicity?"
Zhou Ning leaned in closer; the two children clearly had deep-set eyes and pronounced nose bridges. Despite the dehydration from prolonged starvation, the shape of their nose bridges and the tips of their noses clearly resembled those of minority ethnicities from the Tianshan region, more precisely, the bloodlines of the Europa race.
After all, the local Yugu People didn’t have such features; instead, Yugu features were similar to those of Mongolian People, with the epicanthic fold covering the lacrimal caruncle, the outer corner of the eye higher than the inner corner, prominent cheekbones, and a less protruding jawline.
"The appearance of these two children leans toward the minority ethnicities from the Tianshan region. I’m not sure if we could extract DNA from the samples we previously sent for testing, but at least we can do a kinship comparison."
Xia Momo looked up at Zhou Ning and was sowhat surprised to see him speak so calmly.
"Aren’t you surprised? We just opened up the mummified remains’ hair—it’s all brownish in its natural color, uncolored. The hair at the temples, behind the ears, and the back of the neck, as well as the curly texture, they both had natural curls. And after scanning, we found that all their nails had longitudinal striations."
Zhu Xingxing, who was standing by, quickly added:
"Their hair was also dry and frizzy, the few remaining molars in their mouths were severely worn down, and if you look closely at the X-ray, even though the child appears to be six or seven years old, there are less than six permanent tooth buds—which indicates severe developntal delay."
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