Liu Lanhua's heart sank. She'd figured it out today—Zhao Nuanyue might be young, but she was clever. If not for her, even with Yang Guanghui's help, they never would have found Wang Yuan and Li Qiong so quickly.
"Comrade Zhao Nuanyue, if there are any problems, the organization will handle them for you. You mustn't act rashly and bring shame to our village," Liu Lanhua said. Her son was about to move to the city, and her daughter was hoping to get a job in a factory. If such a terrible rumor were to spread about the village now, their futures would surely be affected.
Zhao Nuanyue wasn't a victim herself, and though she was furious, she couldn't completely ignore the villagers' plea to save face. Still, even if she were willing to let it go, she had to respect the wishes of Wang Yuan and Li Qiong—especially Wang Yuan.
"Actually, ever since I came to Nianqiao Village, I've thought the villagers here were pretty nice," Zhao Nuanyue answered. "But... but this is just terrifying... Li Qiong was lucky, she was only stripped of her clothes and wasn't violated. But Wang Yuan? She came to Nianqiao Village, an innocent girl answering the country's call, and this happened to her. How is she supposed to live with this?!"
Seeing that the young woman didn't seem to insist on publicizing the matter, Li Guihua and Liu Lanhua breathed a sigh of relief. As for Li Qiong and Wang Yuan, they would find a way to make it up to them.
"Comrade Zhao Nuanyue, as long as you keep quiet, the village will make sure you're taken care of. As for Wang Yuan and Li Qiong, the village will not only find the culprit but also give them compensation," Li Guihua said hastily, trying to placate Zhao Nuanyue first.
'Zhao Nuanyue understood. To protect its reputation, Nianqiao Village was going to cover this up, pretend nothing happened, and then just give Li Qiong and Wang Yuan some compensation.'
About an hour later, Li Qiong and Wang Yuan groggily came to. They looked around. 'We were working... how did we end up back home in bed?'
"Nuanyue, we haven't finished our work for the day. How are we back home?" Wang Yuan asked, puzzled. She rubbed her head, her whole body feeling off. "My head is so dizzy, I feel like I'm sick. Oh, and my body... why does it ache so much? It feels like a stone roller ran over me..."
Before she could finish, the color drained from Wang Yuan's face. In an instant, she understood what had happened to her... and what she had lost.
"SOB SOB SOB..." Wang Yuan wailed. "Oh, heavens... how am I supposed to live now!"
With that, she scrambled up and lunged for the wall, intent on killing herself.
Liu Lanhua and Li Guihua jumped in fright. 'If Wang Yuan actually dies, there'll be a dead body. No method on earth could cover that up.'
The two of them rushed to grab Wang Yuan, stopping her from hitting the wall. She could only collapse into miserable, howling sobs.
Li Qiong, who had also just woken up, didn't understand what was happening with Wang Yuan. "Yuan, what's wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?" she asked.
Wang Yuan cried inconsolably. For an innocent, unmarried girl, how could she face the future!
"I've been ruined! I don't want to live! How can I go on living..." Wang Yuan wailed, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. 'This time in the countryside had taught her life was bitter, but she thought she could endure it if she just gritted her teeth. But to think her innocence would be stolen... The worst part was, she didn't even know who did it, so she couldn't even take revenge!'
Li Qiong froze. 'I was with Wang Yuan right before I passed out,' she thought. 'If Wang Yuan was violated... then what happened to me?'
Li Qiong quickly took stock of her own body. Other than a slight dizziness, she didn't feel anything physically wrong. Only then did she relax, just a little.
"Nuanyue, what on earth happened?" Li Qiong asked, turning to Zhao Nuanyue. At a time like this, she didn't trust any of the villagers.
Li Guihua and Liu Lanhua silently pleaded with their eyes for Zhao Nuanyue to stay quiet, but Zhao Nuanyue acted as if she didn't see them. Her own eyes red, she choked out, "You were drugged and taken to a cave. Wang Yuan was... and you, they stripped you of your clothes. The man hadn't gotten a chance to... to do anything worse... At lunchtime, Yang and I noticed you hadn't returned. We were worried something had happened, so we went looking for you. We never imagined..."
Zhao Nuanyue told them the whole story. 'No matter what kind of compensation they might get, Wang Yuan and Li Qiong deserve to know the truth at this moment.'
Upon hearing this, Li Qiong joined Wang Yuan in her wailing. Zhao Nuanyue empathized so deeply that she began to cry along with them, as if she were the one who had been wronged.
Liu Lanhua's guilty conscience flared. She was terrified that Wang Yuan and Li Qiong would make a huge scene, threatening suicide. That would force the village to conduct a serious investigation, and digging into this would unearth all sorts of other dirt. 'If they catch Wang Dadan, I'll be exposed too,' she thought frantically. 'Forget sending my son to the city or my daughter to the factory—I'll be lucky to stay out of prison.'
The thought terrified Liu Lanhua.
However, the thought that the village leadership also wanted a cover-up gave her a sliver of hope that she might just get lucky.
"We scared him off! The bastard got away! Tch, such rotten luck!" Liu Lanhua said hurriedly. "I have to ask, you two girls, who did you offend? For someone to dare to treat you like this."
Compared to Li Guihua, Liu Lanhua's demeanor was far more agitated.
"Those heartless monsters! Why don't they just drop dead! Why doesn't heaven strike them down with lightning!" Wang Yuan sobbed, snot and tears streaming down her face. "We work diligently every day, never daring to slack off. We haven't offended anyone! But we... we..."
Li Guihua frowned, her gaze shifting to Liu Lanhua. 'That woman seems even more frantic than I am,' she thought. 'Is she genuinely concerned for these two girls? I doubt she's that kind-hearted.'
"Don't cry for now, and stop talking about dying. Let's focus on catching the person who did this," Li Guihua said, trying to redirect their focus. 'If we can just get through the next few days, we can soothe them with some compensation later,' she thought. 'Then these two volunteers will probably stop this talk of suicide.' "Knockout drugs are usually either ingested or inhaled. Think hard. Who did you run into today? What did you eat or drink?"
Li Guihua was more interested in details than in empty words.
Wang Yuan was too grief-stricken to recall anything clearly.
So Li Qiong wiped away her tears and thought hard. "We had breakfast at the temple this morning. We all ate together, so that should be fine. Then we brought water with us in flasks and drank from them twice, but we didn't pass out either time. Then, Da Zhu's wife told us to go fishing in the stream north of the village, but halfway there, she had to go do something else and told us to carry on by ourselves. After that, we ran into Aunt Liu. We chatted for a bit, then she went off to do her own thing. We continued north, hoping to catch a few more fish... After that... I don't remember anything after that."