Chapter 452: Snail Woman?
Led by the two little boys, Alyssa pushed open the door.
The layout of the cave dwelling is very simple, with only a few necessities for daily life.
Under the dim kerosene lamp, a strange-looking woman could be seen sitting cross-legged by the wall, busy with something.
The woman's back is bulging, looking like a hunchback from a distance.
The clothes that were too small could only cover half of the bulge, and the rest was exposed to the air and reflected a dull shimmer under the kerosene lamp.
It was a huge conch shell.
The shape is a bit like a snail, but the color is not as simple as a snail, and is much more colorful.
When she heard the sound of the door opening, the woman stopped working and immediately looked back.
The tired face was full of fear.
"I-I've finished my work, chopped the firewood, and cleaned the house..."
"The clothes, the clothes are torn, they need to be mended, otherwise, they will become even more torn..."
Hearing these stumbling words, before Alyssa could speak, the two children leading the way spoke first:
"Our conch mother has a bad mind and talks confusingly."
"I often remember things wrong and make mistakes from time to time, so I get a good beating from my father!"
"Conch mother is so stupid, hahaha, so stupid!"
"Bah, you are dirty and stupid, hahaha..."
The two children were talking nonsense and unscrupulously.
Alyssa frowned:
"She is your mother after all, how can you say this to her?"
"She is our mother, yes, but she is also a conch girl." The two children looked serious and said in unison:
"Dad said that the Conch girls are not human beings, they are tools sent by God to compensate the Conch Woman Village!"
"You guys!" The good-tempered Alyssa was so angry that she opened her mouth to say something else.
But the two children didn't give her a chance.
They each made a face and disappeared with a smile.
Only the cat-eared girl and the snail woman were left looking at each other.
After a long silence, Alyssa adjusted her mood before trying to introduce herself:
"Hello, my name is Alyssa."
"Guest? It's a guest..." The snail woman had a blank expression on her face and kept mumbling.
After a long time, he suddenly screamed:
"Oops! It's a guest!"
"I'm sorry guest, I'll pour you tea right away..."
With that said, the snail woman threw away the clothes she was still mending and struggled to get up from the ground.
"Uh, no need, just chat with me for a while."
Alyssa stopped her quickly and entered the house slowly.
"Chat, chat... ok, ok..."
The snail woman reacted for a while before a smile broke out on her face.
She looked around cautiously, and finally pulled out a small stool from the corner that looked pretty good.
It's just that the four legs of this stool are of different lengths, making it unstable on the ground and even more uncomfortable to sit on.
The stool creaked at the slightest movement.
The snail woman looked embarrassed and wanted to give Alyssa a different one.
But I searched all over the house and couldn't find a better stool than this one.
"It's okay, this is fine."
The cat-eared girl said softly.
I glanced at the strategy on the panel and went straight to the topic:
"I am a female college student in the journalism department. The main purpose of coming to Luohu Village this time is to interview Luohu women like you."
"Then before we begin, please tell me your name."
"Name, name?" The snail woman's cloudy eyes were filled with confusion:
"I don't know what my name is, it's too long ago..."
"Forgot?" Alyssa was stunned.
Although she had already briefly understood the story background of [Conch Girl] through the strategy given by Lu Li on the data panel.
But when she learned that the snail woman in the village chief's house had forgotten her own name, she was still shocked.
Even the Paru people, who have been slaves for generations, have their own names.
No matter how simple or perfunctory it is,
There are all of them.
"Then what does the village chief usually call you? There should be a title, right?" Alyssa asked.
"Oh, yes." The snail woman nodded dullly and smiled sheepishly:
"He usually calls me 'pot cook' or 'that aunt'."
"Whenever he calls, I know he's calling me."
"Okay..." Alyssa frowned more and more.
She found that her brows had not relaxed since she entered the house and saw the snail woman.
"I didn't expect that you gave birth to seven children for the village chief, and he still doesn't care about you so much."
This was an unintentional sentiment from the heart, but it made the dull snail woman excited instantly:
"I-I gave birth to more than seven children for him!"
"In fifteen years, I gave him fifteen children!"
"But, but... only seven survived, only seven!"
"Luofu Village, hehehe, as long as you are a leader...only those who can carry on the family line are worthy of growing up..."
"For the other eight, living is a waste of food! It's better to die and be done with it..."
"Fifteen..." Alyssa's heart trembled and she confirmed in disbelief:
"What about the other eight, all dead?"
The snail woman did not answer, but kept repeating:
“Once it’s over, it’s over, it’s over…”
Seeing that nothing could be found, Alyssa could only change the question:
"I heard that conch girls who have not given birth to children will escape back to Conch Pond. Do you still want to go back now?"
The snail woman shook her head slowly, her smile was still the same, but the bitterness in it was stronger:
"I won't go back, I can't go back... This is my life, my life is so bitter..."
"My child is here, my home is here, why do I go back to Conch Pond..."
"But you were forced!" Alyssa finally couldn't bear it anymore and raised her voice:
"If I can take you back, would you be willing?"
The snail woman raised her head mechanically, her mouth slightly opened, like a fish that has been thirsty for many years:
"Go back, go back to Conch Pond?"
"Yes! Go back to Conch Pond!" Alyssa nodded heavily.
The next second,
The snail woman's expression was visibly frightened!
She shook her head desperately, and her body kept shrinking back.
The shell behind her rubbed against the ground, making an uncomfortable sound.
"I won't go back, I don't want to go back!"
"The Conch Pond is full of corpses, all of them are children's corpses!"
"Hehe, there are also my eight children, they are all in the pond..."
"Yes! They were thrown in as soon as they were born, dedicated to the Conch God! Hahaha..."
"I'm already very obedient... Don't force me, please, don't hit me anymore!!"
"I will be more obedient, I promise I will be more obedient, don't kill me, I don't want to become raw material..."
In the end, the Conch Woman huddled in the corner, talking incoherently.
No matter how Alyssa asked, she couldn't get anything out of her.
She seemed to have become a madman who couldn't communicate.
"Alas..."
Alyssa's cat ears drooped down, she got up from the chair, and looked around again.
I don't know if chatting with the Conch Woman triggered something.
At this moment, Alyssa only felt that the dim kerosene lamp was brighter.
Some details on the mud wall that was originally unclear were exposed in front of her.
The deep and shallow scratches were like being scratched out with fingernails in despair.
The whole wall is covered with crooked "escape"!
…
