Seeing Chu Guodong finish browsing the photos, the middle-aged man continued, "About a month and a half ago, our village hosted a group of officials who claimed they were on a mission to city T. They stayed in our village for one night. The next morning, they had disappeared, and many people from our village went missing with them; now, only about ten of our able-bodied young men are left."
Gu Yanlin, listening to the middle-aged man's complaint, was just about to show sympathy when he heard the man continue:
"Just a few days ago, a team claiming to be soldiers passed through our area. Their vehicles were similar to yours. We treated them well, giving them a lot of food to help them and ask for their assistance in finding our people. The next day, they sneaked back and stole all the grains from our village's storehouse."
"If it weren't for our kids seeing them, we would still be in the dark, foolishly hoping they would help find our villagers, or at least give us some clues."
