"Chapter 7"
"..."
"Just as I was about to head to Sealed Gate Village, Qi Ning called. He had actually received a message from Zhong Cai, but it contained only a place name."
"I was glad to have someone else come to Sealed Gate Village, so we arranged to meet and set off together."
"After four hours of driving, we reached the farthest point accessible by car. The navigation map showed no route to Sealed Gate Village."
"We found a friendly-looking household and parked in their courtyard. While we were there, I asked the old man who lived there about Sealed Gate Village."
"The old man's mood visibly changed at the mention of Sealed Gate Village. He urged me not to go there, but when I asked why, he couldn't give me a clear answer."
"I had been about to leave, but I felt we should learn more about the place where Zhong Cai was trapped, so I raised the parking fee to five hundred."
"The old man repaid our generosity with kindness, and we learned a few things about Sealed Gate Village from him."
"Sealed Gate Village was called a village, but it wouldn't have been wrong to call it a nursing home. Apart from elderly people nearing the ends of their lives, there wasn't a single young person there."
"According to the old man, this tradition in Sealed Gate Village had continued for around fifty years. At the very least, he had heard stories about it when he was young."
"The old man didn't know why things had turned out that way. All he knew was that Sealed Gate Village had once had a thriving population, but it had declined after a mass relocation."
"Strangely, after that relocation, older people who had lost their spouses would be sent