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According to the village head, First Drain Village didn’t keep any dogs after the incident with the wild dogs hurting people. The only location where one could find a dog was at the convenience store near the highway. It was a rest stop for people using the highway. With the amount of traffic came potential danger so keeping a guard dog was understandable and even necessary. The village head told us that the convenience store’s owner's name was Zhang Ke. He had a wolfhound which was around 1.8 metres tall if it could stand upright. If we wanted to find a dog at First Drain Village, that should be the only one.

If that was not the dog, then it must be a dog from outside the village. But based on the evidence so far, the killer must live at First Drain Village or close to it. The village head said, “It’s already late noon now. We should hurry if we wish to investigate that convenience store. The trip to and fro will probably take a whole day. Based on the weather, we’ll be facing another heavy snowing night.” The village head looked at us and added, “I’m afraid you guys would have to stay here for a few more days.”

I lifted my head to study the dark sky. The thick clouds carried a lot of water vapour. A big snow was imminent. It felt like the sky was about to fall. It was quite suffocating. In fact, the whole village had been giving me a creepy feeling. I puffed hot breath against my palms and rubbed them together. I told them, “Then we better depart now. Looks like we’ll be staying at First Drain Village for the next few days. We should buy some everyday items like hotpacks and food when we’re at the convenience store.”

Guan Zhenglin’s face was red from the frost. She was still holding the arm. “We better find a place to refrigerate this arm first then.” The village head placed the arm into a cellar carved out from a slope and then led us to the convenience store on the east. When he came out from the cellar, he had a few old gloves with him. “I’m so sorry, how can I not notice this even though you’ve been here for so long. Put these on for now. We’ll buy some new pairs at the convenience store. We’ll put them on my tab.”

Gu Chen pushed the village head along the eastern path. The journey would take around another hour so we chatted to fill up the time. I asked, “Sir, why are there so many handicapped people in this village? Are all the villagers handicapped? Is it because those without handicapped emigrate from the village after they reach a certain age?”

The village head shook his head and explained slowly, “On the surface, the village might look like it doesn’t have any normal people but that’s not true. The ratio of normal people to handicapped people should be 3 to 7. For example, Sun Kangning’s father, he’s not handicapped. But his boy is born with just one arm, you saw that yourself. Outside this village, Sun Kangning would be treated differently. His father didn’t want him to be ostracized and bullied, so they moved here and settled.”

I nodded. “Meaning not all the villagers here are locals from First Drain Village?”

The village head pointed at a house not far away from us. “Like what I’ve told you, this village doesn’t have much but we do have plenty of houses. Even if there is a sudden migration, we have enough space to accommodate them. Since the start of the 80th century, the healthy villagers started to move out but the handicapped people began to move in.”

“Interesting.” Gu Chen couldn’t help himself but commented, “But in this case, wouldn’t it be hard to tell who would be taking care of whom? Does this really bring convenience to anyone?” Since Gu Chen was pushing the village head’s wheelchair, the latter naturally couldn’t see the former’s expression. In any case, the village head sighed, “I saw this little story in the newspaper and I will share it with you now. One day, an elderly man came on the public bus. He stopped before a young man but the latter didn’t move, showing no sign of giving up the seat.”

Gu Chen nodded. “The youth nowadays are getting ruder, taking care of our elderlies is basic moral.” The village head smiled as if waiting for Gu Chen to say that. He continued, “Yes, the other passengers on the bus told the young man the same thing. People sided with the old man and berated the young man. The young man’s face was red from the verbal onslaught and quickly surrendered his seat.” I could hear that there was more to this story. The village head continued, “But that was not the end of the story. The passengers felt like that was not enough punishment for the young man so they chased the young man down from the bus. The young man had to walk the rest of the way home. He sat down and rolled up his trousers to reveal the artificial limbs. He was a member of the handicapped society, but he didn’t have a word of complaint even when he was bullied.”

At this point, Gu Chen cut in, “But if that was the case, the young man should have shown his artificial leg to the others. If he explained himself, things wouldn’t get so awkward.”

The village head shook his head. “But after the young man got home, he started to laugh. He was very happy, Gu Chen, do you know why?”

“Happy?” Gu Chen clearly didn’t understand what the village head was trying to say. “Why would he be happy? He should be angry and sad about being misunderstood.”

The village head shook his head and explained, “He wasn’t angry or sad, he was overjoyed. This is the difference between you and me, we see the world in a different way. Do you know what is the most terrifying thing us handicapped people can ever see in a person’s eyes?” The village head’s tone slowed, “It’s not condescension but pity. Pity is man’s sincerest emotion, it’s a reflection of that mindset that you are different from me, specifically you are weaker and inferior than me. That is an emotion that cannot be faked. The young man was happy even though he was misunderstood because no one noticed he was different from them.”

We were silent. At that point, the village head continued, “Humans are social creatures, being different from others can sometimes be the biggest self-denial. Therefore, all the healthy people moved away and the handicapped outsiders moved in. As there are more and more handicapped people, the healthy people would see themselves as the abnormal ones, do you understand it now?” We nodded. “Therefore, in this village, like Sun Kangning said, you guys are the strange ones.” The village head smiled, “If Sun Kangning stays at this village for life, he’ll only think of himself as normal. But if he is to survive in the outside world, then he’ll be in the minority, and be told by the public that he is not normal.”

I was suddenly reminded of what Zhao Mingkun told me, sometimes unhappiness comes with knowing too much. Take for example, the North Korean citizens, they are shielded from the rest of the world. They are told that they are living in the best country in the world. But could we really say that they are not happy? Perhaps in their heart, they are happy. When everyone is asleep, and being awake is painful, perhaps dying in a constructed dream is the wish of most normal people.

Chief Zhou lamented, “Yes, different kinds of environments cultivate different worldviews and morality. What is normal and what is abnormal?” I saw helplessness and melancholy in the chief’s eyes.

“And that is how this village came to be.” The village head explained, “As more people knew of this place, they came here to settle. Of course, we have both healthy and handicapped villagers who left and lived a life beyond the confines of First Drain Village over the years as well.”

After hearing the village head’s story, I felt sour in my heart. I believed others had the same feeling. Different people would see the world differently. For example, people who were color blind wouldn’t be able to appreciate the nuances of colors as most of us could. Suddenly the village head turned to me and said, “So most of the time, do not just rely on guesswork. What you see might not be true. That is especially crucial to police officers.” Then he turned his head back and didn’t say anything else.

When he said that, there was a wealth of emotions in his eyes, like he was trying to tell me something. The statement itself was already leaden with meaning. But I had no idea whether that was just the village head’s lamentation or he had a hidden meaning behind it. The rest of the way we didn’t speak as we hurried to the convenience store. We finally reached the end of the road at around 3 pm and saw the store for ourselves. It wasn’t big, only about 100 cubic metres in size.

The exterior of the store was old. The walls were peeling to reveal the grey cement inside. Ads plastered the wall. A cloth banner hung on the wall, “Er Xiao Market.” All these details proved that this convenience store was quite old already. It was probably in business for decades already. The convenience store sat on the roadside, the north-south highway sat not far in front of it. Currently there was no traffic but that was expected considering the weather condition.

The village head pointed at Er Xiao Market and said, “The market owner is called Zhang Ke, but we all call him Er Xiao. He is the only one around here who keeps a dog.”