"Chen Feng, did I hear you correctly? You're against Wuli Village buying wives? Other towns all encourage those who can't afford to marry to buy wives, but with you, you're against it? Poor people can't afford to get married, so they use their life savings to buy a wife and live a stable life. I think that's quite good." Cheng Lu asked, looking puzzled.
"On the surface, that's indeed how it is. But the problem is, we are in leadership. We can't just look at the surface when we address issues. Think about it, if our government supports this, won't the practice of buying wives just escalate?"
"Chen Feng, to be honest, if it really escalates, it might not be a bad thing. At least there will be fewer bachelors, and society will be more stable."
"But have you ever thought about it? If this situation continues to spread, it will be an absolute disaster for women. You are also a woman. Do you want to be sold and bought like livestock? Even if it's just being treated like livestock, it's at most physically tiring. But once a woman is trafficked, along the way, who knows how many men will defile her..." Chen Feng explained patiently.
"Chen Feng, I'm sorry. I was too naive. I thought women were willing." Cheng Lu replied guiltily.
"If they were willing, then the term 'buying wives' wouldn't exist."
"Since that's the case, Chen Feng, then let's quickly call the police." Cheng Lu said anxiously.
"Calling the police is useless." Chen Feng shook his head.
"Trafficking is illegal. Why would calling the police be useless?" Cheng Lu asked, confused.
"Local protectionism! There are so many bachelors in the local area. They're afraid of the bachelors causing trouble, so they turn a blind eye to them buying wives. Furthermore, if you really go to the village to rescue trafficked women, the entire village will gang up on you, and you won't be able to take away the trafficked women. Based on the principle of 'better to do less than more,' they basically won't get involved."
"How can it be so dark?" Cheng Lu's worldview shattered.
"This isn't a matter of being dark or not, it's a real-world problem. Men without wives will definitely find all sorts of ways to get a wife!" Chen Feng replied solemnly.
"How is it a real-world problem?" Cheng Lu asked, confused.
"Miss Cheng, you have to understand that Chinese men are very obsessed with marriage. They always feel that they can't get through a single moment without a woman by their side. Therefore, they find all sorts of ways to bring a woman home."
"Are you a Chinese man? Why do I feel like you don't have such base desires? With your qualifications, let alone one wife, ten wives wouldn't be a problem." Cheng Lu retorted.
"Cheng Lu, please, don't compare me to them. I have ambitions. If I didn't have ambitions, I might have already married and had children." Chen Feng replied as he drove.
"Tell me, if you didn't have ambitions, who would you marry?" Cheng Lu stared intently at Chen Feng.
Chen Feng only then realized he had gone a bit too far with the joke and quickly tried to cover it up.
"Of course, I'd marry you. Be a live-in son-in-law in your Cheng family, eating off your family for life. That wouldn't be bad either."
"You can start eating now." Cheng Lu replied instinctively.
"Miss Cheng, if I had no feelings for you at all, I could immediately start eating off the Cheng family. But the problem is, reality isn't like that. You are so beautiful and smart. My mind is full of you. How could I bear to let you be called someone who married a freeloader?" Chen Feng explained calmly.
Cheng Lu was dazed by Chen Feng's sweet talk, her eyes full of infatuation.
Soon, the car arrived at the village committee building. Chen Feng didn't get out, letting Cheng Lu go down by herself to talk to them. With a woman going, they might have less resistance.
About half an hour later, Cheng Lu returned to the car, looking dejected.
"How was it?" Chen Feng asked directly.
"It was like talking to a wall. They insisted that buying wives was legal. Hand over the money, hand over the goods. No one can take their wives away. The money for buying wives is their life savings. Anyone who forcibly takes their wives will fight them to the death! They looked so fierce, I was almost scared to death," Cheng Lu said with lingering fear.
"It seems we have to go back first." Chen Feng sighed deeply.
"Go back first? Aren't we going to rescue those unfortunate trafficked women? I heard them say several of the trafficked women were college students. To be oppressed in the countryside like this for their entire lives, it's truly wicked." Cheng Lu's eyes welled up with tears.
To be honest, if Chen Feng hadn't brought her along today, she would never have believed that there was such a heinous dark side in peacetime.
"Miss Cheng, I discovered this matter first. How could I not know the situation here? But even if I can't stand it, I have to endure. With just the two of us, even if we fought to the death, we couldn't take away even one trafficked woman. We have to go back and figure out a plan." Chen Feng explained.
Cheng Lu, upon hearing this, felt it was very reasonable. The men in this village were like madmen. As soon as the topic of taking away women was brought up, they became menacing.
A short while later, the two of them drove back to the Mingshan Town government.
"Chen Feng, I think we should go to the town police station now and have them send people to rescue those trafficked women." Cheng Lu suggested.
"If it were a developed village, bringing the police would solve the problem. But as you saw earlier, Wuli Village is a very poor village with many difficult villagers. If the police personnel go there, with so many difficult villagers, they won't be able to control them. Besides, the town police station doesn't want to get involved in this matter." Chen Feng sighed deeply.
"Chen Feng, if that's the case, is there no solution at all? Are those trafficked women really going to live in hell on earth forever?" Cheng Lu asked emotionally.
"We can only use their own methods against them." Chen Feng replied thoughtfully.
To be honest, before the Wuli Village incident, Chen Feng had already considered such issues. The Chinese film "Blind Mountain" depicted cases of women trafficking in remote mountainous areas, and the ending was very poignant. It was precisely because of the entire village's obstruction that the trafficked women could not be rescued. Since then, he had been pondering a question: if he were a grassroots leader, how would he resolve such issues? After thinking for several years, he finally came up with the proper solution of "using their own methods against them."
"Using their own methods against them? What kind of method is that?" Cheng Lu asked curiously.
"It's very simple. Let the families of the trafficked women bring people from their villages to take away the trafficked women. When people from one village confront people from another village, it depends on who has the more justifiable cause."
When Chen Feng explained it this way, Cheng Lu was filled with admiration. The problem of rescuing trafficked women was resolved by Chen Feng with such ease.
"By the way, Chen Feng, they are coming all the way from afar. How will the entire village of the trafficked women's families come?" Cheng Lu tentatively asked.
"It's simple. Mingshan Town can charter several luxury buses and invite the entire villagers of the trafficked women to come. When villagers from several villages come together, the momentum will definitely be greater than that of the Wuli Village villagers," Chen Feng said calmly.
"This approach is good, but the problem is, will Mingshan Town allocate the budget for this?" Cheng Lu asked with difficulty.