personal security.

Chapter 588 Strange Nation

Nong Lan was squatting under the tree thinking about something, when there was a rustling of leaves, Zhao Jianhui appeared in front of her with a bag of clothes in his hand.

Nong Lan opened the small bag and took a look, but saw that there was a white coat, black knee-length pants, and flat sandals with straps inside... Wrapping these clothes was actually a bright red kerchief.

Zhao Jianhui had already put on a white gown, straight trousers on his lower body, a pink ribbon tied around his waist, and a pair of camouflage high-waisted canvas shoes on his feet.That looks really ridiculous no matter how you look at it.

"Hurry up and try to see if it fits. I found it after searching several places." Zhao Jianhui sat under the tree and took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.Seeing Nong Lan looking over, she smiled a little embarrassedly: "Anyway, I was a thief once. Stealing clothes is also stealing, and stealing cigarettes is also stealing. I just took advantage of it."

"What are you thinking? I want to say that you must take good care of this lighter, maybe you can use it when you go forward." Nong Lan said while hiding behind a big tree, still wearing clothes.To her surprise, after she put on the clothes and shoes, she found that the size was just right for her figure, and even the shoes were not too big or too small.

Only then did he remember what he said just now, "Hurry up and try to see if it fits. I found it after picking out a few." This person really has a heart.It's a pity that he didn't measure his figure and the size of his little feet, and the stolen things fit so well.

Seeing Nong Lan coming out from behind the tree after passing on the clothes, Zhao Jianhui laughed happily: "Well, it's not bad, if your neck is longer, wear a few shiny gold collars, just like those in the village. You are more like the women in my house. No, you are much whiter than those people, and you are also more beautiful than those people..."

Nong Lan listened to him muttering to himself, in the voice was faintly praising himself for being good-looking, she couldn't help but secretly smiled, and suddenly realized, she asked in surprise, "What did you say? Most women wear gold collars and have long necks, don't they?"

"Yeah, all the women here wear a stack of gold collars around their necks, like giraffes. What's wrong, is there something wrong?"

"Oh, it turned out to be them. You met a very strange nation. It's just that there are very few people in this nation, probably only a few hundred." Nong Lan said with a smile.

The so-called peculiarity is that women of this ethnic group start wearing circles around their necks from the age of four to five, with six circles per layer, and the more layers the more beautiful the circles are as they grow older.The longest neck is 70 centimeters, which is as long as wearing 36 collars.The largest neck ring can reach more than ten kilograms.Their collars are generally made of brass, but also of pure gold.Their necks were collared for more than a decade, and they became accustomed to this support, and when the collar was removed, they would suffocate to death.

This ethnic tribe generally chooses gold-producing rivers and mountains as their residence, and the tribe makes a living by panning for gold.The chief led the men to follow the gold-producing secrets handed down from their ancestors to the inaccessible deep mountains to pan for gold, and the gold was distributed equally.Men take gold to Buddhist temples and exchange it with monks for money to support their families.Women weave cloth at home, take care of their children, and gather wild fruits.They believe in animism and worship nature.Men are good at alchemy and witchcraft, and women are good at singing and dancing.Women in marriage are quite independent. Each woman initially determines her ideal person according to her dreams, and then finally determines her by a divination method.

"Speaking of which, as long as there is a place where this ethnic group lives, it must be an inaccessible deep mountain and old forest, so how long will it take for us to go out?" Zhao Jianhui asked a little worried.

"I can't say that." Nong Lan shook her head and said.

"By the way, since women will suffocate to death if they take off the collar, why do they have to carry such a heavy copper ring?" Zhao Jianhui asked puzzled.

Nong Lan looked at the huts at the foot of the mountain, and said quietly: "Actually, no one knows the real reason why women of this ethnic group wear so many collars around their necks, but there is a legend that has always been circulated in our country. This is a very sad and tragic legend."

"This nation is called the Budang tribe. It has lived in the mountains of the Golden Triangle for generations and gathered in the form of tribes. At that time, the background was social turmoil. Tribes fought for each other, and the weak and the strong preyed on each other. Everyone wanted to occupy one side and rule the world. The Budang tribe is a tribe with a very small number of people, and they have the wealth obtained from the gold rush, and they may be invaded at any time. In this weak situation, they had no choice but to flee into the deep mountains and old forests."

"During the invasion of foreigners, once a woman is caught, she will be cut off from the neck with a knife to vent the resentment when the men fight. In order to better protect their wives and daughters from this harm, the Budang people invented The custom of wearing a collar of copper or gold over other metals, which are more flexible, continues to this day."

"Now this custom has evolved into an aesthetic demand. In order to meet this weird aesthetic standard, women in Budang will not hesitate to destroy their bodies. This is exactly the same as the ancient custom of binding feet in your country. I personally think it is The tragedy of spiritual domination and even physical destruction of women in the patriarchal world."

"It makes sense. I didn't expect you to know so many things." Zhao Jianhui looked at Nong Lan and smiled.

Nong Lan snorted through her nose: "What do you think? I am well-educated, and my grades in Oxford are among the best."

Only then did Zhao Jianhui realize that the woman in front of him was not really a drug dealer, she was some kind of princess. "Can we go now, Princess Nonglan? Let's go down and find someone to ask the way, and find some necessary things. Otherwise, you really want to catch fish all the way back to Mae Sai Town?"

"You want to go to Mae Sai Town? I don't know where it is yet. Anyway, let's go back to Thailand first." Nong Lan said, glanced at Zhao Jianhui, and said in a low voice: "You dare to go down, just stole It would be terrible if someone recognized him because he took off someone else's clothes."

"It's not a big deal, right? I just picked up things from the westernmost houses. Let's go to the easternmost one and ask. I found that there are almost no men in this village, and all of them are women weaving at home." Look after the children. Even if we are discovered, it’s not a problem for the two of us to run away, right?”

"Well, that's true. Speaking of which, the women of the Budang tribe are pitiful enough. Their men all go to the primeval forest to pan for gold, and they can only return home after four to five months or even half a year. In the usual tribe, there are only a few men who stay behind and take on the role of protection. , only the women and children are at home..." The two men went down the mountain while talking, and they arrived at a family in the easternmost mountain forest not long after.

There are three women of different ages in this family. They are dressed in self-woven white homespun cloth, with colorful lace embroidered on the corner of the collar, their thick black hair wrapped in emerald green scarves, and their costumes are bright and eye-catching.Of course, the most conspicuous thing is their long necks supported by layers of metal collars.

Zhao Jianhui observed carefully, and found that these long-necked women, no matter they were little girls or adult women, had their faces oppressed by the cold metal collars on their necks, and their facial features were crowded together, so deformed that it was impossible to see where they were beautiful.Zhao Jianhui smiled secretly, thinking that it might be because of my lack of aesthetic point of view, this is not beautiful, it is simply stinks surprisingly.

What Zhao Jianhui didn't expect was that these long-necked women were very hospitable. As soon as Zhao Jianhui and Nong Lan walked into their thatched hut, they received warm hospitality from them.They familiarly took out wild fruit preserves, and when they saw Zhao Jianhui, a big man, they enthusiastically took out homemade rice wine and poured it for him.Just now, the two of them only ate a piece of fish and walked the mountain road for nearly two hours. Now Zhao Jianhui was really hungry, so he unceremoniously took it and started to eat and drink.

While Zhao Jianhui and Nong Lan were eating and drinking, a woman went out and gathered five or six beautiful girls, and performed original singing and dancing for them.They beat the tiles and bronze wares and sang straight in their voices. The shrill and exciting rhyme is like a strong spring breeze passing through the narrow aisle, with passionate and powerful penetrating power.They dance, simply imitating the actions of worshiping the sky, worshiping fire, digging, sowing, weaving, giving birth, and some insects and animals playing and mating, vividly expressing primitive life forms such as sacrifices and labor.It's really hard for them, with heavy collars on their necks, to make such a wonderful performance.

Nong Lan touched Zhao Jianhui's shoulder quietly, and said in a low voice: "If I am asked to carry such a heavy thing, I might as well die." Looking at the girls, Zhao Jianhui also felt his neck was heavy, and his mood Then it got heavy.

With singing and dancing, night has begun to fall.Zhao Jianhui stood up and wanted to ask where this place was. A woman with a long neck thought that Zhao Jianhui was going to leave, so she came over and put her hand on his shoulder, and said with a smile: "In the name of the mountain god, as long as we meet in the mountains, we are destined. Distinguished guests, please stay here until the sun rises tomorrow."

While talking, someone brought a delicious meal. It turned out that it was just an appetizer before the meal.Zhao Jianhui and Nong Lan looked at each other, and couldn't help being dumbfounded when they saw the table full of food. They almost ate too much just now, and now they are serving so much food, where should they put it?

After the meal, these long-necked women cleaned up the table very quickly.Surprisingly, there is also a small generator inside the bamboo building for power supply, and an electric water heater is installed on the bamboo terrace. The bamboo tube drains the spring water, and the nozzle is in the open air, so you can take a bath with hot water at any time.

It’s just that the bathroom of the bamboo building, the bamboo frame with big gaps and small gaps about two meters away from the ground, the starry sky above the head, and the surroundings are covered with banana leaves, this is the pure naturalism that can be seen at a glance.

These days the flowers have been showing a trend of withering, please stand up, bosses.