bayedsolid Chapter 6: Female River Goddess
Chapter 6: Female River Goddess
While recounting this past event, Sun Wan'er's voice was trembling slightly, tears silently fell, and her beautiful eyes were filled with loneliness, and she was unable to come back to her senses for a long time.
"Miss Wan'er..."
Lin Lezhi called out softly, but didn't know how to comfort her.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Jiang and Mr. Xiao, Meng Wan is being rude."
"It's okay, it's okay, so Miss Wan'er wants me to find Miss Su Li's body."
Sun Wan'er nodded, took out a hairpin from her bosom and handed it to Lin Lezhi.
When handing over the hairpin, Lin Lezhi accidentally saw Sun Wan'er's exposed skin.
His eyes darkened slightly.
Lin Lezhi took the hairpin carefully and examined it closely. Although it was damaged, judging from the style, it should have been made by the same person as the one on Sun Wan'er's head.
They are all plum blossoms.
Lin Lezhi raised his head and looked at Sun Wan'er, "Is this hairpin Miss Su Li's?"
"Exactly. The one on my head is a pair. It was carved by Sister A-li herself and given to me."
Sun Wan'er raised her hand and touched the hairpin on her head, and a hint of warmth finally appeared in her lonely expression.
"Then I wonder if Miss Wan'er has any clues?"
Sun Wan'er nodded and said, "Two years ago, I sent people to look for Sister A'li's body, but found nothing. Half a year ago, I regained my freedom. To facilitate my movements, I disguised myself as a man and traveled to every place in Yulong Village. I found this hairpin at Yulong Waterfall."
"Yulong Waterfall... could it be the place where the villagers held the ceremony just now?"
"Mr. Jiang is right. It is exactly there. I found it on a stone downstream of Yulong Waterfall. Later, I asked people to look for it at the bottom of the pool of Yulong Waterfall, but they didn't find Sister A Li's body. I thought about it and thought that since they kept silent about what happened that year, there must be a secret. So I lived near Yunlong Village and kept an eye on Yulong Village's every move."
"Sure enough... God helps those who work hard. I finally discovered the secret of this village." Sun Wan'er paused for a moment, her eyes turned serious, "River God Festival."
"This kind of human sacrifice should be expressly prohibited, but this village is doing it secretly. Such superstition and disregard for human life are indeed problematic. Isn't there any government agency to take care of this?" Lin Lezhi frowned slightly, quite indignant.
Lin Lezhi's words attracted the attention of Xiao Jianniang, whose expression was full of speculation.
Lin Lezhi looked in the direction of her gaze, but the moment their gazes were about to meet, Xiao Jianniang shifted her gaze and looked elsewhere.
What to look at?
Is this kind of thing common in this dream?
Lin Lezhi scratched his cheek and said unconfidently: "Why, is there something wrong with what I said?"
Xiao Jianniang took a deep breath, looked at Lin Lezhi and said, "It is wrong to sacrifice a living person, and the court has also issued a clear order to prohibit it. However, buying and selling corpses for ghost marriages is not uncommon among the people. Even if someone reports it, officials will not waste their energy to investigate the matter of the dead. How could Mr. Jiang, who has been traveling around the world for many years, not know about it?"
Nonsense, it would be weird if he knew that.
He also wanted to know what the song here was about!
"Of course I know. I'm just angry about this kind of thing. You're clearly a living person, but you were treated as a dead person and ignored. If I hadn't saved you, you would have been an unknown water ghost by now."
Xiao Jianniang snorted coldly and said, "Even without you, I still have a way to get out of this situation."
Xiao Jianniang's words successfully stimulated Lin Lezhi's temples to throb, and the back of his head began to ache again. Lin Lezhi advised himself not to bother with a lunatic, and then looked at Sun Wan'er and said, "Miss Wan'er, it should have been a year since you discovered this sacrifice. Have you found anything wrong?"
Sun Wan'er turned around and looked up at the stone statue, and Lin Lezhi also followed Sun Wan'er's gaze.
It is clearly a temple of the river god, but the statue enshrined in this Hongzhu Temple is a goddess. According to common sense, if the river god is a female, the sacrifice should be made by a man, so why would they buy a woman's corpse for sacrifice?
Could it be that this river god has no discrimination between men and women?
After looking at it for a while, Sun Wan'er said slowly, "The story here started with the disappearance of the bride twelve years ago. Mr. Xiao, Mr. Jiang, come and look at this stone tablet."
Next to the altar there is a stone tablet with a poem engraved on it.
Lin Lezhi came closer and could see the words clearly, and he read them out loud as he listened.
It's called Red Pearl.
The rain falls and the sky clears up slightly,
The weather is sunny and the moon is bright.
I hope you will look at me and think of me.
I will miss you so much that I will live on for the rest of my life.
It's a love poem.
"This poem was written by the woman on the stone statue before she died. The poem describes how the two met, got to know each other, and fell in love. It also implies the name of her and the man she loved, He Yuqing and Li Weisheng."
Lin Lezhi read it again and found that the two names were indeed implied.
The word "affection" was also written as "qingyi", which is enough to show that He Yuqing has deep feelings for Li Weisheng.
Lin Lezhi walked around to the back of the stone tablet and found that there were many words engraved on the back. In order to see it more clearly, Lin Lezhi took a wedding candle from the altar and read it word by word.
The above clearly records the causes and consequences of the establishment of this temple.
Thirteen years ago, He Yuqing went to wash clothes in front of a waterfall after the rain. She happened to save Li Weisheng, a scholar who was going to Beijing to take the imperial examination, and let the injured Li Weisheng recuperate in her home.
As time went by, the two of them began to fall in love.
He Yuqing was originally illiterate, so Li Weisheng personally taught her how to read and write poetry.
Li Weisheng's parents passed away. Two people who were together without the permission of their parents or the words of a matchmaker were bound to attract gossip if they stayed together every day. So He Yuqing's parents suggested that Li Weisheng leave.
In order to give He Yuqing a stable life, Li Weisheng swore in front of He Yuqing's parents that he would pass the imperial examination and come back to marry He Yuqing.
Unfortunately, when Li Weisheng went out to take the imperial examination, He Yuqing went out to the town to buy something and was spotted by a rich man from the neighboring village. The rich man threatened He Yuqing's parents' lives and forced He Yuqing to marry him.
Worried that her parents would be harmed because of her, He Yuqing accepted the marriage. However, she got drunk on her wedding day. After writing this poem, she jumped into the river and died. The villagers searched for He Yuqing's body for several days at the Yulong Waterfall downstream but could not find it.
After He Yuqing's death, her parents could not accept the tragedy and moved out of Yulong Village overnight.
Not long after, the rich man who had persecuted He Yuqing died suddenly and cruelly. When the news reached the village, the villagers thought that the river god had taken the bride away. They were afraid of being punished by the river god, so they decided to offer a new bride to the river god every other year.
Some time later, Li Weisheng came back from high school and learned that He Yuqing had died. He was heartbroken and stayed under the Yulong Waterfall like a wandering soul for three days and three nights. Others were afraid of displeasing the river god, so no one dared to approach the Yulong Waterfall.
It was not until the imperial court sent someone to call Li Weisheng and asked him to take up the post immediately that Li Weisheng came to his senses.
Li Weisheng did not dare to neglect the imperial court, and he could not let go of He Yuqing, so he sent people to build the Hongzhu Temple here, and he would come back every year to pay tribute to He Yuqing.
Lin Lezhi turned his gaze back to the stone statue, his eyes darkened slightly.
Unexpectedly, this small Yulong Village hides such a sad past.