Mother Rui had lived the better part of her life in obscurity, wishing that she could be treated as empty air all the time, but right now, at the terrifying prospect of losing her beloved son, she frantically sought to meet the eyes of the villagers around and cried out in a voice so loud that her throat was almost scraped raw,
"My son is innocent! He's… he's a very good child! He has nothing to do with the demon at all so please… please spare him! He's not even ten years old yet, he's still so young!!"
At the end of her sentence, she even resorted to kneeling, uncaring of the snow-covered land underfoot and the chill that rapidly permeated her soaked clothes. All she could feel was condensed panic akin to barbed wires wrapping around her throat, tightening up bit by bit.
