Translator: Cinder Translations
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Then, with the village chief's narration, the dark and hopeless history of Xiao Shijian village slowly unfolded.
His voice was hoarse, giving the sense of uncovering the long-sealed past.
Compared to the hearsay from the innkeeper in Anping Town, the village chief's recounting was more detailed. He even named some of the tragic women and the stories that happened to them.
Though these events had passed long ago, hearing about them still stung. People living in the light of a civilized society could hardly imagine the torment those women endured while trapped in dark, unlit dungeons.
"So..." Li Lu cautiously spoke, "Are the vengeful spirits of the women who died with hatred coming back to take revenge?"
It wasn't a question; it was an obvious conclusion.
The innkeeper had also confirmed this point.
But to their surprise, the village chief shook his head with a strange expression, "No, not those women," as though recalling something, his lips trembled. "It's her!"
"Who is she?" Chen Xiaomeng leaned forward to ask.
"She's the woman who was beaten to death by the parents of the women who were tricked into coming here!"
As the village chief continued, Jiang Zhongyi's expression became strange. He stared at the village chief and asked in confusion, "The main criminal the police arrested? The criminal... was a woman?"
The village chief nodded, his pupils slightly unnerving, but he spoke, "The women in the village were all tricked here by her. She was very young, making it easy to gain the trust of the women she deceived."
"What was her name?"
"Zhao Xiang Mei."
"So, you're saying that the vengeful spirit is Zhao Xiang Mei, the main criminal, and she's the one who killed so many people in the village?" Yu Man's eyes widened.
The village chief sighed, "That's right."
"But why her?" Yu Man continued, "Why not those women who died wrongfully?"
Not just her—everyone was puzzled.
How could the vengeful spirits not be the victims who died with hatred, but instead the one who deserved it—the perpetrator? What kind of logic was that?
The village chief saw the confusion in their eyes and explained, "It's really not those poor women. They endured much suffering, but none of them died." He spread his hands, his face full of sorrow, "None of the ones who lived could have turned into ghosts, right?"
Zhou Rong stared at the village chief's profile for a long time before cautiously asking, "Are you sure none of them died?"
"I'm sure," the village chief nodded vigorously. "Back then, the police came to count them. A total of 29 women were trafficked here—21 of them were kept in the village, 6 were sold to other places, and 2 stayed with the midwife for delivery. All of them were alive."
Then, with a strange expression, he added, "After all, to the villagers back then, they were considered assets. A lot of money was spent to—"
After hesitating for a moment, Ben Fu asked, "So when did the ghost appear?"
The village chief immediately recognized what he was thinking and sighed, "After the villagers noticed people were being killed one by one, they suspected it was one of the women who, unable to bear the painful memories, might have committed suicide after being saved and come back as a vengeful spirit."
"But after we investigated, we found they were all still alive," the village chief nodded. "All 29 of them."
"So the ghost must be the one woman who died—the main criminal, Zhao Xiang Mei," Zhou Rong said.
The village chief seemed to remember something, his voice growing quieter, "That's already confirmed," his eyes kept darting around. Every gust of wind outside made him tense.
"We... we found a stone tablet at the place where Zhao Xiang Mei's body was discovered. There was a line of blood written behind the tablet..."
He suddenly stopped speaking, and Jiang Cheng tilted his head, glancing at the sturdy-looking dark-skinned man, realizing that he too had hunched his body slightly and appeared terrified.
"Was it a curse?" Jiang Cheng, with a sly look, spoke, "Something like 'kill everyone in the village, not a single chicken or dog left' or 'instant noodles without the seasoning packet', or 'have a son but no small…'"
The village chief, still immersed in fear, didn't immediately follow Jiang Cheng's line of thought, but when he heard the word "curse," he nodded quickly, "Yes, it must have been a curse! It definitely was!"
The others were already immune to Jiang Cheng's remarks. Even Ben Fu looked forward to these occasional sarcastic comments, which opened his mind to new possibilities.
"Where is the stone tablet?"
"At the deep pond in the back mountain," the village chief paused before adding quietly, "Zhao Xiang Mei's body was also thrown into the deep pond in the end."
Chen Xiaomeng stared at the village chief and suddenly asked, "I remember you said Zhao Xiang Mei was taken by the parents of the angry women and beaten to death. If that's the case, how could she have had the chance to leave a curse on the stone tablet?"
All eyes turned to the village chief, waiting for his explanation.
The room fell silent for a moment.
"Zhao Xiangmei was taken, that's true," the village chief spoke, his tone unexpectedly tinged with sorrow. "But she wasn't killed on the spot. She was severely injured, unconscious."
"After the angry parents left, she somehow woke up."
"That evening, a villager found that she was still alive. She reached out with her broken hand, trembling, begging the villager to save her, but no one would get involved. They just watched coldly, even though... even though some had just bought women from her."
"Apparently, her cries of agony lasted all night, and she finally passed away early the next morning," the village chief clenched his lips, "She died with her eyes open. One eye was gouged out, her face was slashed with broken tiles, and her limbs were broken by brute force."
"No one knows how she managed to write that line of blood. Her arm was clearly broken, but she did it, and..." The village chief suddenly looked up, his pupils trembling violently, "The curse came true!"
After hearing the whole story, the situation was quite clear. From Zhao Xiang Mei's perspective, it was understandable that the villagers who refused to help her as she died in pain were despicable. They certainly deserved to die.
"The body..." Li Lu bit her lip.
"Her body was thrown into the deep pond the next day," the village chief looked at Li Lu and said, "By then, she was completely dead."
"By the way, the deep pond in the back mountain has another name, one passed down from long ago, called Cold Zhen Pond. Before the liberation, it was where the village executed women who didn't adhere to the rules of marriage."
"Such women, once discovered, would be placed in a pig cage, tied with stones, and drowned in the pond in front of the whole village."
TL/N: Wow, WTF!
(End of the Chapter)
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