Chapter 29: Ten Years of Life and Death (19)

"My name is Zhang Yunshu. I was born in Zhangjia Village. Zhangjia Village is isolated from the outside world and has existed in this mountain valley for more than a hundred years."

Zhang Yunshu told the story from the beginning bit by bit.

Everything starts with that river.

This is a magical river. Even in dry weather, the river will not dry up. The villagers of Zhangjia Village and Lijia Village on both sides of the river rely on this magical river water to live a happy and peaceful life.

Everyone believes that there are gods living in this river, and that these gods will always protect them.

There are many legends about the river god in the village, and the rituals of worshiping the river god have been passed down for many years.

In fact, the method of sacrifice is very simple. Every year, the two villages will select pure women of considerable age and outstanding appearance, and let them bathe and pray in the river to express the respect of all villagers to the river god and pray for a good harvest that year.

This custom has continued for hundreds of years, and people in both villages believe in it without a doubt.

Until that year——

"That year, my cousin and I were chosen as goddesses to worship the river god. I was only sixteen years old at the time, and my cousin Li Yan was seventeen years old. My cousin was the most beautiful in their village, and because my cousin was chosen as the goddess, the people in Lijia Village respected her very much. There was a long queue of people who proposed marriage. The goddess here represents the most outstanding and beautiful among the same age. Goddesses in history will marry well and have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives. In fact, at that time... I was already engaged to Yanzi's father. Of course, as long as I was still a pure virgin, the engagement would not affect our sacrificial ceremony that year. But for some reason, my cousin rejected all the marriage proposals from the village. At that time, everyone thought she was picky, and I also thought that my cousin had never found someone she liked. Who knew..."

Speaking of this, Zhang Yunshu's expression was extremely painful and tangled. "On the day of the sacrifice, everything was going well. Who knew that just as dawn broke, my cousin suddenly fainted. She was taken away by the people of Lijia Village. Later, someone found a doctor to treat my cousin. At that time, everyone knew that my cousin was not sick, but she was pregnant!"

A girl from Yunying who was chosen as a goddess was actually pregnant? Wasn't this deceiving the gods?

Moreover, such a thing as unmarried pregnancy was absolutely not allowed to happen in Lijia Village at that time.

"At that time, my aunt and uncle begged desperately, but the head of Li Village still decided to sink my sister to the bottom of the river. Firstly, he wanted to protect the reputation of Li Village, and secondly, he wanted to make amends to the river god!"

As she was talking, Zhang Yunshu suddenly laughed: "Miss Ning, you must think we are very ignorant, right? In fact, at that time, I also thought that the people in Lijia Village were simply crazy. They were completely unreasonable. They said that my cousin blasphemed the gods and that her body was unclean, so they forced her to fast and bathe for seven days, and then sunk her body after seven days. At that time, my cousin was under very strict supervision, and no one could approach her. It took me a lot of effort before the guards of Lijia Village allowed me to talk to her outside the door. I was still young at the time, and I was confused when something happened. I could only cry and kept asking her who the man was. But my cousin just wouldn't say anything. No matter who asked her, she refused to say a word about the man."

(End of this chapter)