"With the death of the Cave God, our Eighteen Villages instantly lost their protection, the valley gradually dried up, and grain production declined year by year. Now, the population of our entire Eighteen Villages has been reduced by more than half."
The old man grew increasingly indignant as he spoke, “Not only that, but for over thirty years after that day, not a single Falling Flower Cave Girl was born. That’s why we started to suspect them.”
Yue Qi frowned. "You didn't even know that Wuyun Mountain sank to the bottom of the lake after the earthquake?"
The old man shook his head. "The changes at Wuyun Mountain happened overnight, before I was even born. I only heard the elders mention it. That day seemed particularly eerie. Our Yundianzi Village is so close, yet we didn't sense a single trace of it."
"According to the recollections of the elderly, it was only a few days later that everyone discovered that the small hill that was originally hanging on the top of Cangyun Mountain had completely disappeared. As for where it went, no one knows."
The old man took another deep drag on his pipe before continuing, "At first, no one suspected that the Cave God had been killed. Everyone just thought that the Cave God had returned to heaven and no longer intended to protect our Eighteen Villages. So, although everyone was very frightened, there was nothing else they could do."
"In the blink of an eye, more than thirty years have passed, and my younger sister, Ami, was born."
The old man was lost in his memories, and his tone softened considerably. "Ami was fair-skinned and delicate from a young age, and she was naturally cheerful. The elders always said that they had never seen a girl as well-behaved as her."
Yue Qi recalled the little girl who had led the way to them. He only remembered that she had curved eyebrows and a very beautiful smile, and that she was clearly a girl from a good family.
So he nodded. "I remember she told us a lot about the local customs, and I also remember that she clearly reminded us that there was no Wuyun Mountain at all, and that the Zhang family's old house was on Cangyun Mountain."
The old man's expression softened considerably. "Yes, if only she could have grown up safely and gotten married! But, unfortunately, she suddenly fell ill when she was sixteen—"
"Sing a folk song to awaken the spirit of the cave."
Do you have a spirit or not?
A spirit will be with you.
The spirits, having departed, each turned back on their journey.
The old man abruptly changed the subject and started singing a children's song. The moment the song began, Yue Qi and Yan Che felt a chill run down their spines.
The reason was simple: this eerie children's song had been playing in their ears all night, and it was sung by the same little girl.
Finally, Yan Che couldn't hold back any longer and waved his long arm, "Stop, stop, stop singing! I'm getting goosebumps!"
The old man's expression brightened. "What? You've heard this song before?"
Yue Qi had no choice but to speak up, "Old man, this song, it's not sung by your sister Ami, is it?"
The old man nodded, his eyes brimming with uncontainable joy.
"Ami, ever since she turned sixteen, she's suddenly become a different person. She no longer likes to play and frolic, nor does she take the initiative to interact with people. She just sits by the river all day long, singing by the water—"
He recalled the scene and felt waves of heartache. "A perfectly healthy girl, suddenly turned into this. At first, her family couldn't accept it at all, but then one day, the village elders came to my house—"
He still remembers the scene that day. The elder came to find his parents with an expression of undisguised joy on his face. He was incredibly curious, so he secretly hid behind the house and eavesdropped on the elder's conversation with his father.
"The elders said that the Cave God has returned and is here to protect the Eighteen Villages! And Ami is the Flower Cave Maiden personally chosen by the Cave God!"
When these words were first spoken, not only his father, but even he himself completely disbelieved them. The Cave God had not manifested for over thirty years, and the Eighteen Villages had also not seen the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden for over thirty years.
How is it possible that he suddenly came back just like that?
"My father argued vehemently with the elders, saying that since the Cave God had already left, why should he come back? Moreover, the woman from the Falling Flower Cave had chosen his only daughter, and out of love for his daughter, my father naturally wouldn't agree."
When the old man got to this point, he suddenly fell silent.
Yan Che was interrupted halfway through the story and couldn't help but want to urge him on. He raised his hand, but Yue Qi pressed it down again.
Yue Qi knew in his heart that something must have happened after that. They just needed to wait patiently.
Sure enough, the old man remained silent for a long time, and just as his pipe was about to burn out, he finally spoke.
"After that day, Mirror Lake at the foot of the mountain suddenly flooded for three days, submerging all the farmland. Seeing that the harvest was about to be lost, the elders could no longer sit idly by. So they went to my father again—"
Yue Qi could sense the other party's helplessness. With that in mind, what reason did they have to refuse? The villagers would be the first to not let them off the hook!
"Father finally agreed—three days later, the eighteen villages united and held a special 'Falling Flower Cave Maiden' ceremony on the top of Cangyun Mountain."
The old man continued calmly, "On the night the ceremony ended, Ami disappeared. Her body was found a month later in the river at the village entrance. Ami was lying quietly in the water, her whole body covered in flower petals, and she looked more beautiful than ever."
“Since then, our family has never seen Ami again.”
The old man silently wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes. Although he didn't say it outright, Yue Qi could feel it very clearly.
However, there was something that always puzzled him: "What's the deal with that children's song? Do all the Luohua Cave girls in your Eighteen Villages sing it like that?"
The old man paused, wiped away his tears, and asked, "Why are you suddenly asking this?"
Yue Qi smiled and asked unexpectedly, "Did Ami tell you that the Cave God is dead?"
The old man hadn't expected this person to be so astute, guessing the key point so quickly. There was a part of the story he had deliberately omitted from the conversation.
However, saying it aloud immediately turned into a denial.
"That's not the case. The Cave God died a year after Ami disappeared. According to custom, a new Falling Flower Cave Maiden is born every year, but that year, from the end of the year, there was not a single new Falling Flower Cave Maiden in the entire Eighteen Villages."
"Everyone found it strange, so they sent their best young men with weapons to Cangyun Mountain. As a result, they found that the Mirror Lake, which had appeared halfway up the mountain, had turned the color of blood. At the same time, intermittent screams began to echo throughout the mountain, lasting for a full day and night before finally disappearing."
"Upon returning, the most renowned shaman of the Eighteen Villages personally descended from the mountain, sacrificing his own life to personally perform divination, ultimately obtaining the divination result: 'The god dies and the mysterious emerges.'"
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