Lin Xianghuai ignored him, slowly and methodically washing the dishes with his jade-like fingers before walking out. He looked at the two people kneeling and kowtowing in the courtyard with a cold gaze.
The clan chief kowtowed until his forehead ached terribly. Hearing the clinking of silver ornaments and footsteps, he gritted his teeth and continued kowtowing.
The black cloth shoes came into the chieftain's view, and his body trembled violently. He dared not stop, and just as he raised his forehead to hit the ground, cold fingers touched his grotesque forehead.
The temperature of my fingertips was extremely low, like a block of ice.
The clan chief's face twitched, and he looked up to meet a pair of deep, cold eyes: "Ba...Ba Daixiong, please spare my daughter's life."
Lin Xianghuai withdrew his hand, frowned slightly upon seeing the blood on his fingertips, took out a handkerchief embroidered with the sun from his sleeve, wiped the blood from his fingers, glanced up at the stilted building, and spoke in a cold, emotionless voice:
"The person you should beg is not me."
Achi Sha understood Lin Xianghuai's unspoken meaning. She raised her face, which was already covered in blood, and said in a tearful voice, "Ba Daixiong, please give me a chance to apologize!"
"I'm willing to be punished!"
Lin Xianghuai lowered his eyelids, his long, dark eyelashes concealing his sinister emotions: "As long as my wife is willing to forgive you..."
Achisa burst into laughter through her tears, staggering to her feet and enduring the excruciating pain as she said, "Thank you, Ba Daixiong!"
The voices were neither too loud nor too soft. Yuan Jiang vaguely heard words like "apology" and "spare her life." Holding Xiao Bao, she pursed her lips and thought of that arrogant Miao girl.
"Tap tap tap..." The sound of hurried, chaotic footsteps came.
Outside the door appeared Achisa's face, bruised and covered in blood. She lowered her head, her gaze pleading and sincere, her voice less arrogant: "Yuan Jiang, I'm sorry, I apologize for my behavior today."
"I know I was wrong. I will never bully you again, and I will never... covet Ba Daixiong again."
"Please..." she gritted her teeth, knelt on the ground, and slammed her forehead down again: "Forgive me!"
Her whole body stiffened, remaining in the position of kowtowing, as if she would not get up until she was forgiven. Her voice trembled as she revealed the truth about Yuan Jiang!
The Miao people of Wuling Village are xenophobic, believing that all outsiders should die. This is because of a tragic incident that served as a warning to the villagers. Twenty years ago, the villagers were not so hostile to outsiders.
Years ago, a Miao couple found a severely injured Han man and brought him back to their stilted house to treat his wounds and illness. He was on the verge of death, but was saved by the Gu King at that time. When the Han man woke up and found out, he had designs on the Miao village.
They left the Miao village in haste, and when they returned, they brought with them several hundred men armed with wooden guns. The villagers were either dead or wounded, and of the original five hundred or so people, only two hundred remained.
The couple who saved the Han people back then were Ba Daixiong and his wife, who were also Lin Xianghuai's parents.
From then on, the village strictly forbade outsiders from entering, and any Han Chinese who dared to trespass would die from the Gu poison.
Achisa's rejection of Yuan Jiang stemmed not only from her affair with Ba Daixiong, but also from this incident. Yuan Jiang, whom Ba Daixiong had taken in years ago, was mentally challenged, but she had now regained her senses. What if Yuan Jiang also harbored ill intentions?
The Miao village cannot withstand another catastrophic disaster!
Yuan Jiang pursed her lips, recalling the cold-faced man. She hadn't expected his background to be so tragic. She sighed, looked at Achi Sha who was still kneeling on the ground, trembling all over, and slowly said, "I will not repay kindness with enmity."
She had also thought that if Lin Xianghuai hadn't taken him back to the village after he became an idiot, her fate would have been miserable. Even with the system's protection, could a female idiot really have lived peacefully for five years?
Moreover, the things she wears and carries are all precious and exquisite. The system says that she farmed in the countryside before she became an idiot, but her hands don't have any calluses at all now.
A gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. Yuan Jiang knew in her heart that Lin Xianghuai was not bad to her, just a bit fierce.
"Then...then can you forgive me?" Achisha sobbed, "Ba Daixiong poisoned me with a blood-drawing Gu. If the Gu poison isn't cured, I won't live more than three days."
"I know what I did hurt you and Xiaobao, and I am willing to accept the punishment!"
Yuan Jiang paused for a moment, not answering directly, but instead asking, "If you successfully use your blood to induce the Gu poison in me, what will happen to me?"
Achisa trembled: "I'll die."
"You said it yourself, if I were the one afflicted by the curse, I would die..." Yuan Jiang's tone was light and airy, like a dandelion seed floating in the sky and drifting into Achi Sha's ear: "You have your reasons, but I am innocent too, aren't I?"
Even if she wasn't angry at Achisa's behavior, Achisa was bound to be punished.
Achi Sha froze, thinking that Yuan Jiang was unwilling to forgive her. Panicked and desperate, she slowly stood up, her eyes filled with tears, and said, "Yes, you won't forgive me. It was my actions that hurt you."
"sorry."
After saying that, she choked back tears and turned away.
"Wait a minute." Yuan Jiang paused for a moment, seemingly thinking, before slowly asking, "What kind of criminal law are you referring to?"
Achisha's eyes lit up, and she quickly said, "Go to the altar to be punished with a cane!"
In the very center of Wuling Miao Village, there is a sacrificial altar. If a member of the clan violates the clan rules, he or she will kneel on the altar and be punished by the clan chief with a bone cane. Once, someone could not withstand the punishment and died on the spot with a broken back.
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