Chapter 54: The Story of Hulan River
He is a weird guy. He said something incomprehensible at the beginning, and what he did later was even stranger.
Even so, Li Ziyue still took him back.
Dad was cooking at the stove. Li Ziyue looked at his father and found that his face was shrouded in mist.
Can't see clearly.
Li Ziyue couldn't see anyone here clearly.
Dad was not surprised by his presence, even though he was a village teacher and should be pedantic and rigid according to the stereotype, but Dad just patted him on the shoulder.
"If you can't afford to eat, you can still be my child."
He looked up and smiled at his father.
He is obviously a charlatan at first glance.
Li Ziyue snorted, but gave him half of the brown rice in the bowl.
"I have no appetite." Li Ziyue said stiffly.
That person could only smile with his eyes narrowed.
"You really don't need a blessing for marriage?"
Li Ziyue was furious: "I didn't..."
"I can let you have it."
"Can you get this just because you say you can have it?" Li Ziyue said casually, "I also said it would rain tonight."
The man buried his face in the bowl, chewing the rice with shells still in it, and muttered vaguely: "I'll try it tonight, maybe it will work."
Li Ziyue ignored these words and dispersed after hearing them.
There had been no rain in the village for a whole month, and it started raining when he arrived?
How could such a weird thing happen?
However.
That night, Li Ziyue stood in front of the eaves and couldn't fall asleep for a long time.
The sound of rain falling to the ground really echoed what his father taught him: “big pearls and small pearls fall on a jade plate.”
He had never heard such pleasant and soothing natural music.
It's raining, even if the wind is blowing hard, it should be gentle.
Dad also didn't sleep all night. He was holding a half-finished book on geography and weather in his hand. The candle was lit three times, and the wax solidified on half of the table.
He and Li Ziyue stood under the eaves, still muttering: "So, you really don't need to seek a marriage partner?"
Later, Li Ziyue learned that he was the god of marriage who was born in response to people's requests.
The weather was not too bad at that time, and falling in love was still a major event in life.
While he was still in chaos, he heard too many loving wishes, and with the power of these requests, he was born.
Became a small god in the vast universe.
However, the good times did not last long. The speed of environmental change was much faster than the development of human technology. It was too late to make amends. People were reduced to their original form. All spiritual pursuits were abandoned and they could only busy themselves with the most basic physiological survival.
Fewer and fewer people seek marriage. His birth is no longer meaningful and he is about to disappear from the world. He wanders around the villages in confusion, being looked down upon and called a madman, a fool and a liar.
Then he met the boy who was enjoying the cool under the tree.
I heard his other request - let it rain.
He had a reason to exist again. Although he could not control the weather, fortunately he still had some power left to meet the boy's small request.
After the first rain, the villagers learned of his existence.
At that time, the weather had not yet driven people crazy, and people's hearts were still kind.
"God, please give us some more rain! We only ask for rain, not food. We have healthy hands and feet, and as long as we have water, we can feed ourselves."
Occasionally, when he had enough strength, he could bring life-saving rain to the village.
People are no longer troubled by survival and are thinking about asking him for marriage.
Every day more and more people came to see him, and he was nourished by these requests and his body gradually became stronger.
Someone suggested building a beautiful temple for him, but he just shook his head and said: "Love is everywhere, so I am everywhere. I am a free god and I will not be confined to one field."
At this moment, he looked to be in his twenties. Standing next to Li Ziyue, he did not look like the same age as her. He looked more like Li Ziyue's brother.
Dad was also happy and told everyone he had two sensible children.
However, only Li Ziyue knew the other thoughts hidden under this happiness.
Dad has always been upset about my brother's departure.
At that time, a severe drought had just begun in the village. My brother felt that it was hopeless to stay in the village to farm and that he would starve to death sooner or later, so he quietly left with his package on a moonless night.
Never come back again.
Li Ziyue watched all this quietly. The cool raindrops fell on his palms, bringing a refreshing and soothing feeling.
"Do you want to ask for a marriage partner?" He was now a head taller than Li Zi. He was still smiling when he said this. He had only grown taller, but his appearance had not changed at all. "Those who asked me for a marriage partner are all very happy."
Li Ziyue looked up at him, then turned away: "Can I ask for this casually? What if I say I want to be with the dog at the entrance of the village..."
"Hey, why didn't you just refuse today?" He smiled. "That won't do. I only bring people together who are in love but don't dare to speak. I don't match people up randomly, and I don't force anyone."
Li Ziyue hummed softly.
After a long while, he finally spoke in the sound of rain: "...No. It's fine like this now."
In fact, when my brother left, he almost took Li Ziyue with him.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that this family and this village are dead.
People were suffering from drought and the scarce rain, making it difficult to breathe.
Only by going out, only by going out can you find a new path.
But Li Ziyue turned back halfway through his escape.
In the early morning, the wind was even cooler. He felt a chill on both sides of his face, and his dried tears fell on the cracked yellow earth.
I could vaguely hear my sick grandfather coughing. My father slowly got up and the wooden bed made an old creaking sound.
Li Ziyue sat huddled in front of the house and heard his father calling him from behind: "Why are you sitting here? Be careful not to catch a cold."
Dad didn't ask why my brother disappeared.
Dad didn't ask him whether he had escaped with them or why he came back.
In fact, Dad knows everything.
His arrival was like a spring of life gushing out in the desert, bringing the village and Li Ziyue's family back to life.
Although Li Ziyue didn't say it, he had already regarded him as his closest relative.
If it could be like this forever... Li Ziyue stared at the swaying grass seedlings in the field in a daze, and unknowingly, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
But he is not the rain god after all. He is just a small marriage god. He has some divine power, but it is still not enough to call the wind and rain.
The weather became worse, his power was no longer able to defeat the will of heaven, the rain became less and less, the land dried up and cracked, and large areas of crops died.
People were once again thrown back into the prison of survival, with starving people everywhere and despair completely covering up the hope of survival.
They no longer had the strength to wield the farm tools.
Everyone knelt before him, crying.
"God, please give us food, give us children, and give us rain."
He stood there helplessly, his lips trembling.
Their wishes were too big for him to fulfill one by one. Moreover, his divine power was gradually dissipating...
I... am just a little god born from people's prayers.
The rain fell less and less, people became more and more dissatisfied, the weather became more cruel, what fell down was the hoe, and what appeared on the ground was a pool of blood.
The wind and dust blew over him, and he knelt in front of the eaves with his hands clasped together.
It’s raining.
Li Ziyue sat on the other side in silence. After a long while, he spoke hoarsely: "You..."
He turned his head and saw his white robe, which had become too large.
"You've shrunk... haven't you?"
He seemed to have turned into a lifeless statue. After a long time, Li Ziyue saw him nod.
But he shook his head.
However, compared to what happened later, if things had stopped here, it would have been a good ending.
The turn of events began when he watched the child die in front of him.
The woman brought in a child who was starving to the point of skin and bones.
"God, this is the child you gave me to be born in marriage..." The child's neck was held down and he fell to his knees. "God, how can we be qualified to ask for marriage... We can't even raise the child we gave birth to..."
He knew the child had nothing to do with him.
He has been in the village for less than a year, and his child is at least ten years old.
The woman must have gone mad from hunger.
The child was thin, so his bones looked particularly large. His fingers, white to almost transparent, touched the child's neck, which seemed to have been as thin as a bamboo stick, with heavy human bones hanging on it.
The child looked at him with empty eyes.
Looking into his tear-filled eyes.
The higher the position of a god, the more he should be deprived of emotions, but he is a small god and he is allowed to be full of compassion in his heart.
He lives on people's joys, sorrows, anger and happiness, and he lives to solve people's troubles.
He was born to love, and he will never hate anyone even when he dies.
The child stumbled toward him.
Closer and closer.
Less than an inch away from his skinny chest.
Then.
He watched the child's head fall in front of him.
“Bang!”
No flesh or human blood is seen.
The remaining bones were eaten away.
The crowd began to make noise and push each other, and his body was held in everyone's hands, shaking.
“Tick-tock.”
Everything is silent except for the sound of rain.
A torrential rain was about to fall, and the first tear he shed was the first tear he shed.
They seemed to have figured out how to make it rain. The children in the village died one after another, and in return the rain continued.
The crops began to come alive, the earth was no longer dry, and the young people who had left before finally came back.
He became thinner and smaller, more and more afraid of people, and hid at home all day long without going out.
He was born for humans, but now he has become a god that fears humans.
My father couldn't stand the oppression from the villagers, and when he was young he always went against other villagers.
They laughed at him for being stupid from reading too much, and he mocked them for being ignorant and mean.
My father is indeed a weak scholar. In the past, when the land was not so bad, he could carry a sickle to the fields to cut some cabbage. Now he can only stay at home and do some simple farm work.
But such a weak father took the initiative to swing a hoe at the villagers for him.
“Come and try to find him again!” Dad’s hands were shaking and his face was frightening. He had turned into the “barbarian” he once despised the most.
Li Ziyue held the shivering boy in the room. His long snow-white hair had shortened to shoulder length, but his tears kept flowing.
His brother ran away and his sister was taken away from the village by their mother, leaving only his bedridden grandfather and him and his father to depend on each other.
The burden of doing the heavy work at home fell on Li Ziyue. Li Ziyue had no objection to working, he just didn't want to spend more than he earned.
Everyone knows how bad the land situation is, so why should we stay here?
Besides...
As Li Ziyue watched him getting worse and worse, his once dead heart that wanted to escape awakened again.
Li Ziyue couldn't help but speak to his father: "Let's go, let's go to another place, the land there will be better, and there will be people begging for marriage..."
Dad stared at Li Ziyue tiredly: "Your brother... said the same thing to you before he left..."
Li Ziyue was stunned.
"This piece of sky is already broken," Dad bent down and picked up the hoe, "Unless you escape to another piece of sky, the tragedy will repeat itself."
Li Ziyue pursed his lips. Although he did not refute on the surface, he was calculating in his mind.
Be sure to take your family away from here.
At this moment, he has shrunk into a child of a few years old, and his mental state has returned to that age.
He didn't understand what Li Ziyue said, he just grinned foolishly, and subconsciously put his hands together when he raised them.
"rain."
Li Ziyue heard him mumbling under his breath.
He no longer speaks such complicated words as asking for a marriage partner.
The continuous rain was his flesh and blood. As the rain got heavier, he became smaller and smaller, gradually shrinking to the size of a five or six-year-old child.
“Don’t do that again…” Dad shook his head in pain, “This is a sin we have committed, you…don’t…”
He lowered his head, still muttering: "Rain."
At that time, Li Ziyue didn't know what had happened to him, and naturally he didn't know why he was so obsessed with rain.
Li Ziyue simply thought, even if everyone knelt before him...
But he is a high and mighty god, and he should be worshipped by mortals. Why should he do this?
The hoe hit the ground, and the iron sheet in front broke into pieces.
Good luck can be cut off suddenly, but bad luck is like the autumn rain that refuses to go away.
Dad finally agreed to let Li Ziyue leave the village, but after they walked for a long time, they found that there was death everywhere.
Either there is a heavy snowstorm, or the sun is scorching forever, or there is a strong wind, or there is a heavy rain.
My seriously ill grandfather died on the broken cart.
It took them three full days to get back to the village.
No one spoke for three days.
Grandpa's body was rotting and stinking in the car, flies were circling around it, and mosquitoes finally had their fill of their meal.
Dad was so hungry that he kept swallowing saliva.
Dad is right, there is no escape.
Li Ziyue knelt on the ground, his chest heaving, but no tears came out.
There is no water.
The gods were "stolen" and the villagers were furious, and they were not going to forgive them.
The hoe fell to the ground with a clang.
He had returned to the state of a three-year-old child, gently climbed onto the table, and raised his thin hands.
Covering that person's empty eyes.
“Tick-tock.”
This is the second tear.
Since then.
The rain at night changed in quality, the water no longer merged into the soil, the weather became hotter, and the sun baked everything during the day.
Temples sprang up out of nowhere, and he hid in the tallest Buddha statue, vowing never to show mercy to the world again.
But they took advantage of the situation again.
They disguised the child as a bride for him.
He is the God of Marriage.
He couldn't refuse the request.
The red sedan comes in, the red knife comes out.
The blood flowed into the Buddha statue where he was hiding.
He had shrunk to the size of a newborn.
He cried all night, his tears turned into urgent rain and thunder, which was his anger.
But he really loves her.
Children who died in front of him would be returned by him in another way.
This was his atonement for the first child who died before him.
The next morning, villagers would pick up newborn babies and food at the village gate.
Most of them were ten years old, the age of that child, and the food was only for them to grow up.
This was his pain and atonement, but it was once again used for evil.
The child's broken head was used as a warning clock.
He is like a puppet.
The bells ring, and sin reappears.
He held a long knife in his hand.
Send the bride's killer to the cruel gallows.
When the bells stopped ringing, he hid behind the Buddha statue, crying in agony.
Only Li Ziyue knows this pain.
But Li Ziyue didn't dare to touch him.
Li Ziyue escaped three times in his life. The first time, he turned back halfway and lost his brother. The second time, he fled back in despair and his grandfather died. The third time, he hid in the woods...
If Li Ziyue had not proposed to leave, if he had not put Grandpa on the cart, if he had not talked to him under the tree, if he had not begged him for rain...
if……
No ifs.
…
After a long time, Li Ziyue leaned against the tree where his family members' bodies were hung, and heard the heavy sound of bells coming from afar.
The air is getting more humid and it's going to rain again.
Li Ziyue narrowed his eyes.
I seemed to see a white shadow vaguely.
[He raised the front of his straw hat and looked at Li Ziyue who was leaning against the tree.]
[Then he extended his hand and smiled at Li Ziyue: "Hello."]
[“Do you need marriage blessing?”]
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