Chapter 52 Hong
The next day, as Lin Chengye walked down the mountain, he realized that the rain had never stopped. The world had been washed away of its liveliness, leaving only silence. The sky seemed to have a hole in it, and no one could do anything about it.
The Qingluan Xianzhi Temple was desolate, and the Taoist priests all carried the same aloofness and detachment as Chu He. The rain did not change its tranquil nature.
She spent her days recuperating in the Jade Vein, rarely seeing anyone, which caused her mental state to become somewhat confused and unclear.
Now, as Xiaoman led her down the mountain, the torrential rain poured down on her wide straw hat and raincoat, as if it wanted to smash holes in them. Only then did Lin Chengye gradually come to her senses. She frowned deeply and quickened her pace down the mountain.
"How long will this rain last? If it continues like this, Mengshan City will be doomed sooner or later..."
Bian Yi took a half step back to follow Lin Chengye, looked at the gray sky over the distant mountains, and sighed.
"Judging from Chuhe's words, this place has been flooded more than once, but no one has been able to do anything about it."
Lin Chengye protected Xiaoman with his internal energy. However, she was not as skilled at using internal energy as Bian Yi, and occasionally a few drops of rain would seep through the barrier and land on Xiaoman's face.
But that was enough. Xiaoman's eyes widened as she cautiously reached out to touch the warmth surrounding her. She thought to herself, "As expected of the Spring Goddess my mother spoke of, she really can control the rain. Our village is saved."
"Spring Goddess, that, that's Meng Jiang..."
Suddenly, Xiaoman shrank into Lin Chengye's arms in fear. She stretched out her finger and pointed to a river that was faintly visible at the foot of the mountain. In the continuous rain of the past few days, only the river was becoming more and more noisy.
“My mother said that she had witnessed Meng Jiang’s anger three times in her life.”
Xiaoman pursed her lips. In her memory, her mother was always looking at the river. She was very old, but every day she would carry a stool to sit by the Meng River, her hands clasped together devoutly, murmuring incantations. Until sunset, if the river was still flowing quietly, her mother would kneel down before the river, trembling as she said, "Thank you, River God, thank you, River God."
Xiaoman didn't understand before, and she understands even less now. This river is clearly no good at all; it'll swallow them all up when it gets angry, so why should she thank it?
Lin Chengye didn't answer, but instead tightened his grip on her arm and said softly.
"Let's hurry, Xiaoman."
...
The three traveled without stopping, and Bian Yi transferred some internal energy to Lin Chengye along the way.
Finally, guided by Xiaoman, they arrived at a village. The dirt roads in the village had been soaked by the rain and turned into muddy paths that were difficult to walk on. Once you stepped on one, it was hard to pull it out. Low mud-brick houses were scattered along the mountain valley.
A rock beside the three of them was polished to a shine by the heavy rain, but the writing on it was eroded and mottled. Lin Chengye leaned closer and could barely make out what was written on it.
Xiaoman's eyes lit up. She broke free from Lin Chengye's embrace and ran towards the village, calling out as she ran.
"Mom! Mom! I'm back! I'm back!"
However, the rain was so heavy that her voice couldn't carry. After calling out for a long time without any response, Xiaoman became anxious and, head down, rushed into the rain, running past the sparsely populated houses.
Lin Chengye's brow twitched, alarmed by what he saw. The village was eerily quiet, almost like a village of the dead.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of something breaking in the misty rain, followed by a dark figure running towards them.
As he got closer, Lin Chengye saw that she was a stocky woman, soaked to the bone by the rain, the water running down the lines of her face.
She had a long scar on the left side of her face that ran through her eyeball, making it look particularly gruesome.
The woman acted as if she hadn't seen Lin Chengye and Bian Yi. She stared intently at Xiaoman, grabbed the girl's arm, and without saying a word, raised her hand and slapped the girl hard across the face.
Instantly, half of Xiaoman's face turned crimson, her body trembled, and she bit her lower lip, staring back at the woman without fear.
"Where have you been!"
The woman's shrill scream was choked with sobs, and it was hard to tell whether the tears on her face were from tears or rain. She knelt down and hugged Xiaoman tightly in her arms.
"Do you know your mother has been looking for you? She's getting old... How could you... We thought you'd been taken away by the river god..."
Xiaoman paused, a look of panic flashing in her eyes when she heard the words "Mother." She seemed unwilling to show weakness in front of this woman, and she gripped Lin Chengye's hand tightly, speaking loudly.
"I...I'm going up the mountain to find the God of Spring!"
"That's all a lie! A lie!"
The woman's voice grew even shriller as she frantically ripped Xiaoman's hand away from Lin Chengye's. She then picked Xiaoman up again, watching Lin Chengye and Bian Yi warily.
She raised the hoe in her hand, put her hands on her hips, glared at them, and waved it a few times in the air like a wild beast defending its territory, trying to drive the two away.
There is no Spring God at all!
"no!"
Xiaoman struggled to her feet and pointed at Lin Chengye.
"This is the God of Spring! These are the people of Spring Mountain!"
The woman seemed stunned, the hoe in her hand falling to her feet. Only then did she realize that not a single drop of rain had fallen on her head, and the unreasonable rain seemed to have become docile.
After a long pause, she finally spoke hesitantly.
“You…you are from the mountain? You’re from Spring Mountain…you…”
Bian Yi silently protected the four of them with her inner strength, though her health hadn't been great lately. Lin Chengye didn't want to argue any further and waved his hand.
"Let's find a place to talk about this slowly."
...
The woman stood awkwardly in the house, surrounded by about five or six other women and men, their expressions ranging from wary to curious as they looked at Lin Chengye and Bian Yi behind her.
The woman twisted the hem of her clothes with her fingers, then wiped the rain from her palms onto her clothes before cautiously raising her eyes to look at the old man sitting in the middle of the house, and said.
“My daughter, my daughter said… they came from the mountains…”
Upon hearing this, everyone else in the room gasped. They began to whisper amongst themselves.
"Up in the mountains...? Is it Chunshan? But no one has ever come down from there..."
"It's a scam, right? How could it be..."
"But... what if it really is..."
"Quiet."
The old woman raised her cane and tapped it heavily on the ground twice. She opened her dazed eyes, stood up shakily, her back hunched, and walked step by step down from the center of the room, stopping in front of Lin Chengye.
"Is this the mother Xiaoman mentioned?" Lin Chengye bowed to the old woman and asked.
“My name is Lin Chengye. I do come from Chunshan, but... I am not the Spring Goddess that Xiaoman mentioned.”
"Xiaoman?" The old woman's hoarse voice was filled with surprise. She slowly reached out and touched the top of Xiaoman's head, speaking softly.
"Did you name this child? Xiaoman, Xiaoman... it's a good name."
The old woman raised her head and waved to the woman with the scars on her face.
“Amin, take my daughter… no, take Xiaoman with you, and you all leave too. I want to speak with these two guests alone.”
Although Xiaoman was extremely unwilling, she was still carried away by Amin. The others also left the house one after another. In the heavy rain, it was impossible to see where they went.
Only the three of them remained in the house.
"I apologize for both of you. It's been raining for so long that people are not quite right in the head. Zhao Min is impatient and is just too worried about Xiaoman. She's been looking for me since yesterday and hasn't slept a wink all night."
The old woman sighed and asked.
"Are you the Taoist priest of Qingluan Xianzhi Temple?"
“I’ve lived longer than those boys and girls, and I know there’s a very powerful martial arts sect in Mengshan City. However… many years ago, when the Mengjiang River flooded, it buried the site of the Taoist temple, and since then, no one knows where it is.”
"Later on, some houses appeared halfway up Chunshan Mountain. I guessed that was the new site of Qingluan Xianzhi Temple. However, since then, I have never seen a Taoist priest come down the mountain again."
"Not really, I'm just staying there temporarily." Lin Chengye shook his head.
"Really? I guessed so..."
The old woman's hand trembled, and sorrow filled her eyes, but she did not continue speaking. Gripping her cane, she slowly turned around to face the rain falling in front of the door.
“I am over ninety years old this year. The young people you just saw in this room are all my daughters and children that I found on the river. Except for Zhao Min, who is my own flesh and blood.”
"On the river?" Lin Chengye asked.
"In the hearts of the people of Mengshan City, Mengjiang is like a god. Many villagers offer sacrifices to young children every year. I would occasionally see swaddled babies floating down the river, and I couldn't bear to do it, so I would secretly take them back."
The old woman actually smiled.
Lin Chengye was somewhat surprised. From what she had heard from her mother since childhood, she had assumed that this woman was very fearful and devout to the river god.
Unexpectedly, the old man's kindness outweighed his fear of the river god, and he even dared to secretly leave offerings for the river god.
“I only call them little girls and little children because I’m afraid the river god will hear it and won’t recognize them, and won’t know which one was lost back then, so he won’t be able to get them back.”
The old woman laughed smugly, revealing her toothless mouth. Lin Chengye and Bian Yi couldn't help but exchange a smile upon hearing this.
“River God… I know the River God won’t calm down just because of a few children. There used to be a small village called Xiaochu next door, where they offered sacrifices to the River God every year, the most devout of all. But weren’t they all wiped out when the River God was angry last time? What a tragedy, so many little girls and children died for nothing…”
"Does the Mengjiang River flood very frequently? What are the intervals between floods?" Lin Chengye asked, pinching his fingertips.
"In my memory, it happened three times."
The old woman's gaze became very deep, as if she were seeing a similar image of herself from more than ten years ago through this heavy rain.
"The first time, I lost my home and my family. The second time, I watched the neighboring village turn into a swamp overnight. The third time is now. Forty years were between the first and second times, but only twenty years were between the third and second times."
The old woman, her back hunched, looked at the incessant rain before her and suddenly sighed, saying...
"I can't escape it after all. Meng Jiang is finally going to take me away."
Lin Chengye reached out and caught a handful of raindrops dripping from the eaves. Looking at the gray sky in the distance, her eyes were like torches, with a burning passion unique to young men. She turned to look at the old woman and said earnestly.
"Grandma, I'm staying here. Please find us a place to stay, anything is fine."
"Although the Mengjiang River is full, it has not yet breached its banks. This third breach is not yet a real one."
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