Azhu still remembers the day when she first met Ajing.
The Zhongli clan is known for its weaving skills, and among them, the women are the most gifted. The elders who write the horoscopes for the clan judged her to be the most gifted, but her luck was oppressive, fearing a hidden meaning. Ultimately, she was given the name "Zhu," meaning one who weaves back and forth, weaving the future. Meanwhile, the girl who was with her, a year her senior, was named "Jing," symbolizing a presence beneath the roof tiles, before the dressing table, untouched by dust.
At that moment, she understood that the tribesmen had different expectations of the two of them. Perhaps she was destined to shoulder responsibilities and grow up in hard work, while Jing would grow old carefree, peaceful and happy.
However, the results of a manuscript often do not conform to people's expectations. She only realized this many years later.
At that time, the tribe was relatively small, with more boys of her age than girls, and only Jing and herself. For as long as she could remember, Jing and she had been closest and closest. Jing was cheerful, prone to laughter and tears, while she was reserved and seemed naturally temperless, even her reprimands were gentle. She and Jing became close friends because they were the only ones in the tribe with whom she could share secrets.
The secret is the secret of dreams.
They often get together at night, light a lamp and record each other's dreams in a booklet, which Ajing often calls "Dream Talk".
She and Ah Jing were not alike, even the contents of their dreams were vastly different. Their only shared passion was drinking. When they were young, they would meet up before sunset to go out into the mountains and steal wine. As adults, they would still go together arm in arm, rain or shine, year after year.
But such days finally came to an end.
It all started with that horrible dream.
It wasn't so much a dream as it was a vision of hell, the end of everything. In the dream, wildfires roared, rivers and seas boiled, the land was scorched, plagues raged, men, women, and children were enslaved, and the devil sat on the throne, constantly drinking blood and devouring flesh, screaming loudly.
She couldn't move or wake up, and could only cry out in endless despair. Finally, the dream began to sink. She passed through broken mountains and rivers and layers of time, and finally landed in a yard.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in the desolate backyard of the general's mansion. A woman dressed in black with her hair tied up high was walking slowly towards her in the moonlight.
Her eyes fell on the belt in the other person's hand, and she suddenly understood something. She rushed towards her and wanted to stop all this from happening, but the woman disappeared in the next moment.
She woke up again seven days later.
She didn't know what had happened during these seven days. She just felt that everyone in the tribe was in danger, and A Jing was nowhere to be seen.
The most prestigious aunt in the clan stayed by her bed and asked her about the content of her dream. Then she told her that she would go to Huozhou on behalf of the clan to tell the Shen family about the belt and the prophecy in the dream, in order to seek the so-called way to save the world.
Young Ah Zhu was reluctant to take on this task, puzzled by the weight of such a heavy responsibility placed upon a family of fewer than a hundred households, and even upon a teenage girl like her. However, her aunt told her that only by doing so could she remain with her clan and reunite with Ah Jing. Ultimately, she secretly drew the image of the woman in her dream on the last page of her Dream Talks, hoping to one day share it with Ah Jing. Then, accepting her aunt's request, she journeyed alone, carrying the brocade, to the north to seek the aid of her former allies.
However, what she and the Zhongli family did not know was that in the past few decades, the Shen family had already dominated Huozhou and its surroundings. They tasted the sweetness of expansion, knew the secrets of the gods, and gave rise to terrible ambitions that mortals could hardly imagine.
Shen family patriarch Chen Shi'an told her the story of Yi Shi Tong Zhen, hoping that she could share with him all the clues about the person in the prophecy, and hinted that the so-called evil god was not impossible to use. If they formed an alliance, they would be rewarded with eternal life, replace the gods worshipped by the people of Chizhou for hundreds of years, and become the true king of this land.
Even after changing her surname to Zhongli, she never forgot the faith passed down by her clan, nor the hopes placed in her by the elders when they bestowed the name upon her. Young as she was, she knew nothing of power and desire, acting with a sincere heart. She rejected Chen Shi'an, and from that moment on, she turned the key to her nightmare.
Shen Shian pretended to accept her, but in fact he was determined not to allow any hidden dangers to exist, and secretly reported the prophecy to the Tian family. Shen Shian repeatedly probed her for details of the prophecy, which finally aroused her vigilance. At the moment before Murhe sealed the city, she escaped from the secret passage of the ancestral home, evaded the Shen family's guards, and escaped Huozhou alone.
She desperately longed to return home and to the protection of her family. She endured hunger and carefully concealed her whereabouts along the way. Only when she reached the border of Chizhou did she dare to ask for a sip of tea at a passing post station. However, just as she finished her bowl of hot tea, she heard the gossip of passing soldiers as they withdrew their troops.
The Shen family, in a show of loyalty, completely betrayed their former friends. Emperor Su Yin, wary of the alchemist's words about the past dynasty, could not tolerate any slander against his righteousness. To extinguish this illusory prophecy, the Zhongli clan was utterly slaughtered, and the once secluded village became a burial ground that even passersby would not dare to pass through.
She couldn't believe it, and couldn't convince herself that this was inevitable until she saw it with her own eyes. She risked death trying to return to Zhongli, but exhausted, she fell off a cliff and was rescued by a passing general. Only then did she understand that her aunt had chosen to send her to Huozhou when she was still young for a reason. Perhaps from that moment on, her family knew the end of their fate, but she had only just begun to see it clearly.
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