Chapter 62062 Yunshui River Prequel: Named Liancan...
Whether the elixir is her scales or stones, it doesn't matter much. What matters is that she wants me to name her.
She held her chin, her eyes half expectant and half distressed, saying that the more words she knew, the less she knew what to call herself. Mortal children are given names by their parents at birth, but she had nothing.
I looked into her overly clear eyes and bit back the words, "I'm not your mother," that were about to slip out of my mouth. I really didn't have the heart to disappoint her expectations, but choosing a name that sounded pleasant, had a profound meaning, and wasn't clichéd was incredibly stressful.
Finally, I could only mumble, "Let me think about it."
She smiled suddenly, with light dancing in her eyes: "I'll wait for you."
I:"……"
Now there is no way out.
Afterward, I taught her to write "tree," "river," and "grass" as usual. She learned quickly, but she kept writing the same characters over and over again, as if she were lost in thought, trying to decide whether they would be a name. After teaching her the characters, I told her stories as usual. Today's story was about a tiger, something I made up, but it's not necessarily untrue.
I said, "Once upon a time, there was a village plagued by plague. Many people died and the fields were barren. A wandering Taoist priest passed by and stopped under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village and said, 'You have angered the mountain monster in the back mountain.'"
She interrupted and asked, "What is a mountain king?"
"It's a tiger. The ancients revered tigers, also known as mountain kings. In some places... they're also called big insects." I paused, then added, "But maybe it's not a tiger, but a mountain ghost or a mountain god. It's almost the same anyway."
The Taoist priest said that to appease the tiger's anger, he had to send him a bride.
The villagers believed it. They chose a girl named A-Lian, an orphan who had grown up eating at many families' homes. It seemed natural for her to be brought forward. They dressed her in a worn red wedding dress and escorted her to the back hills to the sound of gongs and drums. The ceremony was so simple, as if they didn't want to waste any more effort.
But the plague did not stop.
Later, someone timidly asked, "That Taoist priest said the tiger was getting married... but how did he know the tiger was a man?"
The whole village was stunned.
Then they chose another man named Achan, who also had no relatives and was also wrapped in a red robe and sent into the mountains.
The villagers at the foot of the mountain waited and waited, but the plague still lingered like a maggot on the tarsal bone, entangling the dying village. Panic spread like a thick fog, and simple sacrifices could no longer soothe it.
This time, they finally remembered the original Taoist priest.
Armed with hoes and hatchets, several sturdy young men followed the Taoist priest's path, eventually finding him in a gambling den in a small town a hundred miles away, face red with excitement. The truth was revealed under blows and threats. There was no rage from the tiger; he had simply fabricated a lie while passing through the wealthy village, tempted by greed and the desire to swindle money. The plague was merely a natural disaster, but he had exploited it to transform it into a man-made calamity.
The villagers were angry, desperate, and finally came to their senses. They dragged the Taoist priest, who looked as pale as death, back to the village, ready to punish him in the most severe way, as if this would erase all their mistakes.
The versions of the story that followed were unclear. Some said the angry villagers sent the Taoist priest up the mountain as a final "apology" to the tiger; others said they killed him under the old locust tree.
But everyone was certain that the sacrificed man and woman must have already become the tiger's meal.
Many years passed, the plague beneath the mountain long since vanished with the passage of time, and the village regained its vitality. That absurd sacrifice became a taboo that the remaining elders were reluctant to mention. Only occasionally would a brave hunter venture deep into the mountains and bring back some seemingly true yet fantastical legend. It said that deep in the mountains lived a pair of mountain kings, neither tigers nor gods, yet they protected the land. Occasionally, they would see the silhouettes of a man and woman, appearing with the mountain mist and disappearing together.
…The story ended and there was silence on the shore.
The goddess of clouds and water sat on a rock, her tail swaying in the river, listening intently. After a while, she asked softly, "Are the man and woman in the legend the two who were sacrificed?"
"Probably." I held the branch in my hand and wrote in the wet soil. "If the tiger didn't exist, they deserved to survive."
She seemed lost in thought, then turned away, lowering her head and scratching at the ground with a branch. I leaned over to look and saw that what she was writing over and over again were no longer just "tree," "river," or "grass."
But two names side by side.
"Alian" and "Achan".
She raised her head, and the dancing light in her eyes became brighter, as if reflecting the night scene of the entire mountain forest.
“I love the story,” she said. “And I love their names.”
She paused, her voice filled with an unprecedented solemnity and expectation, and she looked at me and said:
"Have you thought of a name for me?"
I looked at her name lined up on the mud, and suddenly something clicked in my mind.
"Liancan." I whispered these two words, and they blended together naturally.
She was slightly startled and blinked, as if savoring the charm of the two sounds on the tip of her tongue.
"Lian...Chan?"
"Yeah." I pointed to the two names she had just written. "It's taken from their names, but it's more than that."
I used a branch to neatly write the word "Lian Can" on the moist soil.
I remember that in the Shanhe Sheji Tu, sacrifices were held on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month.
"The lotus grows in the mud, blooms in the clear water, and is not stained by dust. No matter how chaotic the quagmire its roots are in, it can always grow towards the light and bloom the purest flowers." I tried hard to search the inventory in my mind.
"And 'can' means light, brightness, and blazing intensity. It's like the sunlight that penetrates the forest, like the stars that suddenly shine in the night sky, it's the light that one can emit from within, warm and bright." My gaze fell on her eyes, which were always filled with expectation and a glimmer of hope. "You deserve this."
The two words written on the soil stand side by side, as if they were destined to be together.
"Lian Chan," I repeated. "In the warmest season, let life blossom to its fullest. Heart toward the heavens, body clothed in light, rooted in the past without fear of the past. Free, open, and bright."
She was silent, staring at the two characters for a long time, her tail swaying gently in the water, breaking up the swaying tree shadows in the river. Suddenly, a drop of water landed on the character "Lotus", moistening a small dark mark.
"Liancan."
"What a great name." She nodded heavily, extremely determined, "From today on, I am Liancan."
She stretched out her fingers, carefully, as if touching the most precious treasure, copying the name on the soil over and over again. With each stroke, her face lit up a little more.
She finally had her own name, a name that was connected to her roots and shone with light.
When Little Lotus came back, Liancan had already written his name very smoothly.
After learning that I named Lady Yunshui "Liancan", a trace of surprise flashed across Little Lotus's handsome face. His expression became a little weird, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Liancan didn't notice it, her attention was all on her name, but I noticed it, which made me wonder if the name I chose was not good.
After saying goodbye to Yunshui Niangniang and heading to Hexian Temple, I asked Xiaolianhua if the name was a bad one.
Little Lotus's tone remained calm and cool, like a mountain stream dripping onto rocks; no emotion could be heard. "The name itself is very good." He paused, but without stopping, his face turned slightly to the side, avoiding my gaze. "It's just... the two characters Liancan were originally reserved for..."
"Who?" I asked, his last few words so vague that they almost disappeared in the wind.
He seemed to choke, and in the moonlight, his fair ears tinged with a faint blush. Curious, I couldn't help but poke his arm. Little Lotus looked thin, but in reality, his muscles were distinct, firm and strong. Well, even though this firm arm was actually made of lotus root segments.
"Tell me, who is it for?" I pressed on.
Could it be that someone else could bother Little Lotus to name it herself? Wait, it might not be someone else, maybe...
"Little Lotus," I blurted out, a sudden inspiration coming to me, "Are you thinking of changing your name?"
Little Lotus suddenly stopped, turned her head, and looked at me with a complicated expression, her eyes full of helplessness.
"Isn't it?" I was confused by his reaction.
He finally sighed helplessly, stretched out his index finger, and poked my forehead lightly: "Stupid fish!"
After saying that, he seemed a little angry and stopped walking side by side with me. He stretched out his body and actually jumped lightly onto the two high stone steps in front of him, his clothes fluttering slightly in the warm breeze.
"Hey! Little Lotus!" I looked at his suddenly distant back, and my heart inexplicably tightened, as if I had suddenly lost my footing and stepped on empty air. "...What happened?"
He stood high up, his back to the sunlight, his figure a little hazy. After a moment of silence, he turned back, his tone having returned to his usual calm, as if the momentary embarrassment and helplessness he had felt just now were just my illusion.
"nothing."
I didn't believe it at all. It was obvious that he had something on his mind, but he didn't want me to know.
Is this because you are angry with me?
No way, I don't know what I did wrong. He can't be so stingy, right?
Thinking about his current age... well, his age is not a reference. As for the rebellious period, that thing is long gone.
I couldn't figure it out, so I decided not to dwell on it any longer and asked if there was anything unusual in the village.
"It's nothing serious." He spoke calmly, his voice clear. "Everything is normal in the village these days. There's no epidemic, the crops are thriving, and there's no danger of the riverbank collapsing. The villagers are going about their daily lives as usual, and nothing unusual has happened."
In just a few words, he described the tranquility of the land in an even tone, just as clear and concise as his usual reports on affairs.
"That's strange. When did the epidemic start?" I walked over to him.
"Maybe we are wrong..."
As they passed the main hall, Little Lotus suddenly frowned, "Do you think this fragrance is a little strange?"
I took two sharp sniffs and said, "Is there anything? I can't smell it."
Just then, Yun Qiao's appearance interrupted our conversation.
"Auntie, Lord, do you want to eat?"
Only after he mentioned it did I feel hungry.
"Let's go, let's eat first."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com