After hearing what the abbot of Yunlan Temple said, Lu Yinbao's parents never went to Yunlan Temple to make trouble again. They just regretted that if they had moved out of the village and brought their daughter back home, perhaps their daughter would not have died.
In the final analysis, they did not want to lose their stable life, did not want to leave their hometown, and did not want to lose everything they had worked hard for half their lives. They also felt that Yunlan Temple was a good temporary place for their daughter, and always thought that they should wait until the future, but their daughter no longer had a future.
Now they are old and after more than 20 years, they still have to leave their hometown and go to other places with their children and grandchildren to make a living. If they had known this would happen, they would have left earlier and their daughter could still live well.
Even more sad than them were Xiao Lingdang's siblings and younger brother. They were among the first families to move out of the village. After they actually moved out, the youngest brother often wondered why they didn't dare to take Xiao Lingdang away.
Even if they ran to the ends of the earth, there would always be a place for their family to survive. More than 20 years later, the scenes of Xiao Lingdang's tragic death were still flashing before their eyes.
Their parents all died within three to five years after Xiao Lingdang's death. They were emaciated before they died. The tragic death of their daughter, the deep guilt, and the fact that they still had to live in this village with murderers everywhere, seeing them everywhere, was also a huge torture.
After their parents passed away, Xiao Lingdang's older siblings took on the responsibility of supporting the family. Twenty years later, now grown and with their own families and children, Xiao Lingdang often wonders if there was another way to go: if the whole family had just moved away.
But in fact, he didn't know that they couldn't leave the village at all. Since Xiao Lingling was believed to have to die to ensure the good luck and peace of the village, how could they be allowed to leave?
A guard has been formed in the village. Young people holding hoes and shovels follow the arrangements of the elders and the village chief, guarding the main roads at the entrance of the village. Even the neighbors in front, behind, and on both sides are watching their every move, for they are afraid that this devil who must die will escape and disaster will befall them.
The only ones who were able to leave were Lu Yinbao's family. After Lu Yinbao became a monk, the village no longer monitored her family, and no one stopped them from entering or leaving the village.
After Xiao Lingdang's brothers, sisters and younger brothers had all moved out, the eldest brother and sister told the younger brother that they couldn't leave back then... The younger brother was so angry that his veins were bulging after hearing this, and he wanted to kill these people, but was stopped by the eldest brother and sister and his wife.
The young man thought about it over and over again, and was very angry, but he couldn't raise a knife to kill anyone. Finally, he asked a painter to go to the village and secretly draw portraits of the elders and the village chief. Then he wrote the surnames and names of the village chief and the elders, the surnames and names of their descendants, where they moved to, and what they did next to the portraits.
He paid for a printing shop to print a large number of them. That night, he took two thick stacks of their portraits and planned to paste them all over the city. His eldest brother and sister, who had always tried to stop him from acting impulsively, brought their entire family to help. More than ten people from three families worked all night, crying as they did so. They covered every street and alley in the city. Perhaps this was the least they could do for their sisters.
What’s interesting is that almost all the night watchmen, night watchmen, and patrolmen turned a blind eye, allowing these portraits to be posted all over the city for almost three days, and then circulated among many people.
Later I heard that the village chief and the elders' families moved again and left Kyoto completely.
Not long after, the immortal master was dug out. In order to promote his business, he boasted about his successful record of exorcising demons in the village and blessing the village with peace and good fortune.
Now there are too many people who know about his spies back then. Although this immortal master hid here and there when he saw the situation was getting bad, he was eventually caught.
The rule of the trade was to make a little money, but not to kill people, and he had clearly broken that rule. Many of his peers felt he had brought shame upon the industry, causing a sharp drop in business, and that unless they caught this black sheep, they would have to shut down the entire business.
Xiao Lingdang's younger brother went to sue the immortal master for fraud and malicious killing. After being arrested, the immortal master claimed that he had no intention of killing anyone and only wanted to perform an ordinary ritual to earn some money.
But the village chief and the elders kept asking him for a foolproof method, asking him if this was enough and if it could keep the village safe.
He felt that performing just one ritual was not enough, and he could keep adding more work to ask for more money. He said that he had to perform a ritual to exorcise the devil in order to satisfy the village chief and the elders. After he proposed this, the village chief and the elders were relieved and satisfied.
At this point, a mystery suddenly arose. The amount of money the immortal master confessed to having collected did not add up to the amount of silver and money that the villagers said each household had collected.
The final result of the investigation was that the village chief had embezzled nearly 60% of the money for the ritual. Whenever someone in the village objected, saying that each family had to pay too much for the ritual, the village chief would say that Xiao Lingdang's family was going to die, so what was the point of your family contributing?
When these words were spoken, every household felt both frightened and relieved, and had no choice but to pay the money quickly. They were always afraid that if they paid too late, the same misfortune as Xiao Lingling would befall their own children.
The village chief generously said to Xiao Lingdang's parents: "Your family doesn't have to pay, I will pay for your share." Xiao Lingdang's brothers and sisters still remember that their father's face was twitching, but he still had to thank the village chief. After the village chief left, their mother burst into tears.
The elder who just learned the truth collapsed all of a sudden, and all his firm beliefs collapsed. Although everyone accused him of doing something wrong, he always believed that he was doing it for the village.
Now he realized that he was just deceived by a swindler and a village chief who took the opportunity to make money, and killed an innocent girl. After losing his determination and spirit, the elder hanged himself in the clan ancestral hall.
The village chief and the immortal master were arrested for conspiracy to commit murder and brutally killing someone, and were sentenced to death by beheading. The stolen money was confiscated, and the Jingzhao Yin ordered it to be returned to the families according to the law.
But what is very interesting is that the money was placed in the homes of Xiao Lingdang's older brother, older sister and younger brother. Jingzhao Yin said that within one month, every household in the village can go to the homes of Xiao Lingdang's relatives to retrieve the money they paid that year. If they do not go within a month, the money will belong to Xiao Lingdang's relatives.
No one dared to go.
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