Chapter 84
Chapter 84
When Ma's father and mother came back from Old Lady Ma's room, they saw their daughter holding a piece of porcelain broken into her neck.
The only teapot in their room fell to the ground and broke into pieces, and that was how the sharp fragments were obtained.
Bright red seeped out.
Ma's father and mother immediately stepped forward to snatch the weapon from their daughter's hand. Ma's mother hugged Ma Jiaolan and cried out in restraint: "You are stupid!!"
I had to restrain myself. If I made too much noise and Old Lady Ma found out, who knows what she would say.
Ma Jiaolan didn't say anything, her eyes were wide open.
Ma Niang felt her daughter's deathly aura.
Death and loss brought fear again. She trembled all over and hugged her daughter tightly, tears streaming down her face.
Ma Di hurriedly checked the wound, fortunately it was not cut particularly deep, and quickly covered the wound with his clothes.
Ma Niang wiped away her tears, picked some hemostatic herbs from outside, and came back with her mind made up, her body no longer wavering.
While applying medicine to her daughter, she said to Father Ma, "There is no way I will throw Guerlain away."
At first, from Ma Lao's house, Ma Lao and the eldest wife wanted to throw it into the dead woods. That was the mass grave in the village, where dying people who had no descendants to take care of their funeral would go to wait for death.
Ma Niang was hesitant at first, but after seeing her daughter committing suicide, she could no longer bear to lose another child.
Father Ma has always been timid, "But... we have to explain to those four families, they... we can't afford to pay the compensation."
"Then let's separate. I will take Guerlain away from the Ma family and sever ties with them. I will not cause any more trouble for your Ma family."
Ma Dad stopped talking.
Ma Niang didn't sleep all night, but Ma Jiaolan closed her eyes in a daze. When she woke up, it was Ma Niang's voice: "Baby, mother will take you away. It doesn't matter where you go."
Ma Jiaolan could feel that it was just dawn. Ma Niang only packed some clothes and took the little money she had earned.
Ma Jiaolan was supported as she walked on the muddy road. At dawn in the countryside, at least one person in each family would get up to work. They looked at the Ma family's daughter-in-law and Ma Jiaolan and knew that they were going to leave.
Before Ma Niang and her daughter even reached the entrance of the village, they were stopped by four families who rushed over. They pulled and beat them, cursing heartbreakingly as they beat them:
"You've harmed my Anan, and you want to leave now?! Bah!!"
"I am the only child in my family. He is my lifeblood!"
"Go to hell! Go to hell!"
Old Ma also came over with a wooden cane, knocking on Ma Niang's hands and feet: "You bitch, my Ma family spent a pig to marry you, and you actually want to leave?!"
When Father Ma tried to stop them, he was also beaten by Old Lady Ma: "You worthless coward, you actually let this woman go like this!"
This excitement happened right on the village street, giving the whole village plenty to talk about. They kept talking about it even in the evening, when families came out to enjoy the cool night air after dinner.
"What happened in the end?" asked the man who had gone out to work early and missed the fun.
An auntie who was cracking pumpkin seeds spat out the rind and picked up another pumpkin seed from her palm. She said, "That old lady Ma locked her daughter-in-law at home, and in front of everyone, she asked her two sons to throw her granddaughter into the dead woods, saying that the Ma family had nothing to do with Ma Zhaodi, and that those families were not allowed to cause trouble again."
"Oh, what's going on? The Ma family's daughter-in-law has a hard life. She finally gave birth to a son, but was killed by her daughter. She also caused the deaths of boys from four other families. She caused so much trouble..."
"Then is Ma Zhaodi unlucky?"
"Her ex-husband, Pang Da, said that he kept losing money playing cards after marrying her."
"What a jinx."
Men and women, old and young, talked non-stop, and the young ones listened attentively. When they heard Ma Zhaodi, their expressions and eyes sometimes imitated the contempt that adults would show.
*
Ma Zhaodi leaned against a dead tree.
There is severe pain in the arms and legs, caused by being beaten.
She seemed unable to move, as if she didn't want to move.
At first, I was worried about A Niang, but then I thought that A Niang was married to the Ma family with a pig, and she had all her limbs intact and was able to work, so I thought the Ma family would not do anything to her.
The only worry in Ma Jiaolan's heart finally dissipated, and now she just waited quietly for death as they had expected.
The night was already dark, and from the dead woods, the barking of dogs in the village seemed very far away.
Ma Jiaolan tried to close her eyes in a daze, but they were pitch black and she couldn't see anything. No, maybe it was just her head? The picture was sent out.
She saw her mother chained in the chicken coop, crying until she collapsed there with too much energy.
Ma Jiaolan didn’t know whether she was imagining it or seeing it for real, so after a while, she opened her dry lips slightly and murmured, “Mother… Mother…”
Is this what the soul sees when dying? She doesn't know.
But as soon as this thought came to her mind, the picture turned into a sunny day by the pond, and her brother and four boys rolled up their trouser legs and were about to go down.
"Brother, don't..." Ma Jiaolan couldn't help but speak out.
But Ma still went down to the pond with a smile on his face, and the electric fish machine was working.
Soon, four fish were caught by the machine. Ma counted them and said, "Eight fish eyes. My sister will definitely get better after eating them!"
Ma Jiaolan's "soul" suddenly floated from her brother's body to the sky above the pond, then descended and locked onto the path on one side of the pond.
She saw her ex-husband, Pang Da, coming back from the logging camp and discovering someone electrofishing. Then she heard what Ma Xiaodi said, snorted coldly, sneaked over, hid in the bushes, and wanted to malfunction the electrofishing machine, but she didn't expect -
For some reason, Pang Da made an operating error and the machine broke down. The five little kids in the pond stared in shock for a moment, then fell into the water.
Pang Da was so frightened that he sat back, crawled, got up and ran.
Several children could have been saved, but they lost consciousness due to electric shock and fell into the pond, where they drowned.
Ma Jiaolan didn’t know whether it was true or not, but when she saw it, she still cried so hard that she couldn’t breathe, and hatred and despair spread to her soul.
But for a moment, she didn't know who to hate.
It seemed that hating Pang Da alone was not enough, there was still hatred in her heart that was about to overflow, but who could she hate?
Her consciousness came to a pure white space. A deity wearing light grey gorgeous robe and with a face resembling Guanyin came closer and closer. Finally, he turned around and came in front of her.
The man with a female figure and a crown and veil on his head told her compassionately: "Of course you can hate, you can hate everyone, everyone is an offender."
"Everyone in the world is ignorant and guilty. They are the ones who caused you to be like this. Hate them. You think your husband is the main culprit, but in fact, everyone is an accomplice. If someone hadn't tipped you off this morning, you and your mother would have left this sinful village, right? So, hate them."
Ma Jiaolan seemed to come to her senses and bit her lips hard.
"Hate them." The gray-robed immortal kept saying.
When the hatred in Ma Jiaolan's chest was completely boiling, the gray-robed immortal smiled and said, "I can help you fulfill any wish, do you need it?"
"Any?" Ma Jiaolan murmured.
"any."
Ma Jiaolan has not been confused to the point of losing her mind. Living in this cannibalistic world, she naturally knows better that there is a price to pay for getting something.
"What do I need to pay?"
"All you need is your faith in me, absolute faith, and absolute obedience."
Ma Jiaolan said yes, stood up, knelt on the ground and bowed three times.
She was extremely pious in front of the only God.
The god turned around, and Ma Jiaolan's pupils reflected the firelight.
…
Since that night, people from the neighboring villages have been discussing the strange fire that killed Shujiazhuang.
The fire was really strange. It burned every house and no one was left alive.
*
Ma Jiaolan heard screams coming from all directions, which seemed to last for half the night, or even the whole night, before they finally stopped.
Although she was blind, for some reason, she seemed to have the scene in front of her in her mind, and she groped her way back to the Ma family.
It was still dark, and she saw along the way many houses glowing with the light of burnt wood.
There was no human voice, only gray and charred human figures frozen in a hideous posture in the scorched earth, regardless of gender, age or status.
The gray-robed Bodhisattva in my mind said with some pride, "Did you see that? These are all my spirits."
Ma Jiaolan did not reply. When she returned to the Ma family, she ran to the chicken coop first. The burnt chicken gave off a burnt aroma and a sour smell.
That was the smell of roasted human flesh.
Ma Niang is gone, but the iron chains that locked her feet are still emitting residual warmth.
"Mother! Mother!" Ma Jiaolan rushed over, but Ma Niang, who was frozen in a painful posture, turned into ashes and dissipated in her arms.
"Why?! Why?!" Ma Jiaolan was completely desperate and looked around with empty eyes.
The gray-robed god was still spinning in her mind. After a few clear laughs, he said, "Of course it's because your mother is also an accomplice in your life."
"But...but..." Ma Jiaolan was suddenly speechless.
"Well, I have fulfilled your wish very well. At least, I am very satisfied. I hope you can help me..."
He did not say what to do to help Him.
Ma Jiaolan sat in the chicken coop for a long time. The residual warmth from the iron chain had completely cooled down. The sky had not yet risen, and dark clouds covered Shujiazhuang.
After a long while, she asked, "Who are you?"
"How dare you." In his mind, the gray-robed Bodhisattva's face flashed with anger, but it was only for a moment, and then he said: "You can call me a god."
Ma Jiaolan took a slow breath and asked, "May I ask my God, who is it?"
The gray-robed god showed satisfaction and said, "I am Lingfeng God."
*
Even if the gods were effective, Ma Jiaolan still did not believe in them.
Just as she told Director Mo of the Anti-Cult Office at the beginning: she has no god that she absolutely believes in.
The reason why I became a believer and stood in a high position was only because of the contract made at that time.
Faith and submission.
Following His instructions, she came to a small village on the southwestern border, waiting for Him to sense the birth of the Holy Child and then wake Him up.
According to the mission, Ma Jiaolan observed the Holy Child for a period of time.
Before officially contacting the holy child, she somehow covered the eyes of the statue with a red cloth.
At first she just wanted to monitor, but then somehow it became interfering, and finally caring.
The child was really well behaved. After eating her food carefully, he concluded that she was a "good person" and refused to leave.
The first time I cleaned the house for her, I thought she couldn't see, so I moved all the furniture to the corner, leaving a large empty space for her to avoid bumping into things.
In the spring, I picked a wisteria flower in front of her door, put it to her nose playfully, and asked: "Grandma, this is your scent, do you smell it?"
On a hot summer night, I fanned myself with a palm-leaf fan and asked, "Grandma, are mosquitoes still biting you?"
In the harvest season of autumn, holding a small armful of fruits, he said with a bruised face, "Grandma, this is a gift from Uncle Xu. Eat it. It's so sweet!"
They were not sent by Uncle Xu at all. They were clearly stolen from someone else's yard. He had to snatch them and run back even after being beaten.
In the cold winter, the southwest is always cold and damp. He picked up unwanted charcoal to provide her with heating, but it turned out to be stove charcoal, which filled the room with black smoke. When he helped her out, his little nose and face were all black, and he coughed desperately with tears in his eyes: "Grandma, I'm sorry..."
Ma Jiaolan could only sigh and wipe the ashes off his cheeks with her rough fingers. "Everything will be fine once the charcoal fire is out."
*
In the interrogation room, there seemed to be light in Ma Jiaolan's eyes.
"If I have to say who I believe in, I only believe in my brother and him."
In her long and dark life, there were only two bright lights from beginning to end, one was her younger brother, and the other was Li Yang.
She didn't regard Li Yang as a replacement for her brother. She knew the difference very well.
So she taught Li Yang that when he was hurt, he should pay it back multiple times without hesitation.
In the second year of her contact with Xiao Li Yang, she weaved a bracelet with thin red thread and put it on his wrist.
It was her blessing and the care she could provide at that time.
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