After a noisy winter
It's the Lantern Festival again. Early this morning, the firecracker paper in front of the house was kicked up by the children.
"Don't forget to go lantern parade tonight!" the girl said to her friend, her earnest expression making it hard not to tease her.
An old woman squatting by the door picking vegetables jokingly asked, "What if she forgets? Are you going to eat her because you're so fierce?"
The little girl took her friend's hand, ignoring the old woman's words, and continued to say to her friend, "You really have to come! I've already asked my grandpa to make the dragon bench. We agreed that this year I'll carry the dragon lantern with you."
“Okay, I’ll definitely come! We agreed to donate all the money we earn to repair the ancestral hall,” another girl assured, patting her chest.
"That's good. Let's go find Xixi and see how her dragon lantern is coming along."
Watching the two little girls run happily away, the old woman picking vegetables was preparing vegetables to send to the ancestral hall according to the tradition of previous years. Suddenly she thought that the Jiang family ancestral hall had been burned down this year, so there was no need to prepare so many vegetables anymore.
Although the ancestral hall was not completely burned down, it was damaged in several ways, with pieces missing from one side and another. Everyone offered to contribute money to repair the ancestral hall.
However, the young patriarch of the Jiang family neither accepted the money nor gave everyone a definite answer. Every time they asked, he would stall for time and say, "It's under repair, it can be repaired, it's not time yet, don't worry."
After being asked this question several times, some people in the crowd inevitably started to complain.
Just a few days ago, my husband said at home, "I wonder if the old clan chief is feeling better. This young clan chief Jiang seems unreliable. I don't believe he doesn't know how important the ancestral hall is to the town. I think he's just deliberately trying to delay things."
The woman recalled saying, "No, I don't think so. Maybe they're just too busy during the first month of the lunar year. Someone will come to fix it after the Lantern Festival."
"Oh dear, before we sow the seeds in a few days when the weather warms up, I need to gather a few people to block Chief Jiang and force him to start construction." The man sat down gruffly, looking at the sky outside the window with some worry.
"I don't know why, but I can't rest easy until this ancestral hall is repaired."
"Sigh, I don't know what's wrong with Xin Xuan. She's educated, after all." The woman's heart began to race as her husband spoke.
Of course, these were all private conversations between the couple; neither of them really wanted to have a direct conflict with the Jiang family, who controlled the mines.
The woman dusted off the wild chives in the basin, picked out the bad ones, and when she thought the wild chives were almost done, she packed up her stool and headed home, only to run into her husband, who was returning home in a rage.
"What's wrong? Why are you so angry?" The woman, carrying a shopping basket, chased after him.
"You bastard! I told you Jiang Yilin's heart was sold long ago. I was the one who found him when he was kidnapped. He should have been left to die out there." The man stormed back home and went straight to the old stove in the kitchen, pulling out a piece of firewood to use as a stick.
"Old Zhang, Old Zhang, what are you doing?" The woman called out to the man several times, but he didn't respond. Seeing that the man was about to leave again, she quickly stopped him.
"I'm going to the Jiang family to find that kid. You don't know, do you? He sold the mountain. Soon a railway will be built through our town, hollowing out the mountain along with it. Everyone will have to move!" The man waved his hand and angrily told the woman not to block his way.
Upon hearing the news, the woman loosened her grip, scattering a basket of fresh wild chives all over the ground. She stood there stunned: "How could this be so sudden? There was no news at all beforehand."
"Hmph, what's the point of eating? We don't even need to celebrate the Lantern Festival. I think this Jiang kid is trying to rebel!"
The man left his house carrying a stick, and informed his neighbors that he was determined to get an explanation from the Jiang family.
Before noon, the Jiang family's courtyard was already crowded with people. They stood with their arms crossed and angry faces staring at the Jiang family's workers, their legs spread wide, acting as if they were the masters of the house.
The leader put down his stick and walked into the house, speaking loudly enough to drown out everyone's whispers: "Hey, the person in charge, quickly call Chief Jiang out! We won't leave until we give everyone an explanation!"
"That's right, that's right!"
Everyone knows that the Jiang family has only had one son per generation, so there are very few people with the surname Jiang in the town. The young people who help the Jiang family are all outsiders who don't know much about the town. That's why those men dared to barge in so recklessly.
The old steward of the Jiang family was accompanied by Jiang Yilin today, and the others, who had never seen such a scene before, did not dare to step forward.
Only A-Qing remained as she slowly walked out of the house, sweeping her disdainfully over the crowd in the courtyard. She touched her injured eye and spoke with neither arrogance nor servility.
"Zhang Fan, today is the Lantern Festival. Why aren't you at home enjoying the holiday? What are you doing barging in with so many people?"
"Where did this half-grown girl come from? You have no right to speak here." Zhang Fan shook the stick in his hand and said angrily, almost squeezing the words out of his mouth, "While I'm still willing to call him clan leader, hurry up and make him come out. We all need to see him."
"Unfortunately, Chief Jiang went out early this morning. I will inform him. If you want to wait, you can wait here." After saying that, A-Qing went back into the house and continued to tell the others in the house to do what they needed to do.
"Fine, I'll wait here. If that Jiang guy has any conscience, he should come back right now." Zhang Fan kicked over the large wooden plank at his feet and casually sat down in the center of the Jiang family's courtyard.
The few people who came at the end to make up the numbers looked at each other, thought about it, and decided to go home.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yilin, who was walking along the mountain path with Jin Xilu in search of willow trees, was still feeling a bit dizzy. Everything was proceeding according to his plan, except for one thing that went wrong.
That was himself.
According to his plan, he should now be nestled in front of the window on the fourth floor of the Jiang family's house, lying on a deck chair covered with a wool blanket, his sharp fingernails scratching at the glass, coldly observing the angry people in the courtyard.
A bundle of thick hemp rope was always placed beside him.
His empty gaze followed the sullen crowd below, all excitement and interest vanished, leaving only a cold, malicious smile on his lips. [1]
He wanted to make everyone in town lose faith in him, to ignite their anger to its peak before reappearing, forcing them to become disillusioned with the town and move away.
Now things are different. Jiang Yilin not only didn't wait for everyone to come to him in the house, but also followed Jin Xilu around, just to find a way to break the curse.
Last night, Jin Xilu showed Jiang Yilin the letter she had received in the library. The letter read: "If you want to know what happened back then, come back."
Under the same dim glass lamp, Jin Xilu squatted in front of the bedside table and asked Jiang Yilin, who was lying on the bed, "Did you write this for me?"
"No, I didn't do that at all." Jiang Yilin wasn't very energetic, lying lazily on the bed. Although he said this, he still picked up the paper with his fingers, and the thin piece of paper fluttered in front of his eyes.
He stared at those two short lines for a long time, so long that Jin Xilu wondered if he was about to fall asleep.
Jiang Yilin sighed softly, then turned over and moved her head close to Jin Xilu, stealing another kiss while he was thinking.
"What are you doing? I'm being serious." Kim Hee-ro pretended to be angry and pushed him to the other side, still not forgiving him verbally: "I'm telling you, hurry up and delete all those dangerous and unrealistic ideas from your head."
"There must be a way to break the curse so that everyone doesn't have to move away from the town," Kim Hee-ro emphasized again, trying to convince herself and also to give this pessimistic person a little encouragement.
"Mmm." Jiang Yilin looked at Jin Xilu's serious expression under the lamp and couldn't help but smile. Jin Xilu glared at him, so he had to give up his urge to kiss her.
“I understand you. We’ll stand together through thick and thin. If we fail, you’ll have to become a sinner in this town with me.”
After saying that, he couldn't help but pinch Jin Xilu's cheek. Then, Jiang Yilin looked into Jin Xilu's eyes and solemnly promised, "If we can really break the curse, let's get married."
“Okay,” Kim Hee-ro replied without hesitation.
"You agreed!" Jiang Yilin, who had been listless just moments before, immediately sat up in bed, wanting to pull her into his arms right away.
"Do I still have a chance to back out?" Jin Xilu turned around and looked at the man whose eyes were full of joy, and continued, "When do you plan to take me to see Jiang Lianyin?"
"So you knew all along." Jiang Yilin flicked the thin piece of paper from between her fingers and stepped barefoot onto the ground.
Sometimes he was very stubborn. Even though he wasn't fully recovered, he would sit on the ground like Kim Hee-ro, propping himself up on one leg, with his hand on the leg he was supporting. He would put his other arm around her shoulder and pull her into his arms, holding her firmly so she wouldn't escape. He would turn his head and look at her.
Jiang Yilin tried to sell her face to get Jin Xilu's attention back to her, but Jin Xilu had seen too much of that face and was now immune to it.
Jin Xilu was initially unsure whether the letter was written by Jiang Lianyin, but seeing Jiang Yilin's expression, he was certain that it was indeed written by Jiang Lianyin.
Few people knew that He Min kept a diary, but judging from Jiang Lianyin's morbid desire to control He Min, he must have known about He Min's diary. After tearing out the entries where He Min recorded her hatred for him, he must have read them repeatedly.
Did Jiang Lianyin already know about Jiang Yilin's dark plans, which is why she tried to trick Jin Xilu into coming back?
As someone who knew the truth, Xin Xuan was supposed to burn down the ancestral hall, but unexpectedly, in order to buy time to break the curse, Xin Xuan acted ahead of schedule.
Following this line of reasoning, the only explanation is that Jiang Lianyin and He Min reached a consensus: they both wanted to save Jiang Yilin and didn't want the curse on Zhongshan to actually come true, in which case the entire town wouldn't have time to evacuate.
This once peaceful and prosperous town, shaded by green trees, will never exist again.
Jiang Lianyin must know what the final plan is to break the curse.
So early on the morning of the Lantern Festival, Jin Xilu and Jiang Yilin went up the mountain.
Arriving at the small wooden hut where Jiang Lianyin was imprisoned, the bitter smell of Chinese medicine had already seeped into the walls. Jin Xilu stood by the door, still feeling some resistance towards Jiang Lianyin.
Meeting Jiang Yilin's concerned gaze, she held his hand tightly and stepped into the room before he could offer any words of advice.
She is no longer the bewildered Kim Hee-ro. Now, she is full of confidence and determination, and she will not completely deny herself because of a casual remark from someone else.
No one can stop her from doing what she's determined to do.
"You've finally arrived. Enough with the small talk; I suppose you all have nothing more to say to me." Jiang Lianyin didn't dismiss the other caregivers in the room.
He leaned against the headboard, beckoned Jiang Yilin closer with his thin fingers, and whispered in Jiang Yilin's left ear, "I hate that you stole my wife's love, but I... I wish everyone would love you."
After saying that, Jiang Lianyin breathed his last, and the divine power that had been bound to him returned to Jiang Yilin.
The deceased Jiang Lianyin tightly clutched a red rope wrapped around a longevity lock in her hand. This was the contract she made with Jiang Yilin when she was asked to recognize her mother by the willow tree, and it was also an evil weapon that drained the spiritual power of the willow tree.
If we go back to the beginning when we weren't greedy, then the curse was never a shackle. Two people in love don't need a curse to be bound together to love each other.
Having obtained the longevity lock, Jiang Yilin and Jin Xilu ran ahead and chased after each other through the mountains and forests, just like the scene in their dream.
The longevity lock and the red rope were buried together under the willow tree. The two souls, connected by heart, stood under the willow tree and prayed, returning all the spiritual power. Deer Town would no longer have a mountain god, nor would it be cursed.
People who love each other will come together without relying on external forces.
Five years later, it's another New Year.
Since the high-speed rail opened in Milu Town, more and more young people are no longer confined to the small farmland here. They are venturing out to explore and make a living, and their lives are becoming increasingly fulfilling.
Without excessive mining and deforestation, Elk Town has become even more beautiful.
Jin Xilu was sitting in the yard sunbathing, feeling conflicted about whether to dye Jiang Yilin's fur blonde or pink, given that the Lunar New Year was just around the corner.
"Forget it, he's so good-looking, he'll suit anyone!"
Late at night, the sound of a train whistling through the mountains could be heard as it continued its journey.
The End/
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