His tone was somewhat restrained, and it was obvious that he was trying very hard to suppress the anger in his heart...
Hua Shi's pupils dilated instantly and her heart skipped a beat.
Seven children? Only one left?!
She thought there was only one...
Xie Mingchi added, "As long as the child is still alive and is willing to go back with me, even though the village will send them into the mountains for sacrifice, as long as they survive the night of sacrifice and come out alive, the villagers won't say anything and won't send them back."
They would only say that it was the mountain god's blessing that allowed them to survive, and that those who survived a great disaster would surely have good fortune in the future, and so on and so forth...
But how could a few six or seven-year-old children survive in the desolate mountains, where dangers abound? How could they possibly walk out of the mountains?
There are so many hungry beasts in the mountains, it's lucky to leave their bodies intact...
Hua Shi stood there in a daze, not knowing what to say.
She could clearly feel Xie Mingchi's hand tightening a little at a time, his fingertips trembling, as if he was trying hard to suppress his emotions...
"Xie Mingchi..." Hua Shi looked up at him with some concern.
She naturally understood what he meant. In other words, as long as the child sent to the mountains for sacrifice could walk out of the mountains alive, the villagers would be happy to accept it and just pretend nothing had happened, turning a blind eye and letting it go...
But this condition is not easy to come by... An adult trapped in the mountains for a night might not survive, let alone a six or seven-year-old child...
Hua Shi sighed and said, "This isn't the mountain god's intention. Natural disasters in the village are inevitable. Even if the villagers sacrifice their children, can they really prevent the disaster from happening?"
Since it wasn't the mountain god's intention, wouldn't what was supposed to happen still happen...
Besides, those children were the blood of many villagers. How could they bear to sacrifice them? They even spared their own children...?
Xie Mingchi lowered his eyes and said nothing.
But it just happened that five years ago, it snowed for three consecutive months in the cold winter. After the seven children were sacrificed, the snow slowly stopped. In the following years, the village had no major natural disasters or famines. The weather was good and the villagers had a good harvest.
Naturally, they all thought that the sacrifice had worked. Even those villagers who had originally been a little skeptical had to believe it after seeing the change with their own eyes...
Just like him more than ten years ago, but the children who came after him were not so lucky. They all died in the mountains. Some were bitten to death by wild beasts, and some fell off the cliff and died... Until one day two years ago, he found a child like him who survived the night of the sacrifice.
Therefore, he did not hesitate to search for two years, hoping to find the child, bring him back to the village, and let him live well...
Hua Shi didn't know that even if the sacrifice was ineffective, the villagers had believed in the mountain god for so long that they had already regarded it as their spiritual sustenance.
If it doesn't work, they will just think it's because of their own insincerity, and more and more children will be sent to the mountains for sacrifice until it works.
What's more, after the sacrifice, it really worked. This thought was deeply rooted in my bones, and even if others used hard iron to pry it out, they couldn't pry it out...
Xie Mingchi's eyes suddenly turned red, and he raised his face and looked at her.
Hua Shi was a little dazed, and became even more stunned.
Why, why am I crying...
Xie Mingchi looked at her with red eyes, as if he was thinking of something sad.
Hua Shi reached out helplessly, patted the back of his hand, and asked softly: "What's wrong with you?"
I was just saying that I was fine, why did I suddenly feel like crying...
Xie Mingchi lowered his eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice, "When I was seven years old, I was also sent to the mountains to be sacrificed."
In one sentence, he also revealed the unrest in his heart...
Even after so many years, he still remembers that night: the dark trees everywhere, the sound of the wind swaying the branches, the roars and howls of wild beasts...
It’s not so much fear, but more of a hurdle in my heart that is difficult to cross.
Hua Shi was slightly shocked. When she realized that there was something wrong with his voice, she vaguely guessed something, but she didn't expect it to be like this...
So, he was the only one among so many sacrifices who survived, walked out of the mountain alive, returned alive, and grew up until now.
After a long while, Xie Mingchi's mood seemed to slowly calm down, and he said calmly:
"I don't quite remember how I survived that night. I only vaguely remember that something seemed to wrap me tightly. When I thought I was going to die, I opened my eyes and heard the sound of flowing water. It was already daybreak, and I was lying by the stream. I don't remember how I walked back to the village from the mountains."
He paused and continued, "At that time, I didn't even know that I had been sacrificed and returned alive. I gradually learned about it later, but no one would mention it to me. After that, when the sacrifice took place again, I knew everything. I also knew that as long as I came out of the mountain alive, the villagers would not say anything, even though they were shocked and suspicious."
After saying that, Xie Mingchi sighed softly.
This was the first time he mentioned this matter in front of others. He had never thought that he would bring up the past again, and he just thought there was nothing wrong in talking about it.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
