Chapter 43: Sacrifice to the Sea God (Revised) “Sacrifice my bride to the sea, and ask…
Chapter 43: Sacrifice to the Sea God
The so-called shortcut to the creek was much more remote and desolate than Zhui Lian had imagined.
The treetops were dense, and the moonlight was pale. As it extended downwards, it was cut into strands, scattered and fragmented.
The road beneath her feet was extremely muddy, and the half-human-high bushes on both sides were making strange rustling noises. Zhui Lian followed Gu Hong's footsteps and walked forward, her heart beating rapidly and chaotically.
Half of it was due to worry about Xiaomei... and the other half was due to the lingering sense of weirdness in this environment.
An inexplicable intuition pushed her, making her think several times that they should just take the normal road.
But looking at Gu Hong's hurried steps in front of him and thinking of Xiaomei's unknown whereabouts, he felt a deeper sense of guilt, and he forcibly suppressed this strange feeling.
"Teacher Chase, look there!"
Gu Hong suddenly stopped and pointed at the roots of a bush not far away.
The two followed that direction, and sure enough, there was a faint red color lying in the mud at the root of the bush.
A bougainvillea hairpin.
The hairpin was still brand new, as if it had only been worn for a short time.
"It's Xiaomei's..." Zhui Lian bent down to pick up the hairpin, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
That was the birthday present she gave to Xiaomei not long ago. Xiaomei loved it so much that she wore it almost every day after receiving it.
The last glimmer of hope was shattered, and Xiaomei had indeed been here.
"It seems the direction is correct."
Gu Hong's gaze turned to the sea cliff not far away. This sea cliff was at the westernmost end of the creek. It was the most remote place in the creek and few people came here on weekdays.
His tone sounded even more worried: "We have to hurry and find out if there is a sea cave nearby! Otherwise, I'm really worried that something might happen to Xiaomei!"
The cold hairpin pressed against Zhui Lian's fingertips, and the temperature made her feel cold all over.
The urgent desire to find Xiaomei overwhelmed everything. Zhui Lian didn't have time to think about it. He nodded and continued to follow Gu Hong forward.
The sound of the rocks hitting the waves became clearer and clearer.
The bottom of the sea cliff becomes deeper and deeper as you walk.
Suddenly——
A hidden cave entrance suddenly appeared before my eyes. It was pitch black and I couldn't make out what was inside. Only the rising tide could flow in and out of the cave.
"Xiaomei! Xiaomei, are you in there?"
Zhui Lian didn't care about being afraid and shouted loudly towards the cave entrance.
But all she got in response was a faint echo like the sobbing of a sea cave.
"Go in and take a look."
Gu Hong bent down and went in first, and Zhui Lian followed without hesitation.
The inside of the cave is deeper and larger than imagined.
The stalactites are like upside-down swords, and the stalagmites pierce out of the ground abruptly. It is a typical karst landform, but the light is almost completely blocked. Only the traces of moonlight that penetrate through the cave entrance reflect the scene inside.
"Xiaomei! Xiaomei, are you in there?"
Even in summer, the air in the cave was damp and cold, sticking to her body with a chilly feeling, causing Zhui Lian to unconsciously pull at her thin knitted sweater.
Her voice calling echoed in the sea cave.
Then, at just the right moment, a whimper came from deeper inside.
A very slight whimper, with a slight cry in the tone.
The whimpering sound startled Zhui Lian's heart, and he almost immediately groped towards the sound.
There were several lit candles hanging on the wall of the cave. In the flickering candlelight, she saw Xiaomei tied to a stalagmite.
The little girl's mouth was sealed with tape, her face was covered with tears, and her expression was full of fear.
Seeing that it was her, his big eyes finally fluttered with joy as if he had survived a disaster and a sincere request for help.
"Xiaomei!"
Zhui Lian didn't care about anything else and rushed over to untie the rope for Xiaomei. As her fingertips touched the rough knot, she turned back to tell Gu Hong to call the townspeople quickly.
but--
An object.
A cold, hard object, but slowly, slowly—
It rested on her lower back.
It's the muzzle of a gun.
Zhui Lian's body froze instantly.
Is she...going to be kidnapped?
"Don't move, chase the teacher." Gu Hong's voice sounded behind her. The tone was still gentle, but with an indescribable strange accent.
"Principal Gu...you..." Zhui Lian turned around in disbelief and met Gu Hong's eyes that were fixed on her. The gentleness and calmness in those eyes were completely gone, leaving only a cold madness.
"Are you surprised?"
Gu Hong chuckled.
The muzzle of his gun was still pressed against Zhui Lian's lower back, but his other free hand neatly untied the ropes on Xiaomei and tore off the tape on her mouth.
To Zhui Lian's surprise, Xiaomei, who had regained her freedom, did not rush towards her. Instead, she timidly stood beside Gu Hong and whispered, "Brother..."
elder brother?
With a buzzing sound, Zhui Lian's mind went blank.
Isn't Xiaomei a left-behind child whose parents work away from home? Why does she call Gu Hong "brother"?
"Don't understand?" Gu Hong seemed to enjoy her shock and confusion at the moment. He said slowly, "Xiaomei was adopted by me."
"Her life story, everything she told you, was just a plot to make her more approachable to you and to make you sympathize with her," Gu Hong said. "A poor, helpless girl is most likely to arouse the protective instincts of a 'kind' person like you, isn't it?"
So that diary, those missing children, those rumors... could it be that they are all... are all...
"Gu Hong, why are you doing this?" Zhui Lian closed his eyes, unable to understand Gu Hong's motives.
"Why?" Gu Hong's emotions seemed to calm down in an instant, and she asked, "Do you still remember Ah Xiu?"
Ah Xiu?
Who is this?
She really couldn't remember such a person having appeared in her life over the past twenty years.
"You don't remember?" Seeing the confusion on Zhui Lian's face, Gu Hong seemed very shocked.
“Why, why!”
But after this moment of shock, his voice suddenly rose, resonating in the cave, "A Xiu died for you, but you don't even remember her! Why!"
Wait, wait—
Die for her?
At this moment, confusion has overwhelmed fear, and the confused expression on her face deepened uncontrollably.
Most of the time, facial expressions can reveal a person's true answers better than words.
"Oh……"
An extremely painful sound escaped from Gu Hong's throat. At this moment, the gun in his hand suddenly shot up from Zhui Lian's lower back and hit her between the eyebrows.
"Have you forgotten Qingjiang? Zhui Lian! Have you forgotten your identity as the River God's bride and that you are a fugitive?"
"You ran away, you left! But the river god wanted a bride, and since they couldn't catch you, they caught Ah Xiu! They caught my sister Ah Xiu!"
"She had just turned sixteen that day! And they...they drowned her in the Qing River!"
Gu Hong's emotions were completely out of control, her eyes were red and her face was grim. "What did she do wrong? She just happened to celebrate her sixteenth birthday the day after you escaped!"
"I've been searching for you for so many years... I escaped from Qingjiang, hiding my identity and changing my appearance. I've been searching for you for so many years, just to find you—"
"Find you, the murderer who killed A Xiu!"
He stared at Zhui Lian intently, his face revealing extreme pain and resentment. "How do you think you got your peaceful life? It cost my sister's life! Now, it's your turn to pay back!"
Zhui Lian rarely saw such extreme pain and resentment on someone's face.
Cold and pure, simple and direct.
He wanted to kill her, he really wanted to kill her.
Absurd and unreasonable desire to kill her—
Because he blamed Qingjiang's cannibalistic behavior entirely on her, a fugitive who was also struggling to survive.
This distortion of logic made Zhui Lian feel a little ridiculous and pathetic besides being terrified.
"Principal Gu."
Even though thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind, Zhui Lian knew that he couldn't confront Gu Hong head-on at this moment.
She took a deep breath, facing the fear of the black muzzle of a gun pressed against her brow, and tried to calm the other person down. "I didn't know that your sister would encounter something like this after I left. I'm very sorry about this, but you should understand that the root cause of this matter is not me, but..."
Gu Hong in front of her didn't seem to be listening to her at all. He suddenly pushed Xiaomei who was standing beside him and interrupted Zhui Lian's words: "Go, according to the plan, lead those people outside away and tell them that you are safe."
Xiaomei raised her head, which had been hanging down, and glanced at Zhui Lian.
That look was very complicated.
Guilty, fearful, and a barely perceptible hint of remorse, but more of it was obedience to Gu Hong.
She bit her lip, turned around and ran out of the sea cave quickly.
"Principal Gu, Principal Gu..."
Zhui Lian didn't know what she would face next, but she knew she couldn't just sit there and wait for death.
She suppressed her fear and tried to talk to Gu Hong in a gentle manner, "I think we should talk. If you kill me, you will also..."
"Shut up! Turn around!"
Gu Hong seemed not to want to hear anything she said. He put the gun against the back of her head and forced her to go deeper into the cave.
A crack so narrow that only one person could pass through was hidden in the shadows. A cold wind blew out of the crack and rushed straight towards her.
Zhui Lian was pointed at by a gun and moved step by step into the crack.
Drops of water fell from the slippery moss above the passage, hitting her neck and causing a shiver.
When you exit this passage, the view suddenly becomes clear.
But Zhui Lian was instantly enveloped by even greater despair.
What appeared before my eyes was an even more desolate and uninhabited hidden rocky beach.
The sea water came up in clumps on the rocky beach. It was not the usual azure blue, but inky black, making the waves look even more violent.
The largest reef is in the middle, protruding prominently.
It was huge, dark, and stood abruptly, and the tide was rising, already submerging the base of the reef and climbing upwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Don't you want to marry the river god? Well, there is no river here, only the sea." Gu Hong's voice was filled with a morbid excitement. He dragged Zhui Lian over roughly and tied her up in a few seconds with the rope he had prepared long ago.
There were some strange runes carved on the reef, so twisted that the specific words and patterns could not be distinguished. At the bottom, there was a deep groove carved by the sea water, which was just enough for a person to kneel in. It was like a natural altar, designed specifically for tying up sacrifices.
He pressed Zhui Lian tightly inside, whispering like a dream, with a crazy sense of ritual, "But it doesn't matter. The Sea God... should also like you as a bride."
"Use you as a sacrifice to the sea to appease the Sea God's wrath. Those children will return. Then, you, the 'ominous person', will completely disappear, and everything will return to normal. How perfect..."
It turned out that the disappearance of those children was really related to Gu Hong.
From the moment Gu Hong invited her to substitute teach art at Hope Primary School, this had been a setup for her. No wonder, when they first met Zhui Lian, he casually pointed at her postcard and asked where the river on it was from. Then, naturally, he got her to reveal her hometown.
She had just arrived in this simple little town and was not on guard in her interactions with others, but she had no idea that all the approach, concern, and even the invitation to the fireworks display were for this moment.
Cold sweat dripped down her back, and Zhui Lian felt cold all over. The fear of approaching death suddenly made her burst with amazing quick wit.
"Principal Gu." Zhui Lian struggled to speak again.
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
Gu Hong became even more furious. He raised his foot and kicked Zhui Lian hard on the back. The force was not enough to make her fall off the reef, but it was enough to cause her extreme pain.
He seemed to be eager to kill Zhui Lian right now.
But for the sake of the ritual sense of sacrifice, he suppressed the impulse and stared at the rising sea water, as if waiting for something.
"actually……"
After being kicked hard from the back, Zhui Lian felt as if her heart and lungs were being pulled up. Her face turned even paler and she coughed repeatedly.
But amidst the violent coughing, she forced herself to continue, her speech accelerating. "Principal Gu, I really... ahem... I understand you very well. I've also experienced this kind of thing... the death of a loved one... ahem... Do you remember, back then, there was a kid in the village who had returned from a big city to live temporarily? His name was Qiao Xunli."
Gu Hong still had the muzzle of her gun pointed at the back of Zhui Lian's head. He had no idea what she was up to, so he only hummed grimly and said, "So?"
"I left Qingjiang and went to S City, where I ran into him again. We... ahem... fell in love on campus. Later, I went to study in the UK, and when I came back, I found out he'd been in a car accident. I know what it's like to be separated forever, and it's really hard... so I..."
Zhui Lian tried his best to delay time, attempting to use the same experience to slow down Gu Hong's actions.
"I really understand your feelings and understand..."
But the tide is rising little by little, and the other person's eyes are becoming more and more fanatical. There is really not much time left for her.
Soon, she will be swallowed up and buried.
"How touching!" Gu Hong turned her head abruptly, a strange smile twisting across her face as she interrupted her, "Then you can go to the underworld to accompany him!"
Before he finished speaking, a fierce light flashed in his eyes.
The free hand suddenly pressed against Zhui Lian's back, and the hand trembled slightly with excitement.
But the huge force still came, pushing her into the turbulent, cold black sea water that had risen to her waist!
This turbulent sea will be the burial place he chose for her.
Zhui Lian closed her eyes in despair, the salty sea breeze filling her mouth and nose. Before the expected icy swallowing came, an absurd yet clear thought struck her -
Pei Zhiyu... If only Pei Zhiyu hadn't left this coastal town... If only he could arrive... If only he could drop from the sky...
At this critical moment——
——BOOM!!!
——Buzz!!!
The roar of the waves was suddenly torn apart, and a deafening roar was heard, which was the roar of the engine.
Gu Hong's movements suddenly stopped and he looked up in horror.
Zhui Lian was also shocked by this sudden change and opened his eyes.
——There was only a black shadow, an extremely fast black shadow, so fast that the specific shadow could not be seen clearly, crushing through the extremely steep slope on the side of the sea cliff.
The light emitted by the black shadow was dazzling and pale, piercing straight towards them madly.
Shaking, jumping, extremely violent!
It was a crazy and almost suicidal posture, so crazy that it rushed down the steep slope without hesitation, and every grain of sand and stone was crushed. It made a loud noise in the collision and bounce, and the teeth-grinding scraping sound continued one after another without a break!
Amidst the flying sparks, the black shadow finally plunged into the deep black sea water at the end of the reef slope.
He plunged in headfirst.
The hood twisted and popped open, white smoke hissed out, and a dying wail poured out from the behemoth. Zhui Lian finally saw clearly what this extremely brutal black shadow was.
It was an off-road vehicle.
A heavily modified black SUV.
The waves splashed down on Zhui Lian and Gu Hong.
Time stands still and the world is silent.
Bang!
The deformed driver's door was suddenly kicked open from the inside by a terrifying force!
In the murky sea water, a figure staggered out of the car.
The moonlight and the faint light of the distant lighthouse outlined the man's silhouette.
Wet black hair, pale skin, bright red lips.
A soaked black shirt and an expensive suit jacket thrown on the ground.
Drops of water continued to drip from his chin.
Even redder than his lips was the blood that was still flowing down his forehead.
Pei Zhiyu.
His eyes locked onto hers with precision.
The sight swept across the reef very quickly and deeply - across Zhui Lian's bound wrists, across her wet clothes, and finally stopped on her pale and terrified face.
It was like a physical touch, but also with an almost scalding confirmation.
His hands hanging by his side were still trembling slightly, but he seemed to have finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, he finally turned around and looked at Gu Hong.
"Have you asked me about using my bride as a sea sacrifice?"
He looked at Gu Hong and smiled at her.
But the smile did not reach his eyes. His deep black pupils were filled with an icy coldness without mercy, as if he was not looking at a person, but an object that was about to be completely shattered.
There was also a smile in his voice, but his eyes and brows, which were the same as before, now had a ghostly look.
It’s just that it’s a ghost that’s taking your life.
-----------------------
The author has something to say: I rewrote [Rainbow Fart] and it feels much better.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com