Ghost Marriage Horror VI
The houses in Wangjia Village are lined up in a row, with one side against the mountain and the other side used for raising livestock. The livestock sheds are connected to the rice paddies.
The bright sun shone down, but it couldn't dispel the gloom in Sanya's home.
Uncle Wang's vicious face, which seemed to be about to grind Sanya to dust, terrified Wang Pan'er.
She dared not leave, fearing that Uncle Wang might impulsively beat Sanya to death. She could only squat by the small window on the side of the mountain near her house, waiting for an opportunity to act.
Sanya's mother lay against the wall in the living room, a long bloodstain hanging from the corner of her mouth, her ankle twisted into a strange bend, clearly having been brutally beaten.
Uncle Wang took another swig of wine and reached for peanuts with his chopsticks.
He was quite drunk and couldn't control his strength. The peanut slipped out of its red skin, fell to the ground, and rolled several times.
He stared at the fallen peanuts, his eyes bloodshot, then turned to look menacingly at the woman lying on the ground, barely recognizable as human: "How many times have I told you to peel the peanuts? Are you deaf or dead?"
San Ya's mother was trembling and could not speak clearly.
Uncle Wang's temper flared up. He slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and staggered toward San Ya's mother, kicking her twice with his foot: "Damn it, I married such a wretched thing like you."
San Ya's mother curled up in pain, crying out in a hoarse voice.
"Who do you want to cry to?" Uncle Wang squatted down and slapped her face several more times. "You slut."
In the corner of the kitchen, Sanya silently scrubbed the pot, her little finger bent outwards on her left hand.
Wang Pan'er tried to make some noise outside the window and waved frantically at Sanya, but Sanya was so engrossed in her own world that she ignored her.
Her movements caught Uncle Wang's attention. Uncle Wang turned and walked towards the kitchen, and Wang Pan'er quickly squatted down.
"What are you doing hiding here slacking off again? Haven't I given you a beating in days, are you itching for a beating?" Uncle Wang grabbed her hair, "Take a closer look," and then spat on Sanya's face. "You unlucky little brat, you really do look like a tomboy."
He casually tossed Sanya aside, no longer in the mood to look at the face that had cost him a gold ingot, and went back to the living room to torment his mother.
Sanya wiped the stinky saliva off her face.
Whenever her father was unhappy, he would drink, and after drinking, he would act crazy and beat and scold her and her mother at will.
Her mother told her to endure it, and that's how life goes by if you just keep enduring it.
She tried to endure it, but the sound of her so-called biological father opening the door would wake her up from her dream. She would try to raise her arm to avoid him, and even a loud reprimand would make her heart pound like a drum, fearing that the next second would be a barrage of punches and kicks.
The moment her father pushed her toward the matchmaker, Sanya felt as if the whole world had turned black, and endless suffering awaited her.
"Sanya, Sanya, over here!"
She heard someone call her, turned around to look at the living room, and saw a scene that was all too familiar.
In the living room, the abusive man and the cowardly woman.
fed up.
Sanya picked up the knife leaning against the chopping board, walked behind Uncle Wang, and swung it down hard on the back of his head.
"Ahhh!" A sharp scream came from Sanya's mother's throat. She crawled to the side of the fallen man, hugged his bleeding head, and accused Sanya: "You're trying to kill him!"
Sanya's mind was buzzing. She looked at her mother's mouth opening and closing and felt puzzled.
The man who hit her was stabbed, so why is she the one being blamed?
Sanya's mother couldn't stand up, so she hugged Sanya's legs and pounded them hard, saying, "If you kill your father, how are we supposed to live?"
What's the point of living? I might as well be dead.
Sanya turned expressionlessly toward the end of the village, where there was a well.
Given her father's character, the thought of selling her to a dead person would only lead him to repeatedly seek opportunities to sell her at a high price. She had heard the saying that one should not use someone who died a violent death for a ghost marriage, and she remembered Sister Pan'er stroking her head and sighing, saying that it would be good if she could have some courage.
Does having your life and death in your own hands make you bolder?
After deciding to end my own life, it seems like there's really nothing left to fear.
Sanya walked barefoot to the well at the end of the village, stepped onto the well rim, looked up at the bright sky, slowly spread her arms, and then jumped down without hesitation.
She didn't close her eyes, but just stared blankly as this despicable world rapidly ascended.
But just as the world was about to disappear, a gray shadow came rushing from afar. Sanya tried to see it clearly, but it was too late.
With a "splash!", the well water burst open, then quickly returned to calm.
Sanya crashed heavily onto the water and lost consciousness.
Soon, the news that a girl could be sold for one or two taels of gold spread throughout Wangjia Village.
People couldn't even spare time for the busy farming season. Every household was locked up inside, scrutinizing their unmarried daughters. Some were kicking themselves in regret for drowning their daughters, while others were discussing having more daughters to supplement their household income.
No one paid attention to the commotion at Sanya's house, which everyone was already used to, let alone the dull thud of a living person falling into the well.
When Wang Pan'er rushed to the well, all she could see was coarse linen clothes swirling in the water, and San Ya's black hair spreading out like seaweed. On the moss-covered well walls, there were still a few faint scratches from fingernails.
Wang Pan'er quickly untied the rope from the bucket and threw it into the well.
The well rope had become brittle from being exposed to the sun and rain, and when Wang Pan'er pulled on it, her palms were cut and bled.
But there was no time to worry about that right now. The rope was thrown into the well water, and Wang Pan'er anxiously called out into the well in a low voice, "San Ya, wake up!"
There was no movement down in the well.
If someone is drowning, the time available to save them is extremely short. Wang Pan'er couldn't wake Sanya and became increasingly anxious, repeatedly calling out towards the well opening.
"Sanya, I'll take you with me, please don't die."
"Sanya, hold on to the rope!"
"Sanya..."
Sanya soaked in the water, her movements becoming smaller and smaller.
Unable to wake Sanya, Wang Pan'er couldn't think of any other way and could only desperately lie on the edge of the well and cry towards the well opening, hating her own weakness for the first time in her life.
The peaceful industrial era has spoiled people too much. She used her grandfather's medicinal food shop as a breeding ground, living a carefree and easy life, and could even complain about the difficulty of finding a job; she disliked the pressure of marriage and children, and could even denounce people's materialistic and mercenary nature.
And here, in such an inconspicuous little mountain village, three murders have already occurred over just one or two taels of gold.
"Do you dare to go down?"
A familiar voice sounded behind him; Mu Chuan had arrived in the village without him noticing.
"If you dare to go down, you can save her."
Wang Pan'er clung to Mu Chuan's elbow like a drowning person grasping at a piece of driftwood, pleading, "I dare, I dare, please save her!"
Mu Chuan quickly grabbed the rope, tied two slipknots at one end, and put the loop at the other end around Wang Pan'er's waist.
"Go down and put this on her, then I'll pull you all up."
Wang Pan'er nodded emphatically.
The well walls were slippery, and Wang Pan'er's legs tightened around the rope as she plummeted downwards. The icy well water choked her, and as she groped for San Ya's collar, her fingertips touched a faint pulse on the side of her neck—she was still alive!
She pulled the person up from behind Sanya, put a rope around her and tightened it, then looked up to signal Muchuan to pull harder.
A muffled groan came from above, and the rope suddenly shook violently.
In her desperation, Wang Pan'er didn't care about anything else. Only when she saw that Mu Chuan was struggling to pull him did she belatedly realize that the person who came to help was an injured person.
Wang Pan'er looked up and saw Mu Chuan at the wellhead, unable to exert his full strength, gritting his teeth as he wound the hemp rope round and round.
"Lie down, wrap the rope around your feet, pull with your legs, and brace your other foot against the well wall to prevent the wound on your shoulder from reopening."
After pulling Sanya out of the water, Wang Pan'er calmed down, and her quick wit returned along with her rationality. She then directed Mu Chuan to carry out the rescue.
Soon, Wang Pan'er reached the wellhead, pulled herself up in one go, and then, together with Mu Chuan, dragged the extremely heavy San Ya onto the ground.
Sanya had choked on water and fallen into a coma. Wang Pan'er laid her flat, placed one hand on her forehead, and lifted her chin with the other to open her airway. Then she took a deep breath and performed two artificial respirations.
With her chest rising and falling, Wang Pan'er located the heart and began to press quickly and forcefully, pressing thirty times and then blowing two breaths.
Mu Chuan watched in astonishment as Wang Pan'er repeated his unprecedented rescue actions three times, causing the person lying on the ground to vomit a large puddle of water with a "whoosh".
Sanya slowly woke up.
After performing CPR, Wang Pan'er was drenched in sweat and struggling to breathe.
They didn't have time to explain much; the villagers could appear at any moment. Once she was breathing more evenly, Wang Pan'er went straight to the point and asked Sanya, "Are you willing to come with me and leave this place, right now?"
When Sanya saw that it was her sister Pan'er, she buried her face in Wang Pan'er's arms and burst into tears.
Wang Pan'er pulled her out of the picture rather coldly: "You're willing, right? If you're willing, let's set off immediately. Now is not the time to cry."
Sanya wiped the liquid that was not just tears but water from her face, nodded emphatically, got up and left the small village with the two of them.
Wang Pan'er and Sanya were soaked to the bone. Fortunately, it was noon and there was no biting cold wind. They made their way to the mourning room and relit the fire.
Wang Pan'er finally had a chance to voice her question to Mu Chuan: "Why did you come to the village?"
Mu Chuan leaned against the door, feeling tired from the exertion: "You've been gone for almost two hours, it's really worrying."
Seeing that Mu Chuan's expression wasn't good, Wang Pan'er pulled open Mu Chuan's collar, checked and confirmed that the wound hadn't reopened and was bleeding, and breathed a sigh of relief: "He's still loyal enough not to abandon me and run away."
Mu Chuan glanced at her and said, "You two should change your clothes quickly, or you'll catch a cold."
After saying this, Wang Pan'er sent Mu Chuan to stand guard outside the door. She and San Ya changed into the inner and outer layers of their wedding dresses, wrung out the water from the soaked linen clothes, and hung them on the fire to dry.
The fire was burning too brightly, the wood crackling and popping. Sparks flew onto Sanya's hand, and she cried out in pain. The coarse linen clothes in her hand slipped onto the fire, making a sizzling sound. The smell of burning mixed with moisture rose up, damply extinguishing half of the fire.
The linen clothes were covered in ash. Wang Pan'er picked them up, shook them, and relit the fire. She said to Sanya, "You rest for a while, I'll take care of it."
Sanya was completely disoriented today, her mind a jumble of emotions, only knowing that she had to follow Wang Pan'er. Tears of grievance, fear, and a mix of other emotions she couldn't quite name lingered throughout the journey.
Now that they were in a safe place and were being cared for by her older sister, she finally couldn't hold back and burst into tears in front of the fire.
Wang Pan'er wasn't good at comforting people, so she could only hug the little girl, gently pat her back, and softly coax her, "Oh, it's alright, it's alright! We've escaped, and we won't encounter anything like this again."
Sanya covered her face: "But I injured my father, and Juan'er was also injured because of me..."
"If you insist on saying it your way, then I'm the culprit. It's because I ran away that all of this happened today."
“No!” Sanya shook her head vigorously. “Juan’er is still young. She doesn’t understand what awaits her.”
“So the ones who deserve to die are the Zhang family and those so-called parents who sold us off.” Wang Pan’er turned the clothes over. “Your parents gave you life and raised you, but as the old saying goes, even tigers don’t eat their cubs. He was willing to send you to your death for a single ingot of gold. He severed even the deepest bond between father and daughter with his own hands.”
"But Mother..."
“Your mother is weak and relies on your father for a living. Now that your father is dead, she will definitely resent you for cutting off her livelihood. When have these people in the village ever cared about us girls? Even so, why should we care about them?”
These ideas were difficult for Sanya, who had been disciplined and taught to be virtuous and gentle since childhood, to accept. She knew that what Wang Pan'er said made sense, but she couldn't get over the psychological hurdle for the time being.
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Now that we're rid of these burdens, the good days are yet to come."
Wang Pan'er and her sister Sanya from another world share their plans in detail.
Go to town, find a place to stay, set up a stall, and make sure you don't starve to death.
Mu Chuan's injuries haven't fully healed, and she needs to continue recuperating. She impulsively brought San Ya along, and now she has to temporarily take care of San Ya's daily needs.
Although Sanya patted her chest and assured everyone that she could endure any hardship and do any kind of work, she still had no knowledge of the outside world and would probably suffer a great loss in the town without her help.
Sanya, Sanya, what an awful name. It sounds sloppy and perfunctory. Wang Pan'er pondered for a long time but couldn't think of a good name. So she told the little girl who had joined the group, "You've left your parents behind. You don't need the name Sanya anymore. Think about it on the way and see if there's one you like. From now on, just live according to your own ideas."
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