Chapter 56: White Bone Hairpin 11: Peach
The one who called out to them was a girl about fourteen or fifteen, looking even younger than Xun Shu. She was dressed in plain linen and clearly belonged to the Cai residence. She looked nervous, her movements timid, and she suppressed her fear as she called out to the others, not daring to get too close.
Seeing Xun Shu and the others stop, she hesitantly took a few steps forward. After stopping, her gaze rested on Xun Shu, who was on the far right. "I'm Bi Tao, a kitchen maid at the Cai residence. I just overheard your conversation with the Madam. You're outsiders, right?"
Xun Shu blinked. "Yes. Is what you just said true? Do you really know who the five girls mentioned in the blood letter are?"
Bi Tao nodded gently, looked around, and said cautiously, "This place is not very convenient. Please follow me."
Bitao led a few people around the nearby houses and stopped at the edge of the deserted woods on the east side.
The mountains, like a curtain, obscured the sun, merging with the night, leaving only an unfathomable darkness. The shadows of the trees flickered in the forest, and birds chirped and cicadas hummed incessantly. The evening breeze blew through the trees, carrying the fragrance of the mountains and the pungent smell of the earth. Xun Shu's back felt hairy, and he stood close to Li Xuanhe.
Bi Tao looked at Xun Shu seriously and said, "I can tell you who those five girls are. In exchange, I'd like to ask you to do me a favor."
Xun Shu blinked, looking puzzled: "Why should we help you?"
Bi Tao was stunned. "Don't you suspect there's something else behind Master's death and want to find out the real cause of his death?"
"We do have suspicions, but we're just curious." Xun Shu looked at her, as if observing her and testing her, and said slowly, "I thought you hoped that the death of your master would be investigated as soon as possible."
Xun Shu took over the reins with a single move, delicately making Bi Tao's lips turn pale and stammer, unsure of what to say. Li Xuanhe listened quietly to their conversation, finding it amusing, but also worried that Xun Shu might be too rude and scare Bi Tao away. He chuckled helplessly, breaking the awkward atmosphere, and responded to Bi Tao's request: "Tell me first, what can we do for you?"
Bi Tao glanced at Li Xuanhe, then quickly lowered her head and said softly, "I want you to take me away from here. I don't want to be a saint, and I don't want to die."
This was unexpected. Li Xuanhe continued, "As far as I know, the Saintess selection is not announced until the day of the prayer. How did you know in advance that you would be this year's Saintess?"
Bi Tao shook her head, a wry smile on her face. "That's what I thought too, until a month ago, when Xili Zheng found my parents and offered to give them some money so that I could become the Saint to be prayed for this year. My family is poor, my younger brother is still studying, and Xili Zheng threatened me, so my parents had no choice but to agree. I was outside the window at the time and heard what they said. Xili Zheng was afraid of complications, so he asked me to move into his house in advance and live there until the Saint's blessing day."
Xun Shu probed, "Why don't you want to be a saint?"
"Being a saint is just a nice thing to say. They say you go to a blessed land to serve the gods, live a good life, and it's the honor of the family... But all these years have passed, and no one chosen as a saint has ever returned to the village, and no one knows what that blessed land looks like." Bi Tao laughed miserably, "Everyone is secretly speculating that the so-called saint's blessing is actually just a sacrifice to serve ghosts... I don't want to be sacrificed to serve ghosts.
"I heard that a long time ago, the candidate for the Saint was announced in advance, and no one ever thought of resisting. But more than 20 years ago, a family did not want their daughter to be the Saint. After the candidate was announced, the whole family moved away and left Ningyuan Village, never to return. Since this incident, the villagers are no longer as obedient to the selection of the Saint. Although there are still many people who insist that the Saint can bless Ningyuan Village with prosperity, gradually there are voices of opposition. From then on, the candidate for the Saint will no longer be announced in advance. In order to avoid their daughters being chosen as the Saint, many families will even start looking for suitable young talents for their daughters long in advance and marry their daughters off before the ceremony.
"I'm afraid it's too late for me to find someone to marry. The only way out is to escape from the village. Everyone in the village knows me, and no one will interfere. You are outsiders, with no ties to this village, so you are the only ones who can help me... Please, help me."
Li Xuanhe's smile persisted, but his words were so calm they tinged with coldness: "Since this is a deal, both parties have bargaining chips. Our bargaining chip is to get you out of the village, what is your bargaining chip? You have to let us know if this deal is worth it, right?"
Bitao, a girl who had never left the village, was no match for Li Xuanhe. She could only grit her teeth and tell him everything she knew: "After the villagers began marrying off their daughters early, the number of people who could become saints dwindled. The Saint Blessing Ceremony was once unable to proceed due to a lack of available saints. Eighteen years ago, when no suitable saint could be found, the blessing ceremony was about to be terminated. However, Xilizheng brought an unconscious girl to the ceremony on the day of the ceremony, which allowed the ceremony to proceed smoothly. This girl was Shou Zhiyue, one of the five girls mentioned in the blood letter."
Shou Zhiyue? Xun Shu recalled the funeral procession he had seen when he entered the village yesterday and asked hurriedly, "When we entered the village yesterday, we encountered a funeral procession. I heard that it was Shou Bo's only son. Is this person related to Shou Zhiyue?"
Bilian didn't expect them to know about the Shou family, so she nodded quickly and said, "Shou Zhiyue is the eldest daughter of Shou Bo's elder brother Shou Changyu."
Xun Shu had heard a bit about Shou Changyu's story yesterday, so he asked tentatively, "I heard that Shou Changyu is dead? Does this Saint Girl's story have anything to do with her parents'?"
"It should be unrelated. Shou Changyu and his wife died twenty years ago. At that time, Shou Zhiyue had just turned thirteen, and her sister Shou Wenxue was less than three years old. Shou Bo was the uncle of the Shou sisters. After they lost their parents, he took them into his home to take care of them. They lived in Shou Bo's house for two years before Shou Zhiyue became a saint."
"Yesterday I heard that the Shou sisters died in an accident, but I didn't expect that they became saints." Xun Shu sighed.
Bilian looked around warily and lowered her voice, "Miss, you must not tell anyone about this." She looked a little conflicted as she tried to find a suitable way to explain the matter. "This is a not-so-secret secret in Ningyuan Village. Everyone knows it, but it can only be spoken in secret."
"Why is that?"
"I wasn't even born when the Shou sisters died. I heard this from my mother and grandmother. They said that Uncle Shou was completely heartless. With his brother dead, he only had two nieces left, yet he had the heart to send them to be saints. Uncle Shou, perhaps feeling guilty about his brother's spirit, simply said his niece had an acute illness beyond human healing, and that if she were sent to a blessed land, perhaps the gods could save her. He then told no one else to discuss the matter. The Shou family is very prestigious in the village now, so naturally everyone had to obey. Gradually, no one dared to discuss the matter, and when it was mentioned, it was said that the two sisters had met with an accident."
Perhaps because her family was mentioned, Bitao's mood became a little depressed.
The family member who used to be her closest to her now betrayed her with their own hands. Xun Shu looked at her and felt that this feeling must be more desperate and devastated than when she was kicked out of Sitian Pavilion.
Xun Shu didn't want to upset her, so he changed the subject: "This should be the Shou family's business. What does it have to do with Xili Zheng? Why did it appear in that blood letter?"
Bi Tao pursed her lips and continued, "After Xili Zheng brought me back to the Cai family, I was taken care of by the old lady in the mansion. She felt sorry for me and told me some past events, hoping to make me forget my pain. She told me that she had taken care of five saints who came to stay temporarily in the mansion, the first of which was Shou Zhiyue. When Shou Zhiyue was brought into the Cai residence, she suffered a serious injury to the back of her head. She slept more than she was awake every day, and when she woke up she was confused and couldn't recognize people. Even on the day of the saint's blessing, she had to be supported by others to enter the shrine.
"Besides Shou Zhiyue, there were four other girls. Some, like me, were sold by their families, while others, like Shou Zhiyue, were abducted and forced." Bi Tao paused, then raised her head, her eyes gleaming. "Three days later, a new round of saintly maidens' blessings will begin. Xili Zheng was killed by a fierce ghost at this time... I guess the 'five sisters' mentioned in the blood letter refer to these five saintly maidens offered by Xili Zheng. They were forced to sacrifice themselves, and their souls were not reincarnated. Instead, they became the fierce ghosts that are now taking lives, avenging themselves with their own hands."
Bi Tao told everything she knew, and at the end she begged again, not as forcefully as at first, with a faint hint of tears in her voice: "My Lords, my family won't help me with the matter of the Saint, and no one in Ningyuan Village will intervene. Although I don't know what the Saint's Prayer is, or where the Saints have gone, something that everyone avoids is definitely not a good thing. I really don't want to die... Please, take me out of the village, I'll do anything you ask me to do..."
Li Xuanhe pondered for a moment, then glanced sideways at Xun Shu. Seeing a flicker in her eyes, clearly wanting to help Bitao, he spoke, "The road north is blocked, and we can't leave. If we take you away now and are discovered, the entire village will surely search for you. We're outnumbered and may not be able to save you. Why don't you go back and pretend nothing happened? After all, the Saint Maiden still has two days to pray for blessings, so there's still room for maneuver."
Bi Tao was a little disappointed, but still nodded obediently. Xun Shu couldn't bear it, so he comforted her, "I know how to read faces. I think you can live for many years, don't worry."
These words seemed like a casual reassurance, but Bi Tao's heart strangely calmed down. She nodded and said sincerely, "Thank you."
The group returned Bi Tao to the Cai residence, where they happened to meet someone from the Cai residence who was out looking for Bi Tao. They looked at Xun Shu and the others with a wary gaze, but it was Li Xuanhe who took the initiative and, as usual, made up a story about how he was going to walk around the residence to exorcise a ghost, and asked Bi Tao to lead the way.
What could be more important than exorcising a ghost? The person opposite didn't dare say anything more. After a few pleasantries, he hurriedly left with Bi Tao. Xun Shu stood there, watching Bi Tao follow the servants into the Cai residence, and then watched the gate close. He was still thinking about what he had just heard, and couldn't help but wonder, "What kind of parents would personally push their daughter into a pit of fire?"
Li Xuanhe didn't answer her doubts. He just patted her head and said softly, "Go back first."
-
Perhaps too many things happened today, and Xun Shu was very sleepy on the way back. After forcing himself to walk back to the inn, he didn't even have dinner and went straight back to the room. The moment his head touched the pillow, he fell asleep.
She had a beautiful dream.
In her dream, she walked through the dim coffin shop and into the backyard, which was gleaming with dazzling light. Jiang Zheng came out of the kitchen carrying a freshly prepared dish. When he saw her, he smiled and said, "You must be hungry. Come sit down and eat!"
In the dream, Li Xuanhe was still He Xuan, wearing ill-fitting coarse cloth clothes. He knocked on her head when he passed by her, then ran away with a smile.
They ate together, cut trees together to make coffins, and pushed coffins to sell together. When they had money, they ate roast chicken, when they didn't, they ate steamed buns. To supplement the family income, she set up a stall at the market. Uncle Jiang, worried about her, secretly watched from the corner for most of the day. It wasn't until Li Xuanhe bought a shop across the road, using the name of Si Tian Ge to defraud people, and could also take care of her. Only then did Uncle Jiang feel at ease and stopped showing up.
These were obviously very common scenes, which she had experienced countless times in the past five years, but at this moment they were as precious as the last drop of rain during a severe drought. It might not save a dying person, but it could keep him going with all his strength.
She didn't know how much time had passed, it seemed like a day, or a year. The people in her dream urged her to leave, and she waved goodbye to them one by one.
The good dream finally ended.
When Xun Shu struggled to open her heavy eyelids, the room was already bright. She adjusted to the light, shook her aching neck, and struggled to get up, which startled everyone in the room.
The man walked quickly to the bed, hung the bed curtains for her, looked at her and smiled: "Are you hungry? Do you need anything?"
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