"What's troubling you, young lady? You look so lost and distraught. Luckily, I sheathed my sword quickly, or there would have been another wronged soul." Thinking back to what just happened, I still feel lingering fear. This young lady walks without making a sound.
"It's a long story, but it's just that I've had a hard life." She sighed, forcing a smile. "The tea has all spilled. I'll go to the kitchen and get a new pot." With that, she hurried away.
Her footsteps were still very light as she left. Disappointed, I went back to the east wing to change my clothes. Master Mingyue brought me vegetarian food and said, "Master is already waiting for you in the Buddhist hall. After you finish your meal, you can perform the blessing ceremony."
In the center of the Buddhist hall, Guanyin Bodhisattva, holding a treasure vase, sat gracefully on a lotus flower, her slightly bowed eyes seemingly gazing down upon all things in the world. I knelt on the prayer mat and respectfully lit an incense stick. The girls slowly gathered, seven in total, one of whom was the impetuous girl I had met that morning. Her eyes were still red and swollen, and she kept her head down, looking preoccupied.
Master Huiqing, who was already in his fifties, was a man of few words. He led us to sit in the Buddhist hall and chant sutras.
It's a very ordinary scripture, and my mother would recite it occasionally.
I grew impatient and turned around, but the girl was gone. Her prayer mat was empty, only the clear outline of her knees visible. Everyone had their eyes closed. I quietly got up and looked around. The slender figure turned a corner and went into the backyard. I followed her closely. She pushed open a door to the west wing and went inside. I reached the door and was about to knock when I heard a loud crash as a stool fell to the ground. I had a bad feeling. I pushed the door open, and there was a three-foot-long white silk ribbon tied tightly in a knot on the beam. The woman was hanging in mid-air like a puppet. A hidden weapon flew out of my hand, and the woman fell to the ground with a soft cry, tears streaming down her face. She gasped for breath and said, "Girl, you can't save me. It would be better if I died."
"Why would someone want to die for no reason?"
"If you can't help me, telling me would only hurt me again."
"Go ahead and tell me, it's all about human effort, young lady, don't be too pessimistic."
The girl wiped away her tears, and I helped her sit on the edge of the bed. She sighed, as if she had made a great decision, before revealing the reason for her suicide: "My name is Ziyu, and I come from a village at the foot of Guanyin Mountain. My family has been farming for generations. Last August, after a matchmaker's persuasion, my father betrothed me to the son of a wealthy family in a neighboring village. The matchmaker described the young man as unparalleled, and my father initially didn't believe it. However, when the young man personally visited our home, he truly was an exceptional man. At that moment, I fell in love and agreed to the marriage." "Just a few days ago, before I went up the mountain, I went to the market to sell some handmade embroidery. I unexpectedly ran into that young man again. He was holding a beautiful woman in his arms. I was furious and confronted him. The woman said that they had been married for two or three years, and that the young man wasn't the son of that wealthy family. It turned out that the wealthy family's son was a rogue, incredibly ugly, and his father had given the young man money to stand in for his son in the arranged marriage. Now that things had come to this, I had no choice but to marry that rogue." At this point, Ziyu was already sobbing uncontrollably.
I nodded and cursed the unethical matchmaker and the other woman in my heart.
"Girl, since you can't help me, you might as well let me die."
I laughed: "This trivial matter is no problem for me."
"What method?"
"I'll marry in your place, that'll solve it, anyway, their goal is to marry a beautiful bride, so it doesn't matter who comes in, right?"
As clever as Ziyu was, she already knew I had a plan in mind and was no longer saddened; her brow relaxed.
I married into the family first. Ziyu escaped to a relative's house under the cover of night, and I ran away that same night. When the Tian family realized they didn't have a bride, they would definitely go to the Liang family to look for her. At this point, the Liang family insisted that their daughter had already married into the family and could invite the village chief to the wedding banquet that very night as a witness. Thus, they could rightfully ask the Tian family for their daughter back. At this point, the Tian family was left speechless and unable to explain their suffering.
3
The next day, when I went down the mountain with Ziyu, I did not disturb the monks in the temple. According to the rules, a girl cannot go down the mountain before staying for seven days, otherwise it is considered unlucky.
I don't believe those things are naturally indifferent.
At the village entrance stood a stone tablet inscribed with: Liangjiazhuang. Ziyu said this was their village. Since it was daytime and the villagers were all out working in the fields, there were hardly any people in the village. Ziyu's house was right at the village entrance, enclosed by a very simple fence. When we went inside, Ziyu's mother was lying in bed, and the room smelled strongly of Chinese medicine.
"mother."
"Ziyu, you're back." Ziyu's mother saw me, her face full of wrinkles. "What a wonderful girl." Ziyu's mother was incredibly old; she looked eighty, though only in her forties or fifties. Long-term illness and a difficult life had long since robbed her of her vitality. Ziyu introduced her, saying, "Mother, this young lady is my savior. Yu'er is saved."
"Really?" Upon hearing this, Ziyu's mother struggled to get out of bed and kneel down. I quickly helped her up: "Auntie, Ruyan and Ziyu are both women, it's a blessing if we can help." Ziyu's mother just kept wiping away her tears and nodding. Ziyu said awkwardly, "I'll go and brew medicine for Mother."
Soon after, Ziyu's brother and father returned from the fields. Upon seeing me, they couldn't help but sigh, saying only that the Tian family's servants had brought a message that morning that the wedding would take place on the eighth day of this month.
Today is the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, and the day after tomorrow will be the eighth.
Ziyu's older brother was named Aniu. He was an honest man who had never married because his family was poor. The night before the Tian family came to fetch her for the wedding, I was getting ready in Ziyu's room, dressed in a bright red wedding gown. Ziyu helped me carefully draw my eyebrows.
"Sister Ruyan is truly as beautiful as a fairy, what a pity," Ziyu sighed.
"Are you afraid I can't handle this? Just do as I say, and there won't be any problems."
"Yes, Ziyu remembers."
"What time is it?"
It's past midnight.
I nodded and put on the bright red wedding veil. Ziyu went out, and after a while, heavy footsteps came in, and the aroma of scallions wafted through the air.
"Brother A Niu?"
“Sister Ruyan, according to custom, the bride must eat a bowl of noodles before getting into the sedan chair, which means that she is leaving her rice bowl at her parents’ home.”
I took the noodles, took a bite, and the noodles had a strange taste, the taste of medicinal herbs. This bowl was often used to hold medicine, and the taste seemed to have stuck to it.
The outside gradually became lively, and the villagers who came to watch the excitement all got up. The matchmaker's high-pitched voice could be heard from afar: "Bride, come out and get into the sedan chair!"
As I stepped outside, I remembered that young men would cheer and women would say auspicious words when they came to see the bride. But the villagers here stood quietly at the door. I saw their white cloth shoes under the veil, and a sense of unease crept into my mind. This didn't seem like a wedding celebration; it felt more like a funeral.
The feeling came suddenly, and before I could figure it out, the sedan chair had already traveled several miles. The suona horn was playing incessantly, which was quite irritating. I felt something was increasingly wrong, but it was just a guess.
Finally, I could hear the voices of the crowd again.
Several children waited at the village entrance for the sedan chair to arrive. Upon seeing the bright red sedan chair, they chased after it, clapping their hands and singing:
Real Bride, Fake Bride
The real bride doesn't sleep with her husband.
The Fake Bride: The Monster Hides
Real Bride, Fake Bride
The real bride boils water
Put in fake bride soup
My scalp tingled with unease. The nursery rhyme seemed to be hinting at something, yet I couldn't quite make it out. In all my life, I'd never encountered anything so bizarre. It felt like a pre-arranged ritual, a trap waiting for me, the prey, to fall into it. I sensed something was wrong; my vision blurred, my limbs went limp, and I couldn't muster any strength. The innocent voices of children echoed in my ears, over and over again, only growing ever more distant:
Real Bride, Fake Bride
The real bride doesn't sleep with her husband.
The Fake Bride: The Monster Hides
Real Bride, Fake Bride
The real bride boils water
Put in fake bride soup
4
Ziyu's white mourning clothes were so striking. Tears streamed down her face as she took out a cow horn and began sharpening it inch by inch on a whetstone. The water in the pot had already boiled, emitting a strong medicinal aroma. She walked towards me step by step, the cow horn in her hand gleaming. I had no strength left and could only watch as she approached, saying, "Sister Ruyan, this Heavenly Soup can only be truly exquisite when made with your flesh."
I woke up with a start, my back covered in sweat.
The room was the east wing of the Guanyin Temple. Smoke curled from the incense burner. The door of the wing creaked open, and Master Mingyue came in carrying a bowl of herbal soup.
"You're awake?"
"Who saved me? Where is Ziyu?"
“Benefactor, you have been unconscious for four days with a persistent high fever, and you keep calling out Ziyu’s name. It seems you have really been frightened.” Master Mingyue sighed, “Well done, well done. Life is short. It is Ziyu’s fate that she insisted on taking her own life. You don’t need to be too sad.”
I stared in surprise: "Ziyu is dead?"
"Four days ago, Master was praying for all the benefactors in the Buddhist hall, but in the blink of an eye, he couldn't find benefactors Ruyan and Ziyu. So he sent this humble nun to check on them in their rooms. Unexpectedly, in benefactor Ziyu's room, she had already hanged herself, and you, benefactor, fainted at the door of the room due to shock."
I stared at the ground for a long time, then asked, "What about Ziyu's body?"
"The ice cellar was originally used to store food in the summer, but it turned out to be a place to hide corpses. Amitabha." Master Mingyue shook his head and left.
According to Master Mingyue, after Ziyu and I went to the west wing that day, she had already hanged herself, and I fainted after seeing her dead. However, this doesn't make sense. I've seen dead people like smoke, and I've also witnessed fighting and killing in a trance. How could I faint so easily?
I left the room and went to the host's private room.
The door was ajar. I walked to the door, but before I could knock, I heard a deep voice say, "Come in."
As I entered, Master Huiqing put down his prayer beads, smiled slightly, and asked, "Are you feeling well, benefactor?"
"Ruyan is doing well; I'm sorry to have troubled you, Master."
"Yes, this incident at our temple has truly disturbed all of you benefactors, but Ziyu is really unable to think straight, so let her be."
Master Huiqing and Master Mingyue speak with striking similarities.
I said nothing more, left the room, and went to the Buddhist hall. A woman was offering incense, but no one else was there. The woman had remarkably good physique, bright eyes, and a familiar face. When she saw me, she asked, "Miss, you're awake."
I nodded: "I'm sorry to have worried everyone."
The woman seemed quite familiar with him. She introduced herself, saying, "My name is Shen Suxin. Please take care of me."
"Who is the one-armed young master Shen Ruosu to you?"
"It is indeed my elder brother."
I laughed: "I didn't expect to meet my second brother-in-law's sister here."
"Could it be that you are the legendary Miss Liu, who is as beautiful as a fairy?" Shen Suxin jumped up like a child: "No wonder you look so familiar!"
I asked, "Are you here to pray for blessings too?"
Shen Suxin glanced around to make sure no one was listening and said, "No, I'm here to investigate a case." Shen Suxin was a well-known Jianghu constable. Jianghu disputes that the imperial court couldn't control were handled by Jianghu constables. Although Jianghu was the domain of martial arts practitioners, those who indiscriminately killed innocent people would be blacklisted and denounced by Jianghu constables.
"Investigating a case? What about the other girls?"
“Every year, girls who come here to pray for blessings go missing. I’ve been very free lately, so I came to visit. The other girls have all gone down the mountain to travel. They heard there’s a very special and grand local sacrificial ceremony down the mountain, and they were very curious and went to see it.”
"Sacrifice?"
"Let's not talk about that. How could you faint from a corpse? That's too much."
I sighed, "That's a long story, and it's quite bizarre, like a nightmare." I recounted the whole affair to Suxin in detail, and she seemed to hear something unbelievable: "You mean, you even helped that Ziyu girl come up with the idea of a substitute marriage, and she even married into the Tian family, and then her mind went blank and she didn't know anything anymore?"
"Yes."
"No wonder my memory of the past few days is so vague."
"How so?"
"It is true that Ziyu died a few days ago, just as Master Mingyue said, but I don't remember the details at all, nor do I remember Ziyu's face. My memory has always been very good, it shouldn't have deteriorated to this extent."
Su Xin's face turned deathly pale; she had probably never encountered anything so bizarre and strange in all her years as a constable. I also felt a chill run down my spine; it was equivalent to many people simultaneously suffering from amnesia or hallucinations. The Bodhisattva in the Buddhist hall still sat serenely on a lotus, her eyes slightly lowered. She saw clearly the affairs of this world, yet how could she guide us through our confusion?
5
Su Xin and I decided to go down the mountain to find the village from my memory. I say "memory" because I started to believe that I might have really had a nightmare. The details of that real experience were becoming more and more blurry in my mind, and I was really afraid that when I woke up, nothing would have happened.
As we left, Master Mingyue was sweeping fallen leaves in front of the temple. She glanced at us, then lowered her eyes, saying nothing. Suxin exclaimed, "The rituals down the mountain were so much fun! I overslept yesterday and didn't go!"
"Yes, I haven't come down the mountain for several days since I came to the temple. It's good to see it again." We chatted and laughed all the way down the mountain. The old woman selling incense was still there at the foot of the mountain. She nodded slightly when she saw me and asked, "Young lady, would you like to buy some incense?"
“No,” I said. “Grandma, we’re going down the mountain to watch the sacrificial ceremony.”