Transtor: der Transtions

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  Then, with the vilge chief's narration, the dark and hopeless history of Xiao Shijian vilge slowly unfolded.

  His voice was hoarse, giving the sense of unc the long-sealed past.

  pared to the hearsay from the innkeeper in Anping Town, the vilge chief's reting was more detailed. He even named some of the tragien and the stories that happeo them.

  Though these events had passed long ago, hearing about them still stung. People living in the light of a civilized society could hardly imagihe torment those women endured while trapped in dark, unlit dungeons.

  "So..." Li Lu cautiously spoke, "Are the vengeful spirits of the women who died with hatred ing back to take revenge?"

  It wasn’t a question; it was an obvious clusion.

  The innkeeper had also firmed this point.

  But to their surprise, the vilge chief shook his head with a strange expression, "No, not those women," as though recalling something, his lips trembled. "It’s her!"

  "Who is she?" Xiaomeng leaned forward to ask.

  "She's the woman who was beaten to death by the parents of the women who were tricked into ing here!"

  As the vilge chief tinued, Jiang Zhongyi's expression became strange. He stared at the vilge chief and asked in fusion, "The main criminal the police arrested? The criminal... was a woman?"

  The vilge chief nodded, his pupils slightly unnerving, but he spoke, "The women in the vilge were all tricked here by her. She was very young, making it easy to gairust of the women she deceived."

  "What was her name?"

  "Zhao Xiang Mei."

  "So, you're saying that the vengeful spirit is Zhao Xiahe main criminal, and she’s the one who killed so many people in the vilge?" Yu Man’s eyes widened.

  The vilge chief sighed, "That's right."

  "But why her?" Yu Man tinued, "Why not those women who died wrongfully?"

  Not just her—everyone uzzled.

  How could the vengeful spirits not be the victims who died with hatred, but ihe one who deserved it—the perpetrator? What kind of logic was that?

  The vilge chief saw the fusion in their eyes and expined, "It’s really not those poor women. They endured much suffering, but none of them died." He spread his hands, his face full of sorrow, "None of the ones who lived could have turned into ghosts, right?"

  Zh stared at the vilge chief’s profile for a long time before cautiously asking, "Are you sure none of them died?"

  "I'm sure," the vilge chief nodded vigorously. "Back then, the police came to t them. A total of 29 womerafficked here—21 of them were kept in the vilge, 6 were sold to other pces, and 2 stayed with the midwife for delivery. All of them were alive."

  Then, with a strange expression, he added, "After all, to the vilgers back then, they were sidered assets. A lot of money ent to—"

  After hesitating for a moment, Ben Fu asked, "So when did the ghost appear?"

  The vilge chief immediately reized what he was thinking and sighed, "After the vilgers noticed people were being killed one by ohey suspected it was one of the women who, uo bear the painful memories, might have itted suicide after being saved and e back as a vengeful spirit."

  "But after we iigated, we found they were all still alive," the vilge chief nodded. "All 29 of them."

  "So the ghost must be the one woman who died—the main criminal, Zhao Xiang Mei," Zh said.

  The vilge chief seemed to remember something, his voice growing quieter, "That’s already firmed," his eyes kept darting around. Every gust of wind outside made him tense.

  "We... we found a stoablet at the pce where Zhao Xiang Mei’s body was discovered. There was a line of blood written behind the tablet..."

  He suddenly stopped speaking, and Jiang g tilted his head, gng at the sturdy-looking dark-skinned man, realizing that he too had hunched his body slightly and appeared terrified.

  "Was it a curse?" Jiang g, with a sly look, spoke, "Something like ‘kill everyone in the vilge, not a single chi left’ or ‘instant noodles without the seasoning packet’, or ‘have a son but no small…’"

  The vilge chief, still immersed in fear, didn’t immediately follow Jiang g's line of thought, but when he heard the word "curse," he nodded quickly, "Yes, it must have been a curse! It definitely was!"

  The others were already immuo Jiang g's remarks. Even Ben Fu looked forward to these occasional sarcastients, which opened his mind to new possibilities.

  "Where is the stoablet?"

  "At the deep pond in the back mountain," the vilge chief paused before adding quietly, "Zhao Xiang Mei’s body was also thrown into the deep pond in the end."

  Xiaomeng stared at the vilge chief and suddenly asked, "I remember you said Zhao Xiang Mei was taken by the parents of the angry women aen to death. If that's the case, how could she have had the ce to leave a curse ooablet?"

  All eyes turo the vilge chief, waiting for his expnation.

  The room fell silent for a moment.

  "Zhao Xiangmei was taken, that’s true," the vilge chief spoke, his tone uedly tinged with sorrow. "But she wasn’t killed on the spot. She was severely injured, unscious."

  "After the angry parents left, she somehow woke up."

  "That evening, a vilger found that she was still alive. She reached out with her broken hand, trembling, begging the vilger to save her, but no one would get involved. They just watched coldly, even though... even though some had just bought women from her."

  "Apparently, her cries of agony sted all night, and she finally passed away early the m," the vilge chief ched his lips, "She died with her eyes open. One eye was gouged out, her face was sshed with broken tiles, and her limbs were broken by brute force."

  "No one knows how she mao write that line of blood. Her arm was clearly broken, but she did it, and..." The vilge chief suddenly looked up, his pupils trembling violently, "The curse came true!"

  After hearing the whole story, the situation was quite clear. From Zhao Xiang Mei’s perspective, it was uandable that the vilgers who refused to help her as she died in pain were despicable. They certainly deserved to die.

  "The body..." Li Lu bit her lip.

  "Her body was thrown into the deep pond the day," the vilge chief looked at Li Lu and said, "By then, she was pletely dead."

  "By the way, the deep pond in the back mountain has another name, one passed down from long ago, called Cold Zhen Pond. Before the liberation, it was where the vilge executed women who didn’t adhere to the rules of marriage."

  "Suen, once discovered, would be pced in a pig cage, tied with stones, and drowned in the pond in front of the whole vilge."

  TL/N: TF!

  (End of the Chapter)

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