Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi
Content warning; tragedy, murder, feudal superstition
Jiang Lan’s footsteps did not hesitate, as if he had already realized it. He heard voices in the distance and walked towards them.
There were rows of houses standing on the loess land. These houses looked like they were drawn with simple strokes. They were very simple and rough. People in the houses poked their heads out through the windows, and a sad expression could be seen on their flat faces: “Why is this rain not stopping? Isn’t it the right time?”
The woman looked around for a while, then closed the window with a sad face. The Sao Qingniang hanging upside down from the window swayed slightly in the wind.
Jiang Lan glanced at it intently, and the Sao Qingniang grinned at him, as if she was mocking or provoking him.
Jiang Lan ignored it and continued walking forward.
This was a village with not many people, only about forty or fifty households. Every household had a Sao Qingniang hanging upside down under the eaves and windows. Jiang Lan could hear their worries and complaints clearly from outside the house. He gained a lot of information from these complaints.
This world of paper figures was He family Village. It was around May or June, when the rice in the fields was just growing tall, but there was a continuous heavy rain in the sky. The heavy rain had been going on for half a month. The water level in the river had surged, and the water in the fields could not be pumped out. If it continued like this, the rice in the fields would be drowned.
Farmers who faced the loess and turned their backs to the sky relied on the rice in the fields to survive every year. If the rice was drowned, their hopes for the year would have been in vain.
Therefore, every household had hung up Sao Qingniangs, hoping that the heavy rain would stop soon.
But God did not hear their prayers. Jiang Lan saw a tall paper man running over staggeringly. He even fell because his feet slipped, but he ignored the pain and started running around the village like crazy, shouting as he ran: “The river is going to burst its banks, the river is going to burst its banks!”
All the closed doors were opened, and paper figures, large and small, ran out of the house. The rain wet their bodies, but they seemed not to notice it. The expressions on the flat faces were extremely vivid, full of life-like expressions of anxiety and fear.
Everyone gathered in the open space in the rain. The old village chief stood up tremblingly with a cane. He hammered the cane hard and said loudly: “Men, bring whatever you have, follow me to the embankment!”
So a group of paper men went home, picked up various farm tools, and followed the village chief to the river embankment.
Jiang Lan saw a thin and tall paper man in the mixed crowd. He was completely different from other paper men. Even though he was holding farm tools, his back was straight.
The men worked day and night on the river, loading sand and plugging the gap… Everyone worked day and night, and finally blocked the gap that was about to burst.
Their thin paper bodies were mixed with rain and sand, but they did not fall down, and they all dragged themselves back home exhausted.
Jiang Lan followed the thin and tall paper man back home.
The tall and thin paper man’s home was at the end of the village. Compared with other houses that were very close together, this family’s home was a little far away and stood alone on the edge of the village.
But soon a mother and daughter, one big and one small, broke the lonely atmosphere. They opened the door and welcomed the paper man into the house with joyful smiles on their faces.
Especially the little paper doll, she had a round face, big eyes, and two cute blush spots on her cheeks. Seeing the man returning home, she smiled happily and called “Dad” with a clear voice.
The paper man laughed, and his fatigue seemed to disappear. He picked up the little paper girl and the family of three entered the house.
The little paper girl’s face was buried in the crook of her father’s neck, but when he closed the door, she suddenly raised her face. Her dark round eyes looked at Jiang Lan, the corners of her curved mouth were straightened, and there was gloomy resentment in her eyes.
——In this village, other people could not see Jiang Lan.
Jiang Lan didn’t stop because of this, instead he looked at each house again.
The rain outside didn’t stop, it seemed as if it would never stop. But on such a tired night, one after another someone people quietly opened the door, and then a group of paper people came out and silently went to the largest house in the village.
That was the village chief’s house.
Jiang Lan counted the number of people and found that almost all the able-bodied adults in the village had arrived.
Except for the tall and lanky man’s family, their family seemed to be isolated in the village.
The old village chief was still using a cane, but he did not look so old at this time. Instead, he carefully closed the door and announced something that shocked everyone.
“The gap in the river embankment can only be blocked for two days at most. It will be washed away again soon. We can’t block it at all.”
All the paper figures showed horrified expressions.
The village chief pointed to the sky and continued: “It has been raining for more than ten days. This is because the Rain God is angry. We have to find a way to appease the Rain God’s anger so that the rain can stop. Otherwise, if it keeps raining like this, we will all not be able to survive.”
Someone murmured and asked: “Are you going to worship the rain god?”
The village chief’s flat face became wrinkled, but his eyes shone with a strange light: “Yes, we have to give it a try, otherwise everyone will not survive.”
“But where will the sacrifice come from?”
Someone asked another question. This question seemed to be very scary. All the paper figures closed their mouths and looked around nervously.
Jiang Lan’s calm expression finally changed.
The village chief said: “Those who have girls at home raise their hands.”
The paper figures present looked at each other, but no one moved.
They knew very well what it meant to worship the Rain God.
The village had long had the custom of worshiping the rain god. Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, every year during the rainy season, He family Village would offer sacrifices to the Rain God to pray for good weather and a good harvest. Legend had it that the Rain God liked beautiful girls, so every year when offering sacrifices to the Rain God, the most beautiful girl from between eight to fifteen years old in the village would be selected as a sacrifice to the Rain God.
The tradition of worshiping the Rain God continued for many years, and the girl sacrificed to the Rain God gradually got a nice name, called Sao Qingniang.
The people in the village firmly believed that the girls who were sacrificed to the Rain God also became gods. They became Sao Qingniang, a highly respected attendant of the Rain God. So whenever it rained, the villagers hung the paper-cutouts of Sao Qingniang upside down under the windows or under the eaves, so that Sao Qingniang could hear the prayers of her relatives and ask the rain god to stop the heavy rain and let the sky clear up.
Generations of people in He family Village firmly believed in this. It was only after the founding of New China that their traditions were forced to be interrupted.
The ceremony for worshiping the Rain God had not been held for many years.
Now they suddenly heard that the village chief wanted to sacrifice to the God of Rain, and no one was willing to let their daughter be used as a sacrifice.
Times were changing, and people’s thoughts were also changing. They were becoming more conscious, but also more selfish.
Some were silent, some hesitated, and some seemed to have made up their minds.
The village chief looked around, pounded his cane hard, and cursed: “You don’t want to live anymore? If you don’t worship the rain god, what will happen if the river bursts its banks? What will happen to this year’s harvest?”
A tall man raised his hand first, but he did not want his daughter to be used as a sacrifice. Instead, he suggested cowardly: “Otherwise, we should ask the old Qin family to do it this time. Isn’t his daughter just over eight years old? And seeing how good-looking she is, the Rain God will definitely like her.”
The others’ eyes suddenly shone.
The silent and hesitant paper figures began to express their agreement.
Their eyes were shining with blazing light, and each of them began to make suggestions one after the other.
“Yes, the girl from the old Qin family is the best looking.”
“Anyway, the old Qin family picked her up, so it won’t be a problem for them to raise another one in the future.”
“But Lao Qin has read books. He hates feudal superstition the most. What if he refuses?”
“Let’s trick him to go out first, then tell him after the ceremony is over.”
“It’s just that, after being in the village for so long, he has to make some contribution.”
“…”
All kinds of voices came together, like a biting monster. The monster opened its big mouth, let out a fishy breath, and said: “Then it’s settled, it’s the girl of the old Qin family.”
The fate of the Qin family was decided just so hastily.
It was windy and rainy outside, and the red Sao Qingniang hanging upside down under the window smiled wider and wider, but red tears of blood were flowing from her eyes.
Time flew very quickly in the paper world, and it was the next day in the blink of an eye.
The men in the village went to the river embankment again in high spirits. Jiang Lan stood in front of Qin’s house and watched silently as the tall and thin paper man walked out with a shovel.
Seeing this, he already understood everything that was about to happen.
The flat faces of those paper figures corresponded one-by-one with reality in his memory.
He Laoda, He Lao’er, He Laosan…
The living and the dead were all here at this time.
After the tall and thin paper man, Qin Shuyi left home, they secretly returned. They tied up Qin Shuyi’s wife and then forcibly took away the crying child.
They took the little girl to the village chief’s house. The village chief’s wife put her into new clothes in red and green colors, combed her hair into a lotus hairstyle, painted her eyebrows, and handed her over, looking beautiful. Then she urged the village chief: “Go quickly.”
The village chief carried the child and walked to the river.
Downstream of the breach, a simple altar had been set up, and the village chief took on the role of priest. Regardless of his wet body, he knelt down by the river and worshiped again, his wrinkled body devoutly crawling into the mud.
When all the ceremonies were over, He Lao’er and He Laosan moved a big boulder together. He Laowu and He Laoliu tied the little girl to the heavy boulder with a rope. He Laoqi and He Laoba finally carried the boulder together with the girl. Then they went to the river and prepared to throw the little girl into the raging water.
Jiang Lan subconsciously took a step forward, but heard a shrill cry coming from behind –
“Nan Nan!”
Qin Shuyi’s wife stumbled over. She was covered in mud, and the corners of her mouth were torn from biting on the hemp rope. Red blood like paint dripped from her mouth. But she couldn’t care about anything. She rushed forward and hugged her crying daughter, crying miserably: “You are killing people! She is only eight years old. You can’t do this. She is only eight years old!”
The paper people looked at her silently and indifferently. All the flat faces showed the same cruelty.
He Laosi stepped forward to pull her away, but she held her daughter tightly and refused to let go. In the end, He Laosi forcibly opened her fingers one by one and separated her from her daughter.
Jiang Lan even heard the sound of bones breaking. He stepped forward, then moved back, standing firmly in place.
All this was just a re-enactment of the past, like a funny and cruel paper puppet show. He was just an intruding audience and couldn’t change anything.
In the end, the woman was pulled away, and He Laoliu and He Laoqi mercilessly threw the girl and the boulder into the rushing river.
The woman’s shrill wails and curses echoed through the sky, and even the sound of the pouring rain couldn’t cover it up.
Her eyes turned red with hatred, and she suddenly broke free from He Laosi’s confinement, then calling her daughter’s name, she jumped into the river regardless of her own safety.
She grabbed her daughter’s hand in the water, but the stone was heavy and big, and the river was fierce and fast. The mother and daughter hugged each other, and in an instant they sank to the bottom of the river and disappeared.
The villagers panicked when they saw the woman jumping into the river together with the child.
“How should we explain this to Lao Qin?”
“Otherwise, we won’t tell him, and we’ll just say that Cuiping and Nan Nan accidentally fell into the river.”
“Yes, yes, if the baby girl is gone, we could still tell him he could raise another. But if the wife is gone, how can Lao Qin not fight with us?”
In just a few words, they made a plan and colluded with each other.
Jiang Lan’s eyes fell on the rushing river. He saw He Laowu’s swollen head whitening in the water, and his cloudy eyes were bulging and turning with difficulty in their sockets. His mouth opened silently, as if asking for help. The palm-sized Sao Qingniang stood on his forehead, looking straight at Jiang Lan with a malicious smile on her lips.
But this time, Jiang Lan did not ignore it.
He stood by the river and stared at the little Sao Qingniang: “Is this why you killed them?”
Sao Qingniang grinned and let out a giggle. Her voice was crisp and tender, but it was filled with deep resentment: “They deserve to die.”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Lan also nodded and said seriously: “They really deserve to die.”
These villagers were feudal, superstitious, and selfish. They were reluctant to let their own children die, but they could throw other people’s children into the river without hesitation.
They lost two lives and destroyed a beautiful family.
But their ridiculous sacrifice to the rain god had no effect.
The heavy rain continued to fall, and the river finally burst its banks. The entire He family Village was submerged, some people were washed away by the flood, and some people died of illness. This village originally had nearly fifty families, with a total of nearly two hundred people, but in the end less than a hundred people survived.
The old village chief and He Laoba were washed away by the water, and no bones were left.
He Lao’er’s wife and son got sick from freezing in the water and died soon after; He Laosi was blinded in one eye by a branch; He Laowu had his head flattened and almost died; He Laoliu’s leg was broken by a collapsed beam in his house and he became a cripple from then on; He Laoqi got seriously ill and had stayed on the bed ever since…
The only one who didn’t get into trouble was He Laosan, but he shouted all day long that the ghost was back to take revenge, and he became a complete madman.
This was the retribution of He family.
But it was not enough.
Sao Qingniang pointed at Jiang Lan harshly and said, “It’s not enough, there are still two more to go.”
He Laosan and He Laoliu were still alive.
The author has something to say:
Sao Qingniang (Vicious): Bullying my father, I will kill you.
Jiang Lan: The paper figurine must definitely taste bad. Forget it, I won’t eat you.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron or access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents • Next