Revenge

Thirty years ago.

A loud cry of a baby came from a farmyard.

The young woman on the bed looked pale, and weakly watched her newborn child being picked up by the midwife, but there was no joy in her eyes, but a strong begging and fear.

“This child… is…”

The midwife sighed: “Amitabha, it’s a girl.”

The young woman’s expression changed drastically. The light in her eyes suddenly dimmed, and she quickly struggled to get up to reach out to grab the baby in the swaddling clothes.

“No, no, please, don’t give my child away – don’t give her to my father-in-law -“

The midwife chanted “Amitabha” again, letting the young woman cry heartbreakingly. She lowered her head and carried the baby out of the room.

 The two maids brought by the young woman’s midwife pressed her arms on the bed. Her tears soaked the pillow, and she could only hear the man waiting in the yard swearing a few dirty words.

 “Eldest, why did your wife give birth to another daughter?! Can you please not let a female fetus be reborn in my family!”

“It’s so unlucky. I married her because she was beautiful, but now she has given birth to two daughters in a row and no son for me! If the next one is also a daughter, I will divorce her and sell her!”

“…Okay, stop grumbling. Take the gold jewelry prepared for my grandson back and put it away. Go get a basin of water.”

The young man hesitated: “Dad… after all, she is my flesh and blood. The first daughter has drowned, this one… why don’t you keep it?”

“What do you know?!” The old man took a puff of his pipe, “There is an old saying in the village that only if a baby girl is drowned, a female fetus will not dare to be reborn in the future. Let her be reborn in a rich family. You also had two older sisters…”

The young man shrank his neck, felt a layer of cold sweat on his back, and quickly stopped the old man from talking.

 “Dad, I know, please stop talking…”

After a moment, there was a splashing sound in the yard, and soon it fell into silence.

Several families around heard the noise and went out to see, but found that there was no candy for the birth of a son, so they stood outside the yard and watched coldly.

When everything was over, everyone went home.

There was another crazy woman in Yaozu Village. It was said that she went crazy because she lost her two daughters.

Every day, she either cried in the house holding the small clothes she sewed for the children, or ran to the abandoned baby tower on the back mountain and reached into the window, as if she wanted to fish out the bones of her two daughters.

The woman’s husband first invited a doctor twice to see her, but later stopped inviting doctors. When villagers passed by that family, they often heard beatings and crying inside.

 A year later, the woman gave birth to a son. Perhaps because she had a child to raise, the woman’s madness gradually improved. She cooked, washed clothes and took care of the child every day, as if nothing had happened.

The woman’s son grew up year by year and reached the age to marry a wife.

They spent a very high betrothal gift for the new daughter-in-law, almost the family’s life savings – but there was no other way. There were few families with girls in the surrounding area, and every family had a daughter who was sought after by hundreds of families.

The woman looked at her daughter-in-law – the girl looked a bit like her when she was young, with a bit of shyness, a bit of ignorance, and a bit of hope for future life.

But the first child born by the daughter-in-law was a daughter. And she had heavy bleeding when giving birth, and barely survived. The midwife said that it would be difficult for her to have children in the future.

She looked at the chubby granddaughter, then looked at the weak daughter-in-law on the bed, and wanted to say something to her husband and son, but before she opened her mouth, her husband took the granddaughter away. 

“This girl must be drowned.”

Her son was silent.

Her daughter-in-law was still unconscious.

She stretched out her hand: “How about…name the child ‘Zhao Di’ and keep her…”

Her husband’s eyes suddenly became fierce and glared at her.

“We only have one child. If you don’t drown this girl, do you want our family to become extinct?!”

She suddenly remembered the days when she was young and was beaten by her husband day and night.

The wound that had healed for many years seemed to hurt again.

While she was stunned, her husband had already told her son to get a basin of water.

The little life that was still alive and smiling at her just now turned blue in a short while.

She watched her son wrap the little corpse with a piece of rag and walked towards the abandoned baby tower in the back mountain.

Her two daughters… turned out to be buried in the wilderness like this.

 Her husband looked at her coldly, and the villagers watching outside the yard looked at her coldly.

She had tears in her eyes. She was trembling, and could only say one sentence.

“Amitabha…”

After waking up, the daughter-in-law heard that her daughter was drowned alive, and she began to scream and cry. She cried all day long, as if she was going crazy.

Her son locked her in the woodshed, saying that she would stop being crazy if she was hungry for a few meals.

She secretly went to deliver food to her daughter-in-law every day.

On the seventh day of her granddaughter’s death, she heard her daughter-in-law say when she delivered food, “I want justice for my daughter.”

When the daughter-in-law said this, it seemed that there was a fire burning in her eyes, as if it could burn down the whole mountain.

…

“Abandoned baby tower? This is an abandoned baby tower?!”

Shen Leyan cursed the eighteen generations of ancestors of Yaozu Village with the most vicious words, but still felt unsatisfied.

“How can someone do such a thing worse than pigs and dogs?! We will leave here after we confirm the whereabouts of Senior Brother Chen Jing and others. People who want to kill even their own flesh and blood, infertility is their blessing!”

Several abandoned baby towers stood there alone. Shen Leyan looked at the small window above, with his heart burning. For a moment, he didn’t think of what he could do for these innocent corpses.

“Most of the babies’ souls are pure. They have all passed away, and have not become wronged souls wandering in the world to suffer.”

Lu Yuanyi’s voice came from behind. It was low and cold, as if there was a hint of comfort.

“…Take their bones out of the tower and bury them in peace.”

Shen Leyan nodded silently.

 “I think their bodies would not want to stay in this village. Let’s find a beautiful place in the mountains and build a grave for them…”

“Okay.”

The boy kept his head down and didn’t speak all the way on the sword. He looked depressed and stared at the Jiang Xue Sword with his dark eyes.

They found a place near the mountains and rivers, surrounded by lush flowers and plants.

“Are you wondering why no one in the local government cares about this?”

Shen Leyan raised his head, hesitated for a moment and said bluntly: “Yes, doesn’t the law say that killing someone means paying with one’s life? Can you get away with it if you kill your own flesh and blood?”

The boy’s voice trembled with anger.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a rustling sound above his head.

Then there was a childish voice: “You can’t get away with it, you can’t get away with it!”

A spider silk swung down from a branch.