Zhou Yi stood under the moonlight, quietly waiting for Xiaoqian's ending.
People have good thoughts and bad thoughts.
Even though Xiaoqian was transformed by good thoughts, after swallowing the evil thoughts of Grandma Kongshan, it is difficult to tell whether she is good or evil now, and whether she meets the standards of the organization.
Therefore, Zhou Yi did not know whether Xiaoqian could withstand the salvation of the unnamed Buddhist scriptures.
Beside the wooden table behind them, Shen Tong and Mr. Shen fell asleep.
Late at night, Laojing Village was already completely silent, and all the villagers were immersed in sleep.
In the ancestral hall not far away, there is a faint smell of sesame oil, spreading quietly with the night wind in the forest at the foot of the mountain.
Nearly an hour passed and Xiaoqian did not appear.
Zhou Yi sat cross-legged in the courtyard under the moonlight, still waiting silently.
This time he went south and came to the Mist Palace in Youdang Mountain. One was Huangquan and the other was Xiaoqian.
From the very beginning, he had had the idea of taking Xiaoqian under his wing. After all, this female ghost was close to the level of Jiedushi. Among the underworld factions of the organization, except for the hidden horse face, there was no one. A master who has passed the title of Grand Administrator.
Of course, the premise is that even if Xiaoqian becomes blackened, she can still pass the test of the organization.
Another half an hour passed, but Xiaoqian still didn't appear from the white light.
Zhou Yi opened his eyes, with a hint of confusion in his eyes: "What's going on? It shouldn't be..."
He could feel that Xiaoqian had not been destroyed, and her breath had not dissipated, but it seemed to be frozen. Even the unnamed Buddhist scriptures could not determine it, and it was a deadlock for a moment.
Zhou Yi stared at the place where the white light fell just now.
From the center of his eyebrows, a golden light suddenly rose up, illuminating the rows of small black characters, turning them into pictures.
Although the Eye of Heaven was not opened, Zhou Yi could penetrate the long river of time and see the stories that happened on this land hundreds of years ago.
To be precise, there are two stories...
…
Hundreds of years ago, Laojing Village was the largest village at the foot of Youdang Mountain. At that time, it was called Shenjia Village.
One year, someone in the village became the county magistrate. Afterwards, he returned to his hometown in glory and held a banquet in honor of his father and fellow villagers.
A strange thing happened during the dinner. A big bird came with a sapling in its mouth and dropped it at the entrance of the village.
Taking it as a good omen, the villagers planted the tea saplings. The tea trees have many seeds, which means many children and good fortune.
Perhaps it was God's blessing on Shenjia Village. The official position of the Shen family child became bigger and bigger, and finally he became the second-in-command of the county government, which was considered to be prominent for a while.
The tea tree that was placed in Mo Biejia's favor grew vigorously under the care of the villagers. It was a little different from other tea trees. It grew taller and taller, becoming a towering tree.
And the big bird often flies over and lands on the treetops, often staying there for a whole day.
Suddenly one year, Shen Biejia's family suddenly returned to the village, tidied up their former residence, and settled down in the village.
The villagers found it strange, but when they asked about Shen Biejia's relatives, they all hesitated and changed the subject.
Shen Biejia has a granddaughter who is only ten years old, but she is already graceful, fond of lyrics and music, and very smart.
He would often sit under the tea tree at the entrance of the village and recite popular lyrics and songs in the county.
Sometimes I would confide my inner thoughts to the big bird in the tree.
…
'Third uncle hit third aunt again last night.'
'My cousin bought a pearl hairpin for my second uncle's concubine the day before yesterday, and the two secretly went to the other side of the village.'
'The gentleman from the county school whom I like asked someone to bring me a piece of writing and care about my studies.'
'I heard from the adults that the Grand Duke offended a powerful person in the county, so we came back to avoid trouble.'
…
Winter passes and spring comes, and the years fly by.
In the blink of an eye, the Shen girl named Xiaoqian has become a twenty-eight-year-old lady.
She still often went to the tea tree that had grown taller, reading, reciting poems, singing songs, and confiding her troubled thoughts to the birds on the tree.
The gentleman from Junxue whom I have liked since childhood passed the Jinshi examination in Chang'an City this year and was finally able to express his ambition.
She really wanted to visit him in Chang'an. She really wanted to go to Lingnan, Western Qin, overseas and other places described in his letters many years ago, to see the sea and travel around the world with him.
But at this time, her family found a match for her, and the other party was the third son of the county guard.
Although he stutters a bit, his face is pockmarked, and he drools when he smiles.
But the two sides are well matched and each has what he needs.
The marriage was just decided.
From beginning to end, no one asked her for her opinion.
After summer.
The tea trees at the entrance of the village are covered with small pale yellow flowers.
The bird with golden wings was also bigger.
The young lady of the Shen family finally put on a bright red hijab.
The people who came to pick up the bride came, beating gongs and drums, and they were full of joy.
The groom, with a big red flower tied on his chest, was riding a tall horse crookedly with the support of two servants, drooling from the corner of his mouth.
Xiaoqian, who was sitting in the sedan chair, suddenly laughed.
When the laughter rang out, the sword fell, blood spattered three feet, and the groom's head spun and flew out.
A bandit dressed in black and masked appeared out of nowhere, killing and stabbing anyone he met.
The wedding reception team, matchmakers, attendants, bearers, villagers from Mojia Village, the bride's personal maids... everyone lay in a pool of blood.
Bang!
The sedan chair landed.
The bandits in black all turned to the bride in the sedan and were about to rob her.
Suddenly, the big golden-winged bird flew out from the tree at the entrance of the village. It roared loudly and shocked the bandits to death.
The bride, Xiaoqian, walked out of the sedan tremblingly, opened her hijab, and cried so hard that her face was filled with tears.
Xiaoqian: "Since you are a magical bird, why didn't you take action earlier and kill the bandits?"
Golden-winged Dapeng: "You were originally going to die of humiliation, but I saved your life just because you often sang to me over the years. You should be content."
Xiaoqian: "I want to take revenge, please ask the divine bird to teach me."
Golden-winged Dapeng: "Okay."
Xiaoqian took advantage of the roc and flew away into the distance.
As the moonlight fell, her bright red dress gradually turned pale as snow.
…
The beginning of the other story is exactly the same as the first story, but the difference is in the second half.
The timeline returns to the month and a half before the wedding:
In front of the tea tree at the entrance of the village, a golden-winged roc descended from the sky, landed in front of Xiaoqian who was praying to the sky, and turned into a young man in colorful clothes.
Xiaoqian opened her eyes and subconsciously took two steps back, with a look of fear on her face.
"You...you are?"
The young man in colorful clothes said: "It doesn't matter who I am. You and I are destined to be together. I just drank a few glasses of fairy wine from an old friend overseas and heard your prayer. If it were anyone else, I would not be able to do anything.
I'm too lazy to pay attention to it, but who told you to sing to me often over the years?"
"Are you an immortal?"
Xiaoqian's face was full of excitement, and she knelt on the ground: "A common girl meets an immortal. Can an immortal really save a common girl from suffering?"
The young man in colorful clothes smiled and said: "It's a trivial matter. I just don't know how much you are willing to pay in order not to marry the son of the city guard, but to stay and fly with that scholar."
The wind picked up at night, making the branches and leaves rustle, as if they were chanting the word "no".
Xiaoqian obviously didn't notice Chashu's reminder, and said in a trembling voice: "I am willing to pay any price."
The young man in colorful clothes nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, I have a pill here, which was a gift from my old overseas friend. It can make people completely fake their own death, and even the most brilliant craftsmen can't detect any abnormalities. In half a year, you will die on your own.
You will be resurrected, and then I will pick you up to meet the Jinshiro. However, your family will think you are dead."
"It doesn't matter. In their eyes, I'm just a bargaining chip for marriage. There's no difference between life and death."
Xiaoqian took the elixir, shed tears of gratitude, and bowed again before leaving.
More than a month later, on the day Xiaoqian got married, she secretly took the pill.
Sure enough, she passed out in the sedan chair.
But she didn't sleep for half a year like the immortal said. She woke up again after only half an hour.
At this time, her whole body was crystal white, her eyes were as red as blood, her wide-open eyes were dark and empty, and she had long lost all human emotions.
In the previous story, the tragic massacre of the village in Shenjiazhuang finally happened.
However, the real murderer was not the assassin sent by the Shen family's political enemies disguised as bandits, but... the bride Xiaoqian herself.
She killed the groom, sedan bearers, attendants, matchmakers, maids, her parents, and most of the Shen family village.
In the night wind, the locust tree trembled, and its yellow petals fell into pieces.
The golden-winged roc was circling in the sky and making strange calls.
Obviously it didn't expect that Xiaoqian would become like this.
It originally wanted to help, so it asked for pills from its old friend.
But that pill was obviously not the pill of suspended animation that it sought.
It was also calculated by an old friend.
After one night, Xiaoqian woke up after killing everyone.
She understood what had happened, smiled miserably, and used her last strength to stab the knife into her heart.
The golden-winged roc didn't stop it. It leaned down, took away Xiaoqian's body and soul, and flew into Youdang Mountain.
Many years later, rumors of the Immortal Palace gradually began to appear in Youdang Mountain.
There are fairies in the palace who plant fairy tea. Those who are given fairy tea can stay young forever.
As for Shenjia Village, it gradually declined and split into several villages.
By the time of the Chen and Tang Dynasties, no one remembered the tragedy hundreds of years ago.
…
"Amitabha, so, this is the story between you and the Golden-winged Dapeng."
Zhou Yi looked at the black shadow that was trapped and unable to escape in the void.
He finally understood why Xiaoqian was so difficult to be saved.
Just because she couldn't let go.
"The beginning of the story is the same, but the ending is different.
Both endings actually happened.
It's just that the first one happened in imagination.
The latter one is the truth that really happens in reality."
Under the moonlight in the courtyard, Zhou Yi seemed to be whispering to the air.
"But what's ridiculous is that the previous imagined story came from Grandma Kongshan's idea.
I don’t know if she is trying to convince herself or because she has been brainwashed by the Golden-winged Dapeng.
In short, she had long forgotten that she had massacred Shenjia Village, but she attributed the crime to the fictitious bandits, and her malicious intentions turned into evil thoughts.
But you, Xiaoqian, still remember the truth of that year, and know that it was because you believed in the Golden-winged Dapeng Demon King that the evil consequences arose.
Even after turning into a ghost, you still wear the red dress and bloody gauze you wore when you got married, because you can't let it go, let alone forgive yourself."