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墨書 Inktalez
"Mother, do you know what you are doing?"
A Niu's eyes widened as scenes from earlier flashed in his mind. He felt fear, not from the image itself, but from the terror of seeing a Mother watch helplessly as her Daughter was alive and buried in Mud.
"Mother, you were scared, weren't you?"
A Niu asked softly, his expression cautious, afraid to hear anything more from the Old Woman.
"A Niu, it is my fault. All these years, I have kept this from you. The reason I live in this mountain is not because I dislike the liveliness of the Yun Family Gathering, but because I want to protect my Daughter. I know I was wrong, very wrong, absurdly wrong, but what could I do? If back then I had refused to agree, perhaps I would have ended up like your sister, becoming a Mud Buddha in that temple. I am just an ordinary person; I fear death too, and I can be timid."
The Old Woman covered her face and sobbed.
A Niu wandered aimlessly around the house for a few moments before rushing out into the yard without saying a word.
"A Niu! Ah... A Niu!"
Hearing the voice, the Old Woman stumbled forward a few steps. Her cane fell to the ground in her haste, and she fell forward. A strange wind blew through the house, carrying with it a scent of mud. The Old Woman paused for a moment and tentatively reached out with her frail hands, then asked, "Is that you? You came; you finally decided to come see me, didn't you? I know it was you who blinded me; you are not punishing me but worrying about me, worried that seeing you every day would hurt my heart, right?"
"Shopkeeper?" Li Mao looked at the strange wind but saw no ghosts within it.
Xing Ruyi shook her head, indicating she hadn’t seen anything either.
"There is indeed a scent of Mud in this wind. Go outside and take a look; if you're quick enough, you might still encounter her."
Li Mao nodded and transformed into a light spot, disappearing from the house.
Xing Ruyi envied the benefits of being a demon once again; in emergencies, one could escape far without using their legs. She walked over to the Old Woman and helped her up: "Mother, do you know that if a person is alive when buried in mud, their soul will be sealed along with their body? Without reincarnation, they cannot Reincarnate. If she truly is your biological Daughter, please have mercy on her and reveal what happened back then. Perhaps the Fox Demon can still help her."
"Do you mean to say that my Daughter has always been in that Temple?"
"Yes, she is there. She has never been able to leave. She is worshipped there, watching you perform rituals, listening to your confessions, yet she can do nothing, nothing at all. She cannot complain, cannot grumble, and certainly cannot express her understanding in her own words. Mother, your Daughter is very pitiful!"
"I know, I know, it is all my fault. If there were a medicine for regret in this world, I would rather be the one sealed in the Mud than her! The Old Woman pounded her chest fiercely. "But Madam, I have my own helplessness and my own constraints. If I had refused back then, it might have been the three of us—mother and daughters—standing in that Temple today. Originally... I thought my Daughter could escape disaster, but who knew... who knew that fate would be so unyielding? In the end, she still died in the earth."
The Old Woman took a deep breath and raised her already blind eyes to ask Xing Ruyi, "Do you truly want to hear those old stories?"
"Your other Daughter passed away recently, didn't she? If so, please share what happened back then; perhaps the Fox Demon can help them. Even if they cannot live well, they should at least die with peace and understanding, shouldn't they?" In the Old Woman's presence, Xing Ruyi sensed a hint of deathly aura, but it was not from the Old Woman herself nor from the 'Lady' in the Ruined Temple.
The Old Woman had originally had two Daughters; one was sealed in Mud to become a Bodhisattva standing in the Temple, while the other had likely just passed away recently, which explained the aura surrounding the Old Woman.
Recently deceased? For some reason, Xing Ruyi thought of Zhu. Looking again at the Old Woman's features, she found them increasingly similar. But could there really be such a coincidence?
The Old Woman watched helplessly as her Daughter was sealed into a clay figure to become a Bodhisattva; this was due not only to the pressure from those ignorant villagers but also because of a man's seduction. That man was none other than her own husband—the biological father of her Daughter.
There are three forms of unfilial behavior; having no descendants is the worst. The Old Woman had entered her husband's family for many years but had never given birth to a Son to inherit his family’s fortune. As she saw her husband's business thriving and their household growing larger, his desire for a Son became increasingly strong. The Old Woman was strong-willed and somewhat jealous; she did not want to allow her husband to take a concubine nor did she want him to blame her for not having a Son. Thus, she sought various means to conceive.
Perhaps due to divine favor, the Old Woman finally became pregnant. Various signs indicated that she was carrying a male child. In later generations, being over thirty and pregnant with a second child would not be unusual; however, during the Golden Tang Dynasty, the Old Woman was considered an advanced-age Pregnant Woman. Coupled with early signs of potential miscarriage, both husband and wife believed what others said—that their two Daughters were fated to bring misfortune upon their unborn child.
To protect her unborn child, the Old Woman cruelly sent her pair of twin Daughters to be fostered in the countryside with plans to find them families for marriage in a couple of years. However, shortly after sending them to the village, it suffered several years of drought; even those who fostered the twins faced calamity. The superstitious villagers deemed these twins as plague gods and petitioned the Patriarch to sacrifice them to appease the gods' anger.
While the Old Woman was pleading for her Daughters' safety with her husband, she learned that their family's business had also encountered difficulties. Her husband even suspected that this male child in her womb was bringing about various disasters. To protect her unborn child, the Old Woman inexplicably shifted all blame onto her Daughters.
With events in the village corroborating this belief and instigators whispering in his ear, the Old Woman's husband ultimately believed these claims. To quell the villagers' fury and safeguard both his business and their unborn child, they heeded these sinister words and cruelly turned their Daughters into clay Bodhisattvas in hopes of ensuring peace for their household and smooth business operations.
As the Old Woman recounted this part of her story, she could not help but pound her chest again: "My Daughters were originally twins; this is considered an ominous sign among our people. According to our local customs, one of these twins must be an incarnation of a demon that brings disaster upon families. I am their mother; I initially did not believe it either. But too many things happened afterward that clouded my judgment until I ultimately committed such acts. Thankfully—thankfully my second Daughter was clever and managed to escape under her sister's protection."
"Then what about the child in your womb? Was it born safely?"
The old woman shook her head. "How could it possibly be born? After that incident, we realized that the famine in the village was not caused by our Daughter, but rather a punishment from the lord for all of us. Drought, floods, plague, and hunger nearly took the lives of most people in the nearby villages.
My husband, believing others' words, first cruelly harmed our Daughter and then heartlessly abandoned us, driving us out of the manor. But in the end, he was also harmed by that person; all his business was taken away by him, leading to our downfall. As for me, after ten months of pregnancy, I gave birth to a deformed stillborn child. I know I was wrong, and I need to acknowledge that the true sin is that child in my womb, not my two Daughters."
"Someone! A thoughtful person!" Xing Ruyi recalled the inexplicable words given to Yin Yuan earlier and asked the old woman, "Can you tell Fox Demon who this person you mentioned is? Does he also live in Yun Family Village?"
"His name is Hu Da; he should now be referred to as Lord Hu Da. However, at that time, he was quite down-and-out but strong and powerful enough to be considered a bully in Yun Family Village. He once sought my eldest Daughter's hand in marriage. My Daughter thought he didn't seem like a good person and refused him outright, but my husband was very fond of him, believing he had come from the Government Office and could take care of our business. But as it turned out, my eldest Daughter had better judgment; Hu Da truly was not a good person.
He first spread rumors in the village, turning my two Daughters into monsters. Then he somehow found a Taoist priest who confused my husband with his nonsense before him, claiming that only by turning my Daughters into clay statues could we protect the child in my womb and ensure our business thrived and our home remained peaceful. But in reality, what he wanted all along was to destroy our family and take revenge on my Daughter. Unfortunately, at that time I was also blinded by evil spirits and failed to see this person's true nature."
"So it was Hu Da!" Xing Ruyi began to understand the meaning behind those earlier words: "Your Daughter was turned into a clay statue when Hu Da was present too?"
"Yes, he was certainly there! Not only him but also my husband; it was he who instructed Hu Da to pour the clay over my Daughter's face. I still remember that day when the wind blew and lifted my Daughter's long hair; her hair mixed with clay got all over Hu Da's face. Hu Da became furious and cut off her hair with a knife. Madam, if you don't believe me, you can go to the goddess temple and see; my Daughter's hair still looks like it did back then—uneven."
"I understand now!" Xing Ruyi responded with a light sigh.
It turned out that everything Mo Xu You said to Yin Yuan before was true; he sent someone to find Hu Da not for himself but for that poor girl in the goddess temple. The strange hair must have been a means used by Mo Xu You to punish Hu Da.
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