Chapter 73: Night Rain in Bashan, Departure (Part 3) "If you dare to…"

The lake bottom was very cold. Ye Qingzhan closed her eyes under the impact of the cold water, a familiar feeling of suffocation instantly overwhelmed her senses. In the darkness, she saw a beam of phantom light, and then saw the silhouettes formed by the phantom light.

Ye Shaolin, Jiang Xuejun, Chuntao, Shanniang… the figures in the illusion, one by one, walked towards her, said goodbye, and finally left her with only their backs.

Judging from the figure's shape, it should be a young man, thin and frail. But his back was lonely and resolute, as if he had made a resolution, never to regret it even if he died. Just like the departure in the dream, he never turned around, and never looked back.

Ye Qingzhan suddenly remembered that the young man had pointed an ice blade at her. The cold touch of the sword tip on her neck made her tremble with fear, and she thought she was about to leave with hatred.

But the next moment, the cold blade no longer felt on her neck, but her heart was filled. It was like someone had fallen into it.

The boy weighed down heavily and fell into her arms. After waking up, he said he wanted to kill her again.

Ye Qingzhan didn't know where he got the courage from, but he held the sharp ice blade with both hands and stabbed her again.

The blood dyed the silver sword with a faint blue light red, and the boy's cold eyes softened bit by bit.

At that time, Ye Qingzhan could not see the ripples in the boy's eyes, but she knew that she had won the gamble.

One day later, Ye Qingzhan could see the sun again after getting up. She was pleasantly surprised and looked at the young man standing by the bed. That was the first time she saw his appearance clearly.

But now, in this cold lake, the boy's appearance was blurred in the depths of her memory. Ye Qingzhan only remembered that she smiled and gave the boy a hug.

The boy's body stiffened, and after a moment's hesitation, he put his hand on her waist.

Ye Qingzhan knew that her unknown plan in her heart could continue.

In the small Camellia Village, she taught him to read and write, and took him to fish and catch shrimps. The boy with frost on his face and snow between his brows slowly took off his disguise, let down his guard, and never mentioned killing her again. He took her to ride the wind and rain and watch the flowers bloom and fall.

They accompanied each other for a long time like this, until one day, she was drunk and told the secret hidden in her heart. Secret.

After sobering up, Ye Qingzhan looked at the boy's red eyes, knowing that the secret she had carefully hidden had nowhere to hide.

But the boy told him that he didn't care. As long as he could stay by her side, he could do anything for her.

At that moment, in the boy's trembling voice, she clearly heard her own heartbeat.

In his moist eyes, Ye Qingzhan's heart began to waver.

Later, the boy seemed to want to hug her tightly all the time. His whole body was cold, but the breath on her neck and shoulders was scorching, burning all the way to his heart.

Suddenly, there was a real pain in her neck. The boy bit her and said in a deep voice: "If you dare to forget, I will..." The unspoken words wet the boy's eyes, and he said: "Forget it, just forget it. "

That pleading tone, helpless and lonely, seemed to be talking to her, but also seemed to be just muttering to himself.

The young man let go of her, walked farther and farther, then stopped and turned his face against the light.

Immersed in the lake water, trapped in memories, Ye Qingzhan tried desperately to hold him, wanted to see his appearance clearly. But no matter what, it was in vain.

There was only an illusory outline, an unrecognizable back, so familiar.

——Wen Gu, Wen Gu.

Is it Wen Gu?

Is it you?

Could it be you?

...

The feeling of suffocation suddenly disappeared, and a hand came across and pulled her up and up.

After her eyes became clear again, Ye Qingzhan exhaled deeply. She was not good at swimming, and she had fallen into the deep sea. In fact, her fear of water was no less than Qinghuai. It was just that her memory was incomplete, and she had never remembered the reason for falling into the sea.

After swimming out of the water, Wen Gu pulled her hand to her waist, tightened it, and swam to the shore. Ye Qingzhan clung to him, and with the other hand, she desperately rushed forward. She looked around, and Hei Batian was nowhere to be seen.

It was so strange.

After seeing the surroundings clearly, Ye Qingzhan couldn't help but exclaimed in her heart: The bottom of the lake is also a lake Face!

The world seemed to be turned upside down. They had clearly jumped into the cold lake, but unexpectedly emerged from the other side of the water. On the willow bank, catkins were piled up. Many living people were standing around, watching them and talking, but no one offered a helping hand.

After climbing up the bank with Wen Gu, Ye Qingzhan shook off the water on his body and moved closer to the people who had just whispered to them. These people covered their mouths and noses, and the looks they cast on them were full of disgust and a little fear.

After Ye Qingzhan wiped the water off his face, he pulled up Wen Gu and looked straight at the onlookers.

Someone said to them, "How did you crawl out of this dirty lake? Are you a human or a ghost? "As the man spoke, he leaned forward and moved closer to Ye Qingzhan, as if he wanted to see more clearly, to see if there were any feet under her clothes that were wet by the lake water.

Wen Gu, who was covered in water vapor, stepped forward, stood in front of Ye Qingzhan, and looked at him with cold eyes.

The eyes of the young man standing in front were full of coldness, which was colder than the ice and snow in the dead of winter. The man with a crooked neck retracted his steps, but when Wen Gu moved forward, he saw his feet clearly through his clothes.

"Aren't you talking nonsense? The sun is so strong, if it was a ghost, it would have melted by the sun long ago!" Someone else poked his head out of the crowd and said on tiptoe.

The woman next to him looked at Ye Qingzhan, "tsk", and said in surprise: "It's really strange, a woman who sank into this lake can actually climb out? Du Meixian, I've really opened my eyes today! "

When the woman finished speaking, Ye Qingzhan set his sights on her.

The woman had a bright red flower in her hair, her eyebrows were slender, her eyes were upturned, there was a mole between her eyebrows, she had a shrewd face, a round body, and a thin summer shirt on her fair skin. She waved a round fan back and forth in her hand, and her eyes revealed a scrutiny.

Ye Qingzhan secretly guessed what she meant by her words. While she was thinking, someone else came up, circled around her and Wen Gu, and said to them: "Did you two elope and were discovered, and then you were drowned in the lake? Right?"

Before he could finish, the woman immediately refuted: "Nonsense, I, Du Meixian, remember the faces of all the people who were caught and drowned in the surrounding area!" As she spoke, she pointed the fan at Ye Qingzhan, and then slid towards Wen Gu, "I have never seen these two people, and God knows where they came from. "

As she spoke, Du Meixian covered half of her face with a fan, revealing only a pair of bright eyes, and then she changed the subject: "Could it be that the two of you avoided people to die together, and couldn't stand the cold of the lake, so you didn't want to die halfway and climbed up?"

The sarcasm and ridicule in her words were far more than a question. Ye Qingzhan felt very uncomfortable listening to it, so she responded in a muffled voice: "Yes, that's it, what should I do?" Even if she didn't answer like this, she really didn't want to bother to make up an answer in the face of these onlookers.

Unexpectedly, Du Meixian frowned suddenly with a smile after hearing her words, and the fan was also brought towards her, but it stopped when it was about to touch her forehead.

The round fan raised a wisp of wind, and Ye Qingzhan blinked and continued to look at her steadily. Wen Gu, who was standing beside her, looked displeased, and looked at Du Meixian with a cold and sharp look, as if to pierce her.

The woman with the red flower in her hair began to fan again. A mocking expression crossed her powdered face, her slender brows brimming with anger. She smiled and said, "You're so young, yet you're already thinking of committing suicide?"

No one felt comfortable with such a look or words, not even Ye Qingzhan. Just as he was about to retort, someone beside him said, "It has nothing to do with you."

As he spoke, Wen Gu's gaze remained fixed on the red flower in the woman's hair. Strangely, Ye Qingzhan followed suit.

Both of them stared at the red flower in their hair. Du Meixian, who had been so arrogant, suddenly turned averted. Knowing these two were no ordinary people, she leaned to the side, fanning herself.

"Stop gathering around. Go home and eat. I'll take care of these two young men."

Du Meixian had always been in charge of handling those who had survived drowning in the town. Over the years, few had ever emerged from the lake alive, and over time, the townspeople had almost forgotten about it. Now, at her urging, they all remembered. It was indeed noon, and it would be wrong to delay going home for dinner because of the hustle and bustle. After hearing what he said, they dispersed.

After the crowd dispersed, Du Meixian looked at the two of them, walked to the shade of the willows by the river, touched the red flower on her head, and said calmly: "Come here." She

said this to Ye Qingzhan and Wen Gu, and there was no trace of the ridicule just now. Ye Qingzhan found it much more pleasing to the ear, so

he pulled Wen Gu over, wanting to know the secret of the red flower. When Wen Gu was about to walk into the shade of the tree, she grabbed Ye Qingzhan's hand with her backhand and stopped her steps.

"What's wrong?" Ye Qingzhan asked with his head tilted.

Wen Gu said nothing, but a yellow leaf flew out of his sleeve. The flying leaf was like a needle, piercing the hairpin on the head of the person under the tree. Du Meixian had no time to react, and in her astonished eyes, the red flower fell on her shoulder.

When Du Meixian lowered her eyes to look at the falling flower, her gorgeous face aged in an instant.

It seemed as if decades had passed in the blink of an eye.

"Set up a barrier."

Ye Qingzhan exclaimed and set up a barrier according to Wen Gu's instructions, enclosing this area of heaven and earth, including the place where Du Meixian was. He was afraid that her ghost-like state would endanger others. If she was trapped in the barrier, even if a fight broke out, their chances of winning would be higher, after all, the barrier was controlled by her.

During the casting process, Ye Qingzhan paid attention to the woman's movements, fearing that she would attack by surprise. Unexpectedly, the person just quietly looked at the fallen flowers on her shoulder. The mole between her eyebrows began to fester, and the blood that oozed out fell to the ground along with the withered skin.

Ye Qingzhan heard Wen Gu say, "She has no ill intentions."

As he spoke, the old woman slowly picked up the flowers on her shoulder and held them in her palm. Where the eyes were on her face, only two black holes remained, and she looked over blankly.

The woman in front of him had white hair blowing in the wind.

After seeing her face clearly, Ye Qingzhan couldn't help but be shocked - it was the old woman he met in Hu Sanniang's sea of consciousness.

The old woman glanced at them indifferently, and slowly put the red flower back into her bun.

"You are not from Shu, are you?" The old woman, Renren Zhenren, looked at the two of them. After regaining her true form, she could see things that mortals could not see. This was also a blessing given to her by the immortals. "Look at the way you are dressed, you look like a monk from another place?" The old woman returned to her previous appearance, her eyes less sharp and a little gentler. When she looked at Ye Qingzhan, there was some joy in her eyes. "Did you learn the magic of this barrier from the immortals?"

The immortal Ye Qingzhan she was talking about naturally knew about it, and asked in return: "How do you know?"

Du Meixian smiled: "The immortal used this barrier to save me in the past. I remember the gestures for casting the spell."

The midday sun was obscured by the clouds that drifted in, and the sky was dim.

Glancing up, Du Meixian, wearing a flower in her hair, emerged from beneath the tree. She said, "Let's go! The destined couple the immortal spoke of must be you two."

With that, she took Ye Qingzhan's hand, completely oblivious to the young woman's confusion.

Du Meixian was as tall as the exiled immortal, and her grip was surprisingly strong. Unable to break free, Ye Qingzhan looked at the person beside her. Wen Gu reached out and grasped her other wrist.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Just completing the immortal's instructions," Du Meixian said softly, her tone unyielding. She glanced at the young man's tightly clenched hand, then met his gaze. "Don't be nervous."

Wen Gu stared at her, his grip never loosening.

Strangely enough, the Yin Sha within him could sense the depth of a person's resentment, the strength of their ghostly power, and the depth of their immortal magic. But he couldn't detect the aura of the woman before him.

She had no aura of the living, much less the resentment of the dead. She was like a lonely soul lingering in the mortal realm.

Under the boy's stern gaze, Du Meixian was the first to let go of Ye Qingzhan's hand. Looking at the courtyard not far away, she said, "I've been tall since I was a child, and I'm stronger than an ordinary man. My mother made a living by slaughtering chickens and sheep and selling meat. The year I came of age, my father was an executioner, and countless souls were killed by his hands. The year I came of age, my parents were killed by those who came to seek revenge. He risked his life to protect me and escaped."

As she recounted her past experiences, Du Meixian's expression was calm, as if what she was saying was just someone else's story, nothing to do with her own.

- If only she could hide the sadness in her eyes.

Ye Qingzhan glanced at her, sharing the same story, and blinked at her.

"But those people, as if still unsatisfied, chased me all the way to this lake. I'm not particularly skilled, but I'm good at killing chickens and sheep and swimming, so I jumped into the lake. They wouldn't give up, and fearing the legends surrounding the lake, they gathered on the shore with knives, stabbing and stabbing the water. I could only hold my breath and float."

Du Meixian turned to look at the lake behind her, her eyes flickering. "But I didn't expect this lake to hold so many wronged souls. Countless hands kept reaching out to me. I thought they were trying to pull me to the bottom, but instead, they gathered together and held me up as I continued to sink."

She could never forget the scene she witnessed that night in the lake.

The women who had died unjustly in the lake, some in wedding dresses, some in mourning clothes, their hair loose like spreading waterweed, forming a web or a piece of faded brocade, holding them steady.

The lake water was freezing cold.

She heard them say, "Wake up."

"Live."

"Live."

"Live."

But she still died.

***

Recovering from the memory of death, Du Meixian looked at the two with a gaze as clear and transparent as if soaked by the lake water. She said, "After dying in the lake, my resentment lingered, and I could never enter the cycle of reincarnation, becoming a lonely soul. I had hoped to amass enough resentment to become a ghost and slay my enemies, but before that, I met the immortal of Tianqi Mountain."

The name of the Tianqi Immortal evoked a memory in Ye Qingzhan.

Before becoming a ghost ferryman, she had carried the ailing Li Ying on her back to seek the "immortal," and it was this Tianqi Immortal she had prayed to.

"The immortal pinned a red flower in my hair and told me he couldn't interfere in human affairs. He told me there were more important things for me to do." Du Meixian gazed at the lake flowing quietly in the sunlight. "To repay my gratitude, I've survived in this body, neither human nor ghost. I'm guarding those in the water."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ye Qingzhan asked, "They? Many people have died in this lake?" She wondered if Shanniang was also at the bottom of this lake. If not, why was there a mysterious, quiet lake deep within Shanniang's sea of consciousness?

Du Meixian turned her gaze back, tapping Ye Qingzhan's forehead with her fan. "Do you know how furious I was when I heard you say you were going to die with this white-faced man?" She glared at Wen Gu, then gazed back at the calm, unruffled lake. "None of the women who died in this lake wanted to live."

Ye Qingzhan nodded obediently, resigned to the blows.

"Fortunately, this brat figured out my identity, and you've sealed my memory," Du Meixian retracted her fan. "Since that's the case, I'll tell you about some of the strange customs here, and see if you two masters have any ideas for resolving them."

Hearing the word "strange," Ye Qingzhan couldn't help but think of the ulcerated mole between Du Meixian's eyebrows. She had a vague feeling that Sanniang's death was connected to the strange customs of this place.

"This place is called Liudunling," Du Meixian said slowly, caressing the willow tree beside her. "It's only a dozen miles from the wealthy city of Changluo, and it's influenced by that place's culture of comparison."

Wuya Academy was also in Changluo. Ye Qingzhan listened quietly to Du Meixian's words, and after exchanging a glance with Wen Gu, he kept thinking in his mind.

It turned out that the families in this area, no matter they were poor or not, all wanted to marry their daughters to powerful and wealthy families. It didn't matter if they were concubines or slaves, as long as they could get money. The wishes of their daughters were not asked at all. They would just gather together and compete for money.

"Is that why there are so many girls in the lake?" Ye Qingzhan thought of Du Meixian's experience, and thought that these girls were probably strong-willed women who were unwilling to give in, so they jumped into the lake.

Du Meixian paused while waving the fan, "They were all forced to death."

The young women of Yandunling, when they reached the age of marriage, were like goods waiting to be sold, ready for anyone to choose. Ye Qingzhan listened to Du Meixian and couldn't help wondering: How could their parents be as selfish as those people in Zhuxi Town, and not care about the wishes of their children?

It's not uncommon to find parents like this, but when everyone in a place is like this, it's inevitable to suspect that the place is under some influence or curse.

"Some girls were forced to become concubines even though they had lovers. They planned to elope with their lovers, but when they were caught and brought back, they were branded as unfaithful. Those people broke their lovers' legs and tried to drown them." Du Meixian's expression turned resentful. "Some girls were even more miserable. They were 'sold' to several families. Their parents took the money and ran away, leaving them alone, chased and beaten by their families. Those people were not satisfied and forced them to die in the lake!"

"The people of Liudunling say that only by dying in this lake can you avoid revenge. The people in the underworld don't care about the ghosts in this lake."

Du Meixian's words cleared up Ye Qingzhan's doubts: she had just wanted to ask, why this lake?

"How did this lake come about?" Ye Qingzhan asked. She felt that this place and this lake were all strange. Glancing sideways at Wen Gu, she read the same feeling from his slightly furrowed brows.

A breeze blew over the lake, lifting the fine hair on Du Meixian's temples. She shook her head and said, "I don't know. This lake has been there since I was very young." She looked away.

Ye Qingzhan followed her gaze - an old woman was supporting someone and slowly walked out of a mansion.

The person being supported looked like a girl, but too thin. The cloak on her body covered her from head to toe, like a coat on a dead branch. When the wind blew over, it felt empty.

The plaque on the mansion read "Hu". Ye Qingzhan naturally thought of Hu Sanniang, and his eyes were fixed on the person in the cloak. Several more people walked out of the mansion and stood at the door, with their hands in their sleeves, looking down at the two people at the bottom of the stairs.

The man with white hair on his temples, estimated to be in his forties or fifties, said with a serious face: "You coughed too much at night, disturbing everyone in the mansion to sleep. The doctor said that your illness will bring harm to others. As a father, I know that you have a kind heart and are most afraid of troublesome people. I certainly don't want to do this. After thinking about it, I can only let you live in the other courtyard."

The man's words were gentle, but there was no kindness in his eyes that a father should have. Instead, there was a hint of disgust. It was just that due to his status as an elder, he hid it deeply.

The woman next to him, who was well-made, had a much more straightforward look in her eyes, and her eyes clearly said: Let's go quickly.

The three people under the willow tree looked at this place quietly.

The person wearing a cloak under the eaves slowly stretched out a pair of white hands from her sleeves, took off the veil on her head and hung it on her shoulders. The old woman next to her silently adjusted it for her.

Ye Qingzhan had good eyesight and could see the red eyes of the old woman and the pale face under the cloak.

It was Hu Sanniang.

When she was at the gates of hell, Hu Sanniang always appeared with strange makeup, never letting anyone see her true face. However, on the night she returned from the adventure in the illusion, the makeup on Sanniang's face was wet with sweat after the fight with Jin Xiao. The exiled immortal cleansed her face, and Ye Qingzhan was able to see Sanniang's face clearly.

The same whiteness at this moment was the sickly whiteness of not seeing the light for many years and living in the boudoir for a long time.

Sanniang stood at the door of the Hu Mansion, standing at the bottom of the steps, without saying anything, just bowed and saluted, and then was supported by the old woman beside her and left in the flying willow catkins.

Du Meixian, who was in the shade of the willows, sighed deeply.

"Miss Tang Qing, what a pity."

His eyes had been following Hu Sanniang. After hearing what Du Meixian said, Ye Qingzhan turned his head and asked, "Does Sister Du know about the young lady of the Hu family?" The person who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. This is Sanniang's sea of consciousness. If she wants to get out, she should find the reason why the sea of consciousness is knotted and break it, just like getting through the illusion.

Du Meixian was overjoyed to hear the sweet voice of "sister". When she was alive, she was tall and strong, and she was called unpleasant words even though she had a name. No one had ever called her "sister".

Du Meixian looked at the people beside her with a softer look, and wanted to tell them everything she knew about the Hu family. She thought to herself that the person chosen by the immortal must have her reasons for asking this.

She waved her fan and took a step forward, smiling and said, "Come on, listen to me tell you in detail."

Ye Qingzhan stepped forward to follow, but Wen Gu, who was one step slower than the two of them, grabbed her sleeve. Ye Qingzhan turned around and asked, "What's wrong?" Wen Gu,

who had been silent all the time, walked to his side and asked the question he wanted to ask just now, seriously, "What is elopement?"