Unable to walk, the old woman could only wave her hand at Man Man from afar, telling her to hurry up: "I have been dreaming of them all these years, and I have to repeat them almost every night, and I have long been tired of them. I pushed them down with my own hands, and I should bear the consequences, and I only hope that this kind of tragedy will not happen again in the future. ”

Over the years, she has been tormented by self-blame and guilt all the time, and there is nothing wrong with dying, but she is worried that future generations will not succeed in abolishing this system.

The old woman's gaze fell directly on Yu Hopeless's body, as if she could see through his body to his heart: "Can the National Teacher do it?" ”

Yu Wuwang said without hesitation: "Naturally." ”

This bad habit of sacrificing human life has long been abolished, and it was fine when he didn't know it, but now that he knows it, it is impossible for him to let this kind of thing continue to happen.

"I will definitely abolish this bad habit completely."

Perhaps because Yu Wuwang's expression was too firm when he spoke, or because his reputation outside over the years was really loud, the old woman half-lowered her eyes and smiled slightly: "With the promise of the National Teacher, I will rest assured, no matter what my end will be after returning to the Yamen, I will not complain in half a word." ”

The most important thing at the moment was to leave the small village, and the old woman took a step and said to the crowd of people who were arguing and arguing, "Don't make any noise. ”

The eyes of some villagers in the crowd lit up, as if they saw hope: "Mother-in-law? ”

The old woman glanced at the weapons in the hands of the soldiers, and said with a complicated expression: "You are just a group of ordinary people, how can you compare with these soldiers with real swords and guns?" I'm afraid that if you really want to fight, only your own blood is flowing, stop it and go home. ”

"Mother-in-law, why do you say that? Is someone threatening you? ”

The old woman shook her head: "There is no threat, I thought of it myself, and I also volunteered to return to the yamen with them." ”

Everyone was stunned, if the mother-in-law also volunteered to go to the yamen, then what would happen to their river god sacrifice? From now on, there will be no one who can preside over the river god sacrifice, if the river god is angry........

They didn't dare to continue to think about it, so they only pleaded with bitter faces: "Mother-in-law, how can you leave us alone?" ”

The old woman knew that they would react this way: "Actually, there is something I have always wanted to tell you, don't you think it is strange that the river god you worship does not exist at all? Two years ago, we held the festival to the river god with the same specifications, but the next year there was a big flood, and many people's fields were flooded. ”

"Then, isn't that the river god dissatisfied with our sacrifice?"

The old woman sneered: "No, there is no river god at all, and no one controls the natural rules in this world, everything is fate." All of this was told to me by the previous priest before he died. ”

The most painful thing in the world is that years of faith have been torn apart by life, just like the old woman is now, all the villagers widened their eyes and couldn't believe their ears: "It's all fake? ”

At the moment when their faith was shaky, the old woman did not hesitate to make that straw: "That's right, it's all fake." ”

"There is no river god in the world, so my daughter ......." In the crowd, some people knelt on the ground, hugged their heads and cried.

These small villages are not big, the tradition of the river god sacrifice has continued for so many years, several families have participated, and even some families have even had two daughters become living sacrifices. How long did it take them to convince themselves at that time, and now their hearts hurt.

"You liar! You don't have to die well! ”

In an instant, the situation changed from everyone in the villagers thinking about the old woman to most of them shouting and shouting to kill, and only a few relatively intelligent villagers stood in place without saying a word.

To tell the truth, things have developed to such a point, Yu Wuwang did not expect, he thought that the old woman would use other reasons to persuade these villagers, but in the end she used this method, it seems that she really let go. Glancing at the old woman with a complicated expression, Jade had no hope of letting the surrounding guards make sure to protect her.

In the face of the excitement of the crowd, the old woman not only did not panic, but even had a look of relief on her face, as if she had been waiting for this day a long time ago, and today it finally came: "I am a wicked person who is not good to die, and I will definitely go to eighteen layers of hell in the future, and I will not miss your cursed words, I just hope that you can see my face more clearly, and don't put the blame on my family, they don't know about it, especially Manman, she almost became a living sacrifice of the river god, everything has nothing to do with her." If you want to hate, come at me. ”

The invective in the crowd grew louder and louder, and some people even picked up broken stones from the ground and threw them at the old woman's face without saying a word.

The sharp edges and corners smashed through the skin, and in an instant, blood slowly flowed from the wound.

Man Man screamed when she saw this, unlike others, she really loved her grandmother, that is, she could be affected by her at any time, and she rushed up without hesitation, hugging the person: "Grandmother, things are not what you said, these are all lies, you quickly explain to the villagers, they misunderstood." ”

The old woman smiled bitterly: "Silly girl, what I said is true, so why bother to explain it to them?" "Ninety-nine Chinese

Without waiting for Man Man to speak again, the old woman pushed her away and pushed her to her father's side, and then turned around without hesitation, and said with a cold expression: "Master Guoshi, now we can leave." Their illusions are completely shattered, and they don't think anyone will stop us anymore. ”

Yu Wuwang nodded and glanced at Jiang Cheng Taishou.

On the way out, no villagers tried to stop them, although there were also unwilling people who wanted to get up, but they were quickly held down by the people around them.

"This is the National Teacher, do you think he is as benevolent as the Taishou? Mother-in-law falls into his hands, there is only one way to die, and we can take revenge without using our hands, isn't it great? ”

The young man who was stopped furrowed his brows and shook his head slowly: "Mother-in-law is not that kind of person. ”

The companion sneered, pointed to the crowd not far away, and said: "Listen, there are voices scolding her everywhere now, how can a person who loves her reputation so much be willing to be abused?" What you say must be from the heart, and there can be no falsehood! ”

"That's too hasty......"

The companion gave him a blank look and mocked: "It doesn't make sense with a pedantic reader like you at all, let's go!" ”

He was not the only one who left, but also the crowd around him, as if the tide was gradually receding, and in the end, there were only a few people left on the riverbank, and one of them was Manman.

She was still on her knees, tears pouring down like broken pearls.

Her father and mother originally wanted to persuade her to go back, but Manman was reluctant to go, so he insisted on pulling people up from the ground, but he didn't move.

They had no choice but to leave first.

There is no way, the mother-in-law shakes out the truth of the river god in front of so many people, it will definitely cause the resentment of the surrounding villagers, they refuse to attack their family now, and they may not do it in the future, and if they continue to stay in the village, they are afraid that something will happen, so it is better to move out of this place as soon as possible. There is a brother above Manman, and a pair of siblings below, and they have to plan for the other children.

Because of excessive sadness, Man Man didn't notice the figure slowly walking towards him, but lowered his face and wept bitterly.

"Don't cry." The young scholar sighed, took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it to her, "The national teacher is a reasonable person, and the people that my mother-in-law has done are not originally out of my heart, and I don't think the yamen will be sentenced heavily, mother-in-law...... She might be able to come back. ”

Later, even he himself was a little lacking in confidence.

Although these things were not the mother-in-law's original intention, and the local bad habits for many years should be blamed, it is an indisputable fact that people have been killed on their hands.

Slowly raised his eyes from between his fingers, looked at the person in front of him with teary eyes, and the handkerchief handed to him continued to flutter with the breeze: "Brother Zhou......."

Zhou Zhiban squatted down and said with a gentle smile: "Mother-in-law helped you say good things before leaving, it can be seen that she doesn't want you to get involved in these miscellaneous matters, let alone affect you. Don't cry, it's not good to cry. ”

The tears in the corners of Manman's eyes continued to slide, but they finally eased a little.

"If it weren't for us, my grandmother wouldn't have done everything she could to save my life, let alone cause this trouble."

Zhou Zhi sighed again, half-squatted down and hugged the person into his arms: "Didn't you hear what your mother-in-law said?" All this is fate, it can't be changed, today is the one who becomes the living sacrifice is you, this river god sacrifice, it is impossible to continue, the national teacher is in Jiangcheng, how could he turn a blind eye when he knows this? ”

"But—

Man Man wanted to say something, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted by the person in front of him: "Okay, this is not the place to talk, if you have something to say, let's wait until you go home." “

With that, Zhou Zhi helped the person up from the ground, and the two walked hand in hand in the direction of the village.

At the beginning, Luo Lian'er was reluctant to follow Yu Wuwang back to Jiangcheng, seeing them leave, she subconsciously wanted to hide to the side, but Yu Wuwang grabbed her sleeve and persuaded her to go back together, saying that her face was not good, thinking that she was sick and needed a place to recuperate.

"I can go anywhere else ...... the same"

Yu Wuwang raised his eyebrows, and said with a smile: "Where else can you go now?" ”

His gaze was like the eyes of a falcon, as if he could directly see through other people's thoughts, and instantly saw through Luo Lian'er's careful thoughts: "You better go back with me, when you are healed, you can go wherever you want." ”