Yun Song’s Perspective (Part 2)

Chapter 34

Playing the role of a deity was no easy feat. Although the people here claimed to believe in gods, they believed in the gods of the heavens, the Honggu from hundreds of years ago, or the silent statues in the temple. They did not believe that someone living among them could be an immortal.

Fortunately, there is always a way out, and she had Sha Niu.

This silly girl believed so firmly that she was the Immortal Lady that Yun Song felt the girl had nearly brainwashed her own mother. Every time Sha Niu’s Mother looked at her, Yun Song could read a single question in her eyes-

“Could she really be an immortal?”

Yun Song could see her internal struggle. Sha Niu’s Mother wanted her daughter to be right, yet felt it was impossible.

Sha Niu, however, was completely unaffected by her mother’s doubts and came to find her every day.

“Immortal Lady, look, I recognized you at a single glance. It’s clear the others in our village don’t respect you enough.”

“The people in the village only say they respect the Immortal Lady with their mouths. In reality, only me, my mom, and Li Qingqing truly respect you.”

The silly girl’s daily routine consisted of bringing her food, badmouthing the other villagers, and then attempting to brainwash her in return-

“Immortal Lady, do you want to kill the Old Bachelor? I saw the lightning.”

“Immortal Lady, when are you going to kill the Zhang family? I think that Madman Zhang looks like he’s about to die.”

“Immortal Lady, after they’re all dead, can the money be given to my mom?”

Yun Song felt that this was, in a way, a form of psychological therapy for herself.

Since this girl was so certain she was a god and constantly offered her emotional support and food, then she had to perform deeds that only a god could accomplish.

Sha Niu’s trust also provided a huge help. When Li Qingqing was injured, Sha Niu ignored the Zhang family’s objections and carried her to Li Qingqing’s house.

From that point on, her life became a bit easier, as she was no longer kept locked up.

Li Qingqing followed them every day. Sha Niu taught Li Qingqing Mandarin while Yun Song listened from the side. Li Qingqing spoke the local dialect and was learning Mandarin, while Yun Song was learning the local dialect from her.

Yun Song knew very well that she had to master the dialect. She had noticed when she first arrived that the people at the station and the human traffickers all knew each other.

Looking at the situation in the village, she understood why the other trafficked brides had failed to escape. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to, but because there were layers upon layers of obstacles.

She had to be extremely cautious.

Every day, Yun Song performed farm work and went into the mountains to gather firewood. Her body gradually recovered, but she still tried her best not to walk with a limp in front of outsiders. On one hand, she feared someone with experience might find it suspicious; on the other, she wanted to reinforce the impression that she was a slow-moving cripple.

Whenever people were around, she would either stop walking or try to walk like a normal person while making sure her “failure” was visible.

Through this method, she constantly deepened everyone’s impression that her leg was truly crippled. At night, when everyone was asleep, she would start running toward the back of the mountain.

The people here did intense physical labor during the day, so almost no one went out at night.

Her goal was the cliff.

While scouting earlier, Yun Song had noticed that the forest beneath the cliff was cut through by a highway.

With this shortcut, she wouldn’t need to take the long road from the other side to get to town.

She only needed to descend the cliff and run along the highway to reach the town.

But a problem arose.

The cliff was nearly vertical, as if cut by a knife, consisting entirely of stone walls. Even if she took the red cloth from the temple, knotted it into a rope, and tied it around her waist, she had no way to descend directly.

If she forced a descent, a single slip would result in a fall, and a fall from this height meant certain death.

She could only train her body while seeking a better solution.

Every night, she practiced climbing mountains and trees, using only a rope to slowly lower herself from the branches.

But trees were different from stone cliffs.

She still couldn’t solve the problem of those ten or so meters of smooth rock wall.

During the day, she had her own matters to handle.

Among the trafficked brides in the village, the one in the worst mental state was a woman named Wang Xia.

Yun Song knew that giving her medicine was useless, so she had to introduce new “evidence” of her status as the Immortal Lady.

Initially, she thought of a phenolphthalein experiment¹, but since she couldn’t get her hands on phenolphthalein, she had to use morning glories as a substitute.

Sure enough, when she and Sha Niu displayed the “Merit Beads,” the woman believed her and was willing to take the medicine she prescribed.

“Immortal Lady…” the woman spoke with a slight stutter.

Yun Song met her eyes. Yun Song thought she would never forget those eyes for the rest of her life.

Thereafter, Yun Song played the role of the Immortal Lady even more earnestly. She even added fluorescence, making the Merit Beads glow in the dark.

Every time this happened, Wang Xia’s condition would improve slightly.

Yun Song thought with a touch of dark humor that this was perhaps a form of “scientific god-making.”

Soon, Sha Niu’s Mother also “confirmed” her identity as the Immortal Lady.

The power of faith brought by a deity was indeed formidable.

Yun Song could feel that Sha Niu’s Mother’s state of mind was getting better and better.

Originally, she had looked as if her life was hanging by a single thin thread, ready to cut it at any moment and take her daughter with her to the grave.

But after believing Yun Song was the Immortal Lady, Sha Niu’s Mother became happy every day. There was a spring in her step, and she would occasionally come to chat about her hometown. She was filled with hope for everything.

Yun Song was glad the Immortal Lady persona was useful, but she was also anxious.

She felt as if she were blowing up an “Immortal Lady” balloon larger and larger. While she appeared calm on the surface, she worried every day that the balloon would get too big and explode.

She lived this double life in a state of anxiety.

By day, she was the dispassionate Immortal Lady, giving hope to people like Sha Niu’s Mother.

By night, she pressed herself against the floor, listening for movement from the Zhang family. Once they were all asleep and the sound of snoring began, she would quickly climb out the window.

She had to truly achieve everything she had promised as the Immortal Lady. She was going to lead everyone out of this place.

Occasionally, she would encounter injured turtledoves, owls, rabbits, and other young animals in the mountains. Every time she saw them, she would bring them back to treat their wounds.

She didn’t have any particular motive; she simply couldn’t bear to watch these creatures bleed out, waiting to die alone on the mountain.

Of course, she couldn’t admit that she was finding these animals in the mountains herself. After all, no one knew that she went to the cliff every single night.

Consequently, in the eyes of others, it appeared as though these injured animals were seeking her out of their own accord.

When Sha Niu and Li Qingqing asked her about it, she could only remain silent, effectively giving her tacit consent.

This only served to make Sha Niu and the others even more convinced of her status as a divine being.

Once the injured animals were healed, she would release them back into the mountains. Later on, more injured animals actually did come looking for her.

Even Yun Song was surprised by this, thinking that perhaps animals had their own ways of communicating with one another.

Soon, Yun Song noticed that something was off with the Village Chief. He seemed to have discovered her “identity” as well.

This was not a good thing. Even without Sha Niu’s Mother telling her, Yun Song knew that the Village Chief was certainly aware of the human trafficking in the village, yet he had done nothing to stop it.

Yun Song did not believe a person like that would do anything good after learning who she was.

She had no choice but to accelerate her progress, spending more than half of her nights on the cliff.

She had to get out quickly, not just to save herself, but to fulfill the promise she had made to everyone.

And it was at this time that something went wrong with Sha Niu’s head.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. phenolphthalein experiment: A chemical test where a colorless phenolphthalein solution turns bright pink/fuchsia in the presence of a base (like lime water). Yun Song uses this basic science to simulate a ‘miracle’ for the uneducated villagers. ↩