The First Night

Chapter 5

Regarding the Immortal Lady, many small stories circulated in Xinghua Village. The characters in these stories varied, but they all followed a single template.

In these tales, the Immortal Lady would transform into an ordinary woman and come to Xinghua Village, either asking for a drink of water or a bite to eat.

The families she visited were usually not good people.

The family would inevitably fail to recognize her. Seeing her as a mere woman, they would dare to insult her with their words, and as a result, most of the family would usually end up dead. However, the most pitiful and innocent person in that household would survive and receive a vast fortune of gold and silver treasures.

The adults listened to these stories as if they were just entertainment, quickly putting them out of their minds. Moreover, no one ever thought they were the great villains of the stories, nor did they believe that the Trafficked Brides they encountered could possibly be the Immortal Lady!

Sha Niu was different. She couldn’t tell the difference. She treated them as real events. When she saw that university student from the city, with her scholarly aura and her red clothes, it naturally made Sha Niu think of the Immortal Lady.

From a young age, this little simpleton had always projected herself into the role of the good person in those stories. She fantasized that one day, the Immortal Lady would descend to the mortal world and only she would recognize her. Everyone else would bully the lady, and then the Immortal Lady would chop off the heads of those who mistreated her and reward the person who recognized her-Sha Niu herself-with countless treasures!

Now, she naturally believed in all of this with unwavering conviction.

Sha Niu’s mother watched her daughter’s joyful expression, not knowing how to tell her child that the university student wasn’t an Immortal Lady, but just another pitiful soul.

Sha Niu’s mother truly didn’t have the strength to deal with her daughter. She was utterly exhausted. The arrival of the new Outsider Wife had stirred up memories of her own past.

It was as if she had returned to the past, back to when she was first sold here.

She couldn’t stop her mind from drifting back to her history, back to her old home.

She glanced at her daughter, who had already fallen asleep. She remembered that she had been about this age, just this old, when she was tricked into coming here.

At the thought of this, an indescribable wave of pain spread through her blood to her entire body, finally surging to the tip of her heart. The surrounding air seemed to turn sharp; as she breathed it into her lungs, they began to ache.

This earthen house felt as if it were about to collapse, burying her and her daughter beneath it.

Her hands began to tremble. Sha Niu was sleeping soundly; she was a grown girl now.

Sha Niu’s mother suddenly realized that her Sha Niu was a grown girl.

In a place like this, what good end could there be for a simpleton like her? It would be nothing more than bearing children for those bachelors who couldn’t find wives…

These horrific, terrifying images suddenly crashed into her mind. Her heart was instantly shrouded in a dark terror. Her heart could not bear such pain, and her body began to tremble along with it.

Perhaps she should just take this child and die. Such a terrible thought took root in her mind.

Yes, dying would fix it. Once dead, there would be nothing to fear.

The moment this thought appeared, the horrific images from before suddenly receded.

Death meant no more pain. At this moment, the thought was filled with temptation.

She reached out her hand and touched her foolish daughter’s neck. If she just strangled her and then died herself…

She wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.

Her daughter’s neck was warm. She began to apply pressure. In her dream, Sha Niu was happy, and she asked her mother impatiently-

“Mom, look! The Immortal Lady made me smart. Are you happy?”

The simple girl’s sleep-talking was like a bolt of lightning. Sha Niu’s mother snapped back to her senses and jerked her hand back, feeling as if she had been possessed by a ghost.

She looked up toward the window. Darkness had completely enveloped Xinghua Village.

This was the first night for the Outsider Wives, and the first night was always the hardest to endure.

Sha Niu’s mother stayed awake, her eyes wide open, listening to her own breathing and the breathing of Sha Niu.

She stared blankly at everything with an expressionless face, like a female ghost who had already died but remained in the mortal realm.

The wind outside grew louder; it seemed it was about to rain.

In the middle of the night, Sha Niu’s mother was still awake, her eyes still open.

Suddenly, there was the sound of gongs and drums outside, and someone came knocking on the door.

“Get up, help out! The Old Bachelor’s wife ran away!”

Soon, Sha Niu’s mother heard the man of the house get up and head out.

Sha Niu was also woken up by the noise. Children love a spectacle, so she immediately ran out to see what was happening.

A crowd of people outside held torches, saying the new wife had run off.

The Immortal Lady?

Sha Niu hurriedly put on her shoes. Just as she stepped out the door, the people over there were already returning.

A group of people was dragging someone, moving very slowly. It turned out they had found her and were now dragging her back.

The person on the ground could hardly be called human anymore, flailing with all four limbs and struggling incessantly. It took four men to pin her down. The Old Bachelor stepped forward and kicked her several times before she finally stopped.

At that moment, in the pitch-black sky, bolt after bolt of lightning streaked across the horizon as if chasing something. Peals of thunder crashed down one after another, yet they hit nothing.

How could they hit nothing? Sha Niu grew anxious watching from the side.

Suddenly, a dark figure rushed out from the crowd.

“Stop hitting her! The Immortal Lady is angry!” It was Sha Niu.

By then, Sha Niu could see that the person on the ground wasn’t the Immortal Lady, but she still had a vague feeling that this was the Immortal Lady’s wrath. The Immortal Lady didn’t like them doing such things; the Immortal Lady wanted to strike everyone dead with lightning.

Another bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, followed by rolling thunder, as if a deity sat atop the clouds, currently enraged by all of this.

The others didn’t hear clearly what Sha Niu was saying at all; they just assumed the foolish girl was having another fit.

“Go, go, go!”

Sha Niu’s mother also rushed out and dragged her daughter back, her entire body trembling as if she were the one being dragged back across the ground.

The incident was treated like a minor interlude. On the other side, the man continued to drag the escaping woman back.

Sha Niu’s mother heard the others advising him to stop kicking her. They told him that if he kicked her to death, no one would bear him a son, and after all, he had spent a lot of money to get this wife. Sha Niu’s mother clenched her fists, but she only held her daughter tight and walked away.

Sha Niu was as stubborn as a mule. Listening to the thunder in the sky, she kept telling her mother, “The Immortal Lady is angry. She’s angry.”

“Mama, the Immortal Lady is angry! We have to go help!”

Sha Niu’s mother didn’t speak. she simply used all her strength to drag her daughter away from those people.

She didn’t look back, and she didn’t dare to look back.

Nothing could be kept secret in the village. By the next morning, Sha Niu’s mother heard the old woman next door saying that Chunhua, the woman who tried to run away yesterday, was dead.

The neighbor spoke about it as if it were a piece of breaking news, spit flying as she talked.

Apparently, the new bride had fainted, so the Old Bachelor locked her in the woodshed. When he came out, he felt uneasy and feared she might escape again, so he went back and tied her hands and feet.

When he went to open the door this morning, no one was in the room. The window of the woodshed was open. Looking outside, he saw the new bride had fallen headfirst onto a rock beneath the window. Her hands and feet were still tied, and her body was already cold.

Finally, the old woman sighed, saying that these Outsider Wives were made of paper, not like the good women of the village. They didn’t know how to live a proper life, and even when tied up, they still tried to run. Now, she had lost her life.

In the end, she remarked, “Our local women are still the most dutiful.”

After saying that, she remembered that the woman in front of her was also an Outsider Wife, so she added, “Old Li is lucky too. It’s a good thing he married you.”

Sha Niu’s mother listened from the side without a word. Her gaze gradually drifted toward the cliff on the other side.

On the cliff stood a tiny temple. Inside sat the Immortal Lady, her eyes closed.

Meanwhile, Sha Niu was planning something new. Although the girl was simple-minded, she felt that sweet potatoes and raisins were not good enough gifts for the Immortal Lady. So, the silly girl stole a small bottle of honey her mother kept under the bed.

She was going to find the Immortal Lady.

Sha Niu thought the Immortal Lady might be injured, which was why her thunder wasn’t hitting the targets accurately. Once she got better, she would surely strike everyone dead.

Perhaps because she had been told so much about the Immortal Lady’s majesty since she was a child, she always felt the Immortal Lady would kill anyone who was disobedient.

She approached the Zhang family courtyard and, taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, peeked through a crack in the door.

The Immortal Lady was sitting there. Unlike the Immortal Lady in the temple, she was crying.

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“Elderly lady, what are you doing?” When Sister An entered, the old woman had her eyes closed, her hands fluttering near her ears.

After Sister An returned, she did not tell the old woman’s descendants about what had happened this time, acting as if nothing had occurred.

But ever since the old woman had opened up to her, she seemed unable to return to her previous state as an intellectual. She had been acting eccentric and muttering to herself.

In the old woman’s ears was the voice of her granddaughter.

“That girl… I didn’t even have the chance to know her name before she was killed by those people. I must avenge her, and I must avenge myself.”

“Shh, my granddaughter is sending me a signal.” The old woman’s eyes were filled with tears as she said, “She is sad. She says those people killed a young girl. She wanted to save that girl, she wanted to protect her, but she wasn’t strong enough. She couldn’t save her. She could only watch her die. She is in so much pain.”

“Teacher Yang…” Sister An originally wanted to laugh and say such things couldn’t be happening.

But the old intellectual in front of her was weeping.

Regardless of whether it was true, for this old woman, the feelings she experienced at this moment were real. She was truly grieving.

In her world, her granddaughter was enduring these very events.

Sister An knelt down. While wiping the old woman’s tears, she used the woman’s own logic to comfort her. “It’s alright. Your granddaughter is the reincarnation of a deity. She will get better soon, and she will avenge that girl.”