What catches the eye is a brighter fire.
No, not firelight.
Xiaolan raised her hand to cover her eyes, and slowly looked through her fingers at the clear sky in front of her.
There is no fire.
Everything has changed.
He was standing in the middle of a warmly furnished living room. A long yellow wood table and soft seats were neatly placed in the corner by the window. In front of him was a spacious and soft beige sofa, with a mass of black exposed above the back of the sofa.
Someone.
Xiaolan took the first step and found that the pain in her body had disappeared.
Not only that.
She looked at her hands and her body.
came back.
So touching...
Xiaolan had the urge to cry.
She carefully stroked the back of her hand. Although her body was short and small, no matter what, she was still good.
The black mass exposed on the sofa moved.
Don't be happy too soon.
Xiaolan put away the smile on her face and walked forward seriously.
It was indeed a person.
Her head, her face...
It's the fire lotus.
After seeing the man's appearance clearly, Xiaolan hesitated in his steps.
Huolian was lowering her head, looking at something gently and intently. Her long black hair was spread obediently on her shoulders. Huolian's body was shaking regularly, as if she was beating something in her arms.
Seeing that Huolian didn't look at her, Xiaolan bit her lower lip and took a few steps forward. The whole picture finally came into view.
A red swaddling clothes was placed just above Huolian's knees. Huolian raised his hand and patted the swaddling clothes down and down.
But there was no baby among the swaddling clothes.
There is only a white skull.
From where Xiao Lan was standing, she could just see the front face of the skull. The two black holes on the skull's head were facing Xiao Lan, as if she was observing her.
The flapping movement of the fire lotus paused for a moment, and she leaned forward with a smile, leaning her ear against the swaddled skull.
After a while, she nodded, then raised her upper body, turned her head, and cast her eyes directly on Xiaolan.
"You're here." She narrowed her eyes and smiled softly.
Xiaolan suddenly felt that all the fatigue and coldness around her body disappeared, replaced by warmth and peace of mind.
"You..." Xiaolan said, "You are Huolian."
Huolian frowned and stroked the skull, then raised her eyes and nodded, "We are already very familiar."
What an amazing feeling.
Although they have never met, they are indeed very familiar with each other.
Xiaolan swallowed and asked, "I just... saw your experience. Is this arranged by you?"
"Yes," Huolian raised his arm and invited Xiaolan to sit on the sofa, "I guess you already know something about me."
"But there are still many things we don't understand." Xiaolan continued what Huolian said.
Huolian smiled again, "So, let me tell you the complete story, okay?"
Xiaolan frowned, "Why me? What do you want me to do?"
"I'll tell you after listening to the story," Huolian raised the teacup on the coffee table and took a sip, "It's up to you to decide what happens next."
***
Luo Jiutian looked at the three people in front of him. In fact, they should not be called "human beings", but out of respect, Luo Jiutian still treated them as humans for the time being.
The woman stared at the two people lying on the bed, crying silently.
Luo Jiutian didn't know whether he should react or not. Should he comfort her? Will there be any consequences? I don’t know what rules they have for dead people, it gives me a headache.
Fortunately, the woman made the first move. She turned around and looked at Luo Jiutian, her eyes already red and swollen.
Luo Jiutian blinked, "Uh... uh..."
"This is my parents," the woman's shoulders were still shaking, "this is my home."
"Oh," Luo Jiutian thought for a while, "that... uncle and aunt..."
The sorrow in the woman's eyes seemed to fade a little. She stared at the void for a long time, then her shoulders dropped and said, "Forget it, I'll tell you."
Luo Jiutian did not speak, but waited sincerely.
The woman sighed carefully, her pupils refocused, and she glanced around the room lightly, "I'm already dead."
"Um."
Looking at the woman's appearance, Luo Jiutian felt that his reaction seemed a bit cold, so he responded again, "Oh?"
But the woman ignored him at all, "I should have... been dead for a long time. At that time, my parents were not so old..."
"Do you know how I died?" The woman looked at Luo Jiutian desperately with a pale smile on her face.
"How did you die?"
"I was buried alive," the woman said with tears in her eyes, pointing to her parents on the bed, "I was buried alive by their own hands."
The feeling of hearing this sentence with my own ears is indeed different.
Goosebumps suddenly stood up on Luo Jiutian's body, "Why is this happening?"
"Because I fell in love with a man."
Luo Jiutian waited, but the woman had no intention of continuing.
"that's all?"
"that's all."
"Is this something heinous?" Luo Jiutian said, "This makes no sense."
"I fell in love with him and wanted to be with him, but they wouldn't let me," the woman walked quietly in the room, "so I thought, if I had a child, maybe they would agree..."
Luo Jiutian saw the ending.
"Later, I really had a child." The woman stopped in the southeast corner of the room and stretched out her hand to touch her abdomen. "But they pushed me into the well of the ancestral hall and buried me alive in front of the whole village. When he buried me alive, he hid in the crowd and watched silently without saying a word..."
"He didn't save you?" Luo Jiutian also became angry.
The woman shook her head, "He cried and ran away."
Luo Jiutian cursed angrily, "He should die."
"I don't care about him at all, at least after waiting underground for so many years, I don't care about him anymore. Now that I think about it, he doesn't seem to be a man worth entrusting to me," the woman said. "At that time, I might just simply You want to resist, do you know what that feels like?"
"I see."
I want to rebel against my parents. I often have this evil intention, but I never dare to take action.
"But I didn't expect that they... they would actually treat me like this." Tears welled up in the woman's eyes again. "I thought I wouldn't be punished like other women. I thought They love me..."
Other women?
Luo Jiutian asked carefully, "What's going on with the other women?"
"In Lianshui Village, many women who are pregnant with children will end up like this if they want to resist," the woman said. "This is a customary rule in the village since the big fire."
