Revenge

Thirty years ago.

A baby's piercing cry rang out from a farmhouse courtyard.

The young woman on the bed was pale as she weakly watched the midwife lift her newborn child. There was not a trace of joy in her eyes, only desperate pleading and fear.

"The child... is it..."

The midwife sighed. "Amitabha. It's a girl."

The young woman's expression changed drastically. The light in her eyes dimmed at once, then she struggled to sit up, reaching for the swaddled infant.

"No, no, please, don't take my child out there—don't give her to my father-in-law—"

The midwife murmured another "Amitabha." Ignoring the young woman's heart-rending sobs, she lowered her head and carried the baby out of the room.

The two older women the midwife had brought held the young woman's arms down against the bed. Tears soaked her pillow as she heard the men waiting in the courtyard curse.

"Son, why has your wife had another daughter?! Can't these girl babies stop choosing our family to be born into?!"

"What rotten luck. I married her because she was pretty, and now she's had two daughters in a row without giving me a single son! If the next one's another girl, I'll divorce her and sell her off!"

"...Enough. Stop grumbling. Put away the gold jewelry we prepared for my grandson. Go fetch a basin of water."

The young man hesitated. "Father... she's still my own flesh and blood. We already drowned the first daughter. This one... why don't we keep her?"

"What do you know?!" The old man took a drag from his tobacco pipe. "As the old saying in the village goes, only by drowning baby girls can you keep more from daring to be born into your family. Let her go be born into a wealthy household. You had two older sisters yourself, once..."

The young man shrank back, cold sweat breaking out across his back, and hurriedly stopped the old man.

"I understand, Father. Please don't say any more..."

A moment later, splashing came from the courtyard, then everything fell deathly silent.

Some neighbors heard the commotion and came out to look. Finding that there was no newborn son to celebrate and no sweets to claim, they stood outside the courtyard, watching coldly.

When it was all over, they went back to their own homes.

Glory Ancestors Village gained another madwoman. They said she had lost her mind after losing her two daughters.

Every day, she either sat in her room crying as she cradled the little clothes she had sewn for her children, or ran to the Abandoned Infant Tower on the mountain behind the village and reached through its window, as though trying to scoop out her daughters' remains.

Her husband summoned a physician twice at first, then stopped. Villagers passing their house often heard beatings, curses, and sobbing from inside.

Another year passed, and the woman gave birth to a son. Perhaps because she now had a child to raise, her madness gradually subsided. Every day, she cooked, washed clothes, and cared for her child, as though nothing had ever happened.

Her son grew older year by year, until he reached marrying age.

The bride cost an exorbitant bride price, almost their family's entire lifetime savings—but they had no choice. There were so few families with daughters in the surrounding villages that a hundred households competed for every girl.

The woman looked at her daughter-in-law—the girl bore some resemblance to her younger self, with the same shyness, innocence, and hope for the life ahead.

But her daughter-in-law's first child was also a girl. She hemorrhaged during childbirth and barely survived. The midwife said she would probably struggle to have another child.

She looked at her plump, fair little granddaughter, then at her weak daughter-in-law lying on the bed. She wanted to say something to her husband and son, but before she could speak, her husband snatched the baby away.

"This girl has to be drowned."

Her son remained silent.

Her daughter-in-law was still unconscious.

She reached out. "Why don't we... name her 'Bring a Little Brother' and keep her..."

Her husband's eyes turned vicious, and he glared at her.

"Our family has only one son! If we don't drown this girl, do you want our family line to die out?!"

She suddenly remembered her youth, when her husband had beaten her day and night.

Wounds that had healed years ago seemed to ache all over again.

While she stood dazed, her husband had already told their son to fetch a basin.

The little life that had been smiling at her just moments before soon turned blue in the face.

She watched her son wrap the tiny corpse in a rag and head toward the Abandoned Infant Tower on the mountain behind the village.

So this was how her two daughters... had ended up abandoned in the wilderness, too.

Her husband watched her coldly. The villagers gathered outside the courtyard watched her coldly.

With tears in her eyes, trembling all over, she managed only one sentence.

"Amitabha..."

When her daughter-in-law awoke and learned that her daughter had been drowned alive, she began screaming and wailing, weeping all day long, as though she, too, were about to go mad.

Her son locked his wife in the woodshed, saying a few missed meals would cure her madness.

Every day, she secretly brought her daughter-in-law food.

On the seventh day after her little granddaughter's death, she heard her daughter-in-law say as she brought her food, "I'll get justice for my daughter."

As her daughter-in-law spoke, a fire seemed to burn in her eyes, fierce enough to consume the entire mountain.

"An Abandoned Infant Tower? This is an Abandoned Infant Tower?!"

Shen Leyan cursed eighteen generations of Glory Ancestors Village's ancestors with the vilest words he knew, yet it still did nothing to ease his anger.

"How could anyone do something so vile that even animals would be ashamed of them?! Once we've confirmed where Senior Brother Chen Jing and the others went, we're leaving. For people who would murder their own flesh and blood, infertility is a blessing!"

Several Abandoned Infant Towers stood there, forlorn and isolated. Shen Leyan stared at their little windows, his chest burning with fury. For a moment, he could not even think of what he could do for these innocent remains.

"The souls of infants are mostly pure. They have all passed on, rather than becoming vengeful spirits left to wander the world in suffering."

Lu Yuanyi's voice came from behind him, low and cool, with what seemed to be a hint of comfort.

"...Let's take their remains out of the towers and lay them to rest."

Shen Leyan nodded silently.

"I don't think they'd want their remains to stay in this village, either. Let's find somewhere deep in the mountains with clear streams and beautiful scenery, and build them a grave..."

"All right."

Throughout their flight on the sword, the youth kept his head lowered without speaking. His expression was gloomy, his dark eyes fixed blankly on the blade of the Jiangxue Sword.

They found a spot beside the water at the foot of a mountain, surrounded by flourishing flowers and grass.

"Are you wondering why the local authorities did nothing about this?"

Shen Leyan raised his head. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke frankly. "Yes. Doesn't the law say that murderers must pay with their lives? Can they escape punishment just because the people they killed were their own flesh and blood?"

The youth's voice trembled with anger.

Just as he finished speaking, a rustling suddenly came from overhead.

Then a child's young voice rang out. "They can't escape punishment! They can't escape punishment!"

A strand of spider silk swung down from a branch.