Chapter 34: 33、The Bride's Pool

33、The Bride's Pool

Zhou Chang's pupils trembled!

Even witnessing Li Xiamei kill and dissect a corpse did not bring a shock as intense as this scene before his eyes!

What a tragic and terrible matter was this?

She was clearly about to become someone's bride—such a time should have been filled with joy, yet she chose to end her life right then!

Thoughts spun in Zhou Chang's heart, and the expression on his face gradually settled, returning to calm.

And those people gathered around the wedding sedan, seeing the bride hang herself directly inside the sedan, instantly grew panicked.

Their unmasked cries drifted on the wind, reaching Zhou Chang's ears in waves.

"Why did she hang herself? Marrying into a good family in the city as a concubine means she would never worry about food or drink again; why did she hang herself!"

"How are we supposed to explain this to the nobles in the city?"

"Oh no! We have—how did we end up on the road to the Bride's Pool?"

"For brides sent off on this road, eight out of ten commit suicide halfway; how did we get diverted here?!"

"Run! Run!"

"Grandmother Bai, if you have a spirit in heaven, please bless your descendants; do not let the women of our Bai family village all follow your example from back then and go 'strolling in the garden'..."

"Shh—be quiet! Do you really think Grandmother Bai cannot hear?!"

The rope around the bride's neck was untied; the purple-red strangulation marks on her neck made Zhou Chang inexplicably think of Bai Xiue.

The bride's corpse was stuffed back into the wedding sedan, turning the sedan into a coffin chamber.

A group of people clamored and made noise, no longer caring about the wind and percussion instruments, carrying the wedding sedan and hurrying back along the original path while it was still not dark.

Zhou Chang heard them mention terms like 'Bride's Pool', 'Grandmother Bai', and 'strolling in the garden'; he instinctively felt these words hid many unknown things, so he secretly committed them to memory.

That group descended the hillside in the blink of an eye and vanished from sight.

Zhou Chang looked at the sky, guessing that Shi Danzi must be getting impatient by now.

He dared not delay any longer, lowered his head, and continued walking forward along the small path.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew past, and Zhou Chang felt a chill in his heart.

He lowered his head and walked out of that wild forest; outside the woods, he finally saw signs of human presence.

Several carts loaded with large water jars, pushed and pulled by the wine workshop assistants, passed by Zhou Chang.

Those people looked at the solitary Zhou Chang with strange eyes, but did not speak much to him.

The water transport carts quickly passed.

Zhou Chang arrived at the edge of that quiet, clear pool; he looked at the trees with huge canopies growing on the opposite side of the pool, their canopies covering the sky above the water, making the surface appear dark and deep.

On the water surface, not a single ripple was visible.

"This is the Bride's Pool."

Looking at that large pool, Zhou Chang's heart was momentarily dazed.

The Bride's Pool referred to by those escorting the bride was the water source for wine brewing at the Yongsheng Wine Workshop—the Jade Maiden Pool.

"Brother Zhou!" Not far away, Shi Danzi was huddled behind a few wild trees; seeing Zhou Chang approaching the Jade Maiden Pool, his originally anxious face instantly turned to delight, and he hurriedly called out to Zhou Chang.

While shouting, Shi Danzi jumped out of the grass and ran toward Zhou Chang.

He saw Zhou Chang turn his head to face him and wave at him.

'Brother Zhou' smiled gently, his face appearing much paler than usual; while waving at Shi Danzi, transparent holes gradually appeared on his body.

Snow-white, fine lotus threads passed through those holes, transforming into small, wandering hands that waved toward Shi Danzi: "Come, come..."

Shi Danzi was suddenly startled into a shiver, immediately averted his gaze, and abruptly stopped his steps!

He came to his senses and looked frantically again at the spot where Zhou Chang stood—by that sinister, cold water pool, where was Zhou Chang's figure to be seen?

The daylight grew increasingly dim, and the sunset glow in the distant sky was about to vanish completely.

The Jade Maiden Pool was silent; those wild trees with huge canopies, even in this chilly early spring, still grew dense green leaves, and among the lush vegetation, it seemed as if human figures were hiding.

They quietly observed Shi Danzi by the pool.

"Ah!"

Shi Danzi could no longer endure the silence that made his spine chill; he screamed and fled in panic!

Zhou Chang did not see Shi Danzi nearby.

He walked around the edge of the Bride's Pool; among the lush branches and leaves of the large trees, the chirping of birds sounded, and occasionally a gentle breeze blew, causing ripples to dance on the pool's surface.

Brilliant sunlight poured down, passing through the huge canopies of those wild trees, making the light around the pool flicker between bright and dark.

The warm breeze blew gently, grass grew, and orioles flew.

In a daze, it seemed to be a lazy late spring season.

In this romantic spring day, Zhou Chang walked in the woods by the pool, hearing the sounds of women laughing and playing.

Their laughter was as romantic as this spring day.

"Ah, we have turned into the Bride's Pool... the wind here is so cool; during the day we have to feed pigs, cut pig grass, cook, and do farm work... it is rare to have such leisure time."

"Blowing in the wind, lying in the grass, I feel I could fall asleep in a moment."

"The villagers say Grandmother Bai's ancestor is buried in the Bride's Pool; she will take the life of every young woman who passes by—the village shaman also says that Grandmother Bai beneath the Bride's Pool sleeps in a garden paradise, and the girls she takes away have gone to enjoy blessings, no longer suffering like us..."

"Suffering... my father betrothed me to the eldest young master of the Wen family in the city as a concubine, but that young master is said to have been paralyzed for many years..."

"Your father just wants to exchange you for silver dollars—but my family is the same; I am also reaching marriageable age, and I do not know what kind of family my relatives will betroth me to..."

"Living is suffering!"

"Yes, living is suffering!"

"Working day and night for the family, then being arranged to marry an unwanted husband and serve that person for a lifetime—wouldn't it be wonderful if there truly were a place like a garden beneath the Bride's Pool..."

The laughter and chatter of the women in the woods slowly turned into waves of mournful, sorrowful weeping.

The sound of weeping lingered in Zhou Chang's spirit, sometimes near, sometimes far, yet never fading away.

Amidst the crying, he heard a woman sing in a soft, gentle, and melodic voice: "On the seventh day of the eleventh month, I visited the Flower Garden; trapped in the mud, my soul finds no peace..."

The daylight filtering through the canopy suddenly grew dim.

The water in the pool shimmered coldly, reflecting the withered and desolate scenery all around.

That bright and beautiful spring scenery vanished in an instant, never to return.

Zhou Chang still stood by the pool. Feeling as though someone was watching him from above, he suddenly looked up—only to see seven or eight young girls in coarse, floral-patterned clothes, wrapping vines around tree branches and hanging their own necks from them.

His mind suddenly reeled; those bright and youthful Misses had all turned into shriveled, rotting, foul-smelling corpses wrapped in tattered, faded coarse cloth.

Zhou Chang abruptly averted his gaze—

By the poolside, a woman dressed in a bright red wedding gown squatted, burning paper money:

"On the seventh day of the twelfth month, I visited the Flower Garden; trapped in the mud, my soul finds no peace. My beloved comes to gather my beautiful bones; in life and death, we shall never part..."

Hearing the song coming from the woman's mouth and seeing her profile, Zhou Chang's eyes shifted slightly.

How did Bai Xiue come here?