Chapter 31: The River God’s Bride — “I Am Your Bride.” Part 1

Shi Yu clutched Auntie He and didn’t even notice the rain starting. Auntie Li, who had rushed over in a hurry, couldn’t hold back her tears at the sight.

“Child, you’ve suffered so much.”

Shi Yu’s unfocused gaze turned toward her. Tears instantly pooled in her swollen red eyes and fell, beyond her control, mixing with the rain.

“It’s not me who suffered. It’s Auntie He. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t have died.”

She choked up until she couldn’t speak, her body trembling slightly, helpless as a lost child.

Auntie Li held her and said through her tears, “Don’t say that. You’re a good child. If Auntie He’s spirit in heaven heard you talking like this, she wouldn’t rest easy.”

Shi Yu shook her head frantically. She wasn’t a good child. Everyone who came near her met a terrible end.

“Am I really what they say I am? A star of solitude who’ll bring death to everyone around me?”

“Nonsense!” Auntie Li scolded gently, her voice laced with heartache. “Those people have nothing better to do. How can you believe them? Don’t blame yourself, Little Yu. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet heaven kept taking away the people who mattered most. Why was she being treated this way?

Shi Yu hurt everywhere, but most of all in her heart. The tightness made it hard to breathe. She wanted to scream and question the heavens, but she didn’t even know who to ask. In the end, she could only bury her face in Auntie He’s lifeless embrace and cry until she was spent.

The funeral was simple. The villagers, terrified of Li Zhuang’s family, dared only come pay their respects at night. For three full days, Shi Yu knelt before the spirit tablet in the mourning hall, eating nothing, drinking nothing, not closing her eyes.

Auntie Li, aching for her, tried to get her to rest. She stubbornly refused, and when pressed, she’d simply cry, her eyes swollen like walnuts.

Looking at the suddenly empty house, Auntie Li wiped tears in secret. She had only gone back to visit her own family. How had so much happened?

Shi Yu wasn’t the only one who couldn’t accept it. Auntie Li couldn’t either.

This child had been dealt blow after blow. Auntie Li was afraid she wouldn’t hold up, so she stayed close, not daring to let her guard down for a moment.

After three days of lying in state, Auntie He was buried. Shi Yu dug the grave herself, working from dawn to dusk. She nearly fainted from exhaustion at one point. After Auntie Li roused her, she kept digging. Her hands blistered badly, her fingers bloody.

Auntie Li wanted to help her dig. Shi Yu waved her off and said, “Let me do it. I didn’t fulfill my duty to her while she was alive. I can’t even delegate this small thing.”

Auntie Li opened her mouth but said nothing in the end. She knew how stubborn Shi Yu could be. Rather than argue, it was better to let her finish as quickly as possible.

The rain had fallen for three straight days with no sign of stopping. Shi Yu was soaked through, rain running down the bridge of her nose, perfectly concealing her emotions.

Star River Village had only one coffin maker, and they refused to sell to Shi Yu. Auntie He had no coffin. She was wrapped in a straw mat and laid in the earthen pit, soiled almost immediately.

Shi Yu threw herself over the body and wept until she nearly passed out. Auntie Li lifted her up, her own voice heavy with grief.

“Let the old woman rest in peace.”

Shi Yu’s voice was hoarse from crying. She scooped handful after handful of dirt, earth mixed with the blood from her hands covering Auntie He, slowly erasing her existence.

The rain was so heavy that even the joss paper wouldn’t light. Shi Yu kowtowed ten times heavily and collapsed in front of the grave.

Auntie Li caught the falling girl, heartache in her eyes. In just a few days, she’d wasted away to nothing. She weighed nothing at all.

Auntie Li carried Shi Yu on her back, tilting the umbrella over the girl as she made her way down the mountain, step by step.

Shi Yu could feel herself falling ill again, but she didn’t want to wake up. Living was too painful. No one in this world loved her. From now on, she’d be all alone.

Her body fell into a strange cycle, alternating between freezing and burning. Her bones and flesh were hammered over and over, as if they’d shatter at the slightest touch.

Through the haze, something seemed to flash before her eyes. Then a muffled thunderclap split the air, and a voice echoed in her mind.

“You are not allowed to die. Your life is mine.”

Shi Yu’s lips parted. She slipped back into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the dark sky unleashed a torrential downpour. The distance between heaven and earth grew terrifyingly short, the boundary blurred, as if both might collapse at any moment.

Because the rain was so heavy, the villagers of Star River Village didn’t notice the Star River’s changes right away. By the time they did, both banks were already flooded. Waves dozens of meters high were about to destroy the village.

The first villager to notice reported to the village chief, then told everyone they met on the way back. Within half a day, everyone knew. They all feared the river god’s wrath and that the entire village would be submerged.

The village chief gathered everyone at the ancestral hall to discuss. They looked at each other in silence.

“No one has a way to calm the river god’s anger?”

“We don’t even know why the river god is angry. How can we address the cause?”

The village chief took a long drag on his old pipe and said in a gravelly voice, “I do know a little, but…”

He trailed off deliberately, whetting everyone’s appetite.

“Uncle, what are you doing? Now’s not the time for riddles! If you don’t tell us, our whole village will be flooded.”

The speaker was the village chief’s nephew and also Li Zhuang’s older brother. The two had long been in cahoots. Their back-and-forth was just a way to manipulate the villagers.

“I heard that when that girl was secretly gathering herbs and Li Zhuang and the others chased her, the Star River seemed to protect her. So I’m thinking, maybe the river god’s anger this time has something to do with her.”

“I remember that too! We almost died there!”

The villagers who hadn’t quite believed it were swayed by these few words. The more they thought about it, the more they felt Shi Yu had some connection to the Star River.

“The rain started the day Auntie He died. The Star River probably flooded that same day too. We just didn’t notice.”

“That makes sense.” The village chief exhaled a thick cloud of smoke and put on a thoughtful expression. “Now that we know the root cause, we need to find a solution quickly. We can’t delay.”

After a moment of silence, someone said, “If the river god is angry because of Shi Yu, then why don’t we just give her to the river god?”

“Give her? How?”

This person was one of Li Zhuang’s lackeys, someone who bullied others plenty. Bad ideas came to him as easily as pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

“Think about it. We’ve been making sacrifices to the river god for years and the village has always had good weather and harvests. Why is he suddenly angry these days? I don’t think the river god was protecting Shi Yu. He just fancies her.”

Everyone involuntarily thought of Shi Yu’s increasingly stunning beauty over the years. She was so pretty she seemed out of place here. It wouldn’t be surprising if the river god had taken a fancy to her.

The village chief played the reasonable one. “But isn’t that too cruel for that child?”

“Uncle, you’re confused. Sacrificing one person to save the whole village is a great honor. How is that cruel? Besides, she’s already a star of solitude. If we keep her in the village, who knows how many more she’ll bring to ruin.”

“That’s right, Village Chief. Now isn’t the time for mercy.”

“The water is about to reach us. You need to decide quickly.”

The village chief knocked his pipe against his hand and said gravely, “Sigh, I suppose it’s the child’s fate.”

That night, while Auntie Li was away visiting family, several strong men seized the feverish, unconscious Shi Yu and carried her to the ancestral hall. Their wives washed and dressed her, putting her in a bridal outfit.

During the process, Shi Yu woke and was knocked unconscious again with a cloth pressed to her mouth and nose. They handled her mechanically, as if she were an object without life.

A gag stuffed in her mouth and her hands bound, Shi Yu sat in the River God Temple beneath a bridal veil.

The night was thick with darkness. Leaden clouds churned overhead. Thunder was louder than ever. Those people stood outside under umbrellas, their silhouettes half-hidden in shadow, more terrifying than demons from hell.

Rain splashed against the threshold, soaking the hem of her skirt. Shi Yu was jolted awake by the cold. She found she couldn’t speak and couldn’t move, like a lamb waiting for slaughter.

Where am I? How did I get here?

Her last memory was of Auntie He’s grave. After she kowtowed, everything went dark. She must have fainted. She tried to scream, but all that came out were muffled whimpers.

From somewhere came the sound of a watchman’s drum. The rain suddenly grew louder.

“It’s midnight. Time to send her where she needs to go.”

Without any warning, Shi Yu was lifted into the air. Her heart stopped in terror. When she recovered, she started screaming, but those people turned a deaf ear, their footsteps growing faster.

Shi Yu was placed on a crude sedan chair carried by four people, one on each side. Their wives, worried for their husbands, held umbrellas beside them. No one held one for Shi Yu. She was drenched by the downpour, the bridal veil clinging wetly to her face, its vivid red blazing under the flashes of lightning.

Like blood tears, frozen on that rainy summer night.

The River God Temple was very close to the Star River, only a dozen meters away. When they reached the bank, the sedan chair was set down. Shi Yu nearly tumbled off, and someone roughly steadied her.

The village chief placed the three sacrificial animals on the altar and said, “Lord River God, we survive only by your grace. Please accept these offerings and continue to protect us.”

His so-called offerings included Shi Yu.

The sacrificial animals were thrown into the river. The towering waves didn’t diminish in the slightest. At a signal from the village chief, the men lifted Shi Yu and hurled her off the bank.

The weightless sensation of falling made her head spin. Through the haze, she seemed to see that dark shape again.

The gag was washed away by the current. She could finally speak.

“Lord River God, is that you?”

Before her words finished, a hurricane-force wind erupted from the riverbed. A massive whirlpool churned the water, and Shi Yu was sucked in by an overwhelming force. Everything went dark.

Her head felt like it was about to explode. Shi Yu’s consciousness blurred. Even though she clenched her teeth and fought to stay awake, the spinning whirlpool dragged her down into darkness.

Her body trembled with cold. Shi Yu curled up around herself, her frail frame no more than a tiny bundle.

All sound vanished from her ears. A warm, gentle touch brushed her skin, as if something was soothing her.

Shi Yu jolted awake with a start.

Red coral trees glowed softly. Seven-colored fish swam lazily about, pausing to nuzzle her as they passed before darting away with happy flicks of their tails.