35: Chapter 28 Interrogation Under Duress!
35: Chapter 28 Interrogation Under Duress!
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
Upon hearing Zhou Li’s words, the man first felt a chill down his spine and then quickly nodded like a pounding garlic, fearing he wasn’t nodding fast enough to please this intimidating Jinyiwei and risk his whole family’s heads rolling on the ground.
“Now, take a deep breath, and then tell slowly, what is this place called, alright?”
Zhou Li’s amicable deanor gave the man a mont to catch his breath.
He averted Guo Lingyun’s complex gaze aside and looked to Zhou Li as if seeing a savior.
Swallowing his saliva, he said:
“This, this place is Mountain God Village.”
“Ah, Mountain God Village.”
Zhou Li had a look of sudden realization and then he continued to inquire:
“Looking at your luxurious attire, you’re dressed even more lavishly than the Imperial Capital’s Xie Family, with brocade and jewelry of gold and silver.
Do you have your own business?”
Upon hearing Zhou Li’s question, the man’s eyes subconsciously darted around before he began nodding repeatedly and said, “To not deceive Your Honor, I do have so business in Beiliang City, selling Hu People’s rouge and powder, and I have amassed so family wealth.”
Zhou Li heard this, nodded, and then he suddenly grabbed Tang Wan’s arm, turned his head, and said with earnest advice:
“Tang Wan, you mustn’t be so cruel.
Isn’t it just that they didn’t tell the truth and deceived us?
You don’t need to use your wintry poison to sever their viscera, then use Heat Energy Powder to burst their features, and in the end, still want to disembowel them and fill their insides with beeswax to light a sky lantern.
That’s unreasonable.”
Although she didn’t know what was going on, Tang Wan instinctively nodded.
Zhou Li withdrew his hand and looked at the man whose face was now washed in cold sweat.
He smiled and said:
“Continue, you were saying?”
“No, no, no, I don’t have any business, I’m just a lazy glutton who neither farms nor trades.
Aside from sleeping, I just eat all day.
I was confused just now and misspoke.
Please forgive , Your Honor, please forgive !”
Watching the man who wished he could kneel in mid-air to kowtow to himself, Zhou Li nodded in satisfaction.
He then patted the man’s shoulder and touched the fine brocade of his garnt, remarking:
“This gown is made of Shu Brocade, isn’t it?
I rember my mother wanted to buy a bolt once, and when I saw that a single bolt cost three liang of gold, I imdiately dissuaded her and casually bought a bolt of simple silk instead.”
Zhou Li suddenly turned, nodded at the sowhat dazed Guo Lingyun, and with a smile said:
“What our Hundred Households here ans to say is, do you still want to have a mother?”
“Yes, yes,” the man replied, crying.
“Please don’t, please don’t, I’ll say anything, anything.
If I lose my mother, I’ll truly beco a waste, definitely going to starve to death on the streets.
Please don’t cut off my lifeline, I’ll do anything.”
“So go ahead and tell us.”
Zhou Li put away his amiable smile and peaceful tone, stood up straight, and asked serenely, “Where did the money for that garnt co from, what were you just doing, what is this Mountain God, and what exactly is being offered on that altar?”
Sagging powerlessly against a tree, the man hung his head, his face full of despondency.
After composing his thoughts, he finally began to tell his tale.
Sixty years ago, this village was not known as Mountain God Village.
Since it was surrounded by water on three sides, most villagers made their living by fishing; thus, the village was called Shuili Village.
For a long ti, this village remained a place of bitter poverty, firstly because it was too distant from towns to sell fresh fish, so they could only sell cheap salted fish.
Secondly, because the village was surrounded by water on three sides and due to its poverty, no bridge had been built, so villagers had to wade across the water to leave, risking their lives every ti the river tides rose or the mud collapsed.
Later, a mountain fire completely devastated the impoverished village.
Less than thirty people managed to escape, with the rest either perishing in the blaze or being swept away by the river during their attempts to cross it.
Those thirty or so survivors who fled were unskilled and had lost all their belongings in the fire, so they lived between life and death, neither fully humans nor ghosts, begging in various villages and towns for survival.
And the turning point for everything started with the Mountain God.
These thirty-odd destitute individuals, constantly oscillating between hunger and satiation, with hardly enough clothing to cover themselves or food to fill their bellies, yet in such dire conditions, miraculously, not one of them died.
On a cold winter’s day, these people suddenly heard a voice from afar.
The voice told them that Shuili Village had been poor and desperate because they had placed their faith in the malicious river water and forgotten the Divine Mount that stood behind them.
If they wished to return ho, they should start believing in the Mountain God.
After hearing these words, they beca as if possessed, rushing back crazily to their forr holand.
They found that despite having not eaten for dozens of days and only drinking dirty water, sleeping on the cold snowy ground at night, they were still alive and unhard, which further solidified their faith in the Mountain God.
Soon after, they gathered among the ruins left by the mountain fire, and there they saw the Mountain God.
Pale-faced without a beard, with gold wrapped around his waist and silver under his feet.
Amidst the broken bricks and tiles, a sleek stone statue stood quietly upon the charred skeleton.
The benevolent Mountain God, like Maitreya, shimred in gold under the reverent gaze of these people.
He then used the Power of the Mountain God to restore the entire village and even built a stone bridge over the river.
After dividing the gold bars from his waist among these thirty-odd people, the Mountain God disappeared into the mountains and forests.
Relying on the gold bars gifted by the Mountain God, these people quickly managed the village’s affairs, and they renad Shuili Village to Mountain God Village.
If the story ended here, it would just be an ordinary folk tale.
But thirty years later, after those thirty people died, everything quietly changed.
First, a stone bridge collapsed, killing more than twenty villagers.
Then, a landslide crushed several houses and claid the lives of two entire families.
There were also tigers descending from the forests to kill, and the insects beca bloodthirsty and cruel.
For a ti, the entire Mountain God Village was thrown into panic and fear, with everyone worried for their own safety.
Suddenly, on the sa day that Mountain God Village was established, the Mountain God Statue once again appeared in the midst of the village.
This ti, the statue was badly damaged, the gold and silver previously adorning it was gone, replaced by a pained expression and a mutilated body.
He told the villagers that he had dispersed all his gold and silver to save the village.
Initially, those thirty people rembered his grace, and incense was continuously offered at the temple, but as ti went by, and the thirty had left, the later generations thought of it as nothing but a legend.
Consequently, the Mountain God Temple fell into ruin, and the Mountain God that once protected the land gradually declined.
His visit this ti was to tell these mortals that if they did not worship the Mountain God again, the hills would crumble, and Mountain God Village would once again fall into decay and ruin.
Of course, the Mountain God knew these people were impoverished, so he added that if they offered him money, he would use his Divine Skills to help them earn even more.
At first, a few skeptical villagers pooled their money and made offerings to the Mountain God.
Within a couple of days, these people reappeared before everyone, adorned with gold and silver and looking quite splendid.
From then on, the people of Mountain God Village ca to regard the Mountain God Statue as their reborn parents, continuously offering and continuously earning wealth.
Later, people discovered that as long as they threw money to the Mountain God, wealth would flow incessantly.
Incessantly.
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