The truth is finally revealed

  Grandma Qin rose from the coffin and floated up like a ghost, arriving under the shade of the tree.

  Although I knew she had no malice, she was still a ghost. Although Uncle was not far from me and the villagers lit torches, I was still very scared.

  Perhaps it was because Grandma Qin had an icy face when she was alive.

  She walked towards me, glanced at me and then squatted down in front of DouDou, reaching out to stroke his cheek.

  "My poor child."

  Doudou smiled at Grandma Qin, and his eyes showed a mature person's emotions. He called out, "Grandma."

  Grandma Qin nodded at Doudou, and in the glow of the fire, their faces didn't look like those of dead people.

  "A Li, Doudou is only a little smaller than you." Grandma Qin stood up and looked at me with an icy tone.

  "But..."

  I was about to ask my question, but suddenly found that such a question is not appropriate. Holding Xiaobai, I sat under the shade of the tree.

  "Twenty years ago, your aunt was only sixteen years old. She and your uncle were born in the same year. Your aunt's fate was not good. At the age of sixteen, she became pregnant with a child, but did not know who the father was. This was not just her personal shame, but also the shame of the entire village. So, when the child was less than four months old, her parents arranged for her to be married off to a man in Sha Wai Village. The man was fourteen years older than your aunt and accepted both her and the child in her belly."

  Qin's grandmother's gaze wandered far away, occasionally accompanied by a soft sigh, as if she was lamenting the fate of this woman.

  "That man eventually accepted her, and six months later she gave birth to a boy. However, after the child was born, the man always felt deceived, drinking every day and night, and even hitting the woman who married him, all because of the existence of this child."

  I wanted to speak but hesitated, looking at Qin Nainai, but I couldn't say anything.

  It turned out that Aunt Qin had been married before she married Uncle Qin, and had even given birth to a child with another man. Aunt Qin had made mistakes when she was young, but as I looked at the woman kneeling on the ground begging for forgiveness in the firelight, I suddenly felt sorry for her.

  Fate, in a village like this, one mistake can ruin a woman's life.

  "A year later, she gave birth to the man's daughter, but not a son. Her already difficult life became even more miserable, suffering from the man's beatings every day, and spent nearly ten years in such a wronged state."

  Qin Nainai, as a woman, deeply understood that the mistakes women made would lead to future consequences. Her eyes seemed to hold some pity for Qin Auntie, without any intention of blaming her for her past.

  Xiao Bai jumped out of my arms and rubbed against Dou Dou's ghostly body. I turned my head to look at Dou Dou, the firelight casting a red glow on his little face, what a lovely child.

  I whispered, "Auntie's first child is Doudou."

  "Hmm." Grandma Qin nodded at me.

  The ghost of Doudou looked up at me and smiled, "A-Li sister, now you believe me, right? If I were alive, I would only be a few days younger than you."

  I nodded at DouDou, wanting to hold him in my arms. This child, his life was also stuck at the age of ten.

  The tinkling sound of the bell rang out, I looked at the bean holding the bell, I touched the other half in my pocket and smiled at the bean.

  "A Li sister, I learned to herd cattle when I was very young. If Father wanted to beat me, he would also beat Mother. I was afraid, so every day I slept in the cowshed with dry grass, which was especially warm in winter." DouDou said to me while teasing Xiao Bai with a bell.

  I know the cowshed in the countryside, Grandma Qin's family used to have one too. It was a shed made of wooden boards with good ventilation on all sides. I dare not imagine little DouDou having to herd cows every day, enduring his father's scolding and beatings, keeping company with the cows at night, and shivering with fear in the cowshed during winter.

  Doudou, who is actually arranging his fate?

  I reached out to touch his face, like a tender little kid, and smiled at DouDou, "From now on, no one will hit you, no one will scold you, and with Grandma, Grandma will love you very much."

  After finishing speaking, I raised my head and looked at Qin Nainai. For the first time, I saw tears in the corners of her eyes, the tears of a ghost.

  Doudou and Grandma Qin will be together, he will live a happy life from now on.

  "I know grandma was good to me, but I don't understand why mom also wanted to hit me. Why did mom and dad both want to hit me? At the age of 10, I had never been to school. Every day, I had to take the cow to the mountain. Those kids who went to school dropped their books, which had words on them. I also wanted to go to school and learn to read. I used a tree branch to write on the ground for an entire afternoon, but the cow disappeared. I only found the bell on the cow's neck."

  This morning, DouDou got closer, and I hugged a ghost in my arms. Xiao Bai jumped out and wandered under my feet.

  Perhaps I can know the ending of DouDou, I'm afraid to hear what DouDou said in that scene, but at the same time, I eagerly hope to hear DouDou say out all the words he has been suppressing in his heart for so many years. For a long, long time, I could only hold him like this.

  Give this lonely ghost a little warmth, perhaps he can't feel it, often sleeping in the coffin, his body is very cold.

  "That day, Father beat me and Mother too. But at night, Mother came to the cowshed to find me. Mother's strength was great, I had no food to eat, no strength to break free from her hands, my throat was getting tighter and tighter, my head was a bit dizzy, Mother pinched me so hard it hurt, she was crying too."

  Doudou said, his voice starting to choke, Qin Nainai had already turned her face away, looking towards the crowd.

  That scene lingered in my eyes for a long time, unable to disperse. Aunt Qin could no longer bear the cruel beatings from her ex-husband, nor did she want to see DouDou suffer with her. A woman who has been oppressed for a long time will inevitably undergo some psychological changes. She blamed her own fate for being unlucky, while her ex-husband blamed her for not giving birth to a son of his own. In this rural village where boys are valued over girls, such a woman is destined to be unhappy.

  She also thought that her ex-husband's anger towards her was because of DouDou, she had a hard time for ten years, all the grievances, she transferred to DouDou, on the night when DouDou lost NiuNiu, she feared her ex-husband even more.

  Psychologically dependent on her nephew, Qin aunt transferred all her anger and killed Doudou with her own hands, killing her own biological son. She left Sha Wai Village and escaped back to Miao Village, never to come out again.

  Grandma Qin said that not everyone in the world is forever stuck on the edge of a foolish idea. Auntie Qin's ex-husband was drunk driving and hit someone, he had no money so he went to jail, leaving behind a 9-year-old daughter who lived with her grandmother, without any means of living.

  And in the three years he was away, Aunt Qin had already married someone else two years ago. The person she married is none other than her current husband, Uncle Qin. I don't know if Uncle Qin knows about Aunt Qin's past, after all, Qin Village and Sha Wai Village are not too far apart.

  Perhaps Mr. Qin knew, but in front of everyone, he just pretended not to understand; perhaps this was not what people called a marriage that could be formed casually between men and women, but rather, love.

  I finally understand why Mr. Qin's son is also called Doudou, it's because after Auntie Qin got the warmth of a family later on, she started to miss her child who had passed away, so she gave her current child the same name - Doudou.

  I asked Grandma Qin, "So ten years ago, when Auntie had just married Uncle, why did seven people in the village die one after another? Was it because of her past?"

  I'm so afraid of Qin Auntie because these seven people knew her past, and she killed them on their wedding night. The wedding was on a good day, perhaps when she killed someone at this time, no one would suspect her either.

  "No."

  Grandma Qin faintly replied with two words: "Not true?" What's going on? Could it be...

  "This is my fault, Ah Li, I have no way to make up for it." Qin Nainai sighed and looked at me for a long time. "Fourteen years ago, I went to a village called Wushan, where I offended the gods and brought about this disaster, which is my retribution."

  My heart skipped a beat as I guessed and guessed, even if there was this rumor of offending the river god, which had no scientific basis, I never thought that the source was from Qin Nainai.

  "Have I really offended the gods?" I was still in doubt.

  Grandma Qin nodded at me, "Yes, it's the River God, the River God of Wushan Village."

  She finished speaking and looked at me with a strange gaze, Qin Nainai stared at me as if she wanted to see through me. I held the ghost bean tightly in my arms.

  "The River God of Wushan, don't you have any memory?" asked Qin Nainai.

  I'm a bit puzzled, looking around and searching for memories, except for Qin Village and Shanghai, I haven't been anywhere else. Who is this river god after all?

  I shook my head at Grandma Qin, and she smiled with a hint of slyness at the corner of her mouth.

  "It doesn't matter if you can't remember, it doesn't matter if you can't remember."

  I was even more perplexed by Grandma Qin's words, but now she seemed to have completed a major task with ease, pulling out a tattered piece of cloth from her black sleeve and handing it to me.

  I took it and looked at it, there was no text on it, only a red line like an earthworm crawling all the way to the end. The end was a bit damp. I didn't think much of it. I always thought that maybe the coffin was a bit damp, but I never thought this tattered cloth would be closely tied to my fate.

  "This is......" I asked Grandma Qin in confusion, because I couldn't figure out what this red line meant.

  "Ah Li, for a person to live on, they must have a soul; neither can be missing."

  I'm even more perplexed, I didn't understand a single word of what Grandma Qin said.

  "You and Qin Yuanyang helped DouDou, I didn't want to give this to you, let Qin Yuanyang go on an adventure, but you are the one who raised him with one hand, just like spirit and soul, indispensable, giving this to you is as a reward for your help to DouDou."

  I'm even more confused now, what does Grandma Qin want to say? What is this tattered cloth anyway?

  I wanted to ask Grandma Qin, but she stopped me and pulled Doudou up from the ground, turning around and leaving.

  "Grandma, where are you going?" I exclaimed in alarm.