Chapter 348 - Tombstone
Bai Lingmiao recalled everything as she looked at the fuzzy phantom images. That child was her from her younger days, and this was an event that had happened before, a long time ago.
Bai Lingmiao watched as her grandfather lifted her up, carried her on his neck before starting to run and jump among the ceramic figures, shouting and amusing her.
She silently followed them, gradually recalling everything that happened in this place.
“Wa, wa~ Waa waa~”
Bai Lingmiao watched her childhood self cry, sitting in the corner with her open-crotch pants. She was covered in mud.
“What’s wrong, little one? Who bullied you?” An elderly woman with white hair hurried over as she comforted and lifted Bai Lingmiao up.
“Waa waa wa~ Waa waa” Bai Lingmiao was nestled in the arms of the old woman as she pointed her fat fingers toward the wall. With only three teeth in her mouth, she babbled some words that only she could understand.
“Oh~ Did it scare our little one? Don’t cry. Look, Grandma will fight for you!”
The old lady led Bai Lingmiao to the wall, then stamped her foot, “Ah! Who scared our obedient little girl? Bad thing, I’ll stomp you to death!”
When Bai Lingmiao saw her childhood self stop crying with her grandmother’s comforting, another scene appeared in her mind. At the same time, her expression suddenly changed. “I recall now.”
“Recall what?”
“I recall what scared me back then!” said Bai Lingmiao as she rushed over, dispersing the phantom image of her younger self and her grandmother.
She came to the wall, raised her sharp black nails and dug into the solid rammed earth.
“Miaomiao! What are you doing?” Chun Xiaoman walked over, looking at her good friend with worry.
However, when she didn’t get a response even after asking several times, Chun Xiaoman also decisively pulled out her sword and stabbed it into the earth, digging it together with her.
Seeing this, Gao Zhijian also rushed over. He removed a piece of armor from his body and started using it to dig out the soil.
“Is there a treasure buried in the soil?” Puppy also rushed over and started helping excitedly.
However, this didn’t last long before Puppy’s horrified cry caused everyone to stop.
Bai Lingmiao reached out with her trembling hands. There was a woman buried in the soil, her eyes closed tightly. Her eyeballs were shriveled up and even sewn with threads. Her face was ashen, and seemed exceptionally terrifying.
At that moment, a large hand reached over and blocked Bai Lingmiao’s hands. “This... this... this is a... human... human pillar...”
However, before Gao Zhijian could even finish, Bai Lingmiao once again started digging. Slowly, more and more dead bodies were dug out from the mud. They were all tightly packed together, just like bricks stacked against each other.
It was not just adults; there were people of all ages buried in the soil.
After digging for a while, Bai Lingmiao stopped. She could see that these people were not just randomly buried here; they were all positioned right at the perimeter of the entire hall. At the same time, the back of each person’s hands had a white lotus flower painted on it. This was obviously deliberately designed.
“They used people to build the foundation. Just how many dead people are buried in this large underground area? Just what kind of people can be so heartless?” Puppy exclaimed in shock. However, he immediately felt that he had said something wrong, and covered his mouth as he looked toward Bai Lingmiao’s direction.
This was the Bai family’s ancestral hall. Even if he only used his butt to think, he could know who had buried so many dead people here.
Bai Lingmiao tried hard to hold back, but how could she endure such a thing? She soon started crying just as loudly as younger self with the tiger head hat. However, this time, she didn’t have a grandmother to comfort her.
All the beautiful memories of her hometown in Bai Lingmiao’s heart collapsed at this moment. What was even more tragic was that she didn’t even have anyone left to question or blame.
They had all been burned to ashes by Li Huowang. Not a single one remained.
“Why is this happening?! Dad! Mom!! Why did you kill so many people?! Why did you become villains?! Don’t you know that these people could also have been someone else’s parents? Or grandparents? Do you know how painful it is to lose your loved ones?”
Seeing Bai Lingmiao on the verge of collapse, Chun Xiaoman quickly embraced her and comforted her softly, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault...”
Gradually, Bai Lingmiao’s cries stopped. She had cried enough, and she understood that crying wouldn’t change anything.
She wiped away her suppressed tears and nudged her way out of Xiaoman’s embrace. “No... This is my fault. This is our Bai family’s fault! Since it’s our fault, then as a member of the Bai Family, I must take responsibility!”
After that, the stiff corpses were dragged out from the dark room and laid out on a cart, to be taken buried on Cowheart Mountain.
The bodies were extremely rigid, as though filled with lead. Bai Lingmiao couldn’t even give them a decent burial.
Each time a body was buried, a tombstone was erected. Then, Bai Lingmiao would kowtow and offer incense as a gesture of apology. She knew that perhaps this was useless, but this was the only thing left that she could do.
There were many dead bodies in that dark room, and they worked for a long time, even working until after the Lu Family Troupe returned from their performance.
After finishing, Bai Lingmiao looked extremely haggard, and her face was completely drained.
After kowtowing three times before the final tombstone, she looked up with her bloodshot eyes. With her cracked lips, she asked Chun Xiaoman beside her, “Sister Xiaoman, if they could do such evil things, then why did they teach me to be kind? If I just became as evil as them, then I wouldn’t be so upset...”
This question stumped Chun Xiaoman.
Lu Zhuangyuan, who was beside them, was helping to shovel the soil as well. He wiped off his sweat and sighed. “Girl, as a father myself, I can guess what your parents were thinking about. Actually, they knew that such things would bring about much retribution, and so they didn’t want you to get involved. Besides, you were just a young child. Once the daughter is married off, it’s like water thrown out. As long as they kept it from you until you were older and found a good family for you to marry into, then whatever happens in the family wouldn’t have much to do with you. In the end, they were doing this for your own good.”
“For my own good?” Bai Lingmiao wanted to say, yet the words stuck in her throat.
Chun Xiaoman sighed, embracing her as she tried to console her. In such a situation, whatever she said as an outsider would be futile.
“Sister Xiaoman...”
“Yes?” Chun Xiaoman turned her head, lightly brushing against Bai Lingmiao’s white hair.
“Even if my family was so evil, I still can’t forgive Senior Li for killing them...”
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