In the fifth year of Jianzhang, Great Yan dynasty, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the beginning of the Yin hour.
Dawn was just beginning to glimmer, and the full moon at the edge of the sky had yet to set.
At the foot of a mountain on the outskirts of the capital, reeds grew thick on all sides. Among them lay scattered rocks, sand, and one small raised mound of earth after another.
On the southeast side stood a plum tree, its many branches and slender twigs winding upward. One branch was densely covered in tiny red blossoms, swaying gracefully in the wind, almost bewitching.
With the sound of footsteps, two women and a large black dog came over, startling several crows into the sky.
One wore blue-green clothes, the other blue.
The child they had delivered tonight had died in its mother’s womb, and they had brought the dead infant here to bury it.
The woman in blue dug a pit with an iron shovel, while the woman in blue-green held the dead child and looked around.
They had not come for several months, and now there were many more little mounds.
It must be that the weather had been abnormal this year, and many people had died.
Suddenly, the woman in blue-green stared wide-eyed in shock.
“Heavens, that red plum tree has blossomed.”
The woman in blue did not lift her head. “It’s only early autumn. How could a red plum blossom now? Big Sister must be seeing things.”
“I’m not mistaken. It’s real.”
The woman in blue looked up as well, and her mouth fell open, unable to close.
The two women and the dog hurried over.
The branchful of tiny red blossoms was especially striking in the dawn light, crystal-clear dew still hanging from the petals.
The woman in blue said, “There was hail two days ago, and the temperature dropped sharply. Now this plum tree has bloomed early too. They say when there are strange signs in the heavens, there must be some injustice. Could some truly terrible wrongful case have occurred?”
Suddenly, two extremely faint mews sounded from right beside them.
They lowered their heads. There was no cat, only a freshly piled little mound of earth, covered with a thin layer of sand that had not been spread properly. A brown wooden box could still be seen beneath it.
The sound had come from here.
“Wah~~ wah~~”
Two more cries.
Listening carefully, it was not a cat’s meow, but the cry of a nursing infant.
The big dog immediately grew alert, lowering its head to sniff at the little mound.
The woman in blue frowned and said, “What a sin. It must be some family who had a girl and didn’t want to raise her, so they buried her alive here.”
The woman in blue-green sighed and handed the dead child in her arms to the woman in blue. She crouched down and scraped away the sand. Inside was a rectangular wooden box.
Opening the lid, they saw a tiny infant wrapped in dark-blue silk cloth.
The infant showed a bit of her small face and mouth, and one little arm had stretched out as well, her tiny fist clenched tightly.
The swaddling cloth was silk. She should be the child of a wealthy family.
Children born to wealthy households, even if they died, generally would not be buried here.
And to be buried here in the middle of the night…
The woman in blue-green lifted the baby and pulled open the wrapping cloth. The infant’s whole body was bluish-white, her face covered in blood. Her eyes were closed as she wailed dryly; not only were there no tears, even her voice had gone hoarse…
As if she were making her final struggle.
The woman in blue-green had seen many infants on the verge of death, yet her heart still ached.
She quickly took a silver needle from inside her clothes and pierced the infant’s Huantiao acupoint.
She sighed softly. “Whatever else may be true, at least this infant has been wronged. Put that dead child into the wooden box and bury him properly.”
The woman in blue glanced at the infant and said in a low voice, “Big Sister, one is a boy and one is a girl. What if someone comes looking and finds out?”
The woman in blue-green said, “They buried her here already. Who would come looking? Even if they did, they’d only burn a stick of incense. Could they dig up the earth to examine her closely?”
The woman in blue sighed. “That’s true. Who knows how many children have been abandoned here? Their families, let alone coming to take a look, don’t even come to burn a stick of incense. Amitabha.”
The woman in blue-green thought for a moment, then said, “Still, switch the swaddling cloths.”
The two of them unwrapped the cloths and exchanged them. From the little infant’s swaddling cloth, a small green jade bead fell out. The jade was crystal-clear and translucent, glowing with a green sheen.
The woman in blue asked, “Where should we put the bead?”
The woman in blue-green said, “Great households are never short of filthy hidden dealings. Sigh. Since it belongs to this child, let her keep it.”
After burying the dead child, the woman in blue-green handed the infant in her arms to the woman in blue. Before the new grave, she lit three sticks of incense, recited the Rebirth Sutra once, then buried the incense stubs and ashes.
She looked once more at that red plum branch. “Break off the flowering plum branch and throw it into the reeds. If anyone learns this plum tree bloomed in early autumn, Qingwei Marsh will have no peace.”
By now it was already the Mao hour. The rising sun was in the east, while the bright moon still hung over the mountaintop.
The first morning light shone upon them; sun and moon shared the sky. It was a good omen.
The woman in blue-green tightened her hold on the child in her arms.
If you can survive, then you shall be called Chuchen…
Taking the big dog with them, they followed secluded paths, avoiding the villagers who had risen early, and entered a small courtyard some distance from the village.
Qingquan has started a new novel. This break was a little long. If I don’t write something soon, I truly won’t want to write anymore. Laziness is also a kind of inertia; once you stop moving, you’ll just keep being lazy.
I hope you can join me and roam through a brand-new dreamlike journey.