Chapter 37: The Ship

He Yu gave a faint smile. "You asked how they died? They died right here, buried beneath the bridge piers. Originally, burying one boy and one girl would have sufficed, but they couldn't bear to part with a boy, so they buried four girls instead."

Shen Si turned deathly pale, clutching her chest as she retched repeatedly.

Yang Liuqing’s clenched fists trembled, her strength seemingly drained.

He Yu continued, "This is the truth you were looking for—why we left the village en masse, why we killed those villagers, why we demanded their sacrifices, why it had to be forty-nine days, and why we had to have his life!"

He Yu smiled softly. "Do you like the truth you worked so hard to uncover?"

It took Liang Dan a long moment to find her voice. "So, when she tore up that paper after the villagers decided to build the bridge, it was to protect you?"

"It was to protect her daughter."

The eldest girl kept her eyes fixed on the riverbed. "Her daughter, my sister, is buried at the foot of the bridge right now."

The girl smiled. "It turns out that even someone like her could move her heart to protect her daughter. It’s just a pity that her heart moved so little."

The girl looked up. "Since you already know so much, let me tell you another truth. When their mother escaped the village, she originally intended to take her daughter and all the other girls in the village with her. At the time, she agreed, but as I expected, she betrayed them to the village. We didn't make it out. Fortunately, this daughter of hers knew her well enough; at least, those who were meant to leave did."

He Yu said, "As for us, this is our home. Perhaps this is our fate."

"No," Liang Dan replied. "This is not your fate."

With that, Liang Dan took a long stride and plunged into the river.

Cries erupted from Shen Si and the girls, along with a shout from Yang Liuqing.

Liang Dan held her breath and swam downward with all her might, forcing her eyes open to search the water along the path ahead. She saw it—the direction of the four bridge piers.

Her consciousness began to blur.

Bright red text appeared before her eyes: *The peerlessly kind Liang Dan has drowned in the river!*

*

"What did you say?" the girl asked.

Liang Dan leaped into the river again, following the path she had scouted. She floated beside the wooden pier and hammered her clenched fist against it.

"One, two, three..."

Blood swirled in the water as a large hole appeared in the wooden pier, revealing a small corpse. Her face was pale, her skin shriveled to the point of peeling, hardly recognizable as human. Liang Dan lunged forward, clutching the girl’s body tightly, and struggled to pull her upward.

As her consciousness faded, Liang Dan gritted her teeth. Yang Liuqing’s form suddenly appeared; she grabbed Liang Dan’s arm with wide eyes and dragged her back to the shore.

A crowd of girls rushed over as Yang Liuqing shouted, "Move! Let her breathe!"

"I'm fine," Liang Dan gasped, still holding the girl’s body tightly. "Look, we brought your friend back."

The eldest girl rushed over and knelt on the bank. "Qingyan!"

Sobs echoed back and forth. At a loss, Liang Dan said, "Don't cry. They won't stay here forever, and neither will you."

Turning, Liang Dan prepared to jump back into the river. Yang Liuqing grabbed her, panting, "Wait for me to take over."

Shen Si poked her head up. "Me too!"

Liang Dan nodded. "Good."

Again and again, she dove to the riverbed, smashed the piers, and handed the recovered girls to Yang Liuqing and Shen Si. She would drown at the bottom, be reborn at a moment when she still had strength, push a girl toward the surface, and drown again.

By the time all four girls and Liang Dan were safely on the bank, Liang Dan had lost count of how many times she had drowned.

The girls’ corpses were in a tragic state, but the remaining girls did not seem overly sorrowful; instead, they smiled brightly.

He Yu said, "Thank you for letting them stop staying there forever."

Liang Dan said, "We dug up a lot of tools from the villagers' houses. We can use those to fell trees."

He Yu asked, "What for?"

"To build a boat," Liang Dan said. "To send you away from here."

Shen Si was shocked. "You know how to build a boat?"

"I don't," Liang Dan said, "but we can try."

He Yu’s eyes lit up. "I do."

The eldest girl added, "When their mother left, she went on a boat she built herself. We all watched them build it, one way or another."

The girl picked up a branch and sketched a shape on the bank with a few deft strokes. Her drawing was beautiful, whether inherited from her mother’s artistic talent or taught by someone in the past.

*

They dug up the tools the villagers had left behind from the bridge construction, felled trees, and began building a large boat from scratch.

After the four girls’ bodies were dried, they were cremated and placed into wooden boxes they had fashioned. For the next two days, they worked together. The eldest girl, Zhang Yumeng, drew the blueprints, and they built small models based on her drawings, refining them repeatedly.

Two days passed quickly, and they finally finished the first model capable of sailing.

Time was running out. Liang Dan felt a pang of regret; they could only accompany them this far.

On the day they were to leave, the girls slaughtered a pig. Liang Dan then realized that the villagers had actually kept plenty of livestock, which the girls had stolen when they left.

Liang Dan watched as they skillfully slaughtered the pig and roasted the meat. They gathered around the fire, and the three of them ate the most filling meal they had had in days. Perhaps because they were close in age, Shen Si had gotten along well with the girls over the last two days.

After eating, she looked at the model with regret, her chin in her hands. It was well-developed, scaled up more than ten times from the original.

"It's a pity," Shen Si said. "We won't get to see the big boat you build."

Zhang Yumeng smiled. "But you know we will succeed."

*

Even though the villagers were all dead, the girls were still accustomed to sleeping in the forest, lying in a long row under the trees.

Zhang Yumeng lay next to Liang Dan. As the others drifted into a heavy sleep, Liang Dan asked, "Why pretend to be the River God?"

Zhang Yumeng replied calmly, "Haven't you heard the story of the River God's marriage? They sink a woman to the bottom of the river to make her the River God's wife."

"I have," Liang Dan said.

Zhang Yumeng murmured to herself, "When I was little, I always thought, if only I could become the River God. I would tell them that I don't need a wife at all."