Blood Lotus Crossing

"Blood Lotus Crossing" In 1900, in the autumn rain of Qinghe Bay, Jiaodong, thirteen-year-old Zhao Xuelian was stuffed into a coffin by her biological father and became a ghost bride for the dead young master of the wealthy Cao family. The nails that nailed the coffin dug into the wood and the desire to live in the seams of her bones. The moment the tomb was destroyed by the heavy rain, she crawled out from the pile of corpses, covered in mud and blood, like a wild lotus emerging from the underworld. She was picked up by Shangguan Yu, a bamboo craftsman from a foreign country, and took root in a shack by the river. However, because she gave birth to four daughters one after another, she became a witch known to the villagers as "only growing flowers but not melons". The river god of Qinghe Bay was addicted to eating boys and girls. In the year of severe drought, her youngest daughter was chosen as a sacrifice. Shangguan Yu blinded the temple blessing to save her daughter - the incarnation of the thousand-year-old turtle. Since then, she disappeared, leaving only a blood-stained straw sandal. In troubled times, the daughters went their separate ways: the eldest daughter married a fake bailiff and was on the edge of a knife; the second daughter became a double gunner, spilling blood in the river; the third daughter was kidnapped by the national army and there was no news. Zhao Xuelian carried the straw sandal, weaved secret messages with bamboo strips, and hid the information in the bamboo basket pattern, turning the shack into a secret ferry for all forces. On the night of crossing the river, the Japanese searchlights cut through the water, and the second daughter, who could not swim, jumped into the river. Half of the clear river was dyed red with blood, but she saw countless pale arms emerging from the bottom of the water, holding the hull of the boat against the current. During the famine years, she led her grandchildren to dig out the red clay from the river beach and steamed it into "red buns" to satisfy their hunger. She used bamboo strips to dig out the anus of constipated children late at night, with her fingertips stained with tears and sweat, turning the cruel existence into a primitive sacrifice. During the denunciation meeting, when she was asked, "Does the River God really exist?" Her cloudy eyes flashed: "The River God does not eat boys and girls, it eats consciences." The poisonous water from the chemical plant dyed the river black, and the legend of the river god was lost in the roar of the machinery. Zhao Xuelian, who is now an old woman, smells the rancid smell of the river and makes a safe basket for each descendant. Until the sewage outlet leaked and poisonous gas filled the village, she asked her adopted son to carry her to the river, sang the elegy of the night of the ghost wedding, and threw the straw shoe into the black water. There was a heavy rain overnight and the river washed away the factory. People said that it was she who sent the river god away. When she was dying, she was lying on the hospital bed, with wrinkles as deep as the ravines of Qinghe Bay. The children and grandchildren gathered around the bed and heard her last murmur: "People are like reeds. They fall wherever the wind blows, but their roots must be rooted in the mud - even the dirtiest mud." After her death, she was buried by the river. From her grave grew small blood-red flowers that looked like lotus flowers and tasted bitter. Every time it rains heavily, a faint weaving sound floats in the river breeze, like the wild lotus climbing out of the underworld, still blooming stubbornly in the mud. This is a female epic buried in the soil, spanning hundreds of years, stained with blood, tears and fireworks. It describes the suffering and tenacity of women at the bottom, the game between the river god and the human heart, and how a wild lotus survives all the calamities in the torrent of history and survives in the blood. Purpose: Taking the century-old fate of an ordinary woman in Qinghe Bay, Jiaodong as an incision, using magical realism techniques to write about the trauma and resilience of lower-class women in the torrent of history, using the images of "blood lotus" and "crossing" to explore the deep connection between land, rivers and the female body, and reconstruct the folk history of women obscured by grand narratives.