Yinyuan: Extra Stories

In the 1920s, four foreign “adventurers” ventured into Tushan, where they discovered a mansion that had been abandoned for many years. [Coming soon] Whoever wants to be a Celestial Master can do it In the first year after Gu Qing was adopted, his adoptive parents took him back to their hometown. The elders said he wasn’t their own child and didn’t count as family, so he should go wherever it was cool. Gu Qing went to the coolest place in the village. It was where the village used to drown adulterers in cages. No one knew how many doomed lovers had sunk there. The place was called the Greenwave Pool. Gu Qing didn’t think much of it. He picked up a stick and used it to fish for little fish near the bank. As he fished, he happened to look up. Far out in the deep water, he could just make out a huge, coiled body, like a snake. … That night, a heavy rain fell over the village, and thunder rumbled like the bellow of an ox. The old folks at home looked grim and hid in their rooms, chanting prayers to Buddha. The next day, the villagers said the mud beside the Greenwave Pool was covered in long grooves. It looked like a dragon was making its way to the river, so they had to throw pigs and sheep into the pool. Gu Qing thought they were all crazy. There was a snake that huge in the pool beside the village. Were they blind? Had they really never noticed it all these years? But an adopted child had no say in the matter, so Gu Qing could only follow his parents to the “dragon sacrifice.” That day, he stood at the back of the crowd, listlessly watching everyone sing and dance as they tossed livestock into the pool. “, It’s not a river dragon.” A voice suddenly spoke behind him. Gu Qing turned around and saw an exceptionally tall man standing there. When their eyes met, the man gave him a sinister smile. “What’s imprisoned in this pool is a real dragon.” “Probably a hundred years ago, some meddlesome Daoist cut off all four of a dragon’s claws, then drove nine soul-suppressing nails into the bottom of the pool to force him to keep this place blessed with good weather and bountiful harvests.” “Over time, the nails grew loose, and the dragon’s tail would occasionally lash onto the shore. The elders who knew the truth feared punishment, so they established this ‘dragon sacrifice’ custom.” After he finished speaking, he stared ominously at Gu Qing, as if waiting for his reaction. … Gu Qing: … He must be the village idiot Grandma Liu had mentioned, the one who’d been crazy for twenty years. How pitiful. Theme: The stories of the past.