Chapter 203: Jiang Chaosheng’s Desire

The sky was blue, the grass was green. Two or three village women were washing clothes by the river, chatting idly.

They chatted about the old bachelor at one end of the village who’d hollowed out a piece of pork the night before, about the widow at the other end who’d brought another man home last night, and about which family had been feeding the village’s crazy Liu Niu these past few days.

Oh, right. That foolish, crazy Liu Niu was squatting by the river right now, playing with some grass.

The girl was sixteen, but she’d been born with a developmental disability. Her parents didn’t want her; they’d run off to the big city.

One of the women looked at Liu Niu with a wide smile.

“Whose house did you eat at yesterday?”

Liu Niu grinned foolishly.

“Uncle Liu kicked the bucket the day before yesterday, so I ate at his funeral feast.”

The woman chided her softly.

“You shouldn’t be so happy when someone dies. Be careful or you’ll get a beating.”

The other woman saw something and pointed at the river.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a basket.”

“What’s in the basket?”

“Looks like a baby?”

“You don’t think it was washed down from the river mouth up north during high tide?”

“Oh no! It’s going to float away!”

The two women had never seen anything like it. They were frantic, like ants on a hot pan.

Then, with a SPLASH…

Liu Niu had already jumped into the river.

…

The two women grew even more anxious.

They’d never heard of Liu Niu being able to swim!

Sure enough, Liu Niu bobbed up and down in the water, but she still managed to drift over to the basket, grab it, and swim toward the shore.

Liu Niu collapsed on the bank, gasping for breath.

One woman hurried to get the basket.

The other helped Liu Niu up, exclaiming in surprise,

“You can swim?”

Liu Niu grinned foolishly.

“Hehe, nope. I learned after I fell in.”

The woman stared for a moment.

“You really are a fool.”

After saying this, the woman ignored Liu Niu and went to look at the baby in the basket.

“It’s still alive.”

“Gods! What kind of cruel parents would throw such an adorable baby into the river?”

“Should we take it to the village committee?”

“Why not give him to Old Wang at the end of the village? He’s over fifty and still doesn’t have a wife. This can be his heir.”

Soaking wet, Liu Niu came closer and reached out to poke the baby’s pink, chubby cheek.

The baby beamed with joy, grabbing Liu Niu’s finger and giggling.

Liu Niu pulled her hand back and stared at the finger that had just touched the baby.

‘So soft, and it smells so nice.’

One woman chuckled and teased,

“Why don’t you raise him?”

The other woman joined in, grinning.

“That’s right, you can have him as your kid. It’s not like you’ll ever find a husband.”

Liu Niu shyly wrung her hands.

“Should I?”

“Hahaha, the fool actually wants him!”

“If you ask me, we should still give him to Old Wang. It’d be a good deed.”

The two women set the basket aside and continued their heated discussion over who the child belonged to.

This little village was very backward.

A child was just a child. What rights did they have?

It never occurred to them to take the baby to the town’s public security office.

The town was full of rich people, and the security office was full of officials. Who would care about such a trivial matter?

“Hey? Where’s the baby?”

“Oh my god, Liu Niu ran off with the baby!”

…

In reality, a tear slid from Jiang Chaosheng’s eye.

The Evil Qilin sneered.

“Mr. Dusk, you are nothing more than a man after all.”

The Evil Qilin sat in meditation before Jiang Chaosheng, holding an infant.

He needed to watch clearly as Jiang Chaosheng drowned in the dreamscape.

For one, the Manager was the greatest variable standing in the way of his mission to bring salvation to all living beings.

For another, Jiang Chaosheng’s earlier words had shaken his Buddhist conviction. He needed to watch Jiang Chaosheng fall into an eternal slumber to reaffirm his own faith.

…

This was a small mountain.

On the mountain was a Mountain God Temple. Inside were some moldy bedrolls, a water bucket, and a bowl.

Liu Niu poked the baby’s little face over and over with her finger.

The baby giggled with delight, and Liu Niu giggled foolishly along with him.

Liu Niu scratched the back of her head.

“I should give you a name. You came from the great tide in the river, so how about I call you Jiang Chaosheng?”

The baby clapped his hands.

‘Does that mean he likes it?’

Liu Niu felt a sense of happiness she had never known before.

‘Giving someone a name…’

‘It’s so amazing!’

The baby clapped for a bit, then started crying. WAH WAH.

Liu Niu became flustered.

“Are you hungry?”

Liu Niu picked up a steamed bun she’d taken from the funeral feast two days ago and tried to stuff it into the baby’s mouth, saying urgently,

“Eat! You won’t be hungry if you eat!”

After fumbling for a long time, the baby still wouldn’t eat.

Only then did Liu Niu realize that this chubby little thing didn’t even have teeth.

She thought about how the village women fed their babies, then lifted her own top.

“Eat! Not hungry!”

The baby suckled for a long time.

Nothing came out. A total scam!

Liu Niu hurriedly ran down the mountain. She returned more than half an hour later, carrying some goat’s milk she had gotten from who knows where.

After drinking the goat’s milk, the baby fell into a deep sleep.

Liu Niu rocked the baby’s small body.

“Chaosheng is going sleepy-bye, Mama will sing you a song.”

“The wind is soft, the birds all sing, leaves hang by the window frame… Little baby~ oh~ time to sleep~ sleep now, sleep in my arms~”

…

After that, the village’s “foolish girl” changed.

She started airing out the bedding, washing the bowl, and even went to the river to bathe in the middle of the night.

The Mountain God Temple started to look like a small home.

Liu Niu didn’t want Chaosheng to grow up and be looked down on by the other village children.

Before long, someone from the village committee summoned her to discuss the matter of Jiang Chaosheng’s custody.

Old Wang wanted to fight for the child, his face red as he looked ready to hit someone.

The village chief puffed on his pipe.

“This is a society of laws now. Orphans have to be sent to an orphanage. It’s not our decision to make.”

Liu Niu, who usually just smiled foolishly, became frantic.

“He’s not an orphan! I’m an orphan! My Chaosheng isn’t! He has a mama!”

Old Wang sneered.

“And who’s his mother?”

Liu Niu puffed out her chest.

“Me!”

Old Wang said dismissively,

“A fool can be a mother? Do you even have a man?”

The committee argued back and forth.

Giving him to anyone seemed unreliable, but no one wanted to send him to an orphanage either.

The village chief didn’t know what to do, then he suddenly thought of someone.

Some people were just there for the show, some spoke up for Old Wang, and some supported the chief, but no one spoke up for Liu Niu.

Suddenly, someone said,

“Why don’t we ask the high master?”

This high master was a wanderer who had come to Xiaojiang Village.

His divination Magic was said to be miraculous, and everyone in the village believed in him.

The village chief started to walk out.

“I’ll go ask the high master. Whatever he says, goes!”

Everyone on the committee agreed.

An hour later, the village chief returned with news that shocked everyone.

“The high master said this child and Liu Niu share the fate of mother and son.”

Old Wang wouldn’t have it. He threw a tantrum.

“I don’t believe it! The high master definitely didn’t say that! You’re just taking that little wench’s side!”

The chief glared at Old Wang and continued,

“The high master said the child has a limitless future. If he forms a mother-son bond with Liu Niu, it can save our village from a great disaster!”

At these words, everyone fell silent, except for Old Wang, who kept blabbering.

The villagers were superstitious, and that high master really was incredible.

If that Jiang Liu’Er forming a bond with Liu Niu could prevent a disaster in the village, who would still side with Old Wang!

The villagers started siding with Liu Niu and attacking Old Wang. In the end, Old Wang left in disgrace.

Liu Niu beamed.

The village chief said to Liu Niu,

“Don’t get too happy. The high master said you and this child only have a bond of four years.”

Liu Niu hugged Jiang Chaosheng tightly, as if afraid he’d be snatched away. She watched the chief warily and shook her head.

“No! Chaosheng will be with me forever!”

The chief said,

“From now on, you can live at the committee office. The village will help take care of the child.”

Liu Niu grew frantic again.

“We have a home, on the mountain!”

The chief sighed in resignation.

“Fine, fine. I’ll bring you food and clothes from now on.”

…

From his first wobbly steps to learning to call her “Mama,” four years passed quickly.

One night, it was raining, but the moon was so large that it brightly illuminated the Mountain God Temple.

Liu Niu, her face pale, lay on the bed, her breathing faint.

Little Chaosheng lay in his mother’s arms, his little face turned up, gazing at Liu Niu with wide, expectant eyes.

Liu Niu gazed at the moon outside the window. ‘It’s so big, just like the moon on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. So festive.’

“COUGH COUGH…..”

Liu Niu struggled to sit up. She picked up a candle from the table and waved it back and forth in front of little Chaosheng’s face, smiling as she chanted,

“Shine on the eyes, make them bright. Shine on the ears, make hearing sharp. Shine on the nose, to smell sweet scents. Shine on the mouth, cough cough… to make it clever.”

There was a custom in Xiaojiang Village to perform this candle-lighting ritual for a child when they turned twelve.

Little Chaosheng giggled at his mother’s antics, clapping his hands and beaming.

Liu Niu also smiled sweetly.

“My little Chaosheng, you always love to laugh so much.”

Liu Niu held Chaosheng, rocking him back and forth.

“Little Chaosheng, when you get to your new home, you have to listen to your new papa and mama. When you eat, pick out the meat. You have to fight for the fruit, too. And don’t be afraid of getting dirty when you go to the bathroom… Cough cough, never be afraid of what other people think. That’s how Mama grew up.”

Little Chaosheng didn’t understand what his mother meant. He just hugged her tightly, his face full of happiness.

“Mama, I don’t want to go to a new home. I just want to be with Mama.”

Liu Niu ruffled Chaosheng’s hair, looking down at him with a gentle smile.

“Four years went by so fast. Mama hasn’t had enough fun with you yet.”

Little Chaosheng blinked and said with a grin,

“I haven’t had enough fun with Mama either! When I grow up, I’ll take Mama to the amusement park, and we’ll go see the big cars.”

Liu Niu smiled vacantly.

‘I really haven’t had enough time with this chubby little thing.’

Liu Niu’s head grew heavier and heavier. She slowly collapsed onto the cotton bedding, a tear tracing a path from the corner of her eye.

Little Chaosheng thought his mother had fallen asleep. He patted her warm body with his small hands and hummed the song she always used to sing him to sleep.

“The wind is soft, the birds all sing, leaves hang by the window frame~”

Just then, a voice echoed in little Chaosheng’s mind, a voice full of Enchantment:

“She is dead. But I can bring her back to life. The price is that you must live here forever. Are you willing?”