Free Web NovelChapter 692: Chapter 653: The Demoness in Our Village
After dispersing the villagers, Zhao Rong and his group of five headed straight for the mountaintop. As they neared the summit, they saw the Village Belle standing at the edge of a cliff.
The moment the assistant saw her, he grew frantic. He dashed forward, shouting, "Village Belle, don’t do anything foolish! Even if this village won’t accept you, you can come with us! We can go far away and start a new life. Why would you want to end it all?"
Lili also called out, urging the Village Belle to step away from the edge. "Village Belle, please come down from there! Honestly, Brother Zhao Rong has already driven off the villagers who were chasing you with torches. You’re completely safe now!"
Yu Lan waved her over. "Village Belle, hurry and come here! The bullies who threatened you with those long knives have been driven away by Brother Zhao Rong. From now on, your village will no longer be threatened by them, so please, come down! Don’t do anything rash!"
Just then, Xuelian pulled a lasso pole from her bag. Extending it, she began twirling it in her hand as she called out, "Village Belle, get over here, or I’ll use this pole to rope you in and pull you away from that cliff myself!"
With that, Xuelian skillfully lassoed the figure and pulled her back from the precipice.
When Zhao Rong saw that the figure had been rescued, he rushed over. "Village Belle, why were you trying to kill yourself?"
As soon as he spoke, Zhao Rong froze in astonishment. The person before him was not the Village Belle at all, but a man wearing a wig.
Staring at the wig-wearing man, Zhao Rong asked in disbelief, "Aren’t you the brother of the so-called Village Belle? The one who led us to our lodgings this afternoon?"
Miss Lili, feeling as though she’d been tricked, also spoke up. "Young man, you’re the Village Belle’s brother, aren’t you? Why did you put on a wig and stand on this cliff, pretending to be your sister?"
The young man looked at Zhao Rong’s group and explained, "If I don’t die, my sister will have to. I would rather die myself than let anything happen to her. She is this village’s only hope."
His words left Zhao Rong utterly bewildered. "What are you talking about? What’s going on?"
The young man explained, "My sister and I are the only ones in this village, the only two people born without memories of our past lives."
Hearing this, Zhao Rong was taken aback. "But didn’t your sister tell me she was the only one in the village who drank Meng Po Soup and couldn’t remember her past life? How is it that you’re one, too?"
"Big brother, she said that to protect me," the young man clarified. "She wanted you to believe that she was the only one in this village who had to die."
Still confused, Lili asked, "If she was trying to protect you, why did you put on a wig and run to the mountaintop, luring all these villagers to chase you?"
Yu Lan added, "If we hadn’t arrived in time, you could have been caught and beaten by them, or even pushed off the cliff to your death."
Xuelian, still holding her lasso pole, added with lingering fear, "If I hadn’t used this pole to snag you and pull you back from the edge, you would have surely fallen and been smashed to pieces."
Before Xuelian could finish, the young man glanced at his watch and his expression turned to one of excitement. "My sister and I just successfully pulled off a strategy to ’lure the tiger away from the mountain.’ I was responsible for drawing all the villagers to the summit, while my sister went to the ancestral hall to uncover the secret of why everyone here is reborn with their memories, without having had Meng Po Soup. By now, she might have already found it!"
Zhao Rong heard that the village’s ancestral hall held the secret of why the villagers were reborn with their past-life memories. He immediately led the three women, his assistant, and the young man toward it.
Upon reaching the ancestral hall’s entrance, they were shocked to find that the villagers had already surrounded it. Tied to a nearby wooden stake was a young woman in a red dress. It was none other than the Village Belle who had welcomed them earlier.
Zhao Rong saw the villagers building a bonfire, clearly intending to burn her alive. He immediately stepped forward and confronted the zombie-like crowd. "You savages! What are you doing? Why have you tied this woman up, and why are you planning to cruelly burn her to death?"
The village chief stepped forward. "Big brother, you don’t understand. This girl may be beautiful, but she is a demoness. Only by getting rid of her, by burning her to death, can we ensure our village has favorable weather, bountiful harvests, and protection from evil spirits."
Zhao Rong paid no heed to the chief’s words. He lunged forward, grabbed the man by the collar, and snarled, "I’m warning you, Village Chief. Release her now. I don’t care if she’s a demoness, a fox spirit, or anything else. You will let her go this instant, or I will beat you all senseless."
Because Zhao Rong had already disabled the village bully’s Martial Arts and beaten up his thugs on the hill, the villagers were well aware of his capabilities. They didn’t dare resist and instead fell into a fearful silence.
As the villagers stood by mutely, Zhao Rong went to the stake and untied the girl in red. "Village Belle," he asked with concern, "are you all right?"
Tears streamed down her face as she spoke. "From the moment I was born, the people of this village have tried to kill me. Now that I’ve discovered the secret this village has been hiding, there’s no way they’ll ever let me go."
Hearing that she had discovered the village’s secret, Zhao Rong’s curiosity was piqued. "The secret? What is it? Tell me, quickly!"
At that moment, the surrounding villagers all widened their eyes, glaring at the Village Belle with vicious intensity. Their expressions were a clear warning: *If you tell this secret to outsiders, we will kill you the moment they leave.*
Zhao Rong, however, encouraged her. "Village Belle, don’t be afraid. Righteousness will always prevail over evil. With us outsiders here to help you, these villagers won’t dare to harm you."
