Phoenix dwelling in Yanzhou

"How, how is it possible?!" Jing Sheng stuttered in shock, how could they be the child's biological parents? "Tiger poison doesn't eat children, how can there be parents who kill their children?!"

Su Qian realized that the couple's faces became extremely pale because of Jing Sheng's words. "The stone tablet at the entrance of the back mountain is written "The Sutra of Crossing the Infant Spirit to Rebirth."

Su Qian had seen that scripture before. When she first became the crown princess, the Empress Yuan had not yet passed away, so she always took her by her side to teach it personally.

At that time, there was a young prince who died in the palace, and this "Sutra of Crossing the Infant Spirit to Rebirth" was sacrificed in the ceremony.

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva saves evil spirits, and the sutra of crossing infant spirits leads them into reincarnation, and protects them to be reborn as good people in the next life." Su Qian looked around, under the bright moonlight, there were piles of small mounds of earth .

"Here... is what the folks call the baby grave, right?" Su Qian's voice was very soft, as if she was sighing. "I've heard that in several states in the southeast, the people are poor, and most of them don't have children. If they have more sons, they will kill their sons, and if they have more daughters, they will kill their daughters. The custom is passed down."

Su Qian never thought that the rumors, which were only regarded as anecdotes at first, would be presented vividly in front of her today.

The baby mounds under the feet, one after another small grave mounds, can be seen everywhere, shocking!

In these tombs, young lives were buried, and they were buried in the cold ground before they even had time to take a good look at the world.

"Yes, this is the infant grave." The middle-aged man admitted, his voice was hoarse, hiding the pain of a father. "With a radius of fifty miles, if anyone wants to kill an infant, they will bring the child here to be buried."

The baby in Jingsheng's arms was tired from crying and fell asleep in a daze.It was very quiet in the baby grave, only the night breeze accompanied the woman's low sobs.

"Why?" Jing Sheng asked, breaking the suffocating silence, "Are all the children here killed by their parents? Why did you do this?"

"Why?" The middle-aged man smiled wryly. He was obviously a seven-foot man, but now she was so decadent that she seemed to be crushed, and she couldn't even straighten her waist. "This year's harvest is not good. We have paid the summer tax, but we really can't pay the small tax. If he doesn't die... our whole family will die."

"Xia Tax...Ding Tax..." Jing Sheng muttered these two words, she knew that these two words were taxes collected by the imperial court.

"If you can't pay the small tax, the government will use the real estate and land to offset the tax. We have old and young, and if we lose the land, the whole family will starve to death!" The woman's voice was already hoarse. She has cried too much, shed almost all the tears in her life, "Young lady is right, tiger poison is not eating its offspring, we... are not worthy to be his parents!"

With tears in her eyes, she stared at the child in Jingsheng's arms. The woman's eyes were clearly reluctance, but thinking of the Ding tax that would kill her whole family, she could only forcibly withdraw her gaze. .

"This child has already died once, and it has nothing to do with us anymore! It's up to the girl whether to keep it or throw it away." The woman turned her head away and said cruelly.

"Mother..."

The man seemed to want to say something, but the woman looked at him with a pleading expression in her eyes. The man looked at his wife, then at the child in Jingsheng's arms, sighed and shook his head, and said to his wife: "We go home."

Under the moonlight, on the rugged mountain road, the husband and wife supported each other and staggered away.

Jing Sheng was still holding the child, watching the child's parents leave, at a loss, trying to follow, but was stopped by Su Qian.

"Ash?"

"Even if you return the child to them, they will still bring the child to this infant grave tomorrow."

The child in his arms seemed to sense that he had been abandoned, and the sound of weeping resounded through the baby mound.

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Thanks to [MDD&**] for the ice wide fall

(I really can't type the two Korean characters in the back

???????????sorry)