The Marquise: I Earn My Own Worship

When the ignorant villagers heard this, they had no choice but to agree. After all, since people are dead, they should die in a proper way.

In this way, the villagers who came to fetch water every day could see the woman floating in the water, and sometimes even see her eyes that were wide open.

Many timid people don't even dare to come and fetch water, but this is the only water source in the area. If they don't come to fetch water, it means they will have no water to drink and will die of thirst.

Therefore, everyone came to fetch water after dark, and in order to give themselves courage, they kept swearing while fetching water.

It seemed that this made them feel better, and they turned their fear into anger and cursed it all out.

Twenty days passed like this, and the villagers could hardly bear it anymore.

The reason is simple: the water is smelly.

The weather is so hot now, a corpse hanging in there will rot sooner or later.

The woman inside had been soaked to the point of being unrecognizable, and was as white as a silkworm chrysalis.

Just when the villagers were hesitating whether to move away, the weather suddenly changed, and the wind and rain continued to blow. For a moment, the villagers cried for joy.

But the heavy rain continued for two months without stopping. During this period, the pool where the woman was tied was washed away by the heavy rain, and the huge rocks inside were moved.

In this way, the woman was carried to an unknown place by the rain, and the people in the village never saw the woman's body again.

But they probably wouldn't care about the woman anymore. First, the rain kept falling and the village was almost flooded.

Second, the villagers began to suffer from abdominal pain one by one. There was no doctor in the village, so everyone had to go to the town.

But everything happened so suddenly that many people died before the next day. Within a few days, more than half of the villagers had died.

Slowly, the disease spread from the village to the whole of Nanyang.

"This is the water bug disease that severely damaged the entire Nanyang fourteen years ago."

Old Madam Cheng sighed for the last time and couldn't help but shed tears.

"Mother, don't cry, Master Duan is still here."

Old Madam Cheng wiped her tears with a handkerchief, looking extremely sad.

Duan Jing'an seemed to be lost in thought when he heard Cheng Fu say, "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Master Duan."

"It turns out that the Nanyang water bug disease has such a tragic origin."

Duan Jing'an sighed, never expecting that sometimes human hearts are the scariest.

"No, no, it's just something the people spread."

“I Knew You Wouldn’t Believe It”

Old Madam Cheng seemed to be having a hysterical attack and started talking nonsense again.

Seeing that his grandmother was a little excited, Cheng Xi stepped forward, held the old lady's chest, and kept comforting her.

"Grandma, my grandson believes me, my grandson believes me."

It took Madam Cheng a while to recover, then she started crying while holding Cheng Xi. Her eldest daughter had died in her twenties, pregnant with a baby.

"My Yan'er had a miserable life. She passed away at such a young age, leaving no trace of her body. My heart aches. I have been in pain for so many years. Who could possibly understand? Who could possibly understand!"

Every word is heart-wrenching and every sound is tear-jerking.

Seeing this, Duan Jing'an couldn't help but think of his youngest sister. His mother was also heartbroken at that time.

Now everyone lost interest in chatting, and Wang helped the old lady down to rest. Although the old man didn't talk much, his expression was a little gloomy when he mentioned the sad thing.

After the two old men left, only Cheng Fu, Cheng Xi, Duan Jing'an and two children were left in the hall.

Duan Jing'an only then realized that the Yan'er that Old Lady Duan mentioned should be Cheng Xi's mother. Judging from the intimate tone of Old Lady Cheng's voice, Cheng Xi's mother was Old Lady Cheng's biological daughter.

Could it be that Cheng Xi took his mother's surname? Taking the mother's surname is extremely rare, but it is not uncommon.

Generally, families with only one daughter would look for a live-in son-in-law, but Cheng Xi's family didn't look like that, so I asked about it.

"Brother Xi and Master Cheng, are you cousins?"

Seeing that Duan Jing'an was a little confused, Cheng Fu explained the reason.

"Master Duan, you want to know why Brother Xi's last name is Cheng, right? Well, Brother Xi's mother is my eldest sister, so Brother Xi calls me uncle."

"Xi'er's father's surname was also Cheng, Cheng Li. They married because they had the same surname."

"There's actually such a thing? Marrying someone with the same surname?"

Duan Jing'an was shocked! He knew from his time in the Ministry of Justice that the law forbade marriage between people with the same surname, and violators would be fined thirty taels of silver.

"Yes, same-surname marriages are quite common in Nanyang. Our people used to live together in clans. Take Hu City in Anping for example. In the past, there were only six clans in our county: Cheng, Kang, Zhao, Hua, Liu, and Shao."

"Because there are relatively few clans, and sometimes we don't get along with each other, we can marry people with the same surname who are within the fifth degree of mourning."

"But since fourteen years ago, the number of people from Nanyang has decreased, and more people from outside have come. Now Hu City is no longer what it used to be."

Duan Jing'an looked at Cheng Xi, who nodded and said:

"It's true. Many Nanyang natives prefer to marry someone with the same surname rather than someone with a different surname."

"No wonder!"

"Yes, but that's not always the case. For example, my wife, Wang, is not from Nanyang."

"Will the locals be more xenophobic?"

Duan Jing'an thought of what Mrs. Cheng had just said, and could only say that there is no smoke without fire.

"That's true, especially in some impoverished areas. In the county town, where there's a lot of business and people coming and going, this situation is relatively rare. But our clan prefers to stick together. The stronger the clan, the easier it is to travel around Nanyang."

Duan Jing'an nodded. It seemed that he would need to read more records of local customs when he had time. Every place had different customs, and even the way officials handled affairs was somewhat different.

In Nanyang, if two people with the same surname get married, they only need to obtain a document from the clan that shows they are not related by five degrees of kinship and pay ten taels of silver.

It seems that the application of laws in different places must be combined with local customs.

……

"This is flexible law enforcement, tailored to local conditions."

After listening to Duan Jing'an, Song Shengfu also became interested in the things in Nanyang. Many things in this era were very different from the ancient times she had known before.

There are similarities in culture and system, and it seems that each world is woven together like different threads.

"Flexible law enforcement, tailored to local conditions? That's a great phrase!"

Duan Jing'an's eyes lit up and he kept muttering the word.

Why didn't he think of it? The customs and habits of each place are different, so the law can be implemented in accordance with the actual situation.

Nanyang clan culture leads to a large number of people marrying with the same surname. The law prohibits marriage between people with the same surname in order to avoid the same blood and affect the bloodline of future generations.

This is a rule proposed by our predecessors, but generally speaking, it is allowed as long as the relationship is within the five degrees of mourning.

There must also be some unwritten customs and regulations in Xiyang, Dongyang, and Beiyang, so there must be some changes in the laws.

Although the rules are as iron as a mountain, they are actually still influenced by traditional customs.

Duan Jing'an buried this matter in his heart.

Song Shengfu was feeling bored, so she took advantage of the good weather to go to the library to find some books to read and pass the time.