Chapter 4: Phoenix Star Arrives I was born noisily in the early 1980s. He became the third-generation successor of the only resident of Shijia Bay. My grandfather told me that I was the only baby girl born in the village in the past ten years. Before that, there would be babies born every year or so, but they were all boys. The villagers have always favored boys over girls and did not think girls were good, but the fact that there had not been a baby girl in ten years had caused a lot of discussion in the village. The blessings and disasters of my birth are unpredictable. The old people sat at the village head and chatted: "I'm afraid that a bad world is coming. They say that there is a baby every ten years, and babies are hidden, and female babies are the most harmful." My timid uncles were not happy when they heard this. They had been poor all their lives, and now the family was about to encounter a jinx. What a mess they would have to live their rest of their lives. The family headed by my second uncle could not tolerate such a thing, so they came to my house with a donkey face... and many more. This story has to start from the day I was born... That morning, my second uncle came to my house in a hurry to ask my father for accountability.
As soon as I called out Yang Laoqi, I saw a flock of strange birds circling above the roof of my house. A strange bird the size of a dustpan and covered in black hair frantically flapped its wings and cried loudly, as if it was summoning a god... The second uncle cursed secretly in his heart. The damn Old Seventh Family is not a good thing. Giving birth to a girl can cause all these weird things. Isn't it a bad omen that there are jinxes and strange birds flying around? Just when I was thinking about how to play a trick on my father, Lao Qi, I suddenly saw a group of strange birds suddenly fly up and rush straight towards the chimney of Lao Qi's house. In an instant, the sky became as dark as ink and you couldn't see your fingers. Even your second uncle, who always prides himself on being extremely daring, was so frightened that he wet his pants and stood there at a loss as to whether to advance or retreat. After he realized what was happening, he didn't even bother to take a closer look and just crawled back home in a hurry. I got seriously ill... At this time, Shijia Bay encountered a snowstorm that had not been seen in ten years. The snow in and around the village was tens of centimeters deep, and everything was white. On weekdays, the hardworking villagers stay at home, warm themselves by the fire and prepare for the New Year, and rarely go out. There was not a trace of smoke coming from the roof of Yang Laoqi's house, the only resident in Shijiawan. The whole family was anxiously waiting for the seventh son's wife to give birth. Especially my grandfather Yang Dabing, who was full of worries and had more concerns than his family. At three quarters after noon, with the sound of a baby crying, Yang's wife finally gave birth to the second child of the Yang family after fighting hard. The child's cry was so loud that it pierced the sky, startled the dozing birds in the village, and made them tremble all over, and then soared straight into the sky. A group of birds and beasts, like minions, also heard the news and ran away in panic, and disappeared in an instant. "Yes, it's a daughter, it's actually a daughter." Looking at his newborn daughter lying on the bed, Lao Qi felt his scalp tingling and his words became unclear.
This child is so ugly, really. It was simply horrible, skinny as a mouse, with purple and blue skin that was abnormally shriveled. With its weak breathing, one could almost see its internal organs trembling through its thin skin... The third aunt who came specially for the trip frowned and said, "Is this a child? No, is this a human? How come he is as small as a mouse, and as yellow and skinny as smoked bacon? He looks so unlucky. I'm afraid he will be hard to raise." The mother, who had just given birth, was already weak, and after hearing what her husband's sister said, she was so angry that she trembled. When he couldn't help but turn his head to look at his daughter, he was so frightened by her appearance that his head buzzed and he could no longer stop sobbing with sadness. Grandpa glanced at Third Aunt with some annoyance and said, "Which child is not born like this? Just listen to Third Aunt's nonsense." At this time, Yang Laoqi was also comforting his wife. Didn't our son look like an old man when he was born? It doesn't matter if the child is skinny, our daughter is pretty and pretty. Just as everyone was busy comforting my mother, my brother Zi Yu suddenly ran in. "Grandpa, why did it suddenly get dark?" "What? It's broad daylight, kid, what are you talking about?" Feeling aggrieved, Third Aunt couldn't help but scold. "Third aunt, if you don't believe me, go and see for yourself." After saying that, Zi Yu dragged Third aunt out of the inner room. Before she even stepped out of the main hall, Third Aunt missed a step and bumped into the door because she lost sight of the light. He was about to curse, but he opened his mouth but no word came out for a long time. At this time, it was clearly still 15:30, but it was like a closed chaotic world. It was pitch dark and suffocating. If I wasn't familiar with this place, I would have thought I had entered a pitch-black bottomless pit... The third aunt was so surprised that she could fit a duck egg in her mouth. She stumbled back to the inner room, opened her mouth wide and could not utter a word for a long time. She just kept pointing outside and asking everyone to look. Seeing the useless look of Third Aunt, Grandpa snorted coldly and hurriedly walked out of the inner room with Dad. At this time, the black color of the sky gradually faded, and it was already somewhat purple. Under the bleak light, it seemed that even the air was purple. The entire sky was like thick blood flowing from a rotting corpse, covering the entire earth and making it hard to breathe. After a while, a lot of strange-shaped clouds suddenly rolled out of the sky, sliding across the sky as if hiding here and there. About half an incense stick of time later, a cloud shape resembling a dragon and a phoenix hung in the sky. Instantly, there was a flash in the sky, the ground shook, there was a rumble, a flash of lightning lit up, gusts of wind whistled past, and the time that just seemed like a moonlit night was instantly back to the daytime at three quarters past noon... Grandpa was also shocked by the scene before him. He had privately divined the hexagrams for the birth of the child, but none of the hexagrams showed anything. Now, a child is suddenly born, the only baby girl in ten years, but the image of a dragon and a phoenix appears in the sky. Is it indicating that the child is either a dragon or a phoenix? Recalling Yang Keshui's words, the grandfather was happy, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel worried about his granddaughter's future fate. Seeing grandpa staring at the sky in a daze, my father walked up to him, patted him on the shoulder, and said that this was a natural phenomenon of human beings. Then he pointed to the sky and said, "Look, old man, the high sky, the flaming sun, the changing clouds, the rainbow after the rain, these are all natural phenomena. I have learned about them in school and have read many books. Don't think of them as ghosts and monsters. Grandpa's wrinkled face showed no sign of sadness or joy. He glanced at Dad's nonchalant look and ignored him. He turned and walked into the peach house, took out the sacrificial offerings that had been prepared long ago, placed them under the phoenix tree in front of the house, held the incense and candles in both hands, faced the east, and walked with great ceremony. Third Aunt, who was already afraid of ghosts and troubles, saw Grandpa kneeling down and kowtowed as well. My father shook his head as he watched and took Zi Yu back into the house.
It is said that on the next morning, the news that Yang's daughter-in-law had given birth to a daughter spread throughout the villages outside Shijia Bay. When the Yang family gave birth to a daughter, a dragon image and blood clouds appeared in the sky. It was also said that the strange bird in the sky was actually a crow, and the story was made to sound magical. Some legends say that the daughter of the Yang family must be a star sent down from heaven to bring good luck to the village; Some said that the daughter of the Yang family must be a jinx and would bring disaster to the village. There are even more legends that the daughter of the Yang family is the incarnation of a demon, and is probably a man-eating monster. Everyone should keep an eye on the boys in their families to prevent them from encountering any unexpected events, because female monsters usually eat men's semen and blood. All these legends made the family very angry. The father was an educated man, so he naturally believed in his child's innocence. He just sighed at the ignorance of the villagers and became more determined to make his child study hard and get rid of ignorance and stupidity. Today, a colleague asked me why I call her Martian Grandma? I pondered for a moment and could hardly remember when I used this name, but it must have been at least ten years ago... Hehe, guess... (End of this chapter)
