Chapter 347: (2): True Teacher
The first attendant of the water god temple was a woman whom the water goddess had saved from drowning. After being rescued, the woman had become a devout follower of the water goddess and even abandoned her life of riches to become the temple attendant of the water god temple.
She had stayed in this role for fifty years, starting off as a young woman and eventually becoming a gray-haired old lady. Due to her lack of cultivation aptitude, she had ultimately passed away at eighty years old.
It was this temple attendant who had diligently traveled around the area to attract followers and worshipers for the water goddess. Year after year, she would also set up congee stalls to help impoverished commoners.
Before passing away, the elderly woman had held the water goddess' slender and jade-like hand and chuckled in a hoarse voice that the water goddess was still as beautiful as always. However, it was a shame that the craftsmen weren't talented enough to capture one ten-thousandth of her beauty when making her gold statue. As the temple attendant, the fault lay with her.
At the very end, the teary-eyed old lady had asked the water goddess one final thing, "Have I made up for my sins?"
However, she had passed away before the water goddess could say anything.
The temple attendant had remained deeply pious all the way until death, yet in reality, she hadn't always been a good person, especially in the eyes of the common people.
When she was young, her husband was a merchant who would often be away from home and traveling outside. Unable to withstand the loneliness, she developed an illicit relationship with another man. After this was exposed, she worked together with her new lover to kill her husband. Then she successfully remarried and even seized all of her ex-husband's assets and wealth. She completely humiliated her ex-husband and lived a happy life for several years.
However, born from sinful karma, her new relationship also died with sinful retribution. While enjoying an outing one time, her new husband took a fancy to another woman and decided to beat her half-dead. He then tossed her into Burial River and left her for dead.