Chapter 111 - 21
"So, Brother Liangliang, does this mean that the deity statue unearthed at the river works and the coffin pried open at the farm have at least three hundred years of history?"
"That’s correct, it can be understood that way, but what’s strange is, three hundred years is indeed a long time, but it shouldn’t be long enough that your local customs of worshiping the ’Bai Family’s Lady’ have completely disappeared, even the elderly seem to have no memory of her.
But the local chronicles clearly record her, and we’ve even excavated her temple. There are both written records and physical remains, so it’s impossible that there were absolutely no traces left in folklore—that’s too odd."
Li Zhiyuan shook his head and said, "Brother Liangliang, a retired professor once told me, existence does not necessarily imply rationality, but there is always a reason for existence."
"Xiao Yuan, are you saying that there’s also a reason for their nonexistence?"
"Yes, I think that maybe the Bai Family’s Lady wasn’t suitable for worship, nor for evolving into a custom. Her image, or shall we say the image of the Bai family, the Bai family town, might be very different from what we imagined.
I just looked at the local chronicle records you brought back, Brother Liangliang. They do indeed contain quite a few accounts of the Bai Family’s Lady, and they did a lot during the Ming and Qing Dynasty, similar in style to some Jianghu Chronicles, but there’s generally something missing...
The ending of those strange records usually adds a description like ’the local villagers were grateful for her kindness, built temples and statues, and kept offering incense continuously.’
But in these local chronicles about the Bai Family’s Lady, they really just recorded the facts, it would be fine if it was omitted once or twice, but it’s missing from all related records.