Chapter 102: Joyful Wedding, Mourning Cry 33
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As an academia actor, Zhao Zhen has been in the industry since he was a teenager, participating in hundreds of plays of all sizes and portraying characters from various walks of life. He’s played high-ranking dignitaries, destitute street youths, and even hysterical villains.
But he never imagined that one day he would find himself in women’s clothing.
Taking a deep breath, Zhao Zhen tries to calm his frantic heart, but his trembling hands concealed beneath his sleeves betray his inner turmoil.
Staring at his reflection in the mirror, adorned with delicate eyebrows and red lips, he can’t help but feel absurd.
Zhao Zhen remembers vividly that after bidding goodnight to the Young Master Song Ci, he set several alarms to ensure he wouldn’t oversleep. After meticulously checking his luggage one last time, he finally relaxed and drifted off to sleep.
But as he drifted in and out of sleep, he was suddenly awakened by the bustling noise around him.
It sounded as if there were many people gathered around him, chatting and laughing jovially, yet no one addressed him directly. It was all just merry chatter.
Initially, Zhao Zhen assumed it was the young master staying up late watching TV under the covers. He was about to sternly advise him to go to sleep to ensure they could wake up early as planned by Yan Shixun.
However, when he finally opened his groggy eyes and looked to the side, his mind went blank in an instant.
——He was no longer in his own room.
Here, it wasn’t the neat and cozy room of the rural farmstay, with no sight of Song Ci nearby, and he wasn’t lying on his own bed.
Instead, he was seated in front of a mirror.
Initially, Zhao Zhen was so startled that his instinct was to get up and leave. However, he quickly realized that although his mind made the decision to move, his body didn’t respond. It remained firmly planted in place.
He tried to move his fingers or turn his head to see what was happening around him, but he failed.
Zhao Zhen felt a sense of detachment between his soul and body, as if his soul was forcefully trapped in this body, with roughness and stiffness that hadn’t been smoothed out.
The sensation felt so real that it flooded Zhao Zhen’s mind with countless absurd thoughts, something he had never experienced before.
But he quickly suppressed those thoughts.
No matter how absurd the situation seemed, speculating about it wouldn’t help him while he was immobilized. Instead of wasting time with fruitless thoughts, he decided to focus on finding a way to escape from this situation and return to his room.
Zhao Zhen soon realized that he was sitting in front of a dressing table with a mirror that had an old-fashioned style, adorned with a popular yin-yang motif from the last century. In that mirror, he saw the face of a young girl, innocent yet beautiful.
The girl clearly hadn’t reached adulthood yet, her pretty face still carrying a hint of baby fat. But her face was heavily made up.
With fine threads, she meticulously removed the girl’s natural peach fuzz, applied a thick layer of whitening foundation to her smooth cheeks. The newly shaped eyebrows were trimmed into elegant arches, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes accentuated with heavy eyeliner, elongating her eye shape, giving her a prematurely mature appearance. And her lips were a bright red, like a peach ripened too soon.
Zhao Zhen was certain this wasn’t his face, and he had never seen the owner of this face before.
Who was she? Why was it that he was sitting here, but someone else was reflected in the mirror?
Moreover…
Furrowing his brow, Zhao Zhen felt like something was off.
The heavily made-up girl was dressed in an old-fashioned red gown, adorned with a red robe embroidered with auspicious patterns. She wore a rose cape on her shoulders and sported valuable long pearl necklaces and jade jewelry. Her thick, black hair was styled in the manner of a newlywed, adorned with gold ornaments, exuding wealth and joy.
But looking through the mirror at the rest of the room, Zhao Zhen could see that this family was not wealthy.
Their home was bare, with walls marked by black mold. The ceiling beams were old and dusty, with tattered, dirty cloth serving as makeshift partitions for beds. There wasn’t even a decent piece of furniture in the room.
But the most crucial question remained: why was it him sitting in front of the mirror when it was clearly a stranger girl who was getting married?
As a thirty-year-old man, he certainly didn’t want to marry someone he didn’t even know! What on earth was going on??
Zhao Zhen was screaming inside his mind, but unfortunately, his brain had no control over his body. He couldn’t even open his mouth, let alone make a sound.
…Wait a minute.
Suddenly, Zhao Zhen realized something.
He noticed that the girl wasn’t sitting upright on the chair by her own strength. She was leaning weakly against the back of the chair, breathing shallowly, her hands limp on her lap, unable even to grip anything.
On the dressing table, there lay an empty small medicine bottle, discarded at an angle.
Was it because of medication that she had no strength?
Zhao Zhen’s mood grew heavier upon this discovery.
Although the girl seemed far from the appropriate age for marriage, Zhao Zhen hadn’t thought much about it initially. He was simply puzzled about why he was in the girl’s body and respected her choice. After all, life belonged to the girl herself. If she chose to marry at this age, Zhao Zhen, as a complete stranger, believed he had no right to judge her.
However, this premise assumes that the girl is willingly getting married.
Zhao Zhen had never heard of a bride drinking something that would make her entire body weak on her wedding day!
Could the girl have willingly drunk it? That’s impossible!
At the moment, he couldn’t even spare a thought about the current situation, why he, who should have been sleeping in his bed, ended up in a strange and poor household, or why he was now a teenage girl about to get married.
With gritted teeth, Zhao Zhen desperately urged his body to move, trying to stand up from the chair and even leave the room.
This was absurd! Marrying at such a young age, and against her will, he absolutely couldn’t allow the girl to go through with it!
Regardless of why he ended up here, this kind of situation is illegal, it’s wrong!
Driven by Zhao Zhen’s will, he finally managed to exert all his strength after gritting his teeth and moved his hand slightly.
Whether it was because the medicine the girl drank was too potent or because Zhao Zhen’s soul shouldn’t have been in someone else’s body, just lifting his arm nearly exhausted all of Zhao Zhen’s strength, leaving him panting for breath.
As Zhao Zhen raised his hand, he caught a glimpse of the hand before him. It was no longer his own large, distinctly masculine hand, but a fair and delicate girl’s hand.
The girl’s nails were painted in a bright red hue, contrasting with the fair skin.
The contrast of red and white created a striking visual impact on the skin, making one’s heart race.
But just as Zhao Zhen placed his hand on the armrest of the chair, intending to lift himself up, leave the room, and even depart from the wedding scene, the noise and laughter that had been present outside the house since just a moment ago swiftly grew louder and closer, filtering in through the window.
It seemed like there were many people outside, men and women, all happily chatting away: “Although the girl isn’t of much use, Yang Laosan is really in luck this time. The patriarch is so kind to him. Despite his family making so many mistakes, the patriarch is still willing to let his daughter marry the Land God.”
“Exactly, girls are nothing but a financial burden. You raise them for over a decade, and once they marry, they become someone else’s wife, wasting all those years of investment. But with Yang Laosan’s family, after marrying the Land God, they still manage to get so much money. Yang Laoaan is overjoyed.”
“It’s fortunate that Yang Laosan has two daughters. Otherwise, with the elder daughter running away, there would have been no way to salvage the situation.”
“The younger daughter was supposed to marry that fool from the Zong family, right? The clan leader originally said that they would wait a few more years for the younger daughter to grow up before considering letting her marry the Land God. That way, both sisters marrying the same person would be a good story. But I heard that because the younger daughter was so beautiful at a young age, the fool from the Zong family took a liking to her at first sight and insisted on marrying her, crying and making a fuss. Old Zong couldn’t refuse, so he gave the clan leader a piece of good farmland, and the clan leader agreed to let the younger daughter marry him.”
“Yeah, the younger daughter’s wedding date was already set, just a few months after her sister’s marriage. But who would’ve thought, her sister turned out to be so immoral! She ran away with someone from the neighboring Jia Village, what a disgrace!”
“Fortunately, there’s the younger daughter as a backup. Otherwise, this would’ve been a disaster, and the Land God might have been really angry!”
“But Yang Laosan has finally turned the tables. Despite not having a son for over a decade, now that he’s got the money, he’s got a new wife, right? Didn’t the clan leader say so? Ancestors even appeared in his dreams, saying as long as Yang Laosan’s sins are cleared, he’ll be able to have a son.”
“This time it’s bound to work out. It’s all because Yang Laosan’s mother brought bad luck upon him, making him marry a woman who couldn’t bear children. Now they’ve sent the mother and daughter-in-law to make amends, and the Land God will surely be appeased.”
“As for the new wife, has Yang Laosan started looking?”
“Oh, he has! A few days ago, a relative from another village mentioned that his nephew, who’s now a high-ranking official, has a perfect match for Yang Laosan. They say she’ll be sent over in these few days. I saw her photo; she’s really beautiful. I heard she’s even educated, so she can definitely bear sons.”
“Yang Laosan’s family is so lucky. Tsk tsk, back when I got married, nobody helped me with money.”
“Hehe, the second miss is indeed a beauty. It’s just a pity she was sent away like that, without enjoying herself with the young men in the village.”
“Hey, watch what you say, don’t let others overhear. Hehe, who said she didn’t enjoy herself? She did, alright! You didn’t see, that figure, those curves. The feeling, tsk tsk, it’s a shame you weren’t there at the time.”
“A few of us had a really good time, but you, cousin, you just had to be out buying wedding stuff. Your luck isn’t great, huh?”
……
The conversations overlapped, buzzing like flies, making it difficult for Zhao Zhen to distinguish each sentence clearly. However, since the dressing table was right next to the window, Zhao Zhen furrowed his brows and strained to listen, still catching snippets of the conversation.
Elder sister? Younger sister ? What about marrying a god? And why are they talking about the land god?
The more Zhao Zhen listened, the more confused he became, not understanding the situation at all.
Unlike Yan Shixun, who had gleaned a lot of information subtly from the village head’s house, Zhao Zhen only felt a vague sense of unease, as if his subconscious mind was warning him of lurking danger.
However, human instinct often resists danger, ignoring the warnings that the body sends.
Even though Zhao Zhen felt some confusion, he simply brushed it off as a symptom of having been an actor for too long, where overthinking was common, and didn’t delve deeper into it.
While Yan Shixun was engaged in conversation with the village head and seeking information from Yang Han, Zhao Zhen was fully focused on recording the program with other guests, without allowing himself to be distracted by other matters.
Moreover, Zhao Zhen was unaware of what the owner of the breakfast shop, Yang Guang, had told Yan Shixun.
So, the more he listened to the conversations outside, the more confused he became, having no idea what was going on.
However, amidst those conversations, there were one or two lewd chuckles that made Zhao Zhen feel uncomfortable, causing him to furrow his brow.
As a man himself, even though he was fully dedicated to his career and his passion for acting, Zhao Zhen had heard other men make such remarks during his upbringing. He knew all too well what those emotions represented.
Commenting like that about a girl who wasn’t even of age? Disgusting!
If Zhao Zhen were in his usual state, he would have been inclined to walk up to the person making such remarks and warn them to keep their dirty thoughts to themselves. But the fact was, he was now trapped in the body of a young girl, with no strength in his limbs, struggling even to rise from the chair would require almost all of his energy.
Zhao Zhen gritted his teeth, the sweat induced by the medication forming a thin layer on his forehead. Despite this, he forced himself to stand up, leaning unsteadily against the dressing table and the wall, trying to support this body that was gasping for breath with every slight movement, to leave this room.
Marriage? Screw marriage!
Zhao Zhen was filled with anger. He swore that if he were in his familiar form right now, he would definitely find the person who dared to drug him, throw a few punches at them, and then report everything to the authorities with evidence.
How dare they coerce a child who hasn’t even come of age yet? These scumbags!
However, the reality was that Zhao Zhen couldn’t even leave this room.
Just as he took a few steps, Zhao Zhen gritted his teeth and managed to prop himself up against the window at the back, hoping to climb out through it and find a chance to escape from the people. However, his weak fingers couldn’t even open the latch of the window, let alone climb out.
To make matters worse, it seemed like time was up, and people outside surged towards the door, pushing it open from the outside.
Then, in an instant, they spotted the girl standing by the window at the back, trying to escape.
The leading group of women dressed in festive red clothes exclaimed in surprise and hurried over. With their strong arms accustomed to heavy farm work, they lifted the girl up from both sides and carried her back to the dressing table, forcibly pressing her down onto the chair.
Zhao Zhen held his breath, trying hard to break free from the arms of the two older women in front of him, but to no avail.
The old woman’s face, full of wrinkles, didn’t exude the warmth of an elder. Her face was heavily painted white, with thick, charcoal-like eyebrows, making her look as terrifying as a ghastly corpse in grotesque makeup.
Looking up, Zhao Zhen saw the women surrounding him, their mouths opening wide as they spoke to him in a flurry of voices.
“Second Daughter, don’t blame aunty for being blunt. It’s your fortune to marry the Land God, but don’t lose face! What were you trying to do just now? Trying to follow your sister’s example? You’re bringing shame to your father!”
“Yeah, Second Daughter, this is a great marriage opportunity! Just imagine, in the future, you won’t have to worry about offerings anymore. Everyone will be offering incense to you! It’s a blessing that other families can’t even dream of. Don’t be ungrateful for your good fortune!”
“Where do you think you’re going? Do you think you’re like Yang Hua, that vixen who enchanted Yang Guang from the neighboring village, making him obey her every command and even elope with her? Forget about it! No one can save you!”
“Sigh, Duo’er, listen to aunty’s advice. Aunty has been around the block and knows you like Yang Han from the neighboring village. But stop waiting, give up. He won’t come, and he won’t take you away. Yang Han’s father is a respectable man and won’t allow him to bring shame to the family.”
“Don’t be too scared. You’ll understand later; this is for your own good. How many women give birth to sons but can’t even enter the ancestral tomb or have their names written in the family records? When you marry over there, you’ll have your name in the family records. That’s a great honor. What’s more important for a woman than having sons and continuing the family line? In the future, when someone offers incense for you, other women might not even have that.”
“Don’t even think about running away. Where can you run to? If you miss the auspicious timing and anger the Land God, your father will be upset with you.”
“Yeah, Yang Duo, don’t be ungrateful…”
Zhao Zhen looked at the gaping mouths before him, seeing countless monsters ready to devour the young girl’s life before it had barely begun.
Amidst the gore and the haunting spirits, there was no escape.
Yet, amidst the harsh tones of these elderly women, their scolding addressed directly to the girl, Zhao Zhen gleaned the name of the girl.
Yang Duo.
But who was Yang Guang? The name Yang Han also sounded familiar; where had he heard it before?
Zhao Zhen furrowed his brow.
Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, the experience of the peril on Wild Wolf Peak flashed through his mind, and Zhao Zhen, stepping beyond the realm of conventional thought, delved into another realm untouched by science, finding an answer that could explain his current situation.
Was he, perhaps, experiencing an out-of-body experience?
Zhao Zhen was originally an atheist, but after being chased by giant rats in the Mountain God Temple and narrowly escaping death, he began to pay attention to such matters. Moreover, because of the various wonders he witnessed in Yan Shixun, he started to believe that there were spirits and deities in the world.
So, he suddenly realized that he might have undergone an out-of-body experience while asleep, finding himself in the body of this girl.
But if that were the case, where did the girl’s original soul go?
Zhao Zhen wasn’t Yan Shixun and only had a superficial understanding of many things, vaguely aware that such occurrences were possible. But as for the details and the truth of the matter, he was completely clueless.
He didn’t know how to save himself.
All Zhao Zhen could do was watch helplessly as the older women pressed him down against the vanity, unable to break free.
Through the paper-pasted window, a vermilion glow seeped in from outside.
It was dusk.
“It’s time, it’s time!” The old women surrounding the newlywed bride clapped their hands, laughing cheerfully.
Their heavily powdered faces, now creased with smiles, caused layers of wrinkles to accumulate, and the white powder scattered from their faces.
On their originally pale faces, lines devoid of white appeared due to the wrinkles, resembling cracks spreading across porcelain.
Eerie and unsettling.
Zhao Zhen quickly turned his head away, not wanting to look at the faces of these older women anymore.
But they continued to shout loudly: “The auspicious time has arrived! The bride is about to get married!”
“The bride is getting married, marrying the god!”
“May the Yang family be blessed, may Wangzi Village have good weather and abundant harvests for years to come!”
Inside and outside the house, one after another echoed with voices of agreement.
The sharp voices of women shouting auspicious words, along with the applause and cheers of many people, mixed together. The noisy voices mingled, accompanied by the sound of suona and drums, creating a lively and festive atmosphere similar to a typical wedding scene.
However, Zhao Zhen could feel the despair and desolation spreading from the depths of his heart.
A robust middle-aged woman took Zhao Zhen’s arm and forcibly supported the girl’s weakened body due to being drugged, leading them towards the door.
A middle-aged man stood at the doorway, his face full of joy as he warmly smiled at the girl. “Duo’er, I never expected you to make your father proud in the end! Your sister is just worthless, a despicable creature! I’ve raised her for so many years in vain, and what does she do? She runs off with another man, damn it!”
“But it’s all for the best now. With the money I have, I can buy a new bride. Duo’er, rest assured. Once you have a little brother, our family will have a successor. When we go to worship during the New Year, I’ll definitely share this good news with you. You’ll be happy too, won’t you?”
Another woman approached with a smile, placing a red veil on the girl’s head.
The red fabric descended slowly, obscuring the girl’s view.
She cast her final gaze at the world, seeing the blood-red sky outside the door.
The setting sun was crimson, casting its glow over the entire village. The crowded courtyard was bathed in red, and every smiling face seemed soaked in blood.
Finally, the red veil fell.
The girl’s vision was completely consumed by the blood-like red.
Zhao Zhen was weakly escorted out of the door, the freedom he had hoped for a moment ago now becoming a path to hell and death.
He desperately tried to struggle backward, but with no strength left in his body, he could only drag his legs along, following the force of the middle-aged women who supported him on both sides.
With every step, a tearing pain shot through his lower body, causing cold sweat to drip from him, making it almost impossible to move his legs.
Despair and helplessness engulfed Zhao Zhen.
At this moment, he felt like he was no longer the actor Zhao Zhen, but had transformed into the girl Yang Duo.
She was locked in the woodshed, her cries for help and desperation unanswered, only met with the mocking laughter of the young men.
She waited in fear and pain for many days and nights, but all her hopes ended in disappointment. Eventually, even her soul became numb, and her pleas and tears, once full of sorrow, turned into resentment and anger, accumulating in her heart.
The village women brought her back from the woodshed to her home, where they adorned her with makeup, dressed her in a beautiful wedding gown, and adorned her with expensive jewelry.
These may have once been her childhood dreams, when she innocently tiptoed and shyly asked a young man if he would marry her.
However, when the bridal veil truly fell upon her, these dreams became nothing more than a death sentence, the final straw that crushed all her hopes for this world, for the village, and for her loved ones.
—— She hated this world.
Zhao Zhen’s expression was distant, the sound of suona playing in his ears, the cheerful celebration of drums and gongs, the congratulations, cheers, and laughter of everyone, all became the best accompaniment to the joy.
But these thoughts seemed to drain away, leaving him in a fog of confusion. His brain became a mush, unable to process anything.
He no longer pondered why he was here, why he wore bridal attire, or why his soul inhabited the body of a soon-to-be bride. Escape was no longer on his mind.
He felt as though he had fully merged into this world, becoming a part of the village.
He was Yang Duo.
Because his sister eloped with someone else, he was brought by the clan leader to take her place, to marry the Land God in her stead. Yet, this also severed the secret, tender love in his heart, cutting off the beautiful memories he shared with the young man he loved for years.
With his marriage, his father would receive a sum of money, enabling him to marry a new bride, to sire a new son.
Everyone was thrilled, except him.
While everyone rejoiced for him, exchanging congratulations and blessings, saying he was blessed, saying his father was blessed.
But only he was filled with despair.
Today was his wedding day, his groom was the Land God.
As the sun set and the moon rose, it was time for the twilight ceremony.
The sun engulfed the entire village in a sea of blood, yet when he looked up, all he saw was red.
A blood-red hue engulfed his vision.
That was the last scene etched into his eyes.
The bridal sedan chair swayed through the village, with women in red clothes on both sides, smiling and chanting festive blessings, congratulating the earth god who was about to marry.
The sedan chair landed in front of the land temple, and he was helped out, forced to kneel on the ground with his head pressed down.
Kowtowing, again and again.
Zhao Zhen’s vision was blurred and distorted, only able to see pairs of shoes from the bottom of the red veil, approaching and receding from the ground.
The scent of incense wafted in front of his nose, choking him with its pungency.
His head landed heavily on the ground with a “thud”.
Then he was lifted by the arms again.
But Zhao Zhen had no strength left to resist, and even the world before his eyes was spinning and distorting, like looking at a shattered glass through which the world appeared fragmented.
All the light and shadows refracted at strange angles, the scenes overlapping and intertwining, while the laughter and congratulations seemed distant, as if separated by decades.
Under the red veil, the shoes began to fade and decay from bottom to top, and the once pristine tiles also became cracked and ugly.
In a moment of daze, Zhao Zhen even had a hallucination. He seemed to see the villagers passing by the crack of the red veil, all turned into skeletons collapsing into a pile of dust and shattered bones.
But when he blinked slowly and looked again, there were no bones to be seen, just the villagers still applauding and cheering.
Then, he felt himself being lifted from the ground by someone, their strength so great that his feet left the ground directly.
Through the gap in the red veil, he caught a glimpse of the corner of a black coffin.
Zhao Zhen’s sluggish and rusty brain suddenly realized what these people intended to do.
He frantically lifted his head, his limp body struggling desperately, trying to resist the people next to him with his last bit of strength.
“No, please don’t.”
As Zhao Zhen heard his own words, they morphed into the desperate and fearful voice of the girl, her voice trembling with tears: “What are you doing? No, I don’t want this! Let me go!”
But the powerless girl’s voice was so weak, barely a whisper, drowned out by the sound of the suona.
No one heard, no one cared.
Someone lifted him up and then slammed him down heavily.
Zhao Zhen felt as if his internal organs had shifted, the pain so intense that he couldn’t breathe for what seemed like an eternity.
Then, he felt the light coming through the red cover becoming increasingly dim.
And there was also the sound of wood rubbing against wood in his ears.
The laughter and cheers of the villagers outside, along with the sound of suona and drums, were gradually fading away. All the sounds seemed distant and vague, as if they were separated in another world.
Zhao Zhen suddenly realized what had happened.
A coffin.
Those people had thrown him into a coffin, and then closed the lid!
His dazed brain, overwhelmed with astonishment and anger, finally seemed to break through some barrier and regain the ability to think.
Those people meant to bury this girl named Yang Duo alive under the guise of marrying her to the Land God! They drugged her, forced her to worship the Land God, and then placed her in the coffin… But she’s still alive! She’s still breathing, still crying, still desperately pleading!
Listen to her pleas, don’t treat her like this!
Anger surged from the depths of Zhao Zhen’s heart, and suddenly strength returned to his body.
He tore off the red cover that was covering his face, then reached up with his arms, trying to push open the wooden lid above him.
But…
“Clang, clang, clang…”
Long nails were hammered into the coffin one by one, sealing the four corners tightly, and molten iron was poured into the seams of the wooden boards, completely sealing the coffin shut, leaving no gap or air.
Zhao Zhen was already too late.
He could only watch helplessly as he was sealed inside the cramped coffin, in a space devoid of air, where even his angry shouts and cries for help couldn’t escape.
Still alive! The person in the coffin was still alive! They couldn’t do this!
Zhao Zhen wanted to say that this was illegal, wanted to make the people outside stop, but his voice only echoed within the coffin.
Only he heard it.
The girl cried out in despair, desperately pleading.
She called out for her sister, for her brother Yang Guang, for her brother Yang Han.
She pleaded with her parents, crying and begging the clan leader and uncles to let her out, not to keep her locked up here.
She promised to be good, to do anything they wanted, just please don’t keep her here.
The heavy wooden boards blocked out all sounds from outside, even though the girl was still alive, she was trapped in a deathly silence, hearing only herself.
The coffin was lifted and then lowered.
Each shovelful of dirt was sprinkled onto the top of the coffin, making a faint impact sound.
The girl cried out in panic, but it was futile.
In the stifling, cramped coffin, she reached out, constantly clawing at the wooden boards around her, trying to find a gap to escape, even if it meant splitting her nails, blood trickling down her fingers without pause.
The girl screamed until her throat was hoarse, but the heavy soil eventually covered everything.
There was no sound anymore.
Along with the lost sound, there was also the air.
The girl cried until she had no more tears, and then blood tears flowed from her eyes.
She no longer pleaded.
She began to resent, all the anger and resentment brewing in her heart.
In the coffin, in the final moments of her life, all the emotions of her life were firmly engraved on her soul.
She hated her sister. If her sister hadn’t run away, she wouldn’t have been forced to marry the Land God in her sister’s place. It shouldn’t have been her buried here!
She hated Yang Guang, the boy she used to happily call her brother. He had solemnly promised her that if she helped him escape with her sister, he would come back soon and take her with them.
But that boy who had been her brother for over a decade never returned, not even once!
In the days and nights of anxiety and anticipation in the straw hut, as the sun rose and set, Yang Guang didn’t come back to take her away. So all her hopes turned into despair, from hope to hopelessness.
Yang Guang had lied. He was a fraud!
She hated Yang Han. He had promised to marry her, so why did he just stand by and watch her marry someone else? Why didn’t Yang Han appear before her even once, like how Yang Guang took her sister away?
She hated her father, her mother.
She hated the clan leader, the elders. All the uncles, aunts, grandmothers, and grandfathers….
It was them who stood by and watched her die, ignoring her cries and pleas.
They all smiled as they watched her being thrown into the coffin, buried here, unable to leave.
No one, no one heard her voice!
No one came to save her!
The increasingly thin air in the coffin slowed the girl’s thoughts, and her brain stopped thinking.
But she kept scratching at the surrounding wood, her lips bitten bloody, blood seeping through her skin, staining her wedding dress red.
She desperately reached out, wanting to go up, wanting to leave…
Let me out, I’m still alive, I still have breath and heartbeat.
Don’t abandon me.
Please, don’t let me die here alone…
…
Zhao Zhen suddenly took a deep breath, his brain, which had been gradually sinking into unconsciousness, resumed functioning.
No longer did he hear the desperate cries of the girl filled with resentment, nor did he see the figures of the villagers or the passing acquaintances.
He opened his eyes to find himself in complete darkness, with the coffin lid right above him.
Zhao Zhen’s hands searched around himself and the surroundings, finding scratches all over the wooden boards.
Then, when his hand touched a chilling, icy sensation, Zhao Zhen froze in place.
Goosebumps crawled up his skin, and every hair on his body stood on end.
He realized what he was holding in his hand.
— It was the hand bone of a dead person.
Devoid of flesh, only a cold, smooth bone remained.
Stiff with fear, Zhao Zhen slowly turned his head to look beside him.
In the darkness, he saw the owner of the hand bone next to him, gradually emitting a faint red light, revealing everything inside the coffin to him.
——In the coffin lay a skeleton dressed in vivid red bridal attire, all flesh decayed, leaving only a ghastly white frame enveloped in a crimson glow.
And what Zhao Zhen had unwittingly grasped was the hand bone of that skeleton.
He and the corpse were confined within the same cramped coffin, with no space between them, not even a gap in the middle, just their garments separating them.
His body pressed against someone long deceased.
After realizing what it was, Zhao Zhen gasped, feeling as if he had been electrocuted. He immediately threw the hand bone away and desperately tried to move to the other side, wanting to get as far away from the skeleton as possible.
In such a confined space, pressed against the wooden boards, where could he hide?
The ghastly hand bone gently landed on the blood-red sleeve of the bridal attire. The finger bones flexed momentarily before lifting and resting softly on the abdomen of the skeleton.
As if in a peaceful sleep.
In the crimson glow, Zhao Zhen watched in horror as the skull of the skeleton slowly turned towards him.
The hollow eye sockets, devoid of beautiful eyeballs, were filled with a crimson light, resembling swirling blood. The once lovely and tender countenance had decayed into blood and eventually turned into a ghastly white skull, unrecognizable.
Under the gaze from those eye sockets, Zhao Zhen felt as though his entire body had stiffened to the point of becoming like a piece of wood, hardly daring to move.
He watched as the skeleton opened its jawbone, as if pleading to him, as if crying to him.
But the voice was already cold and hoarse, unlike that of the living.
“Don’t leave me behind, save me.”
“Let me go, I’m still alive.”
—Zhao Zhen heard the skeleton say such words.
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