Chapter 107: Joyful Wedding, Mourning Cry 38
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Zhang Wubing, though unsure why he found himself here, knew full well, even after just spending two days in Jia Village and Family Tomb Village, that this place wasn’t friendly to women. If Yang Guang were to take only Yang Hua and leave Yang Duo behind, that girl might very well end up dead!
Glancing anxiously around, Zhang Wubing saw no sign of Yan Sixun. He didn’t have anyone to turn to for advice. But with the situation urgent, he couldn’t wait for others to come to his aid. So, gritting his teeth, he disregarded hiding his presence any longer and dashed out from his concealed spot in the corner.
“Yang Guang! Yang Guang, wait! You can’t do this!” Zhang Wubing chased after Yang Guang’s figure, but no matter how hard he ran, he found himself running in place, unable to make any progress.
He was sweating profusely, but could only watch helplessly as Yang Guang’s figure disappeared.
“Yang Guang, Yang Guang!” Zhang Wubing was in a frantic state, torn between self-loathing and anger at Yang Guang’s selfishness, but all his struggles were in vain.
A chilling sensation crept up behind Zhang Wubing, and he felt the familiar fear prickling his skin.
“Outsider, tell me, how do you intend to change what has already happened?” A cold female voice echoed in Zhang Wubing’s ears.
He turned his stiff neck and indeed saw that familiar blood-red hue.
Suddenly, Zhang Wubing remembered, this wasn’t the first time he had seen this bridal gown.
In the dream he had in Jia Village, he saw a woman wearing a bridal gown, standing in the corner of the room, watching him.
And that woman, too, had her eyes gouged out and her ears cut off.
A chill ran down Zhang Wubing’s spine, and he blurted out, “I’ve seen you before! You entered my dreams.”
The woman turned her blood-filled eye sockets towards him, as if silently asking: And?
Where do you think you are now?
“No, wait, no!” Zhang Wubing recalled that in Jia Village, he didn’t just have one dream.
In another dream, he found himself in an old house, with people passing by wearing outdated clothes.
——That wasn’t the present; it was decades ago.
“Does it look like this place around here? D-Did I see something from decades ago?”
Zhang Wubing suddenly looked at the woman beside him and restrained his fear to ask, “What do you want? If you have grievances to settle, I know someone, he’s powerful, he can help you. Please, don’t do anything else!”
The woman stared silently at Zhang Wubing, so long that he thought he was surely doomed, but then the woman spoke.
From her decaying lips, hollow and stiff words came out.
“I waited, I hoped, but everyone…”
“Wanted to kill me.”
The woman slowly extended her decaying palm, reaching for the stiff Zhang Wubing standing in place. “So now, it’s my turn.”
…
Zhang Wubing suddenly opened his eyes, expecting to wake up from his sleep as he did in Jia Village, but he was still lying in his bed. However, he realized that he wasn’t even lying in his bed, it seemed like he wasn’t even in his own body. His line of sight was lower than usual, and he felt heavier, making him uncomfortable as he twisted his body, feeling awkward all over.
Then, as Zhang Wubing lifted his head, he suddenly saw a young girl standing in front of him, crying softly. Beside her, a younger girl was gently patting her back, as if trying to comfort her.
Zhang Wubing quickly realized that these two girls were the sisters Yang Hua and Yang Duo he had just seen.
“Hua’er, listen to me, we have to leave now, or it will be too late.”
Zhang Wubing felt his mouth opening uncontrollably, “Duo Duo, as we agreed, you help us cover our retreat. If anyone asks, just say you don’t know, try to delay as much as possible, so I can take your sister away.”
Yang Duo released her sister’s hand and nodded, “I will, but…”
She looked straight into Zhang Wubing’s eyes, “I want you to take me away from here too.”
“Duo Duo…”
“I’m so scared, Brother Yang Guang. I’m afraid they’ll take me away to get married too.” Yang Duo’s voice trembled with tears. “I don’t want to marry someone else. I just want to be with Brother Yang Han.”
Zhang Wubing felt a surge of sadness in his heart, but he quickly bit his lip and regained his resolve. “Duo Duo, listen to me. You’re still young, even if they want something from you, it won’t be now. But your sister’s situation is more dangerous than yours! Do you want to just watch your sister die?”
Yang Duo shook her head sorrowfully.
Zhang Wubing heard himself saying, “Duo Duo, trust me. Once I’ve settled your sister in a safe place in the city, I’ll come back immediately to take you away too.”
Yang Duo hesitated and released her sister’s hand.
Yang Hua panicked and tightly grasped Yang Duo’s hand. “No! No way! Yang Guang, my sister and I want to be together. If she’s not leaving, then neither am I.”
“Sister.”
But it was Yang Duo who interrupted her. “You and Brother Yang Guang go. I’ll help you both. Brother Yang Guang is right, I still have several years ahead of me, and your situation is much more dangerous than mine.”
Yang Duo smiled through tears, pushed Yang Hua, and placed her sister in Yang Guang’s embrace. “I’m your sister, so I’ll always protect you, forever.”
Zhang Wubing anxiously wanted to say not to stay here, to take Yang Duo and leave together!
He had figured it out: Yang Han never got married later, probably because something happened to Yang Duo. To prevent her from getting into trouble, he had to send her to a safe place.
But no one could hear his shouts. He felt like a soul trapped in another body, watching everything unfold helplessly.
Zhang Wubing held Yang Hua’s hand tightly and ran wildly into the night.
No.
He kept looking back, only to see tears streaking down Yang Duo’s face as she stood at the door, watching them go.
No!
Take Yang Duo with them! She would die if left behind!
Zhang Wubing had never felt so angry before. It was like watching a life about to fade away right in front of him, and he knew he had to do something.
He was weak, afraid of ghosts, but he had never shied away from his responsibilities!
He couldn’t stand idly by!
Zhang Wubing gritted his teeth, his willpower desperately urging his limbs to stop and turn back to grab Yang Duo and take her with them!
Finally, his efforts paid off. His legs, previously running wildly, were forced to stop, and inertia caused him to fall to the ground, covered in dirt and looking disheveled.
But Yang Hua seemed oblivious, still holding hands with someone as if being dragged along, continuing forward.
But Zhang Wubing almost bit through his own teeth, desperately controlling his limbs to stand up from the ground, turning slowly but resolutely towards Yang Duo.
“Yang Duo, come with me,” Zhang Wubing trembled, his muscles in intense pain, his brain throbbing like needles, but he didn’t stop moving forward.
“I don’t know what have happened to you. Brother Yan didn’t tell me. But I know Brother Yan can help you. Come with me, let’s go find Brother Yan.”
He reached out his hand, wanting to grab Yang Duo.
But in his palm, he only grasped a hand full of dripping blood.
The scenes around him spun wildly. The young girl, with tears in her smile, transformed into a woman in a blood-red wedding gown.
Tears of blood slowly streamed from her empty eye sockets.
“You see, outsider,” she opened her lips, full of needle-hole scars, and blurry flesh fell off, “No one came to save me.”
“No one ever came, for me.”
“You came too late. The fate has been sealed by the Yin God.”
Zhang Wubing raised his head in astonishment, only to see torrents of blood pouring down, staining the once pristine moonlight red.
Covered in the same blood-red hue was his field of vision.
All at once, everything plunged into darkness.
……
Following behind the procession of villagers escorting the bride, Yan Shixun soon realized that they were heading towards the ancestral hall.
The houses along the village road became denser and more imposing. This should be the place where the patriarchs and elders of the clan resided, as Yang Yun mentioned before.
However, it was strange. A grand event like the Land God’s wedding should have been presided over by respected figures from the village, especially the patriarch who initiated everything.
Yet, Yan Shixun heard no noise coming from the nearby houses.
Could it be that the patriarch and the elders… had already been killed by Yang Duo? Could those villagers carrying red lanterns that he saw earlier be them?
Without giving Yan Shixun time to delve into the situation, the clothes worn by the villagers ahead slowly faded from red to pure white as they walked, almost blending with the white paper money thrown up into the sky and then fluttering back down, making him feel as if everything before him was a bleak white blur, unable to distinguish between people and paper.
What’s going on? A celebration turning into a funeral?
Frowning, Yan Shixun wanted to step forward and closely examine the villager at the end of the procession.
But suddenly, his ears caught a faint sound from the side. His gaze sharpened, and he swiftly turned around, throwing a punch towards the source of the sound.
A figure emerged from the red brick wall beside the village road, where the bricks and stones had turned into living flesh.
Before he could catch his breath, the person saw a fist, with prominent knuckles, coming towards him and was instantly scared, shouting, “Brother Yan, save me!”
Yan Shixun’s fist stopped just before the person’s nose, and he frowned, looking at the person’s face.
It turned out to be Zhang Wubing.
With warmth and a heartbeat, he was alive.
The familiar aura confirmed that it was indeed Zhang Wubing, the one who came to collect debts.
Yan Shixun slowly withdrew his fist, sternly asking, “Zhang Wubing, what’s going on?”
Zhang Wubing was so frightened that he was beside himself. Hearing Yan Shixun’s voice, he slowly came back to his senses, and the familiar face of Yan Shixun appeared in his originally blood-red vision.
“B-Brother Yan?”
Zhang Wubing, still shaken, asked, “Is it really you? Or is it Yang Duo showing me her memories again?”
“How do you know Yang Duo?” Yan Shixun quickly grabbed his wrist and interrogated, “Weren’t you at the farmstay? Where did you go just now? What’s the deal with Yang Duo’s memories?”
Zhang Wubing hesitated for a moment. The feeling of being forcibly pushed into Yang Guang’s body, unable to control anything, was so terrible that it left him with psychological trauma.
But when Yan Shixun questioned him, the familiar tone of ferocity brought back a sense of familiarity.
Overjoyed, he burst into tears and hugged Yan Shixun emotionally, crying with snot and tears. Afterward, he finally managed to regain his composure under Yan Shixun’s disdainful gaze and reluctantly recounted everything he had just experienced to Yan Shixun.
“It feels a bit like the nightmares I had in Jia Village.”
Zhang Wubing said. “It’s too real, doesn’t feel like a dream at all. It’s like I’m really Yang Guang. By the way, Brother Yan, do you know Yang Guang, Yang Hua, and the others?”
Yan Shixun slowly released his grip on Zhang Wubing’s hand and said in a deep voice, “I do.”
So, was it because of this that Yang Duo harbored such resentment, possessing Yang Hua without regard for her life or death? It didn’t match what Yang Guang had told him.
It’s either one or the other, who’s lying?
Yan Shixun didn’t believe that a vengeful spirit sustained by decades of hatred would mistake its target. So, if that’s the case… it means Yang Guang was hiding something from him.
But this also precisely explains why Yang Guang feels such deep guilt towards Yang Duo, even saying it’s all his fault, and why something is directed at him like that.
“Brother Yan, where are we?” Zhang Wubing looked around anxiously, spotting Yang Tu nearby, equally alarmed. “Where are the others? Why aren’t we in the room?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Brother Yan snorted. “Yang Tu and I didn’t see you at the farmstay. Didn’t I tell you not to go out no matter what you heard?”
Zhang Wubing weakly argued, “I didn’t! I woke up and wasn’t in bed anymore.”
Yan Shixun didn’t believe Zhang Wubing had the courage to lie to him, and besides, the farmstay didn’t look like it had been disturbed halfway; it seemed deserted for a while.
Yang Tu’s earlier recounting of Yang Yun’s words suddenly flashed through his mind.
—— “Don’t get caught up in her world.”
Whose?
Yang Duo’s, or… Jiang Yanran’s?
Yan Shixun’s expression changed abruptly as he reached into Zhang Wubing’s pocket and retrieved Zhang Wubing’s phone, turning on the screen.
12 at midnight.
But his time… remained stuck at 12:06.
“What color was the moon you just saw?” Yan Shixun asked quickly, his expression serious.
Zhang Wubing looked bewildered. “What color could the moon be? Of course, it’s white…”
As he spoke, he looked up, intending to point to the moon to explain to Yan Shixun. But his words came to an abrupt halt as he gazed upon the moon in the night sky.
The blood moon hung high.
“This, this…” Zhang Wubing was dumbfounded.
However, Yan Shixun’s eyes narrowed as he chuckled softly. “I understand now.”
He slowly turned around, casting his gaze towards the bridal procession not far away, gradually fading from view.
Musicians played, everyone dressed in pure white as if in mourning, except for the swaying bridal sedan, striking in its red.
The tassels of the curtain were lifted, revealing a pair of icy eyes beneath, peering directly at Yan Shixun through the swaying red, with crimson lips curling into a faint smile.
Yan Shixun felt a surge of intuition and his gaze shot like lightning towards the sedan, locking with those blood-red eyes.
He saw the woman’s beautiful face, pale as paper, yet her smile was exhilarating. Her lips moved, as if saying to him—
You, and everyone else, can’t escape.
Before Yan Shixun could catch up, the bridal sedan suddenly halted in front of the ancestral hall. The lively and joyous sound of suona abruptly ceased, and the villagers, who had just been joyfully scattering paper money, stood frozen in place like puppets controlled by unseen hands, their arms hanging limply at their sides.
As the bridal sedan touched the ground, a splash of red lifted the curtain, revealing delicate embroidered shoes stepping onto the village road. In that instant, the ground ran red with blood, flooding the earth.
The villagers seemed as if their throats had been swiftly slit by some unseen force, blood spurting out hurriedly, and their heads rolling to the ground. They stared with unblinking eyes, only the red blush on their cheeks still resembling a smile.
Blood stained their white clothes red once more, and then, their headless bodies collapsed with a “thud” into the pool of blood.
The woman who descended from the bridal sedan had turned around, facing Yan Shixun.
With no veil obstructing his view this time, Yan Shixun could clearly see her face.
It was the same female ghost he had seen in Binhai City, possessing Yang Hua.
Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, Zhang Wubing looked at the woman tremblingly and said, “B-Brother Yan, I know her! She’s the one from my nightmare back in Jia Village! I just saw her! She… she’s Yang Duo!”
“Wait, no, that’s not quite right. She didn’t look that good just now,” Zhang Wubing gestured. “Her face was all decayed, and she had wounds all over her mouth, and no ears.”
Yan Shixun quickly extended his hand, shielding Zhang Wubing behind him. “I understand.”
He grasped the meaning behind Yang Yun’s words and finally comprehended the anomalies he had discovered in those village houses.
Because here, this was Yang Duo’s world.
In this place, she was the master of everything.
Yan Shixun’s expression hardened, his demeanor alert.
The woman heard Zhang Wubing’s words and smiled gently, pursing her lips. She lifted a strand of her hair, revealing her ears adorned with red earrings, each movement graceful.
“Now, I have it all.”
“Cut off the ears, can’t hear the world’s wickedness.”
“Dig out the eyes, can’t see the darkness in people’s hearts.”
“Seal the mouth, can’t speak out the resentment within.”
The woman chuckled lightly, her beauty captivating. “You see, no one came for me. Neither gods nor ghosts helped me, so I resent them too—I will replace them.”
“And you, outsider.”
She turned her head slowly, facing the solemn-looking Yan Shixun. Her eye sockets, filled with blood, were devoid of eyeballs, empty and eerie. “Now, will you stop me?”
“Then I can only ask you…”
“To die together.”
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