"I remember, I still remember an old Chinese saying: 'A life-saving grace can never be repaid except with one's own life...'"
"Stop!"
————————
On the other side, Cheng Yungui stood in the courtyard, looking around for them. Just then, his fifth uncle walked towards them. Remembering what his uncle hadn't finished saying yesterday, Cheng Yungui cautiously called out to him.
"Fifth Uncle, is that old lady's family from yesterday also having a wedding today?"
Just as he expected, the NPC was hesitant and stammering, knowing the truth but not daring to speak. So Cheng Yungui grabbed a handful of melon seeds and candy from home, went out to find the place where the donkey had been yesterday, and found that the donkey was still there, but this time, there was a boy of about ten years old with his head tilted to one side and his legs not very nimble.
Cheng Yungui saw him staring at the candy in his hand, so he offered it to him.
"No, I don't want yours."
The boy chuckled and pulled candy from his pocket: "I have lots of this. My older sister, who lives with me, gave it to me."
Cheng Yungui seized on this information and said to him with a smile, "These are wedding candies for me. Is the one your sister gave you also wedding candy?"
"Yes, sister, sister!"
The boy's lucidity seemed to last only a short while; he began to mumble the words "sister." Just then, someone started calling the boy's name, and Cheng Yungui quickly hid.
The old woman was the one who came to call the boy back. Cheng Yungui watched their departing figures for a while before returning to the Cheng family home.
Lu Mingran and Jack had finished their act of repaying the debt of gratitude. They were standing at the door when they came face to face with Cheng Yungui.
"Come inside, I have something to say to you," Cheng Yungui said in a low voice.
Cheng Yungui pieced together the first clue: ghost marriage.
Lu Mingran already knew this, but Jack was completely bewildered. While he was still confused, he put his hand under the table and quickly flipped through the book "Studies on Chinese Folklore" that Lu Mingran had given him, glancing down at it every now and then.
"How can you be so sure it's this?" Lu Mingran asked.
"It's highly likely. This instance is called 'Wedding,' so the wedding is definitely haunted, and the ghost bride is extremely malevolent."
After saying that, Cheng Yungui reached into his pocket and silently gripped his two dice.
Lu Mingran knew what he was thinking.
He was thinking of using this to protect everyone when necessary.
————————
As evening fell, the outside became lively. Lu Mingran and Jack continued their gratitude-giving activities. When they went out, the wedding procession was almost at the village entrance.
Cheng Yungui turned around to look at them and said, "I've been looking for you for a long time."
"Oh, we're discussing something."
What is there to discuss between you two? Cheng Yungui scanned Jack's face, trying to glean any clues from his expression.
Last night, Mingran asked for his hammer but didn't tell him what she was going to do with it, leaving Cheng Yungui full of questions.
However, nothing could be discerned. Moreover, Jack was unusually quiet today. He was carrying a bag and seemed to be constantly thinking about something.
Honestly, Jack is much cuter when he's quiet and doesn't do anything out of line.
Soon, the sound of firecrackers drowned out everything. Cheng Yungui temporarily composed himself and joined in helping to block the door and make things difficult for the wedding procession. As for Jack, he had never seen such a scene before. He frowned and stood a little further away.
Later, Lu Mingran couldn't find him again. When Jack reappeared, Lu Mingran saw that he had something in his hand.
That "Fu" character was a gift from someone in the waiting room.
"Can I give this to the bride so she can take it home and stick it on the door?"
The surrounding noise drowned out Jack's voice; it was small and weak. Lu Mingran looked at the "Fu" character in his hand and told him, "On your wedding day, you should put up the 'double happiness' character."
As she spoke, Lu Mingran pointed to the double happiness characters pasted all over the bride's house.
Seeing the look of disappointment flash in Jack's eyes, Lu Mingran felt a little sorry for him and added, "The bride will be toasting at the banquet, so you can give this to her then."
As soon as Lu Mingran finished speaking, an even bigger commotion broke out outside.
Another wedding procession arrived, even more impressive, heading towards the old woman's house from yesterday.
The villagers knew that his family was going to marry off their "daughter," but no one expected it to be the Fang family.
This wedding procession was truly unique, its colors alternating between red and white. At the very front of the procession, a man carried a portrait of a young boy, draped in red silk. Behind him, the winding wedding procession wore red flowers pinned to their chests and scattered paper money.
The sound of the suona horn hadn't stopped since they entered the village. By then it was already getting dark, and the scene looked eerie no matter how you looked at it.
Just then, the Cheng family's bride was brought out. She lay on her husband's back, raised her eyes which had been full of smiles, and saw the wedding procession.
At this moment, the old woman's family had also brought out the donkey, on which sat the paper effigy that Lu Mingran and the others had seen the night before. Correspondingly, the woman's family was also holding the portrait of the deceased girl.
What a bad omen. Moreover, the Fang family has such a history with the Cheng family.
What follows is a scene from the novel: an elder from the Cheng family steps forward and angrily berates the situation, bringing the events of that year to the surface. Jack, recalling what happened the previous night, immediately connects it to this past incident.
Meanwhile, the script was provided.
"It was getting late, and the bride had to be taken away, so they were destined to travel together."
"In the end, the Cheng family's wedding procession led the way, while the Fang family's procession followed behind. Because they considered it unlucky, no one from the Cheng family was willing to walk at the very end of the procession, too close to the Fang family."
At this point, Cheng Yungui and two other enlightened individuals living abroad volunteered to escort the wedding procession at the very back.
This was the first time the villagers had ever seen such a wedding procession. The procession carrying the living bride walked hurriedly ahead, while the procession carrying the dead bride followed slowly behind, playing suona horns as they went.
Cheng Yungui was deep in thought, staring ahead. Jack, surprisingly calm, was also looking ahead, still lost in thought.
Only Lu Mingran quietly turned around to look. As soon as he turned around, his gaze met the portrait of the Fang family's son and the indifferent expressions of those people. Lu Mingran suppressed his discomfort, squinted his eyes into slits, and glanced briefly at the paper effigy on the donkey.
In the novel, they didn't actually complete the game; they relied entirely on those two dice. Lu Mingran couldn't help but think that it would be even better if they could find a way to break the deadlock as soon as possible.
Lu Mingran still squinted, her gaze inadvertently sweeping over the portrait of the deceased bride being held by her family.
This is the woman who scared Jack so badly last night.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingran turned around with some sympathy and whispered to Jack, "You absolutely mustn't turn around, there's the woman you saw last night behind you."
Jack immediately replied, "Yes, I don't want to see that woman with the braid again."
Wait a minute, a braid? Lu Mingran was stunned.
No, the woman in that portrait had her hair down.
Perhaps because she was too engrossed in her thoughts, Lu Mingran didn't see the pebble under her feet, tripped, and bumped into Cheng Yungui's back.
Cheng Yungui did not move.
"Hey, why did you stop?"
Lu Mingran realized something was wrong as soon as she finished speaking.
The final scene of the script has arrived.
They appeared directly in front of a small restaurant, where the Cheng family's wedding banquet was being held. The wedding party went in and took their seats. After saying a few words about the ghost marriages on the other side, they complained about the bad luck and raised their glasses, saying, "Drink, drink!" Cheng Yungui and the other two also drank a lot.
There was no more script content after that. On the one hand, there were no restrictions, and on the other hand, no one knew what would happen next.
It was getting darker outside, and the small restaurant was lit by a lonely red light in the darkness. Soon, the three of them, who had drunk too much, needed to use the restroom and went out together.
"The script made us drink so much just so we'd have to go to the bathroom?" Lu Mingran said helplessly. "What if they absolutely refused to go?"
That's what they said, but they really needed to go to the toilet. The three of them nervously searched for the toilet, afraid that something might happen to them there.
However, the toilet was peaceful. After they came out, the three of them went straight to the area where the banquet was being held.
Entering the Lanxinxiang restaurant and taking a seat, everything seemed like an ordinary thing.
But as soon as he sat down, Cheng Yungui immediately stood up.
The guests are not right!
The faces of his relatives that he recognized were nowhere to be seen. It was still the same restaurant, the same tables, and the same balloons on the table, but the people eating and drinking around him were not the same guests as before.
"Mingran, Jack, get up first!"
Cheng Yungui said in a low voice, first pulling on Jack's arm next to him.
Jack, however, remained lost in his own world. Faced with Cheng Yungui's action, he glanced at him blankly, touched the book in his bag, and said:
"Don't bother me, I just want to memorize my lessons right now."
Author's Note: It's my birthday tomorrow, hehehe, so I'll give a little red envelope to the top ten cuties in the comments section of this chapter~
I hope to keep writing interesting jokes to share with everyone.
Chapter 59 Want to be the King of the Night? No way (11)
Hearing Jack say that, Lu Mingran, who was standing to the side, coughed awkwardly twice.
This morning, Lu Mingran shoved the book into Jack's hand, telling him to memorize Chinese folk customs properly and stop courting death.
...Even so, brother, open your eyes and take a look! This isn't the time to memorize your lessons!
On the table were melon seeds, candies, and various cold dishes. Around them, the sounds of greetings filled the air. These sights and sounds told them that this was the human world, but the unfamiliar faces made their hearts pound like drums.
To prevent Jack from doing something reckless, Lu Mingran first held down his hand, then squinted and began to recall the sequel in the novel.
In the book, Jack was the last to react, and also the most emotional, almost overturning the table. He stood up, nearly collapsing, and grabbed someone at random, asking them where they were, using a mix of words and gestures.
"But the man he grabbed ignored him, as if he hadn't noticed him at all. Jack's nose turned red with intense emotion, and he cursed 'Shift' under his breath, turning the man's shoulder to make a move."
Just as he reached out his hand, Jack screamed in agony.
To be precise, his voice was trapped in his throat and didn't come out. Jack stared at his arm, which had suddenly turned into a white paper tube, and opened his mouth wide to shout, but all he heard was the whistling of the wind blowing on the paper.
He watched helplessly as he turned into a paper effigy.
At the same time, the scene before him suddenly changed. What appeared in his field of vision was no longer a festive wedding banquet restaurant, but a backyard. He saw a woman squatting in the middle of the yard, arranging some paper money and "money trees" and similar items.
Night enveloped everything. Two white lanterns swayed on the back gate, each bearing a large red double happiness character.
After an unknown amount of time, the faint sounds of music and drumming from the front yard subsided, and a man's voice came over:
"Aunt Zhang, you can start cooking now!"
The woman called Aunt Zhang looked up, her gaze lingering on the row of paper figures leaning against the brick wall. Finally, she wiped her hands on her apron, stood up, and walked towards the "boy" on the left. Strangely, even though it was just a paper effigy with smiling eyebrows and eyes, she felt it was crying.
With a whoosh, she half-carried, half-dragged the paper effigy toward the burning copper basin.