"You are now carrying the hopes of the entire village on your shoulders, keep it up!"
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Lu Mingran walked into the normal restaurant.
The wedding hadn't officially started yet, and the restaurant was noisy. Lu Mingran chose a seat closest to the door, looked back, and saw Cheng Yungui in the distance also choosing a seat near the door in that other world.
Of course, only Lu Mingran could see this. To others, the area opposite the restaurant was just a white wall, and on the right side of the white wall, a foreigner was squatting in a daze.
The system told him that, in addition, after Cheng Yun turned around, he could no longer see any other restaurants, only the village scenery—he was separated from them.
*Sizzle*—There was a new noise coming from Lu Mingran's side. He turned his gaze back to the screen in front of him. A short video was about to play, usually either wedding photos or a short clip about how they met. The younger children were attracted by the noise and stared intently at the screen.
It's peaceful here.
Lu Mingran started to worry about Cheng Yungui again.
Cheng Yun's return there is actually quite normal so far.
Such a thing couldn't be done in a hotel, so the Fang family held their banquet in their own courtyard. Rows of round tables were covered with plastic sheets. The food had been prepared long ago, some of it showing signs of being gnawed by rats.
It was dark here, and few people noticed the problem with the food. The only light sources in the courtyard were the hanging lanterns and the guests' mobile phone screens. Everyone sat at the table, idly eating sunflower seeds.
What made Cheng Yungui uncomfortable was that these people were not unaware of what kind of wedding it was tonight.
They knew, and with expressions of utter indifference, sat there waiting for the bride and groom's coffins to be brought in, to symbolize their supposed union.
The only person who felt extremely uncomfortable was Cheng Yungui.
By this time, some people had grown impatient and started chatting. Cheng Yungui listened for a few moments and found that these people were very calm and that they were all ignorant of the law.
"These days, female corpses are hard to find; a younger one would cost tens of thousands." The implication was that the price was too high.
“Hey,” a woman whispered, “I’m telling you, I heard that the Fang family didn’t spend a single penny on the woman they bought this time.”
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Lu Mingran smelled a very strong odor, like something had been burned.
He looked around, searching for the source of the smell. However, no one was lighting a fire or smoking. Lu Mingran then stood up and walked around the restaurant, trying to find the charred object.
The short video on the screen was still playing, showing one photo of the newlyweds after another, accompanied by captions about how they met and how they fell in love, with saccharine music playing on a loop. Lu Mingran glanced up at it while searching and suddenly found its source.
It's right near this screen.
Was the machine burnt out? With this question in mind, Lu Mingran gradually approached the area and found the computer playing a disc.
Lu Mingran stopped moving.
There was a CD in the computer's built-in drive, and another CD was on the table. The burning smell was coming from there.
At this moment, the staff member in charge of playing the short video saw Lu Mingran standing next to him and asked him what he was doing there.
"I'll just take a look..." Lu Mingran said, her gaze falling on the disc.
The staff member laughed: "This is a spare."
Just then, someone else called out to this person. As soon as he left, Lu Mingran immediately took the disc.
The burnt smell from the disc was still strong, and the closer Lu Mingran got to the door, the stronger the smell became, as if it were about to burst into flames at any moment.
Lu Mingran walked out. When he stood in the middle, the starkly contrasting worlds on either side gave him a dazed feeling.
Jack was still squatting when he saw Lu Mingran come out with a disc. He asked him, "Do you think I'm too boring and want to enrich my mental life?"
"This thing might be useful. I'd like to send it to Cheng Yungui."
As he spoke, Lu Mingran gazed at the world opposite him, and the thought that Cheng Yungui couldn't see them at all made him even more worried.
"oh……"
Jack said thoughtfully, "According to the Chinese folk customs I've memorized, that side should be considered yin, and your side should be yang. Yin and yang are not compatible."
However, there are ways to do it.
burn.
This is exactly what the taste of the disc is like.
Jack used his abilities from his dream to conjure up a lit brazier. He looked at Lu Mingran and told him to throw the disc in. Besides that, he also made Lu Mingran write a note saying that this should be written when burning paper money, otherwise wandering ghosts would take the money.
Lu Mingran: "...You really study too diligently."
After thinking for a moment, Lu Mingran wrote something on a piece of paper.
The flames quickly engulfed the discs and notes, emitting an even more unpleasant, acrid smell.
Lu Mingran and Jack watched helplessly as the thing suddenly disappeared from the brazier.
...
A minute later, Cheng Yungui heard someone calling him from the doorway.
It was a little boy who ran over with a grin and stuffed an account book into Cheng Yungui's hand.
“An older brother asked me to give this to you,” the child said, sucking his finger.
Cheng Yungui weighed the ledger in his hand and asked him, "Who?"
As they were talking, a note tucked inside the ledger fell out.
It reads:
"Comrade Fuqiang: We burned a disc for you. If you receive it, it means it's useful."
signature:
The villagers fully support your undercover work.
Author's Note: I'm sleepy... There will still be one update tonight, but I'll move it to 8 AM tomorrow.
Chapter 61 Want to be the King of the Night? No way (13)
The contents of the note startled Cheng Yungui.
I have a strange feeling that I am a lone hero at this moment.
Afterwards, Cheng Yungui realized a problem: if the burned items were discs, why was he given an account book instead?
When he looked up, the child who had delivered the items was gone. Cheng Yungui glanced around to make sure no one was watching him, then sat down and quickly flipped through the ledger on his lap.
The ledger was yellowed and the edges were curled, clearly indicating it had been used for a long time. When Cheng Yungui saw the contents recorded inside, he was so surprised that his breath caught in his throat.
This is full of records about trading female corpses.
The first page is dated late last winter, and the subsequent intervals are mostly around ten days. It seems this person has been doing this for a long time; each entry is devoid of emotion, just a few strokes.
"On April 12, a female corpse was delivered to Wang Laizi's family in Xitou Village. The girl had been dead for ten years. After deducting the money paid to her family, we made a net profit of 20,000 yuan."
...After this content continued for dozens of pages, suddenly, different content appeared on the ledger.
This time there was no specific timeframe; the opening line simply stated: "I know I shouldn't have sold it!"
The writing on the paper was crooked and slanted, showing that the person who wrote it was very emotional.
“I sensed something was wrong when my nephew brought it back. How could he be so bold as to accept something of unknown origin?”
I managed to get some information out of them. It turns out that it was an unclaimed corpse that was recently dug out of the river silt in Dahuai Village. After it was dug out and placed in front of the village ancestral hall, the village was haunted that very night.
"But I have to save my nephew."
"Even if I don't get a single penny, I have to get it out of here!"
...
Cheng Yungui turned a page, his fingers pausing as he touched the ledger.
The next page was written in red ink, with the same character scribbled haphazardly all over the page, piled up on top of each other. He recognized it; it was the character for "death."
Death, death, death—ghost movies often feature eerie scenes where the word "death" is written all over the paper.
These words sent a chill down Cheng Yungui's spine, and he quickly closed the ledger. After calming himself down, he thought, no matter what, now he knows the origin of this corpse.
Just then, firecrackers suddenly went off outside, startling Cheng Yungui. He immediately turned around to see what was happening, and at that moment, everyone around him stood up, and some were even shouting:
"The bride has been brought back!"
Interspersed among these were the innocent voices of a few children, and then a parent reached out and covered the child's mouth: "Don't shout."
Cheng Yungui: ...What are you thinking? It's one thing to come by yourself, but you even brought a child?
The little child had no idea what was going on and thought it was a real, normal wedding. He looked up at his mother and asked:
"Mom, why isn't the bride here yet? I want to see her in her wedding dress."
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Lu Mingran also squatted down. He and Jack stood on either side of the brazier, looking down into it, their heads almost touching the inside.
Where is the stuff?
Lu Mingran looked towards the other world and saw a child running inside with something that looked like a notebook. He tried to find Cheng Yungui, but then noticed that the entrance to this world was gradually becoming foggy and blurry.
It must have been sent over, and it was useful.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingran felt a little relieved and was about to stand up and go back to the restaurant. But just as he was about to leave, someone suddenly tugged at his clothes.
It's Jack.
He grabbed Lu Mingran's clothes, his expression unusually serious: "Why won't you let me do the work?"
Lu Mingran's heart skipped a beat.
Look at the child's pitiful little eyes. He's probably thinking, "You all look down on me, that's why you leave me alone."
However, what Jack said next was, "Thank you for protecting me, really."
Lu Mingran looked at him, wanting to say a lot but swallowing it back, and simply patted his back.
Honestly, no one in the Happy Family has ever done anything to wrong Jack, except for Lu Mingran who invited him to play mahjong.
It's rare for him to realize that someone is protecting him at this moment.
Lu Mingran gazed into his deep blue eyes. Just then, the sound of firecrackers went off downstairs.