Village Bride

They really set off on the journey in a bullock cart.

Bai Roushuang still wanted to experience driving this car after all. The space inside the car was spacious and very comfortable. Wind chimes carved from white jade were hung on the four corners of the car body, which made crisp and moving collision sounds from time to time. When she closed her eyes, she could barely imagine it as a fairy-like phoenix carriage.

Bai Roushuang really wanted to ask how the phoenix pulling the cart could run away, but Xu Shulou had a look on his face as if he couldn't bear to recall the past and didn't want to explain it to her in detail.

None of them knew how to drive the cows, so the two cows moved forward very freely and unrestrainedly. Not only did they walk slowly, but they also occasionally stopped to nibble on some grass by the roadside.

While they were eating grass, Xu Shulou stretched himself, got out of the car with his junior sister, and went to a tea stall or wine shop near the official road to find food.

Occasionally, when they were still waiting for the restaurant to serve the food, the two cows suddenly didn't want to eat grass and pulled the cart away.

They were not in a hurry. After finishing their meal leisurely, they slowly set out to catch up with the ox cart.

Occasionally, when they passed by a large city, the two cows probably didn't like crowded places, so they chose to take a detour. Xu Shulou and his junior sister got off the car, entered the city from the north gate, and shopped leisurely along the way. When they arrived at the south gate to leave the city, they just happened to catch up with the ox cart that was slowly moving towards them.

Bai Roushuang really enjoyed this kind of "half-day leisure" and was even quite happy with it. After a while, she even stopped disliking the ox cart and began to like the two oxen pulling the cart.

The phoenix carriage can travel a thousand miles a day and see all the mountains and rivers in one day; although the ox cart is slow, it provides another kind of scenery.

Every day when she woke up, she would get off the car to practice swordplay for a while. After practicing, she would go look for food. When she felt sleepy, she would go back to the car to sleep for a while. She would also take the opportunity to observe the local customs along the way and stop to appreciate the beautiful scenery when she saw one.

But in the past few days, the two oxen had been walking in a more and more remote area. They had not encountered any restaurants or teahouses for two consecutive days. Even the sight of people was sparse, and they could only eat the food they had stored before.

Fortunately, Xu Shulou had a very good taste in food, and all the food he was willing to pack into the food box was of the highest quality. Bai Roushuang was already accustomed to being fed by her senior sister, and she trusted the food she chose.

For breakfast that day, they had a peach blossom pastry, which was probably made with lard when kneading the dough. It was crispy on the outside but tender on the inside. This box contained sweet red bean and sweet potato fillings, as well as salty pork and mutton fillings. The food boxes bought in the secret realm allowed them to retain their fresh fragrance when they were just out of the oven, and paired with milk drinks, it really whetted people's appetite.

But there is not much food left.

Bai Roushuang lifted the curtain and looked around: "Where are we?"

"I don't know," Xu Shulou was not very reliable, "I don't even know if we are closer or farther away from Wuchen Island."

“…”

"Oh, right," Xu Shulou remembered something, "You have reached the foundation-building stage now. When you return to Wuchen Island, you must go to the Fengxian Hall to burn a stick of incense for the ancestors who have ascended to heaven. Don't forget it then."

Bai Roushuang agreed and didn't really care where this place was. She just felt that the green mountains and clear waters made her feel happy, so she got out of the car and practiced sword for a while.

At midnight that day, she woke up in a small ravine. This was the result of letting the two cows go too far. They got their wheels stuck in a rock on the mountain road and could not move forward.

Xu Shulou was outside checking the wheels. When he saw her wake up, he smiled at her and said, "We can't move. The road ahead is getting narrower and narrower. I can store this car in the Qiankun bracelet, but I can't store living things. We have to carry the oxen out of the mountain. How about we each carry one?"

“……”What a novel way to travel.

Bai Roushuang opened her mouth and was about to say something, but she saw a fire in the distance, and it seemed that many people were holding torches and walking up the mountain road. She was just woken up by the sound of these people talking.

It was late at night, and Xu Shulou was afraid that a car disappearing out of thin air would give these people bad associations and scare them, so she stood there and planned to wait for them to pass by first. However, she didn't expect that these people would look at them after approaching and then surround the car tightly.

The middle-aged man in linen clothes who was leading the group asked them, "Ladies, as you were coming from outside the mountain, did you see a girl of about fifteen or sixteen passing by on the road? She was shorter than you and was wearing a linen dress."

Xu Shulou shook his head and said truthfully: "No, is someone missing? Maybe we can help look for them."

The middle-aged man looked back at the others, then turned to Xu Shulou and said, "Alright, but there are wild beasts on the mountain, so we men should just look here. The women are searching in the village, so it would be best if you go with them. I see that your ox carts can't be moved, so if you don't mind, you can stay here for a night. We'll help you get the ox cart out when it's daybreak."

Xu Shulou looked at his left hand behind his back and suddenly laughed: "Then I'll trouble you all."

The man then sent someone to lead them into the village. Bai Roushuang followed behind him without any sense of nervousness. Although she was only in the foundation-building stage, it was enough to deal with these mortals, not to mention that she had her senior sister with her.

The two were led into the village and arranged to stay in a family. Perhaps because the family was too kind or for some other reason, they took the initiative to give the main house to them and slept in the side room themselves.

There was no conversation all night, except that from time to time there were figures passing by the window, and some even lay on the window to peek inside, as if they were afraid that they would run away.

Early the next morning, Xu Shulou was surrounded by a group of enthusiastic women, who were vying to help her wash and dress up.

Someone even took out a bright red wedding dress and said to her, "My Sanniang is getting married soon. She is in town learning the craft of weaving patterns with bamboo. I prepared a wedding dress for her but she has no time to come back to try it on. I see that your figure is similar to Sanniang's, so I'd like to trouble you to help me try it on."

This excuse was a bit too lame, and Xu Shulou suspected that they were treating him like a fool.

"Even my junior sister wouldn't believe this," Xu Shulou said dissatisfiedly, "Just say what you want to say, or I'll leave."

One can only practice fasting after entering the initial stage of Golden Elixir. Bai Roushuang has not yet reached that stage. She is hungry at this moment and is chewing the corn brought by the village woman. She couldn't help rolling her eyes when she heard this. After all, she has spent ten years in a brothel, a place where all kinds of people gather. Why does she sound like a naive and gullible fool in the mouth of her senior sister?

Everyone looked at each other, knowing that they could not hide it, so they told the truth hesitantly.

It turned out that this place was called Qizhu Village. Although the villagers lived in poverty, they were able to be self-sufficient and lived a peaceful life. Until a few years ago, an immortal took a fancy to the outstanding people and beautiful scenery of their village, built a cave nearby, and required them to send a virgin to be his bride every year.

"What immortal? Why one every year? All the girls sent there were killed?" Xu Shulou raised his eyebrows, "What would happen if we didn't send them?"

The woman in front of him shook her head: "If we send him, he will bless us with good weather and good harvests. If we don't send him, we will have no harvest. We don't want that, but how can we let the whole village starve to death?"

Another woman said quickly, "Young lady, you are just passing by at a bad time. We were supposed to marry the young lady from the Li family this year, but her parents were ignorant and sneaked into the barn where someone was imprisoned last night and let their daughter go. My family went to look for her and they happened to run into you. Now you have to take the blame."

“…”

The woman looked at Bai Roushuang, who was holding a corn in her hand and was lost in thought, and thus looked a little dazed. She used both soft and hard tactics to say to Xu Shulou, "Young lady, just be obedient and we will never embarrass your sister. If you want to resist, won't your sister have to take your place?"

Xu Shulou also glanced at his silly "sister" and sighed: "Then give her a bowl of porridge, don't let her just eat corn."

“…”

Bai Roushuang looked at the corn, then at her senior sister, and then at the women standing beside her with sinister intentions, and fell silent for a moment.

I wanted to praise my senior sister for being so thoughtful, but I felt that the timing was not right.

The women were delighted: "Girl, be good and don't talk about porridge. I will go and fry an egg for your sister!"

She moved very quickly, and after a moment, Bai Roushuang was looking at a plate of hot scrambled eggs with green onions that her senior sister had exchanged for "marrying someone" and fell into deep thought. However, it smelled quite fragrant, so she raised her chopsticks reservedly and took a bite.

The women continued to deceive Xu Shulou: "Young lady, you are so beautiful. None of the ones sent before were as pretty as you. Maybe the immortal will be happy and spare your life. Maybe he can even take you to become an immortal together."

"Okay, let's put on our makeup," Xu Shulou thought about it and actually agreed. He put on his wedding dress obediently and commented on their skills from time to time, "Your makeup is a little too plain. Do you have a flower ornament? Put one on your forehead."

The others looked at each other. This girl looked pretty, but unfortunately she wasn't very smart. They just gave her advice casually, but she actually believed it?

And her younger sister, she doesn’t seem to be worried about her sister at all, and she’s eating happily.

The women sighed, not knowing where this girl came from, as she was so stupid at such a young age.

"Why are you still distracted?" Xu Shulou was quite enthusiastic. "This is my first time wearing a wedding dress. Please dress up carefully for me."

"Okay, okay, I definitely will." As long as she was willing to enter the bridal chamber obediently, then anything would be fine. The women, under her command, carefully applied rouge and powder on her one by one, and when they saw the bright and beautiful woman made up, they couldn't help but stare in a daze.

The women who seldom put on makeup on weekdays suddenly became confident in their skills.

After the makeup was done, Xu Shulou was sent directly to the bridal chamber without going through any process of worshipping heaven and earth. To prevent her from escaping, people took turns guarding outside the room. They only had to wait until late at night for the immortal to come and take her away, and their mission for this year would be completed.

Bai Roushuang asked to go in to accompany her sister, and those people didn't stop her. As long as no one came out, it would be fine. If two people went in, maybe the immortal would take them away at once, and even save next year's share.

Today's breakfast also includes scrambled eggs with green onions, but since everyone has been lured into the bridal chamber, they have become indifferent.

There was nothing good on the table in the bridal chamber. Xu Shulou took two bites of the water radish on the plate and said aggrievedly, "I want to eat hot pot."

"Okay," Bai Roushuang rubbed her belly, "After you capture this 'immortal', we will go to the nearest town to eat hot pot, the kind with extra chili."

Xu Shulou sighed: "But I want to eat now."

There were footsteps outside the window, and the two fell silent. A shadow of a monster with horns was reflected on the paper window, looking extremely scary.

Those who were guarding outside the house did not dare to look directly at the face of the "immortal" and retreated one after another.

The so-called "immortal" outside the door was walking in with a proud look on his face.

The bridal chamber was lit with bright candlelight. As the saying goes, a beauty looks even more beautiful under the light. Xu Shulou was born beautiful, and she rarely wore such heavy makeup. At this moment, she was really bright and dazzling, even more bright and dazzling than the candlelight.

The "immortal" had indeed never seen such a beauty. He was stunned, his eyes shining, and he rubbed his hands, preparing to go forward and show some sympathy to his little wife who was probably trembling.

He did this every year, and the girl who was forced to wait for him in the room would either cry or cower and beg him to let her go.

He just enjoyed it all, their tears, their pleas and their looks of despair.

However, he didn't expect that at this moment, the beautiful girl in front of him was also looking at him with shining eyes, and the eagerness in her eyes was even stronger than his.

"It's actually a goat monster! Is there such a good thing?" He saw the girl in front of him slap the table in joy, "Just when I said I wanted to eat copper hot pot, the ingredients are delivered to my door!"