"Liu Sandao!"

I grabbed a red date from the offering table and threw it at them: "So from the moment you told me to get in the car, you all treated me like a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered?"

He chuckled dryly and scratched his head, the gold chain jingling with each movement.

"Look how festive this decoration is, my brother!"

As he spoke, he suddenly reached out and tugged at the red silk on the roof beam, causing the hidden bells to make a soft, tinkling sound.

"See this? This is a specially made soul-suppressing bell array. It will trigger the mechanism as soon as the female ghost gets close."

I watched coldly as he pulled out a stack of talismans from his suit pocket.

"Put this 'soul-suppressing talisman' by the bedside and hang an 'evil-repelling banner' in the wardrobe..."

He suddenly lowered his voice: "Remember, at three-quarters past midnight, never blow out the candle by the bedside. That female ghost loves to use candlelight..."

"Knife Boy! Dinner's ready!"

Chen Dashan's shouts burst open the door.

Amidst the rising steam, the table was piled high with cured pork trotters, smoked fish, and homemade rice wine.

Liu Sandao's cousin and his wife were both there, but Ah Xiu was nowhere to be seen.

But thinking about it, she's probably crazy, so she probably won't come out and sit at the same table with us.

The courtyard was packed with villagers who came to watch the spectacle.

An auntie shakily brought over a bowl of poached eggs.

Tears welled in his cloudy eyes: "Master, you must save us! My second son is getting married next month... We've postponed the wedding three times already. If we don't get married soon, the bride's family will call off the engagement!"

"Don't worry! I'm here!"

Liu Sandao patted his chest, downed a bowl of wine, wiped his mouth, and declared, "With me, Liu Sandao, on the case, that female ghost will never return!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhang the Cripple from next door squeezed in with a bowl of wine in hand, his canvas shoes still stained with fresh beef.

"Master chef, please try our homemade corn liquor!"

Without a word, he shoved the wine bowl into my hand, the strong smell of alcohol making me wince.

"My son goes to high school in town. Every time he comes home for vacation, he's afraid to walk alone at night, for fear of being targeted by that female ghost..."

Before I could refuse, another man in a faded blue cloth shirt came up to me, holding a large bowl with a chipped rim.

"My savior, let me fill your cup!"

He tilted his head back and downed the drink in one gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing violently: "Last year, my cousin got married, and the next morning..."

He suddenly choked up, making a whimpering sound, "His whole face was just a bloody hole, even the doctors were scared to death..."

After several rounds of drinks, the atmosphere in the courtyard became increasingly heated.

The villagers took turns offering me a toast, their rough hands gripping my wrists tightly, their calloused fingertips brushing against my skin.

"We absolutely must capture that female ghost!"

"You are the savior of our entire village!"

The cacophony of voices, mixed with the smell of alcohol, made me dizzy.

I don't know how many bowls I drank, but my consciousness gradually blurred, and I only felt the ground beneath my feet shaking.

In a daze, I caught a glimpse of a white shadow flashing past the corner of the courtyard. A disheveled woman was holding a bloody, mangled thing, and the stench of decay hit me.

Black blood flowed from her empty eye sockets, and her mouth stretched to her ears as she gave me a sinister smile.

However, when I looked back, the white figure had already disappeared.

...

I don't know how much alcohol I drank.

As the alcohol took effect, I stumbled and pushed open the wooden door to the new house.

I fell asleep as soon as I lay down on the bed.

I don't know how much time passed, but suddenly the back of my neck felt cool, as if someone was breathing on it.

I turned over in a daze and saw a dark figure crouching in the corner.

Moonlight streamed in through the carved window, casting patches of light on her. I initially mistook it for the swaying shadows of trees outside.

The dark figure slowly turned its head.

She was chewing on something, with dark red scabs between her fingers.

The candle by the bedside popped and sparks flew, and I then saw that she was holding a dead mouse in her hand.

Its fur was all rolled up, and black blood was seeping from its empty eye sockets.

She noticed me staring at her and suddenly chuckled.

Sticky liquid oozed from the rotten gums, dripping onto the faded red silk cloth on the ground.

Who the hell are you?!

I rolled out of bed, but bumped into the corner of the eight-immortal table next to me.

The red dates on the offering table were falling down with a clatter, and one of them rolled right to her feet.

She grabbed them like they were precious treasures and stuffed them into her mouth, chewing them so loudly that the bones crunched, muttering indistinctly, "Wedding candy...so sweet..."

A gust of cold wind, carrying dampness, rushed into the room, scattering her messy hair.

That's when I saw that her wrists were covered in gruesome whip marks, with bits of dry grass stuck in the wounds.

This matches what Zhou Guilan said during the day about closing the cowshed.

She suddenly crawled over on all fours, her fingernails scraping against the blue brick floor with a "scratching" sound: "Red veil... my red veil..."

The stench emanating from her made me feel nauseous, like a rotten rag soaking in a stinking ditch.

When she rushed to my side, I glimpsed that under her tattered clothes, there was a half-painted, faded lotus flower tattooed on her chest, the color seeping into her flesh.

He said my face was redder than a red veil...

She cried as she grabbed my hand and pressed it against her face: "Look... is it still red?"

I jerked my hand back, my palm covered in sticky blood.

Upon closer inspection, her face was covered in burn scars, pitted and uneven.

Isn't this exactly what Liu Sandao described as being disfigured by wax?

"Ah Xiu! You've had another episode!"

Perhaps because she heard the noise from our side, Zhou Guilan rushed in holding a kerosene lamp.

Under the light, I saw Ah Xiu's other hand tightly gripping half of the red veil, the gold thread edge of which was soaked in blood and turned black.

She suddenly burst into shrill laughter and threw the red cloth onto the candle.

The moment the flames leaped up, dark red words appeared on the cloth: "Give me back my face! Give me back my groom!"

Zhou Guilan tried to drag her away, and as Axiu struggled, she muttered, "At three-quarters past midnight... return to your place..."

The door slammed shut, and a bloodstained strip of cloth was slipped through the crack in the door.

I picked it up and looked at it. There were crooked words engraved on it: "They are all lying... They are all lying, they are all liars, they all have to die, none of them can escape."