Chapter 147 Matching Ghost Marriage

After Li Dani was pushed into the dilapidated room by the woman, the door slammed shut from the outside. Seeing this, Li Dani struggled to her feet and began banging her body against the floor, letting out heavy sobs. [To prevent her escape, she had been bound with ropes and gagged with a rag when she was locked in.]

The sounds of music and banging outside masked the crashing noise. She looked around in panic and found that the doors and windows were sealed shut. She tried to find something to escape, but there was nothing there except a bed and a table.

No, she had to escape and tell the whole village what her wicked aunt had done!

She leaned against the bed leg, using its sharp edges to rub against the rope binding her hands until they were raw and bleeding, and finally, a small section of the rope broke...

Just as she was about to break the rope, an angry voice came from outside the yard: "Who are you people?"

Then a clear female voice rang out: "I heard that a decrepit old man in his sixties forcibly married a thirteen-year-old girl. My brother and I were curious and came to see which old bastard was so shameless. Others are like old oxen eating young grass, but this old widower is directly biting the seedling."

Lin Sanlang shook his head, baring his teeth, and said, "I heard that the widower's son just died not long ago. Instead of observing mourning for his son, he's thinking about getting married. Isn't he afraid that his ghost son will come out and cause trouble for him in the middle of the night?"

Lin Baozhu: ...It turns out that her third brother can be so sarcastic and hurtful.

Villagers: ...

Is this even human language? This is the first time they've ever heard of a father having to observe mourning for his son.

However, on such a joyous occasion, these two siblings came to say such unpleasant things, clearly looking for trouble. I wonder what grudge these two have against the old widower.

"Comrades, today is a joyous day for me. If you two come to offer your congratulations, my wife and I welcome you. But if you come to cause trouble, don't blame me for being impolite."

Lin Baozhu kicked over a table in the yard and coldly swept her gaze across the indignant crowd: "Heh, an old bastard with a neck buried in the yellow earth, abusing our country's minors and suspected of human trafficking. An old rogue and lecher like you, you'll be eating peanuts in jail anyway. And you're not being polite? Show me how polite you are! Bah, I'm trying to talk to you nicely, but you insist on contradicting me. If you're tired of living, I don't mind twisting your dog head off!"

After saying that, she glanced at the surrounding villagers and dropped a bombshell: "The people in your village don't know that you're not marrying a wife for yourself, but using the guise of marrying a wife to arrange a ghost marriage for your son!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned for a moment, then an uproar erupted in the crowd:

"What? A ghost marriage? And using a living person?"

“In the past, the village did arrange ghost marriages, but those always involved the dead. Using a living person... that meant suffocating the person to death in the coffin. It was said that a wife chosen this way would have the most resentment and would bring endless benefits to the descendants.”

"Putting aside whether the rumor is true or not, the mere fact that a living person is paired with a ghost is enough to give us a hard time."

Hearing the whispers of the people around Zhou Ran, the old widower's face turned grim. He said with a sinister look, "Don't talk nonsense like a young girl like you, or don't blame me for reporting you for defamation to the police."

"Nonsense? Your son's grave has been dug up, and you still dare to say that you're not marrying a wife for a ghost marriage?"

If you don't believe me, you can go to the bride's room and see if there's a portrait of her son and his birth date on the bed.

Hearing Lin Baozhu say this, several women exchanged glances; this was indeed the basic procedure for arranging a ghost marriage!

Thinking of this, the women turned around and decided to go to the bride's room to find out what was going on.

Seeing this, the old widower took a pair of scissors from the wall, stood at the door with a fierce look on his face, pointed the blade at everyone, and said viciously, "This crazy woman who came from who-knows-where, you want to search my bridal chamber just because she said a few words? If any of you enter the bridal chamber today, don't blame me for turning ruthless."

The villagers looked at each other in bewilderment, and the old widower's reaction clearly showed that he was guilty.

If an old widower were to spend money to buy a young girl as a wife, they could accept it, since it's a matter of mutual consent.

But if it involves human lives, they can't ignore it.

No outsiders know that this old widower is really going to arrange a ghost marriage for his son. They can't and won't interfere. But the key is that outsiders already know. So everyone who comes to the wedding banquet today will be an accomplice.

They know how heavy the laws are these days; there's no such thing as "the law doesn't punish everyone" anymore.

“You seem quite nervous, so it seems this woman is telling the truth. We understand that you want to find a wife for your deceased son in the afterlife, after all, he was only in his twenties when he died. But you can’t drag the whole village down with you just for your own selfish reasons.”

Someone said with resentment, "If the Red Army soldiers or the police find out about this, how serious will the consequences be? You must know."

He then turned to Lin Baozhu and said, “Comrades, we thought he was simply getting married, but who would have thought he wanted to kill her? We didn’t know about this before, and now that we do, we naturally won’t help him. Do whatever you want, we villagers will not interfere.”

"Yes, yes, we will absolutely not interfere!"

That's what they said, but they didn't leave.

Seeing this, Lin Baozhu curled her lips into a cold smile. If she couldn't subdue these villagers in one move today, she wouldn't be able to take Da Ni away.

Thinking of this, she took out a handful of pebbles from her pocket...

"Young man, what are you trying to do with that pebble? It won't even hit your head..."

Before the man could finish speaking, Lin Baozhu threw a small stone in her hand at a jujube tree in the yard in full view of everyone. The tree, which was as thick as an adult man's thigh, broke in half. If you looked closely, you could see a large hole in the broken part.

The previously noisy crowd fell silent instantly, as if a pause button had been pressed, and people involuntarily took a few steps back, as if afraid of being accidentally injured.

Lin Baozhu coldly surveyed the crowd, then threw the pebble in her hand directly at the old widower's leg...

With a muffled groan, the old widower dropped his wood-chopping knife and lay on the ground, clutching his leg and screaming in agony. Seeing this, Lin Sanlang stepped forward and kicked the door open...

"Third cousin?"

"Don't be afraid, little cousin, your third cousin is here to save you!"

Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, staring at Lin Baozhu and Lin Sanlang in shock, pointing at them and saying, "Are you the new bride's relatives?"

Lin Baozhu picked up the machete from the ground and chuckled, "Li Dani is my cousin. She was sold to an old widower by my wicked grandmother and aunt. Today we are going to take her back."

As they were talking, Lin Sanlang led a thin, small girl out of the house.

The old widower leaned against the wall to stand up, glaring fiercely at Li Dani: "No, you can't leave! She's the wife I bought with my own money!"

"Go ask whoever has the money for it. Of course, if the other party refuses to return the money, you can marry someone else. Although your son died young, don't be so rigid about the age. People like Da Ni's grandmother or aunt are not necessarily unsuitable for ghost marriages. There's a saying that older women are more caring. If our Da Ni really goes down, she'll be taken care of by your son."

"If the other party is not happy, you can go to the police station to report them for marriage fraud."

According to Erni, the old widower spent a huge sum of three hundred yuan to "marry" Dani. Given the old widower's crazy state, he might suddenly become a beast and kidnap Dani when no one is paying attention. By then, even if they find out that Dani is missing, it will be too late. It would be better to just give up his idea of ​​arranging a ghost marriage with Dani.