Chapter 14 The idea of ​​a ghost marriage is something people come up with themselves.

Upon hearing his wife's words, Li Ming immediately frowned. "Didn't you already make a deal with Zhong Lao Er's family?"

“Where can you find a living person for a ghost marriage? You’d definitely find a girl of similar age who also died young and wasn’t married,” Liu Hongyan said.

Li Ming was still frowning. His mind was full of crops, labor, and work points. He was a little resistant to the idea of ​​forcing a "ghost marriage" into these things. "Why bother with all this nonsense?"

“I hadn’t thought about this before, but so many people have been talking about it. Even my sister-in-law asked me if I should arrange a ghost marriage for Si’er, so he won’t be all alone down there.” Liu Hongyan seemed lost in thought. “Besides, we went to Si’er’s grave for the 49th day memorial a couple of days ago, but he hasn’t even appeared in my dreams. I was wondering if he’s upset that I didn’t arrange a ghost marriage for him, leaving him all alone down there…”

As Liu Hongyan spoke, tears suddenly streamed down her face. "It's all your fault. When we were naming him, I told you that the character 'Lin' was too big and that Si'er wouldn't be able to handle it. I asked you to choose another character, but you wouldn't listen. You said that Ganlin River is the root of Tonggan Village, so you made Si'er have this name!"

Li Ming realized from a young age that people should read more books, because only by reading more books can one change their destiny. He did indeed change his own destiny because of this, from a boy who toiled in the fields to being elected as the village chief, and later the production team leader.

He became even more determined to ensure that his descendants would all become cultured people. To this end, Li Ming specially asked his third aunt, who had once served as a maid to a landlord's son and was the most cultured person in the village, to help him devise the generational names for each generation of his descendants: "Ming Guang Shi Zu De, Zhong Xiao Ji Shi Chang".

Li Ming and Liu Hongyan's children were all named according to the "Shi" generation. Before naming each child, they consulted their aunt to calculate the five elements based on their birth date and time.

The eldest son was lacking the element of metal in his Five Elements, so the character “钢” (steel) was chosen from the characters with the metal radical.

The second son was born without the element of wood, so he was named "Rongshi".

The daughter born at the same time was also given the name "Rou" which contains the radical for "wood".

His youngest son lacked water, so among a multitude of characters such as "river," "river," "wave," "swim," "marsh," "spring," "rain," "ice," and "rain," Li Ming immediately chose the character "Lin" from Ganlin River. He hoped that his youngest son could also become the "sweet rain" of Tonggan Village, achieving great things when he grew up and making the lives of the villagers better.

Li Ming, who was overjoyed at the birth of his youngest son, could never have imagined that twenty-two years later, this one character would become a prophecy, and his youngest son, whose name contained the character "霖" (Lin), would perish in the Ganlin River.

Li Ming remained silent for a long time before finally sighing, "Then go ask Hu for directions."

He eventually agreed to this absurd thing.

The next day, after finishing work, Liu Hongyan carried a bag of white flour buns to the west of the village. During the off-season, the production team members would usually finish work after sunset, so it was still bright when she arrived at Nie's house.

The Nie family hadn't separated yet, and Hu had learned that they lived with the eldest son Nie Jinlong's family and the youngest son Nie Xiaolong. When Liu Hongyan came to visit, her eyes lit up, and she asked in surprise, "My Jinfeng has good news too?!"

Hu Datong's daughter, Nie Jinfeng, married Li Rongshi, the second son of Liu Hongyan's family. Apart from having a son three years ago, her daughter had never been happy since, which worried Hu Datong a lot and almost became a source of heartache for her.

"No, don't worry about this, in-laws. Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. The more you urge her, the more pressure she will feel. I have a daughter myself, and I know that there's no use in rushing this." Liu Hongyan pulled Hu inquire into the house. Her own daughter, Li Rou, had been married for five years and had been pregnant four times, but only had one daughter. Meanwhile, her mother-in-law was pressuring her to have a son.

Putting herself in Liu Hongyan's shoes, she wouldn't treat her daughter-in-law like that. She hopes to treat other people's daughters better, so that she can accumulate good fortune for her own daughter and make her daughter's life easier.

Liu Hongyan sat down in the main room of the Nie family's house. She pushed the cloth bag containing white flour buns in her hand to Hu Dating, saying, "I've come to ask you for a favor."

Hu was completely confused. Because she loved to ask questions, most of the people in the production team asked her for help in finding out which young men or women were suitable for their children. In short, she was doing the work of a matchmaker.

But apart from her youngest son who drowned, all of Liu Hongyan's other children are already married. Counting down, the oldest of her grandchildren is only eight years old this year. They are not so poor that they can't afford to eat, so why would they be in such a hurry to find husbands?

“I know you know people from several production teams nearby, and you’re the only one who can untangle those complicated family relationships,” Liu Hongyan said, offering a few compliments. “So I’m asking you to help me secretly look around and see if there are any girls who passed away around the same age as my fourth son, so that the two poor kids can at least have some company down there.”

Hu, recalling the trouble Lai Hunzi had caused a while ago, suddenly understood. She accepted this special matchmaker's gift, "Okay, then I'll secretly inquire for you while I'm chatting with someone."

——

The room felt like it was on a rapidly cooling air conditioner. As soon as Zhong Ying felt the change in temperature, she knew who had come without even looking.

She was lying on her side facing the wall, but he kept appearing suddenly. Zhong Ying was getting used to this damp and chilly atmosphere, which was like the prelude to a game character's appearance, announcing his arrival.

Zhong Ying opened her eyes and couldn't help but sigh. It had been more than half a month since he last appeared, so why did he come again tonight? Couldn't this damned ghost just lay down his butcher's knife and reincarnate sooner?

"Big brother, if you're going to kill me, can you hurry up and stop dragging your feet and going back and forth?" Zhong Ying said helplessly, and then she turned around.

A drop of cold water hit her shoulder blade, stopping her movement.

I won't kill you.

The male ghost's voice was cold and seemed somewhat stiff, "Don't turn around."

What's wrong? Zhong Ying had never spoken to anyone while lying in bed with her back to them like this before. She felt very awkward and wanted to move, but then cold fingers, emanating a faint chill, pressed against her back.

Fine, if you won't let me turn around, then I won't turn around. Zhong Ying couldn't help but think to herself, "I've been wandering around with that pale face for so long, and now I'm afraid people will see me?"

Seeing that she finally didn't want to turn around anymore, Li Linshi immediately withdrew his hand.

He did this simply because he didn't want to see anything he shouldn't see, nor did he want her to see his evasive gaze, making him seem like a conservative, old-fashioned relic.

“I’m not here to kill you, I need you to do something for me,” Li Linshi said, pausing for a moment. “My mother asked Hu to inquire about… the matter of ghost marriages, do you know about it?”

"I know, everyone in the production team knows about it now, it's become a topic of conversation." Zhong Ying answered lazily. If he hadn't come, she would have been soundly asleep by now.

“Go and tell my mother that I don’t need any ghost marriage.”

When Li Linshi heard people talking about it, his first feeling was that it was absurd.

After giving up on killing Zhong Ying, Li Linshi no longer needed to follow her to find an opportunity to strike. He lost his target for a while and had nowhere to go, so he spent most of his time in the Ganlin River, only occasionally going home to see his family, because he was afraid that seeing them too often would make him feel bad.

Therefore, Li Linshi was the last person to know that he was to be engaged in a ghost marriage.

He genuinely found it absurd. He hadn't gone underground, nor did he feel lonely and want to find a companion. There were hardly any people in the world who could even see him, so why would anyone bully him?

It's all just human imagination.

For the first time, Li Linshi personally experienced the oppression brought about by the ignorance and backwardness of people's thinking. He had no need for a false and absurd "companion".

“If you don’t want to have a ghost marriage, why don’t you go and say so yourself?” Zhong Ying said. “I heard from my mother that your mother brought up the ghost marriage again because you haven’t appeared in her dreams. She thought you resented her.”

Hearing her use of "my mother" and "your mother" in her words, Li Linshi felt a strange sensation. Considering the time and place—late at night, in a private room—if one ignored the content of their conversation, the two of them seemed like a newlywed couple who couldn't stop calling each other "my mother" and "your mother."

He shook his head to dismiss the even more absurd idea and returned to the original topic, "I can't enter dreams. What people think of as ghosts appearing in dreams is just their own thoughts about what they think about during the day."

Li Linshi pursed his lips and glanced at the back of Zhong Ying's head. "My mother hasn't dreamed about me. She must have been too tired from the busy farming season recently, so she's sleeping very soundly."

Zhong Ying raised her hand and tapped her head with her fingers, looking somewhat troubled. "How am I supposed to tell her? My mother has been keeping a close eye on me these past few days. She's even stopped letting me go to work. She's afraid that if I show up in front of your mother, I'll catch her eye. If she doesn't find a suitable deceased girl to match you, your mother might change her mind and suddenly remember me."

Li Linshi remained silent, which was also what he found even more absurd about the world. How could that scoundrel have come up with such nonsense about the living and the dead forming a ghost marriage?

"You figure something out," Li Linshi said coldly.

Li Linshi had no choice but to ask Zhong Ying to help him relay the message, as the only person who could see him was Zhong Ying.

“My mother is always with your mother at work, so it’s hard for me to talk to your mother without my mother’s knowledge. You men are all like this, you throw out a problem and then ignore it. I’ll think of a solution, but what solution do I have? Let me think…” Zhong Ying’s voice grew softer and softer until it was almost a murmur and then fell silent.

Li Linshi stared at the back of her head, disbelief appearing in his dark, inky eyes. She had just fallen asleep?

The next day, after breakfast, the rest of the family went to work, while Zhong Ying leisurely carried her basket and walked towards Ying Mountain behind the village. These days, Deng Xia didn't let her daughter go to work; instead, she arranged for Zhong Ying to collect firewood at the foot of Ying Mountain.

Zhong Ying held a bamboo target with a row of secret rake teeth woven from dozens of thin bamboo strips. She pulled the rake along the road at the foot of Ying Mountain, and the scattered branches were picked up by the rake teeth. "I've thought it through. I'll take my time gathering firewood today. I'll go find your mother when I estimate that she'll be home making lunch. This is called taking advantage of the time difference."

The tall, ghostly figure standing out behind her listened silently.

Zhong Ying turned her head and glanced back, seeing sunlight filtering through the leaves and falling on Li Linshi's pale, calm face. She exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? I thought ghosts couldn't be exposed to the sun."

“That’s just what people think, believing that ghosts will turn to ashes when exposed to sunlight.” Li Linshi didn’t mind answering her questions because she was willing to help, “In reality, the conditions for a ghost to turn to ashes are not like that.”

Zhong Ying's heart skipped a beat, and she asked casually, "Oh? What's that?"

Li Linshi raised his eyelids and glanced at Zhong Ying coldly and calmly, "Lingering in the mortal world, forgotten by the last person who remembers him."

The unexpected answer made Zhong Ying turn around and glance at Li Linshi. When this ghost hung over her head like the Sword of Damocles, ready to take her life at any moment, Zhong Ying naturally thought of resisting.

Without any real-life examples, Zhong Ying could only refer to various modern ghost movies. She thought about peach wood swords and yellow talismans. When she hated him the most, Zhong Ying really wanted to drag this ghost out into the sun and expose him to the scorching sun.

Zhong Ying never expected that the method to truly annihilate a ghost was so simple: forgetting.

Zhong Ying regained her composure, unloaded the basket from her back, pulled the bamboo rake over and placed it on the ground, then unloaded the pile of firewood on top. "Did another ghost tell you this?"

She hadn't missed what Li Linshi had let slip: someone told him that ghosts who kill indiscriminately create negative karma, but those who kill themselves are considered to have a clear cause and a just cause, a matter of course. Li Linshi paused for a moment, probably realizing he'd made a mistake, so these things were told to him by a senior ghost.

Thinking about this, Zhong Ying suddenly had an idea, "Was it a male ghost or a female ghost who was telling you all this?"

Seeing that the ghost's eyes seemed to flicker with emotion upon hearing the last word, Zhong Ying immediately punched the palm of her other hand. "Isn't that perfect? ​​Which family's ghost is it? When I go to find your mother, I'll mention it for you. There's a female ghost here, and since neither of you wants to leave the human world, it'll be a good companion. Plus, it'll save your mother from having to ask around anymore, so she won't have to think of me again if she can't find out."

Li Linshi's gaze turned somber and gloomy again, his dark eyes deep and unfathomable, and he felt anger once more.

Zhong Ying had gotten used to this guy's unpredictable moods. Anyway, she wasn't even afraid of death, so why would she be afraid of his cold face?

She casually greeted the young girl who had just walked over, "Zhong Ni, are you here to collect firewood too?"

The girl, whose eyes appeared exceptionally large because of her thinness, nodded shyly.

The girl was the daughter of Zhong Ying's uncle. Zhong Chunsheng and his brother Zhong Qiushou had a very strained relationship. Even though they both lived in the Tonggan Production Team, the two families didn't have much contact on a daily basis, which meant that the younger generation of children were only nodding acquaintances.

After greeting Zhong Ni and Zhong Ying, Zhong Ni quietly went to the other side to gather firewood.

Seeing that no one was around, Zhong Ying quietly lowered her voice and started talking to the male ghost, "You still haven't said which family's ghost it is? But from my original memories, it seems that no adult girls have died in Tonggan Production Team in recent years?"

As she spoke, Zhong Ying became puzzled again. So who was the other ghost in the Tonggan production team?

Just then, she suddenly saw a slender, ethereal figure slowly float down to Zhong Ni's side in the distance.

Zhong Ying's gaze lingered on the ghost. At first glance, she felt the ghost looked somewhat familiar, but after a moment, she recalled the ghost's voice, appearance, and smile from her previous life. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she couldn't help but call out the ghost's name, "Auntie?"

A note from the author:

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Another ghost has appeared!