Chapter 101

Yu Gengshi found a village master who had been playing the suona and organizing weddings and funerals for half his life. He didn't take the money for free. He made careful arrangements to make the marriage of this man and the ghost as perfect as possible.

Everyone in the village avoids this place, thinking that holding a ghost marriage is unlucky.

Fuquan and Uncle Chengzhi were helping, and Dong Chi arrived a little late, only arriving in the evening, and almost got lost in the village.

Dong Chi planned to bring along a few of Lou Sheng's former good friends, but his plan was rejected. He thought that the fewer people who knew about this, the better, so he only brought along two boys he trusted.

"No, Dong Chi, are you lying?! Were you coerced into human trafficking?! What a godforsaken place this is!"

"You're so heartless! Lou Sheng is dead and you're still using him as a gimmick to deceive people!"

Dong Chi was impatient: "You know it's a scam, but you still come here!"

"What if, what if there really are ghosts in the world?"

"You talk so convincingly that you even involve Ying Zhisheng. I'm definitely going to come and take a look."

The three of them, dressed in designer clothes, walked along the muddy road, their shoes stained beyond recognition. It wasn't until they entered the village and arrived at Yu Gengshi's hometown that they were stunned by the sight of the meticulously decorated white and red house.

Everyone was busy, and Assistant Tao was stunned. Seeing the three guests at the door, he quickly stood up from his small stool and said, "Welcome, welcome! You are Lou Shengge's friends, right?"

Someone nodded: "Brother."

Someone looked up: "Brother."

Dong Chi laughed foolishly: "I, I am Lou Sheng's childhood friend and buddy..."

Assistant Tao didn't finish listening, as he was busy looking for some wet locust branches. According to the procedure, all those who would participate in this ghost marriage would be beaten with a whip. He didn't save any energy, and the three of them cried out in pain.

"Where is Lou Sheng?" Dong Chi asked impatiently.

Assistant Tao pointed to the closed door and said, "Brother Sheng, help him get dressed."

"Wait wait, he has hands and feet but can't he dress himself?"

"Lou Sheng asked for it himself. He wanted to give birth to a brother instead of anyone else."

Dong Chi had a strange expression on his face, a slight chill. He'd known Lou Sheng for so many years, but he'd never been so clear that he was gay. Oh no, he was even gay, begging Ying Zhisheng to help him put on his clothes.

Grandma Zhu sat in her rocking chair, cracking melon seeds with her few remaining teeth. When they couldn't crack, she stuffed them into Da Huang's mouth. She mumbled something under her breath, and Uncle Cheng Zhi, who was nearby pasting window paper-cuts, overheard it. The old lady suspected that the man and the ghost, who had been dawdling and not changing their clothes, were having an affair. She meant it, and she even said that this was how it was before a wedding. She wanted fresh sheets to sleep on that night.

Uncle Cheng Zhi became increasingly silent.

"What is the situation of ghost marriage and how many days does it take?" Dong Chi asked Yu Gengshi seriously.

Yu Gengshi replied, "Ying Zhisheng promised me 20 million and an apartment in the city center. I will definitely get it done for him. But it can only be done for one day. After all, there are taboos, so a quick victory is better."

To be honest, Dong Chi had thought about being Lou Sheng's best man and the godfather of Lou Sheng's child, but he had never thought about attending a funeral and this spooky ghost marriage.

He smoked a cigarette, said nothing more, and took out a wad of bills from his pocket and gave it to Yu Gengshi:

"My brother died early and suffered a great injustice. Please help me take good care of him. I beg you."

The other two boys, in tacit agreement, also prepared thick wads of cash. They handed over the money and bowed to Yu Gengshi. One of them bent over and refused to stand up straight for a long time, saying over and over, "Please, please! Lou Sheng is quite selfish. If he makes you unhappy in any way, please be tolerant!"

Assistant Tao felt sad because he saw Dong Chi, who was so arrogant, bowing his head and begging others, smoking silently and crying.

The ghost marriage was conducted in the Chinese style. Considering that there were two boys, Grandma Zhu wrote the words "husband and husband" on the marriage certificate with her fingers, which only had a thin layer of skin left. There were two grooms, one yin and one yang.

She also wrote on a light yellow piece of paper, and after Lou Sheng had made his choice, she would adjust and cut the paper clothes and burn them together.

At night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The villagers went to bed early, with only the occasional barking of dogs and meowing of cats echoing in the air. Only during the night watch, the lights in the house were brightly lit, waiting for the arrival of midnight.

The village was pitch black, without a single streetlight, and the toilets were dry toilets, something he'd rarely seen. Dong Chi would pee with his eyes closed; it was so pitch black he couldn't tell where was where.

The paper money burned incessantly, the sparks and ash from the scorching brazier drifting freely in the air overhead, landing on the white cloth hanging from the door lintel and tumbling back out. From all directions came the sounds of chanting, funeral songs, and the abrupt and unreasonable sound of blessings.

Ying Zhisheng wore a bright red wedding gown, with a red ribbon tied around his wrist to hide his suicide scar. He also put on some light makeup, pinned a flower on his chest, and smiled uncontrollably. He kept saying to everyone, "Thank you for attending my wedding with Lou Sheng."

But no matter how much effort one puts in, this marriage is ultimately shameful and cannot be publicized, and it seems a bit shabby and lonely.

For some reason, Fuquan felt extremely upset and had a headache, especially when he saw Ying Zhisheng sitting there carefully wiping Lou Sheng's urn and bending down to kiss it carefully.

"Where is Lou Sheng?" Fuquan touched his head and suspected that the headache was contagious. He couldn't see ghosts, so he had to ask Yu Gengshi.

Yu Gengshi replied: "I'm right next to you, pulling your hair."

"I was wondering why I have a headache! This bastard!"

Yu Gengshi peeled an orange and said, "A very arrogant woman came. She was wearing high heels and looked people down with her nose... As soon as she entered the house, she went to talk to my grandma. Who is she?"

Who else could be so arrogant? "Lou Sheng's mother."

As soon as Lou Sheng's mother was mentioned, the three Dong Chi brothers were no longer sleepy. They sat up straight and looked at each other, but no one dared to play with their mobile phones.

Gao Xinhua didn't look at Ying Zhisheng, staring intently at his son. Lou Sheng was wearing a red wedding dress with black trim. Paper money was flaming. The boy's eyes sparkled as he called out, "Mom."

For a woman, this is the most painful thing in the world.

Lou Sheng's life came to an abrupt end at the age of 23, having such a bizarre marriage. Gao Xinhua's face tightened, she felt like a knife was cutting her flesh. Lou Sheng was her flesh, and he had jumped from a tall building and broken into pieces! Lou Sheng's death was the second death for her as a mother!

Gao Xinhua rarely cried unless driven to despair. She blinked, tears streaming down her face, and she spoke in a trembling voice, "My child... Mom has risen from poverty to wealth, and imagined your wedding countless times. If I had known you would die at twenty-three, I wouldn't have beaten you. I would have knelt on the ground every day, begging God to be kind to you! Why did you die, my Lou Sheng?"

"I would rather die a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times than be you. You were so obedient and kind. When I was working in a restaurant as a child, I would put you on a small plastic stool in the kitchen. You would sit there obediently, your legs unable to reach me, and you would call out for me, 'Mommy, Mommy...'"

Grandma Zhu silently turned her head and stared at the boy's portrait in the center of the white candle. Then she turned her head again and saw the living groom wiping his tears with a wry smile.

Many people are crying.

One, two, three were all crying.

Who isn’t? Who doesn’t want to die for Lou Sheng?

The double red coffin, wrapped in a white cloth, its red paint gleaming in the candlelight. Ying Zhisheng curled his lips gently as he cradled Lou Sheng's ashes in the dark, cramped, suffocating coffin.

Lou Sheng's ashes are in his heart, and Lou Sheng's soul is by his side.

The yellow paper in the brazier burned brighter and brighter.

The loud sound of suona suddenly rang out, piercing the sky and breaking the silence of the night.

Thin white paper money was thrown into the air, but it didn't fall for a long time. Grandma Zhu shouted, "Though separated by Yin and Yang, our friendship remains unchanged. Joined by branches and sharing the same grave, our two souls will depend on each other and will never abandon each other."

Dong Chifuquan and the others clapped their hands, which coincided with the crackling sound from the brazier, making the scene quite lively.