Chapter 246
Ji Qiang had put the show on after the food was served so her friends wouldn't go hungry. She had held five funerals, and every one of them had come, and she didn't want to leave them starving in the cold wind.
Although they said they were setting up the dishes, in reality, those friends had already very consciously taken care of the dishes themselves. Although they were puzzled by Ji Qiang's funeral being held so soon, the food was delicious and prepared according to their tastes. They chose to forgive Ji Qiang while eating, and would complain when they met again a year later.
As for the others she had invited over, they weren't treated to a meal. Ji Qiang even borrowed a monkey from a touring circus and had it keep an eye on the people. If anyone tried to eat, it would leap over and snatch the food away. If it wasn't fast enough and the food was already in someone's mouth, it would just use its claws to dig it out. It was incredibly unreasonable and unhygienic, but you couldn't really reason with a monkey, right?
At the first funeral, because of the monkeys hired by Ji Qiang, the yard was in chaos. Before the show even started, people started fighting, and others were unable to stop the fight.
At the second funeral, some people who had received the news had already eaten beforehand. The inexperienced people were in a state of chaos when confronted with the monkeys. Fortunately, there were fewer people this time, so the situation was under control and no one bothered to break up the fight.
At the third funeral, the events of the first two were already widely known, and someone didn't want to go. Then the monkey ran into his house and tickled him so much that he ran out of the house, becoming the laughing stock of the neighborhood for years.
At the fourth funeral, whether voluntarily or by force, everyone who was supposed to come showed up, including the monkey, who ate bananas and played eye-to-eye with the group, and managed to avoid any trouble. As for the subsequent custom-made business by Ji Qiang that frightened someone so much that they ran and turned themselves in, that was another matter.
No one was making trouble today, so the monkey had nothing to do but hold the fruit fed to it by the chef and chew on it, staring at the people at the table with its head turning around, hoping that a villain with some rebellious spirit would appear for it to play with.
The chef who came to cook was one of the victims Ji Qiang had helped. After the meal, he had nothing to do. As soon as the chef left, the suona player, who had already eaten and drunk his fill in the kitchen, staggered to the window and sat down, holding up his suona. It was unclear whether he was afraid of retaliation or deliberately trying to create a good atmosphere, but the player was dressed in pitch black, his head obscured by a huge hood. Part of the suona was inserted into the hood, and he played, not even his mouth or chin showing.
"Squeak?" Seeing the suona player preparing to play, the monkey immediately jumped onto the roof and fled away, throwing a few banana peels at the villain's head before leaving. By this time, its mission had been completed, but unfortunately the villains today were too honest, and it didn't find any fun, feeling very dissatisfied.
The sound of suona music began to play, and the candles in the courtyard gradually went out, leaving only the faint light on Ji Qiang's friend's dining table. The moon was still bright today, so the courtyard wasn't completely dark, but the sudden darkening still frightened some people. Some who were already trembling with fear even screamed and crawled under the table.
"People write stories all day long about women who are timid and make mistakes and scream when encountering problems, but I have never heard of a woman with a louder voice than you." Accompanied by the sound of suona, Ji Qiang led the players to make a grand appearance wearing Nuo masks. Behind them was Xiao Cheng, who was hiding in the corner fiddling with a blower and dry ice.
"Ji Qiang!"
"You are so bold to call my junior by his name..." Ji Qiang sneered, and gently turned his right hand under the cover of his long sleeves, and knocked the man to the ground with a clod of earth: As long as I don't admit it, no one can force me to reveal my true identity.
The suona music continued. Concerned that staying in the courtyard would affect Ji Qiang's performance, Ji Qiang's friends, in sync, gathered the food onto two tables and carried them inside, taking away the courtyard's only remaining light source. Ji Qiang had clearly anticipated their plan, so she had prepared a soup-free meal, making it easier to carry and less likely to spill.
As the light disappeared, the yard instantly became pitch black, with only the cold moonlight providing limited illumination. To make the atmosphere more in line with Ji Qiang's expectations, these friends also blew out some of the candles in the house, making the yard suddenly even darker.
The suona continued to play, this time with a mournful, shrill tune. Against the pitch-black night and the backdrop of a group of people wearing black cloaks and Nuo masks, the tone was particularly eerie. Although they knew that the scene before them was Ji Qiang's doing, and that the group was most likely just humans, these people with hidden agendas didn't dare to gamble on whether someone had actually sneaked in. Ji Qiang was truly evil, his righteousness radiating evil. And some things, it's better to believe it than not.
The sky was dark, and a green light, seemingly from nowhere, shone patchily on the players' masks, frightening the timid even more. Following the script, the players began their own performances. Some pretended to be ghosts, while others were actually ghosts. The difference between real and fake, fake and real, made it difficult for the locals to distinguish. Add to that the fact that most of them possessed some basic martial arts skills, and the performance seemed even more eerie.
At the back of the crowd, Lu Di sat in the prop well, dangling his legs and baring his teeth as he looked at the trembling natives. The costumes of his friends were a bit scary, and since everyone was wearing masks, Lu Di didn't dare to look up, for fear that looking too much would give him nightmares.
"Wow, even though I knew it was fake, I still feel a little creepy." One of Ji Qiang's friends couldn't help but raise their arms and hug themselves tightly. "Why is the performance style so gloomy today?"
"She must have been holding her anger in for too long. Not long after the last funeral, her fake grave was dug up. It's no exaggeration to say that this hatred is irreconcilable." Another friend who ate quickly came to the window with a cucumber after dinner, crunching it, and answered in a hoarse voice: "But some of them look really unfamiliar. I don't know from which nooks and crannies she dug them out." She had to speak without shouting because the suona was a bit too loud.
Ji Qiang's friends were most perplexed by her source of information. Sometimes, while walking down the street with her, they'd turn around and she'd vanish. Then, looking back again, they'd see her grabbing a stranger and demanding, "Do you want to turn yourself in, or do you want me to beat you up and then turn you in?" Uninformed, they'd probably mistake her for a bully. But surprisingly, none of these arrested strangers were innocent. It was truly remarkable.
The people in the courtyard shared similar sentiments, but their concerns were other. While they knew this scene was staged by Ji Qiang, and even Ji Qiang herself, who refused to remove her vest, was involved, this eerie energy still lingered... What if Ji Qiang got furious and hired someone to do it for real? There was no telling!
The people Ji Qiang had carefully chosen weren't particularly courageous. With the exception of the brightly dressed and straight-backed man, the others were eager to dig a hole and hide themselves there, lest they be found and pulverized by vengeful ghosts. However, before they could decide where to hide, Ji Qiang had already approached them.
Ji Qiang: "Using dangerous substances in experiments on students, causing them to contract serious diseases and eventually die?"
Player: "Woo..."
Ji Qiang: "He pressed his wife into noodle soup and boiled her to death, yet he claimed he was washing her face and accidentally choked her to death?"
Player: "Woo..."
Ji Qiang: "Knowing the truth, you ask the old lady to forgive your own father who killed your own mother?"
Player: "Woo..."
Ji Qiang: "Out of jealousy, you poisoned your roommate, obstructed his treatment, and persecuted his parents?"
Player: "Woo..."
Like a demonic judge dragging a guillotine, Ji Qiang pressed on in the darkness of the night, pressing the evildoers she'd coerced into attending the funeral, reciting their crimes as if delivering a verdict. For various reasons, these individuals had escaped their intended punishment, and Ji Qiang painstakingly dug them out from their hiding places and gathered them in Sijin County. For no other reason than that their hiding places were too close to Sijin County, which she disliked.
Behind Ji Qiang, a sea of players stood in a black mass, adding to her aura. Although everyone's characters were maids and their assigned costumes were women's, these clothes were all black. Paired with large capes and Nuo masks, they felt like they might as well be playing the role of the Walking Impermanence.
Every time Ji Qiang pronounced a verdict, the players would make a humming sound and take a step forward. A dozen people could actually move forward with the momentum of thousands of people. The villains even had the illusion that a group of people were stepping on their hearts in unison.
Some people who were dug out from hiding and forced to attend the funeral: Are you the bully or am I the bully... I can't breathe anymore, is it the soul-catcher coming to take souls away?
Lu Di, who was huddled in the well, counting the beats with his eyes closed, walked forward: I was so self-aware that I chose this well. Ah, I'm starting to get a little scared...
After reading the verdict, Ji Qiangren had already walked in front of those people. The sound of suona gradually became smaller. At some point, the suona master changed the instrument. The penetrating power was not as strong as before, but the tune was more ghostly. Those who were huddled on the ground huddled together after hearing it. Ji Qiang's friends in the room who were finally able to chat in normal tones simply held each other's hands and chatted randomly to give each other courage.
"Hey, that guy you mentioned last time who you thought was good...how are you getting along?"
"We don't get along anymore."
"You finally realized that guy was mean to you?" Rejoice! This silly girl finally woke up!
"No, I realized that my feeling of pity for him, my heartache for him, and my support for him were all out of my overflowing maternal love, not love at all."
“…” It’s outrageous yet somewhat reasonable.
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