Chapter 1 of Ming Niang Yang
Red candles flickered, suonas played, and a large red wedding photo hung high in the middle of the mourning hall.
Under the mourning hall, Ge Er's breath was full of alcohol. He looked at the man and woman in the wedding photo with squinted eyes.
It was a spliced-together wedding photo. Although the man and woman in the photo were smiling happily, it gave people a gloomy feeling.
The man in the photo is Ge Er's eldest brother, who died in an accident a few days ago. According to local custom, unmarried men and women cannot be buried in the ancestral tomb. So the Ge family went to great lengths to buy a female corpse from out of town to arrange a ghost marriage for their child. It's said that the corpse was a virgin and very beautiful, so the "bride price" was extremely high. Since corpses are hard to come by these days, the Ge family gritted their teeth and bought it.
Strangely, when the "bride" was delivered, her head was covered tightly, and the Ge family refused to see her face. The seller said the bride had died in a car accident, and because the family was poor, they had never had her body reshaped or reshaped. They kept the "bride's" head covered to prevent her from frightening others.
The second son of the Ge family licked his lips as he looked at the "bride's" delicate face in the photo. He turned to look at his "eldest brother and his wife," who lay side by side in the coffin. They were dressed in old-fashioned bright red wedding gowns, and the "bride" had a red veil covering her head. It looked as if they were truly asleep.
The suona played even more festively, and bursts of firecrackers could be heard outside. The second son of the Ge family knew that the coffin was being carried away. His eyes shifted to the bride's hand. It looked white and clean, delicate and tender, with skin that seemed so delicate that it could be blown away. How could it be the hand of a dead person?
Ge Laoer felt even more unhappy when he thought about how his family had spent a fortune and yet he couldn't even see the bride's face. As if possessed by some strange force, he slowly walked to the coffin and slowly lifted the bride's veil...
Delicate collarbone, white neck, black hair, and then... the creepy white bones! Connected to the neck was a white skull without any flesh or blood, with empty eye sockets!
Ge Lao Er sobered up immediately, and was so frightened that he couldn't even utter a word. A cold wind blew from the hall, and the red candles in the hall went out at once. Ge Lao Er ran out of the house desperately.
An unknown amount of time passed before Ge Lao Er, trembling with fear, returned to the courtyard. The coffin had already been carried away and buried. Ge Lao Er rubbed his eyes, wondering if he'd drunk too much and seen things wrongly. He looked up at the sky, only to see dark clouds and no stars or moon. A cold wind blew, and Ge Lao Er hurried back to his room.
Entering the house, he picked up the half-empty bottle of Erguotou on the table and drank it. A spicy taste slid down his throat into his stomach, and then a warm current gradually spread to his limbs. Taking advantage of the alcohol, Ge Er collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
As he fell asleep, Ge Lao Er felt someone beside him. He opened his eyes drowsily and vaguely saw a beautiful girl lying next to his pillow. The girl was smiling at him with a pair of big, watery eyes.
Ge Lao Er closed his eyes, thinking that it was really sad that he could only dream of getting married. He opened his eyes again, and the girl was still in front of him, still smiling at him.
Was it a sweet dream? At this thought, Ge Laoer's body actually reacted slightly, but he quickly realized something was wrong. The girl's expression as she looked at him remained unchanged, like a photograph, maintaining the same pose and gaze... Wasn't this the face of the "bride" in the wedding photo at the funeral hall?
The second son of the Ge family slowly moved his gaze down along the girl's face. The girl was actually wearing a bright red wedding dress. Wasn't this the wedding dress worn by the girl who had just been buried with her brother?
Thinking of this, Ge Lao Er's hair stood on end, and the effect of the alcohol completely disappeared. He screamed and stood up and ran out, but he died after just two steps.
The next day, the Ge family discovered Ge Laoer's body. It lay in a crawling position in the yard, strangely mummy-like. On Ge Laoer's bed lay the already-buried "bride." The bride's once-white skull had sprouted tiny buds of flesh.
From then on, every full-moon night, the female corpse would appear in the village, and people would turn into mummies and die. As for her, the skull on her fair neck gradually grew flesh and blood, slowly developing a delicate and charming face.
After finishing her story, Wang Jinhua drank the chrysanthemum tea in her cup in one gulp, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and said, "Another cup."
Yan Ran's mouth twitched slightly, but he still poured her a cup of tea. This was already her sixth cup of tea, and it was also Yan Ran's last bit of chrysanthemum.
Yan Ran's counseling office is new, but she suspects it's not far from closing. Three months after opening, the only customer is the stocky Wang Jinhua in front of her. The only other customers are either cleaning staff or security guards collecting property fees. Not even a fly would fly into her place.
Is there no market for psychological counseling? Then why is the psychological counseling company next door so popular? They both opened around the same time. Is it a matter of feng shui?
Ah, thinking of this, Yan Ran looked at Wang Jinhua again. No matter how unreliable it was, he had to do a good job on this first order. No, just doing it well wasn't enough, it had to be perfect! Yan Ran, come on!
Wang Jinhua watched Yan Ran frown and clench his fists. She drank the water in her cup and said, "Doctor, can this disease be cured?"
"Bang!" Yan Ran slammed the table hard, and Wang Jinhua was startled.
Yan Ran leaned forward, held Wang Jinhua's hand, and said, "Yes! I must untie the knot in my child's heart!"
Wang Jinhua's face lit up with joy: "Let's go now, our place is great, Paradise Town!"
Yan Ran, a psychology graduate from a top university, worked at the Wulin Mental Health Center in the provincial capital for two years after graduation. Then, a falling out with a colleague led her to abandon her stable job at the hospital, driven by her strong self-confidence, to open her own counseling clinic. A graduate degree, a renowned doctor's background, and a beautiful counselor—wouldn't that mean she'd be making a killing? Alas, her youth was to blame.
Yan Ran was sitting on the long-distance bus, looking at the monotonous and neat poplar trees outside the window, feeling complicated.
Normally, counselors wouldn't make house calls, let alone go to a place so far from the provincial capital that Yan Ran had never even heard of it. This was because counseling, unlike other services, required a very high level of support and tools. But the clinic hadn't been open for three months. Forget going to Paradise Town. As long as it wasn't Myawaddy, he could go anywhere. After all, they provided food and lodging.
Yan Ran sat on the minibus, looking out the window at the dust, feeling mixed emotions.
Wang Jinhua blocked the door of Yan Ran's clinic early in the morning, frightening Yan Ran into thinking she was there to catch a mistress and had found the wrong door. Upon hearing that Wang Jinhua was there for a consultation, Yan Ran's eyes lit up, and like a Sichuanese who hadn't tasted spicy food in two years and suddenly found a bottle of Lao Gan Ma, he grabbed Wang Jinhua, pushed her into the house, and locked the door. Then Wang Jinhua started talking and gesturing, saying that her child, who was about to get married, had heard a ghost story about a ghost marriage from somewhere, and suddenly became sick and didn't even want to get married. Yan Ran asked why the child was sick, what was so special about this ghost story, and why didn't she just bring the child here? Wang Jinhua responded with a real-life clueless response. Helplessly, Yan Ran had no choice but to follow Wang Jinhua on her consultation. Thinking of the 500 yuan an hour consultation fee and the fact that he could help another person, Yan Ran felt empowered!
Yan Ran was sitting on a three-wheeled motorcycle. The road was muddy and he was being tossed up and down, feeling mixed emotions.
After an hour of chugging, the three-wheeled motorcycle finally came to a stop on a relatively flat concrete surface. Yan Ran's legs were still shaking from habit as she got out of the car. She looked around. The area was hilly and the roads were rugged. Houses were only visible for a long time.
Yan Ran turned on his phone and wanted to check the location on the map, but found that the signal here was very weak and the software could not be opened at all.
Yan Ran swayed and asked Wang Jinhua, "Didn't they say this is a town?"
Wang Jinhua, who was also wandering around, pointed to a banner hanging nearby and said, "Yes, this is Paradise Town."
Yan Ran looked in the direction of Wang Jinhua's finger and said, "A new paradise for pig farming, setting an example for getting rich."
A paradise town like this? Yan Ran turned around and pointed at the three-wheeled motorcycle he had been riding all the way and asked, "Isn't this used to transport pigs?"
Wang Jinhua smiled and said, "No."
Yan Ran had just breathed a sigh of relief when Wang Jinhua said, "Let's transport sheep too."
Yan Ran suddenly felt a strange smell coming from her body. She stopped Wang Jinhua who was walking forward and said, "Well, I suddenly remembered that I have an urgent matter today. I have to go back first."
Wang Jinhua scratched her head. "What a coincidence!"
Yan Ran nodded like a chick pecking at rice.
Wang Jinhua said, "But the commuter bus only runs once a day."
Yan Ran nearly dropped the bag in her arms. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to put on a professional smile: "Patients first, go see your child first. But based on your description, the consultation will be long, at least eight hours." You're kidding, you have to make more money after traveling so far!
Wang Jinhua grinned and said, "Yes, yes, show it to him carefully."
Yan Ran was delighted. 500 times 8 hours equals 4,000, 4,000 yuan. A good start!
Wang Jinhua pulled out her phone and opened a screenshot of the group-buying coupon she had saved in her photo album. "It's a per-use fee, 500 yuan a time. Is this... okay?"
Yanran Petrochemical.
Wang Jinhua's voice came faintly: "If it doesn't work, you will get a bad review."
Yan Ran gritted her teeth and said, "It works!" She was cursing this woman in her heart, "Are you a devil?"
"Command to obey ghosts and exorcise demons, command!"
A loud shout was heard, followed by the sound of bells.
Yan Ran looked in the direction of the voice and asked, "Filming?"
Wang Jinhua shook her head: "Exorcise the ghost."
Yan Ran had never seen a ghost hunter in his life, so he wanted to go and watch the fun. He said, "Is it related to the legend of the White Bone Bride? Let's go and take a look. It might help us understand the cause of the child's psychological problems."
Yan Ran took two quick steps forward when a big hand suddenly pulled her shoulder back. She screamed in fright.
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