After a burst of black and white snowflakes, a sudden cacophony of voices echoed, accompanied by heavy, nervous breathing. "I don't know which version of the game you're in right now, but this is the only way you can escape the cycle of day after day."
The camera shook violently again, and the video was filled with the child's shrill laughter, the muffled groans of others, and the sounds of fighting. The camera shifted again, and Ning Que saw the tattered spider webs on the roof and a child with red eyes and only half a head. The soft green brain dangled in the open skull, and long saliva flowed from the toothless mouth like spider silk.
Ning Que's heart was in his throat, beating wildly, and he almost cried out.
After a while, in the lower right corner of the camera, the child was seen lying on the ground with a knife stuck in his head. "Leave the dungeon. This dream is yours. It doesn't matter if it's destroyed. You are a disaster. You must not continue this cycle. When you go back, quickly find a place where no one knows you and stay there.
I don't know exactly what to do, but I was eventually pulled into a dungeon. Don't be killed by anything in the dream, or you'll have to erase your memory and start over again."
Then a mouth was covered on the lens, and you could clearly see the rotten throat and maggots moving back and forth in the flesh. Finally, the lens shattered.
…
Ah Qiu, although the water was still warm, Ning Que's hands and feet were cold.
The background music of the movie was still playing. Ning Que buried himself in the bucket. His medium-length hair swam in the water like a water snake, and the silver scales on his smooth back emerged more and more clearly.
A head emerged from the water, with wet hair sticking to his face. Ning Que's eyes had turned completely bright red, and even silver scales appeared in the corners of his eyes. His lips turned pale, and his whole body became sinister.
Ning Que instructed Hong Hong to change the bucket of water again, turned off the movie, and listened to the increasingly clear sounds of the suona outside and the howling of ghosts and wolves in the cold wind.
A woman wearing a red veil was lifted up by Aunt Lan like a ball of dough and placed on Uncle Dongzi's back. Old Man Wu followed beside her, holding a large rooster with a bright crest in his hand, and watched Uncle Dongzi walk slowly and tremblingly from the house to the door.
A red velvet sedan was suspended at the door, with a row of paper figures standing beside it. The paper figures were wearing clothes scribbled with a crude pen, but only their eyes were bright and sparkling, indicating that they were not things from the mortal world.
Yanan stood there with bated breath. Every household in the village had a tree planted in the yard, which made it very convenient for her to hide inside. Suddenly, a cold hand pressed his shoulder and the other covered his mouth.
A wisp of hair appeared in her field of vision, accompanied by a subtle "Shh!"
She was about to resist when she found herself wrapped in red ropes that moved with her breathing.
"Be quiet and come with me." As soon as he finished speaking, he was carried away.
Yanan: That's not right. How did she find me? My concealment skills can't be that low-level, right?
"I'm going to tell you one thing right now. When the bride or groom comes out, take him or her away immediately. The farther away the better. Never let the person in the sedan marry her." Ning Que frowned and took out a piece of marshmallows and stuffed it into her mouth.
"So you're the one who wants to prevent the marriage!" Yanan was a little surprised. "Don't worry, the marriage will definitely not happen."
Honghong slowly relaxed from her body and climbed back onto Ning Que. Yanan stood up and shook his arms and legs. "Should I still take her away? No, why should I listen to your orders?"
Ning Que stretched out his hand to her like a bandit, "Show me the information you've collected."
Yanan looked at her with a frown on her face, as if the matter was very urgent and she needed to hurry up. She stammered, "It's nothing special, it's just..."
Ning Que saw Honghong arching her body and raising her head, neighing towards the distance. When he looked up, he saw that the sky looked like it was splashed with black ink, with dark clouds gathering layer by layer, and the whole air was filled with a foul smell.
"We have to hurry."
Ning Que put on a mask, revealing a pair of red eyes. He was only wearing a thin coat with his sleeves rolled up high, revealing the scales on it. He rushed back to his original position like a cannonball.
Yanan looked at it, thought about it, and followed him. "We learned from the mezzanine of the ancestral hall that an inexplicable famine occurred here 150 years ago. Although there was abundant rain, people had less and less food. Later, the villagers found a vat and threw people into it in exchange for food. However, we suspect that this might just be an excuse, and they really killed and ate them.
We wanted to replace the bride with someone else, but we could just run away on the way to the wedding, which would be equivalent to not getting married, and our mission would be accomplished."
When she ran to Dongzi's door, Aunt Lan saw Yanan following Ning Que. Her hands were shaking like Parkinson's disease, her hair was standing on end with rage, and she blocked the doorway, shouting in a low voice, "Why is she behind you?"
Ning Que glanced at her and said, "How can I allow you to cheat and deceive people, and not allow me to get the people back?" After saying that, he stepped directly on the top of the wall and waved to Yanan, motioning her to come up.
As the party getting married, Aunt Lan was surrounded by many villagers who were pointing and whispering.
"Which room?" Ning Que smelled the stench of rancid blood in the air, like a pool of blood that had fermented for hundreds of years. "Do you smell it?"
Yanan pointed to a room on the south side of the first floor and said, "I smell it. It's like a swamp."
Ning Que shook his head and opened the door cautiously.
A girl sat obediently on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs and holding her head in her hands. Ruan Ni's eyes were wide open, and large and small corpse spots were cleverly distributed around her eyes and mouth corners. There was also a tooth mark on the right corner of her lower jaw.
The room was covered in moss and dirt, and the originally blue and white embroidered sheets were also covered in mud. The whole room was filled with a rotten and disgusting smell.
"Ah!—" Aunt Lan immediately pushed Ning Que aside and rushed into the room that looked like the stomach of a swamp monster. "My dear daughter! Youyou, what's wrong with you? Don't scare Mom."
She kept wiping the dirt off the child's face and the blood from the corners of his mouth with her hands and sleeves. She was shaking like a chaff, and her voice was trembling. "Didn't you want to eat the meat pie that I made last night? I'll make it for you right now."
The girl's mouth stretched wider and wider, and finally the corners of her mouth tore open, and she wanted to bite her mother. Aunt Lan looked at that unusual mouth, not knowing whether it was excessive sadness or anger, her eyes kept rolling up.
Ning Que thought about it, then immediately stepped forward, picked up a frying pan and stuffed it into her mouth.
The girl's eyes bulged out like dead fish, and she was shouting about the frying pan. Ning Que held her head down, and her hands and feet were tied up by Honghong, making her unable to move.
"Hurry up, hurry up, help hold her face down." Ning Que put force on his hands and urged Yanan beside him.
"Me, me, me." Yanan had never come into such direct and close contact with a monster. He could have kicked a small monster's head without hesitation, but he had never had such a close contact.
"Harder, faster!" Ning Que used his foot to hook Yanan over, "Hurry up!"
Yanan's trembling hands touched the cold and sticky skin. After trying hard to calm herself down, she slightly bent her index finger and pressed down.
Ning Que looked at the time and felt that there was still time, so he slowly started to work. He moved out a box, squatted there, looked at the bottles and jars inside, and began to pick and choose.
Yanan glanced over and found that she was still squatting there. She steadied her trembling voice and said, "Sister, please hurry up! I feel like she's about to break free."
Ning Que looked at the string of English words on the bottle in his hand and immediately stood up. "I don't know what this is. It should be isolation! Try harder."
So Yanan and Wu Youyou stared with wide eyes, watching Ning Que wiping bottles and jars on her face.
Yanan watched Ning Que pick up another eyebrow pencil and trace the girl's eyebrows. She felt her heart almost stop. "Sister, what are you doing?"
She had originally thought Ning Que had some kind of trick to seal corpses with these things; after all, she had seen an old Taoist holding various powders in bamboo tubes in a zombie dungeon before. But what was she doing? When did Hua Xizi, Winona, and Estée Lauder become able to suppress ghosts? Was their boss secretly going somewhere for further training?
So she stiffened her hands, took a deep breath, and watched Ning Que put on the final touch of blush. She had a wooden face and tried not to smile.
No, this is too funny, hahahahahaha. This woman must not be very good at applying makeup, her technique is so clumsy.
Ning Que glanced at Yanan, who was laughing and shaking his head, and looked at the masterpiece of his men.
Wow, it's pretty good, except that the eyeliner is a little crooked at 20 degrees, and there are black, white and yellow patches on the face. But how can I blame my skills for this? I can only blame the girl's poor foundation.
Ning Que pinched her chin and looked back and forth, only to hear the crackling sound of her skull being twisted by her. "Your skin is a waste of all my good cosmetics."
When Yanan heard the crackling sound, his heart skipped a beat, fearing that this girl would knock the girl's head off with a loud bang if she used too much force.
Ning Que rummaged around in his space but didn't find anything like a red veil. There was only a piece of reddish-brown cloth, and he didn't know what it was used for before.
"Okay, okay, let's go!" Ning Que covered her head with a cloth, took out the loudspeaker, selected a happy song, and went out with Wu Youyou.
Yanan looked at the clapping tool that Ning Que had stuffed into her hand just now, and shook it tentatively. The red, yellow, and blue plastic palms collided with each other, making a mechanical clapping sound.
The sky outside was still dark, and the whistling wind was still singing its own song. There were still some villagers gathered in twos and threes at the door, but when they saw Ning Que and the other two come out, they immediately scattered like startled birds.
"Come on, show some spirit, we are going to send the bride off!" Ning Que instructed Laba seriously and then considerately tied a knot on the cloth covering Youyou's head at her chin.
The high-pitched and cheerful music created ripples in the thick fog.
On an altar, a rooster with its feet tied was jumping around non-stop. Its head had been cut off and placed in a small stone bowl nearby. The chicken's blood flowed onto the stone platform into the patterns carved there who knows how many years ago.
"Dear bride, we have presented the flowers and money from Erchun Village to you. Please accept them." Dongzi prostrated himself on the ground, shaking like an autumn leaf.
Next to a stone pillar not far away, there were twenty or thirty men kneeling on their knees. Each of them had a red cloth strip on his right ear and was wearing black or white clothes. It felt like they were not attending a wedding, but a funeral.
Suddenly, the chicken head in the bowl opened its mouth, and a loud crowing sound came from the stone bowl. Uncle Dongzi knew that she was coming.
A charming female voice sounded, "Hmm? I don't remember if it was me who ordered this person to do so?"
Zixi was tied to the pillar with her cock head facing the pillar. She closed her eyes and waited for a good opportunity to escape. Suddenly, she felt as if a hand was caressing her face.
She opened her eyelids slightly, saw that there was nothing in front of her, and closed her eyes again.
Suddenly she felt another hand sliding down her face to her neck and stroking back and forth. Her lifeline was pinched. Zixi didn't dare to breathe, and her whole body was covered with goose bumps. Why not leave now?
But I probably haven’t remembered the prompt that the task is completed. It has come to this point. Should I wait a little longer?
Otherwise, wait a little longer——
Her breathing became smoother and smoother, like a cat that was comforted by its owner, and finally even her trachea emitted gurgling sounds of satisfaction.
Uncle Dongzi raised his head slightly and saw the bright red mist enveloping the tribute he had found to represent their daughter. His heart, which had been so high, relaxed a little. If the bride was willing to accept it, it meant that her daughter could still be saved.
He also remembered the year his daughter was born. Half the sky was red, and the clouds were dyed golden red by the sun. Everyone in the village said that this was an auspicious sign. Your daughter will definitely become a dragon among people, and then you two old people will enjoy a happy life.
He had suffered for half his life, and he relied on this only daughter for his life. Youyou knew how to smile from the moment she was born, and was very well behaved. Her little face was chubby, unlike other children who looked skinny and monkey-like.
The more he thought about it, the more fascinated he became, and he recalled something that happened a long time ago...
Old Master Wu watched the mist that had enjoyed the tribute become increasingly red. The young man Dongzi was still unaware that he had been targeted by his bride. Alas.
He supported himself with his hands, knelt there, and gestured to retreat. The others who came to escort the bride already knew that the current "Hua Yuan" did not satisfy the bride, and they had to retreat quickly, otherwise their lives would be lost here.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com