Chapter 131 The sound of suona horns brings joy and sorrow to the mountain. This family moved in by praying to the gods...
Zhuo Yi climbed over the wall, and the first thing he saw was a fallen plum tree lying across the dark-tiled courtyard. It must have fallen when the flowers were in full bloom.
[Trigger the special card "Plum Blossom"]
The keeper of the secret said.
[Receive a bonus die]
The compass wasn't with him, but his panel had records of mahjong dice. The card that was triggered wasn't in his hand; it was a special card, somewhat like triggering a special event.
It is a "plum blossom card", one of the flower cards "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Plum Blossom, Orchid, Bamboo, Chrysanthemum".
Red Dragon Mahjong has no flower tiles, and it also removes the "East, West, South, North" wind tiles and the "Green Dragon" and "White Dragon" arrow tiles, retaining only the Red Dragon as a wild card.
Unexpectedly, Xue Chao used the other cards as "side quests".
The sound of mahjong tiles being rubbed could be heard.
The "Inspiration" check result was 92/60, which failed.
[Bonus Dice: 22/60, Success]
The bonus dice is a check that can be rolled twice, and the smallest result is taken.
He suddenly smelled the aroma of wine, which was at the base of the big tree, hidden in the gaps in the soil and among the fragrance of plum blossoms.
A jar of wine was buried under the tree.
Having successfully assessed the situation, he steadied himself against the eaves and looked into the courtyard again. He was shocked to find that his entire attention had been drawn to the intense red of the plum blossoms. There was a group of people standing against the courtyard wall, all facing the wall, stiff and identical, like paper figures drying in the sun.
Is this attire that of a servant of God?
The wall they faced was covered with talismans; the cinnabar runes resembled vibrant centipedes, coiled around the courtyard wall, poisoning any intruders.
A "paper figure" looked up, its empty eyes staring at him. The two people beside him also looked up, and then, like dominoes, they all looked up one after another, locking onto the stranger standing on the wall.
Once everyone looked over, they all feigned shock and anger, grabbed cleaning tools and seals, and rushed over.
It seems like everyone shares the same soul.
Zhuo Yi nimbly flipped down and went to the door to wait, but the servants of God did not chase after him out the door.
The courtyard was quiet, without any running or other noises.
"There was a plum tree in the courtyard, it fell down, and a jar of wine was buried underneath it," Zhuo Yi described. "A circle of attendants of the gods stood by the wall, and there were talismans on the door and the walls, forbidding entry. There should also be a large ancestral hall with a red gate in the inner courtyard. In addition to talismans, there were also shamanic knots. They didn't look like they were just randomly put together. There must be some kind of formation, right?"
There is also an ancestral hall, which is very likely the real ancestral hall.
When the place wasn't haunted, the village chief's ancestral hall had solid walls. They themselves admitted that this was a pretext to prevent villagers from being too fanatical and offending the mountain god, and they "practiced what they preached," showing a somewhat superficial respect for the ancestral hall.
Despite being supposed to be a closed area, they've been in there several times. The village chief's dissolute son even sleepwalks there in the middle of the night. The servants usually just go through the motions of serving them; the village chief's family gets all the food and supplies.
This place is quite proper, covered with talismans, and has a group of servants standing as punishment. The ancestral hall is even more exaggerated, with an ancestral hall growing out of the talismans.
It has been locked down, entry is prohibited, and everyone avoids it.
Huang Haitao stroked his stubble: "This family has a daughter." Meeting their gazes, he pointed to the ground: "Bury wine under the tree, it's Daughter's Red wine. When the daughter gets married, that jar of wine can be taken out."
"The courtyard looks eerie, but I also feel that someone lives there," Zhuo Yi said. "The talismans are of varying shades, and there are a few on the door between the two courtyards that are still oozing red liquid. I don't think they were all put up by those strange servants."
Xue Chao stared at the gate, as if looking through it into the deepest ancestral hall. Huang Haitao, seeing his pensive look, rolled his eyes and asked, "What about the beggar?"
They hid before the other villagers arrived, observing their movements. The villagers truly disliked him; after taking back the bracelet, they beat and kicked the unconscious beggar again.
It's not that there's any grudge, it's more like a shared hatred of a common enemy.
"He's been stealing chickens and dogs quite a bit," Zhuo Yi guessed.
The beggar woke up at that moment, opening his eyes groggily, feeling pain all over his body, but he was already used to it.
He'd faint in the snow once because he couldn't get food. He knew he'd faint in front of someone's house next time. No matter how much he hated someone, he couldn't bear to see a living person die like that. At most, he'd hit him a few times to vent his anger.
But when he saw where it was, he let out a scream, his features magnified in terror, as if his soul had burst out of his nose and tongue, as if he were facing something utterly terrifying.
He was convulsing all over, and before he could even stand up, his body instinctively wanted to escape, surging in the opposite direction like a worm.
Xue Chao bent down, grabbed the beggar's face, and forced him to look up. He saw that the beggar's pupils were trembling, opening and closing like a broken light bulb, ready to explode at any moment.
A face on the verge of madness, devoid of logic, filled only with fear.
But Xue Chao felt there was something else going on. He pinched the face firmly, dragged it a little distance away, and placed it in front of Zhuo Yi and Huang Haitao, saying, "Psychology."
The result of the "Psychology" test was 93/80, which was a failure.
The "Psychology" test result was 55/55, successful.
Zhuo Yi, who successfully completed the examination, realized that the beggar's fear was not just a primal fear of the strange, such as people seeing ghosts and gods.
This fear also stemmed from his own cause and effect: "He felt guilty."
These two words pierced through the beggar's dazed state, falling like a thunderclap. He shuddered violently and fainted again.
“I followed him all day yesterday,” Huang Haitao coughed twice. “He did get things done. He’s the most suspicious person in the west. Don’t let his poverty fool you, he can run fast. Yesterday he went from house to house begging for food, but nobody wanted to see him. So he took advantage of people’s inattention and stole food. He stole the steamed buns that people were offering as a sacrifice, and he was chased and beaten for two blocks.”
"But I found that this guy was shameless and never learned his lesson. I followed him for a day, and he actually tried to extort money from everyone in the village. When he was chased away during mealtimes, he would come to people's homes during their rest time when they weren't eating."
Huang Haitao suddenly lowered his voice: "There's only one place he's passed by several times but always detoured to. There's a family in the west, near the north, with a matchmaker there. They all go to her to discuss marriage. If there really is a daughter in the house in front of the west gate, it might be related to her!"
So the three of them went to the matchmaker's house, while the remaining three were left by Huang Haitao to wait for orders in the west.
Huang Haitao himself seemed relieved, as if he had long wanted to get rid of those three inhuman things.
There were two or three auspicious little gods' portraits in the courtyard. Xue Chao touched the frame and the suona horn; there were no gold edges or gold lines.
That wasn't meant for wealthy families; it was for the villagers of Baitou Village.
The matchmaker's son was rolling up a red cloth, which still smelled of earth, and was hanging it out to dry in the yard. Hearing their purpose, he seemed a little embarrassed.
"You've come at a bad time. My mother hasn't been seen lately. Are you from out of town? Our villagers are very hospitable and will certainly not shortchange you. Please go somewhere else."
This kid wasn't very good with words; his second sentence was already telling him to leave, albeit in a rather tactless way. Huang Haitao then pretended to be nonchalant: "You're not going to do business that's come to your door? I'm not getting any younger, are you going to be my funeral attendant?"
He wasn't a pleasant talker, but when he heard there was business to be had, his eyes lit up: "Oh, big brother, you should have said so sooner! I thought you guys..."
The matchmaker's son scratched his head and laughed, then led them to the side room and knocked on the door. Without waiting for a response from inside, he took out his key, opened the door, and went inside.
Huang Haitao pondered for a moment. It had been a long time since he had received a matchmaking deal.
The room was divided in two, like a small shrine inside, with the bed serving as the shrine platform.
On the stage sat an old woman dressed as a matchmaker, her face ashen and covered with wrinkles of age, like a withered tree that had grown from frozen soil and was covered with frost. She remained motionless, her white hair like snow that had accumulated from sitting still for too long.
However, the two incongruous red cheeks he wore diminished his elder-like dignity.
Her son opened the door in a flurry of activity, bringing in the stranger as if he had a lot of ideas, but once inside, he stood awkwardly by the tea table, not daring to take a step closer: "Mother, someone has come to ask about marriage."
The room was quiet. Xue Chao listened carefully but couldn't hear the old woman's breathing. She didn't seem to have any signs of life, like a statue that had been moved into the house for worship.
After waiting for a while, the old lady didn't react at all. Huang Haitao said impatiently, "Should I kowtow to her? You're just making a scene. You've really picked your guests! I might as well just kneel down to the God of Red and White Affairs and beg for His grace!"
The matchmaker's son was sweating profusely with anxiety: "Calm down! Brother, you don't understand. My mother has been communicating with the gods and spirits these past few days and can't attend to worldly affairs! She probably can't hear us. Let's go out first. If it's about matchmaking, I'm willing to do it!"
He then led them away. As soon as they stepped out of the room, Xue Chao suddenly turned back. The door closed in front of him, but he was sure he wasn't mistaken. The old lady suddenly turned her head and looked in his direction.
Xue Chao turned back and did not stop the matchmaker's son from locking up the door.
"Brother, when were you born?"
They were led into the main room, a bright red room, as if it were lined with a layer of red silk. It was very slippery to walk on, and one might fall if one was not careful.
And this bright red house was taken over by a stark white tree.
Xue Chao recognized it at a glance; it was the same wood used for memorial tablets, just like the trees in the snow mountain cave outside the village.
The tree's roots are embedded in the ceiling, and its branches and leaves grow downwards, filling the space.
But it's a special natural phenomenon for a tree to grow in a cave, but it's strange that it grows in a room with red silk. How did this tree grow without soil?
The branches were tangled everywhere, leaving them little room to maneuver. Many wooden plaques tied with red threads were attached to the white branches, each bearing the birth date and time of a villager.
Huang Haitao made up a story at random. The matchmaker's son closed his eyes and muttered something, then, surprised that Bai Shu didn't react, he started sweating again: "Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
Huang Haitao retorted confidently, "How could I possibly forget when I was born? Tell me, which day was it? Do you know it better than my parents?"
"This...that's not what I meant..." He wasn't really capable; this was all his mother's work. He just wanted to take advantage of the situation to swindle some money, so he started making things up, "...Don't blame me for being blunt, but you're from out of town. Even if your birth dates and times don't match, it's possible your birth charts clash with our local customs..."
Huang Haitao raised his voice, as if he were about to fight: "Is this my fault? I think it's because the feng shui of this place is bad!"
The matchmaker's son retorted in an even louder voice: "With the mountain god's protection, how could the feng shui be bad? There are only those who are unlucky! I'm not targeting you, I'm just afraid you're swindlers who kidnap girls, how could you dare to make such a promise so easily?" He looked righteous and awe-inspiring.
Xue Chao was among the tree branches, examining the wooden plaques: "Are the birth dates and times of everyone in the village all here?"
"Yes, most of the weddings in the village were arranged by our family. Whenever a family has a boy or a girl, they leave a wooden plaque here to help with matchmaking in the future." He was very proud of himself.
It sounds like breeding in a slaughterhouse.
"If it's a young woman, is there still a custom of burying her daughter's wine?" Xue Chao asked.
"That's an old custom. Some families follow it, while others are just too lazy to do it." He didn't forget to boast, "Unlike our family, we've adopted other people's customs!"
"I do like that kind of thing, burying the wine and opening it on the wedding day to drink it. It sounds very grand. Can you find a place like that?"
He pretended to be in a difficult position, stepping on Huang Haitao's bottom line of anger and saying, "There are families like that, but the birth charts have to match. The birth charts of the people in our village are all personally approved by the Red and White Gods before birth, unlike you outsiders. If you really want to marry a girl from our village, I can hold a naming ceremony for you. Then you will be half a villager, and you can choose any girl you want."
When Xue Chao heard that the thing in question even concerned the exact time when everyone was born, he scoffed. Zhuo Yi also found it absurd, not because of Master Hong and Bai, but because the scheme to swindle money was too obvious.
This "naming ceremony" sounds like it's a series of rituals that require a lot of money, including talismans, incense, and other offerings.
Having been out of business for too long, they need to recoup their losses by selling to outsiders.
Huang Haitao raised an eyebrow, like a rich fool: "I can choose whoever I want?"
"No problem. After getting through to Master Hong and Bai, it all depends on my silver tongue!"
Huang Haitao agreed immediately.
The matchmaker's son beamed and invited them to the side room to discuss the specific costs. Then Huang Haitao pointed at Bai Shu and said, "Anyone will do. How about the girl from the house in front of the west gate? Bring me her birth date and time, I'll take a look!"
The matchmaker's son's smile froze instantly. He had guessed that the old man had come prepared, but he hadn't expected him to be interested in someone like this. He stammered.
Huang Haitao asked suspiciously, "Didn't you say anyone would do? Are you just kidding me?"
"No, why did you take a liking to that..."
Zhuo Yi watched as he struggled to find a precise adjective, but the disdain he displayed compared to the other villagers' taboos seemed more like disgust. It seemed there was indeed such a person, so Zhuo Yi continued, "Because their family has Daughter's Red wine? My brother went there for the wine!"
Huang Haitao laughed and scolded, "Go to hell!" He dared to call Bang San his brother, but his heart was pounding.
“There’s plenty of Daughter’s Red wine,” the matchmaker’s son said, no longer hiding his intentions when he saw that they knew so much about the family that had Daughter’s Red wine. “They’re really desperate to marry off their daughters! They’ve set their sights on you outsiders, without even looking at the kind of person they’ve raised!”
Finally, they heard something different. They then realized they had found the right angle.
It turns out that the matchmaker's refusal to leave her home was also related to this family.
The house in front of the west gate was originally uninhabited; it was the site of an ancestral hall. The large house where the village chief lived was built later. After the ancestral hall was moved there, the place was abandoned.
This family moved in to apologize to God.
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