Chapter 135 The sound of suona horns brings joy and sorrow. The Five Poisons of Sorrow Mountain, clad in mourning clothes, are hidden in the thick fog...
A thick fog rolled in, and the wedding procession lost its way in the fog.
They left marks on the buildings and trees they passed, and were indeed moving forward, but the fog was too thick to see clearly. Apart from the main road, the paths between the houses were intricate and complicated, and they could easily wander back. So they had to slow down and carefully consider the direction of each path.
Every house was empty; the belongings were still there, but the people were nowhere to be found.
The procession consisted of sixteen people: eight sedan chair bearers with red silk ribbons and yellow trim carried the bridal sedan chair, while the groom, dressed in red, rode in front on horseback. Accompanying them were people playing suona horns, holding fans, carrying gongs, and carrying lanterns. After the gong was sounded, it was struck with each step, and the joyous sound of the suona horns never stopped.
In an eerily quiet village, the sudden and incessant music acts as a catalyst, pushing the eeriness to an even more bizarre level.
The tour leader shook his compass; Tianchi was unaffected, but it also didn't point in any direction, remaining stuck at "East".
The fog grew thicker, and those behind could no longer see those in front. After a while, those in front turned around and could no longer see the sedan chair. So they started chatting to let each other know they were still there.
The groom looked haggard; after being locked up for three days, he had lost a lot of weight. Thick white powder couldn't hide his withered eyes. He sat numbly on his horse, which was being led by a servant.
He didn't look like he was getting married; there was no joy in his appearance. So before he left, the village chief's wife used rouge to draw a faint smile on his lips.
His stroke of genius was even more bizarre, and no one dared to speak to him.
The attendants were also quiet; it was mainly the accompanying players who were talking. Zhuo Yi originally followed the "band," but staying there for too long was a test for his ears, so he switched to the other side.
His ability couldn't find his way, and neither could the other players. They were talking back and forth, discussing where all the villagers had gone. In his mind, Zhuo Yi called out to the Keeper of the Secrets: "Go through the Navigator."
The "Navigator" test result was: 21/10, failed.
"Who among you has a navigator?"
Everyone said no, they had all tried one by one, but no one succeeded because their points were too low. As Zhuo Yi listened, he asked, "Where is the woman from your team?"
Pu Fengchun was the only woman in their group, but she remained silent during the discussion about "navigation."
[Inspiration check result: 28/60, successful]
Zhuo Yi noticed a faint rustling sound beneath the voices, like paper being blown by the wind. He fell behind to Pu Fengchun's side and discovered that it was a paper figure carrying a sedan chair.
The attendants who were accompanying the bride today were also dressed in white and red attire.
He stopped the procession. The two sedan chair bearers, two attendants, and the horse-leading servants had turned into paper figures, and two members of the travel agency had been replaced.
Zhuo Yi: "Old He, is the groom still alive? Is he in the sedan chair?"
"He's not dead."
Zhuo Yi didn't get a chance to lift the sedan chair. He went back to the front, but the peacemaker was replaced. Only he and the tour leader were left as players.
The servants and paper figures stared at him, as if asking when he would depart. The gongs and drums were still beating, and the servant playing the suona was straining his neck and mouth. Amidst the noisy merriment, he looked at him sideways with his empty, unreflective eyes.
Zhuo Yi lifted the sedan curtain; the sedan was empty, nothing had appeared out of nowhere. "Let's go, let's go."
The tour leader carrying the sedan chair asked in alarm, "Sir, are we just going to keep going like this?"
“The village is all empty, we’re actually a lot of people.” Zhuo Yi walked beside him, glancing at the red stripe on his shoulder. “Isn’t it better to be arrested? We won’t have to carry the sedan chair anymore?”
The team leader could only smile wryly at the big boss's optimism. The others had disappeared, and Zhuo Yi, not wanting to carry the sedan chair, went ahead to scout the way.
After overcoming numerous hardships, they finally arrived at Xiangping's house in the east, but Xiangping was not there.
"Where is she?"
"She only finished apologizing at the old ancestral hall in front of the West Gate today," Xiangping's mother said.
The tour leader went inside to look for Xiangping, but she wasn't there. So they had to leave and head to the West Gate. Although they could go directly from the west to the east along the main road, the route was longer.
Zhuo Yi consciously walked at the front to check the road ahead, but the wedding procession steadily passed him and continued on.
Zhuo Yi was happy to follow along leisurely, looking at these paper figures. Was this how they found their way?
Wedding processions and funeral processions were both affected.
Inside the East Gate, the Five Poisons were dressed in mourning clothes. The thick fog obscured the East Gate, and only the sound of digging could be heard outside.
They also ran into trouble. Wudu was a player and couldn't leave the village. Ayun's parents carried the coffin in front, and Wudu and his partner carried it behind. They escorted it out of the east gate, and for the second half of the journey, the old couple had to pull it away with all their might.
Fortunately, the grave was located just a few meters outside the East Gate, but just before the burial, they discovered that the red soil had collapsed and filled in the grave that had been dug the day before. A-Yun's parents had no choice but to dig it again.
"How long have they been digging?" The thick fog blocked the view between the inside and outside of the door. Even if you were not far away and could hear the sounds, the inability to control the situation aroused suspicion.
Naga tilted her head slightly, her gaze behind the black veil falling on the unburned burial paper figures beside her. A and B understood each other and went through the possession test again.
The "possession" test result was: 19/20, successful.
The "possession" test result was: 11/15, successful.
Having learned from the previous possession experience, the cloth-wrapped man's points increased, and he passed the test. The two paper figures stuffed with their hair then transformed into their likenesses and stepped out of the east gate.
As soon as they stepped outside, a gust of wind carrying snow blew in their faces, scattering them.
The man wrapped in cloth carefully groped his way through the thick fog that obscured the sky and the earth, fortunately guided by the sound of digging.
He got closer and closer to the sound; the digging sound was right next to his ear. He must have arrived by now, but as soon as he took another step, the sound disappeared again.
He stood frozen in place. After a while, he heard heavy breathing behind him. He turned around and saw the grave not far away. A-Yun's mother was leaning on a snow shovel, her head covered in sweat.
"I'll help."
He walked over, took the hoe, but didn't see A-Yun's father. A-Yun's mother pointed to the grave: "He went down and dug."
The grave was not shallow; he hadn't dug deep enough on the ground, so he looked down and saw that they had dug another one person high.
The tomb was shrouded in mist, making it difficult to see clearly, but the sound of breathing could be heard. Such a deep pit must have been a real challenge for the middle-aged couple.
"Wait a minute, I'm coming down..." The paper figure suddenly stopped talking, calling out to the keeper in his mind, "Go through the reconnaissance."
The sound of mahjong tiles rolling past his ears jolted him awake. Some of the mist in the tomb dissipated, as if some of it had been dispersed by the people inside. He saw the snowplow stuck alone in the red soil, and then he went to look for the waving black sleeves...
No, Ah-Yun's mother was dressed entirely in white mourning clothes, except for the black clothes underneath the mourning clothes they were given. That was...!
A gust of wind came from behind, but his agility check failed, and he was shoveled into the grave. Next to him was his paper teammate, half-buried in red soil, and his waving sleeves slid down helplessly.
He struggled to his feet, and a shovelful of red soil was thrown down from above, crushing the paper figure's body. One shovelful after another, soil filled his ears with a rumbling sound, and he soon fell into darkness.
Fortunately, the venomous insects of the Naga snatched their hair and carried them back to the East Gate. The man in the cloth, having recovered from his nausea, solemnly recounted their ordeal.
Naga, however, said, "Coffin."
The man wrapped in cloth paused for a moment, then recalled the events and realized with a start that he hadn't seen the coffin used for burial at all. He looked at his teammates who had been buried earlier and had the same reaction.
The boy wrapped in cloth passed the inspection, possessed the paper figure, and went out to explore again.
He first searched around the sound, and when he couldn't find it, he moved closer. After confirming that there was no coffin, he turned and ran, but the paper figure was too weak and was still shoved into the tomb by the couple who were prepared.
“The coffin is gone,” he said after returning to his body.
They're still digging outside the East Gate, making a rustling sound, like they're trying to dig a bottomless pit.
"We've been tricked; the burial isn't happening here at all." Yet they've come here to attend the funeral.
The man wrapped in cloth walked into the village and was met by a group of villagers who walked along both sides of the main road, making way for a procession to arrive in the middle.
They were expressionless and did not talk. Persuasion and intimidation failed to yield any clues. Instead, the villagers gave them strange looks, as if to say, "Why do you still have the mind to ask questions?"
The Psychology check, though a blind die, didn't reveal anything, so it probably failed... The Possession check probably used up all their luck.
They could only observe with their naked eyes; the villagers' silence seemed to be a moment of mourning.
So they were unsure again, but should they still proceed with the burial? The Chen couple had notified everyone; they were all from the same village, so they came out to pay their respects.
Naga and the cloth-wrapped man stayed at the east gate to see what the villagers wanted to do, while the other two went elsewhere, but they got separated again in the fog not far away.
The man wrapped in cloth dared not look for his teammates again, fearing he might encounter another trap. Besides, he didn't need to worry about that person. Following the main road, he encountered Huang Haitao, who was rushing out of the door.
His clothes and hair were a mess, his face was covered in scratches and swollen bumps, and a flock of black crows came chasing after him, cawing and swooping down on him.
Huang Haitao screamed in despair, "Too agile! Too agile!"
Xue Chao was speechless: "You've failed three times already, try another one."
"What else can we do? Forget everything else, just be quick!" Huang Haitao glanced at the swooping flock of crows in fear.
The Agility test result was 37/55, successful.
He made a sharp turn, and the flock of crows missed their target, but after circling in the air, they attacked again.
"Why?! Too agile!"
"You think you can make sharp turns?" Xue Chao couldn't stand it anymore. "Let me tell you how to do it another way."
Surrounded by malevolent bird-like creatures, Huang Haitao struggled to activate his brain: "...stealth, stealth!"
The "Stealth" check result was 46/65, successful.
He circled around behind the thick tree stump, rolled into the alley, covered himself in snow, and swiftly hid in the overturned bamboo basket. The crows, having lost their target, flew away bored.
The man wrapped in cloth also received a reminder from Xue Chao that he could "pong" the card.
After confirming that he was safe, Huang Haitao came out again, his cheerful demeanor returning. He struck up a conversation with the man wrapped in cloth, thanks to a card he had been given by chance, and they walked together.
"The Keeper of Secrets was unresponsive today. Can you blame me for starting this dangerous situation? I'm terrified of sharp-beaked animals!"
The man wrapped in cloth thought for a moment and said, "He has always been indifferent to us."
Huang Haitao pondered for a moment, then shut up.
The man in the first position, wrapped in cloth, struggled to find his way: "In this weather, even the keeper of the secrets is too busy looking for a way to take care of himself."
"He's not at the funeral parlor?" Huang Haitao pointed to the house in front of the west gate. "Then maybe he's here to welcome the bride."
Xue Chao wasn't there. When they entered, Zhuo Yi and the tour leader had just dug up the Daughter Red wine buried under the plum tree roots.
The team leader explained the hardships they had endured along the way, and then said, "Xiangping's parents said this wine is for today, and they asked us to take it with us. You got lost too?"
"It's also possible that the three of them ran away behind my back. I don't think they took me, the team leader, seriously at all."
Huang Haitao picked up the Daughter's Red wine and mingled into their wedding procession, with the cloth-wrapped man following him.
The bride was led out of the west wing, walked gracefully through the courtyard, and was helped into the sedan chair under the watchful eyes of everyone.
The tour leader breathed a sigh of relief. They had checked their fortunes before leaving home, and today's fortune was "lowest." Even without the fortune slip, they could have predicted something would go wrong, and indeed, things didn't go smoothly. Fortunately, they still managed to complete one task.
Zhuo Yi wiped his hands, but then got into the sedan chair and, ignoring any attempts to dissuade him, lifted the bride's veil.
Xiangping looked ahead with a slow smile, but her gaze didn't fall on him.
Zhuo Yi confirmed that it was Xiang Ping herself, and that she was alive, so he removed the veil and stepped out of the sedan chair.
"Let's set off, don't be late."
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