Scalding hot, dark red broth flowed out, and in the middle of the minced meat was a finger that had been steamed until it was almost rotten.
Seeing that Xia Linyin and the others ignored him and just hurried forward, the stall owner suddenly said, "If you don't want to eat, the princess must be hungry. This plate of meat buns is free; it's a gift from me to the princess!"
"Is that so?" Ah Xiang's voice drifted softly from inside the sedan chair. "Bring it here so I can take a look."
The stall owner quickly took the meat buns over, and Ah Xiang gestured for the matchmaker, Li, to take the buns before saying, "Alright, I'll accept them. You may leave now."
The procession continued onward, and after walking for a while, Ah Xiang said, "Matchmaker Li, throw these buns away! How dare you feed me such coarse food? You are truly foolish lowly commoners!"
"The embroidered ball is being tossed! The Wang family's daughter over there is tossing her embroidered ball!"
"Whoever catches the embroidered ball will be the Wang family's son-in-law!"
"Such a good thing? Then what are we waiting for! Let's hurry up and catch the embroidered ball!"
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Let's catch the embroidered ball!"
...
Miss Wang, with her hair styled in a cloud-like bun and adorned with a jade hairpin with tassels, stood on the second-floor corridor, looking down.
Unlike the eerie and lifeless expressions of the pedestrians on the street, Miss Wang had a beaming smile on her face and looked full of vitality.
She held a large, exquisitely crafted red embroidered ball in her hand.
A group of people with lifeless eyes were standing swaying downstairs.
The wedding procession walked past the crowd.
At this moment, Miss Wang called out, "Young Master."
Wang Ming couldn't help but look up, and saw the young lady of the Wang family smile at him and then throw the embroidered ball in her hand over.
That radiant smile was like a delicate flower in full bloom, so beautiful it stirred the heart.
Wang Ming instinctively caught the embroidered ball that Miss Wang threw to him.
He couldn't help but grin. What was going on? Was he unusually handsome today? His luck with women was so good, one after another.
"Stop grinning like an idiot! What were you just holding that you caught?!"
The fat man's loud shout pulled Wang Ming back to reality from his reverie.
He looked down at the embroidered ball in his hand, but what he was holding was not a beautiful embroidered ball at all! Instead, it was a disheveled head!
Two streaks of dark red blood flowed from the scarlet eyes, and a white, fat maggot was wriggling in a rotting eye socket.
The head grinned, uttering two sinister words: "Husband."
"Ah!" Wang Ming dropped the head in his hand as if he had been electrocuted.
He tried to leave, but a dozen servants with deadpan expressions surrounded him.
Miss Wang's headless body came down from the second floor. She picked up the head from the ground and walked towards Wang Ming. The mouth of the head she was holding opened and closed as she said, "Young master, you have caught my embroidered ball. From now on, you will be my husband."
"My husband, let's get married."
"My husband, let's go to the bridal chamber."
Miss Wang, carrying her head, swayed as she approached Wang Ming step by step.
Wang Ming quickly took out a red bellyband and put it around his neck. He straightened his body, and the red bellyband hanging on his chest emitted a red light.
Under the glow of that red light, all the servants surrounding him were reduced to ashes.
Seeing this, Miss Wang pressed her head back onto her neck and let out a shrill, ghostly howl, "You don't want to marry me?! Then die!"
Wang Ming pointed the red bellyband at the Wang family's young lady, whose face was contorted in a grotesque grimace, and a dazzling red light shot out!
Miss Wang screamed shrilly, glared at Wang Ming with resentment, and then vanished in a flash of red light.
"You dare mess with me! I'll make sure you're dead!" Wang Ming sneered, patting his red undergarment triumphantly.
He turned around and found that the street was empty except for their wedding procession.
Those pedestrians with their deadpan expressions had all vanished without a trace.
"Where is he? Did he run away because of what I just showed him?" Wang Ming couldn't help but ask.
Xia Linyin looked around warily. Just as Miss Wang disappeared, the zombie-like "people" around them also vanished one by one!
In the blink of an eye, the capital city they were in had become a ghost town.
There were no more hawking noises, no more shouts, no more footsteps; the surrounding silence was eerily quiet.
The wooden signs on the shops lining the street swayed in mid-air without any wind.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from inside.
It sounded like some kind of multi-legged insect crawling across the ground.
"There!" Sister Liu exclaimed, pointing to a spot.
A palm-sized, jet-black insect with sharp pincers scurried quickly toward them from the corner.
The fat man stomped on the insect with a "splat," splashing black and red insect splattered everywhere, and a pungent, unpleasant stench spread out.
After glancing at the crushed corpse of the insect, Matchmaker Li suddenly cried out in alarm, "Oh no! That insect is a corpse beetle! It's said that insects that feed on corpses can't be just one when they appear! We have to get out of here!"
"Rustle, rustle—"
"Rustle, rustle—"
Amidst the chilling sounds, swarms of corpse beetles surged forth from every corner, like a black tide.
The group immediately started running.
Matchmaker Li tossed several fire talismans behind her, and with a series of crackling explosions, dozens of corpse beetles were blasted to pieces, with flames and fragments falling to the ground.
However, that damage was negligible compared to the thousands upon thousands of corpse beetles, whose numbers were constantly increasing.
Too many! Absolutely too many!
Faced with the swarming carrion beetles, they could only run for their lives!
The paper figures were not fast to begin with, and the addition of the sedan chair made them even slower.
"Damn it!" Ah Xiang cursed as she climbed out of the sedan chair and caught up with Xia Linyin and the others.
Before long, the paper figures and sedan chairs were engulfed by the wave of corpse beetles.
Because Xia Linyin had to push her wheelchair, she quickly fell to the back of the line, pushing the wheelchair very fast!
The wheelchair practically flew in her hands!
As a result, with a "click," a wooden part broke off, and the wooden wheel on the left came off the wheelchair and rolled away quickly.
The wheelchair rolled forward a short distance due to inertia before tipping over, and Xiao Li was thrown out of the wheelchair.
As the swarm of corpse beetles drew closer, Xia Linyin quickly scooped up Xiao Li, who had fallen to the ground, and ran forward with her in her arms.
Touching Xiao Li's protruding shoulder blades with her palm, she felt heartbroken at how thin the child was!
It was as if she could crush a person with just a little force!
Are you alright?
That fall was quite hard, but the child didn't utter a sound, as if it wasn't him who had fallen.
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