Xiao Muyu glanced at her palm, then slowly clenched her fist. She looked at Su Jin’s back and quickened her pace to catch up.
Very soon, Su Jin returned to the three-way intersection where they had separated earlier. She quickly turned left and called back to Xiao Muyu, “Captain Xiao, this is where we split up. Brother Chen and Tiantian have already gone ahead.”
Xiao Muyu nodded. When she looked down at the ground, she saw white paper money scattered on the road leading to Baihe, while the other road was also littered with paper money, but it was red.
“We hadn’t noticed this before,” Su Jin saw it too and felt a bit uneasy, not knowing what it meant.
Xiao Muyu thought for a moment, then quickly picked up a few pieces of paper money, both red and white, and put them in her pocket.
Su Jin was a bit scared and asked as they walked, “Captain Xiao, why are you picking up this paper money?”
Xiao Muyu shook her head, “It’s just a feeling. You said it wasn’t here before, and now it suddenly appears. It might have some special significance. It doesn’t hurt to take it with us.”
Su Jin didn’t ask further. She knew Xiao Muyu must have a reason for doing this. They hurried along the path, which became increasingly smooth. The dense forest and underbrush were replaced by open grassland. Ahead, they saw two people – it was Chen Kaijie and Zuo Tiantian.
Xiao Muyu ran quickly towards them. Chen Kaijie and Zuo Tiantian saw them and were overjoyed, “Captain Xiao, Su Jin, you’re okay. That’s such a relief.”
“What happened?” Seeing Chen Kaijie and Zuo Tiantian still on the road made Xiao Muyu even more anxious. She wondered about Shen Qingqiu, who was alone and could be in danger. She quickened her pace, her expression darkening.
Xiao Muyu saw what was blocking Chen Kaijie. In front of them, on either side of the road, stood two paper figures, a boy and a girl.
The boy wore a small hat, and the girl had pigtails, both with blank expressions. Their eyes were represented by black dots, and their cheeks were exaggeratedly rosy. They stood silently.
“Captain Xiao, we couldn’t get past here. Even with our cards, we couldn’t move forward. No matter how we tried to go around, we ended up in front of these two paper children. If we tried to force our way through, they would stab us with little dolls, and we couldn’t fight back.”
Xiao Muyu frowned. As she took a step forward, both paper figures extended their right hands and let out innocent, crisp laughter.
But the laughter from the mouths of these paper figures was eerie and terrifying.
It was clear they didn’t want Xiao Muyu to pass. When she drew her bronze sword, the paper figures’ eyes moved, giving her a sinister smile.
As she swung her sword, the paper figures stepped back three steps, laughing as they produced paper dolls.
The girl poked the doll in the abdomen, causing Xiao Muyu and the others to groan in pain, almost kneeling.
Xiao Muyu waved her hand, “I won’t force it.” The girl blinked her beady eyes and laughed, standing stiffly at the road’s entrance again.
“They seem to be guarding the entrance. We need to find a way to pass without forcing it.” Xiao Muyu studied the two figures. The girl was dressed in red paper clothes, and the boy in white mourning clothes.
Although Xiao Muyu was anxious, she kept her composure. She forced herself to stay calm and carefully examined the two paper figures.
There was nothing special about the figures, except that whenever Xiao Muyu approached, they would extend their hands and smile.
When she approached again, the same thing happened. Xiao Muyu frowned and asked the three others who were also observing the figures, “What do you think their outstretched hands mean? Are they blocking us?” Su Jin was confused, “Aren’t they?”
Xiao Muyu didn’t reply. As she moved to the side of the figures, she found something hard in the grass at their feet.
When she carefully reached for it, the boy’s hand flipped, palm up.
“Su Jin.”
Su Jin and Chen Kaijie quickly went to check, and they found something hard at the girl’s feet too. Her palm also turned up.
“Do they want something?”
Chen Kaijie and Xiao Muyu pulled out two clay jars, one with the character for joy (囍) and the other with the character for mourning (奠).
Each jar had a line of text. The right one said, “Eight characters open the path between Yin and Yang,” and the left one said, “No entry without money.”
Su Jin widened her eyes at Xiao Muyu. Xiao Muyu took out the paper money she had picked up, placing the red in the girl’s joy jar and the white in the boy’s mourning jar.
As they placed the paper money in the jars, the children lowered their hands.
In the end, the girl received nine pieces, and the boy six. The paper figures laughed again, picked up the jars, and happily skipped away.
If they were real children, the scene would be innocent. But as paper figures, it was unsettling, and Su Jin and the others shivered.
Without a word, Xiao Muyu started running. The presence of these children asking for red packets suggested that Shen Qingqiu was nearby.
Night had fallen, the road was dark, and the air was damp with a sour smell. The misty cold clung to their faces, soaking Xiao Muyu’s shoes and socks.
In the darkness, the mist was invisible until two dim red lights appeared. Xiao Muyu realized her vision was blurry.
The indistinct red lights resembled a beast’s eyes in the abyss or ghostly flames, floating and eerie.
Chen Kaijie held Su Jin’s hand, who held Zuo Tiantian’s. They clung to Xiao Muyu like a string of candied haws, moving quickly.
“Captain Xiao, what are those red lights?”
Xiao Muyu shook her head, “I don’t know, but the presence of something new means we’re on the right track.”
Xiao Muyu kept trying to contact Shen Qingqiu but received no response, increasing her anxiety.
Her usually calm face was now tense with worry.
Following the red lights, they walked until they saw what they were. They emerged from the mist onto a wide street. Before them stood a courtyard, decorated for a celebration with red lanterns and silk. The place was bustling with activity.
The red lights they had seen were two large red lanterns hanging at the entrance of the courtyard.
The characters for joy (囍) were clearly visible. Su Jin saw Xiao Muyu’s tightly pressed lips, dark eyes, and clenched fists.
“Captain Xiao, should we go in?”
Xiao Muyu took a deep breath, “Yes, why not.”
She stepped into the courtyard.
As the four of them entered, a gust of wind slammed the gate shut. Xiao Muyu glanced back but continued walking without hesitation.
Inside the courtyard, red lanterns and silk were everywhere, resembling a lively wedding scene.
Although they had heard voices outside, the inner courtyard was empty, with only flickering candles and a deathly silence.
The deeper they went, the colder it felt. Fear grew in their hearts, turning the red decorations from festive to sinister.
The main hall was decorated for a wedding, with a large character for joy (囍) in the center and candles burning low.
The thick wax dripped down, creating a desolate atmosphere, as if the candles were about to burn out without the newlyweds ever arriving.
“There’s no one here either,” Zuo Tiantian whispered, disappointed and nervous. Shen Qingqiu wasn’t there.
Before Xiao Muyu could speak, a gust of wind blew through the hall, tilting the candle flames and darkening the room.
When the light returned, the hall was filled with people.
Chen Kaijie gasped, “Am I seeing things?”
The people were smiling, toasting, and celebrating. A couple at the top beamed with joy.
The scene moved to the wedding ceremony, with a handsome groom and a bride in a red veil. It was like a replay of the past.
If it weren’t for the earlier horrors, the scene would be joyous and touching.
“Is this the wedding they should have had?” Zuo Tiantian muttered.
The people seemed unaware they were mere illusions. Their happiness and emotion were vivid. The love and blessings for the couple were palpable, making the current ghostly wedding even more tragic.
But Xiao Muyu and her team had no time for sentiment. As the wedding illusion continued, they needed to find Shen Qingqiu.
As the ceremony reached the point where the couple was to bow to heaven and earth, the officiant’s voice elongated, indicating the start of the ritual.
The groom glanced at the bride beside him, his handsome eyes full of deep affection. He looked at the bride with a sidelong glance and slowly bent over.
However, the bride beside the groom seemed to be half a beat slow. After a small bend at her waist, she stopped halfway.
Her slightly bent back was thin and elegant, seemingly trembling. Soon, the groom’s cupped hands moved slightly, and the bride abruptly bent over as if she were a puppet.
Xiao Muyu’s eyes narrowed instantly, a thought rushing into her mind. She coldly said, “That groom is not an illusion.”
With that, she gripped her bronze sword tightly, took a few swift steps forward, and raised her sword to slash at the groom.
Immediately, the groom’s illusory figure became solid, and he dodged the sword like a ghost, still trying to grab the bride with one hand.
The sudden gust lifted a corner of the bridal veil, revealing half of the bride’s face. Xiao Muyu was deeply familiar with that face—it was Shen Qingqiu.
But Shen Qingqiu seemed to be unaware of what was happening, completely motionless. Xiao Muyu’s heart tightened. She quickly kicked out with her right leg, hitting the ghost groom’s wrist, forcing him to let go.
Xiao Muyu’s anger surged. She knew the opponent was not human, but at this moment, she felt the ghost deserved to be cut into a thousand pieces.
Even as the groom dodged, Xiao Muyu did not relent. She ignored the groom’s handsome face, which turned into a swollen, white, rotting visage. Her left foot shot up from under his chin, kicking his terrifying face askew.
Xiao Muyu pulled Shen Qingqiu into her arms, tore off her veil, and pointed her sword at the groom, coldly saying, “You think you’re worthy of marrying her!”
Zuo Tiantian and Su Jin rushed in as well, their cards already activated. Chen Kaijie held a burning hot fire tongs, and Zuo Tiantian threw a red rope straight out.
The red rope instantly wrapped around the groom, and Su Jin immediately aimed her brush at his forehead.
What seemed like a done deal suddenly changed when Xiao Muyu looked down to check on Shen Qingqiu.
The groom in the red wedding outfit inflated like a balloon, his red clothes turning white in an instant, and the red flower on his chest turned into a mourning decoration.
All the red in the hall turned white. The large red “double happiness” character on the wall was half red, half white, and the wedding hall turned into a mourning hall.
At the same time, the groom’s handsome appearance peeled off like paper, revealing a swollen, white face. His cloudy eyes seemed ready to burst as he eerily stared at the approaching Su Jin.
“Be careful!” Xiao Muyu shouted urgently. Chen Kaijie also sensed something was wrong and leaped to tackle Su Jin aside.
The ghost groom forcibly broke free from the red rope, his right hand’s five fingers growing long, brown nails stabbing like blades, narrowly missing Chen Kaijie and Su Jin.
Xiao Muyu’s heart swung like it was on a cliff’s edge. She noticed the groom tightly clutching a paper doll in his left hand.
After his attack missed, he laughed grotesquely, his gaping mouth full of mud and sand, disgusting and frightening. Xiao Muyu saw his left hand bend a finger, slicing the paper doll’s abdomen.
Xiao Muyu’s head buzzed. She looked up at the groom, who was spewing mud and sand, pretending to be nonchalant. Without glancing at Shen Qingqiu, she mockingly said to the ghost groom, “You failed. My substitute is alive and well. Did you think that person could help you? Just a woman who married into the Xiao family as a concubine for my father?
Or a son-in-law who has to stay timidly in the Shen family, playing music with Shen Yurou?
That paper doll has turned to ashes. I brought its ashes specially for you to see. Things that shouldn’t exist in this world should turn to dust like it.”
Su Jin was baffled by Xiao Muyu’s words, completely in the dark. What puzzled her most was why Xiao Muyu talked about the paper doll’s ashes without actually caring about them.
She glanced at Shen Qingqiu, who was acting very strangely, and then noticed the ghost groom’s left hand holding the paper doll tightly, with only the head exposed.
Thinking of the paper doll guarding the road earlier, Su Jin felt a chill. Her forehead almost broke into a sweat, but she sneered and said, “That paper doll was useless. After being kicked in the head by Captain Xiao, I burned it with a fire. It screamed and cried miserably.”
Before Su Jin finished speaking, the ghost groom roared, his facial skin splitting open. He suddenly appeared in front of Su Jin, but at the same time, a cinnabar brush fiercely stabbed into his forehead.
Chen Kaijie gritted his teeth and roared, swinging his Tang sword down, severing the ghost groom’s decayed left hand.
Author’s Note: Today is Xiao Muyu’s handsome moment. The internet suddenly went down, so the update is late and the format is not adjusted. Please bear with it, I will fix it tomorrow after I wake up.
