Ghost Wedding Procession

All three of us recognized that intention, and the woman before us did as well.

Xiao Heng squatted down, leaning close to Xiao Bao, who timidly cowered behind the woman's hand.

Xiao Heng truly wanted to hold him in her arms, but then gave up the idea.

She turned to Grandfather, giving a bitter smile:

"Children should not be exposed to Yin Qi..."

"You don't hate them?" Su Er wanted to ask if, even at this moment, Xiao Heng still had no words of resentment towards her husband and mother-in-law.

Xiao Heng stood up, turned, smiled, and shook her head:

"They have already suffered their retribution; hating them would achieve nothing. Now, seeing Xiao Bao live peacefully day by day is happiness enough for me."

From the bottom of our hearts, we truly admired Xiao Heng's magnanimous spirit; few could do as she did.

Xiao Heng looked at Grandfather, bowed her head, and said:

"Daoist Master, thank you. Xiao Heng was fortunate to meet you all. Today, we must part ways here."

Grandfather quickly helped her stand. Xiao Heng turned to the woman and said:

"Auntie, Xiao Heng is incapable and has no way to thank you. Xiao Heng here kowtows to express her gratitude."

With that, Xiao Heng knelt down, kowtowing three times before the woman, whose eyes were already brimming with tears.

Grandfather took a few steps forward and said to Xiao Heng:

"I will help you write a Jie Chen Talisman, to explain your inability to report to the Underworld earlier. They surely won't blame you."

Xiao Heng was about to kneel again, but fortunately, Grandfather caught her in time. She couldn't help but thank him emotionally:

"Many thanks, Daoist Master."

It was already dark. Grandfather formed hand seals, muttering to himself, then the talisman flew away, and Xiao Heng departed with it.

Everything in the mortal world has its retribution, whether it comes slowly or quickly. Heaven's net is vast, though its meshes are wide, nothing escapes.

May we all fear the cause more than the effect.

After resolving Xiao Heng's matter, we continued our journey to Qing Mu Town.

The woman picked up Xiao Bao, pointing ahead:

"Just go straight; it's not far."

We walked again, and the further we went, the heavier our hearts became.

Finally, we reached Qing Mu Town. We had left when the sun was setting, and arrived in the middle of the night.

We planned to stay overnight at a nearby inn, but to our surprise, although there were many houses around, none were open.

While we were searching, the sound of gongs and drums echoed from the end of the street, filling the alleyways. It was the middle of the night; what kind of celebration could this be?

In the middle of the night? It could only be a funeral procession.

Thinking of this, I bowed my head respectfully.

Grandfather stood firm, not bowing his head at all.

Waiting until the procession drew near, he pulled Su Er and me to hide in a corner.

I was about to ask him why he pulled us here, but as the procession passed, my entire body trembled.

It wasn't a funeral; the procession was carrying a sedan chair for a wedding.

A wedding procession in the middle of the night—just thinking about it was utterly terrifying.

The person walking in the center held an ancestral tablet, their mouth murmuring a children's rhyme:

"Lanterns embrace the entire sky,
Firecrackers echo through the village.
Phoenix coronet adorned with silver pearls,
Before the face, a bridal veil.
Guests laugh and raise their cups in cheer,
Unaware of the bride's sorrowful tears.
One door, yet two destinies,
Happiness and sorrow, a path apart.
Looking up, asking the heavens, tears of blood fall,
In the end, for us, is it separation by death or by life?"

Although it was a wedding, the children's rhyme carried a gloomy, heavy melody.

Even stranger were the four sedan bearers; each had a pale face, utterly devoid of vitality.

When I looked up at the bridal sedan chair, oh my! I just wanted to scream, because there was a person sitting on top of the sedan, and even more bizarrely, that person had no eyes, no nose, and no mouth.

The face was as flat as a piece of wood, with a long tongue in the center.

I was utterly terrified, about to shout loudly, but Grandfather quickly covered my mouth and whispered:

"This is a ghost wedding procession. Don't let them discover us, or you'll die."

My eyes grew even more frightened when Grandfather said this, but I still tried to nod.

Then Grandfather slowly loosened his hand.

I thought to myself, does Wu Ming truly have good intentions or not? Bringing us to this place where ghosts and demons roam.

Su Er sat behind me, her face also pale after witnessing that scene.

As they passed us, let alone moving, I didn't even dare to breathe.

The entire scene was incredibly eerie.

It wasn't until the sounds of gongs and drums faded that we dared to step out.

It was almost dawn, and people were already heading to the market.

Grandfather, Su Er, and I went to an inn, then rested for a while.

The people here chatted lively, but they all mentioned the ghost wedding procession from last night; it turned out they also knew about it.

I couldn't help but listen curiously to their idle chatter; everyone said they had seen the ghost wedding procession with their own eyes last night.

I gasped in astonishment:

"You all saw it too?"

The storyteller suddenly looked at me with suspicion:

"You're new to this town, aren't you?"

I uttered an "ah" and nodded in reply:

"How did you know, Uncle?"

"Only newcomers to this town are surprised by the ghost wedding event; we who have lived here for a long time are already used to it," the storyteller calmly said.

Someone in the crowd loudly said:

"I wonder whose daughter was chosen last night."

The storyteller replied:

"Old Man Li's daughter. If this doesn't end soon, who knows how many more girls will suffer."

I asked them again:

"This isn't the first time?"

"No, it's happened many times before. Every month, on the night of the full moon, a ghost wedding procession appears, and it will choose a girl from this town to be the ghost bride. No one knows where she is taken."

A feeling of fear suddenly enveloped my small heart; this place was many times more terrifying than Wu Ming.

After hearing these stories, I returned to my room and recounted them to Grandfather. Grandfather only told me to quickly resolve the Wu Ming matter first.

But in this vast place, how were we to find her?

Grandfather turned back to the bed, taking out a piece of paper—a blood letter:

"Tonight, meet at Wan Lin..."

I wondered, these ghost souls seem to really like writing blood letters to others; couldn't they just write a normal letter?

Chu Yao, I don't know when, appeared before me, startling me so much I almost swore.

He sat down at the table:

"Tonight, let's go there a little earlier..."

"Do we need to bring anything for defense?" I asked.

Chu Yao shook his head and replied:

"If she intends to take our lives, then any preparation will be futile."

I felt that Chu Yao's words weren't entirely correct; if we were prepared, the chances of escape would increase somewhat. It wasn't right to just walk into a trap just because you thought the opponent was strong.

Grandfather, however, thought very similarly to me. He took out a stack of talismans from his bag, as if ready for battle.