Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My college roommate Jiang Yan’s cousin was getting married.

Jiang Yan asked me to be a bridesmaid. She said the customs in their village were a little unusual: the bridesmaids had to be people the bride didn’t know, and there had to be at least seven of them.

“Seven? Don’t weddings usually favor even numbers? Why seven?”

“I don’t know either. It’s just always been this way. Qiao Moyu, please. Including the three girls from our dorm, I’m still short one person. Can you help me find a few more friends?”

“Don’t count me in yet. I don’t really want to go.”

Being a bridesmaid was no easy job. You had to get up before the crack of dawn, wear heels and a dress, and stand around for half the day. With that kind of time, I would rather sleep at home.

Jiang Yan said, “Come on. My family lives in Mang Village, and the mushrooms are in season right now. Don’t you love watching videos of people picking mushrooms?”

“I can take you mushroom picking. Plus, our wedding banquet will last three whole days. Three days of feasting, and there’ll be all kinds of mushrooms on the tables.”

A feast? Lots of mushrooms?

Heh. Did I look like the kind of person who could be bribed with food? Slurp-

At noon the next day, Hua Yuling and I appeared right on time at the entrance to Mang Village.

Jiang Yan’s future cousin-in-law had already arranged for someone to pick us up.

The two groomsmen’s eyes lit up the moment they saw us, and one of them let out a loud whistle.

“Whew!”

“Hey, beauties. You must be the bridesmaids Jiang Ping invited, right?”

“Not bad-looking at all!”

The two of them rubbed their hands together, exchanged a glance, then suddenly burst into a lewd laugh in perfect unison.

I stared at them in surprise.

“Did you two eat mushrooms first thing this morning? Why are you acting so crazy?”

“You like eating mushrooms, beautiful? Don’t worry. Once the wedding ceremony’s over this afternoon, we’ll take you up the mountain to pick some.”

The two of them led us into the village. The village wasn’t far from Myanmar, practically right by the border. It was remote, but the road was surprisingly wide and well paved. In front of every household stood a human-shaped doll.

And not just at the doorways. Under the big trees along the road, in the grass, at the base of courtyard walls-there were dolls everywhere.

The dolls were sewn from fabric and seemed to be stuffed with cotton. They were roughly the size of real people, dressed in all different styles of clothing and wearing hats. Some even wore masks and glasses. At first glance, they were creepy as hell.

One of the groomsmen proudly introduced them to us.

“Never seen this many dolls before, have you? That’s why our village is called Doll Village.”

“They say a feng shui master once did a reading for the village. The population here can never fall below nine hundred and ninety-nine. Otherwise, the village won’t be able to receive the dragon energy from Qinglong Mountain behind us.”

“There used to be plenty of people here, but later, during those difficult years, a lot of them starved to death. The village elders used straw figures or paper effigies to stand in for the dead.”

“Now that the economy’s better, the young people have all gone off to work elsewhere, so there are even fewer people left in the village. That’s why we need to make so many dolls.”