Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Yun Jianyue and Zhou Benxin had just finished tidying up the room. Zhou Benxin was still boiling water so the two of them could take baths later.

Firewood crackled in the stove when Second Uncle Zhou’s voice came from outside the small courtyard.

“Xiao Xinzi, are you there?”

Zhou Benxin hurriedly set aside what he was doing and went out to meet Second Uncle Zhou.

“Second Uncle, did you need something?” Zhou Benxin still harbored some resentment toward Second Uncle Zhou, but for the sake of keeping up appearances within the family, he had to remain polite.

Second Uncle Zhou grabbed Zhou Benxin and pulled him away. The village paths were pitch-black at night, and only the moonlight allowed them to make out their immediate surroundings. Anything farther away was lost in darkness.

“Your Second Aunt twisted her back. I need to move something, but I can’t manage it alone. Come give me a hand.” Second Uncle Zhou walked briskly, gripping Zhou Benxin’s wrist so tightly it was as though he feared Zhou Benxin would refuse to follow.

“But I still have water boiling, and my upperclassman is home by herself…” Before Zhou Benxin could finish refusing, he had already been dragged more than ten yards away.

“It’ll only take ten or fifteen minutes. We’ll be quick. What could possibly happen to her in our village? It’s not like there are any criminals around here.” Second Uncle Zhou’s tone left no room for refusal.

Zhou Benxin glanced back at the light shining from his house. Moving something would only take ten or fifteen minutes. Yun Jianyue should be fine at home by herself.

Besides, once today’s ritual was over, he would inevitably need the villagers’ help arranging his grandmother’s funeral. Second Uncle Zhou had a lot of connections in the village, so Zhou Benxin couldn’t afford to offend him now.

In the end, Zhou Benxin could only change his tune. “All right, Second Uncle. Let’s make it quick.”

Inside Zhou Benxin’s old house, Yun Jianyue and Lu Changxue, one human and one ghost, stood by the window and watched Second Uncle Zhou drag him away.

“Aren’t they supposed to be busy with the ritual? Why did he drag your junior away now? Something feels fishy.” Lu Changxue stroked her chin, pretending to be deep in thought.

“You’re right. There is a ghost here. You,” Yun Jianyue retorted mercilessly.

Lu Changxue let out an indignant shriek. “I mean, I have a feeling something bad is about to happen!”

Yun Jianyue tipped her chin toward the five or six burly middle-aged women flooding into the courtyard. “Looks like it’s already happening.”

“Holy crap! They’re storming in here with a sack. What are they planning?” Even Lu Changxue could tell that they were here for her Darling.

Lu Changxue bared her teeth and brandished her claws as she prepared to float outside. “Just watch me manifest and scare them to death!”

Quick as a flash, Yun Jianyue grabbed Lu Changxue and yanked the ghost back. “Hold on. Let’s see what they’re planning first.”

The middle-aged women barged into Yun Jianyue’s room. After exchanging glances, they lunged at her all at once and pinned her down.

One of them, a middle-aged woman in a floral blouse, viciously pressed a drug-soaked handkerchief over Yun Jianyue’s nose and mouth.

Yun Jianyue pretended to struggle a few times, then cried out twice without a shred of emotion, “Ah… Ah… Let me go…”

Then her eyes rolled back, and her body went limp.

Knowing no one else could see her, Lu Changxue covered her forehead and muttered helplessly, “That acting was so fake. Can these people seriously not tell?”

No, they seriously couldn’t.

They had absolute confidence in their knockout drug. As soon as Yun Jianyue “passed out,” they efficiently divided the work, stuffed her into the sack, and furtively carried her away.

Although “carried” wasn’t quite the right word.

They threaded a bamboo pole through the sack’s ties, suspending Yun Jianyue in the middle, then hoisted one end of the pole onto each of their shoulders and bore her away.
The scene looked exactly like a pig slaughter in the countryside during the New Year, with the pig strung up from a pole between two people.

Lu Changxue floated alongside the middle-aged women, slapping her thigh and laughing without restraint. “From now on, you’re Yun Piggy!”

Yun Piggy, my ass. The position Yun Jianyue was in inside the burlap sack was extremely uncomfortable. She wanted to shift around, but she was afraid they would realize she was only pretending to be unconscious, so she had no choice but to endure it.

The middle-aged women carried her into someone’s house. Two of them pulled her out of the sack and quickly changed her clothes.

Yun Jianyue couldn’t see what they had put on her, but Lu Changxue could and provided a running commentary from the sidelines.

“Wow, they prepared a red wedding dress for you! It’s just like the kind ancient brides wear in TV dramas!”

“I have to admit, this wedding dress is actually pretty gorgeous.”

“They’re putting on the bridal veil! Are they trying to set you up with someone? Arranged marriages are bad, you know!”

The corner of Yun Jianyue’s mouth twitched. Fortunately, the veil covered her face, so no one could see her expression.

She desperately wanted to argue with Lu Changxue. This ghost talked far too much, and all her chatter was giving Yun Jianyue a headache.

The middle-aged women seemed worried that Yun Jianyue would wake up and escape, so they tied her hands with hemp rope.

Once everything was ready, two women took Yun Jianyue by the arms and dragged her out of the house, heading all the way toward the village entrance.

“It looks like they’re taking you to the sacrificial altar,” Lu Changxue continued reporting. “I can see tons of people over there!”

“Holy crap! The Twin God on that altar is covered in ghostly energy! No, wait. Is that yin energy? It doesn’t look like it… What the heck is that thing?” Lu Changxue kept exclaiming.

Yun Jianyue finally reached her limit and kicked Lu Changxue.

One of the middle-aged women supporting her froze. “Is she awake? Did you see her foot move?”

The other woman looked down. Yun Jianyue was still completely limp, so she scoffed. “Your eyes must be failing you. Hurry up. The sacrifice is about to begin.”

Once the conversation started, however, it wasn’t so easy to stop.

The first middle-aged woman sounded worried. “She’s still an outsider, and she seems to be a classmate of that boy from the Zhou Family. If she dies in our village, could the police trace it back to us?”

“The police? We have the Twin God. Why would we be afraid of the police?” the other middle-aged woman replied disdainfully. “So many young girls have died here before, and nothing ever came of it, did it?”

Lu Changxue grew angrier the more she heard. The resentment radiating from her was almost impossible to contain. “The people in this village are murderers! I’m calling the police and having every last one of them arrested!”

You’re a ghost. How are you supposed to call the police? Yun Jianyue grumbled inwardly as she was brought to the sacrificial altar.

When Fifth Elder Zhou saw the bride, a satisfied smile finally appeared in his eyes. “Hurry and move her to the center of the altar.”

The two middle-aged women carried Yun Jianyue to the center of the altar.

A chair stood there, its entire frame pitch-black. Upon closer inspection, dark traces of crimson could be seen beneath the black.

It seemed that others had died in this chair before. The blood that had flowed from their bodies had stained it this unnatural color.

Lu Changxue instinctively tried to follow Yun Jianyue onto the altar.

But the moment she floated to its edge, an invisible force blocked her path.

She couldn’t get onto the altar!