Chapter 186
Chapter 186
Qin Ying didn’t even have to think to know that call had definitely not come from Yin Minmin.
There was only one possible conclusion: Yin Minmin’s phone had fallen into someone else’s hands.
Those people were doing everything they could to stop her from leaving.
The phone call had been one such attempt, and so were the people downstairs who had rushed back just in time for the banquet.
If she had insisted on leaving earlier, they would have dropped all pretense and resorted to force.
Once that happened, Qin Ying might have to fight her way through the entire village alone and barehanded.
She walked to the window, lifted the cloth curtain, and looked outside.
A person in a black raincoat stood beside the courtyard directly below. They were most likely there to keep watch.
The sounds of drinking and card games drifted up from downstairs. Qin Ying lowered the curtain and surveyed the room.
It had probably been a bedroom originally, but it was now crammed with dowry goods.
Most of the dowry consisted of quilts. There were also several loads of rice and red-dyed eggs prepared according to local custom.
On the tray at the very top lay an ethnic minority bridal outfit, along with silver jewelry and a silver floral headdress.
Di Shang immediately grew restless and extended a slender tendril.
Qin Ying pinched it inside her sleeve.
She raised a hand to cover her lips and silently mouthed, “Thunderbird.”
The long-tailed little blue bird nestled inside her hat stirred.
A faint static tingle instantly spread across Qin Ying’s cheeks, and the hair tied behind her head stood on end.
Thunderbird had taken the initiative to release the electromagnetic field it carried. At this low intensity, it had no effect on humans, but it could disrupt surveillance and telephone equipment.
Qin Ying did nothing else. She found a small stool and sat down quietly.
Before long, hurried footsteps approached, and Aunt Mo charged upstairs with several others.
“She ran…”
They all stopped short when they saw Qin Ying.
The vicious look on Aunt Mo’s face immediately turned into an awkward smile. “We just came up to take a look.”
Qin Ying arched an eyebrow. “Were you afraid I’d steal your family’s dowry?”
Aunt Mo hurriedly denied it. “No, no.”
Her gaze swept around the room, pausing briefly in one spot before she led the others back downstairs.
Only after they left did Qin Ying click her tongue.
She stood and walked over to the spot where Aunt Mo’s gaze had lingered.
It was a brand-new pink table lamp. When Qin Ying lifted the lampshade, she saw a tiny red light blinking inside the bulb socket, even though no bulb had been installed.
It was a pinhole camera.
Qin Ying put the lampshade back, then openly walked over to the window and gazed out at Qingzhai Village, shrouded in rain and mist.
It seemed this trip involved more than just an anomaly. Human malice was helping the evil along.
But what exactly were these people keeping her here for?
Her gaze fell on the wall. They had repeatedly stressed that no one was allowed to see the bride, but what were they trying to lure her into doing?
Qin Ying reached into her hiking backpack and pulled out a cut-off piece of a gold bracelet.
She slipped the four- or five-gram fragment into her right sleeve.
Di Shang eagerly enveloped the broken bracelet, greedily licking and digesting it.
After feeding the creature, Qin Ying made no further moves.
She folded her arms and sat in a corner of the room, pretending to nap.
Aunt Mo came upstairs several times under various pretexts to check on her. When she saw that Qin Ying was behaving herself and making no suspicious moves, she finally left her alone.
By four or five in the afternoon, the rain had stopped.
But the sky had already darkened abruptly.
Firelight flickered chaotically in front of the stilt house as the people who had gone to the funeral began returning one after another.
Only now, with people coming and going downstairs, did the place finally show some signs of hosting a wedding.
Qin Ying checked the time. According to Yunlan City customs, weddings were held at night.
The procession to fetch the bride only arrived after darkness had completely fallen.
Perhaps Aunt Mo was too busy downstairs, or perhaps she assumed Qin Ying wouldn’t try anything with so many people around. Either way, she stopped coming upstairs.
Qin Ying, however, rose to her feet and headed straight for the room next door, where the bride was staying.
By her reckoning, the bride had already been shut in there without food or water for who knew how long.
She stood before the locked door and pressed her index finger to the keyhole.
A strand of silver crept over the back of her hand. Every bit of metal it touched melted into liquid at a visibly rapid pace.
In the blink of an eye, the lock’s entire cylinder vanished with a click.
The door slowly swung open with a long, drawn-out creak.
It revealed a bride sitting primly on the bed, dressed in a red bridal jacket with a veil covering her head.
The room was dark, making the jacket look a deep, dusky red.
At the sound, two muffled whimpers came from behind the veil.
Qin Ying stepped forward and lifted it.
A pair of tearful eyes met hers.
The bride’s eyes brimmed with tears, and a cloth had been stuffed tightly into her mouth.
Seeing that she wasn’t Yin Minmin, Qin Ying let out a long breath of relief.
The unfamiliar bride was delicate-featured, with slender eyes. Several ropes bound her to the edge of the bed.
She had been forced into a demure sitting pose like a doll.
There was even a rope around her neck. Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head at Qin Ying, barely daring to move.
“Will you scream?” Qin Ying asked in a low voice.
The bride shook her head again, the red tassels by her temples swaying gently.
Only then did Qin Ying pull the gag from her mouth.
True to her word, the bride didn’t scream. She worked her jaw, then pleaded urgently, “Save me.”
“I was abducted. They’re trying to force me to marry someone.”
Qin Ying’s expression shifted slightly as she studied the tear-streaked bride.
After a moment’s hesitation, she asked, “Do you know what happened to the people from the Cultural Preservation Bureau?”
The bride whimpered. “They were all killed. There was also a young girl named Minmin.”
At that, she finally saw shock cross Qin Ying’s face.
The bride begged, “Please untie me. We can escape together.”
Qin Ying blinked, her expression turning grave. “What happened?”
“Untie me first, and then I’ll tell you.”
Qin Ying straightened and appeared to think for a moment before pulling a Swiss Army knife from her tall hiking boot.
Its blade was exceptionally sharp, slicing through the ropes around the bride in two quick strokes.
The bride sprang to her feet and said impatiently, “Thank you. We need to go, now.”
She kept her voice low and spoke rapidly, creating an almost palpable sense of urgency.
Qin Ying lowered her lashes. Something inexplicable flickered through her eyes before disappearing. “I drove here. My car is parked by the road.”
The bride immediately objected, “We can’t take the main road. There’s something wrong with this village.”
“It’s haunted.”
The moment she finished speaking, a click came from the window.
“Oh?” Qin Ying was about to ask more, but the bride grabbed her wrist. “There’s no time. Let’s get out first. I’ll explain later.”
They crept around to the rear window.
It was pitch-black below. The rain-soaked bamboo grove rustled in the night.
The second story of the stilt house wasn’t particularly high, and a woodpile sat beneath it. Even someone completely unathletic could climb down with a little effort.
Despite her bridal clothes, the bride was surprisingly nimble at climbing out.
Qin Ying followed close behind. When she jumped down from the woodpile, the bride even reached up to catch her.
With all the commotion out front, the two of them managed to slip into the bamboo grove without alerting a single person.
The light was poor in every direction. Waist-high weeds rustled whenever they moved, making it sound as if people were surrounding them on all sides.
Like a frightened siskin, the bride held Qin Ying’s hand and led the way. “Strange things happen in this village after dark. There are so many…”
The rest of her words caught in her throat as a cold, pale glow appeared ahead.
One after another, white lanterns materialized out of thin air, floating in the darkness.
Beneath each lantern stood a white figure whose neck had stretched several feet long. They strained to push their heads toward the white lights.
Like opium addicts, they greedily inhaled the smoke within.