Chapter 43.1

Editors: Alysia & Kat

Proofreader: Junyans

Early morning, Cordoned-off Village.

Shi Tao grabbed a red handkerchief and had a slightly stiff smile on his heavily made-up face. Men are used to sitting with their legs apart, but after several glances swept over him, Shi Tao found that it was really indecent to sit with his legs crossed in his current identity.  As a result, he adjusted his seated position by bringing his knees together.

“As for Pingping’s marriage, I’ll have to trouble you about it.”

The old and sickly voice which emerged from the room behind the bamboo curtain was blended with repeated coughs, as if the person’s throat was clogged with thick phlegm. The sound of breathing was heavy, as if that person was just about to die any minute. Shi Tao saw that all the windows in the room had been drawn, allowing no sunlight to enter. The home appears to be smoked by herbs, and the aroma was so intense that it was difficult to breathe.

“Don’t worry, village chief.”

The leader was a capable woman. She smiled and said, “After all, we have watched Pingping grow up. We will arrange the wedding beautifully.”

“Cough……That’s good, that’s good, cough……”

It was another series of heart-rending coughs, and it sounded like the patient inside was about to cough himself to death. Shi Tao, on the other hand, observed the women in the room with a cold eye, noting that they were not concerned or anxious, and that no one was in a hurry. Only the female leader asked about a few key points of the ceremony and expressed concern about the village chief’s health.

But besides coughing, the village chief repeated a few words over and over, asking them to pay more attention to Pingping.

After leaving the house smoked with herbs, Shi Tao took a deep breath of fresh air and couldn’t shake off the feeling that he had become smoked meat. After the women left the house, they scattered into groups of twos and threes. Shi Tao deliberately slowed down his pace. Sure enough, someone soon came from behind him.

“Shi Ah Duo, I want to discuss with you more about Pingping’s marriage.”

It was the capable female leader who had taken the lead just now. She caught up with Shi Tao. Shi Tao glanced at her wrist and saw a spotted snake circling it, like a bracelet. He would not have seen it if it hadn’t been for his attention to detail.

“Yes.”

The two went back to their residence, which had been specially designed for people invited by the village chief. There were three buildings in the area and together, they created a triangle pattern. No one knew if it was a coincidence, but the three buildings surrounding the stilted building in the centre, where Pingping resided.

“I saw Pingping go out today.”

After entering the room, the capable woman said, quite worriedly, “From what I can see, she still can’t put aside her feelings for Ah Cheng.”

“That’s right.”

Shi Tao echoed, “It’s a pity that everyone in the village knows that Pingping and Ah Cheng are childhood sweethearts.”

Shi Tao and Miao Fangfei exchanged information. After they had started the third scenic spot, they had woken up in their specific houses. Miao Fangfei glanced at her appearance and saw a rather strange face in the bronze mirror. She was aware that the crying marriage was most likely a recreation of a past event. They probably needed to role play a certain character, or so on.

Crying Marriage is a tradition of many ethnic brides before they got married. In addition to the bride, the participants included the bride’s female relatives. Miao Fangfei played the role of “Pingping’s aunt”. Of course, Pingping was the only relative currently alive in the village chief’s family. The so-called roles of Pingping’s “sister-in-law”, “paternal aunt” and “maternal aunt” were mostly replaced by women in the village.

They had been in this room since they had woken up. It was a four-person room. Miao Fangfei had quickly recognized Shi Tao. The two people’s gazes met, but the house was also occupied by two “Cordoned-off Villagers.” Because it wouldn’t be easy to communicate in front of them, they had temporarily separated to gather information.

“Sister-in-law Zhao, Sister-in-law Hou and Sister-in-law Wang live in the north house, while Grandma Lin, Grandma Xu and Grandma Yu live in the southwest house.” Shi Tao said. He and Miao Fangfei were in the southeast house. Different forms of address represented the different identities of their roles.

Pingping’s “sister-in-laws” and “paternal aunts”, together with Miao Fangfei and the woman in the room, played the role of Pingping’s “mother”.

It could be seen that the village chief cared about his only daughter. There were no female elders at home, so he had invited the women in the village to prepare a grand marriage ceremony for Pingping.

“It’s a pity she can’t go out for some air.”

Miao Fangfei said in a slightly heavy tone, “Look, Pingping is unhappy every day. She doesn’t look like a bride preparing to marry, but rather like she was about to go to jail.”

“Why does Sister Miao say so?”

A discontented voice sounded from the door. It was the woman from Cordoned-off Village named Ah Sang, who came back. She had high cheekbones, a thin chin, a mean face and a sharp voice, “Pingping’s marriage is a great event in our village. How can she appear dejected? Pingping is still young and doesn’t know the rules. But Sister Miao should know the rules, right?”

“Yes, we were selected and entrusted with an important task by the village chief. We can’t disrupt Pingping’s great wedding.”

The short and thin woman next to Ah Sang regarded Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao with suspicion, as though if Miao Fangfei and others disagreed with her words, she would inform the village chief.

“Sister-in-law Ah Sang and sister-in-law Ah Wen misunderstood. Of course, we are very much in favor of this happy event. We just met Ah Cheng today, he…”

Miao Fangfei came forward lightly and dissolved the two people’s doubts in a few words. From the looks of it, she reversed the situation around and got closer to the two sisters-in-law. Shi Tao didn’t understand how women used gossip to enhance their friendship. He honestly closed his mouth and acted like a wallflower, so as not to cause trouble to Miao Fangfei.

Shi Tao pricked up his ears after Ah Sang and Ah Wen went back to bed and confirmed that they were sleeping by the sound of their snoring. Ah Sang was fast asleep. He then returned to the house to discuss with Miao Fangfei.

“The people in every house in Cordoned-off Village are watching us.”

Shi Tao whispered. Miao Fangfei nodded and said softly, “The people at the three houses where our tour group are residing are monitoring Pingping.”

There was only one window in the room, which faced Pingping’s house. While going to the village chief’s house for the meeting today, Miao Fangfei had circled around the house. She had also managed to contact Zhao Hongtu and the others and confirmed that there was a window facing Pingping’s house in all three houses.

Zhao Hongtu and the other tourists’ houses only have one Cordoned-off Village villager in the room. Hence, it was easier for them to sneak away. But for Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao, there were Ah Sang and Ah Wen in their room. If they wanted to communicate, they had to take advantage of the time when the other two villagers were sleeping.

“It’s midnight. Today is the first cry of the crying marriage attraction.”

Shi Tao’s voice was very quiet. Only the oil lamp was lit in the room. The dim light reflected on his face, which couldn’t mask his worries.

“Leader Miao, do you have any ideas?”

“The introduction to the crying marriage attraction was too short.”

Miao Fangfei’s tone was grim, “It only mentioned that we will be experiencing the traditional crying marriage. The tour ends at noon on the sixth day.”

At 8 p.m. on the fourth day, there would be a beating three dynasties banquet, after which they experienced the crying marriage. When they woke up in Cordoned-off Village, it was already 10:30 in the middle of the night. At 11:00, they had been called by the village chief for a meeting. It was currently half past twelve o’clock in the morning.

It should be considered the fifth day now.

The Intoxicating Xiangxi tour was a six-day, five-night tour. The tour would end at noon on the sixth day. In other words, as long as they could survive for a day and a half, they would survive this tour.

Even though the tour was nearing its end, Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao didn’t appear to be at ease. The information provided was both insufficient and ambiguous. They didn’t have Pingping’s diary, which Wei Xun had gotten. Based on the facts they had at the time, they could only speculate about Pingping’s life.

“Pingping is going to get married, but she’s not marrying her sweetheart Ah Cheng.”

Shi Tao said, “Everyone in Cordoned-off Village has attached great importance to this wedding. It’s a little too enthusiastic. Even if Pingping is the daughter of the village chief, they shouldn’t be so enthusiastic.”

“The seriously ill person is the village chief, Pingping’s father.”

Miao Fangfei analyzed the information, “He is terminally ill and needs special fetal flesh treatment.”

When they had conducted the washing on the third day custom, the ghost baby’s affinity for Miao Fangfei had reached the maximum points, so Miao Fangfei had gotten an extra reward. She had obtained fragments of Pingping’s memory and seen Pingping’s past, “Pingping had given birth in a cave. She knew that the people in the village had horrible intentions towards her child.”

“The village chief was eager for Pingping to get married in order to make her pregnant with a special fetus?”

Shi Tao followed Miao Fangfei’s line of thought and speculated, “Then, for this attraction, do we have to stop this wedding from happening?”

There were three cries for the crying marriages, namely, noon on the fifth day, early morning on the sixth day, and noon on the sixth day. When the three cries were over, Pingping would get married. It was only during the three cries that they could go to Pingping’s house and come into contact with her. If they wanted to ruin the wedding, they had to make preparations early.

“No.”

Miao Fangfei shook her head and said slowly, “Our ultimate goal is to live until noon on the sixth day.”

Their main duty was to survive until noon on the sixth day and the end of the trip, whether it was to promote or disrupt the wedding procession. They would then be able to successfully complete the tour.

.

“If we ruin the wedding procession, all the villagers of Cordoned-off Village and the village chief would be our enemies.”

In the house on the west side, Xu Chen said to Lin Xi while the third person in the house was sleeping. While analyzing, he sorted out his thoughts:

“Before we entered the third scenic spot, we saw Pingping crying and cutting the heads of the paper dolls. This also highlights that the danger of this attraction would happen during her crying marriage ceremonies.”

“If we follow how history plays out, Pingping will be in danger, but the villagers and the village chief of Cordoned-off Village will be our natural allies.”

Xu Chen analyzed and said in a cold tone, “Whether it’s to ruin the wedding procession or allow history to repeat again, our ultimate goal is to live until noon on the sixth day. The option we choose depends on which is more favorable to us.”

“From the previous two attractions, Pingping should have gotten married and even had a child. Her revenge on the villagers began with the child being boiled into soup and ended with the decimation of Little Dragon Farmstead.”

“That is to say, in this period in history when she got married, Pingping’s strength was weaker than the people of Cordoned-off Village. The strength of the villagers of Cordoned-off Village and the village chief was stronger, and the wedding would go on.”

“However, although our attraction is a re-enactment of history, it is not entirely a re-enactment of history.”

Xu Chen revealed a plot twist, “I speculate that this time we will not encounter the weak and easy to bully Pingping from the past, but the spiteful ghost Pingping.”

At present, the biggest hint was Pingping in a bloody wedding dress.

“So that’s the case!”

Yu Hean had been listening very carefully. Seeing Xu Chen pause, he asked, “What should we do?”

“In other words, if we continue with the wedding, the people of Cordoned-off Village will be on our side, and the spiteful ghost Pingping will be our enemy. The danger will come when it will be time to carry out the crying marriage or when the bride marries.”

Xu Chen continued, “If we choose to disrupt the wedding procession, the spiteful ghost Pingping will be our ally, and the people of Cordoned-off Village will be our enemies. We’ll face danger from everywhere from time to time, and I suspect that the spiteful ghost Pingping will not help us easily. Having this ally is akin to having no ally.”

If the spiteful ghost Pingping could help them out, the tourists would be able to ride on her coattails to win. The third scenic spot would never be so simple. Xu Chen had two guesses. At worst, the roles they had now were “Residents of Cordoned-off Village”, who were also the subjects of Pingping’s revenge. Maybe, no matter whether they chose to disrupt the wedding procession or allow the wedding to be carried out, Pingping would act against them anyway.

Even if Xu Chen thought about it positively, Pingping might not kill them after they expressed their intention to destroy the wedding,  but she would not help them. They would need to face everyone in Cordoned-off Village by themselves.

“Old Bro Xu is right.”

Yu Hean succinctly responded with a sad face and a sullen voice, “In other words, it is more difficult to ruin the wedding procession.”

“Yes.”

Xu Chen sighed. Given this level of difficulty, this attraction was worth being  in the third scenic spot of Intoxicating Xiangxi. It was no longer a simple clearance, battle or embarking on an adventure, but a silent test of human nature.

Tourists who had passed the second scenic spot knew that Pingping had suffered a lot in Cordoned-off Village, and Cordoned-off Village was evil. However, in the third scenic spot, it was easier to choose the side of Cordoned-off Village and allow the wedding procession to carry on.

For tourists, as long as they lived until noon on the sixth day, they would be able to successfully clear the tour. Just by allowing the tourists to make the decision of supporting the wedding procession or ruining the wedding procession, contradictions and disputes would arise within the people of the tour group.

Some people wanted stability, others wanted to take risks and strive for higher rewards. Some people were indifferent to the joys and sorrows of the characters in tours, while others had a lingering conscience and sympathized with Pingping, hoping that she could have a different ending.