Xu Chen walked into Pingping's boudoir with the cooked chicken in his hand. He only glanced at Miao Fangfei once before entering. They had learned from the obstacles Miao Fangfei encountered while cooking the pig livers and had tested the chicken this time. Fortunately, no poison had been found. However, Xu Chen became more fretful due to this.
Miao Fangfei and her team faced three difficulties. First, it was finding the non-poisonous pig liver. Second, how they had been opposed by Ah Sang and Ah Wen. Third, when they had given the silver bracelet to Pingping. Regardless, the difficulty of the crying marriage should increase after each cry. That meant that their group would encounter more difficulties after entering Pingping’s boudoir.
Xu Chen took the lead in walking into Pingping’s boudoir. Lin Xi, who was carrying the “leaving grandmother chicken”, was the second to walk into the boudoir. The third to walk in was Ah Xiang, a villager of Cordoned-off Village who lived with them. Yu Hean stuck to the rear.
“Grandma——”
As Miao Fangfei had said, the surroundings became quiet as soon as she entered the door of Pingping’s house, and the noisy bamboo pan flute music disappeared. It was still summer, but they could feel a heavy chill in the house, as if they were entering a freezer. Xu Chen saw Pingping sitting on the bed. She was dressed in fine black-and-white tribal clothes. The only decorations on her skirt were branches and vines with dark red flowers. Under her skirt, branches and vines with dark red flowers were the only adornments she wore.
Xu Chen smelled a faint smell of blood. When he looked at the “decorations,” they appeared more like an irregular color block to him. All the decorations on her skirt were of different sizes and were interconnected. It appeared like…
Splatters of blood.
“Grandma, why are you staring at my skirt?”
All of a sudden, Pingping asked a question while staring at Xu Chen with dark eyes. For a moment, Xu Chen felt a sense of horror, as if he was marked by a ferocious ghost. The Pingping in front of them was a real spiteful ghost, and they were alone with her!
“Grandma loves you.”
Yu Hean pinched Xu Chen, while Lin Xi’s eyes couldn’t help trembling. At this critical moment, Xu Chen soon woke up from the oppression of the fierce ghost and recited the lyrics:
“Congratulations to my granddaughter for getting a good match. Now that the lantern torch has left the cabinet, I only wish you all the best and hope everything goes well for you in the future. I wish that you will be a daughter-in-law for thousands of years and a mother-in-law for thousands of years.”
Naturally, not everyone could sing like Miao Fangfei or even make up words on the spot. Xu Chen was reading rather than singing. He felt that Ah Xiang seemed to glance at him with doubt and dissatisfaction, but Xu Chen’s attention was all on Pingping. He saw her eyes fall to the chicken cage held by Lin Xi, and her beautiful irises appeared hazy, like fog.
“Grandma Lin, let me see the chicken.”
Lin Xi thought he would be too scared and stiff to move, but as soon as Pingping spoke, he couldn’t help walking to Pingping, like a jiangshi controlled by someone. Was this the power a spiteful ghost had?
Lin Xi’s face was pale with fear. He walked step by step to Pingping, lifted the chicken cage in his hand as she instructed, and showed it to Pingping.
“I raised my head and glanced at the leaving grandmother chicken, with tears dripping onto my chest.”
Pingping weakly caressed the chicken cage and sang in a sad voice, “I got up at five o’clock and slept in the middle of the night. My grandmother expended a huge effort to raise me up.”
“Grandma, this leaving grandmother chicken is father’s…”
“No.”
Lin Xi felt that he was being controlled. He wanted to shut up, but he couldn’t control his body. At this moment, he didn’t know what was more frightening, Pingping in front of him or Ah Xiang’s creepy eyes behind him.
Xu Chen noticed what had happened to Lin Xi. He stood in front of Lin Xi while Yu Hean stood behind them to protect Lin Xi, whose face was pale. Thereafter, they heard Lin Xi’s trembling voice utter, “Yes, it was Ah Cheng who gave you the leaving grandmother chicken.”
Whoosh!
A sharp knife cut through the air, bringing about an inaudible gust of wind. The sight of it frightened everyone, causing them to emit cold sweat. The flying paper knife was blocked by a thick cowhide at the critical moment. Yu Hean took out the cowhide when he found that the situation was wrong and quickly put it on Lin Xi, managing to intercept Ah Xiang’s paper knife just in time! However, Yu Hean didn’t know if it was because the cowhide had suffered many holes after being used in previous battles, but it didn’t completely cover Lin Xi’s scent.
Ah Xiang immediately launched the next attack when she failed to ambush Lin Xi. The paper knives flew over at strange angles. Ah Xiang shuttled between Xu Chen and the others, her body like a light and thin paper. Her body was so soft and thin that no attack could hurt her!
The cramped house was suitable for the paper person to conduct a sneak attack. However, the three big men were at a disadvantage as they couldn’t properly stretch out their hands and feet, and yet, they had to protect Lin Xi. Therefore, they were soon injured. Amidst the chaos, the chicks in the bamboo basket were given a scare and slammed against the cage with great strength.
“Protect me, all of you, protect me!” Lin Xi screamed incoherently.
Ah Xiang rushed towards him again, and the paper figure wearing heavy makeup appeared gloomy and terrifying. Lin Xi leaned back to avoid the flying paper knife, but was still cut by the blade, and crimson blood flowed from his lower abdomen to his chest. If Lin Xi had leaned back even a second later, he was afraid he would have been split in two! Pain and fear made Lin Xi lose his focus. In a fluster, he waved his hands and fell down, the chicken cage tumbling out of his grasp.
In the next moment, Ah Xiang, who should have given Lin Xi a fatal blow, shifted her target and jumped at the chicken cage.
“Her goal is the leaving grandmother chickens!”
Xu Chen’s mind suddenly became clear. It was too late to fly to protect the chicken cage, so Xu Chen slid over, picked up the chicken cage with his toes and kicked it into Yu Hean’s arms. “Catch it!”
Sure enough, Ah Xiang changed her target again and jumped at Yu Hean, who scrambled to catch the chicken cage. Seeing the thin paper figure rapidly floating towards him, Yu Hean was so scared he wanted to run, but there wasn’t enough space in the boudoir. He rushed to the door and found that the door couldn’t be opened. It was as if the door had been tightly welded shut. Seeing that Ah Xiang’s paper knife was about to stab Yu Hean, Xu Chen shouted, “Throw me the chicken cage!”
Just like passing a ball, Yu Hean hurriedly threw the chicken cage to Xu Chen. At present, one of them was standing by the door, while the other was standing in front of the diagonal window. When one of them could no longer deal with the paper figure, he would throw the chicken cage to the other person to gain some time. But this was not a solution! The chicks in the cage were living creatures. After being thrown again and again, the chicks had almost fainted, and the bamboo chicken cage was about to break.
“Ping, Pingping, you, Ah Xiang.”
Lin Xi was about to go mad. He was stuck between Yu Hean and Xu Chen. Every time the paper figure flew up, she would float past him. Every time the paper figure touched his body, his body would feel cold. Lin Xi wanted to retreat, but he could only move towards Pingping’s wedding bed. His legs were shaky, and he almost couldn’t stand. In the end, he could only unsteadily sit down. Facing Pingping’s cold eyes, his brain went blank, and he stuttered as he spoke.
Why did it turn out this way? This was different from what Miao Fangfei and the others had said!
Why didn’t Pingping kill Ah Xiang? Why didn’t she show them some memory fragments or something?
Why did she just stand at the side to watch everything unfold?
“Grandma, how can I live a peaceful, beautiful, and happy life after I get married to a ghost?” Pingping murmured in a creepy tone.
Her gaze moved away from Lin Xi and fell onto Xu Chen’s hands. Then, her gaze moved to the leaving grandmother chicks that had been thrown around so much that they were about to die. “The leaving grandmother chickens given to me by Ah Cheng…”
“After a chick leaves its mother, can it really live?”
Pingping glanced towards the window. It was as if she saw the villagers through the window who seemed to be celebrating, but were actually surrounding and trapping her in Cordoned-off Village.
After a fleeting moment, Xu Chen understood something. She mentioned the chicks, but she was using the chicks as a metaphor to refer to herself. Even if they eloped, could she and Ah Cheng escape under the pursuit of the villagers of Cordoned-off Village? If they did, could they survive in the deep mountains and forests?
Ah Xiang’s paper figure jumped in front of him. Xu Chen should have used the same old trick and thrown the chicken cage to Yu Hean, but he hesitated. Yu Hean shouted, “Xu Chen, the chicken cage, chicken cage!”
Slice!
The paper knife was sharper than a real knife and directly pierced Xu Chen’s left arm. The blood splashed everywhere and the severe pain made Xu Chen groan, but he stubbornly endured the pain. He bent his left arm and trapped the paper knife between his bones and flesh! Thereafter, he took the opportunity to turn around and throw himself towards the window.
Bang!
This time, Xu Chen exhausted all his strength to throw himself at the window. With a bam, blood flowed all over his head. Even though he felt dizzy, he knocked a big hole out of the wooden paper window!
“Send the chicken out,” Xu Chen muttered after much difficulty.
The sharp pain made him lose his strength and he couldn’t widen the gap in the window. However, Xu Chen had already understood the key points of the second cry.
“Quick!”
“Okay, okay!”
Yu Hean rushed forward and pulled Lin Xi along in passing. Lin Xi looked at the gray paper figure lying on Xu Chen’s back. It was a shocking sight. The paper figure almost completely covered him, causing Lin Xi’s panic to reach its peak. However, he also knew that this was the most critical time. He raised his hand and took a knife out to cut the paper figure sticking on Xu Chen, but he only heard a crisp sound of “slit,” and the paper figure was unharmed. On the contrary, Lin Xi’s blade grew gray and dark as it was corroded by Yin Energy. With a mere touch, it broke into pieces.
The paper figure was so powerful that Lin Xi couldn’t imagine how miserable Xu Chen was when he was attacked by the paper figure. The only thing in his brain was the sentence, “Send the chicken out.” He raised his head and saw that Yu Hean had snatched the chicken cage from Xu Chen and was in a hurry to plug it into the window.
The window paper had been pried open by Xu Chen and it hung off the wooden window, appearing like rags. When Yu Hean moved to throw the cage out, it seemed that there was a gust of wind outside the house, and the broken gray window paper floated and pasted onto the chicken cage in Yu Hean’s hand.
Gray window paper, gray paper figure, paper figure, window paper.
“Yu Hean, stop!”
A sense of crisis suddenly surged forth. Lin Xi, whose thoughts weren’t clear, subconsciously shouted when Yu Hean was about to forcibly squeeze the chicken cage out. However, his hands were very stable and he reacted quickly. As soon as Lin Xi shouted, he stopped his actions, and the chicken cage paused in front of the window! After he stopped moving, the grayish-white window paper that was still floating towards the chicken cage looked particularly conspicuous.
Yu Hean subconsciously retreated. The window paper had almost circled around his wrist.
“Paper figure, window paper!”
Xu Chen remained silent. In the midst of the chaos, he had no time to think. Lin Xi could only shout out these two points in hopes that Yu Hean would react. Thankfully, Yu Hean had grown up in a family whose trade was riding for the immortals. Even though he had no talent for his family trade, he had seen pigs run even if he had never eaten pork. He couldn’t understand the relationship between the paper person and window paper, but it didn’t prevent him from quickly fishing out a lighter.
With a slight click, the orange flame darted to the window paper, and instantly burned the paper extending towards Yu Hean’s wrist into ashes. A sharp and shrill howl sounded, and a terrifying face appeared on the gray window paper. The cold wind almost extinguished the flame, but Yu Hean turned around and the fire burned the old cowhide. The flame spread instantly, and the flames burning the cow leather were no longer a light orange or orange-red, but a flame as bright as gold.
The hairy surface of the cowhide burned, but the inside was still cold and soft. A chill crept behind them, and Yu Hean didn’t dare to look back. He gritted his teeth and quickly wrapped the chicken cage with the cowhide and pushed it out of the hole in the window paper. The gray window paper wanted to wrap around the cowhide, but was burned by the golden flame covering it.