Tang Tang's worries were not unfounded. In her time in the village, she hadn't discovered any so-called hidden rules.
Now, they had forcibly kept Yuan Yuan, who was supposed to be the bride in the ghost marriage, and she wondered what the consequences would be.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her tonight," Ning Wei replied.
"Even if this is a hidden rule, it's her death, not ours," Ning Wei said softly, glancing at Yuan Yuan, who was either unconscious or asleep.
Her words held truth. In the context of hidden rules, the protagonist was the one who would die, regardless of whether they had triggered the rule willingly or unwillingly.
Although she didn't know how Yuan Yuan had caught the eye of the eldest young master of the Zhou family, or why she had willingly agreed to marry him as if possessed, the outcome was the same.
Marrying the eldest young master of the Zhou family meant being buried alive – still death.
If the ghost marriage was disrupted and she couldn't successfully marry the eldest young master of the Zhou family, it was also death.
Either way, it was death. They could only leave it to fate.
Tang Tang soon fell asleep. Ning Wei sat by the bedside, staring at the candlelight.
The ghost marriage had been disrupted tonight, but observing the villagers' reactions, it seemed that besides Aunt Zhang, no one else cared much.
She had expected a big fight tonight, but it ended with just some verbal sparring with Matchmaker Zhang and beating up a traitor.
The village was as it always was tonight, with no unusual sounds.
Ning Wei opened the door and stepped out. Li Ye was still hanging from the tree, gazing at the moon.
She shivered. The wind was truly cold at night.
That Li Ye was likely not human. She had never seen him come inside to rest.
He was always hanging from a tree at night. Perhaps he was a bat spirit?
She had seen plenty of ghosts, but never a monster. After all, it was forbidden for spirits to take form after the founding of the People's Republic.
Li Ye on the tree also looked towards the courtyard. Ning Wei stood in the center, moonlight illuminating her, making even her hair seem to glow.
Their eyes met, and then they each returned to their own activities.
Ning Wei went back inside. Only a small stub of the candle remained, likely to burn out within an hour.
By the dim candlelight, Tang Tang and Yuan Yuan were both fast asleep. Everything appeared so normal.
It was precisely because it was too normal that Ning Wei felt a sense of unease.
Matchmaker Zhang had said she had never encountered such a situation. This indicated that the eldest young master of the Zhou family had never failed in marrying a bride before, yet today he had been turned away.
She had a feeling he wouldn't let it go so easily and would not simply let them off.
What details had she overlooked?
Ning Wei pondered for a long time but couldn't figure it out. She finally crawled under the covers.
She fell asleep unusually quickly tonight.
She soon entered a dream. It was a place of thick fog, and she stood alone in its center, unsure of her location.
Suddenly, a giggle echoed from the distance. Ning Wei followed the sound and found several girls sitting among wildflowers in a grove.
They were extraordinarily beautiful, holding wildflowers and making garlands and wreaths. One girl, who had already finished hers, approached Ning Wei: "Look, is this flower crown beautiful?"
Ning Wei glanced at it. The flower crown was adorned with various wildflowers, the most conspicuous being a small white flower.
This small white flower was identical to the one that had fallen on Yuan Yuan's foot.
Immediately, more and more girls surrounded Ning Wei.
They all showed off the flower wreaths or crowns on their heads, each bearing the same small white flower.
Their clothes had also transformed into wedding attire: identical long red skirts that covered their feet, trailing on the ground with a rustling sound.
These were the girls who had gone through ghost marriages with the eldest young master of the Zhou family!
Ning Wei's fingertips burned. A drop of blood emerged, and with swift movements, she let the bloodstain fall onto one of them.
The female ghost cried out in pain and collapsed. Ning Wei seized the opportunity to escape the encirclement.
The female ghost was still moaning. Her red skirt became tattered, her flesh peeled off rapidly, and she soon turned into a decaying corpse.
The pain in her fingertip finally brought Ning Wei back to her senses. She had been pulled into a dream!
Without delay, she decided to deal with this group of female ghosts first.
Drop by drop, her blood fell onto the female ghosts. They all transformed from beautiful women into corpses of varying degrees of decay.
The floral scent in the air was masked by the stench of rotting corpses. Ning Wei frowned.
At that moment, a gust of cold wind blew past her ear, chilling her to the bone.
However, this sensation felt eerily familiar.
"It's you!" It was the ghost who had blown in her ear while she slept, and who had vanished after chasing her to the tomb forest.
This ghost was more powerful than the others. Ning Wei spun around but couldn't find her hiding place.
Ning Wei told herself: This is an illusion!
The only way to break the illusion was to eliminate the female ghosts who had pulled her into it.
Since she wouldn't show herself, Ning Wei decided to act ruthlessly!
Ning Wei intended to finish dealing with these female ghosts. However, they showed no intention of fighting her.
Although they had reverted to their true forms, and some were complaining, they never made a move.
"Save it, we mean no harm," a voice said, accompanied by a chill.
"If you mean no harm, why hide? Why not come out and face me?" Ning Wei shouted with all her might.
"Don't rush, don't rush, I'm coming," the voice remained hollow.
As the chill enveloped Ning Wei, the female ghost finally emerged from the thick fog.
She was the most beautiful among them, dressed in a red skirt, wearing a white flower, and a pair of vintage emerald earrings dangling from her ears.
"Here I am," she said, her red lips parting. With a flick of her handkerchief, a strong fragrance wafted over, causing Ning Wei to feel intensely dizzy.
She couldn't resist and closed her eyes.
The laughter in her ears suddenly transformed into the sound of gongs and drums. She abruptly opened her eyes to find herself standing in the village.
However, this was not the village she had entered just now, but one from many years ago.
The village structure was the same, but the houses were dilapidated.
Villagers brushed past her from time to time, acting as if they couldn't see her.
Ning Wei wandered around the village and found that everyone had smiles on their faces, as if some great event was about to happen.
Only one house echoed with cries, which caught Ning Wei's attention.
She followed the sound to a courtyard adorned with lanterns and decorations, clearly preparing for a wedding.
More importantly, this courtyard was the same one where Ning Wei and her companions were staying. The houses were different, suggesting that their current dwelling had been rebuilt.
The source of the crying was the very room Ning Wei was currently inhabiting.
"Let me out! Let me out!" The cries were accompanied by the sound of banging on the door, a truly pathetic sound.