After He Lou returned, he lit a stick of incense for his good friend Chen Zhenghao.
In the photo frame, an ordinary-looking man moved. After sniffing the curling white smoke, his lifeless eyes gradually became bright, and he stared straight at He Lou.
"I know you like that girl very much. Don't worry, I will send her down to accompany you tomorrow." He Lou was not afraid at all. He toasted the photo with a glass of wine and said with emotion.
Shen Na came in from outside. She saw the man in the photo smiling. She couldn't help but smile as well and nodded to Chen Zhenghao: "Brother Zhenghao, although you made mistakes in the past and the village punished you, now you have reformed. The village will definitely find you a good wife. You must abide by the rules with your wife in the future."
The man in the photo nodded, Shen Na winked at He Lou, and they both walked out the door.
Because they were going to hold a wedding, the yard was filled with white lanterns and wreaths. The mourning hall had been prepared long ago, waiting to be set up tomorrow. The weather was good today, with low clouds and no rain. The two stood under the lush locust tree in the middle of the yard, looking into the house, and only spoke after making sure that Chen Zhenghao could not hear them.
"What should we do? Ding Conglu is unwilling to do it now. She says we are crazy and asks us to wake up and remember something." Shen Na let out a long breath and said unhappily, "The custom of ghost marriage has been around for many years. How can it be broken just because of her?"
He Lou frowned upon hearing this.
He is the leader of the small group and everyone listens to him. It is because of his leadership that the team can quickly gain a foothold in Honghe Village.
Now some people actually want to break the rules. Won't this make it impossible for them to survive in Honghe Village
"I'll go see her."
Shen Na nodded: "It can only be done this way. She doesn't listen to anyone now. She is crazy and doesn't follow any rules."
A man named Liu Xia from the same team just stepped into the courtyard. Hearing them talking about Ding Conglu, he immediately complained: "Brother Lou, you should have stepped in. Usually, Xiao Ding listens to you. I don't know what happened to her today. She's like crazy. If she wasn't about to get married, how could the other villagers tolerate her being so presumptuous?"
"Where is she now?" He Lou frowned even more tightly.
Liu Xia said: "Because she was crying and making a scene and said she wanted to go on a hunger strike, we are now locking her up in the basement. After all, if she goes on a hunger strike, she won't be so pretty anymore. I asked Lu Xiuxiu to watch over her and feed her something."
Lu Xiuxiu is another girl in the team. She is not good-looking and doesn't talk much, but she listens to Liu Xia's words very much.
"Okay, take me there."
As soon as they stepped out of the courtyard, they bumped into a man standing at the corner. He looked down at the three people who looked indignant, and asked with an indescribable smile, "Are you going to send her off now?"
Seeing He Lou suddenly freeze in his tracks after seeing this man, Liu Xia immediately stepped forward and said, "What else? If we keep her, will all of us be unable to live?"
This young and handsome man was none other than Lu Yanli.
Liu Xia admires He Lou very much. If it weren't for He Lou, they wouldn't be able to gain a foothold in Honghe Village. The years of getting along with each other have also made them develop a deep affection for each other. On the contrary, Lu Yanli, who came to Honghe Village with them, is treated coldly by everyone. Liu Xia knows that the village rules stipulate that he must be friendly to his friends, but he just can't get close to Lu Yanli.
Lu Yanli said calmly: "It would be against the rules to speak badly to a friend."
Liu Xia was startled and immediately shut up.
He Lou calmed himself down and asked, "Do you want to go with us to persuade her?"
Lu Yanli turned his head and glanced inside the room, and was staring at the man in the black and white photo. Just when He Lou thought he was unwilling, he chuckled and looked at him again with a look that He Lou couldn't understand: "Okay."
Now there were four people traveling together, with Liu Xia walking in front leading the way.
They lived together in a small building at the entrance of the village, each with his own room. To get to the basement, one had to go through the courtyard gate to the woodshed opposite, and then enter through a small door on the floor of the woodshed.
The weather was very gloomy today, and the cold wind was blowing louder and louder. There were a lot of paper gold and silver ingots piled in the woodshed. In order to prevent those things from being blown away by the wind, after the four people entered the door, Liu Xia, who was walking at the end, reached out and closed the door.
The already dark woodshed became even darker, and only the outlines of each person could be seen vaguely. Liu Xia lit the kerosene lamp in the room and gave it to Shen Na to carry. He took the lead, groping on the ground for a while, grabbed the handle and lifted up a wooden board the size of a small square table on the ground.
When I first entered the room, I could hear some faint sounds. Now that the wooden board was lifted, the sound of the woman crying with her mouth blocked became more obvious.
At the same time, an extremely cold breath surged out of the cave entrance. Several people present could not help but shiver and wrapped their clothes tightly, but they did not take it to heart.
Liu Xia said: "Look, she has been screaming like this until now."
Shen Na's face showed real disgust: "It's really unruly to make such a big noise like this!"
Even the usually steady He Lou couldn't help but frown, with a hint of disgust flashing in his eyes.
Only Lu Yanli stared at the dark cave entrance quietly without saying a word.
He Lou tried to dissuade them, "Well, after all, we are friends who have lived together for many years. Please forgive us." Then, he came to the entrance of the cave, took the kerosene lamp from An Xingyu, shone it downwards, and shouted inside, "Lü Xiuxiu, are you there?"
Lu Xiuxiu did not respond, only the hesitant sobbing sound in her throat was still loud.
"It's strange. I clearly asked her to stay in there." Liu Xia was puzzled.
He Lou suddenly thought of a possibility and immediately said, "Quick! Let's go down!"
After saying that, he jumped down.
The structure of the basement was very peculiar. If you jumped down and landed on the ground one meter above the cave entrance, and then walked down a downhill road with your back bent, you would reach the real basement room in front. There were such basements under many houses in the village, which were used to store corpses needed for ghost marriages. The basement attached to the small building they lived in was one of the largest underground morgues in the village.
After all, they were good friends, so they naturally couldn't treat Ding Conglu unfairly. If Ding Conglu was still so ungrateful...
He Lou's face darkened.
I hope she won't refuse a toast and then drink a forfeit.
Shen Na and the others jumped down and followed He Lou, walking forward with their backs bent. They also vaguely guessed something, and they gnashed their teeth in anger, calling out Lu Xiuxiu's name.
Perhaps because she heard the call, the woman's hesitant and sobbing became more obvious.
Lu Yanli was the last one to walk. He looked around the facilities in the woodshed and fixed his eyes on a pile of firewood. But he said nothing. He jumped down slowly and walked forward with his back bent.
As soon as he jumped in, a cold and chilly aura from deep underground rose up from the soles of his feet and surged to his crown.
It was so cold that it could almost freeze the soul.
My feet landed on the slightly soft soil. With the weak light from the kerosene lamps in the front row that penetrated a few remaining shadows and poured into the back, the soil looked like it was soaked in blood and was a deep red color. When I stepped on it, even the soles of my shoes turned red.
Lu Yanli followed them quietly. Although the basement was large, the entrance was extremely narrow at the beginning, allowing only one person to pass through. After walking a short distance, the walls became noticeably wider.
Liu Xia took the opportunity to catch up with He Lou in front and walked side by side with him. Shen Na didn't want to be with Lu Yanli, so after the road was widened, she also caught up with the two men in front, leaving Lu Yanli alone behind.
The further we walked, the stronger the smell of damp and cold earth and strong fishy water became. It was as if we didn't smell it. We turned a corner along the wall and suddenly the view in front of us was an empty room of about 20 to 30 square meters. In the middle of the room, there was a dark and heavy wooden coffin.
The coffin was not completely closed, and the woman's crying and screaming could be heard from inside the coffin.
"Lü Xiuxiu, is that you?" He Lou asked loudly.
He handed the kerosene lamp to Shen Na, walked to the front, and said to Liu Xia: "Come, give me a hand."
Ghost marriages are very important in the village, and the coffins must be made of the best materials. The coffin lid alone is so thick and heavy that an adult can hardly push it open. He Lou held the top of the wooden coffin lid, while Liu Xia held the bottom, and slowly moved the lid to the side.
The crying stopped abruptly.
The chilly atmosphere filled the entire basement in an instant, and the bone-chilling cold made He Lou, who was closest to her, shiver. The flame of the kerosene lamp in Shen Na's hand fluttered twice and went out completely.
The basement was plunged into darkness.
Liu Xia took out a lighter from his pocket and lit it, but for some reason the flame went out as soon as it was lit, as if someone had blown it out as a prank. He tried several times but it didn't light up, so he put the lighter back into his pocket in dismay.
Now, there was no light in the basement.
"Lu, Lu Xiuxiu?" He Lou asked uncertainly.
"Lü Xiuxiu, is that you?" Shen Na asked in the same way, "Stop playing pranks and follow the rules."
After shouting for a long time, the woman's crying was heard again. The kerosene lamp was lit again, and the warm dusk light illuminated the entire room.
"It's me... I'm here..."
The voice came from inside the coffin.
After the darkness just now, the people moved, and Liu Xia subconsciously walked to the place where the head of the coffin was pushed open a little, and looked down: "Why are you..."
Before he could finish his words, a pair of pale and bloodless arms stretched out from the coffin. The hands tightly wrapped around Liu Xia's neck and then pulled hard. Before Liu Xia could react, he was pulled into the coffin.
The next second, the coffin lid slowly closed.
"Liu Xia!!"
He Lou and Shen Na both cried out in surprise and tried desperately to push the coffin lid, but no matter how hard they pushed, it was useless. After a long while, the kerosene lamp flickered and the coffin lid moved.
The coffin lid, which required two adult men to push open, now automatically moved slowly to the rear.
As the coffin lid was removed, a pale-faced woman in a bright red wedding dress slowly sat up.
He Lou and Shen Na suddenly stopped and were stunned for a moment.
They came to the basement to...
In order to... In order to find Lu Xiuxiu and Ding Conglu!
Yes, Ding Conglu was locked up downstairs, and Shen Na asked Lu Xiuxiu to look after her.
But when they arrived at the basement, they only found Lu Xiuxiu trapped in the coffin. She was also wearing the wedding dress that was supposed to be worn by Ding Conglu.
Did Ding Conglu run away? !
He Lou and Shen Na were extremely angry for a moment, and came over to help Lu Xiuxiu up.
Lu Xiuxiu sat in the coffin, stretched out her hand and slowly moved the coffin away. Her whole body was like a soft and cold snake. After sitting up, she stretched out her hand, grabbed the hands of the two people supporting each other along the inner wall of the coffin, and was slowly dragged out of the coffin.
The bright red embroidered shoes were dragging on the ground.
"That's too much! Ding Conglu is really too much!" Shen Na was indignant, "Xiu Xiu, do you know where she ran off to?"
Lu Xiuxiu shook her head slowly.
Shen Na was in a dilemma: "What should we do now? The wedding banquet is tomorrow."
He Lou's face darkened: "Tell the village chief and ask everyone in the village to help look for it." His face looked very unhappy.
"What will happen after we find her?" Will Chen Zhenghao marry a woman who dares to violate village rules and escape marriage
He Lou said: "Deal with it according to the rules."
He turned around to look at Lu Xiuxiu who was already wearing her wedding dress and said, "Anyway, we're going to have a wedding banquet tomorrow and we already have a bride. I'll talk to Zhenghao later and we can change the bride to Lu Xiuxiu."
As they were talking, they had already reached the tunnel entrance. Shen Na first climbed up the wall and then reached down to meet them. He Lou held Lu Xiuxiu so that Shen Na could pull her up.
As soon as she held the pale and cold hand, Shen Na shivered with cold. She calmed herself down and pulled the person over.
Next are He Lou and Lu Yanli.
From beginning to end, they never mentioned their companion Liu Xia who went down with them.