Arc: 19 chapters

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The high-pitched suona sound pierced the eardrums, and the magic sound penetrated the brain. It was joyful, but it was as sad as attending a funeral.

As soon as Rong Yu came over, he was almost sent away by the suona.

In the Demon King’s Palace, he usually listened to silk and bamboo orchestras, and the melodious music was played by the best musicians in the three realms. It lingered for three days, and he could not stop hearing it.

If such noise dared to stain his ears, the entire band would have to report to the underworld.

Rong Yu was tired of hearing it, so he opened the curtains with one hand, raised the curtains, and cursed: “Shut up and keep quiet. Don’t you know how awful you are playing?!”

“…”

The music stopped suddenly.

The beautiful bride began to scold the entourage, and the whole group was momentarily stunned.

Rong Yu glanced around and saw barren mountains and ridges outside, surrounded by a gloomy white mist. The people carrying the sedan chair and the people playing the music were all as thin as paper. Their faces were pale, and they looked as if they were carved out of the same mold. Seeing him making a sound, they all looked at him with empty eyes and expressionless faces, which sent chills down people’s spines.

The sedan chair is also fascinating, with two lanterns hanging under the eaves. The front is decorated with red silk, and the red lantern has the word “囍”* written on it. The back is tied with black silk. It looks like a wedding sedan from the front and a coffin from the back. The wedding team in front raised their hands and dropped copper coins from the basket. When the sedan passed, white paper money was left on the ground.

*(double joy)

The contrast between red and white made it hard to tell whether it was a wedding reception or a funeral.

Rong Yu initially thought he had traveled to the wedding scene, but now it seems this is a ghost marriage. With such sharp eyesight, he could tell at a glance that the entire wedding entourage was made of paper figures, and he was the only living person.

It didn’t matter whether he was a living person or not or married; he could not let this music from the underworld taint his ears. Rong Yu faced a group of paper figures staring at him with some seriousness: “What are you looking at? If you can’t play music, don’t play it. If I hear it again, I’ll burn you all.”

After saying the cruel words, he lowered the curtain.

Paper figures: “…”

This is the most arrogant bride they have ever seen!

After all, the paper figures are just paper and can be burned to ashes by fire, so they have an instinctive fear of the word “burn.” With such a threat, he really got peace.

His eyes were red, his head was covered with a red veil, he was wearing a woman’s skirt embroidered with colorful phoenixes, and he was sitting in a rickety wedding sedan. His hair was also combed into a bun, with piles of phoenix hairpins swaying as he walked, and the hanging tassels jingled and jingled as the sedan swayed, making a crisp tingling sound.

His fingertips ached. Rong Yu stretched out his fingers and looked down, seeing blood dripping from them.

…It looks a bit miserable.

Rong Yu wears a Pisces jade pendant and a blood-jade bracelet around his waist. Both pieces of jewelry are red and match this outfit very well. He threw the ring into the blood-jade bracelet. He was afraid that he would take away too many things after journeying through several worlds, and it would be inconvenient to carry them with him, so he simply let the blood-jade bracelet activate a storage function.

The blood jade bracelet has long forgotten the matter of not providing help. In addition to being unable to unblock the big devil – his brain and strength are too overwhelming. If it is not controlled well, he will quickly destroy the world, so it does not dare to take risks – it provides other aspects. It doesn’t dare to refuse some small plug-ins.

If it refuses, what will the Great Demon King do to it after he gets back with the Lord God?

Rong Yu touched the fallen tassel: “Is it a Daughter of luck this time?”

Blood Jade Bracelet: … Didn’t you just say something in a male voice?

Rong Yu: “Oh. A cross-dressing guy.”

Blood Jade Bracelet: The original owner didn’t have that habit! Wait, I’ll pass the information to you.

_

World No. 4444, Wen Yichu, the Child of Destiny.

This dynasty was called the Sheng Dynasty, and its background was similar to the world Rong Yu had visited. Nowadays, officials emphasize literature over military affairs so that the whole country believes that “everything is of inferior quality, only education is of superior quality.” Common people can change their destiny through the imperial examination to join the scholar-bureaucrat class.

But the spring breeze of reform cannot blow to every corner of the country. Some fishes slip through the net in the modern nine-year compulsory education, let alone this in ancient times.

This place is called Yuexi Town, a famous backwater within a radius of ten miles, which is extremely poor and backward. The people have made a living by farming for generations.

Several wealthy squires in the town are landlords. They lease their fields to the villagers and earn a large sum from the monthly rent. Those landowners joined together to monopolize knowledge, preventing the villagers from reading and literacy and allowing them to leave the small town to see the world and change their destiny.

If all the men went to study instead of farming, who would they turn to to collect rent? Where will their comfortable days go?

For generations, landowners have exploited farmers. On the one hand, some landowners have nothing to do, and the villagers are wealthy. On the other hand, the villagers work hard all day in exchange for a meager food income and spend most of their money and food on rent, leading to a miserable life. They had no way to resist and did not dare to resist. The land in their hands belonged to the landlords. If they offended the landlords and had their fields taken back, the whole family would starve to death.

After generations of oppression, the rich have become more affluent, and the poor have become poorer. There were three wives and four concubines in the town’s house. One after another, females were brought into the house. If they liked anyone, they would take them directly even if the family disagreed. Ordinary villagers cannot even afford a wife. Yuexi Town is so poor that all the girls want to marry to get out of poverty, and no girls from outside are willing to marry and endure the hardships. There are more and more single farmers in the fields, and many have only been able to marry a wife once they grow old.

People here value getting a wife more than anything else. If you can’t achieve your goal during your lifetime, you have to achieve it after your death; otherwise, you won’t be able to see your parents in hell. Some people are unable to marry a wife. At the same time, they are afraid of being alone after they die, so they spend their life savings to buy a female corpse to accompany them in a ghost marriage and entrust the villagers to take care of their funeral affairs so that they can have a companion after death. This is considered a good thing. If some people don’t even have the money to buy female corpses, they will dig graves and steal them. And the most heinous thing is to strangle an innocent girl alive and bury her with him.

They don’t care about immoral or illegal crimes. What can the law do to them when they’re about to die? They have lived a mediocre life and have long since become insensitive. They just want to fulfill their wishes.

This is Yuexi Town, which has poor mountains and rivers and is rampant with ignorance and pitifulness.

Wen Yichu is the only scholar in the town. He was originally from the city. His mother died of illness in his early years. His father was a poor scholar who failed many exams. When he finally passed the exam, he was so excited that he died of excitement.

Wen Yichu became an orphan.

Fortunately, he was sixteen then and could sell calligraphy and paintings. Influenced by his father, he also studied since he was a child. He could read at the age of three and write poems at the age of five.

Wen Yichu came to Yuexi Town by chance and was shocked to find that there was such an ignorant and absurd place in the world where the gentry exploited and robbed women of the people with no scruples. The people are uneducated, poor, and backward, and there is also the bad habit of marrying brides in secret.

Everything he saw and heard made Wen Yichu very angry. He reported to the officials, accusing the squire of preying on the common people. Still, he did not know that the officials and businessmen colluded. The officials got bribes, beat him, and drove him out of the government office. He also tried to advise the villagers not to marry in the dark, as it would damage the moral character of the shadow, but the villagers would not pay attention.

Wen Yichu gradually understood that it was not enough for him to be an ordinary person if he wanted to eradicate these corruption. He needed to be an official to have a say. If he wanted to educate these villagers, just preaching the truth would be useless. The key is to teach them to read, think, and improve their lives.

There needs to be a teacher here. Wen Yichu stayed here, founded an academy, and taught children how to read and write for free. He went to the city every few days to sell calligraphy and paintings in exchange for money and, at the same time, prepared to take the national examination. Some villagers also occasionally gave him rice and noodles to express their gratitude so he could live a poor but comfortable life.

Naturally, several squires wanted to drive him away. Once the villagers are literate, they will have their own thoughts. How can they be willing to be manipulated by them?

Wen Yichu was a weak scholar with red lips and white teeth. He was not only rich in economics but also handsome in appearance. Hu Wei, the son of Official Hu in the town, was a homosexual. From time to time, he came to the academy to harass him in the name of studying.

Wen Yichu was devoted to learning and was utterly unaware of Hu Wei’s dirty thoughts. He was not interested in glory, fame, or wealth. He just wanted to be an official and serve the people. He tried to help more places like Yuexi Town eliminate poverty and ignorance, punish the landlords who exploit the people, and eliminate the collusion between officials and businessmen. He wanted tragedies such as brides who are forced into ghost marriages to never happen again.

According to the imperial examination system of the Sheng Dynasty, after passing the final imperial examination, candidates had to return to their hometowns to wait. If the good news comes from an official a few months later, you have succeeded. If no one comes, you have failed.

Wen Yichu returned to his hometown after taking the exam at seventeen. Hu Wei used his sweet words to please Wen Yichu in the first year, but the other party wanted more and ultimately lost his patience. He actually planned to use force. Wen Yichu refused to obey and ran into the mountains in a panic, with Hu Wei chasing him. When it got dark, Wen Yichu came out of the hill, but Hu Wei was bitten to death by a tiger in the mountain.

The Hu family was furious. They learned that Hu Wei had gone to find Wen Yichu and that the incident had happened. They also knew that Hu Wei had coveted Wen Yichu for a long time and immediately wanted Wen Yichu to be buried with his son. That day, a group of people broke into the academy, forcibly put him into a bride’s clothes, sealed him in Hu Wei’s coffin, and buried him alive.

Some villagers also wanted to plead for mercy, but the Hu family stopped them by saying, “Who dares to talk too much? I will take back his family’s land.”

So, everyone whom Wen Yichu had helped remained silent.

Wen Yichu’s last memory was of Hu Wei’s corpse, which had been mauled by tigers, lying next to him. The squires had ugly faces, the villagers lowered their eyes in silence, and the heavy coffin boards slowly closed before his eyes. The servants filled the coffin with shovelfuls of soil, and he fell into endless darkness and despair.

He struggled wildly in the coffin, scratching the coffin board with blood stains with his nails until he could no longer scratch it.

He doesn’t resent those villagers. They have a whole family and cannot avoid being afraid of power. He just regrets that he has not yet become an official and has not changed their helpless fate.

Two months later, the good news came: Wen Yichu was named the as the first place and became the top exam pick.

But at that time, Wen Yichu had turned into a white skeleton under the ground.

The squire in the town was frightened and regretfully told the official who announced the good news that Wen Yi was accidentally bitten to death by a tiger when he went into the mountains in the second month of the lunar month. The official who announced the good news had no choice but to turn his horse around and leave with regret, muttering: “What a pity. This year’s number-one scholar is praised for his well-written articles. He must be a pillar of talent…”

The sound of horse hooves faded away, and Wen Yichu slept underground.

Before his ambition could be realized, he died in the coffin.

_

Blood Jade Bracelet: Wen Yichu was an unparalleled talent. He could have been appointed prime minister, benefited everyone, and was famous in history. Still, these ignorant people paired him with a ghost marriage! No wonder the world is about to collapse, and all the lines of history are cut off! They have no idea that they have destroyed a unique pearl!

Rong Yu: “What are you excited about?”

Blood Jade Bracelet: I am filled with righteous indignation!

Rong Yu stretched out his bloody finger: “So now Wen Yichu has been buried alive in the coffin. Did his finger scratch the coffin board?”

Blood Jade Bracelet: That’s for sure!

Rong Yu leaned against the sedan chair: “So what’s going on now? Have you given me the full plot?”

According to the plot given by the blood jade bracelet, Wen Yichu struggled in the coffin to no avail and died just like that.

But his current body is still that of a living person.

The story plot he just came through was different from the original plot. The original plot was that Wen Yichu died in the coffin. Now, Wen Yichu was suffocated and unconscious in the coffin. The coffin board suddenly opened automatically, and a group of paper figures helped him onto the sedan chair and carried him away.

While carrying it, Rong Yu crossed over, wondering where the sedan chair was going.

Blood Jade Bracelet: Are we being taken to marry Hu Wei? After all, isn’t this a ghost marriage?

Rong Yu: “The coffin used for the underworld burial is the bridal chamber. Wen Yichu has already entered Hu Wei’s grave. How could the paper figures dig it out again?”

Blood Jade Bracelet: Ah, I understand, I understand!

Blood Jade Bracelet: You have met a bride-stealer!

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T/N: I’m back~ Sorry for the long wait…

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Comments

2 responses to “Chapter 47: Pallbearer”

  1.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Yay, you’re back!

    1. I am! 😀

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