“Well now, are you the honored guests from the county?”
A sharp, thin voice, picking up where the narrator left off, cried out from a low house to the players’ right.
With a creak, a wooden door adorned with red paper cuttings was pushed open from within, revealing a pitch-black main room. A short old woman, about five feet tall, emerged on her tiptoes, wagging a finger up and down at Qi Si, who stood at the head of the group.
“You’ve come at just the right time. Xi’er is getting married, and the whole town is preparing a grand celebration for her. I guarantee you, no wedding for miles around will be as grand as ours!”
The old woman’s wrinkled face was unnervingly pale, yet she had two dabs of rouge on her cheeks. She wore a festive red outfit, right down to her red cloth shoes. Yellowish-white bindings were wrapped around her cone-shaped legs, making one suspect she was unsteady on her feet, ready to topple at the slightest touch.
She smiled and said, “This old lady’s surname is Xu. You can call me ‘Auntie Xu,’ just like the children in town do!”
Qi Si took half a step back to avoid her spittle, instinctively raising a hand to his cheek. He felt a rough patch of skin.
He raised an eyebrow and ran his hand along his jaw. A fine stubble, sharp to the touch, felt as if it hadn't been shaved in a long time.
So this instance changed the players’ appearances? Then how did Du Xiaoyu still recognize him?
Qi Si fell into thought.
Auntie Xu, seemingly oblivious, continued enthusiastically, “Let me arrange a place for you to stay! A celebration like this only happens once every forty-nine years! Compared to ours, the events anywhere else are just child’s play...”
It seemed the “folklorists” had come to Double Happiness Town under the pretext of experiencing a traditional Chinese wedding.
And the players’ task was to use this investigation as a cover to gather clues and find the missing Xu Wen.
Qi Si despised missions that involved finding, saving, or protecting people. Forging connections with strangers was always a hassle.
He could never understand it. If someone was lost, they were lost. If they were dead, they were dead. Why did the living survivors have to cling to the past, even at the risk of their own lives?
Liu Bingding took out the photograph from behind his name tag and showed it to Auntie Xu. “Auntie Xu, have you seen this person? She’s a friend of mine. She said she was coming to Double Happiness Town, but we haven’t heard from her in a while.”
Auntie Xu squinted, lowering her head to stare at the photo for a long time before shaking her head. “Haven’t seen her. This old lady is getting on in years, and my memory isn’t what it used to be.”
She was being evasive, clearly hiding something.
Finding the missing person was part of the main quest, and it was bound to be difficult.
Du Xiaoyu, who was right behind Qi Si, skillfully changed the subject. “Heh, do the young women in your town only get married once every forty-nine years?”
Auntie Xu turned her back to the players and led the way, her thin legs moving nimbly. “Girls get married every year, every month. But this time is different. Xi’er is a lucky girl, so the whole town is pitching in to help her!”
“Is that so?” Qi Si’s lips curved into a smile. “A wedding every forty-nine years, with the entire town involved... I suspect it’s not as simple as just a marriage.”
Auntie Xu grinned widely. “To tell you the truth, this isn’t just a happy occasion. It’s mainly a time for us to gather and pay our respects to the Joy Goddess. It’s an old tradition, passed down for hundreds of years. Every forty-nine years, we choose a lucky girl and hold a grand celebration, just to please the Joy Goddess.”
Qi Si raised an eyebrow. “And who is this Joy Goddess? Could you tell us about her, Auntie Xu? We came here specifically to collect these kinds of stories.”
They walked at a brisk pace, and led by Auntie Xu, they soon arrived beside a temple-like structure in the center of town.
The two-courtyard building was surrounded by a cluster of small white houses draped in red and colorful decorations. Freshly painted vermilion pillars supported bright yellow eaves, from which hung two crimson lanterns, each bearing the golden character for “double happiness.”
Auntie Xu stopped and pointed a finger at the temple, which was as red as blood. “This is the Joy God Temple. The Joy Goddess resides within. Would you like to go in and pay your respects?”
The temple gates were wide open, like the gaping, bloody maw of a monster, luring people inside.
Qi Si glanced in.
The interior was lined with rows of red incense and candles, their flames flickering. The shrine was set in the deepest part of the room against the wall. Beneath a drapery, the red robes of an idol were faintly visible, but its face was hidden from view.
From where the players stood, they could only see a pair of stone statues kneeling at the idol’s feet. They appeared to be a man and a woman, both dressed in crimson wedding attire, posed as if bowing to each other in a marriage ceremony.
Perhaps it was the uncanny valley effect, but the scene exuded an indescribable sense of dread.
Qi Si had no desire to be the first one to enter. He had to trick someone else into scouting it out first.
Considering his current position, he averted his gaze and shifted the hiking pack on his back. “Our luggage is heavy, and we’re tired from the long journey. Let’s get settled in first and come back to pay our respects later. Of course, if there’s a custom that says we must enter now that we’re here, we have no problem with that.”
At worst, he’d run if things went south. If he couldn't escape, he’d just use the Fate Pocket Watch once.
“No rush, no rush! You’ll be staying here for seven days, so there’s plenty of time to pay your respects!” Auntie Xu’s smile was beaming, and white powder fell like dust from her wrinkled, pellet-like face. “The guest rooms are all tidied up just ahead. It’s not far. You all get some rest. I’ll tell you the story of the Joy Goddess.”
The group started walking again as Auntie Xu’s soft, thin voice drifted eerily through the air. “The Joy Goddess of our town is the most powerful. When a new couple pays their respects together, and the Goddess sees them, they will stay together forever, never to be parted. The Goddess loves to hear the laughter of newlyweds, but she despises the unfaithful. If anyone has a change of heart, she will never forgive them!”
“Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, the Joy Goddess was once a young woman herself, but she fell in love with a heartless man. He abandoned her and never returned. Heartbroken, she threw herself into the well at the west end of town. Before she died, she made a great vow to watch over all the newlyweds who came after her...”
Auntie Xu’s footsteps suddenly stopped.
She pointed to a courtyard ahead. “This is the place. I’ll take you in, but once inside, please don’t wander around. We wouldn’t want you to startle the bride.”
The courtyard wasn’t large, just a single-courtyard layout. The roof tiles were broken, and the wall plaster was peeling in several places, yet layers upon layers of bright red draperies hung from the eaves. A clamorous pile of red cloth flowers and paper cuttings decorated the dilapidated old house, making it look garishly festive.
Qi Si offered a faint smile. “Having outside guests stay with the bride... I’m not sure that’s appropriate.”
“There’s no room in the other houses in town. Xi’er’s place is the only one with empty rooms. Guests have always stayed here,” Auntie Xu said as she stepped forward and pushed the gate open. She turned her head to look at them. “She’s getting married tomorrow. After that, this house will be empty.”
“Is Miss Xi’er an orphan?” Qi Si asked.
He followed Auntie Xu through the gate and found himself in a half-decorated courtyard. The west side was festooned with red silk and paper-cut window decorations, a sea of crimson. The east side, by contrast, had only a few scattered “double happiness” characters, looking much cleaner and creating a clear divide.
“Yes, Xi’er has had a hard life since she was a child. No father, no mother. She was raised by the whole village. But once she’s married, her suffering will be over.”
Perhaps it was the lack of light in the courtyard, but Auntie Xu’s voice had taken on a chilling, senile quality, as indistinct as mist over a lake.
She pointed to the rooms on the east side. “You all will be staying here for the next few days. I’ll bring you food later. And you absolutely must not go over to the west wing. It wouldn’t do to frighten Xi’er.”
All five players were now standing in the courtyard. Auntie Xu turned her back and started to leave. Just as she was about to step over the threshold, Li Yao suddenly spoke up. “Auntie Xu, it looks like you’ve just had a funeral here. Holding a wedding and a funeral so close together... the ghosts of the newly dead haven’t dispersed. When the living cross paths with the dead, I fear disaster will follow.”
She waved a stack of joss paper in her hand—the very paper that had fallen from the sky when the narrator’s voice had sounded earlier.
Auntie Xu’s eyes narrowed, the wrinkles on her face bunching together. “What is there to be afraid of? Our town specializes in these double joy events. People from all around beg us to handle them. A wedding and a funeral walk the same path. We’ve been doing it this way for hundreds of years, and nothing has ever gone wrong.”
Li Yao replied coolly, “Getting away with it is a matter of minor luck. But when something does go wrong, it will be a major catastrophe.”
Auntie Xu let out two cold chuckles. “A newly dead ghost can’t become a malevolent spirit. The living have the fire of life on their shoulders. As long as that fire isn’t extinguished, it can burn a mere ghost to ashes!”
“A ghost can blow out a candle. It’s not for you to say whether it goes out or not.”
Auntie Xu seemed to have been provoked. Her eyelids twitched, and without another word, she turned and walked away.
Only after her figure had vanished beyond the gate did Liu Bingding ask curiously, “Li Yao, what was that cryptic exchange with the old woman? It sounded pretty intense.”
Li Yao shook her head slightly. “It was nothing. The spiritual beliefs here are different from the outside world.”
The courtyard was unnervingly quiet. Despite being festooned with lanterns and colorful decorations, the players felt none of the festive, auspicious atmosphere they should have.
The west wing was supposedly occupied by the bride, but a glance in that direction revealed only dark, gaping windows, giving no impression that anyone was living inside.
It wasn’t just this courtyard; the entire town was like this. There were clearly people around, yet there was no sign of life, no warmth. It was as quiet as a massive tomb.
Liu Bingding was the first to push open the door to one of the rooms and step inside. Qi Si followed close behind.
According to Auntie Xu, the room had been vacant for a long time. Yet it was much cleaner than expected. The bed, wooden table, and other furnishings showed no signs of decay, and there wasn’t much dust, certainly not enough to fly into their faces when the door opened.
The room looked small, but its layout made efficient use of every inch of space. It might have been specially modified for guests; six beds lined up in a row didn’t feel cramped at all, resembling the large, shared sleeping platforms common in the last century.
Shang Qingbei adjusted his glasses and analyzed the situation. “Auntie Xu said all guests stay here. That means Xu Wen probably stayed here too. She might have left some clues behind.”
“Correct.” Qi Si smiled in approval. “There are three possibilities. First, she wasn’t a guest. Auntie Xu’s surname is Xu, and so is hers. She might have been a resident of this town all along.”
“Second, she has a connection to Double Happiness Town but hasn’t been back in a long time and doesn’t have a house here. Third, she has no connection to the town and was simply here to investigate local folklore.”
“The last two possibilities lead to the same conclusion: she stayed here at Xi’er’s place, and she was very likely the guest who stayed here right before us.”
“Why do you say Xu Wen was the guest right before us?” Du Xiaoyu asked, never shy about what he didn’t understand. “What if other guests came between her and us? Auntie Xu said people from all over come to them for weddings and funerals. Shouldn’t there be a lot of visitors?”
Qi Si answered patiently, “The ferryman said we were the only boat of people he’s brought over this month. That means no other guests arrived in the past month. And I believe that for us, as Xu Wen’s relatives and friends, waiting over a month after her disappearance to come looking for her is already quite late.”
Shang Qingbei frowned. “How can you be sure the ferryman was telling the truth? What if he was lying?”
“There’s no reason to.” Qi Si shook his head. “His motive for telling me that was to declare his ignorance of Xu Wen’s disappearance. If he wanted to deceive us, he could have just denied seeing any female passengers at all, rather than choosing the easiest lie to expose.”
“Of course, we could also assume that all the NPCs have coordinated their stories to deliberately feed us false information. But if that’s the case, then this instance is impossible to clear. We might as well just rely on luck, wait for death, and pray for the best.”
His tone didn’t change, but the content of his words made it clear that Shang Qingbei’s contrarian attitude had annoyed him.
Liu Bingding glanced at Shang Qingbei, then back at Qi Si. “That makes sense! Let’s have a look around. Maybe that Xu Wen left a crucial piece of information in this room, something to lead us to her.”
The man went straight to the wooden table by the window, pulled open a drawer, and began to search, stirring up a cloud of dust in a clear show of support for Qi Si.
Qi Si watched with a smile for a moment, then suddenly stepped forward and reached into Liu Bingding’s pants pocket.
Liu Bingding jumped back in shock, trying to dodge.
But Qi Si had already pulled the object from his pocket and held it up for all to see.
It was a smartphone with a red case and a dark screen. It looked quite modern.
The expressions on the other players’ faces changed instantly.
Du Xiaoyu blurted out, “How did you bring that in? I remember the store doesn’t sell...”
Shang Qingbei also stared intently at Liu Bingding, his face grim.
Bringing a phone into the game immediately made him think of the secret of the “Weird Invasion.”
If the weird could seep into reality, could reality also seep back in the other direction?
Could this be related to the prophecy about the “gate” that the guild had recently received?
“Liu Bingding didn’t bring it in. It’s likely a clue given to us by the instance. Next time any of you find something like this, it’s best to bring it out into the open. This is a team instance; there’s no competitive element,” Qi Si said righteously as he pressed the power button.
The phone’s lock screen was an eerie yet poignant photograph: people in red clothes and red masks carried a large red bridal sedan, a procession of celebration. Yet, white joss paper fluttered down from the sky, covering the top of the sedan in a thin layer.
Liu Bingding was completely stunned. “I didn’t even know I had this thing! When did it get in my pocket? If I’d known, I would have taken it out ages ago!”
For a moment, no one spoke.
The existence of slaughter-stream players was no secret. According to statistics on the forums, one in every five players was a slaughter-stream player. This instance had exactly five players—a very delicate number.
Rationally, Liu Bingding’s reaction didn’t seem like that of someone with a guilty conscience, but no one was benevolent enough to vouch for a stranger.
“I really have no reason to hide it! I still haven’t even figured out what this instance is about, so why would I dare to keep a clue for myself when I don’t even know if it’s useful?” Liu Bingding argued, his face a mask of distress.
Qi Si feigned a casual smile. “Forget it. We haven’t had a chance to share clues on the way here. Liu Bingding probably just didn’t have time to take the phone out. In a team instance, we need to be united and work together to solve the mystery of this world. From now on, I hope everyone can set aside their suspicions and cooperate.”
For some reason, he was reminded of the “community of shared future for mankind” declaration that the Kyushu Guild had posted on the forums, and a strange smile flickered across his face for an instant.
Under everyone’s gaze, he promptly lowered his eyes and held up the phone. “Enough idle talk. Let’s see what clues are on this phone.”