Chapter 16: Ghost Animal (13)

Chen Tian and Chen Qing have very high psychological resilience. Upon realizing the strangeness of this place, they quickly snapped out of their sadness and helped each other up.

Chen Tian tore his clothes and wrapped up Chen Qing’s heavier wounds and holes.

Seeing that the butcher had no reaction, the three of them carefully walked to the well next to the slaughterhouse to clean the sticky substance off their bodies.

This substance was oily and sticky, burning the skin.

Noticing Ning Su looking at his intact arm, Chen Tian said, “My skill is impenetrable defense.”

Ning Su: “...”

Envy.

Chen Tian sincerely said, “Thank you for saving us siblings. If you need our help in the future, just ask.”

“Thank you,” Chen Qing also said.

In fact, she was very curious why the little hands under Ning Su had withered, but now Ning Su was their savior, and Chen Qing didn’t plan to inquire about his privacy.

Ning Su said, “No need to thank me. If you die, who will decrypt this dungeon?”

“...”

The conversation ended there.

After a little tidying up, the three of them saw that the butcher was still addicted to chopping meat and showed no signs of doing anything to them, so they carefully walked towards the gate of the slaughterhouse.

Time was of the essence. They had to hurry to explore this world.

Seeing the white human flesh that the butcher was chopping again, Chen Qing still had a strong urge to vomit.

She didn’t look at it and quickened her pace to leave.

When the three of them reached the gate, the butcher stopped chopping meat and looked up at them, revealing a smile like the one they saw in the river.

Walking out the door, Chen Tian looked up at the wax-yellow sun in the sky and said, “The time here should be synchronized with the outside world. It’s now a little after eight in the morning.”

Chen Qing surveyed the road and buildings outside and said, “This place is exactly the same as Huaiyang Village.”

Chen Tian said, “This is probably another dimension of Huaiyang Village that was previously invisible but is now synchronized with it.”

However, the road was empty and there were few people around.

As Chen Tian and Chen Qing were talking, a man ran towards them in a panic.

His leg seemed to be broken, and he ran with great difficulty, dragging his broken leg while looking back in fear.

When he saw the three of them, he opened his eyes wide in surprise and shouted, “Help, help!”

Chen Qing instinctively wanted to lend a hand, but Chen Tian pulled her back.

“Look at the ground,” Chen Tian whispered.

Ning Su and Chen Qing looked down at the ground at the same time.

There was no shadow on the ground.

The sun here was indeed dim, but it should have still cast shadows. All three of them had shadows, but this “person” did not.

Chen Qing gasped.

They didn’t expect that one day, a ghost would ask them for help.

It was too bizarre.

This ghost was really similar to a human and not at all terrifying. When he was struggling to run with his bent leg, he even looked a bit embarrassed.

“Save me! Please, I’m begging you!” The ghost seemed to know what they were thinking. “We’re all human, aren’t we?”

“No, we are all humans, but you are not,” said one person.

Ning Su asked seriously, “What’s wrong? Why do you need us to save you?”

“I’m a victim of domestic violence!” the person exclaimed with tears.

“...” Ning Su was speechless.

The “person” ran up to them, begging, “Please save me! I don’t want to go back home anymore. I want to escape from here!”

“You don’t know what kind of life I’ve been living. It’s not a life for humans, it’s worse than being an animal!” the person continued.

If this was a poorer and more remote village, and the person had a different gender and some kind of shadow, they might have believed that they were a victim of trafficking and would help them.

But saying “a life worse than that of an animal” and that it’s “not for humans” didn’t make the ghost seem pitiful.

As the three people fell into silence, the “person’s” face suddenly became terrified.

The three people’s faces changed as well.

What ran up behind them was... a baby.

A human body with a sheep’s face.

It was dressed in clothes, with soft sheep fur on its exposed legs and arms.

It lay on the ground like a sheep, with no mechanical eyes, looking at them with a naïve and indifferent gaze, straight and unwavering.

It had no shadow.

The three of them stared at it seriously.

Perhaps the answer was right in front of them.

Ecology, perhaps this was what Ning Su meant before when he talked about the relationship between the people and the village.

As they were examining the young animal, a woman appeared out of nowhere and raised her eyebrows at them with a suggestive smile on her lips. “It’s a human,” she said.

“Perfect timing. We have a wedding in Huaiyang Village today. Come, attend a wedding banquet with us,” said the woman.

The first time they entered the dungeon was early in the morning, around 8 o’clock. They saw a wedding procession then, and the bride and groom warmly invited them to the banquet.

It was still early in the morning when they arrived in this Otherworld, and they were invited to a wedding banquet again.

Ning Su nodded. “Alright.”

He glanced at the young animal with a sheep’s face and did not harbor any expectations of getting any meat from it.

The “woman” covered her mouth and giggled, her laughter sinister and eerie. “Then come with me.”

The three of them were silent for two seconds before following her.

They all knew that weddings were important in the mortal world, and they were just as important here. If they wanted to unravel the mystery, they had to participate.

Huaiyang Village was shrouded in a waxen yellow sunlight and a light mist. The village was gloomy and blurry.

The “woman” in front of them walked steadily, as if floating, and they couldn’t see her feet under the red pleated long skirt.

On the other side, the male ghost and the sheep-faced young animal followed the woman. The male ghost hung his head in despair. He was supposed to be intangible, but his body felt unusually heavy.

He noticed them looking at him and turned his head to give them a sad and hopeless smile.

Ning Su asked, “What is your surname, sir?”

Chen Tian and Chen Qing remained silent.

The male ghost seemed surprised by Ning Su’s question and said bitterly, “Oh, forgive me, my surname is Wang.”

Ning Su nodded. “I see.”

“I heard that there are only five surnames in Huaiyang Village: Wang, Li, Zhao, Sun, and Wu. You are from the Wang family... right?”

Chen Tian and Chen Qing immediately stared at the male ghost.

The male ghost lowered his head and muttered, “I really wish I wasn’t.”

Ning Su made a sound and looked at the toddler next to the male ghost. The toddler walked on all fours like a sheep.

Did the toddler crawl on the ground at first because all the toddlers here walked like this?

After walking for a while, Ning Su’s guess was confirmed.

Crossing the street of the slaughterhouse led to the small square of Huaiyang Village, where there were more “people.”

After seeing the scene in front of them, the three of them felt their scalp tingling, especially Ning Su and Chen Tian.

Ning Su was no longer calm for the first time. After all, no matter what he was, his gender was male.

All the “people” and “animals” in the small square looked at them.

The most conspicuous among them were the “beastmen”, who could barely be called a kind of “demi-human” like the toddler.

They were either dog-faced or bull-faced, or human-faced with animal bodies, or “people” covered in animal hair.

The second category was animals. Various types of animals stood in the small square. They looked similar to living animals, but had a strange and solemn expression. It was obvious that they had a high status, even higher than many people.

The third category was humanoid ghosts. These ghosts had a strict hierarchy just by looking at their positions.

A few “ghosts” had high status, including three “women” and one “man” standing in the center of the square.

There were more “people” who were obviously inferior to the “beastmen”. Many of them were kneeling on the ground. Most of them were “men”. One “man” was being tied with a dog leash and crawling next to a cow’s foot.

The fog in the square seemed much thinner, and the wax-yellow sunlight was directly shining on them, but no shadows were left behind.

Each face was yellowish and staring silently at them in the thin mist.

The three of them were shaken and tense.

They finally understood why the word “ghost” was in the name of the dungeon. The other side of Huaiyang Village was a ghost village.

Everything around them was full of ghosts.

The red-dressed female ghost who brought them here walked to the center of the square, beside the four people. “Wang Xiao has been found, and what’s more interesting is that three people have come.”

The four ghosts looked at them expressionlessly, and one of the male ghosts smiled with blood-red lips, “Welcome. We in Huaiyang Village have always been hospitable.”

“...”

“Just in time for today’s wedding, isn’t it?” The male ghost laughed.

Ning Su nodded and looked around. “Why haven’t we seen the bride and groom?”

Chen Tian and Chen Qing: “...”

Do you not even have a shred of social anxiety?

The red-dressed female ghost laughed, “Don’t worry, the bride and groom haven’t been decided yet.”

“...”

Of the five ghosts standing in the center of the square, the ghost with hair covering their face like Sadako raised a red paper and spoke in a tense, trembling voice, “As usual, before announcing the people getting married today, we will first announce the people who will be getting married soon.”

“Wang Mingshi, Bai Xiangning, hmm?”

When Bai Xiangning’s name was mentioned, a terrifying silence fell over the small square.

“Bai Xiangning, didn’t you just get married? You’re getting married for the second time?” The red-dressed female ghost raised an eyebrow and smiled lightly. “Impressive.”

“No! No no no, I’m not! I don’t want to get married again!” A male ghost kneeling in the first circle of the square hastily crawled forward two steps. “It’s not me! Please, I don’t want to get married!”

Standing beside him was a female ghost, and they both had their backs to them, so their faces could not be seen.

As the male ghost crawled forward, the female ghost next to him slightly moved aside, revealing a bit of her profile.

Ning Su stared at her profile, and his eyes widened slightly.

***

On the other side, after bidding farewell to Ning Su and his group, Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng immediately rushed to the groom’s home.

The bride had died last night, and they had immediately prepared her body for burial. They were unsure if they needed to hold the funeral early in the morning, so they rushed over without delay.

When they arrived at the groom’s home, there was no white funeral decoration outside the door.

Just then, a villager came out of the groom’s home carrying a paper bag and glue. Su Wangsheng asked, “Excuse me, is the funeral being held today?”

“You’re here to attend the funeral.” The villager’s gaze slid discreetly over Zhu Shuangshuang’s face and then glanced at Su Wangsheng. “Then come on in. Everything is being prepared and it will start soon.”

The two of them entered the house as they replied.

The villager locked the door from outside and took out two bright red “double happiness” characters from the bag, pasting one on each of the two doors.

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