Chapter 33: 32、The Bride in the Flowered Sedan

32、The Bride in the Flowered Sedan

"My brother..."

Wen Si dared not meet Zhou Chang's gaze again; he felt the other man's eyes seemed capable of sucking his very soul away.

He swallowed with difficulty, glancing furtively left and right. Seeing that Qian Chaodong had not cast a glance his way, he lowered his voice and stammered to Zhou Chang, "What... what did my brother say? What did he say?"

The hook is taken...

Hearing Wen Si's words, Zhou Chang knew the matter was eight or nine-tenths done.

His smile grew deeper as he gazed into Wen Si's eyes and spoke slowly and deliberately: "You are actually not of the Wen family. You each have your own homes, but now—you cannot return to them.

Are your parents at home still safe? Where are your brothers and sisters making a living?

Look at the scar on your face... You must have almost forgotten your own face, haven't you?

What do you wish to say to your father and mother? You can tell me; I will deliver the message to them for you."

Zhou Chang's tone was gentle, coaxing and guiding.

Every word he spoke had no clear direction, vague and muddled, yet to a listener with a mind for it, each fell with weight, striking the mark precisely.

Amid his words, Wen Si's eyes unknowingly reddened: "I..."

This man with the rotting face had been moved by Zhou Chang, yet a sliver of caution remained deep within his heart, causing him to fall silent at the critical moment. He drooped his eyelids, clamped his mouth shut, and tried to walk away from Zhou Chang.

"You do not trust me?" If he let Wen Si walk away now, once he had conferred with Wen San, Zhou Chang knew it would be difficult to pry their mouths open again.

He immediately blocked Wen Si's path with his body, then lowered his voice: "Look around you—those who come here to cure their madness mostly end up mad!

Only my companion and I remain sane, keeping our wits.

How many years does it take for you and your brother to meet someone like us? If you do not seize this opportunity now, do you intend to stay in this wine cellar for the rest of your life?"

Zhou Chang gazed at Wen Si's face.

He noticed that when he mentioned that among those sent down to the cellar for treatment, only he and Shi Danzi retained their sanity, Wen Si's expression clearly faltered for a moment.

A thought stirred in Zhou Chang's heart, and he continued: "Actually, we are all the same kind of people.

You can help me, and I can help you...

All around us are fierce demons; we are of the same kind!

Only by helping each other can we survive..."

Before Zhou Chang could finish speaking, Wen Si suddenly yanked him!

"Get out of the way!"

The man with the rotting face snarled at him with a ferocious expression, shoved past his body, and walked by.

Zhou Chang, lost in thought, lowered his eyelids and continued walking forward in silence.

Those who in the early morning had been laughing and flattering Qian Chaodong's Bai Gou, now seemed as if their souls had been drained, wandering in a daze, lining up along the cellar's slope.

At the very front of this horde of living corpses, Qian Chaodong turned and glanced back.

He saw Wen Si shove Zhou Chang aside; that Zhou Chang seemed frightened, keeping his head down and daring not make a sound.

Qian Chaodong sneered indifferently, turned, and walked out of the wine cellar.

Seizing this gap in time, Wen Si suddenly turned his head. He stared at Zhou Chang's face, the tension and terror on his rotting face almost taking physical form: "Go, go tell my mother—

Tell her to run quickly!

Wen Laozu is about to succeed!"

Wen Laozu is about to succeed?

Zhou Chang committed this sentence to memory, then asked Wen Si, "Where is your home?"

"..." Wen Si froze instantly.

He then realized that everything Zhou Chang had said earlier was all a ruse, designed solely to draw words from him!

But he was already on the bandit's boat—

"Maoniu Town, the second alley in the East Market, the third household—that is my home!"

Wen Si's tone was filled with regret.

"Wen Laozu is about to succeed, Wen Laozu is about to succeed..."

Zhou Chang walked along the road to 'Jade Maiden Pool', repeating Wen Si's words over and over.

What is Wen Laozu about to succeed at?

He thought back to the hallucinations he had suffered in the wine cellar due to the infection of that gust of Xiang Qi—could Wen Si's words mean that Wen Yongsheng was about to fully master a Divine Banner and become a Mortal God?

Wen Laozu has still not mastered this Divine Banner even now?

Is it because it has not yet fully become a Mortal God that it has been hiding all this time in the Rice Grave Cellar within the inner courtyard of the winery?

If this is the case, then before it fully masters the Divine Banner, perhaps it cannot leave the Rice Grave Cellar...

Then how did it find Bai Xiue? Zhou Chang could not fathom it.

There are too many unsolvable problems in this world; Zhou Chang had never expected to understand them all.

He thought for a moment, truly unable to grasp the crux of the matter, so he simply cast it aside—after all, once he found Bai Xiue and asked her face-to-face, as long as she was willing to answer, these questions would surely resolve themselves.

At this time, dusk was approaching, and brilliant sunset light poured down from the distant sky.

Walking along the shaded path near 'Jade Maiden Pool', Zhou Chang heard a lively sound of wedding music.

The woods were rarely visited by people; suddenly hearing this blaring and beating music, Zhou Chang's expression immediately grew serious. He hid behind several trees and, through the withered vines and wild grass of the forest, looked toward the source of the music.

Wild trees stood jagged and gnarled, clawing and brandishing themselves across the mountain hollows.

In the distance, a series of hills stretched on like burial mounds.

On the high slope of one of these hills, the sunset glow outlined the hill's contours in gold. A group of people playing various instruments escorted a sedan chair, walking down the slope.

They were very far from Zhou Chang; the reason he could still hear the music from over there was that his Nature Soul was strong, and his five senses had been enhanced accordingly.

The wedding procession was bathed in the setting sun, their figures turning pitch black.

Even the bridal sedan chair, caught between light and shadow, suddenly turned a deep red, then pitch black again.

Zhou Chang focused his sight, carefully observing the group of people chatting and laughing, confirming this was indeed a normal wedding procession.

He watched the sedan chair being carried on wooden poles by the bearers, swaying gently as it moved down the slope. Just as he was about to look away, a glimpse from the corner of his eye caught some unusual details.

Beneath the swaying red curtain of the sedan chair, a pair of feet wearing red embroidered shoes protruded.

Those feet were stretched perfectly straight, the white socks on the insteps completely free of wrinkles.

—Those were the bride's feet!

In what posture must she have been sitting inside the sedan chair to stretch her feet out so straight?

Seeing the feet sticking out from under the curtain, Zhou Chang's heart gave a sudden jolt!

Immediately after, he saw the toes of those feet 'click' into a crack in the stones of the path. The sedan bearers and the wedding party, unaware of this anomaly, continued walking forward while playing various instruments—

Those feet, caught in the stone crack, were suddenly snapped off as the sedan chair moved forward!

Though Zhou Chang was far away, it was as if he heard that bloody 'crack'!

The sedan bearers finally noticed the anomaly and stopped the chair. The wedding crowd surged forward in a rush!

The bride's body, separated from view by the curtain, kept bumping against the inside of the sedan chair as the bearers lowered it, making a series of 'thump thump' sounds—

When one bearer finally worked up the courage to lift the curtain, Zhou Chang saw clearly—inside the sedan, the bride's red veil had fallen aside. She wore a bright red wedding robe, her face had turned a purplish-red, and her tongue hung out very long.

Around her neck was a rope made from two large red wedding handkerchiefs tied together.

The bride had wrapped those two handkerchiefs around the wooden pole supporting the sedan roof, stuck her head inside, and strangled herself!