Chapter 117: Shuangxi Town (11) Severing a Fated Marriage

Qi Si watched as Shang Qingbei’s expression stiffened for a moment. He curled his lips into a smile, neither confirming nor denying anything.

He knew this kid definitely knew something, but he had no intention of exposing him. In fact, he was happy to let the latter play the role of a contrarian and throw out a few more snide remarks. It helped create the illusion of ‘a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending,’ making it easier to shift blame later.

Shang Qingbei stood there in a daze for a while. When he looked up, he saw Qi Si standing casually to the side, looking like he was enjoying the spectacle.

The scene of the young man talking to Xier alone flashed through his mind. He took a few steps closer and whispered, “Did you do it?”

“Did I do what?” Qi Si touched his face with a look of confusion. “On the contrary, Xiao Qing, for you to have such a big reaction suddenly… are you hiding something from us?”

Shang Qingbei was choked with frustration.

Looking at Qi Si’s innocent expression, he faintly realized that if he dared to take the bait, the other man would instantly turn him into the target of public criticism.

“It’s nothing,” Shang Qingbei spat out through gritted teeth, pursing his lips and falling silent.

Under the young man’s “teachable student” gaze, an outrageous guess suddenly formed in his mind: Had “Qi Wen” already figured out the worldview and seen through his concealment of clues, only to deliberately pretend not to know?

This idea was too impractical. Just seconds after it appeared, Shang Qingbei dismissed it himself.

In a team instance, survival was the primary task. It made sense for him to hide clues, but what kind of nonsense would it be for someone else to tacitly allow others to hide clues?

Two men who looked like farmhands said a few polite phrases like “eat your fill” and “have fun” before disappearing into the crowd.

They carried the characteristic shyness of people from small places, their hands moving up and down awkwardly. Their departure didn’t seem like a perfunctory gesture but more like an escape, as if they were terrified of being stopped by players for questioning.

“Let’s split up. Each person will be responsible for exploring a section of the area. We’ll pool our clues once the banquet is over.” Qi Si made a hasty arrangement and headed toward a spot where the crowd was thinner.

He retreated into the shadows, taking in the entire layout of the venue at a glance.

The wedding banquet was roughly divided into three parts.

At the outermost edge was an open-air kitchen. A dozen or so middle-aged women in floral clothes and hairnets stood in a row by the stoves, their thick arms swinging spatulas as they tirelessly stir-fried various meat dishes.

Smoke billowed into the sky, and red-yellow flames occasionally splashed into the oil woks, flaring up high. The atmosphere was thick with the scent of cooking and bustling life.

A bit further in were wooden tables laden with meat dishes. Men held wine bowls; some sat around the tables while others stood. The sounds of loud talk and laughter mixed together into an indistinguishable but lively din.

The core cluster was likely where the close friends and relatives of the couple sat. There were men and women, all dressed in festive red clothes, forming a dense circle. From a distance, it looked like a red cloud, obscuring the view of those inside.

Considering Xier was an orphan, these were probably the “groom’s” relatives.

Qi Si couldn’t help but wonder about the question Shang Qingbei had asked earlier—”Where is the groom?”

The townsfolk had been eating for quite a while. Scraps of gnawed bones were scattered on the tables, and the few vegetable dishes were left with only soup. Qi Si had absolutely no desire to go over and eat a stranger’s saliva.

He turned and saw a row of freshly prepared dishes on the stove. He simply walked over with a swagger, unceremoniously picked up a plate of Beef with Bamboo Shoots, grabbed some chopsticks and a bowl, and squatted in a corner to eat quietly.

Perhaps because it was early in the season, the bamboo shoots in the dish were very tender, as if they could burst with water at a bite. The beef was also braised until soft, not getting stuck between his teeth at all.

Qi Si ate with considerable satisfaction. After filling his stomach, he walked a bit further away with the plate and used his chopsticks to poke through the leftovers.

No bloodstains. There was nothing unusual about the entire dish, a stark contrast to last night’s situation.

“It seems Shuangxi Town is capable of making food fit for human consumption after all,” Qi Si said with a hint of humor, his finger tapping his chin rhythmically.

Why did the food Sister Xu brought over become stained with blood after she left? If she did it intentionally, what benefit would it bring her?

She certainly knew about the abnormality of the food, but knowing didn’t equate to direct involvement. Was it possible that last night’s abnormality had nothing to do with her?

Qi Si curled his lips with interest, his smile looking quite genuine.

“There probably aren’t as many Ghosts in Shuangxi Town as imagined, and Ghosts aren’t necessarily united with one another.”

…On the other side, Liu Bingding also held a bowl and chopsticks, but he wasn’t slacking off like Qi Si.

He didn’t eat a single bite of rice. He merely put on the appearance of mingling, weaving through the crowd.

On the first day, the clue of a smartphone appearing out of thin air in his trouser pocket had left him with a grievance he couldn’t voice.

He truly hadn’t disclosed the clue in time, and he truly hadn’t noticed the extra item on him. Because of the suspicion cast by this incident, he felt he was more wronged than Dou E.

The players were all smart people; naturally, they wouldn’t label him as one of the Slaughter-path players based on a single explainable detail. However, once something went wrong and someone was needed to take the fall or test the waters, he would likely be pushed out for this reason.

Liu Bingding claimed to have become a shrewd veteran after years of scrambling on film sets, yet for a moment, he couldn’t think of a way to clear his name. All he could do was accept his bad luck and try his best to actively collect more clues.

He scanned the crowd with his eyes and soon locked onto a man who was drifting on the outskirts, looking rather out of place. “Hey, brother, this outfit of yours is pretty nice. You must be one of the successful ones in town, right?”

The man was startled by his approach. He froze for a moment before saying sheepishly, “No, I haven’t even found a job. I just came back to the town to help Granny Xu with some chores.”

“I see everyone in town respects Sister Xu. It must not be easy to work for her, right?” Liu Bingding flattered him with a smile. “What do you usually do, brother? Sister Xu looks like someone quite extraordinary; she must be able to handle anything.”

The man chuckled awkwardly. “I just follow Sister Xu and act as a matchmaker. People from far and wide come to us when they want to find a wife. Many girls have been married off through us.”

A matchmaker needs a man to help out?

Liu Bingding felt something was off. Just as he was about to ask more, a burly old man approached from behind and slapped the man on the head. “Gou’er, what nonsense are you babbling to the honored guests?”

After scolding the man named “Gou’er” a few more times, the old man looked at Liu Bingding with a smile identical to Sister Xu’s. “Don’t listen to his nonsense. Our town isn’t as exaggerated as he says. It’s just that Sister Xu has a good reputation and a famous name. Everyone trusts her and is willing to let her make introductions.”

So Sister Xu was a matchmaker. No wonder she dressed so gaudily and spoke in such a stylized manner.

Liu Bingding nodded and asked for advice, “Old sir, where is the groom? We’ve received your hospitality, and following local customs, it’s only right that we go say a few words of congratulations, isn’t it?”

The old man didn’t suspect anything. He turned and pointed toward the sea of bright red. “He’s sitting right there. The one with the red flower pinned to his chest. But there aren’t many rules about congratulations. Many people in our town haven’t even said a word to him.”

“Your townsfolk are one big family of acquaintances, but we outsiders have just arrived. We can’t lose our manners.” Liu Bingding saw the old man off with a smile, then dropped the fake expression and walked straight in the direction the old man had pointed.

Looking from afar, he saw a touch of white mixed into the bright red background, looking exceptionally conspicuous.

Qi Si was already standing on the periphery, hands in his pockets, watching the crowd with a listless expression, his thoughts unknown.

As if possessed, Liu Bingding approached him.

Before he could speak, Qi Si glanced at him and forced an apologetic smile. “Liu Bingding, last night I was too eager to find clues. That’s why I impulsively suspected you after seeing the smartphone in your pocket and embarrassed you in public.

“Thinking about it calmly, if I were in your shoes and something suddenly appeared on me, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it immediately either. It was poorly considered of me to act without a word back then.”

The apology was spoken with sincerity, not just a flippant “I was wrong.”

Veteran players were mostly arrogant and stubborn; those who could lower themselves to apologize were truly a minority.

Liu Bingding was overwhelmed by the favor. “It’s fine. In the end, it was my own carelessness. If I were you and saw someone like me, I’d have to suspect them too.”

“But this is a team instance after all, and there are no real Slaughter-path players among us…” Qi Si sighed, then changed the subject. “I can’t find any more clues from Xier. I suspect some clues are with the groom. Want to go take a look together?”

Liu Bingding felt a bit lightheaded from the talk, but Qi Si’s suggestion aligned perfectly with his own guess.

Xier’s behavior was strange, and with Sister Xu’s instruction “not to offend” her, he didn’t dare go forward to test her. The groom’s side, however, clearly didn’t have so many complications. Nothing bad should happen from taking a look.

Furthermore, this banquet was no different from the rural wedding banquets he knew. If it weren’t for the light gray system interface in the upper left corner of his vision, he probably wouldn’t even realize he was in an Eerie Game.

Seeing Qi Si stroll toward the crowd in festive red clothes, Liu Bingding followed without suspicion.

Qi Si imperceptibly fell half a step behind him. After a few seconds, Liu Bingding was the one walking in front, leading the way.

Liu Bingding used his broad shoulders to push through the crowd, and Qi Si followed silently behind him.

In the middle of the crowd, a small stool had been placed. A young man in red clothes with a red flower sat on it. From his attire, he should be the groom.

The groom’s appearance was ordinary. On his crooked, potato-shaped face, a pair of small eyes were hollow and lifeless. His half-open mouth was drooling, and he looked mentally unstable.

He held half a mirror, waving it back and forth in front of his eyes as if he found it very amusing.

Qi Si noticed that it was a fragment of a makeup mirror, exquisitely decorated and clearly intended for a woman. Its design was quite modern, obviously not a local product of this town.

“A fool paired with a madwoman—a match made in heaven!”

A shrill voice rang out with laughter, but it didn’t sound like joy; it sounded more like mockery.

Qi Si turned toward the source of the voice but didn’t see the speaker.

He looked at the groom again.

The fool was currently bringing the mirror to his mouth, blowing air onto it.

From the player’s perspective, one could clearly see the mirror surface become covered with a layer of white water vapor within seconds.

Qi Si walked over and squatted down in front of the groom.

From this close, he could see the white powder on the latter’s face, covering it like a mask, making him look like a ghost.

“Congratulations, congratulations.” Qi Si offered the words of congratulation with little genuine emotion and reached out to shake the groom’s right hand.

—The palm was warm and moist. The groom was actually a living person as well.

A sense of discord spread through him. Qi Si’s eyes narrowed into thin slits.

If Xier being a living person could be explained as a coincidence, the clue that “the groom is a living person” directly debunked the conclusion the players had reached on the first day.

It was very likely that Shuangxi Town wasn’t a ghost town at all, but at most a haunted one.

Most of the information Xu Wen provided was wrong. Was it intentional to mislead the players, or did she truly know nothing?

Where exactly was she? Why would she give clues that were completely different from the truth?

Ever since Qi Si squatted in front of the groom, the gazes of the surrounding townsfolk had been fixed on him, focusing on him like a tangible web.

Qi Si knew well the truth that “humans can be even scarier than Ghosts.”

For a perfectly fine town to play at being haunted, the townsfolk surely weren’t good people either.

The clue about the 【Person in the Well】 was written in black and white. For townsfolk capable of doing such a thing, killing to silence someone was perfectly plausible.

Bathed in the gaze of the crowd, Qi Si calmly withdrew his right hand and smiled brightly. “Congratulations, congratulations. A match made in heaven.”

He had unexpectedly repeated the congratulatory phrase he had overheard earlier.

The moment he finished the last word, it was as if something was triggered. For an instant, his vision was flooded with blood-red color like silk, and a low sound of weeping echoed in his ears—extremely mournful and filled with resentment… The anomaly lasted only two seconds before dissipating, and Qi Si found himself still standing in the crowd.

The townsfolk’s gazes were still stuck to him, as if they wanted to see through him from the inside out.

The mist shrouding the entire town cleared slightly. All the people, objects, and events were submerged in the cold sunlight without obstruction, taking on a pale hue like an overexposed photograph.

Qi Si stood up as if he hadn’t noticed anything and slowly moved toward Liu Bingding.

A sudden commotion came from afar. Someone seemed to have shouted something. A cluster of people was stunned into silence for a second by the new information before reacting with even greater noise as they passed the news along.

Everyone’s gaze briefly shifted toward the source of the disturbance.

In just a few seconds, the news was carried over by waves of discussion.

“Xier is dead!” they said.

The tone was that of spectators who didn’t care how big the trouble was: “Xier committed suicide!”