Chapter 108: Shuangxi Town (II) God of Joy Temple

“Oh my, are you distinguished guests from the county?”

A shrill voice, echoing the narrator’s call, rang out from a low house to the players’ right.

With a creak, the wooden door decorated with red paper-cuts was pushed open from the inside, revealing a pitch-black main room.

A short old woman, about 1.5 meters tall, came out on tiptoe, pointing a finger up and down at Qi Si, who was in the lead.

“You’ve come at just the right time. Xier is getting married, and the town is throwing a grand celebration for her. I guarantee you, no wedding far or near is as well-organized as ours!”

The little old woman’s wrinkled face was frighteningly pale, yet she had applied two spots of rouge to her cheeks. She wore a festive red outfit, even her cloth shoes were red. Her inverted-cone-shaped legs were wrapped in yellowish-white foot-binding cloths, making one suspect she couldn’t stand steadily and would topple over if touched.

She smiled and said: “I’m surnamed Xu. You can just call me ‘Sister Xu,’ just like the kids in town do!”

Qi Si stepped back half a pace to avoid the spittle, subconsciously raising his hand to stroke his cheek, where he felt a patch of roughness.

He then ran his hand along his chin; the fine stubble felt prickly, as if it hadn’t been shaved for a long time.

So this instance changes the players’ appearances? Then why was Du Xiaoyu still able to recognize him?

Qi Si fell into deep thought.

Sister Xu, seemingly unaware, said enthusiastically: “Let me arrange accommodations for you all! A spectacle like this only happens once every forty-nine years! Compared to ours, everywhere else is just child’s play…”

It seemed the “folk custom Investigators” had come to Shuangxi Town under the guise of experiencing a traditional Chinese wedding.

And what the players needed to do was use the opportunity of their field investigation to collect clues and find the whereabouts of the missing Xu Wen.

Qi Si hated tasks like finding people, saving people, or protecting people; forming connections with strangers was a very troublesome affair.

He could never understand why, if someone was lost, they were lost, or if they were dead, they were dead. Why did the survivors still among the living have to dwell on the past, or even sacrifice themselves in the process?

Liu Bingding took out the photo from behind his name tag and handed it to Sister Xu: “Sister Xu, have you seen this person? She’s my friend. She said she was coming to your Shuangxi Town, but there hasn’t been any news from her for a while.”

Sister Xu narrowed her eyes, lowered her head, and stared at the photo for a long time before shaking her head: “I haven’t seen her. I’m old, and my memory isn’t good.”

She was evasive, clearly hiding something.

As part of the main quest, this finding-people segment would certainly not be simple to complete.

Du Xiaoyu followed closely behind Qi Si, seizing the moment to change the subject: “Hehe, do the girls in your town only get married once every forty-nine years?”

Sister Xu turned around, her back to the players, her two thin legs swinging nimbly as she led the way: “People get married every year and every month, but this time it’s different. Xier is blessed, and our whole town is helping her!”

“Is it that good?” Qi Si curled the corner of his lips. “Hosting one every forty-nine years, and having the whole town do it together—I’m afraid it’s not as simple as just a wedding.”

Sister Xu grinned: “To tell you the truth, we aren’t just hosting a wedding this time; the main point is to gather together and pay respects to the God of Joy. It’s an old rule passed down for hundreds of years. Every forty-nine years, we choose a lucky girl and throw a grand celebration to make the Goddess of Joy happy.”

Qi Si raised an eyebrow: “And who is this Goddess of Joy? Sister Xu, tell us about it. We came here specifically to collect these stories.”

The group walked at a brisk pace, led by Sister Xu, and had already arrived beside a temple-like building in the center of the town.

The two-courtyard structure was surrounded by a circle of small white houses draped in red decorations. Newly painted vermilion door pillars supported bright yellow eaves, under which hung two bright red lanterns, each inscribed with the character “囍” in gold.

Sister Xu stopped and pointed a hand at the temple, which was as red as blood: “This is the God of Joy Temple. The Goddess of Joy sits inside—would you like to go in and pay your respects?”

The temple doors were wide open, like a monster opening its bloody maw, enticing people to enter.

Qi Si glanced inside.

The room was filled with red incense candles on both sides, their flames flickering.

The shrine was placed at the very back against the wall. Under the curtains, the red robes of the Idol were vaguely visible, but its face could not be seen.

From the angle where the players were standing, they could only see a pair of stone statues kneeling at the feet of the Idol. They appeared to be a man and a woman, both wearing bright red wedding attire, posed in the manner of bowing to heaven and earth.

Perhaps it was the uncanny valley effect, but the scene gave one an indescribable, eerie feeling.

Qi Si didn’t want to go in first at all; he had to trick someone into scouting the path first.

Considering his current position, he withdrew his gaze and shifted the mountaineering backpack on his back: “Our luggage is heavy, and we’re tired after the journey. Let’s find a place to settle down first before coming to pay our respects. Of course, if there’s some custom that we must pay respects when passing by, that’s fine with us too.”

—At worst, he would run if the situation looked bad, and if he couldn’t run, he would use the Pocket Watch of Fate once.

“No rush, no rush, you’ll be staying here for seven days, there’s plenty of time to pay respects!” Sister Xu smiled warmly, white powder falling in flurries from her face, which looked like sheep droppings. “The prepared guest rooms are just ahead, not far. You should get some good rest. I’ll tell you about the Goddess of Joy.”

The group set off again, and Sister Xu’s thin, delicate voice rang out eerily: “The Goddess of Joy in our town is the most efficacious. When newlyweds hold hands and pay their respects, and the Goddess sees them, the two will stay together for a long, long time, never to be separated.”

“The Goddess loves to hear the laughter of newlyweds and detests the heartless. If anyone changes their heart, the Goddess will not spare them!”

“Legend has it that the Goddess of Joy was also a girl hundreds of years ago, but unfortunately, she fell in love with a heartless man. That man abandoned the Goddess and left, never returning. The Goddess was heartbroken, so she threw herself into the well at the west end of town. Before she died, she made a great vow to protect the newlyweds who would come after…”

Sister Xu’s footsteps suddenly stopped.

She pointed far ahead to a courtyard: “That’s it inside. I’ll take you in, but once you’re inside, don’t wander around and disturb the bride.”

The courtyard wasn’t large, only a single-section layout. The roof tiles were broken, and several patches of wall plaster had fallen off, yet layers upon layers of bright red curtains hung down from the eaves.

Red cloth flowers and paper-cuts were piled together noisily, dressing up the dilapidated old house in a gaudy, flamboyant way.

Qi Si said with a faint smile: “Having outside guests stay with the bride probably isn’t very appropriate.”

“Nobody else in town has space available; only Xier has an empty room here. In the past, whenever guests came, they always stayed at her place.” Sister Xu stepped forward and pushed open the door, turning to look at the group. “She’s getting married tomorrow, and this house won’t be occupied after that.”

Qi Si asked: “Is Xier an orphan?”

He followed Sister Xu through the door, and what came into view was a courtyard that had been half-decorated.

The west side was draped in red silk and covered in paper-cut window decorations; the whole area was a vibrant red.

The east side only had a few “囍” characters sparsely pasted on it, looking much cleaner, with a clear distinction between the two.

“Yes, Xier has had a hard life since she was little. She had no father or mother and grew up on the charity of others. But once she marries into the family, she won’t have to suffer anymore.”

Perhaps because of the lack of light in the courtyard, Sister Xu’s voice carried an extra note of decrepit eeriness, vague and indistinct like fog on a lake.

She pointed to the wing room on the east side and said: “You all will stay here for these few days. I’ll bring food over later. You must not run over to the west wing; it wouldn’t be good if you scared Xier.”

The five players were already standing in the courtyard, and Sister Xu turned her back and was about to leave through the entrance.

The moment she was about to step over the threshold, Li Yao suddenly spoke up: “Sister Xu, I see you’ve just held a funeral here. Holding a wedding and a funeral one after the other, the malevolent spirits haven’t dispersed. If the living collide with the path of the ghosts, I’m afraid there will be disaster.”

She waved the stack of spirit money in her hand, the very same that had fallen from the sky when the narrator’s voice rang out earlier.

Sister Xu narrowed her eyes, the wrinkles on her face bunching together: “What’s there to be afraid of? Our town specializes in these double-happiness events; people from far and near beg us to host them for them. Weddings and funerals follow the same path, and it’s been done this way for hundreds of years without any incidents.”

Li Yao said coldly: “If nothing happened, that’s just a bit of luck. If something does happen, it’s a huge misfortune.”

Sister Xu let out two cold, chuckling laughs: “A newly dead ghost can’t become a malevolent spirit. The living have yang fire on their shoulders; as long as this fire doesn’t go out, it can burn small ghosts to ashes!”

“When a small ghost blows out the lamp, it’s not up to you whether it goes out or not.”

Sister Xu seemed to be annoyed; she rolled her eyes and turned to leave without a word.

Until her figure disappeared outside the door, Liu Bingding asked curiously: “Li Yao, what kind of riddle were you and that old woman playing? It sounded pretty intense.”

Li Yao shook her head slightly: “It’s nothing. The supernatural beliefs here are different from the outside.”

The courtyard was eerily quiet. Although it was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, the players couldn’t feel any festive or auspicious atmosphere.

The west wing was supposedly occupied by a bride, but at a glance, one could only see dark, hollow windows; it didn’t look like anyone was living inside at all.

It wasn’t just here; the whole town was like this. Although there were people, one couldn’t see any sign of human life, and it was as quiet as a giant grave.

Liu Bingding stepped forward and pushed open the door to the wing room, walking inside.

Qi Si followed closely behind.

According to Sister Xu, this empty room hadn’t been lived in for a long time, but its cleanliness was much better than imagined.

The furnishings, such as the bed and wooden table, didn’t show signs of decay, and there wasn’t much dust, so it didn’t hit the players in the face when they opened the door.

The wing room didn’t look big, but the layout utilized every bit of space to the extreme.

Perhaps it had been specially renovated for accommodation; six beds placed in a row didn’t seem crowded, looking more like the large shared sleeping platforms common in the last century.

Shang Qingbei adjusted his glasses and analyzed: “Sister Xu said all guests stay here, so Xu Wen should have stayed here too. Perhaps she left some clues.”

“Correct.” Qi Si smiled approvingly. “There are three possibilities. First, she isn’t a guest. Sister Xu’s surname is Xu, and hers is also Xu; perhaps she was a resident of the town to begin with.”

“Second, she has a connection to Shuangxi Town but hasn’t been back for a long time and doesn’t have a house. Third, she has no connection to Shuangxi Town and simply came to investigate the folk customs.”

“The results of the latter two scenarios are the same: she came to stay with Xier, and she is very likely the previous guest before us.”

“Why do you say Xu Wen is the guest right before us?” Du Xiaoyu asked, not understanding. “What if other guests came between her and us? Didn’t Sister Xu say they are sought out for weddings and funerals far and near? That should mean many people come.”

Qi Si patiently explained: “The boatman said that in this month, he only ferried our boatload of people, which means no other guests have come here in the past month. And I believe that as Xu Wen’s relatives and friends, waiting more than a month after her disappearance to come look for her is already quite late.”

Shang Qingbei frowned: “How can you be sure the boatman was telling the truth? What if he’s lying?”

“There’s no need.” Qi Si shook his head. “His motive for telling me that was to indicate he was unaware of Xu Wen’s disappearance. If he wanted to lie to us, he could have just claimed he never saw a female passenger, rather than choosing the lie that is easiest to debunk.”

“Of course, one could also assume that all the NPCs colluded on their stories and are deliberately feeding us false information. Then this instance would be impossible to play; you’d just have to rely on your luck and wait to die, praying for your own survival.”

The tone of the latter part remained unchanged, but judging by the content, he was clearly annoyed by Shang Qingbei’s contrarian behavior.

Liu Bingding glanced at Shang Qingbei, then looked at Qi Si: “That makes sense! Let’s look around; maybe that Xu Wen left some key information in this room, deliberately leading us to find her.”

The man headed straight for the wooden table by the window and pulled open the drawers to search, kicking up a cloud of dust, clearly wanting to show his support for Qi Si through action.

Qi Si watched with a smile for a moment, then suddenly leaned forward and reached into his pants pocket.

Liu Bingding was startled and dodged to the side.

But Qi Si had already pulled out the item from his pocket and held it up in his hand.

It was a smartphone with a red casing and a pitch-black screen; the model looked quite trendy.

The expressions of the players all changed.

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 expression grave.

Bringing a phone into the game reminded him of the secret of “supernatural infiltration.”

If the supernatural can infiltrate reality, perhaps reality can also infiltrate back?

Could this have something to do with the prophecy about the “Door” that the guild recently received?

“Liu Bingding didn’t bring it in; it should be a clue provided by this instance. Next time everyone encounters something like this, try to bring it out into the open. This is a team instance; there are no competitive elements.” Qi Si said righteously, pressing the power button.

The phone’s screensaver was a bizarre and poignant photo: people wearing red clothes and red masks were carrying a bright red wedding sedan, playing music; yet in the air, white spirit money was fluttering down, accumulating in a layer on top of the sedan.

Liu Bingding was completely bewildered: “I didn’t even know this thing existed. When did it appear in my pocket? If I had known, I definitely would have taken it out sooner!”

For a moment, no one spoke.

The existence of Slaughter-path players was no secret.

According to the ratios calculated on the Forum, one out of every five people is a Slaughter-path player, and this instance happened to have five players; the number was very subtle.

Although rationally, Liu Bingding’s behavior didn’t really look like he had anything to hide, no one had the kindness to stand up for a stranger.

“There’s really no need for me to do that. I still don’t understand what kind of thing this instance is; how could I dare to keep a clue that I don’t know if I can even use?” Liu Bingding defended himself with a mournful face.

Qi Si smiled as if he didn’t care: “Forget it. There wasn’t any time to share clues along the way. Liu Bingding probably just didn’t have time to take the phone out.”

“A team instance requires us to be united and work together to decipher the worldview. Moving forward, I hope everyone can put aside any grudges and work together.”

For no reason, he thought of the “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” declaration posted by the Jiuzhou Guild on the Forum, and his smile became strange for a moment.

Under everyone’s gaze, he lowered his eyes at the right moment and raised the phone in his hand: “Enough idle talk; let’s see what clues are in this phone first.”