Observe Local Customs

Big red lanterns hung high, joyfully welcoming the new marriage.

On Old Zhu's family's front door, the newly pasted red couplets bore the simplest blessings.

The last character on the right couplet's bottom had been painted over with ink, and beside it, a neat "Marriage Character" had been written.

Even Uncle Cai, who claimed to be uneducated, muttered a few words under his breath.

"Changing a character and calling it new—really scraping the bottom of the barrel."

But Zheng Wuyou felt that this village didn't seem to have anyone capable of writing such standard Regular Script.

So besides them, were there outsiders attending this wedding?

The middle-aged man from yesterday seemed to hear the chaotic footsteps outside. Before they could even knock, he opened the wooden door.

"C-come in. What about the things you prepared?"

The middle-aged man, face lit by the sun, shifted his gaze to the items in their hands. Some came empty-handed, others dragged a Wild Boar, withered sweet potatoes... and even someone holding a fragment of a wine jar.

"Haha, you've put in quite the effort. Please, follow me to the Backyard." The middle-aged man let out two unexpectedly dry laughs, completely ignoring the gaze of the brown ear-length short-haired girl next door.

And for the first time, Zheng Wuyou got a clear look at the middle-aged man's face. It was pitted and bumpy—not like blisters, nor a skin condition.

It looked... more like a Toad.

The middle-aged man turned back, his eyes nervously sweeping over his own Main Hall.

As if afraid the old woman from yesterday might discover their presence.

Hu Yu, unsettled by the middle-aged man's face, clutched a withered sweet potato vine and stood at the back of the group.

She dared not imagine how much the bride must love the groom if this middle-aged man was him.

Just as she took the lead following the middle-aged man two steps forward, Zheng Wuyou sensed something wrong. She stopped in time and raised her hand to block everyone.

"Brother, wait. We'd better not go to the Backyard. The bride is there—we can't break the rules."

If Zheng Wuyou hadn't seen him glance fearfully at the Main Hall, she wouldn't have remembered the old woman she'd met there yesterday.

Yesterday, the old woman had explicitly said they couldn't go to the Backyard.

Any consequences from going there would be theirs to bear.

And today, this middle-aged man was leading them straight in. Interesting.

"Oh, right, right, right. Look at my memory—I forgot in all the rush." The middle-aged man seemed surprised they'd be the ones to uphold the customs. With an awkward laugh, he led them in another direction. "Then... let's put it in the Woodshed."

Miao Laisheng, wearing silk pajamas, dragged the Wild Boar as if he never tired, but his eyes lingered on the brown hair tips in front of him.

"This place is so poor, and they still have a Woodshed?" Hu Yu, hiding at the back, seemed to be talking to someone, but her voice was noticeably louder.

Zheng Wuyou noticed the middle-aged man at the front freeze for a moment, then continued walking in the opposite direction as if nothing had happened.

Old Zhu's family had pulled out all the stops for this wedding, sparing no effort.

Zheng Wuyou and her group slowly advanced along the worn-out Red Carpet, which looked like it had been reused countless times.

They passed through the Joyful Courtyard, filled with rows of crude banquet tables.

Those tables would be laden with all kinds of dishes tomorrow, giving off tempting aromas.

They followed the middle-aged man to a few rooms that looked like Side Rooms in a Side Courtyard.

Though these Side Rooms weren't even half the size of the main house, they had been specially decorated.

On the doors of those Side Rooms, bright and dazzling Big Red Happiness Characters were pasted, glinting in the sunlight.

And these Big Red Happiness Characters stood in stark contrast to the surrounding houses made of Black Soil.

One was a fervent, unrestrained red; the other, a plain, unadorned black earth.

To Zheng Wuyou, it felt like a high wall that would trap them for life.

She had hoped to first get some insight into the List from Old Zhu's family, but it seemed difficult.

"This sentence has the same format as the first task. Could 'Midday' refer to a time?" Hu Yu, seeing the middle-aged man called away by a distant shout, casually tossed the withered sweet potato vine into the Woodshed and patted the dirt off her hands.

She also glanced at Wen Dian and Guo Mu, who were hauling in half a wine jar from outside.

He had already deciphered something like "Sun about to feed"—maybe he knew this one too.

Zheng Wuyou, working with Miao Laisheng to drag the Wild Boar into the Woodshed, knew Hu Yu's question was actually directed at someone else.

So she didn't answer.

But this task couldn't be that simple—just having them help move things around here.

Wen Dian, panting heavily, set down the wine jar filled with yellow earth. He didn't understand why this brown-haired short-haired woman named Zheng Wuyou had insisted he and Guo Mu carry it in.

It was already broken—what use was hauling it in?

"You're right. It's not 'Midday worship,' just 'Midday.' Those two words sound like daytime... but in the old calendar, it means noon, specifically ending at 13:00." Wen Dian leaned against the wall with one hand, still catching his breath.

This half-man-tall jar of yellow earth must have weighed a hundred or two hundred catties...

"Just don't know what we're supposed to worship before 13:00."

Worship whom at noon?

Clan customs—what do hairpins have to do with any of this?

"So here, marriage means locking the bride in the backyard." Uncle Cai stood by the woodshed door, gazing toward the backyard. Beyond the wall, a nearly withered tree was half-hidden, a cluster of white blossoms clinging to its branches.

"Other people's customs aren't our business. Staying alive is what matters." Guo Mu couldn't care less about irrelevant details. A man unaccustomed to hard labor, he now only cared about when they could go home.

Zheng Wuyou followed Uncle Cai's gaze. Behind that wall, she spotted a figure with snow-white hair staring back at them. Half her head peeked over, her graying hair dazzling under the sunlight.

"That's not the old woman from yesterday, is it?" Zheng Wuyou tried to make out her face, but her eyesight wasn't sharp enough. At that height—was she standing on a chair?

Miao Laisheng replied coldly, "No." She too had noticed the strangeness at the wall. How could an old woman stick half her head over a wall nearly two meters high?

"Old woman? Aiya, I thought it was cherry blossoms." Uncle Cai, standing next door, overheard their exchange and clapped his hands in sudden realization.

"Uncle Cai needs to get his eyes checked when we get back." Sun Wu, usually a man of few words, set his doll beside Uncle Cai's firecrackers and rare was it to hear him tease someone.

Time to go.

Zheng Wuyou noticed the old woman's eyes hadn't moved at all. She kept watching them come and go from the woodshed.

She just didn't know what tasks the middle-aged man would assign them. Maybe after the assignments, their individual missions would become clear.

"Why isn't that person here yet? Maybe we should go to the main hall and get our assignments from Old Zhu first."

Hu Yu glanced at the short woman who had been silently following her and offered her opinion. She let out a helpless sigh.

Last night, back at West Third House, no matter how she questioned the short woman, she wouldn't say a word. Then, in the dead of night, she stood at the door holding a hoe, scaring Hu Yu half to death.

Being stuck with a teammate like this—who could she complain to?