Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig

"Then, what are we going to do now?" Feng Yushu asked.

"Go to the He Manor." Ning Zhe answered without hesitation: "Didn't Zhang Yangxu say that Ye Miaozhu died at the He Manor? Let's go take a look."

"Huh?" Feng Yushu became nervous upon hearing this: "Going there now... wouldn't it be very dangerous?"

After all, that was exactly where Ye Miaozhu had died.

"It will." Ning Zhe did not deny it: "If we don't prepare anything and just blindly rush over there like Ye Miaozhu did, it's basically a death sentence."

But things are different now. He has already stolen a portion of the Snake God's identity. If there is ever a moment to venture into the unknown and take a gamble, it must be now.

Ning Zhe took light steps across the uneven stone slab road. Because his gait was too light, he nearly tripped when his toe caught in a gap between the slabs, but his superhuman reflexes allowed him to quickly regain his balance and continue forward.

"Even if you are the Snake God, you'll be in trouble if you break the taboos..." Ning Zhe sighed.

The rules are impartial; they do not change based on who you are. The Snake God is subject to the same laws as the common people.

The two left the Ancestral Hall and headed north along the main street of He Family Village. The visibility during the day was far better than at night. Walking along the road, one could clearly see the lush green Mountains in the distance—the edge of the basin where this village was located, a vast, endless expanse of green.

People were still coming and going on both sides of the street. An elderly man who had just finished his meal sat on a wicker chair, squinting his eyes as he watched his own children and the neighborhood kids chase each other in groups, the yellow paper stuck to their faces fluttering in the wind.

They would occasionally stop and look curiously at Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu as they strolled by, watching the two walk far toward the upper reaches of the river.

If not for the dry, ancient yellow paper stuck to each of their faces with their names written in crooked script, such scenes might have even seemed quite warm. The stone slabs underfoot and the roof tiles overhead were rustic and gentle, as if one had wandered into an ancient town lost in time, where both the weight of history and the simplicity of human life could be seen.

Passing an intersection, two clusters of deep green adorned the sides of the road. Several birds with black feathers and white markings stood on the branches, neither flying nor calling.

"What kind of birds are those?" Feng Yushu looked up at the birds on the branches, somewhat puzzled.

"Magpies." Ning Zhe said nonchalantly: "Black base with white markings, deep blue wings, and a tail with a hint of bright yellow for alertness. Very traditional magpies."

It's amazing you can identify them at a glance... Feng Yushu was just suffering from the silent and oppressive atmosphere along the way and had brought up a random topic, not expecting Ning Zhe to answer so readily.

Ning Zhe continued: "By the way, those two trees are wild plum trees that haven't been grafted. You can tell by the main trunk below. Native wild plum trees, like osmanthus trees, don't have a thick, clear main trunk; they are more like scattered shrub clusters. The ones that grow tall and straight all require artificial grafting."

"Wild plum trees?" Feng Yushu was slightly stunned.

She looked up at the deep green plum tree canopy at the intersection, then at the few magpies standing silently on the branches without moving, and a phrase involuntarily slipped out: "Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig?"

"Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig?" Ning Zhe was also confused for a moment, then immediately realized what she was saying: "Oh, Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig, right? Are you talking about the traditional folk custom in Qinzhou? They say that when newlyweds see a magpie standing on a plum blossom twig, it's a good omen for a harmonious and happy married life."

Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly: "Yes, the older generation believes in this a lot. When I got married, my dad specifically hired a master of traditional Chinese painting from Yun Province to paint a 'Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig' ink wash painting, saying it would add a good omen for a harmonious future."

"That's nice." Ning Zhe didn't comment much on other people's family affairs; in any case, he couldn't afford to hire a master of traditional Chinese painting from Yun Province to grace his wedding.

He wouldn't even be getting married.

Ning Zhe looked up under the plum tree where the magpies were perched, gazing at the quiet birds that sat silently on the branches without flying or calling, and a sense of doubt welled up in his heart.

He still remembered the scene he saw in the hallucination that was likely the Snake God's memory: the girl leaning against the window humming a tune in the drizzling rain, wearing a bright red dress that looked very loose because it lacked a waist wrap, her alluring red lips as vivid as if they had just been painted with rouge.

Is that the traditional wedding attire of Qinzhou? Ning Zhe couldn't help but think.

If he had only seen this hallucination by itself, it wouldn't have caused him to speculate, but once corresponding clues were discovered elsewhere, that was a different matter entirely.

"A woman in bridal makeup, with no facial features."

"Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig at the intersection, neither flying nor calling."

Is there a connection between these two?

Keeping this doubt in his heart, Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu continued to walk toward the upper reaches of the river.

Taking the intersection where the plum trees grew as a boundary, the sides of the street in front of them began to show pink piles of color. It was the shredded firecracker paper scattered on both sides of the road, soaked through by the two rains from last night and this morning, to the point that even the puddles on the side of the road were pink, emitting a faint smell of gunpowder.

"It seems we didn't take the wrong road." Feng Yushu whispered: "According to Zhang Yangxu, he and Xie Sining followed a road covered in shredded firecracker paper all the way to that spacious He Manor."

"It's fine during the day, but walking this road at night would probably be very oppressive."

Ning Zhe looked around. He didn't know when it started, but there were fewer and fewer people active on the street, until now, they were completely gone. He looked around, and the gatehouses and dwellings were all empty; he couldn't see a single shadow of a person.

He strolled over to a two-story small building and reached out to touch the pottery clay chimney built into the wall: "It's still warm."

The chimney was still warm, but there was no one in the kitchen.

The shops along the street were not closed, and the interior could be seen clearly. A small bundle of licorice was on the scale in the pharmacy, half a basin of clear water was placed on the steps in front of the door, and a broom made of bundled bamboo twigs lay in the center of the street.

All sorts of details indicated that until not long ago, people were still active here, and there were quite a few of them. This was a bustling market, yet what was presented before Ning Zhe was a scene of desolation where people had left and buildings were empty.

Feng Yushu turned her head and saw a lounge chair placed at the entrance of a fruit shop swaying gently, then slowly coming to a stop, as if the person who had been sitting on it had just stood up and gone somewhere else.

"Strange, where did everyone go?" Ning Zhe became even more vigilant. He carefully avoided the pink firecracker paper on the sides of the street that stuck to his shoe soles and continued walking forward on tiptoe.

Suddenly, faintly, he seemed to hear some sound in his ears.

"What is that sound?"