Bridal Chamber (Seeking Collections, Seeking Votes)

"You're courting death!!"

Watching the head roll into the basin, the old master let out a low growl. As he looked up, his face had transformed into something foul and rotten, covered in pus-filled sores and decaying flesh.

Xu Tong didn't care about that; he raised his blade and slashed down.

To his surprise, before he could land the blow, two thick arms from behind wrapped tightly around his waist, pinning him in place.

He glanced back to see it was the headless body of the bald man; even without a head, it could still move.

Seeing this, the old master grabbed the butcher knife from the table and lunged at Xu Tong.

Fortunately, Xu Tong dodged to the side and kicked the old man, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Before the old man could scramble up, Li Bo, finally snapping out of his daze, charged over from the side. His massive frame slammed heavily into the old man, sending him flying several meters away.

The old man was unlucky enough to crash directly into the large iron pot on the stove. As he collided with it, a full pot of boiling water splashed over his head with a loud "splash."

"Agh~~"

Strangely enough, the moment the boiling water hit the old man, he stopped moving entirely. When Li Bo looked closer, he saw the old man's skin melting away like a burning candle, and his limbs and flesh vanished, replaced by bundles of straw tied together with hemp rope.

Seeing the old man's true form, Xu Tong turned his gaze back to the bald head in the iron basin. Their eyes met, and Xu Tong's expression turned playful.

The bald head felt an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, Xu Tong stomped hard on the edge of the iron basin. The bald head's vision blurred as he realized his head had been launched into the air. In his hazy sight, a black-faced, white-soled cloth shoe kicked him square in the bridge of his nose.

"Bang!"

The round head traced an arc through the air before landing with a "plop" right into another large pot on the stove.

Unfortunately, this pot wasn't filled with water, but hot oil. A sizzling sound erupted immediately.

Xu Tong felt his back lighten as the headless corpse that had been clutching him collapsed straight to the ground, revealing itself to be nothing more than straw, just like the old man.

"Oh, my mother!"

Li Bo sat hard on the floor. He had just escaped from the jaws of a zombie, and now he was dining with ghosts—for Li Bo, this was far too stimulating.

"Brother Xu, how did you know they weren't human??"

Hearing Li Bo's question, Xu Tong didn't answer directly but countered, "Have you ever seen a village surrounded by barren mountains and wilderness, without a single plot of farmland? A place this small, with no river in front, no spring behind, and not even a single well to be found in the entire village—do you think this place is normal?"

Li Bo scratched his head. Thinking back, they had circled the village before entering, and indeed, he hadn't seen a single field, nor any wells, or even livestock.

These details he had overlooked now seemed increasingly eerie the more he thought about them.

After all, this wasn't the modernized world of reality; there were no wide roads, convenient transportation, and certainly no express delivery or takeout.

With neither fields nor water, how had these villagers survived until now?

"Then how did you rule out that this wasn't a bandit den?" Li Bo continued to press.

But Xu Tong had no interest in explaining further to Li Bo. He patted the belly of the Piglet on the table; the little guy was actually quite cute, no longer squealing but instead nudging his nose against him and making soft snorting sounds.

"Consider yourself lucky. Go on!"

He casually untied the rope and prepared to let the Piglet go.

"Brother Xu, what do we do now?"

Li Bo was in no mood to eat anymore. The village was just too damn creepy. Outside the fence, the lights were blazing, and it didn't take a genius to know those villagers were trouble—they might not even be human. The thought of being trapped in a ghost den made Li Bo's heart tremble.

In the distance, candles flickered brightly, accompanied by songs and laughter.

At his feet lay two 'corpses' that had turned into straw men.

Faced with such a bizarre scene, Xu Tong was thinking of something else: "Who do you think the bride is?"

"Huh???"

Li Bo scratched his head, wondering if that was really the question he should be asking.

"You don't know??" Li Bo couldn't fathom what was going on in Xu Tong's mind and could only shake his head blankly.

To his surprise, Xu Tong turned around and looked at him with a pained expression: "You, you have no soul."

"Me??"

Seeing the disappointment on his face, Li Bo panicked, frantically searching his mind to see what he had done wrong or what he might have said.

Seeing Li Bo's bewildered expression, Xu Tong felt even more disappointed.

In truth, he still missed the Li Bo who had been trapped beside the coffin—the Li Bo who had eyes that could devour people, like a fierce Tibetan Mastiff.

But the current Li Bo... was at best a Chihuahua.

Beyond the disappointment, he felt a deep sense of loneliness.

"Get ready, let's set a fire!" He walked to the stove, pulled out two torches, and handed one to Li Bo.

"Set a fire??"

Li Bo took the torch without getting an explanation, but seeing Xu Tong already lighting his own, he could only follow suit like a fool.

The house was made of wood, and the roof was thatched with straw. Once the fire was tossed up, it caught instantly.

"Fire!!! It's on fire!!!"

Someone at the wine table suddenly shouted, and everyone looked up, their faces instantly filled with panic.

The villagers, who had been singing and laughing moments before, now scrambled and bumped into each other like headless flies, trying to find water to put out the fire.

As a result, no matter how hard the villagers searched the village, they couldn't find a water source.

They could only watch helplessly as the fire grew larger. The villagers then tried every means to extinguish the fire, throwing dirt and demolishing houses, throwing the place into chaos.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the village, two figures, one after the other, sneaked past the villagers and into the room at the very back of the village.

This was the only adobe house in the village, with mud tiles covering the roof. Compared to the other wooden thatched houses, it was not much better.

Two large "Double Happiness" characters were pasted on the double doors, and two bright red lanterns hung from the door frame.

It looked festive no matter how you looked at it.

Li Bo reached out to push, but found that the courtyard gate was locked.

The two looked around. The villagers in front of the gate were already busy fighting the fire. It was deserted, and seeing Li Bo, he raised his leg and kicked.

This fatty had no other strengths, but he was very strong. With one kick, the lock on the courtyard gate shattered and flew out with a "bang!" sound.

The courtyard was not large, with a main room, two side rooms, and a woodshed, where chopped firewood was already prepared.

"Huh?"

Xu Tong's gaze swept over the chicken coop nearby, and his eyebrows couldn't help but rise, as if he had discovered something interesting.

"Heh heh heh..."

Before the two could walk in, a shadow suddenly darted from under their feet. It was the little pig that had almost been slaughtered earlier.

As soon as the little pig entered the courtyard, it directly rammed open the door of the main room and rushed in.

"Let's go in and see."

He patted Li Bo's shoulder, letting him go in first, while he closed the courtyard gate again. He didn't follow Li Bo into the main house, but first swept through the other two side rooms and the kitchen.

After glancing at the bowls and plates on the kitchen shelf, Xu Tong's fingers gently traced around the stove. Xu Tong felt a little confused.

"Brother Xu!!"

At this moment, Li Bo's shout came from the main house. Xu Tong turned and rushed over. As soon as he entered the room, he saw that the room was covered with "Double Happiness" characters.

On the table were fruit plates, melon seeds, walnuts, peanuts, and dates.

Everything looked exactly like a newlywed's room.

However, eerily, two paper figures, a man and a woman, were sitting on the chairs in the room. The paper figures were lifelike, and their clothes were sewn with cotton thread.

They were both wearing bright red new clothes. The man had a large red flower pinned to his chest, and the woman had a red veil covering her head.

At first glance, it looked like two living people were sitting there.

"Wang Shaohui??"

The paper figures were too realistic. Xu Tong recognized one of them as Wang Shaohui, who had left earlier. Then the other one...

He pinched the corner of the veil with his fingers and gently lifted a gap. Glancing sideways, sure enough, it was Zhou Yu.

"Brother Xu, look at this!!"

Li Bo pulled him to the bedside and lifted the bed curtain. They saw Zhou Yu and Wang Shaohui lying on the bed, wearing the same clothes as the paper figures.

He reached out and placed his finger in front of their noses, finding that both of them were breathing.

But no matter how Li Bo pinched or hit them, they couldn't wake up.

"Heh heh heh..."

The piglet beside them kept nudging the door of the large wardrobe by the bed with its head, as if reminding them that there was something inside. Li Bo walked over and opened the wardrobe door, and a figure immediately pounced on Li Bo, scaring Li Bo into throwing the person to the ground.

Then, under the candlelight, he took a closer look. Wasn't it Zhang Hao?

"Heh heh heh..."

The piglet kept nudging Zhang Hao's forehead, then stood on Zhang Hao and let out a low sob, and tears actually rolled down from the piglet's eyes.

"Zhang Hao?" Xu Tong asked tentatively.

The piglet nodded repeatedly.

"Hiss~~ You're Zhang Hao??"

Li Bo gasped, and asked again in disbelief. When he saw Zhang Hao nod again, Li Bo's neck stiffened, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

"Buzz~~~"

At this moment, Xu Tong's ears twitched, and he heard the sound of the courtyard gate being pushed open. His brows furrowed: "Hide!"

"Ah?? Hide??"

Li Bo looked around. It wasn't that there was nowhere to hide, but many places simply couldn't accommodate his obese physique. He glanced at Zhang Hao on the ground, and could only curse inwardly as he picked up Zhang Hao's body and hid in the wardrobe with the piglet.

Xu Tong didn't have Li Bo's troubles. He had been locked up in a mental hospital for many years, and was malnourished, so he was quite thin. He hid in the gap behind the bed, and with the cover of the bed curtain, basically no one could see him.

As soon as the two hid, the room door was gently pushed open with a "buzz~~" sound.

As a cold wind blew into the room and extinguished the candles, two crooked shadows were cast from outside the door...