Marrying off, part seven

A pair of pitch-black eyes beneath the moonlight flashed through his mind.

But only for an instant. The Demon-Slaying Sword in his hand began to defy his control.

It dragged his hand desperately in the opposite direction.

"What did you do to my sword?"

The hooded man demanded angrily.

What did I do? Yin Chao had no idea himself. Could Yin Rui really be an evil god?

He crouched down and picked up a branch from the woodpile.

He held the branch in his right hand and a bloody mass of mangled flesh in his left.

While the hooded man focused entirely on controlling his sword, Yin Chao thrust the branch at him as though it were a blade.

Sure enough, the hooded man instinctively opened his eyes.

With a triumphant smile, Yin Chao smeared every last bit of the mangled flesh in his hand across the hooded man's face.

The hooded man collapsed instantly.

As far as Yin Chao knew, fainting at the sight of blood was usually a gradual process. He had never expected someone like the hooded man to actually exist.

His earlier remark about fainting at the sight of blood had been an offhand comment, yet it had struck a nerve-and nearly gotten him killed.

Yin Chao looked down at the unconscious hooded man, his gaze growing increasingly dangerous.

His classmates had called him a lunatic since he was little. No one wanted to be his friend, and his only hobby was a murder game that had been banned for years.

I wonder what killing someone in real life would feel like.

Yin Chao took a step toward the hooded man.

Suddenly, a buzzing pain erupted in his head.

It felt as though someone were stirring his brain.

Yin Chao retreated a few steps, and his urge to kill the hooded man faded considerably.

The pain gradually eased as well.

Could it be connected to my killing intent?

Does it only apply to the hooded man, or to everyone indiscriminately?

Yin Chao frowned.

In a world where the strong devoured the weak and people slaughtered one another, being forced to remain a "good person" with no blood on his hands was hardly a blessing.

He rubbed his forehead, stood up, and turned to lift the little girl's body from the floor.

Before leaving, he cast another resentful glance at the hooded man, who should have been completely at his mercy.

I'd better never run into that walking disaster again.

Yin Chao climbed quietly to the second floor. Every room's door was shut tight, and the silence was almost eerie.

He paid it no mind and headed straight for the last room at the end of the hall.

The rusty iron padlock that had hung on the wooden door was nowhere to be seen.

Yin Chao breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, it was gone; otherwise, he would have had to pick the lock.

He carefully propped the little girl's body against the wall, then gently pushed open the wooden door.

The room's furnishings startled him.

Red silk, red bed curtains, and a red wedding dress hanging beside the bed.

It looked exactly like a bride's room before her wedding.

The village chief had mentioned another wedding in the village tomorrow. Could this be the bride-to-be's room?

He had plenty of questions, but there was no turning back now. He had already carried the little girl's body to the door.

Yin Chao stopped dwelling on it, picked up the little girl, and stepped inside.

When he returned to his own room, he had barely closed the door before a girl's sobbing began next door.

The mournful cries slipped through the doorframes and into everyone's ears, sending chills through their bodies.

Yin Chao recognized the little girl's voice and felt only a wave of sorrow.

It seemed she really was the bride after all.

There had once been a folk custom in which a bride wept on the night before her wedding. It was called Bridal Mourning.

Yin Chao locked the door and lay down on the bed, accompanied by the sobbing.

Beneath the moonlit night, his consciousness gradually blurred.

"That girl is a money-losing burden, after all. And there was that uncanny business when her mother Guixiang gave birth to her. Better marry her off sooner rather than later."

Yin Chao heard someone speaking.

"That's right, that's right. I heard Granny Wang died too, and so did Wencai's mother. Frightening stuff."

The chatter grated on his ears. Yin Chao guessed he was being forced to experience someone else's memories again. What these women with their thick accents were discussing was probably the scene he had witnessed last time.

"Only that consumptive wretch would dare marry Lotus Leaf-an old man with barely a few days left to live."

"Exactly. I hear that little brat is uncanny too."

"Tell us all about it, Aunt Liu!"

Everyone clamored for Aunt Liu to continue, only for a sharp-edged stone to strike her squarely in the forehead, as though perfectly aimed.

Blood immediately poured from Aunt Liu's head. She stood up and unleashed a stream of curses at whoever had thrown the stone.

Yin Chao followed the crowd's gaze, but all he caught was a flash of fiery-red clothing.

From Aunt Liu's curses, though, he could tell that the person in the red padded jacket was Lotus Leaf.

Then the scene began to shift.

Yin Chao saw Lotus Leaf, beaming after throwing the stone, fling herself toward a girl of sixteen or seventeen.

When he saw Lotus Leaf's face, he was surprised. He had never expected her to be the little girl from the game instance.

"You've been naughty again, Lotus Leaf."

The older girl scolded her with feigned anger.

Lotus Leaf curled her lip dismissively. "That gossip shouldn't have been running her mouth."

"All right, all right. You're about to be married, and you're still acting so willful. What kind of behavior is that?"

At those words, Lotus Leaf's cheer vanished immediately. "I don't want to get married. What about you, Jin Mei?"

The older girl sighed. "Our parents decide, and the matchmaker arranges it."

"You don't want to either, do you, Jin Mei?" Hearing the resignation in her voice, Lotus Leaf blinked up at her with bright, shining eyes.

Jin Mei said nothing, which only made Lotus Leaf more certain.

The scene shifted again.

Their surroundings grew lively. Yin Chao had never seen the village so festive, so full of life.

Everyone beat drums and gongs as they approached, surrounding Jin Mei, who was dressed as the Jade-faced Guanyin.

There was no denying Jin Mei's beauty. Quite a few people stared transfixed, including the slightly younger Lotus Leaf.

But she did not linger amid the festivities. Instead, she slipped away into the darkness.

Yin Chao's gaze settled on the departing Lotus Leaf.

He watched her slip alone into a dilapidated temple.

His gaze followed her.

In the flickering candlelight of the main hall, he saw a nun sitting cross-legged.

Lotus Leaf knelt devoutly before her. "Holy nun, what can I do so I won't have to get married?"

The nun smiled faintly and teased her. "You've only just turned twelve. Why are you worrying about marriage?"

"It's true, it's true! Next month, they're marrying me off to A-Cai, that consumptive wretch in the next village." Afraid the nun would not believe her, Lotus Leaf hurried to explain.

The nun fell silent, her eyes overflowing with sympathy.

Lotus Leaf bowed again and continued, "Jin Mei is getting married too, to Bao Lin, the man who beat his wife to death. I don't want her to get married."

Lotus Leaf said much more, mostly about how kind Jin Mei was.

The nun remained silent until the temple fair was nearly over and Lotus Leaf was about to stand up and leave. Only then did she stop her.

"I know a way..."

The words ended there. Yin Chao never learned what method the nun had told Lotus Leaf.

But when the scene shifted again, he saw Lotus Leaf and Jin Mei running freely across a purple grassland.

Even the setting sun and the clouds on the horizon were purple.

Why was it purple?

Yin Chao had no way of knowing. It was simply beautiful and dreamlike, like a garden in heaven.

Just like the nun's method, which he had never been allowed to hear in full.