Nightmare

On the way home, she was quite tired from the day.

Qin Yan had fallen asleep in the car and was now nestled in her eldest uncle's arms.

Old Master Fu noticed and lowered his voice to ask why she had fallen asleep.

Fu Yunting said, "Ask Fifth Uncle."

With that, he carried the little one to her own room.

Old Master Fu and his youngest son exchanged looks.

"Forget it. I wouldn't get anything out of asking you anyway."

Then he left with his hands behind his back. As if he didn't know what his youngest son was like.

Fu Nanshan: ...

The moon hung heavy in the sky. Inside the playfully decorated room, Qin Yan slept restlessly.

When all was silent, a red, mist-like substance that had lurked for a long time surged toward the space between Qin Yan's brows.

But the instant it touched her brow, the jade pendant around her neck, a gift from her youngest uncle, flickered faintly.

The red mist immediately weakened considerably.

"Woof, woof!"

In her last moment of consciousness, Qin Yan heard Jinbao's somewhat frantic barking.

"Where... is this?"

She seemed to be floating in the air.

"Wanniang!"

The name Wanniang immediately made the still-groggy, bewildered Qin Yan look over.

It was a name the young woman at the hospital had mentioned.

Then Qin Yan saw a man running toward her and covered her little head in fright.

But the man passed straight through her body.

Qin Yan: (O?O)!!!

"Wanniang, look. I made you a hairpin."

The man had fairly handsome, refined features. He walked up to a gentle-looking woman and handed her an intricately carved wooden hairpin.

Curious, Qin Yan wanted to go over.

Then her body floated over.

Qin Yan: (???)

She could fly!

And nobody around her seemed able to notice her.

Qin Yan flew furtively back and forth, playing for a while before going to find the woman named Wanniang.

By then, she had parted ways with the man.

Qin Yan's little transparent body floated along behind her, then entered a room.

She had actually been shut outside the door, except that half her body had passed through it.

Qin Yan: (ФwФ)

How amazing!

She backed out.

Looking at the closed door before her, the very polite little girl curled her fingers and knocked twice.

"I'm coming in."

Naturally, the person inside could hear neither her knocking nor her voice.

Qin Yan cautiously poked her little head inside.

Then she inched her whole little body through.

Inside, Gao Wanniang sat on the bed, sewing her wedding dress stitch by stitch.

That wedding dress looked so familiar!

The little girl still vividly remembered what had happened during the day. Seeing the wedding dress now, she instinctively found somewhere to hide.

Well... she hid beneath the table with her little bottom sticking up.

After waiting a good while, she furtively peeked out, then quickly pulled her head back in.

Only after repeating this several times did she realize that this dress seemed... different from the fierce dress she had seen during the day.

Qin Yan puffed out her cheeks, cheering herself on.

Only then did she float up and slowly inch closer.

She found a spot not far from Gao Wanniang and watched her sew the wedding dress.

The perfectly ordinary needle and thread seemed to come alive in her hands.

In just a few short minutes, a lifelike pattern had been stitched onto the red wedding dress.

"You're so good at this."

Emboldened by the fact that Gao Wanniang couldn't notice her, Qin Yan grew just a tiny bit braver and moved closer.

Then she became engrossed in watching Gao Wanniang embroider.

She had no idea how much time passed.

Gao Wanniang kept sewing that wedding dress, occasionally talking to the man who came to see her.

Qin Yan also figured out their relationship.

That man was Gao Wanniang's fiancé.

One day, a piercing commotion shattered the peace here.

War was coming, and soldiers were rounding people up everywhere.

Every man under fifty was taken away.

Including Gao Wanniang's fiancé.

"Ronglang!"

Gao Wanniang chased after him in tears.

"Wanniang, go back. If... if I can't come back, find a good man and marry him."

In the end, Gao Wanniang and her fiancé were forcibly separated.

Even the sky was gloomy that day.

Qin Yan's transparent soul was so anxious that she had no idea what to do. Just as she was about to fly over to comfort Gao Wanniang, everything suddenly went black, and she felt the world spin around her.

"So dizzy."

(???.???)

When the dizziness finally passed, she saw Gao Wanniang standing in a doorway.

Heavy rain fell from the sky. On this day, Gao Wanniang received terrible news.

The war was over. Her fiancé had died on the battlefield, and his remains had yet to be found.

Gao Wanniang's family urged her not to cling to him so stubbornly and to find someone to marry.

Gao Wanniang refused. Then, one night, she took the finished wedding dress out of the wardrobe where she had hidden it.

She carefully packed it away, then ran away from home that night.

"Miss, where are you going?"

Qin Yan hurried after her.

Gao Wanniang couldn't hear her. The frail woman headed toward the place where her fiancé had died, determination in her eyes.

After arriving, she found an inn, changed into the wedding dress she had sewn herself, and put the hairpin Ronglang had given her into her hair.

Once she had finished dressing and doing her hair and makeup, she walked toward the battlefield piled with corpses, a dazzling figure in red under the strange looks of others.

"Ronglang, I've come to find you. Your Wanniang has come to marry you."

Qin Yan tried to stop her, but Gao Wanniang passed straight through her body and stubbornly kept walking, searching through those horrifying corpses again and again.

Qin Yan was so anxious that she cried and immediately floated after her.

"Miss..."

The next second, that familiar dizziness struck.

Before she passed out, she heard someone speaking.

"Oh? This wedding dress is really pretty. It should fetch quite a bit of money."

When she opened her eyes again, Qin Yan had no idea where she was.

It was nighttime now. The surrounding buildings looked much like those in her own world, though they still looked rather old.

Qin Yan was at a loss. "Waaah... Grandpa, Uncle..."

Where was this? She was all alone. She was so scared.

The sound of gongs and drums came from the dark, silent street.

It was clearly a festive sound, yet in the darkness, it felt eerie.

A procession appeared at the end of the street.

They were all dressed in festive red, and there was a sedan chair.

That was... a bridal sedan chair.

The sedan chair was carried all the way into a large residence.

As if something were pulling her along, Qin Yan floated after it, crying.

"The bride will now leave the sedan chair."

A bound bride was forcibly dragged out.

Qin Yan was all too familiar with the wedding dress she wore.

After all, she had more or less watched Gao Wanniang make it.

"The wedding dress."

Qin Yan stared at the scene before her, bewildered and helpless. It was clearly a wedding, yet it was taking place at night.

And there was the bound, struggling bride.

Under the glow of the red lanterns, everyone in the residence had a sinister air.

"Today marks the joyous union of Zhao Xiaocui and Sun Yaozu, a match made in heaven..."

The master of ceremonies recited a jumble of words that Qin Yan didn't really understand.

Then she watched them pin Zhao Xiaocui down and throw her into a pitch-black coffin.

Inside that coffin.

As they closed the coffin, Zhao Xiaocui cried out in despair.

"Let me go! I don't want a ghost marriage! I don't want to die! Let me go, please! Let me out..."

"Father! Mother!!!"

Desperate scratching came from inside the coffin, but everyone in the residence merely watched coldly.

In the end, they buried the two black coffins together.

Zhao Xiaocui's struggles, despair, and sobs were completely buried, never to be heard again.