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墨書 Inktalez
"No, what we mean is that we can't face anyone."
When Ye Chenfeng woke up, Qin Keqing hurriedly stammered a few words to cover it up; he didn't want to provoke this romantic soul too much.
In the first half hour, Qin Keqing and Shen Binghan were still debating whether to tell Ye Chenfeng about it. But seeing him like this, they genuinely feared that if he found out that Ding Li was going to marry an ugly man who grew in a reverse and backward manner on Earth, he might just collapse.
Moreover, since Su Bei was still waiting for them to pick him up, Qin Keqing and Shen Binghan decided not to mention seeing Ding Li getting married.
Instead, they found the red cloth tied around Ye Chenfeng's wrist quite strange.
Ye Chenfeng couldn't remember who had tied the red cloth for him. There was blood on it—his own blood, which had soaked into the cloth from his wrist.
As he untied the red cloth, a type of Hemostatic Herb fell out. Ye Chenfeng recognized this herb; it belonged to the Rhamnaceae Velvet Vine family and went by several names: Cowhide Grass, White-headed Herb, Suture Bag.
Hearing Ye Chenfeng mention the name of the Hemostatic Herb, Qin Keqing nodded in admiration and said, "That's impressive; it gives me even more respect for you."
"What's so special about it? My grandmother taught me," Ye Chenfeng replied. Suddenly noticing Su Bei was missing, he asked, "Where's Su Bei? Isn't he with you?"
Shen Binghan said, "It's quite strange. If we hadn't seen a little girl, we wouldn't have known you were lying there dead. We went looking for you and left Su Bei behind; we'll go pick him up later."
Ye Chenfeng was surprised. "A little girl?" He frowned and thought carefully before saying, "Is she about this tall, with messy hair and a dirty face?"
"Yes! Do you know her?"
Seeing that it was getting late, Qin Keqing said, "Alright, let's talk while we walk; Su Bei is still waiting for us."
Ye Chenfeng nodded in agreement. "The terrain here is complicated; if we wander around too much, we'll lose our sense of direction. It seems related to some kind of magnetic field. But will Su Bei be alright waiting there?"
"As long as you're fine, let's hurry and find him."
Could Ye Chenfeng say he wasn't fine? His wrist hurt, and his legs felt inexplicably sore, as if related to something that had pricked him earlier. He had a premonition that the thorny vines in this mountain had a numbing effect on the skin. After all, when he fell to the ground, wasn't it after being pricked by those vines that he experienced hallucinations?
He saw his grandmother as an example.
They hurried and finally arrived at the orchard, but Su Bei was nowhere to be found.
Qin Keqing was anxiously pacing, holding a megaphone and shouting, “Su Bei, Su Bei, where are you?” His voice echoed in the vast valley, but there was no sign of Su Bei.
Shen Binghan randomly speculated, “Do you think some wild animal might have taken her?”
“No way, there are people coming and going here; how could there be wild animals?” Qin Keqing shouted anxiously around.
Ye Chenfeng furrowed his brows, looking up at the sky, observing the thin mist rising over the mountains and the withered fruit trees. He was also thinking about that strange little girl who had bitten him and then led Qin Keqing and the others here to save herself.
It seemed that the little girl wasn’t bad-hearted; at least she knew how to help others.
Thinking of the little girl, he suddenly recalled seeing a woman in red. Seeing that Shen Binghan and Qin Keqing were searching for Su Bei, he felt increasingly uneasy. What if they couldn’t find Su Bei?
This time, Qin Keqing and the others had come out with him, all sneaking away from home under false pretenses to take a drive nearby for some leisure.
If anything happened to one of them, it would be a monumental disaster.
The more Ye Chenfeng thought about it, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he felt, the more scared he grew.
Just when he was in a state of desperation, not knowing what to do, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the little girl's figure flashing among the trees.
“Look… there she is!”
Then they all rushed in the direction where the little girl had run. This time, her path was different from before, leading them to a place they had been unable to find an exit. Soon they saw a farmhouse and noticed people walking along the road.
However, that suddenly appearing little girl vanished at that moment.
"Could she be a ghost?" Shen Binghan suddenly asked, startling Qin Keqing.
"Can you not mention that word at a time like this?"
Shen Binghan shrugged. "So what if I did? There might not even be any ghosts."
"Everyone should say less and think more about Su Bei's situation," Ye Chenfeng said as he approached a passerby, an elderly woman leaning on a cane. Her face was lined with wrinkles, and she struggled to walk. Suddenly, her cane slipped from her grasp and fell to the ground.
Ye Chenfeng stepped forward to pick up the cane and respectfully handed it back to the old woman. "Ma'am, where do you live? Let me help you."
The old woman's bony hand grasped the cane tightly, also catching Ye Chenfeng's hand before he could pull away.
"Young man, are you here looking for someone?" The old woman's eyes seemed troubled—perhaps cataracts? In any case, she wasn't looking at Ye Chenfeng but rather gazing at the overcast sky. Her grip on his hand was strong as she casually asked.
"Yes."
"You've committed a grave taboo; it could bring you disaster." As she spoke, the old woman still didn't release his hand. She continued to squeeze his knuckles, feeling his bones—this was terminology familiar to fortune-tellers. But this elderly woman wasn't reading; she was simply touching him, and from that alone, she could sense his misfortune.
It seemed the rumors about Zhanglin Village being home to mediums were true.
The old woman continued, "You are young but will bring misfortune to your family. Fortunately, your relatives aren't with you. Your marriage won't go smoothly, and you'll have no descendants to see you off in your old age. You'll toil all your life. Alas! If only you had a son right now, perhaps it could change your fate."
To Qin Keqing, this old witch was just trying to scare them.
How could Ye Chenfeng not have descendants? Besides, he was quite charming; surely there were other women who liked him apart from Ding Li.
If there were women who liked him, then he would definitely have offspring.
Qin Keqing nudged Ye Chenfeng. "Let's go."
Ye Chenfeng nodded in agreement and thanked the old woman before confirming that she could walk on her own. He then turned back to join Qin Keqing and the others as they headed down the path that Zhang Bi had taken.
Shen Binghan was feeling quite puzzled.
While they had been searching for Ye Chenfeng, they had tried several times to find the exit of this path. Each failure led them back to the orchard, where they found the girl and realized that Ye Chenfeng had lost Su Bei.
Ye Chenfeng said, "There's nothing strange about this. Did you notice what kind of people were left in Zhanglin Village? And that little girl's teeth—deformed and sharp, as if they had been worn down by what she has been eating for a long time."
Qin Keqing took a few steps and stopped, wanting to see if Su Bei was following them. He asked Ye Chenfeng what he meant by that statement.
"What does that imply?"
"It implies that there's something wrong here."
"What could possibly be wrong? You know what we saw!" Shen Binghan couldn't hold back any longer and almost blurted out about Ding Li's wedding.
Qin Keqing interrupted, "Stop rambling. Let's hurry back and check if Su Bei has returned."
Shen Binghan still wanted to speak, but Qin Keqing pushed him slightly and gave him a look that urged him to stay quiet.
Ye Chenfeng noticed their unusual behavior.
"What are you two up to?"
"Nothing, just anxious about not being able to find Su Bei," Qin Keqing said, secretly relieved while shooting a fierce glare at Shen Binghan.
Shen Binghan shrugged nonchalantly, "What's there to be afraid of? Just say it."
Ye Chenfeng observed the hidden meanings in their words, especially the dark expression on Qin Keqing's face, which made him increasingly worried about what Shen Binghan might say.
“Shen Binghan, tell me what happened?”
Qin Keqing looked at Ye Chenfeng as he pressed Shen Binghan for answers. Feeling that there was no way to hide the truth any longer, she bravely spoke up, “Alright, I’ll explain.”
Ye Chenfeng and Shen Binghan remained silent, quietly waiting for Qin Keqing to continue.
“We saw Ding Li getting married to someone.”
Upon hearing Ding Li's name, Ye Chenfeng was indeed surprised. However, when it came to the mention of the wedding, he laughed heartily, though it sounded a bit forced, and nonchalantly replied, “You all keep making things up. Using her to provoke me? You’re mistaken.”
Shen Binghan looked at Ye Chenfeng seriously and said, “It’s true.”
Ye Chenfeng froze, looking between the two of them. They nodded in unison and said, “It’s exactly what Zhang Bi mentioned this morning—the bride is Ding Li.”
“How did Ding Li end up in Zhanglin Village? Don’t you think that’s a bit outrageous…”
Qin Keqing interjected, “The fact is that Ding Li is indeed marrying a very ugly and old man.”
This time it was Ye Chenfeng who was left dumbfounded. After a moment, he frantically ran back the way he came.
The two of them shouted after him, “What are you rushing for? Wait until we finish talking!”
At that moment, Ye Chenfeng couldn’t calm down to listen to their nonsense. If it got dark and Ding Li became an actual wife to that old and ugly man, then they would truly have no chance left.
Thinking about Ding Li being with that old and ugly man made Ye Chenfeng's heart ache—it felt like it was bleeding.
Having finally found his way back, Ye Chenfeng turned around and ran off again, infuriating Qin Keqing who began to curse Shen Binghan fiercely. The two of them chased after him, blaming each other until it escalated into a physical scuffle.
Qin Keqing landed a punch on Shen Binghan's face.
Shen Binghan's fist struck him in the abdomen.
In an instant, the two exchanged blows for several rounds, exhausting themselves to the point of collapsing on the ground, gasping for breath, their conversation sounding laborious. Then, they noticed Ye Chenfeng coldly watching them from a short distance away.
Qin Keqing clutched her chest and staggered over to Ye Chenfeng, saying, "Ye Chenfeng, I'm sorry. I think you should go find Zhang Bi; he can take you there, and it would be faster that way."
Ye Chenfeng had only turned back to them after seeing their scuffle, but now, hearing Qin Keqing's suggestion, he found it reasonable.
Ignoring Shen Binghan and Qin Keqing as they jogged slowly behind him, he shifted into a brisk run toward Zhang Bi's house.
At Zhang Bi's home, there was a woman.
The woman was feeding a dog with a bowl of corn porridge mixed with rice.
She was Zhang Bi's wife—thin and yellow-skinned, barely weighing more than a couple of pounds. She resembled a windmill frame; if the wind picked up even slightly, Ye Chenfeng felt she might be blown away.
"Auntie, please help me. My wife has been tricked into coming here to marry an old and ugly man. I know she doesn't want to do it, so could you please take me to find her?"
The woman remained silent, staring at Ye Chenfeng as if he were a monster.
In her gaze, Ye Chenfeng saw his own pitiful reflection. He pulled out a crumpled fifty-dollar bill and handed it to her, saying, "Here’s some money for you. Just lead the way; you don’t have to take me right up to her—just point me in the right direction from afar."
Perhaps money truly possessed an irresistible charm; the woman took the bill, examined it closely, then turned around to set down the empty bowl. She nodded at Ye Chenfeng and started walking down the path that Qin Keqing and the others had taken earlier that morning.
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