This actor is full of tricks.

Chapter 174 Using Paper Figures to Replace Parents

Lin Jue was strolling around the village with a chicken in his hand, and he indeed discovered several scenes similar to hell.

There are icebergs made of glass, with glass spikes all over the mountain, as if imitating an iceberg hell.

There is also a large copper pot placed on the open ground, with charcoal that has been burnt to ashes in it. It should be the "sea of ​​fire hell".

"Are these punishments created for those disobedient villagers? Punishment is also a means of control." Lin Jue remembered what the village guard said.

The other party said that this village is a cage and wanted those paper people to escape from this cage.

Those paper figures correspond to the wronged souls trapped in the village. Does that mean someone wanted to escape before, but was caught and killed using the punishments of the Eighteen Levels of Hell?
Lin Jue started walking back. On the way back, he met Dazhu, who was holding two paper figures and hurriedly heading to the other end of the village.

"Brother Dazhu!" Lin Jue hurriedly chased after him and called out to him, while looking at the paper figure in his arms.

These two paper figures are also a man and a woman, but they are quite old, with wrinkles on their faces, and no eyes.

Dazhu saw Lin Jue and stuffed a paper figurine over to him: "That's great, help me."

Lin Jue took the paper figure and said, "Brother, what are you doing in such a hurry? Why are you still holding the paper figure?"

"Didn't Grandma Zhu just say that there will be a wedding in the village tomorrow? These two paper figures are needed and need to be placed in the woman's house." Dazhu finally freed one hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Do you need paper figurines for your wedding?
In Lin Jue's impression, paper figures are only used in funerals. The paper figures and paper money will be burned together with the coffin when it is buried. However, he has never heard of any wedding that requires paper figures.

Hearing Lin Jue's question, Dazhu explained: "This is the custom in our village. When getting married, two paper figures are used to represent the bride's parents."

"What kind of custom is this? Paper figurines are supposed to represent the dead, so why are they used to represent the bride's parents? Doesn't that mean we have to worship two paper figurines when we pay our respects to our parents?"

Lin Jue was surprised. This custom was too weird. The man had to call two paper figures "father-in-law and mother-in-law". Just thinking about it was like a horror movie.

Dazhu pursed his lips, unwilling to say more.

Judging from his expression, he obviously knew the reason, but for some reason he just didn't say it.

This reminded Lin Jue of the time when he saw the vermilion coffin and asked Lao Hei about it, and the other party had the same expression.

Could the custom of using paper figures to represent the girl's parents be related to the coffin?

Seeing that he couldn't pry open Dazhu's mouth, Lin Jue simply changed the question: "Brother, I just saw a lot of strange things in the village, like copper pots, a mountain of knives, and so on. They looked very scary. What are they used for?"

Just as he guessed, these things were used to punish unruly villagers, including outsiders.

According to Dazhu, there was a stranger who tried to molest a girl in the village and was caught by the villagers. Then the gods ordered that the stranger be stripped of his clothes and thrown into a pot of boiling oil.

There were a few villagers who escaped before, some of them fled to other cities, but they were still caught by the messengers of God and thrown into the mountain of knives.

Dazhu shuddered when those things were mentioned: "Don't think that I have been telling you the rules all the time. Although it sounds annoying, it is for your safety in the village."

Lin Jue pretended to be frightened and his face turned pale.

This so-called punishment is actually a means of control, killing the chicken to scare the monkey in order to achieve the purpose of spiritual slavery and make the villagers listen to the "god" obediently.

During the conversation, Dazhu took Lin Jue to a wooden house. The house was leaky on all sides and obviously belonged to a poor household in the village.

Two white lanterns hung on either side of the wooden door, and a white cloth stretched from the door frame, splayed outward from a central white chrysanthemum. It was strange: a wedding was about to take place, yet the decorations were designed to resemble a funeral? And paper figurines were even used to represent the parents.

Is it a ghost marriage?
Lin Jue couldn't understand it. The wedding in this village felt like a funeral to him. It was clearly a happy day, but it felt like someone had died.

Before knocking on the door, Dazhu specifically warned: "Throw your dead chicken away, don't rush into the newlyweds!"

"A dead chicken will disrupt the happiness of the newlyweds, so why are these things white?" Lin Jue threw the dead chicken far away and pointed at the white lantern above his head.

Dazhu glared at him. He clearly knew what was going on but he was unwilling to say anything. "Later, you'll just be responsible for moving the paper figurines in. Don't say anything, and shut up about asking those questions."

Lin Jue curled his lips, reached out his hand and made a zipper-closing gesture at his mouth, indicating that he understood.

Dazhu then knocked on the door, and soon a young man opened the door.

This person should be the bride's brother or younger brother, but his face showed no joy at all. Instead, he looked dejected and pale. When he saw Dazhu, his eyes instantly turned red: "Brother Zhuzi..."

Dazhu quickly covered the man's mouth and said, "Tomorrow is your sister's wedding day. Why are you crying?"

"Wuwuwuwuwuwu..." The young man's mouth was covered and the words he spoke were not clear.

However, Lin Jue still guessed that what the young man said was "This is not a happy event at all."

"You're trying to kill yourself!" Dazhu also heard it, his face changed drastically, and he hurriedly pushed the young man into the room.

Lin Jue followed him in and closed the door tactfully.

There was no light in the room, only a thin ray of sunlight coming through the window. The shape of the main hall was exactly the same as that of Dazhu's house, with an altar inside, but there were two black and white photos hanging on the side wall.

The photo shows a couple, probably the parents of this family.

Because both parents are dead, they use paper figures as substitutes, so that it looks like a funeral outside?

But who would get married right after their parents died? If their parents had been dead for a long time, there was no need to dress like a funeral outside.

"You kid, you're the only one in your family. Don't be silly. At least leave a descendant for your family." Dazhu glanced at Lin Jue behind him and lowered his voice: "Who told you your sister is already 23? This is her fate. No, every woman in the village will go through this."

Twenty-three?
Life?
What do you mean?
Lin Jue pricked up his ears and eavesdropped, wondering, are women in the village required to marry when they turn 23? Could this also be the will of the gods?

"Okay, where's your sister?" Dazhu released his hand that was covering the young man.

The young man's eyes were red: "It's locked in the room."

"That's good. Remember, you must keep a close eye on her. Don't let other men see her face today, including you."

"We can only release her after we send our nanny to change her into her wedding dress and put on her veil tomorrow."

After saying this, he patted the other person's shoulder again and said, "I know it's hard for you to accept, but we are human and cannot disobey God."

The young man bit his lips until they bled. It felt like he was not sending his sister to a wedding, but rather to a Shura field where people would be killed without blinking an eye.

(End of this chapter)