Ita Era

Chapter 29 Peach Blossom Village (27)

Ding Shi held his breath and glanced into the backyard, only to see Jiang San Niang sitting in the chicken coop, sucking on a cigarette with relish. So he went to the front hall, pulled Sun Qi along, and said, "Let's go to your side."

Sun Qi hesitated: "Go to my place? Isn't that a bit inappropriate? What was that noise from the backyard just now?"

"It's alright, let's go."

The school is a good place; it doesn't raise poultry, it's large enough, and it's surrounded by walls. Under normal circumstances, Jiang Sanniang wouldn't enter the school to hunt.

Upon entering Sun Qi's dormitory, Ding Shi closed the door and drew the curtains for the front and back windows. Sun Qi began to feel nervous: "Wang Wu, we're not that familiar with each other yet."

"I know," Ding Shi said, peeking out from under the curtains. "You'd better be prepared. There's a zombie in the village, and a demon might appear tonight too. Does anyone live next door?"

Upon hearing Ding Shi mention ghosts and zombies, Sun Qi immediately tensed up and said, "No need to go next door."

Ding Shi glanced at Sun Qi: "We live together, and zombies enter the room. Do you think I'll stand in front of you to protect you, or will I use you to hold off the zombies so I can escape?" Sometimes following the strong isn't a good thing; being with the weak can actually increase your chances of survival.

Sun Qi was stumped by the question.

There's only one core issue here: the strong person you follow can't simply be stronger than you.

Seeing that Sun Qi did not answer, Ding Shi took a pin from the table, went next door, and picked the lock to enter.

The room is about 30 square meters, with a passageway and large shared sleeping areas on both floors. Ding Shi had already inquired beforehand, and this should be the dormitory for fifth graders, the graduating class of elementary school. School is closed this week due to a memorial service.

After entering this so-called casual instance, Ding Shi stayed up all night every night, accumulating a lot of sleep debt. He lay down fully clothed on the tattered straw mat and soon fell asleep.

After an unknown amount of time, there was a knock on the door. Ding Shi opened his eyes but did not move or respond. After three more knocks, the village chief's voice came: "Little Ding, it's 11:20. You need to go to the village entrance to assemble."

Ding Shi rolled out of bed, straightened his clothes, and opened the door: "Village Chief, you're a real talent, you even managed to find me."

The village chief, holding a flashlight, sighed, "Well, that's what I am, the village chief. Go on."

Ding Shi asked, "Village Chief, assuming you are very satisfied with my work, what reward will you give me?"

The village chief was taken aback and asked, "What reward do you want?"

Ding Shi asked, "Do you have anything like a jade pendant?"

The village chief shook his head: "No."

"Alright," Ding Shi patted the village chief on the shoulder and headed towards the village entrance. "Since you don't have anything good, you're no longer the village chief, but just a nobody." However, Ding Shi wasn't sure if the system would reward him based on the village chief's satisfaction level. After all, it was only the first instance; he hadn't yet figured out the system's true nature.

Some people emerged from their homes carrying flashlights, while others walked along the field ridges with torches. Groups of two or three gathered at the village entrance, where about a dozen able-bodied men were already waiting. The person in charge of the wedding procession was a villager in his forties named Tiezhu. He assigned tasks to each person, a variety of roles. For example, there were groomsmen who had to drink nine cups of wine to stop the procession, sedan chair bearers, people distributing wedding candy to the onlookers, and someone specifically tasked with driving away beggars. In comparison, Ding Shi's setting off of firecrackers seemed normal. However, Ding Shi preferred the unusual; he immediately noticed a villager carrying a bird gun.

After discussion, Ding Shi spent two knives to obtain the musket and gunpowder. During the wedding ceremony, the musket was only loaded with gunpowder, not iron shot or steel balls. Each dose of gunpowder was wrapped in gunpowder paper, and there was a hole above the trigger for inserting the gunpowder.

During that period, there were no standardized specifications for matchlock guns; most were made by local blacksmiths, with higher-end models manufactured in factories. Later, the government strictly controlled gunpowder, and matchlock guns disappeared from use.

Ding Shi slipped five knives into someone's hand. The person quietly left, and seven minutes later, he brought Ding Shi a box containing 25 portions of musket powder, as well as over a hundred small steel balls in a plastic box.

As the auspicious hour arrived, a double cymbal clapper sounded, and the musical ensemble led the way. Ding Shi was hearing this mixed performance of wedding instruments for the first time in his life. He didn't know what song it was, and he couldn't say whether it was pleasant or unpleasant, but it just felt very rhythmic.

After a brief pause following the end of a song, Ding Shi fired a musket into the air with a loud bang. Another musketeer then fired, also with a loud bang. The instrumental ensemble resumed the rhythm, repeating the previous verse.

Upon entering the village, every household had its lights on, and many people stood by the roadside. The groom, Zhang San, was responsible for bowing and clasping his hands in a traditional Chinese greeting, while the best man threw candy, trying to recreate the wedding procession scene from years past.

A hundred meters away, on the edge of darkness and light, a splash of red appeared. Unmoved by the bustling wedding procession, it wandered aimlessly. Blood trickled from its mouth, and its wedding dress appeared stained crimson with blood.

In the San Niang Temple, as soon as the auspicious hour arrived, the wooden carving began to tremble. Master Baiyun used his lightness technique to leap onto the altar, pressed his left palm on the wooden carving's forehead, and made a hand seal with his right hand while chanting incantations. A halo of talismans appeared and disappeared on the wooden carving's body.

The wood carving resisted more and more fiercely, its eyes filled with blood and tears, its body trembling incessantly, as if it might break free of its confinement at any moment.

Master Baiyun stepped back, took out a bamboo slip, and unfolded it. Under his hand gestures and incantations, the bamboo slip, like a serpent, swirled around the wooden carving. After a few minutes, the wooden carving finally quieted down. Master Baiyun put away the bamboo slip, chanted "Amitabha," and sat back on his futon.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept in from behind. Before Master Baiyun could react, a sharp knife pierced his heart from behind. Master Baiyun slowly turned his head, blood gushing from his mouth.

The newcomer reached his right hand into his sleeve and grabbed the bamboo slip. Master Baiyun held the newcomer's right hand tightly, preventing him from taking the slip: "Blind Zhao, you..."

Blind Zhao snatched the bamboo slip, saying, "What do you mean, 'you'? The Book of No Words originally belonged to our Zhao family." Blind Zhao's grandfather had served Master Baiyun when he was young, and could be considered half a disciple of Master Baiyun. However, he had no spiritual roots and could only be a menial disciple. In the end, Master Baiyun accepted Daoist Baiyun as his disciple and passed on the Book of No Words to Baiyun.

Zhao the Blind opened the bamboo slip, only to find it blank. He exclaimed in surprise, "I clearly saw words!" Earlier that day, when Master Baiyun was divining, he had used the wordless heavenly book, and everyone had seen it covered with densely packed characters.

Master Baiyun sighed: "Isn't the wordless book just wordless? You can take it if you want, but why choose today? You'll kill the whole village."

Zhao the Blind said, "So what? My grandfather was beaten to death, preferring death to revealing the location of Baiyun Temple. And the villagers just stood by and watched indifferently. They knew he was protecting the village's secret, but they just watched him get beaten to death without doing anything."

Master Baiyun sighed again.

Seeing that Master Baiyun remained silent, Blind Zhao said, "You don't know, do you? I tricked Ding Shi into opening the Third Sister's coffin. Given how cunning that kid is, he has most likely already broken the Third Sister's seal."

Master Baiyun sighed again, "Amitabha." After saying this, his body swayed and he fell to the ground, dead.

(End of this chapter)