Chapter 2: Ghost Marriage

Chapter 2: The Ghost Marriage

"The First Dream: Strange Occurrences in the Mountain Village"

"Difficulty: S…"

In the darkness, the floating text twisted slightly, producing garbled characters before returning to normal a second later.

"Difficulty: F-level"

"Sang Xu, hello, welcome to the first dream. A gentle reminder: stay rational, stay away from madness."

"May you survive until the dream ends."

Sang Xu shivered, jolting awake. The floating text vanished like steam, and his vision gradually cleared. He found himself dressed in a bright red gown, an embroidered ball tied to his chest, kneeling on a prayer mat. Before him, a hunched old man was lighting incense, his trembling hands placing it into the censer on the altar.

"Xiao Guai, today is your big day," the unfamiliar old man said. "Once you’re married, my worries will be over."

What’s going on? Who is this person?

Sang Xu looked around. This wasn't his single apartment but a dimly lit tiled house. The walls were covered in mold spots of various sizes, resembling countless dark eyes at first glance. The room was cluttered with odds and ends—pots, pans, bowls, and stacked cardboard boxes. Only the altar area was relatively clean, displaying photos and ancestral tablets, with a table full of fruits and melons offered.

What on earth is happening? Sang Xu remembered listening to the radio and then falling asleep. When he woke up… he was here.

That mysterious caller said he would give him an endless nightmare. Is this the "nightmare" he mentioned?

The old man suddenly turned and fixed his gaze on Sang Xu.

The old man’s right eye was blind, showing only a ghastly white, nearly startling Sang Xu out of his skin.

"It’s getting dark," the old man said. "Hurry back to your room and sleep with your wife. Don’t wander around at night, and don’t light any candles, especially when you’re… doing the deed. Now that you’re married, Grandpa won’t keep an eye on you tonight. Be good."

Sang Xu: "…"

Doing the deed? Surely not what he was thinking?

Seeing Sang Xu motionless, the old man sighed as if disappointed, pulled Sang Xu up, and pushed him into the adjacent room. The old man closed the door and walked back to his room alone, hands behind his back.

Sang Xu stood by the door, silently looking inside. This small tiled room was emptier than the main hall, giving off a cold, desolate feeling. A paper screen stood to the side, with a chamber pot behind it. Further in was a canopy bed, where a bride wearing a red veil sat quietly.

There was a full-length mirror by the door. Sang Xu glanced at the grimy surface, which faintly reflected his figure. His hair was light brown, his face pale, his eyes dark and cold, expressionless. With a pair of glasses, he looked quiet and scholarly. He had a handsome appearance, but with a touch of the exhaustion typical of an overworked office worker.

His body seemed to be his own, but his identity had changed—he had inexplicably become someone’s grandson and even married a wife. Sang Xu analyzed his situation, but with too little information, he was still completely in the dark.

"Hello," Sang Xu attempted to strike up a conversation with the bride. "What should I call you?"

The bride remained silent, sitting quietly on the edge of the bed.

It grew dark, and the already dim room turned gloomy. Soon, it was pitch black.

There were no candles on the table. Sang Xu rummaged through the drawers and found a lighter. Just as he was about to light it, he remembered the old man’s warning not to light candles. But using a lighter should be fine, right? It was too dark around him, and in this eerie village hut, Sang Xu felt goosebumps all over.

Gritting his teeth, Sang Xu lit the lighter.

The room brightened considerably, and Sang Xu’s gaze fell on the edge of the bed again. The bride was dressed in bright red, vibrant like fire. But this time, Sang Xu noticed something strange—the bride’s wedding dress was very worn, and the red veil was covered in dust.

"Hello?" Sang Xu tentatively asked again.

The bride still showed no reaction.

Since Sang Xu entered the room, the bride’s sitting posture had never changed. A foreboding feeling crept into Sang Xu’s heart.

He cautiously touched a fingertip exposed under the bride’s red sleeve—it was icy and stiff.

Sure enough, Sang Xu’s heart turned cold as well.

This bride was not alive but a corpse.

No wonder the old man told him not to light candles—was he afraid Sang Xu would see the bride’s decomposed face?

Sang Xu released the lighter’s button, blew on his scorched fingers, then lit the lighter again. He found a pair of fire tongs in the corner, carefully reached under the bride’s veil, and lifted a corner.

To Sang Xu’s surprise, what was under the veil was not a face but a Nuo mask.

The bride was wearing a vibrant and fierce Nuo god mask, hiding her true appearance.

After lowering the veil, Sang Xu’s first thought was that a murder had occurred here and he needed to call the police. He searched his entire body but found no phone. The old man was highly suspicious, so Sang Xu decided to escape first. The door faced the old man’s side room, and Sang Xu worried that leaving through the door would be noticed. He went behind the paper screen, planning to climb out the window.

He gently opened the wooden lattice window. Outside was a small courtyard wall, the night deep and silent, without a single human voice. Sang Xu turned back to move a stool to step on. As the lighter’s flame flickered, casting an orange glow on the paper screen, he saw the masked bride’s corpse suddenly move.

Uh, an illusion?

Sang Xu released his painfully scorched fingers, rubbed his eyes, and lit the lighter again.

This time, behind the screen, the bride’s figure stood upright.

The bride was taller than him, exuding a silent terror and oppressive feeling.

Sang Xu’s scalp tingled with fear. Without bothering with the stool, he turned and immediately climbed out the window. In his haste, he fell on his butt under the window. Looking up, he seemed to see a corner of the fluttering red veil. Sang Xu’s heart pounded wildly as he scrambled away. Passing by the old man’s room, he heard chewing sounds inside.

The chewing sound was strange. Sang Xu tiptoed past the old man’s door, but even his light steps made noise. The chewing suddenly stopped. Sang Xu’s scalp went numb, and he no longer cared about being discovered, quickly running out of the small courtyard.

There was no moon tonight, and the dirt road was pitch black. The tiled houses and wooden cottages on either side rose and fell like dark mountains settled in the night. Sang Xu didn’t know where to go. Several times, he looked back but saw no sign of the eerie bride chasing him, which slowly calmed his nerves. As he walked aimlessly, he saw someone relieving himself at a courtyard gate ahead.

Sang Xu stopped, and the person pulled up his pants.

The two stared at each other through the iron fence. After a moment, the person asked, "How are you?"

Sang Xu: "…"

What kind of bizarre situation is this?

"Fine, and you?"

"Handsome, are you a newcomer?"

The person leaned out, and Sang Xu finally got a clear look at him—a burly, muscular man with balloon-like arm muscles, a scar on his face, and a buzz cut.

"What’s a newcomer?" Sang Xu frowned.

"Someone experiencing their first dream," the man said, opening the iron gate and waving his hand. "Locals usually don’t use real-world slang, so we use this method to identify our own. Come in quickly, it’s not safe outside at night."

Sang Xu hesitated for a moment before following him inside. Besides the man, there were several others in the room, sitting or standing, all turning to look at Sang Xu as he entered.

"A newcomer?" a girl who looked like a student asked. "Did you see a ghost?"

Sang Xu nodded. "Just escaped from one."

"Then you’re really lucky," the man who brought him in handed him a cup of water. "Fortunately, there’s no moon today, or you’d be dead even if you escaped."

Sang Xu took the water but didn't drink it, asking, "Do you know where this is?"

"This is a nightmare," the female student said. "Like you, we came from reality. People like us, who come from reality, are called outsiders. The characters living in the dream are called locals. Since this is your first time entering the dream, we have a bit more experience than you. Generally, after outsiders arrive, they usually find a location to use as a gathering point and mark it with a special symbol outside."

She dipped her finger in water, drawing a β symbol on the table. "When you see this beta, you’ll know that the house is an outsiders’ gathering point. All outsiders will gather here."

"Why are we here?" Sang Xu asked again.

Everyone fell silent, and the atmosphere grew heavy.

The man spoke first, "I’ve been having bad luck lately—I was hit by a car and died."

The female student said, "I was also in a car accident."

A frail-looking boy in the corner said, "I was hit by a flowerpot falling from upstairs."

An older woman added, "I encountered a supernatural event and had a sudden cardiac arrest."

After hearing this, Sang Xu thought deeply. Strange—he had just fallen asleep and entered via dreaming. Among these people, he was the only one who hadn’t died in the real world.

The man explained, "If we survive until we wake from the dream, we can change our fate of death in the real world—we won’t have to die. Simply put, like a car accident becomes a minor injury, cancer turns into a cold. But surviving isn’t easy; there are lethal threats in the dream. Also, you can’t stay in the dream for more than ten days. Something terrible apparently happens if you exceed that limit. I’m not sure exactly what—it’s just experience passed around among outsiders. To be safe, we must find the boundary marker to leave the dream before the tenth day."

Is that so... Sang Xu furrowed his brow.

Was this the endless nightmare that the mysterious caller had given him?

"By the way, you haven’t said how you died?" the man suddenly asked.

Everyone waited for Sang Xu’s answer. Exposing his difference probably wasn't a good thing, so he had to make something up.

Sang Xu replied calmly, "Working overtime—sudden death."

The looks in their eyes held a bit more pity for him.

"You seem pretty calm. Most newcomers either refuse to believe the truth or have emotional breakdowns. You’re not bad," the man said. "Let me introduce myself—I’m Han Rao, a security guard in real life."

The female student said, "I’m Shen Zhitang, a sophomore majoring in archaeology."

"I’m Ye Xin," the frail boy said. "I’m still in high school."

"My name is An He," the older woman said last. "I’m a mortuary cosmetician."

After everyone introduced themselves, Sang Xu’s mind reeled.

In the radio story, all these names had appeared.

Though inwardly unsettled, Sang Xu kept his composure.

He politely introduced himself, "I’m Liu Jianguo, a programmer."

Liu Jianguo—the name of his boss.