Chapter 46

Chapter 46

This scene was truly bizarre. The two paper effigies with their unblinking stares, combined with the dim, eerie old house, felt like something straight out of a horror movie.

Xu Muchan stiffly tugged at the corners of his mouth and probed cautiously, "The groom... who's the groom?"

The paper effigies seemed to tilt forward in confusion, their stiff, deathly pale faces drawing closer to Xu Muchan. "The groom's the groom—doesn't the bride know?"

Xu Muchan leaned back, eyeing them warily. "I do know. Just testing you."

The two paper effigies stared at him for a long moment before straightening back up, standing by the bed like a pair of door gods. Xu Muchan thought, *This isn't working*, so he tested further, "I'm hungry. Could you fetch me something to eat?"

This time, the two paper effigies did as they were told and left to get him food.

With no one else in the room, Xu Muchan finally peeled off the heavy, layered wedding dress, leaving only a lightweight red robe, and surveyed the layout of the room.

Judging by the style, this was some kind of ancient building.

The room was divided into an inner and outer chamber. The inner room held the carved canopy bed, wardrobes, and other furniture—a living space. The outer room was separated by a six-panel folding screen, furnished with a low couch and small tables, likely for receiving guests.

Because of the wedding preparations, the room was draped in red silk and covered in bright red "double happiness" symbols. Even the bed curtains and bedding had been swapped for festive patterns of mandarin ducks playing in water.

But all the furniture was made of old rosewood, and the old reddish-brown wood clashed with the festive scarlet, making the place feel even creepier and more sinister.

Xu Muchan went to the outer room and cracked the door open a sliver to peek out. On either side were side rooms with their doors shut—he couldn't tell if anyone was in them. In the middle was a modest courtyard with carefully tended flowers, trees, and stone tea tables and stools.

If the sky weren't so pitch-black, the view would've been nice.

Seeing no one in the courtyard, Xu Muchan stepped out to take a look around. He didn't dare leave the yard, but he strolled over to the ornate gate at the edge and peered out.

It was dark out, with no lamps lit. He could barely see anything—just a few faint lights in the distance, glowing an unsettling green, like they might be swallowed up by the darkness at any second.

"Bride, time to eat."

Just as Xu Muchan was leaning out to look, a voice spoke up from behind him.

He turned and saw the two paper effigies standing half a step behind him, each holding a food box. Their black eyes stared at him without blinking. He had no idea how they'd gotten in—definitely not through the gate where he was standing.

"Let's go back inside to eat." Xu Muchan pulled himself together and headed back inside.

The paper effigies stiffly unpacked the food from the box—four dishes in all, looking perfectly normal and even a little appetizing.

But Xu Muchan didn't dare eat any of it. For all he knew, these tasty-looking dishes were actually worms, maggots, or even funeral offerings in disguise. Trying to act like the master of the house, he waved a hand at the paper effigies. "You two can go. I'll call you when I'm done eating to clean up."

The two paper effigies obediently opened the door and went out.

Xu Muchan listened closely for sounds outside. The paper effigies made noise when they walked, but the sound stopped right at the door. They must be standing right outside, not actually leaving.

But when Xu Muchan peered through the paper-lattice window, he couldn't see them at all.

He sat there for a bit, then took a little of each dish, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and hid it under the bed before calling the paper effigies back in to clean up.

After clearing the food, the paper effigies just stood there in the room again.

With them there, Xu Muchan didn't dare make a move. Staring back at them was too creepy, so he faked a yawn and acted like he was exhausted. "I'm tired. Time to sleep. You two can go."

After sending the paper effigies away again, Xu Muchan half-lay on the bed, going over what he knew. But the air in the room seemed laced with sleeping pills. He'd only been faking being tired, but as he thought things over, real drowsiness started creeping in.

Exhaustion washed over him like a wave, and Xu Muchan dozed off, slumped against the headboard.

After he fell asleep, the door creaked open. A paper effigy maidservant came in carrying an oil lamp, her stiff, red-and-white painted face leaning in close to the bed to check on him. "The bride is asleep."

After muttering to herself, she set the lamp on a nearby table and left.

The next morning, a maidservant came in with fresh clothes to wake the bride.

Xu Muchan groggily opened his eyes, stretched lazily, and took the clothes from the maidservant to change behind the screen.

The new outfit was a deep red robe—less fancy than the wedding dress, but still finely made with heavy embroidery. After changing, Xu Muchan came out to find the two maidservants watching him with smiling, crescent-shaped eyes. He smiled back. "Thanks for all your help. I don't think I caught your names."

One maidservant giggled. "I'm Chunhua."

"And I'm Qiuyue."

Xu Muchan nodded, making a mental note of their names. With Chunhua and Qiuyue helping, he rinsed his mouth, washed his face, and had them help tie up his hair. He asked, a little sheepishly, "My husband won't be back for two more days. Is it okay if I wander around the estate a bit? Staying cooped up in the courtyard is getting boring."

Chunhua was the livelier of the two, and she spoke up, "If the young mistress is bored, you could go for a walk in the garden. The young master's sister, Miss Ling, often plays there. She's about your age—you two might hit it off."

Xu Muchan perked up at that. "Then I'll head over right after breakfast."

Breakfast was a feast, all dishes Xu Muchan loved. After eating, he eagerly had Chunhua and Qiuyue take him to the garden.

The estate was huge, and the garden was gorgeous, filled with rare, expensive flowers in full, vivid bloom.

Before Xu Muchan even got there, he heard a girl's laughter from the octagonal pavilion in the middle: "Huh? Why won't they listen to me?"

As he got closer, he saw a girl in a pink dress poking two puppies with a whip. The dogs were small—one white, one yellow—with round, tiger-striped heads that made them look super cute.

But for some reason, they seemed terrified of the girl, cowering on the ground and whimpering, not reacting no matter how she poked them.

The girl seemed to get annoyed and whipped the little white dog. The dog let out a pitiful yelp, and the little yellow dog, startled, yelped too—then lunged at the girl and bit her hand hard.

"Ow! This little beast dared to bite me!"

The girl shrieked in pain and swung her whip around wildly, but both dogs dodged easily, ducking under the table and crouching low, growling at her.

Her face turned even redder with anger. "Someone catch them! I'm sending them to the kitchen to make dog meat hotpot!"

Hearing that, the two dogs took off running.

Just then, Xu Muchan walked in with Chunhua and Qiuyue and ran right into the fleeing dogs.

Xu Muchan thought the two puppies were adorable and couldn't stand to see them sent to the kitchen to be killed. He reached down and scooped them up, frowning. "The dogs are young and probably didn't mean to bite you. If you don't want them, how about letting me keep them?"

The two dogs in his arms heard his voice and looked up at the same time, eyes all watery as they stared at him, barking like crazy.

"Holy crap!"

"Xu Muchan!"

"Xu Muchan, it's really you! It's me, Wei Yao, woof!"

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang were losing their minds with excitement. They'd woken up to find themselves turned into dogs, and on top of that, they'd been shoved into a box by a bunch of creepy paper effigies—

The girl frowned unhappily at her words. "Who are you? These are my dogs! I want to eat dog meat hotpot!"

Chunhua, standing nearby, said, "Miss Ling, this is the young master's new wife. You should call her sister-in-law."

Miss Ling's eyes darted around, and she giggled. "Oh, a new sister-in-law! Well then, forget it. Since you like them, I'll give them to you."

She should have had an adorable, charming appearance, but when Xu Muchan met her eyes, she inexplicably felt a hint of malice lurking within them—cold, eerie, and tinged with a ghostly air.

But she was her husband's younger sister, around the same age as her. How could she be a ghost?

Xu Muchan dismissed her doubts and said with a smile, "Then thank you very much."

Miss Ling grinned at her with ill intent. "My brother's coming back in two days, you know."

Xu Muchan lowered her eyes shyly, seeming quite bashful. "I know."

For some reason, Miss Ling shot her a vicious glare before striding off haughtily with her attendants.

Xu Muchan hugged the dogs and whispered to Chunhua and Qiuyue, "The young master's sister doesn't seem easy to get along with."

Chunhua giggled. "Miss Ling is actually the most good-tempered one in the household."

Hearing this, Xu Muchan frowned with concern. "Does the young master have a bad temper?"

Qiuyue tilted her head and flashed an eerie smile. "You'll see when you meet him, madam."

Their words left Xu Muchan somewhat uneasy. She no longer felt like playing and carried the dogs back to her own courtyard.

Setting the puppies down in the yard, Xu Muchan asked Qiuyue to fetch a ball of yarn from the house to play with them.

The two dogs were remarkably smart. Every time Xu Muchan tossed the yarn ball, they'd race to grab it and bring it back, dropping it right into her hand.

Xu Muchan got hooked on the game, throwing the ball over and over until Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang were soon worn out, sprawled flat on the ground, tongues out, panting hard.

Wen Dajiang watched the grinning Xu Muchan and sensed something was off. He turned his head toward Wei Yao and barked, "Old Wei, don't you think Xu Muchan seems a bit off?"

"Why does it feel like he's actually enjoying himself in this creepy place?" Wen Dajiang glanced fearfully at the two paper effigies standing on either side of Xu Muchan, his hackles rising.

Wei Yao noticed it too. "How come Xu Muchan seems even more messed up than we are?"

Sure, they'd been turned into dogs, but at least they still remembered who they were.

"Does Xu Muchan still remember who he is?"

Wen Dajiang thought for a moment and said, "This won't work. We need to come up with something. The way we are now, there's no way we're getting out of here by ourselves. Xu Muchan has to get us out."

"What plan?" Wei Yao rolled over, belly up, and kicked his little legs. "I can't think of anything."

"Watch this." Wen Dajiang eyed Xu Muchan, and when she wasn't looking, lunged forward, grabbed her hand, and bit down hard.

Wen Dajiang bit down hard. Xu Muchan hissed in pain, and blood immediately welled up on her pale hand. Chunhua and Qiuyue snapped into action, their faces turning fierce as they moved to grab Wen Dajiang.

Wen Dajiang quickly let go and dove under the tea table, barking furiously at Xu Muchan. "Xu Muchan, I'm doing this for your own good! Wake up!"

Xu Muchan frowned, clutching her bleeding hand. Meeting the little yellow dog's big, wet eyes, she couldn't bring herself to punish it. Seeing Chunhua and Qiuyue closing in on the dog from both sides, she couldn't stop herself from speaking up. "Forget it, leave it alone. My hand is bleeding—go find some medicine to bandage it."

Bright red blood dripped from her fingers onto the ground. Xu Muchan caught the thick, coppery smell of blood and suddenly felt dizzy.

It was weird—she'd never been squeamish about blood before. But now, looking at it, she felt like she was being sucked into a spinning whirlpool.

Hearing her words, Chunhua and Qiuyue stopped chasing the little yellow dog and went out to get warm water and medicinal powder to treat Xu Muchan's wound.

Maybe it was the dizziness, but when Xu Muchan looked at them, their faces seemed to warp. Their plump, rosy cheeks went flat, their skin turned a deathly pale, and the blush on their cheeks looked painted on—so fake it was unsettling, like... paper effigies.

This inexplicable, horrifying thought flashed through Xu Muchan's mind, and she broke out in a cold sweat.

Frowning, she watched them tend to her wound, then wearily dismissed them.

Before that terrifying thought crossed her mind, she'd thought Chunhua and Qiuyue were pretty cute. But now that she couldn't stop seeing them as paper effigies, every look at them gave her the creeps.

Goosebumps broke out all over her skin.

Xu Muchan turned to look at the two dogs, hoping their fluffy little bodies would make her feel better.

She saw the two puppies huddled together under the table, peeking out at her cautiously. Xu Muchan thought they were adorable and waved them over. "Come here."

The little white dog hesitantly crawled out from under the table. Seeing it move, the little yellow dog came out too.

The two puppies trotted over to Xu Muchan's hand, barking and whining as if trying to speak to her.

Xu Muchan patted their little heads and muttered, "You two sure are chatty."

Wei Yao barked desperately, "Xu Muchan, snap out of it!"

Wen Dajiang joined in, barking, "Should I bite him again?"

Maybe the eagerness in his eyes was too obvious, because Xu Muchan stiffened and eyed the little yellow dog warily. "If you bite me again, I'll lock you in a cage."

Hearing that, Wen Dajiang knew he couldn't risk it and reluctantly backed off.

Xu Muchan thought the little dog looked round and goofy but was actually quite clever—it seemed to understand what she was saying.

She played with the dogs for a while until she grew drowsy. She took off her outer robe and climbed into bed, instructing the two dogs, "I'm going to take a nap. Don't run off."

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang lay pitifully by her bedside, keeping watch. With paper effigies everywhere in this godforsaken place, they wouldn't dare wander off.

Maybe because the bite on her hand kept throbbing, Xu Muchan's nap was restless. In her dream, something terrifying seemed to cling to her, and no matter how she struggled, she couldn't break free. She jolted awake, instinctively reaching for the Mountain God Amulet hanging around her neck—only to grasp at empty air.

The amulet... Xu Muchan sat there in a daze, her fingers closing on empty air over her chest, as if emerging from a hazy dream, cold sweat beading on her forehead.

That's right—she remembered now. She had been tricked by a female ghost into taking her place in the marriage.

She was no lady of the house.

Recalling what she'd done earlier, Xu Muchan's face flushed with embarrassment.

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang, lying by the bedside, noticed her expression and hurried over. Wei Yao tilted his head, straining to see Xu Muchan's lowered face, and barked, "Xu Muchan, are you okay?"

Wen Dajiang also pawed at Xu Muchan, then suddenly thought of an important question. "After I turned into a dog, did I use my own body, or was my soul stuffed into a dog's body? I don't have rabies, do I?"

Wei Yao: "..."

He put on a serious doggy face. "That's an important question."

The two dogs barked and whined back and forth, as if genuinely conversing. Xu Muchan, lost in her regret, was pulled back to reality. She looked at the two dogs with a strange expression as they chattered away, not noticing her watching.

Maybe it was all in her head, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the more she looked at these two dogs, the more human they seemed.

And their barks didn't quite sound like real dogs. Back in the village, some families had kept village dogs, and Xu Muchan had heard those dogs bark—it didn't sound like these two at all.

These two dogs barked in a way that sounded like humans mimicking dogs...

This realization cast an eerie light on the seemingly cute puppies, and the goosebumps that hadn't fully faded prickled up again. Creeped out, Xu Muchan edged away from the two strange dogs.

But the more he scooted away, the closer the dogs crept.

They even jumped onto the bed, barking at him.

"What's wrong with him?" Wei Yao asked, puzzled. "Didn't he like us before? Why's he acting scared of me now?"

Wei Yao wagged his tail playfully and made a lunge for Xu Muchan's hand, but Xu Muchan immediately pulled it away.

He was taken aback. "Whoa, you can never read a man's mind. Just a second ago he was hugging me and calling me a good boy, and now he's acting like he doesn't know me after one nap!"

Wen Dajiang shoved him aside in disgust to look at Xu Muchan, and noticed Xu Muchan was now eyeing him with a hint of wariness.

Something clicked in his brain, and he barked loudly, "Xu Muchan, did you remember?!"

Wen Dajiang got all worked up, pacing in circles on the bed. "I'm Wen Dajiang!"

As he paced, he thought about how to make Xu Muchan recognize him. When he spotted the teapot on the table, his eyes lit up. He jumped off the bed and tried to reach the teapot—he could write with his paws dipped in water!

Xu Muchan watched with a strange expression as the little yellow dog suddenly became very excited, its tail spinning like a helicopter rotor. On top of that, it kept leaping at the table, trying to get the teapot.

But its body was too small, and after failing to reach it, it flopped onto the stool, panting, and gave Xu Muchan a mournful look.

Just as Xu Muchan was puzzling over this dog's behavior, he saw the little white dog suddenly leap up nimbly, using the yellow dog's head as a springboard for a double jump onto the table, and then, with total audacity, knocked the teapot off the table right in front of Xu Muchan.

Xu Muchan: "..."

Wen Dajiang, whose head had just been stomped on, barked in fury, "Damn it, you actually stepped on my head!"

Wei Yao dipped a paw in the tea on the floor and urged, "Hurry, write! Write your name—mine's got too many strokes!"

The two pups immediately got to work.

Xu Muchan watched all this, looking weirded out. When he saw the crooked writing on the floor, he frowned, and a wild idea hit him.

He ventured, "Wen Dajiang? Wei Yao?"

Wen Dajiang and Wei Yao were so thrilled they almost teared up. They wagged their tails like crazy and bolted to the window, eyes all watery, nodding like mad. "It's us!"

Once he confirmed these two dogs really were his buddies, Xu Muchan got goosebumps all over again. He asked, "How did you two end up here?"

Wei Yao and Wen Dajiang eagerly recounted their experiences.

Maybe because their cover was blown, after a weird warping of sound, Xu Muchan could suddenly understand the barking.

Wei Yao said, "Wen Dajiang and I planned to hit the internet cafe for some games that night. We played till midnight, then split. While waiting for a cab on the street outside the cafe, I heard someone call my name from behind, so I looked back."

Wen Dajiang added, "What I heard was someone calling my name."

"But when we turned around, there was nothing behind us. We both felt a bit creeped out. Wei Yao originally wanted to go back to the old house to find his godmother, but it was already past two in the morning, and he was worried about waking his grandfather and getting scolded, so he ended up going back to his place in the city."

Then, before they could even wake up properly, they found themselves in this godforsaken place, turned into dogs.

Xu Muchan mused, "There's a saying that if you're walking at night and hear someone call your name or tap your shoulder from behind, don't turn around."

Wei Yao said indignantly, "It's the twenty-first century, and it's the weekend—everyone has a lively nightlife! It could easily be a friend or acquaintance. These ghosts are too cunning!"

Wen Dajiang said, "What about you? How did you get in? Earlier, you seemed to have forgotten everything, just like a bride waiting to be married. You were even chatting and laughing with those paper effigies. Old Wei and I were scared out of our wits."

Xu Muchan, embarrassed that he'd hit a sore spot, coughed awkwardly. "I dreamed of the red wedding dress from the antique shop. The dress was on a female ghost, and she made me take her place in marriage. Then she forcibly placed the red veil over my head, and I became the bride, carried here in a sedan chair."

Wei Yao was shocked. "How can they force a deal like that?"

Xu Muchan pondered. "I think it might be because during the day, the mannequin fell on me, and the red veil happened to land on my head."

But in the end, it was still a scam.

Xu Muchan got off the large bed and paced around the room. He said, "There must also be something strange in this room. When I first arrived, my memory was perfectly normal. But after I suddenly felt sleepy and took a nap, I woke up remembering nothing."

"Help me look around for anything unusual in this room."

As he spoke, his gaze suddenly fixed on an oil lamp on the table in the outer room. The lamp had a unique shape, and the oil inside had burned down by about a third. If he remembered correctly, this lamp hadn't been in the room before he went to sleep last night.