There was an eerie atmosphere in our shop.
Four thick white candles were sputtering out thin trails of black smoke. The dancing flames cast a ghostly glow over the small shop, which was less than thirty square meters.
Song Yixuan, whose third eye had been opened by me, was now slumped in the reclining chair where Du Wenzhong usually sat. His mouth was stuffed with honey-glazed cakes and Chinese pastries used for offerings, and he could only let out low, muffled groans.
Du Wenzhong thought his shrieks were as loud as a pig being butchered and was afraid it would disturb the other tenants, so he stuffed his mouth.
Actually, I knew that among the tenants in Aunt Xu's place, except for those who went to the police station with us, the others had already been peeping through the windows and crowding at the door.
Since ancient times, people have been both afraid of and curious about ghosts, spirits, and witchcraft. So whether it was Du Wenzhong's fake show of singing and dancing or my serious ritual of invoking the gods, it would always attract a lot of onlookers.
I was happy to let people watch my small magic tricks on ordinary days. Sometimes a whirlwind would suddenly appear, and sometimes a straw man would stand up, scaring them and making them think we really had some skills. This way, they would help spread our reputation.
We didn't shy away from others about this midnight ghost wedding today.
Originally, a wedding should have relatives and friends to witness. Now with these neighbors present, it could also give A Xiu some face.
I wrote a wedding document on yellow paper on the altar, announcing it to the heavens above and the underworld below. From this moment on, Wang Yingxiu would marry into the Song family and become Song Yixuan's lawfully wedded wife. The 300,000 yuan that Song Yixuan had taken before would be regarded as the bride's dowry. But Song Yixuan had never mentioned his background and had never even introduced Wang Yingxiu to his family, so I prepared the betrothal gifts for him.
According to the rules, we should prepare paper-made four-season clothes, dressing accessories for the bride.
Our shop sold these things, so there was no shortage.
After writing the document and the betrothal letter, I turned around and burned them together with the paper clothes.
Wang Yingxiu was already wearing a blood-red nightgown. Now with a wedding dress embroidered with dragons and phoenixes on top, combined with her face that was half beautiful and half ghostly, it gave people a creepy and gorgeous feeling...
At this moment, I thought it was a good thing that the neighbors peeping outside didn't have the ability to see ghosts. If they saw the ghost bride like this, I'm afraid some of them would be scared out of their wits!
Song Yixuan wasn't so lucky. Even if he closed his eyes, he could still clearly see Wang Yingxiu's ferocious face. Her bloodshot eyes stared at him full of hatred, as if she wanted to eat his flesh.
"Following the order of the bride, choosing the day for the wedding and the bride's arrival..."
As Du Wenzhong's resounding voice of chanting the wedding ceremony rang out, Wang Yingxiu, who was standing in the room, suddenly disappeared. Then I heard the faint sound of suonas and drums coming from the far end of the alley.
I saw a small sedan chair made of red, yellow, and gold paper being carried by four paper figures floating in through the shop door that I had temporarily covered with a bedsheet.
The white wedding candles on the counter flickered twice and then suddenly shot up high with a "puff". The originally orange-yellow color of the candle wicks instantly turned into a greenish light, covering the furnishings in the room with a gloomy color.
"The bride gets off the sedan chair~~~"
Du Wenzhong couldn't see the ghosts, but he saw the curtain hanging by the door fluttering without wind. Naturally, he knew that Wang Yingxiu had arrived. He loudly recited the rituals of the ghost wedding. When it was time to pay homage to heaven and earth, I opened the door to the backyard and called two neighbors who were secretly watching the excitement to come and help. They dragged Song Yixuan up from the chair forcefully, and he bowed three times to the faint red shadow opposite...
"No!! I don't want to! I don't want this ghost wedding!!"
When I grabbed Song Yixuan's hand and pressed it on the ghost wedding document to leave his fingerprint, Song Yixuan started to struggle desperately. It was only at this moment that he truly felt the horror of the ghost wedding. His third eye had been forcefully opened by me, and now Wang Yingxiu was lying on his back, glaring at him fiercely.
The skin on Song Yixuan's hand was cold and slippery, just like the touch of some poisonous snakes.
"You should have had this kind of awareness when you watched A Xiu lying on the ground and gradually dying."
My voice was even colder. Thinking about Song Yixuan's cold-bloodedness of not saving the dying and the poor child in A Xiu's belly, how could I just let him go?
There was a dowry on the counter. Among the dowry was a sewing needle case. I casually picked up an embroidery needle and pricked Song Yixuan's middle finger. A drop of blood instantly formed on his fingertip. I pressed his finger on the bottom of the yellowed paper of the wedding document.
"The ceremony is complete!!"
Since Song Yixuan was a living person marrying a ghost, only his signature was needed.
The two kind neighbors supported Song Yixuan, who was as limp as mud, and asked me, "Xiao He, what should we do with this guy? It's time to send them into the bridal chamber. We can't do it in your shop, right?!"
"Thank you, uncles."
I smiled and said, "Since my good friend is getting married, I naturally have to see the bride off to their home!"
I wrote the words "Beloved Wife Wang Yingxiu" on a small memorial tablet that was only three inches long. Then I stuffed it together with a wedding document written on yellow paper into Song Yixuan's arms. I put another identical wedding document into the brazier and burned it.
Immediately, the remaining shadow of the wedding document appeared in A Xiu's hand, who had been lying on Song Yixuan's back.
"You're already a married man." I looked down at Song Yixuan, who was like a scoundrel, "From now on, you should abide by the duties of a husband and fulfill your responsibilities as a husband and a father..."
... Song Yixuan was too exhausted to struggle and just let the two neighbors support him.
I used Song Yixuan's phone to call a ride-hailing car and invited the two kind neighbors to go with me to send Song Yixuan back.
Song Yixuan had only become popular for a short time before something happened. With his ability, he couldn't afford to buy a house in Beijing at all. After Ma Su tempted him to become the "container" of the One-Eyed Buddha Mother, she specially rented an apartment for him.
The location on Song Yixuan's phone was in Wangjing Community, a well-known gathering place for online influencers in Beijing.
In the dozens of high-rise buildings, all lived small stars who were once very popular on the Internet or has-been online celebrities.
Ma Su was nice to Song Yixuan. She rented him a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor with a yard. On weekdays, besides working as a manager in the training department of Taoran Media, Song Yixuan would pose here to create the illusion that he was living a leisurely and comfortable life thanks to the traffic bonus.
In the living room of his apartment, there was a half-meter-tall Tibetan bronze Buddha statue. The Buddha had a ferocious expression and only one eye. When he was live-streaming his life, he would always intentionally or unintentionally let this Buddha statue appear in the frame, arousing the curiosity of the audience. Then he would tell everyone that it was because he believed in this extremely auspicious One-Eyed Buddha Mother that his star career had been so smooth. Even the vertebral fracture that modern medicine couldn't cure had miraculously healed after he believed in the Buddha Mother.
Naturally, there were people in the live-streaming room who wanted to live the same life as Song Yixuan. Someone was curious and asked how to worship this extremely effective Buddha Mother.
Song Yixuan simply raised his hands and made a shape of a single eye in front of his forehead!!