The dense voices of little girls, like death-inducing talismans, struck Jiang Shouzhong’s eardrums wave after wave.
The voices grew louder and more chaotic.
As if countless steel needles were fiercely piercing his ears, even his head throbbed painfully with each wave.
But the one who couldn’t bear it first was the charming and beautiful old woman.
Her glamorous face twisted into a nacing distortion due to anger and fear, she scread hoarsely at the little girl: "Shut up!!"
However, the little girl remained oblivious, continuing to bounce around.
The small figure darted back and forth within the room, incessantly chanting "bridal chamber."
With each shout, the voice grew sharper and more piercing.
At this mont, the old woman’s smooth skin began to wrinkle rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, her once youthful and alluring appearance vanished, replaced by an image of decrepit old age.
The old woman was terrified, frantically grabbing the candle shaped like a human hand and burning with an eerie fla on the table, and viciously throwing it towards the little girl’s head.
As she smashed, she uncontrollably shouted for her to shut up.
Blood gushed from the little girl’s head, flowing down her cheeks, soon becoming a torrent that stained her originally delicate, pale face a vivid red.
Yet even despite this, she chanically repeated the word "bridal chamber."
The old woman’s expression grew increasingly desperate.
She suddenly raised her head, her blood-red eyes bulging, glaring outside at Jiang Shouzhong, and then reaching for him: "You co in, damn you!!"
Bang!
As she reached the door, an invisible force blasted her out.
Soon after, her entire body was engulfed in white phosphorus flas.
The flas rapidly spread, enveloping her in the blink of an eye.
The old woman rolled on the ground in agony, shrill screams continuously escaping her mouth.
Her skin began to rapidly decay, chunks of charred flesh falling away, emitting a pungent stench.
The little girl was still joyfully bouncing.
The joyous sounds intertwined with the old woman’s wails and the crackling of the phosphorus flas.
On the wall, under the illumination of the flas, the Red Demon’s statue stood silently. Its cold gaze held a lofty indifference, observing all that transpired within.
With the old woman’s demise, the little girl who had been bouncing and shouting all along suddenly crumbled to the floor like a deflated balloon.
The chanical repetition of "bridal chamber" abruptly stopped.
The room instantly fell silent.
At the sa ti, the furniture and decorations within the room swiftly decayed and corroded.
The candle, burning with an eerie fla, now transford into a section of white bone, lying forebodingly across the uneven table.
On either side of the street, the other houses’ little girls were still shouting.
Jiang Shouzhong listened to the clamor, agitatedly saying: "If you shout again, I’ll tear down all your seals!"
The dog demon that had been nestled by his foot barked twice.
Instantly, the once noisy street plunged into deathly silence.
Jiang Shouzhong’s hypothesis was correct.
These houses were all ho to the lonely bride monsters. Once they issue an invitation to a man and the seal is torn away, the man must enter, joining them in the bridal chamber.
Only then can the bride monster obtain freedom.
If the man doesn’t enter the house, he shares the sa fate as the old woman.
Jiang Shouzhong stepped into the house, picked up the Avatar Puppet doll, and walked to the ancient Red Demon statue, studying this item exuding a sinister aura.
"Red Demon..."
Jiang Shouzhong recalled his earlier experience with Xiao Lingqiu in Taoyuan Fairyland, seeing the giant statue resembling Hong’er, his brows furrowed tightly, muttering, "What is the connection between Red Demon and Hong’er, could it be...?"
At that mont, a sudden sound of suona horns echoed outside.
Jiang Shouzhong froze, stepped outside, and found another wedding procession.
This wedding procession differed from the one he had seen before; each figure was thin, with stiff postures and floating, erratic movents, clearly paper figures.
They ignored Jiang Shouzhong, heading straight for the house, then steadily stopped the flower sedan at the door of the small house.
Following this, one paper figure took out a handful of incense, planting rows before the sedan and the house door, then ignited the incense with a fire stick in hand.
In an instant, wisps of smoke rose.
Intertwining strand by strand, they mistily ford a barely perceivable path.
The flower sedan curtain lifted.
A bride in a bright red wedding gown erged.
The bride’s figure was graceful, the gown dazzlingly vivid, red like fire, accentuating her delicate beauty.
Her toes lightly stepped onto the burning incense tips, and then she elegantly walked along the smoke-laid path.
Her movents were light and ethereal, her slender waist swaying with an enticing charm.
The bride entered the small house, imdiately revitalizing the originally dilapidated and rotten interior.
The wall’s Red Demon’s statue disappeared.
The old woman’s ashes vanished.
The two candles on the table, once reduced to rely bones, now reignited with bright flas, casting a glow throughout the room.
The girl, transford into a decayed skin, astonishingly stood back up, again bouncing joyfully as before, rrily shouting:
"The bride is here... The bride is here..."
A paper figure erged from the troupe, holding a large seal featuring the character "囍," and stiffly affixed it to the door, sealing it again.
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