??Chapter 71: 070. What are your demands? (Extra chapter for recomndation tickets!)_1
Chapter 71: 070. What are your demands? (Extra chapter for recomndation tickets!)_1
“My sister is the new bride of the Hai Family.”
Having said that, the man turned his head as if to leave the inn.
Cui Siter glanced at Lu Ban, who had already put away the dried fish and stroked the cat’s head forcefully before standing up to follow the man.
As the two walked on the desolate streets following the man, it wasn’t until then that Cui Siter realized, although there were no people on the streets, pairs of eyes seed to be watching from behind the ancient windows of the buildings along the road.
These villagers, just like the people in the previous village, rejected outsiders, cautious and observant, watching them secretively.
He could faintly make out their faces, not much different from ordinary people, but their expressions were numb, like zombies, the living dead.
Moving forward, the three ca to the edge of the town, near the sea.
“My na is Ah Yu, I fish on the east side of Dried Water Town, and my sister is nad Shuangyu, she is fifteen years old this year.”
The man gestured toward the nearby beach.
There, so won and elderly people were seen with children, picking up seashells, little crabs, and the like.
In the morning light, the beach shimred, and the rising sun turned the sea into a stretch of gold. In the distance, one could vaguely see fishing boats, their white sails fluttering in the waves, presenting a serene and peaceful atmosphere, utterly different from the oppressive gloom of the town.
“What is it that you’re asking for?”
Without reflecting on the contrast between the two, Lu Ban directly inquired.
“I want you to save Shuangyu,” the man said, his voice suddenly becoming uncertain, trembling, with more fear mixed in.
“Save your sister? But wasn’t your sister married to the young master of the Hai Family out of mutual affection?” Lu Ban asked.
“…Yes, Shuangyu did have a good relationship with the young master of the Hai Family, and perhaps she truly fell in love with that man, but… but it’s not right, that isn’t love, she was beguiled, she’s been chard!” When he said this, the man who claid to be Ah Yu beca agitated.
“Are you saying the Hai Family People used a spell or sothing to charm your sister into becoming the bride?” Cui Siter took a deep puff from his pipe and blew a smoke ring.
“No, it’s not that… it’s hard for
to tell you, but the Hai Family… we all like the Hai Family, they are the saviors of our town, no, I have to save Shuangyu, this can’t continue…” Ah Yu spoke unclearly, making it hard to understand what he was trying to convey.
“Wait a mont, we were invited by the Hai Family to attend the wedding, why do you think we could save your sister and not help the people of the Hai Family?” Cui Siter sensed sothing wasn’t right.
“Because, because you are outsiders,” Ah Yu said, as if he had found his footing, finally uttering sothing comprehensible.
“Outsiders? Don’t you like outsiders?” Cui Siter asked, suddenly rembering Lu Ban, he turned his head and noticed that Lu Ban was nowhere to be seen.
He looked around in a hurry, only to find that Lu Ban had run off to where a group of elders and children were, and was currently catching crabs on the beach with a child.
“No point relying on him…”
Cui Siter continued to look at Ah Yu.
“Dried Water Town doesn’t welco outsiders, and outsiders won’t gain the trust of the Hai Family. I had no choice, I need to save Shuangyu, so I can only rely on you,” explained Ah Yu with a strange, forceful tone.
“…You talk about saving Shuangyu, but the Hai Family should be the largest clan in your town, with the power to command wind and rain. Shouldn’t marrying into their family an she ought to be happy?”
Cui Siter pondered for a mont and decided he should be able to extract a bit more information about the mission and this small town from Ah Yu, so he went along with the conversation.
“No, one is absolutely not happy in the Hai Family… The people of the Hai Family are all, all very strange.”
Ah Yu seed to recall so unpleasant mories.
“… They began to stop interacting with the villagers twenty years ago. They all like to wear black, clothes that cover their entire bodies, and masks… Fish masks.”
Click—
When Cui Siter heard these words from Ah Yu, his heart suddenly skipped a half-beat.
“You an, fish masks? What kind of masks are they?”
At that mont, clouds from nowhere drifted in from the sea, temporarily obscuring the sun, casting a shadow over the entire beach, the entire sea region, over Ah Yu and Cui Siter.
Cui Siter saw the fisherman’s face cast in shadows, contorting into sothing fierce and grim.
“Like fish, fish that can walk… The dance of the Hai Family, the Qi Lang Dance, is like fish swimming in the sea… They seem to originate from the vast ocean…”
As the clouds passed, the laughter and cheerful voices of children once more filled the air. Half of Ah Yu’s face was illuminated by sunlight while the other half lingered in darkness. For a mont, this gave Cui Siter the illusion that the eyes on that half of Ah Yu’s face were bulging out, transforming into the likeness of the strange, fish-like creatures.
“If Shuangyu marries into the Hai Family, she will beco like them, just like those brides before…”
Ah Yu muttered to himself.
“You want us to save your sister, so what help can you offer us?”
Cui Siter suppressed the unease in his heart and continued to ask.
“There’s sothing in the Hai Family Mansion, sothing very terrifying. They can’t deal with it themselves; they can only guard it. If you can find it, you could release it, and the Hai Family People won’t notice anyone else.”
At this point, Ah Yu beca more lucid, speaking with a steadier tone.
“Are you talking about so kind of monster?”
Cui Siter found what Ah Yu was saying to be quite strange as well.
It was almost as if rescuing his own sister was just a pretext, and the real goal was to release sothing that the Hai Family was suppressing.
“No, it’s not that. It’s the Hai Family’s own thing, sothing from their own house. It only reacts to the people of the Hai Family. It won’t hurt you; it has said that it won’t harm anyone else.”
At this point, Ah Yu cracked a ridiculous grin.
“Do you know how to release that thing? What does it look like?”
Cui Siter had an ominous premonition.
“It’s there, right in the middle of the Hai Family Mansion, in an altar. Just remove the Stone that’s pressing down on it, and it can be released. That’s what it told ; it was right, just like that, I want it to co out.”
Ah Yu’s speech beca erratic, his voice tinged with a trembling tone.
“I want to co out; I won’t harm you. I only seek revenge against the Hai Family People; they have hurt …”
In the blink of an eye, the fisherman seed to morph into the embodint of sothing else, his cheeks twitching, eyes narrowing into the opposite of a fish’s eyes, creating an altogether eerie expression.
“What is your na?”
Sensing that sothing was off, Cui Siter leaned closer, his hand not holding the pipe quietly rested on his holster, and he cautiously asked.
“My na is Ah Yu… I am… the Black Queen Mother.”
In a Mont, the eyes of Ah Yu, who had just looked up, were nothing but pitch black.
*
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