"Bang—"
Night pressed down heavily, everything suddenly feeling terrifying. The village nestled in the valley seed wrapped in an invisible net.
It was as if only now did the calm red-clothed woman reveal her true colors; she lunged at the thick door and hamred on it with all her might.
"What’s happening? What are you trying to do? Let out!!"
"Soone, help…"
The n outside couldn’t see her face, but from her panicked shouts they could picture fear etched across it.
Inside, however, Xiao Gui’an sat with a lazy, calm look while he patted the door, straining his voice and carefully modulating his strength so he wouldn’t smash the woodboard outright.
"Please, soone, help!…"
"Help!…"
Those plaintive, pitiful pleas were exactly the kind to soften people’s hearts. A flicker of hesitation crossed the n’s faces, but it vanished quickly. "We’re doing this for a good reason! Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen…"
"Bang, bang, bang—"
The knocks behind the door grew weaker, and the red-clothed woman seed to give up. She slid down the door, leaning against it helplessly, no longer struggling.
Only when there was absolute silence did the n step away to report the situation.
Xiao Gui’an drifted lazily from the door. After putting on a show like that, the people outside would probably lower their guard considerably.
He squinted. His gaze landed on the ssy storage corner that Mrs. Liao had glanced toward earlier that day. Out of politeness he had never touched that spot, even if he suspected sothing.
But now that their malice had shown itself, there was no need for niceties.
With a wave, heavy wooden boxes and miscellaneous junk lifted slightly. There seed to be nothing there but dust—except that it was an illusion.
A surge of strong yin energy shook the place, and the hidden items slowly revealed their true forms.
A blood-red wedding dress floated into his sight: shoes, the red veil, and even scattered bits of gold and silver jewelry nearby. Two gold bracelets lay neatly arranged.
Beside the carefully folded bridal gown were red silk cords—soaked in blood and tainted with a trace of demonic aura. If used to bind soone’s hands and feet, ordinary sharp objects wouldn’t be enough to break free.
Would a fox possibly marry for just a set of bridal clothes?
Xiao Gui’an didn’t believe in such things.
He stared at the finely made bridal gown, and the commotion from not far outside rose again.
"Uncle! What are you talking about?! Mom, how could I possibly marry…"
"I’ll return to school after the holiday!…"
"This is feudal thinking! This is garbage!!—"
"How could you do this!…"
It was Liao Fanghua.
She was surrounded by a cluster of people, all holding sticks and ropes. The middle-aged man who had co with that squat old woman at noon was Liao Fanghua’s uncle.
Mrs. Liao stood beside the middle-aged man, her face edged with a bit of pity and reluctance, yet she still refused to listen to her daughter’s explanations and blocked her path.
"Mom?! How can you believe this? What fox marriage? This is human trafficking! This is murder!"
"Fanghua! Don’t talk nonsense. I’m doing this for your own good. If you marry well, you’ll never have to worry about anything again!"
Mrs. Liao cut off Liao Fanghua’s words. She truly believed that marriage would guarantee her daughter a worry-free future. "We’ve seen it before. Even if you don’t co back to see your mother, I won’t bla you. Those people, they have their rules…"
"A daughter married away is water thrown out!—"
The doll-faced girl was clearly terrified. She clutched her backpack to her chest, hair disheveled, glasses askew, face ashen.
She couldn’t understand why the once-simple, honest elders of the village had suddenly turned into a different breed of person.
Even if they had been petty in so matters and liked small gains, they had never shown such cold, ruthless indifference before. The way they looked at her now felt like the gaze one gives to rchandise.
When she was little she had heard stories that the village selected brides to marry into so wealthy Hu family in the mountains.
Those chosen would live such comfortable lives that they would never want to co back to their poor, backward village.
At that age, Liao Fanghua didn’t understand much and even thought it might be nice to be one of those "brides"—she’d get tasty food and beautiful clothes.
But as she grew, the villagers no longer spoke about that tale.
When she asked around, the elderly people denied knowing such a thing.
She had originally heard it from them, yet now both villages denied its existence, as if adults had once told her a fanciful lie to placate a child. Liao Fanghua stopped caring about it.
As she learned more at school, she grew increasingly skeptical of such superstitions.
Though her village was closed-off and elders still clung to many superstitions, she never imagined an arranged marriage could be forced upon her so suddenly.
Blurred mories resurfaced.
The brides married off into the mountains never returned to their natal hos. Were they unwilling to co back, or simply unable to?
That possibility chilled Liao Fanghua to the bone. Strange details she had ignored before rose in her mind.
This holiday, her family had summoned her back early, saying she didn’t need to work part-ti for tuition anymore because they had found a solution. Her mother had made her drink strange herbal dicine daily, saying it would lift her scent and calm her spirit…
Tonight she feared there was no escape.
In the neighboring village, the chosen one was probably another girl, Xu Qingxiu, soone she knew well. Xu had dropped out of middle school early to work and rarely ca ho.
This ti they ant to call her back too, but Xu Qingxiu seed to have found soone she liked. Afraid her family would disapprove, she cut off contact and ran off with the man. They couldn’t reach her now.
Liao Fanghua’s complexion was deathly pale. She stared at the tightly locked teahouse and shouted, "Sister?! Sister?…"
She was overwheld with guilt—she had not discovered this earlier to warn the other.
At noon she had ant to bring food, but had overheard a conversation between her uncle and the respected Grandma Xu from the neighboring village.
They spoke as if reciting facts: so Hu family taking brides, Fanghua being their pick, the runaway brides among them, those from outside the village being delivered right to the door, and the promised paynt…
The more she listened, the colder her spine felt. Sothing was wrong. She planned to warn soone but was blocked and locked in a room so she couldn’t leave.
That night she finally snuck out.
She rushed to beg her mother and relatives for help, but it was like stepping into a tiger’s den. It wasn’t just her family—her entire village was forcing her into that so-called "bride" role.
"Waah, it’s not like that… Mom!…"
"You won’t be coming back!… Brides never co back!…"
Clack—
Inside the teahouse, the bamboo umbrella handle gripped in her pale, bony hand showed faint cracks.
Excellent. Just excellent—
This wretched feudal superstition and backward belief system.
They were trying to destroy the bright future of a university student.
A fox’s marriage?
How dare it marry?!
He would roast that whole litter of foxes to ash—
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