“Did you guys run into those female ghosts in qipaos?”
Li Yinuo’s desire for gossip was running high, and she couldn’t wait to share her recent experience with everyone.
“We ran into them! We ran into them!”
Zeng Hong nodded hurriedly. “Their tongues could stretch out super long!”
“Ghosts? What are those?”
Zhang Shuai rested his right hand on Li Dongxuan’s shoulder and asked curiously.
Their group had pretty good luck. After the dense fog rolled in, a lantern-bearing joy child found them, so they hadn’t been harassed by any female ghosts.
“They should be wronged female ghosts who died unjustly. Anyway, they’re terrifying!”
Zeng Hong was still terrified just thinking about it now.
“Actually, they weren’t that scary!”
Xu Shaowei glanced at Lu Jiuling.
“Shaowei, were you scared stupid? People died, and you’re saying it’s not scary?”
Zeng Hong couldn’t believe it.
“You can burn them to death with torches!”
Xu Shaowei dropped this bombshell.
“What?”
“How do you know?”
“You tried it?”
“Just a guess, right? Who in their right mind would have the guts to burn those filthy things?”
The girls chattered noisily.
Actually, this kind of discussion was also a way to vent the tension and fear in their hearts. It seemed the livelier the atmosphere, the safer they felt.
“690 burned them!”
Li Yinuo extended her thumb, pointing toward Lu Jiuling. “And he killed several of them!”
“Huh?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“690 has that much guts?”
The girls turned their heads in unison to look at Lu Jiuling.
He was quite tall, on the thinner side, not bad looking, and with his jeans and ordinary hoodie jacket, he exuded a fresh and delicate aura all over—truly a little puppy type.
Lu Jiuling had always given everyone the impression of being the passive type—the kind who needed the girl to take the initiative when kissing.
He dared to take the initiative and burn ghosts?
The girls didn’t ask Lu Jiuling. Instead, they all turned their heads together again to look at Jiang Shan, waiting for an answer.
“It’s true!”
Jiang Shan never spoke nonsense; her character was especially trustworthy.
“Holy crap!”
“That fierce?”
“You totally can’t tell at all!”
The girls’ faces were full of shock as they re-examined Lu Jiuling.
“That’s not all. Shaowei was dragged away by a female ghost’s long tongue, and it was 690 who acted in time to save her. Otherwise, Shaowei would definitely be dead!”
Li Yinuo exaggeratedly recounted the process of Lu Jiuling rescuing Xu Shaowei, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
Nearby, Zhang Shuai and his small clique also had dumbstruck expressions.
Li Jiayao clenched her small fists,
very happy.
Her classmates had finally discovered 690’s hidden depths.
“690 was also the first to guess that if you hid under the red lanterns, those female ghosts wouldn’t dare approach!”
Ning Qian truly admired Lu Jiuling. In that sudden situation, he had remained calm and composed, able to think clearly.
Xu Shuo obviously usually had the air of an honors student, but compared to Lu Jiuling just now, he was simply like a raw recruit—utterly disappointing and completely unreliable.
Listening to the girls constantly discussing Lu Jiuling and praising him, Xu Shuo looked embarrassed and furtively glanced at Jiang Shan with unease.
As expected!
Jiang Shan was quietly observing Lu Jiuling.
This made Xu Shuo’s heart tighten, filling him with regret.
If he had just been bolder and dealt with those female ghosts, Jiang Shan would definitely have developed a good impression of him!
No!
He couldn’t let these girls keep talking, or Lu Jiuling’s image would become too grand.
“Hey everyone, the crisis isn’t over yet!”
Xu Shuo spoke up. “It’s too early to relax now!”
This sentence immediately quieted everyone down.
That was right!
What should they do now?
There were many lantern-bearing joy children. They had scattered in all directions, bringing the tourists who were scattered throughout the mansion here.
Of course, there were also some unlucky ones who were killed by ghosts before the lantern children could find them.
Lu Jiuling observed!
This was a large courtyard with bluestone-paved floors polished to a mirror shine. On the north side was a screen wall carved with lifelike pine cranes of longevity, inviting blessings and auspiciousness!
Beyond the screen wall was a tightly shut main mansion gate.
On either side were qilin stone statues the size of adults guarding the residence. Two joy children stood with hands neatly folded, carrying large red lanterns pasted with the “Double Happiness” character, standing before the gate to respectfully welcome guests.
Seeing this arrangement, did they need to enter and attend the wedding inside?
“Hurry up and think of something for me!”
A sharp, noisy voice drew everyone’s attention.
Everyone turned and saw a woman around twenty-three or twenty-four years old exploding at her boyfriend: “I don’t care, I want to get out right now!”
The woman wore tight jeans, a camisole with a sun-protection shirt on top, and had a pair of sunglasses perched on her head.
“Calm down a little!”
Her boyfriend tried to persuade her.
“I can’t calm down. Hurry up and think of something for me!”
The woman in jeans shook off her boyfriend’s hand that tried to hug her. “Go ask those two children who they are?”
“…”
Her boyfriend fell silent. Who knew if doing that was dangerous?
“Zhang Chenfan, you’re such a coward!”
The woman in jeans scoffed.
Zhang Chenfan was very embarrassed. Coupled with being surrounded by so many onlookers, he couldn’t bear losing face and didn’t want to be looked down upon. So he mustered his courage, went around the screen wall, climbed the steps, and asked the lantern-bearing joy child on the left.
“Hello, why did you bring us here?”
Zhang Chenfan put on a smiling face, his attitude amiable.
Unfortunately, it was useless.
The lantern-bearing joy child glanced at him and continued standing indifferently.
Apart from these two lantern-bearing joy children standing at the door to welcome guests, the other small joy children who had gone to guide guests immediately returned to the rear residence to prepare for the next step of the wedding ceremony after completing their tasks.
“Chenfan, slap them and see if they talk!”
The woman in jeans suggested!
Zhang Chenfan was a bit of a pushover, but not stupid. Don’t think that just because this lantern-bearing joy child was a small child and looked harmless at first glance, who knew if hitting them would cause huge trouble?
“690, what do you think?”
Xu Shaowei sized up the two small joy children. “Any way to make them speak?”
“690, just now Li Yinuo and them praised you like some superhero from a manga. Don’t embarrass yourself. Go on, blaze a path for everyone!”
Zhang Shuai mocked, the more he looked at Lu Jiuling, the more displeased he felt.
“From the current situation, we should find a way to enter that main gate!”
Lu Jiuling pondered.
He estimated there was death risk inside, but if they didn’t enter and just stayed here, they would probably die even faster.
“The question is how to enter?” Xu Shuo snorted coldly. “Don’t you see those two joy children ignoring people?”
Apart from that obviously infantile woman in jeans who had lost her mind, constantly complaining and blaming others, everyone else was either silent or speaking very quietly.
Gradually, more lantern-bearing joy children led tourists back.
About twenty minutes later, the last lantern-bearing joy child who had gone out to guide guests returned. It walked up the steps and whispered a few words to the two small joy children standing at the main gate.
Then the two small joy children each took something from their embrace—one produced an incense stick, the other a censer the size of an apple.
They used a fire striker to light the incense stick and inserted it into the censer.
Gray incense smoke curled upward, floating like clouds.
Creak!
The last joy child to return pressed both hands on the wooden door, pushed it open a crack, and squeezed inside sideways.
Creak!
The main gate closed again!
Everyone stretched their necks, wanting to see what was inside.
Someone caught a fleeting glimpse and saw a banquet laid out inside, and even an enticing aroma of food wafted out.
“What does this mean?”
Xu Shaowei watched as the joy child on the left gave her big red lantern to her companion, then held the censer with both hands and closed her eyes.
“Could it be timing us?” Jiang Shan frowned. “Once the incense burns out, we’ll die?”
“Ah? Don’t scare me?”
Li Yinuo panicked.
“I think Jiang Shan’s guess is most likely right!”
Xu Shuo had a bad feeling.
“Shouldn’t we hurry up and find a way to get in?”
Tang Lei adjusted his round-framed glasses, trying hard to think of a way, but his mind was a mess with no clues. “Bro 69, did you think of anything?”
“If a wedding banquet is being held inside, according to logical analysis, we must have an invitation to enter.”
Lu Jiuling had actually thought of something.
Just now when that young man asked the lantern-bearing joy child and they ignored him, it should be because he didn’t have an invitation.
“Where do we get an invitation?”
Xu Shuo pressed.
“I think we can try giving wedding gift money!” Zhang Shuai was a vulgar fellow. “From ancient times to now, aren’t weddings all about the gift money!”
“You go try it?”
Xu Shaowei suggested.
“Hah!”
Zhang Shuai sneered.
You think I’m stupid?
But he had a move too.
“Hey, beauty, have your boyfriend give that kid some money. Maybe you’ll get in!”
Zhang Shuai shouted toward the woman in jeans.
The woman in jeans heard this and immediately had her boyfriend try it.
Zhang Chenfan had no choice. Besides, when he talked to the joy child just now, they didn’t do anything to him, so this time he wasn’t too flustered.
“Little one, I’ll give you a hundred yuan. How about letting me in?”
Zhang Chenfan took out a hundred yuan from his wallet and handed it to the lantern-bearing joy child.
The two lantern-bearing joy children didn’t even lift their eyelids.
“This method won’t work!”
Xu Shuo sighed.
“Beauty, have your boyfriend raise the price!”
Zhang Shuai didn’t give up.
As it turned out, Zhang Chenfan raised it to five hundred yuan, but the two lantern-bearing joy children still didn’t react.
“It looks like we must have an invitation!”
Xu Shuo was completely baffled. “But where do we get something like that?”
Lu Jiuling pondered, opened his backpack, and took out the red envelope Tang Weimin had given him before dinner.
The class teacher had said at the time that there were some rather sharp comments inside. To avoid embarrassing everyone, he should look at it privately after the activity ended tomorrow.
Lu Jiuling opened the red envelope.
Inside was a folded letter and a yellow copper coin.
Lu Jiuling unfolded the letter. There were none of the blessings, messages, or evaluations that Tang Weimin had mentioned—only one sentence.
‘You are my new life!’
Tang Lei leaned over, looking at this line of vigorous and flowing regular script on the letter.
The characters were beautiful, the class teacher’s handwriting, but what did it mean?
Lu Jiuling showed an expression of complete understanding. He poured out the copper coin and looked at both sides.
On the slightly antiquated copper coin were four seal-script characters: “Jixiang Tongbao.”
Lu Jiuling weighed the coin in his hand and walked toward the small lantern-bearing joy child on the steps.
Swish!
Everyone’s gazes turned toward him.