Chapter 291: Choices
“Listen!” Fatty suddenly said.
The sound of discussion disappeared. Everyone held their breath for half a minute.
“What did you want us to listen to?” You Qi turned to Fatty. There was annoyance in his eyes.
“I… believed I heard the sound of boat rowing.” Fatty explained, “But… it disappeared.”
“You were probably too nervous,” Qin Jian, who stood a distance away, said confidently. He looked at the others like he was above them. “Or you were hallucina…” Then, his words got stuck in his throat as he looked at the foggy lake with fear.
A boat silently cut through the mist. The boat was empty. Everyone finally reacted when the boat bumped against the shore. The next second, the drums began. It was… San Geng.
Chill started to spread. Everyone stared at the boat and then at the lake. The fog started to part to reveal a deep red figure on the lake’s surface. It was Young Master Huang. The figure was swaying. One arm was straight, while the other was bent. The fluttering sleeves lowered to block his face. This graceful pose invoked fear in everyone. They were certain that… the face that was hidden was incredibly scary.
“Look…” Shi Liaozhi’s voice trembled. “Behind him!”
As the mist around Young Master Huang faded, everyone was startled. Then, the fear exploded in their hearts. Frost started to form in their blood vessels. Brides in red veils started to appear around Young Master Huang. There were ten of them. They stood in a circle to surround Young Master Huang in the middle. Their arms hung beside them limply. It was very strange. This situation was clear. The ghost was hiding among them. If they accidentally chose the ghost…
“Let’s start.” An Xuan sighed.You Qi looked resistant, but he still moved his legs and stepped on the boat first. It couldn’t be helped. The order had already been decided beforehand. It was the same order as they met Young Master Huang.
The small boat carried You Qi into the mist. Strangely enough, once You Qi’s boat entered the mist, Young Master Huang’s location became blurrier until everything became obscured. No one at the shore could tell what was happening.
Just as everyone was flustered from waiting, the small boat returned. However, to everyone’s consternation, the boat was empty. You Qi… was gone.
“Where is he?” Everyone’s scalps numbed. Shi Liaozhi was next. His legs shook. Everyone worried that he’d carelessly fall into the lake. Thankfully, the boat appeared to be controlled by some strange power. Shi Liaozhi didn’t even need to row, and the boat automatically ferried him towards the lake centre.
After confirming the others couldn’t see him, the normally timid Shi Liaozhi transformed into a different person. He stood up and made sure the boat was stable before looking around. The boat was moving steadily. He slowly knelt down, intending to check underwater. However, a thought appeared in his head that caused him to freeze.
He could imagine seeing bloated faces underwater, moving the boat from the bottom with their rotten limbs. He was a soldier from a special unit. Even though his speciality was not assassinations, the sense of prediction he honed on the battlefield was sharper than that of a normal person.
Even though he suspected something strange was in the water, Young Master Huang and the brides were still the biggest threats.
Shi Liaozhi became alert. The sound of water from under the boat… changed. It sounded like the bottom of the boat had brushed against something, and it gradually slowed before stopping completely.
He looked up, and what he saw caused him to stumble a few steps. He almost fell off the boat. About two meters before him, a bride in red clothes and a red veil stood there silently.
The cold wind woke Shi Liaozhi up slightly. The bride was merely a realistic paper doll. It was similar to the paper doll they saw the day before. This could be seen from the hands hidden in the sleeves. He looked around. He realised there were other similar paper brides. He did a quick count. There were nine of them. The missing one probably had been chosen by You Qi.
He narrowed his eyes to study them. Be it craftsmanship, dressing, and actions… they were all identical. Time went by. In the end, he decided to carry the one closest to him. He carried the bride on his back because that was the rule, or else he would rather carry the thing in his arms. Who came up with the stupid rules?
After carrying the paper bride onto the boat, Shi Liaozhi sighed in relief. The boat started to move again. Everything felt right. Even though it was impossible to tell the direction through the fog, he believed he was retracing his movement. The paper bride was very light, so it was no burden to him.
Before this, he imagined many scenarios in his mind. For example, the bride suddenly came alive to grab him… Or when he got on the island, the strange Young Master Huang…
Shi Liaozhi’s brain halted. He realised he had forgotten about something important.
Where was Young Master Huang? Shouldn’t he be standing among the brides?
But earlier…
He heard a light but strange sound. It was right beside his ears. It sounded like a rusted axle being forcibly moved. The next second, he saw from the corner of his eyes that the two paper arms on his shoulders were rapidly bending. The skin in the sleeves was slowly exposed.
Shi Liaozhi’s pupils widened. The fingers in the sleeves started to morph. They expanded like drumsticks as if they had been soaked for a long time in the water. They even started to take on a strange blueish hue.
A strange feeling came from the back of his neck. It felt like something hairy and wet was approaching.
This was bad…