Sacrificial Lamb (5)
The piercing sound stabbed straight through his eardrums, sending a wave of pain through his head. It took Chen Li a full five seconds to connect the word “sacrifice” with his own situation.
He asked stubbornly: [Is this really the job of a Holy Son?]
System 001 responded with both anger and sympathy: [No. You’re being used as a sacrifice.]
Everything about being a neighbor of the Zhou family had been a lie. The High Priest had decided to offer him as a new sacrifice to the shrine in the mountains. Yesterday’s events had just been a performance to lower his guard.
System 001 continued: [I asked the other guide NPCs. According to those who’ve played the game ‘Crimson Funeral,’ the plot should’ve gone like this: the eldest son of the Zhou family is killed, and then the player is offered as a sacrifice. But for some reason… you ended up being the one chosen.]
Though the NPCs outside were in a complete panic, once a dungeon instance begins, no one can enter again.
Now, they could only rely on System 001’s broadcast to know what was happening to him.
Even though he was terrified himself, Chen Li still tried to comfort them: [I’ll be okay. Please don’t worry too much.]
He struggled for several minutes, but all it did was nearly scrape the delicate skin on his wrists—completely useless. Maybe the noise alerted someone outside, as the curtain was suddenly lifted and someone stepped in.
Blinding sunlight pierced through. The sound of drums and gongs outside grew louder. The person who entered had probably come to issue a warning, but upon seeing the scene inside the sedan chair, he froze, suspiciously silent.
Dark black hair, fair skin, blindfolded under red cloth, tied up loosely like a beautiful prey waiting nervously for his fate—he evoked pity and, at the same time, awakened a dark, indescribable desire.
The man clicked his tongue mockingly and reached out to tilt Chen Li’s chin. When Chen Li dodged, he didn’t get angry, merely crouched down in front of him with a smirk: “No wonder you’re a guide NPC. That drug would knock out three grown men until morning, but you’re still too weak. I’ve never seen an NPC this fragile.”
As soon as he spoke, Chen Li recognized him—it was the one from the group of players wearing a colorful floral shirt. He’d seemed like a troublemaker from the start.
It was the first time in the game that Chen Li had so plainly appeared weak. Panic surged in his heart, but he forced himself to appear calm: “You’re colluding with the High Priest?”
The player didn’t even bother denying it: “Yeah. The townspeople went crazy yesterday. If we didn’t cooperate, we’d probably have been torn apart. This is my first time colluding with an NPC to kill another NPC.”
Chen Li’s heart sank.
Kill.
Even the players believed being a sacrifice meant certain death.
The colorful floral shirt guy kept rambling: “I love pretty little things like you. Such a shame. Don’t worry, though. We’ll find out who the real culprit in this instance is. If anyone truly wronged you, it’s the one who killed the Zhou family’s chosen sacrifice.”
Chen Li frowned: “Weren’t you investigating the town’s missing person cases?”
“They’re all dead,” the floral shirt man said lazily. “All those like you—Holy Sons—they’ve all died. The town just claims they’re ‘missing.’ Crazy, right?”
“This instance’s filthy. Some people get to be worshipped as Holy Sons or Holy Maidens, bask in the town’s glory. But once too many die, they call in detectives like us. Others are sacrificed quietly and no one even cares.”
As he spoke, his hands started to wander toward Chen Li again: “It’s all just luck. Too bad yours ran out. Those townspeople worshipped you yesterday, but when the High Priest said you were the best substitute sacrifice for the Zhou family heir, they tied you up without a second thought.”
Chen Li kept dodging his greasy hands as best he could, snapping: “Luck? This was all the High Priest’s decision!”
Kneeling and tied, his movements were restricted, and he could only avoid as much as possible.
Just as that disgusting hand was about to touch his lips, all noise from outside suddenly vanished—as if someone had hit the pause button.
The silence was eerie.
The man in the colorful floral shirt withdrew his hand and suddenly looked grim, stepping outside: “What the hell is going on—urk!”
Before he could finish, his voice cut off like a duck being strangled. His face turned dark purple, mouth gaping like he couldn’t breathe.
Chen Li squirmed nervously: [What’s happening out there? Did they run into the wedding procession?]
System 001’s voice turned strange and complex: [Someone… something… has come to escort you.]
Chen Li was stunned: [What?]
Before he could process it, the noise outside resumed—but this time, instead of the chaotic noise of a festival, there was an eerie, rhythmic suona1 tune playing.
The suona played a wedding tune. A cheerful female voice called out: “Please, bride, step out—”
Then came the voices of many children behind her: “Please, bride, step out—”
They repeated it again and again, clearly intending not to stop until Chen Li came out.
With a loud crack, the man in the colorful floral shirt was thrown away from the doorway like a sack of rotten flesh.
Then, without a blade in sight, the ropes binding Chen Li’s hands and feet snapped apart.
He flexed his sore wrists, tore off the red blindfold blocking his vision, and carefully stood up, clinging to one final hope: [Surely they don’t mean me as the bride, right?]
After all, he was a perfectly normal man.
But with System 001’s silence, Chen Li’s heart sank further.
He didn’t want to go outside, but the voices outside grew more and more aggressive.
Even without stepping out, he could feel the ominous wind howling.
That woman’s voice came again: “Please don’t miss the auspicious hour.”
As her final word fell, the giggling voices of the children turned hoarse and unpleasant—until they devolved into wailing.
Dozens of children crying at once… it was enough to shatter the last of anyone’s resolve.
Covering his ears, Chen Li stepped outside. The moment he saw the scene outside, regret surged through him. Trembling, he instinctively tried to retreat and play dead.
You couldn’t blame him for being scared—honestly, the fact that he hadn’t passed out was already his greatest achievement.
As he lifted the curtain, he almost thought he’d stepped into the underworld. It was still daylight, but the sun was blocked by dark clouds. A gloomy and eerie green mist hung in the air, and in front of the long procession stood—
A group of paper figures, pale as death, with crude features and faces thin as cicada wings.
The children who had just been wailing for so long—turned out to be paper figures too.
As soon as they saw him come out, they all turned their blank, staring eyes on him. Their crimson mouths slowly curled open, and in unison they called out:
“The bride!”
At that awkward title, Chen Li’s expression changed, and he instinctively turned to pull the curtain back down. Unfortunately, he wasn’t given the chance. A red ribbon interwoven with golden threads suddenly wrapped around his waist. It moved like a living thing, winding tightly around him before lifting him into the air and flinging him into the bridal sedan across from him.
Yes, across from him was another procession. If one could ignore the eerie and horrifying nature of the paper figures, the scene looked just like a grand and festive wedding parade.
The bridal sedan was more than twice the size of theirs, elaborately carved, decorated with genuine gold and silver—everything screamed wealth and extravagance.
But at that moment, Chen Li had no time to admire whether the jade hanging on the sedan was Hetian jade or something else. His mind was a chaotic mess of panic. He was even worried the sedan would crush the paper figures who barely reached his waist.
As it turned out, he needn’t have worried. The four light, fluttering paper figures carried the large sedan with perfect balance—smooth, without a single jolt.
It was only then that Chen Li noticed something was wrong with the townspeople.
He had assumed they were simply too frightened to speak because of the paper figures. But when he looked around, he realized every one of them had invisible chains clamped around their throats. Their faces were flushed purple with pain, clearly suffocating.
Their limbs were stiff and rigid, as though bound by something unseen, unable to move. Even the high and mighty High Priest wasn’t spared—he looked the worst of all, his spine bent under the pressure.
Judging from their horrified expressions, it was obvious that these paper figures had never appeared in any previous ritual.
Their twisted, hideous faces didn’t look human at all.
For some reason, four words flashed through Chen Li’s mind again: “Ghost…between your legs.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to test the thought. The red ribbon around him started moving again, wrapping around his entire body like flowing water. Within five seconds, his clothes had been replaced with a lavish, almost ostentatiously ornate wedding robe.
It wasn’t exactly feminine—more androgynous in style—but the red veil slowly descending onto his head was unmistakably meant for a bride.
No matter how much Chen Li resisted, the veil still came down over him, cutting off his vision. Outside, the sound of the suona became even louder.
The lead female paper figure let out a satisfied sigh: “Let’s depart!”
The paper figures burst into shrill giggles, their crude smiles twisting as they began marching up the mountain.
As for the dying townspeople and players—they didn’t spare them even a glance.
The children started singing a rhyme:
“Foggy skies… the beautiful young man is getting married…”
Chen—”Beautiful Young Man”—Li felt anything but happy. There was a damned sense of familiarity to everything happening around him.
Even if he tried to ignore it, the fact that he was riding in a sedan carried by paper figures filled him with dread.
He had no idea how long they walked before the paper figures finally stopped. Their already blood-red mouths drooped downward in fear, their expressions trembling as they huddled together.
“That master is coming! That master is coming!”
“The auspicious hour has arrived!”
Chen Li tugged at the luxurious rug beneath him and asked: [Who’s coming?]
System 001: [The thing in the shrine.]
Even the townspeople didn’t know what kind of horror was sealed inside the shrine. They were ignorant and blindly offered sacrifices, praying for protection.
Most of the bound sacrifices, in truth, had simply starved to death in the wilderness—easy prey for small predators.
If Chen Li had once doubted whether anything was actually sealed in the shrine, the appearance of the paper figures erased all uncertainty.
His fear hadn’t subsided in the slightest. His rounded fingertips turned pale from how tightly he was gripping the corner, curling into himself helplessly in the corner.
Finally, footsteps echoed outside, and the once-noisy paper figures collapsed lifelessly to the ground with soft thuds.
The curtain was pulled open again. The once-spacious sedan felt cramped the moment a tall man stepped inside.
In the tiny space, only two breaths could be heard—one light, one heavy. The air grew thick, as if sparks were catching, quickly igniting into a blazing fire.
Without a word, the man wrapped an arm around Chen Li’s waist, and the other slid under his knees, lifting him in a bridal carry. His voice, low and sinful, rumbled through his chest: “My… little bride?”
Author’s note:
Someone is really obsessed with getting married.
- Suona is a traditional Chinese double-reed horn used in weddings and funerals.
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