Chapter 130 - BE7 - Ashes

Chapter 130: Chapter 128: BE7 - AshesHe returned to the beginning of the instance, where everything proceeded as it originally had.

He felt as though he had overlooked something. As he crossed the square and saw the marketplace, he looked into the distance and saw a palanquin, resplendent in red, wrapped in red silk.

——A wedding palanquin.

Today there was some joyous occasion.

He arrived at the Mayor’s house and stared at the three options that appeared.

"" This option seemed to have always been there. Initially in the night, he had also met Moli in the ancestral hall.

But he always felt that going blindly to the place Moli was last could be dangerous.

He chose to accompany the Mayor.

"——Father."

He got up, followed the Mayor, and supported him: "I will join you."

The Mayor looked at him, seemingly hesitant.

But in the end, he nodded.

They walked out together and saw the jubilant people.

The setting sun was thick like blood, tinting the faces of the people as if veiled in blood.

Night fell bit by bit, and the gentle snow started to fall more heavily, its cold watery gleam on their faces.

They arrived at the edge of the square, where there was a feast set up, with an array of fish and meat on the long table, and rows of benches where people sat cheering with their cups, seemingly celebrating something.

All that met the eye was flushed with a brilliant red, the lanterns of the snowy night as radiant as blood.

"Ming’an, you just returned. Have a meal here," the Mayor said as he seated him at a spot and admonished, "Don’t wander off when it starts."

Su Ming’an faintly thought of something.

Propped on his cane, the Mayor left, and the options floated up again:

Options appeared:

Su Ming’an was prepared for multiple attempts at the instance, wanting to try going down one path to its end.

He left the feast and followed the Mayor.

Mitchell also noticed him. The old man sighed softly and did not stop him, allowing him to continue following.

——He saw the Mayor’s destination.

A house.

At its front hung blood-red lanterns, standing next to a wedding palanquin. As he pushed open the door, he saw a woman dressed in wedding attire sitting behind a curtain, her head covered with a red bridal veil.

"...Father?"

He heard a crisp female voice, Moli’s voice.

...Was Moli getting married today?

Su Ming’an felt something was amiss, for Moli of Terrily Town was clearly single, otherwise she wouldn’t have been always asking Ming’an if he would marry her.

"It’s me. Moli, Ming’an has come back today too, just in time to see you get married," the Mayor called out from afar.

Su Ming’an saw Moli lift her hand as if she wanted to lift her bridal veil, but then she hesitated.

"Does getting married mean I can’t just look at others anymore?" Moli said softly.

"The Deity doesn’t want you to keep looking at others either," the Mayor said. "But, Moli, you can talk to Ming’an... haven’t you always told me you wanted to talk to someone your own age?"

The Mayor patted Su Ming’an’s shoulder and whispered, "Moli is getting married today... and you haven’t seen her yet, so talk to her first. When the auspicious time comes, you, as her brother, can carry her to the palanquin."

After that, the Mayor turned and left.

Su Ming’an stood still, looking at Moli through the curtain.

"...Brother Ming’an?"

She asked in a gentle voice.

"Moli, it’s me." Su Ming’an said, just as he was about to ask some questions, the scene before him suddenly froze again.

Options slowly emerged.

Su Ming’an originally wanted to choose A, a suitable remark to vocalize, a topic to narrow the gap.

But "Moli’s" behavior before entering the instance reminded him that the word "desire" seemed very important to her.

He chose option B.

"Moli." He looked up, his gaze fell on the slender figure wrapped in auspicious red, and saw her expression completely covered by the red bridal veil, his tone slightly heavy, "Getting married... is it your own desire?"

Moli’s body trembled slightly.

"You are still very young, don’t force yourself because of your father’s words." Su Ming’an looked at her: "What love is like, what it feels like to like someone, do you really understand? Who the other person is, what he looks like and his temperament, your feelings towards him... do you have any idea about these?"

"I..." Moli’s voice was a bit shaky: "I am pleased... I really love them... I think there’s nothing wrong with this marriage..."

Su Ming’an was taken aback.

He originally thought it was a forced marriage.

But Moli’s attitude, she actually seemed willing?

There was no one else here, facing him, did young Moli need to hide anything? Let alone... her voice truly sounded happy.

...Was she bewitched? Or...

"Moli." He stressed his tone, "Sometimes people cannot discern their own feelings; you have been shaped by the environment around you since birth, so much that you might not know what suits you or what is blind love. You need to go out and see to understand what is right for you —— the world is still very big, you are still very young, getting married and settling down is not everything."

Moli’s head raised slightly.

Su Ming’an felt she was looking right at him.

"Boli, brother." Moli seemed to laugh softly: "...you’re not very old either."

"I am different," Su Ming’an said. "I’m just asking you."

"...I won’t regret it." Moli’s voice was faint but firm: "I will devote all my love to them, that is my faith. I will forever passionately love them, like every person in this town does —— though all of this was told to me by father, I believe it as well —— I won’t have regrets, never."

Su Ming’an looked at Moli, who was obstinate to the point of being eerie.

He suddenly remembered, his task was to expose the wickedness of Moli.

Could this seemingly innocent girl in front of him not be so simple after all?

He hesitated, then heard the sound of a bell coming from outside the door.

"The auspicious time has arrived ——"

He heard the Mayor’s call, urging him on.

The night grew thicker bit by bit, the red candles in the room flickering.

Moli stood up, her jewelry clinking, the golden bracelets on her wrists reflecting light.

"Boli... brother," Moli approached, "please escort me to the bridal sedan."

Her voice was very light, crystal clear like glass:

"——I truly love them."

She said it with a near-devout conviction.

Su Ming’an suddenly found that he couldn’t control his body again, he was moving forward, turning around, picking her up.

Moli’s body was thin and small, her finger peeking out on his shoulder incredibly white as if it had been kept away, rarely experiencing sunlight. When he picked her up, he felt as though he was lifting a skeleton.

The system’s voice rang beside his ear like a voiceover.

This time, time did not stand still.

"It seems there’s no time left tonight; that’s what I’m thinking."

"Perhaps, I should stay here and look for a way to change the townsfolk’s minds. There might be another chance..."

No options emerged.

Su Ming’an watched himself carrying the slender, small Moli, step by step walking outward, and then, descending the stairs carpeted with bright red, he approached the bridal sedan awaiting at the door, under the blood-red lantern.

He looked at the bridal sedan with its curtain lifted, its dark interior resembling a fierce beast with its mouth wide open.

He walked on the road, as if carrying the girl to the mouth of that beast.

He placed Moli into the sedan and saw the curtains close.

In the last moment, he saw Moli lifting her veil, her eyes clear and pure as the Heavenly Sea, looking at him.

She was smiling.

Smiling so happily.

She might truly be happy about this marriage, but perhaps she didn’t even know what she was about to face.

"Lift the sedan—!"

The bearers shouldered the bridal sedan, and the red silk-adorned sedan slowly moved away from him in the snowy night; he immediately wanted to follow, but his body wouldn’t respond.

The Mayor, standing beside him, looked at him, the dragon head cane under the blood-red lantern coated with a deep red glow.

"Ming’an," the Mayor’s eyes were profound, "do not obstruct her happiness."

With the dragon head cane placed in front of him, it seemed to be a rule he couldn’t control his own body.

Su Ming’an stood still, his eyes darkened to an extreme.

...He had already roughly guessed everything that Moli was about to go through.

"Mitchell," Su Ming’an spoke out, no longer addressing him as "father," not even wanting to mask his tone with any hint of affection:

"—Your town truly makes me quite sick."

He waited a moment, but the Mayor did not reply.

Time seemed to pass very slowly until the snow on the ground loosened, and the upright dragon head cane fell to the ground. Finally, he could move again.

He quickly turned his head and indeed saw that the Mayor’s silhouette had long disappeared.

The cold wind of the winter night brushed his face, and he felt the long lost coldness.

He immediately took a step, facing the harsh winter wind as he ran towards the temple he remembered.

Along the way, he saw fireworks that had all but burned out and the remains of feasts left on tables.

He saw the snow scattered across the sky... The snowflakes, like goose feathers, fell upon him, almost covering his entire being with ice.

He even saw the red silk cloth discarded in front of a door; the girls who wove the fabric had disappeared, the chattering like magpies had vanished, leaving only the sound of his footsteps crunching in the snow in the night.

In the square, only the red lanterns in front of each household remained lit, flickering like pairs of wolf’s eyes.

"—First bow to heaven and earth!"

Somewhere, such a shout rose along with a series of prayers.

Like when he first arrived in Terrily Town and heard the townspeople’s prayers during the exile. Those sounds had a dark cadence to them. As he ran through the snowy night, he heard contiguous prayers from both sides weaving together, emanating from house to house.

The entire Terrily was enveloped in this chorus of prayers.

"—Second bow, to the parents!"

The voice still continued.

The sunset had completely faded.

The night, like a pot lid, had covered the town.

Suddenly, he heard a suona, its high and melodious tune piercing, carrying across half the town, stirring the mottled past buried in this town into melody, as if playing joyful music, yet also sounding like sharp and piercing wails.

—It was like joy mixed with sorrow.

"—The couple, bow to each other!"

The voice still continued.

He ran all the way, charging towards the temple in his memory, and the moment he stepped onto that street corner, he heard the strained voices of the townspeople:

"—May Terrily be reborn anew!"

Su Ming’an rushed to the front of the temple, seeing some burly townfolk gathered outside, seemingly trying to stop him.

He immediately teleported into the temple and saw the scene before him—

The vivid, big red dress of the bride, completely lifted and swaying, the ribbons at the hem of the skirt like a phoenix dragging fiery tail feathers, seemed to shake off sparks from the entire dress.

The murmurs of the villagers seemed to penetrate the damp, cold walls, and the snowflakes slapped his face like the palms of hands from outside the window.

—He saw Moli.

——Moli was lying in the coffin.

Her bridal gown was like fire, her jewelry exquisitely golden, a golden ring around her neck casting a beautiful ring of gold light.

Four wooden spikes pierced through her limbs, and her face still bore a smile.

This smile, under the flickering red candles, seemed somewhat bitter.

Next to her hand, there were words written, penned with her own blood, a vermilion expanse, especially stark against the dark wood of the coffin:

Below, there was another line of smaller characters, the bloodstains growing fainter, as if she no longer had the strength:

Su Ming’an stood still, looking at those words, as the door behind him was kicked open.

"Terry, kid! Come out! Don’t disturb the Bride—of our Deity—" The townfolk came to pull him away.

Su Ming’an didn’t speak, he turned his head, looking at the crazed townfolk.

——Moli was dead.

She died completely, weightless.

She was nailed to death on her wedding night because she was to marry the so-called "Deity" of Terrily Town.

Moli regretted it, she had so looked forward to marrying the Deity she loved most, but only realized just before her death that this might not be love.

But this ridiculous Deity... He hadn’t been seen even once till now.

Is He truly a God? A God who protects the world, saves the people from disasters, omnipotent and benevolent. Or... an Evil God who tempts the townfolk, leading them to slaughter each other, to exile themselves, taking the lives of innocent girls one by one?

Su Ming’an stood still, facing the mad townfolk.

He heard Terry’s voiceover-like voice once again:

The system notification sounded:

Su Ming’an looked at the girl who died in the coffin, her wedding gown as red as blood, and he sighed faintly.

——A step too late, again.

He raised his hand,

Rewind.