People at the foot of the mountain have heard about the ghost king on Wutou Mountain for generations.
It's just that the villagers at the foot of their mountain live a more comfortable life than elsewhere, which makes everyone forget about the headless ghost king.
Until a heavy rain almost submerged the village down the mountain, they all rushed to Wutou Mountain to avoid the flood.
After they returned to the village, the villagers began to have high fevers for no apparent reason, and some even had rashes all over their bodies, and they died soon after.
At first everyone thought they were sick, until more and more people developed high fevers.
A master passing by the town said that the town had offended the Headless Ghost King.
It is said that the ghost king has protected them for generations, but has never received anything in return. In this case, the ghost king must take it back from them and let them get retribution.
-
Yun Niang grew up in Shangshou Village. No one in the village wanted to play with her, and her parents were unwilling to feed her.
Only Sister Xu Niang in the village would give her sweet potato cakes to eat, and would also take her to worship at the Headless Temple.
She didn't know if the scary headless ghost statue would bless them, but Sister Xu Niang said it would.
In the third year after Xu Niang's sister died, the family's parents discussed whether to sell her to Wang Erzizi at the entrance of the village, or to make her a fourteenth concubine to a rice and grain vendor in the town.
She had no choice. If she really wanted to say it, she would rather marry a dead person like Sister Xu Niang.
Before Yun's mother and father could discuss it, it started to rain heavily throughout the county. It rained continuously for three or four days with no sign of stopping.
There was a river at the foot of the mountain, and the water in the river had swelled a lot. Seeing that the water in the river had reached the dam, the people in the village realized that something was wrong and hurriedly went to Wutou Mountain to take refuge.
As luck would have it, the rain stopped as soon as the villagers went up the mountain.
Villagers from other places also heard about the ghost king's blessing on Wutou Mountain, so they all came to live at the foot of Wutou Mountain. Gradually, Shangshou Village became Shangshou Town.
It's just that the good times didn't last long.
Everyone in the village gradually developed a high fever and developed rashes on their bodies. Yun Niang's family was no exception. They all developed a high fever, but only her brother had a rash.
For every villager who has a rash, Yun Niang and her parents keep saying every day why she is not the one who has the rash.
She also remembered that she was the one with the rash, so she didn't have to be manipulated by her parents.
Later, a master came to the village, who used to live in the next village. He said that they had offended the Ghost King and that they had to offer sacrifices to the Ghost King in order to gain the Ghost King's blessing again.
Sacrifice...
Over the past thousands of years, when have sacrifices been offered at the foot of Wutou Mountain?
They could only listen to the words of other villages and treat dead horses as live horses.
Offer women to the ghost king, sing yin operas, burn incense and set up an altar.
Everything else is easy to accomplish, except for the matter of sacrificing a daughter. Every family is not willing to let their daughter suffer. If you enter Wutou Mountain, you will only die.
When the master talked about this matter, Yun Niang felt confident.
Sure enough, when every family was avoiding the matter of sacrificing a daughter, her parents handed her over and couldn't wait for her to go to Wutou Mountain.
As long as she can save her brother.
Yun Niang has never worn such beautiful clothes in her life. It was a wedding dress made for her by people in the village.
When she was sent to the mountain, she did not cry or feel reluctant to leave.
Just the smile on his face.
-
There are a lot more people in Shangshou Town, but it's just not that lively.
Fortunately, the stall selling clove wontons that Yan Yan liked is still there, but the stall selling meat cakes now has vanilla pancakes.
"Meat is expensive and I can't afford it anymore."
Yan Yan took a sip of wonton soup and looked curiously at the many people standing in front of the East Street meat stall: "Why are so many people buying meat when it's so expensive?"
"If you buy it to worship the Ghost King, even if your family doesn't have money to buy rice, you still have to buy meat. If there are more people buying meat, the price of meat will go up." The cake vendor spat.
"Are you dissatisfied with the Ghost King?" Yan Yan asked casually.
The cake stall vendor waved his hands quickly: "I don't dare to say it, I don't dare to say it, I am dissatisfied with selling meat."
The Yin opera was sung at night, and Yan Yan and Bai Zhu came to the stage early.
Before I stood there for a while, it started to rain, as if to warn the people in the town that if there was no sacrifice tonight, the rain would not stop.
Yan Yan bought an oil-paper umbrella to cover the two of them.
As soon as the sun set, a sedan chair stopped in front of the stage. A girl in wedding dress got out of the sedan chair and was helped to the back of the stage.
"What are you doing?" Yan Yan asked.
There happened to be an old man beside them who had just arranged the benches in front of the stage.
"Marry the bride."
Yan Yan asked strangely: "Didn't you mean to play dirty tricks for the Ghost King tonight? Why did you marry another bride?"
Even if she, the headless ghost king, no longer has any status in the hearts of living people, he wouldn't want to play dirty tricks on her and marry a bride at the same time, right?
"It's to marry the ghost king." The old man glanced at Yan Yu, as if he disliked Yan Yu for not being able to understand this matter.
Yan Yan stood there blankly, and Bai Zhu stood motionless next to him, but Yan Yan always felt that he was suppressing a smile.
"You don't even know whether the Ghost King is a boy or a girl, no wonder he is in trouble!" Yan Yan said through gritted teeth.
Bai Zhu pursed her lips and suppressed the smile on her lips: "It is said that a bride was married last year, and the people in the town were really fine after that."
"Hmph." Yan Yan snorted coldly, "I wasn't even awake last year. Where did the Ghost King come from?"
When the time came, only Yan Yan and Bai Zhu were left in front of the stage.
Yin plays are sung to ghosts, and the two of them were not afraid of taboos, and the people in the town did not keep them apart.
The actors on the stage are different from ordinary actors. The makeup on their faces is even paler, as pale as death, and their makeup is so dark and so red that they look like paper figures.
The voice became sharper, and Yan Yan felt as if his eardrums were about to be pierced after he stopped speaking.
The Yin opera sings about the ghost king marrying his bride. It talks about how happy the bride is before getting married, and how happy the relatives and people in the village are.
Not to mention anything else, but the other person had a face like a paper man, let out a hideous and creepy laugh, and clapped his hands stiffly. This sinister play was really meant to be sung for ghosts.
Even a living person would be frightened to death if he heard this.
In this scene, before the bride is married, the actress who sings the bride before her wedding is an actor, but when the bride is getting married in her wedding dress, the actor is the bride herself.
Everyone on the stage was waiting, waiting for the bride to step out of the sedan chair.
He just waited for a long time, so long that even Yan Yan noticed something was wrong.
The master guarding behind the stage saw that the bride had not come forward, so he went up and opened the curtain of the sedan chair.
The actors on the stage were frightened and backed away.
"Ah - someone is dead!"
In the sedan chair, the bride wearing a wedding dress sat inside, her head with a red hijab tilted at a strange angle, and drops of blood flowing out from under the red hijab.
The master pulled away the red hijab.
The bride tilted her head and looked at the master in front of her with her eyes open.
On the crooked neck, there is a pair of scissors tied with red silk.
——It is the scissors used to cut hair.
The watch sounded outside the stage, and they missed the time to send the bride to Wutou Mountain.
The actresses on the stage left one after another, fearing that the master in front of them would put them into sedan chairs and present them to the Ghost King.
The sacrifice failed, and the people in the town were panicked.
Many people had a high fever that night, and it rained even harder throughout the day.
Yan Yan originally wanted to follow the bride to Wutou Mountain to see which ghost king dared to impersonate her, but now that the bride is dead, he has to give up.
In fact, when the bride's sedan chair stopped in front of the stage, the two of them smelled the smell of blood.
There was a lot of raw meat placed in front of the stage and it was raining heavily, so they didn't pay attention until they noticed something was going on behind the stage.
Before returning to the underworld, Gui Cha came to kneel before the two of them.
The inn in the town was very shabby, and Yan Yan didn't want to sleep there, so he only paid for one room.
Even the food in the inn was not good, so Yan Yan went to find a wonton stall, but no one in the town showed up.
There were not many people in the inn, and everyone was talking about sacrifices.
"I heard that there will be sacrifices tomorrow night. I'm afraid I've angered the Ghost King again this time. According to the master's wishes, there will be two brides tomorrow night."