Chapter 54: Hezi Xinniang 5
In the past, large mansion compounds always used the Citang to represent their face and status. The larger and more extravagant it was built, the more face the family had. This ancient mansion was no exception.
The spacious and silent Citang even echoed with the sound of their voices.
“The structure here,” Jiang Si, standing within, furrowed his brow. “I keep feeling that the structure here is different from the outside.”
“How is it different?” As Hai Di spoke, the DM had already taken out a lighter to light the candles on the front altar table of the Citang. The flames danced, plating the white candles in a warm light, which only made the dark areas around them appear even more secluded, cold, and eerie.
“The structural design of the architecture up there seems incorrect.” Jiang Si pointed at the roof beams. “Generally, places like a Citang that cover a larger area require higher load-bearing capacity for the roof beams. They commonly use the Chuandoushi roof beam structure. This clearly isn’t it.”
Seeing that Hai Di still didn’t understand, Jiang Si finally remembered: due to certain historical reasons, there were very few ancient buildings preserved within Ningshi. For someone like Hai Di, who grew up receiving elite education and wasn’t an architecture major, it was perfectly normal not to know.
“Forget it. Let’s look at other things,” Jiang Si quietly patted the back of his hand, signaling him to look ahead.
In the candlelight, rows of wood-carved ancestral tablets were arranged one after another in the flickering shadows. Several slender, dark silhouettes cast onto the wall looked like pairs of twisted, eerie hand shadows waving about.
“Have you ever heard of a niche spirit-summoning ritual? Although not many people know about it, it’s quite interesting.” The DM suddenly spoke while facing the tablets. His tone was drawn out and ethereal; if it hadn’t been quiet enough right now, they probably wouldn’t have been able to hear what he said.
This ritual was exactly how Hai Moyun had provoked that entity. Hearing him bring it up again, his body hair stood on end. He wanted to back out, but remembering the instructions he received before coming, he felt it would be truly unloyal to do so.
He decided to just endure it.
Anyway, if the sky falls, the tall guys will hold it up. He was only 178 cm, what was he afraid of!
He looked behind him, indicating he didn’t dare speak, leaving Jiang Si to pick up the conversation and play along.
Jiang Si had no choice but to ask, “Really? You’re making it sound so mysterious?”
“Of course it’s true,” the DM said. “Compared to it, things like Pen Immortal or Dish Immortal are incredibly weak! Have you heard of the Hezi Xinniang?”
“No, tell us about it.”
The DM then began to speak faintly, “Legend has it that one year, a war caused a famine, and many refugees fled from the disaster. Among the refugees was a girl who was exceptionally beautiful. She caught the eye of a local wealthy family and was bought into their household. Initially, they wanted her to be a servant, but later, seeing that she was truly beautiful and feeling that the money shouldn’t go to waste, they had the girl marry the master’s second son.”
“Sounds great, right? A sparrow flying up to a high branch, leaping into a wealthy family.” The DM pulled his lips into a weird sneer. “At that time, countless people could only gnaw on tree bark and eat grass, while she got to eat meat and fish. She was indeed envied and jealously hated by many, and even she herself felt extremely lucky. So, without a second thought, she agreed to marry the second son. She just never expected that the man was a disabled invalid who couldn’t even get out of bed, sleeping in bed for twenty hours out of a twenty-four-hour day. By marrying into the family, the girl was treated like a servant.”
“At first, she thought that just serving someone to eat her fill was quite good, and compared to the refugees outside, her situation was already excellent. So, she served her husband submissively and with meticulous care at home. But as a man, being physically disabled and having married a beautiful wife, his psychology became increasingly twisted. During his few waking hours, he would beat and scold his wife, questioning if she was unchaste. The girl explained, but her husband didn’t believe a word. He didn’t believe it but had no proof. In order to catch his wife’s weakness and crush her psychologically, the husband deliberately got his brothers and uncles to have relations with his wife, and then he would go ‘catch them in the act’.”
“The girl didn’t know about this and thought it was her own fault, from then on becoming completely obedient to her husband’s every demand. The husband liked festive colors, so she wore a red dress every day. Later, her husband heard about something called a freak show, which involved locking beautiful women inside tiny containers to be played with and viewed as ornaments.”
“So, he tricked the girl into jumping into a box to look for something, and while she wasn’t paying attention, he locked the box dead. To survive, the girl could only use all her strength to stick her head out of the tiny opening to cry for help. The husband felt she looked exactly like a flower in a vase, exceptionally beautiful, and refused to let her out. He just fed her a little water every day, placed her at the head of the bed, played with and kneaded her when he was awake, and made her sing when he slept.”
“It didn’t take long for the girl to completely die inside the box. Later, her resentment didn’t dissipate, and overnight, she slaughtered everyone in the grand mansion compound. Because she died in the box, her soul couldn’t break free, and she could only remain trapped inside forever.”
“This is the story behind the ritual. It’s said that after we finish this ritual, we can see the bride and ask her to do one thing for us.” The DM swept his gaze over the three silent people, deliberately asking, “What’s wrong? Are you all too scared to play?”
“It’s just a game, what is there to be afraid of!” Jiang Si stepped forward. “What do we do?”
“It’s very simple, just follow my lead.” The DM took a few pieces of paper and a red pen out of his backpack, giving a warning in advance, “During the ritual, no talking nonsense is allowed. Otherwise, she’ll feel ignored and become unhappy. Take turns writing your birthdays and names.”
Jiang Si skillfully finished writing and handed it to Hai Di, taking the opportunity to ask a couple more questions, “Did the story you mentioned happen right here?”
“You’re quite smart,” the DM raised an eyebrow in surprise. “To tell the truth, I only brought you guys to play here for this ritual. I want to test if it’s actually real.”
“Are you playing this just out of curiosity?” Jiang Si found it strange. “Going through all this trouble to run here and play.”
“Hehe, I have something I want to ask for. If you guys have desires, you can pray together too.”
Jiang Si didn’t respond to that, looking towards the back. “What is behind these ancestral tablets?”
“Isn’t it a wall?”
“No.” Jiang Si slightly narrowed his eyes and called Hai Di, “Baobao, take a look and see if there’s something behind there.”
“…” Hai Di didn’t even realize he was being called for a moment. He froze for a few seconds before remembering that his character was Jiang Si’s character’s girlfriend.
Meeting those teasing eyes of his, he quickly adapted to the form of address and took the initiative to wrap his arm around Jiang Si’s, leaning in intimately and saying affectionately, “Let me see, Baobao.”
“…”
Fuck.
At this moment, the hairs on Hai Moyun’s body stood up even more fiercely than before. He wanted to jump up, smash a stick right onto the familiar figure acting like a little bird resting on a man’s shoulder in front of him, and shout imposingiy.
“Bold monster, you actually dare impersonate my brother!”
Unfortunately, he didn’t dare. He could only pretend he didn’t hear it, complaining in his heart as he wrote.
“There is something,” Hai Di said softly. “A square… large box.”
“I saw it too,” Jiang Si said.
The DM was shocked by their terms of address and couldn’t help but turn to look. He looked repeatedly, even rubbing his eyes, but still said, “Where is there anything? It’s just a wall.”
Jiang Si was silent for a moment, having an idea in his mind, and then changed the topic to ask, “We’ve finished writing, what’s next?”
“Just listen to me next.”
He stood in a row with the three people, and they bowed in unison.
After three times, the flame suddenly flared up, emitting a crackling sound as it burned even more vigorously.
The DM cleared his throat and rapidly began to chant an incantation.
Not a single word could be clearly heard. A long string of sentences was chanted with a strange intonation, possessing a cadence and rhythm as if he were singing.
While his mouth was busy, his hands weren’t idle. He took out a bottle of water, threw the burning paper inside, and waited until the paper ash dyed the water dark brown, with various fragments of paper ash floating and sinking in the water.
He poured the water onto the candle flame.
One candle went out.
At the same time, Jiang Si heard a muffled, heavy metallic clashing sound come from the box behind the ancestral tablets.
Immediately after, the second candle went out.
The entire space plunged completely into darkness.
As the sound of the DM’s chanting fell, the entire Citang seemed to be enclosed by a cover, devoid of the slightest noise.
“Those who want to make a wish, kneel down and silently recite your wish,” the DM said in the tranquility.
Jiang Si remained motionless. His left hand was held in Hai Di’s palm, while his right hand quietly pinched the paper figurine, rubbing it in his palm.
“Creak—” The faint, teeth-aching sound of a wooden door being pushed open rang out once again.
Jiang Si held his breath and concentrated. Suddenly hearing such a sound, he felt the direction was incorrect. The Citang faced south from the north; the sound of the wooden door should be coming from behind them. Why did it seem like it was right in front of them?
It was too quiet here; he couldn’t even speak in a lowered voice and had to remain silent and wait.
Fortunately, the paper figurine showed no reaction the whole time, and Jiang Si didn’t smell any strange odors.
Relaxing his vigilance slightly, he heard Hai Moyun say using a breathy voice, “Don’t pull my sleeve, we’ll talk later.”
“Tsk… I told you don’t pull—”
“Who are you talking to?” The DM relit the candle, looked in Hai Moyun’s direction, and warned strictly, “No talking casually during the ritual!”
“That wasn’t—” Hai Moyun felt wronged. He looked to the side for the culprit, only to find no one around him. Jiang Si, who he thought was right beside him, was currently half a meter away.
He froze, “When did you run over there?”
Jiang Si raised his and Hai Di’s intertwined hands: “I never moved.”
“How is that possible? Wasn’t it you pulling me just now?” Right after Hai Moyun spoke, thinking of another possibility, his expression turned exceptionally ugly.
Jiang Si turned to ask the DM, “Does the ritual require sending her away?”
“No need… I think? It’s already over.” Just as the DM finished speaking, he saw Jiang Si had already stepped forward to the altar table. Before he even had time to ask what Jiang Si was going to do, he saw him actually blatantly pick up an ancestral tablet and hold it up to the candlelight to look.
“What are you doing?” The DM shrieked in alarm. “Put it down!”
“Pingchuanshi Nan, forty-five years old.” Jiang Si quietly read the heavily blurred words on it, then flipped to the back. On the pitch-black wooden board, a vertical column of text was written in bright red ink.
“It really is like this.” Jiang Si picked up another tablet to look in the same way, and several consecutive ones were all exactly the same.
“What’s wrong?” Hai Moyun walked closer, not daring to touch these things, and just craned his neck to look from the side. Jiang Si tilted his wrist toward him, lifting his eyelids to glance lightly at the DM, “Is the background of this story actually set domestically or not?”
“What do you mean?” The DM was baffled. “What are you talking about? This stuff isn’t in the script, why are you randomly adding drama? Hurry and put the things down, we have the last segment left. Once we act it out, we can leave.”
Clatter.
Jiang Si really did put it down, tossing the ancestral tablet right in front of the DM. The bright red text was directly exposed to the DM. “Look at what is written on this. The background of this story, including this Citang, where did it all come from?”
The rounded text was written cursively. Anyone who hadn’t specifically studied it truly wouldn’t understand, but that did not include the DM. Even though the candlelight was dim, the overly clear handwriting on it allowed him to recognize it instantly.
“Japanese (Dongyingwen) written on ancestral tablets, which country’s people is this Citang worshipping? What era is the background of this game from?”
The DM was also stunned, pointing at the tablet in shock and saying, “I-I-I don’t know this either! How could it be like this?”
“Fuck, his dad’s, isn’t this purely espionage!” Hai Moyun was so angry he forgot to be afraid. He reached out to grab the rest of the tablets and looked at them one by one. He found that the backs were all written in Japanese, while the fronts were uniformly Chinese characters. He threw them on the ground as he looked at them, clattering until a small pile had accumulated in no time.
Translator’s Note
- Chuandoushi: Column-and-tie construction. A traditional Chinese architectural framing system where pillars are tied together by penetrating tie beams.
- Hezi Xinniang: Box Bride. The name of the specific ghost/ritual in the game.
- Baobao: Baby. A term of endearment.
- Pingchuanshi Nan: Hirakawa Shinan (Translated into Pinyin as requested). A Japanese name.
- Dongyingwen: Eastern Ocean writing / Japanese. East Ocean (Dongying) is an ancient Chinese name for Japan.
Recommended Reads
