Chapter 124

Although everyone desperately wanted to find the exit and leave the haunted house, forcing a living person like Ou Wendong to consummate a marriage with a corpse was simply too immoral. None of them could bring themselves to do it.

"What if he's willing to do it himself?" After a moment of silence, Han Wenlin couldn't help whispering, "He wants to leave here alive too. He can't really stay here forever as a ghost couple with a dead person, can he?"

You Jingmeng looked at him speechlessly. "Easy for you to say. If it were you, would you agree?"

Han Wenlin lifted his chin. "I would! As long as I can leave here alive, I'd do anything!"

Chi Yi mercilessly mocked him, "You're only willing because you're saying it now. If you were actually given the groom's identity, you wouldn't be saying that."

The barrage also erupted into an argument because of this scene:

【Han Wenlin is right. You're about to lose your life, who still cares about that? Staying alive is more important.】

【Would you rather die or have sex with a corpse? The ultimate question.】

【No matter how you put it, Ou Wendong is just too unlucky.】

【Our timid little Ou actually got lucky through misfortune. Look how fast his votes are rising in just this short time. Those are all sympathy votes.】

【If you aren't in his position, it's hard to understand Ou Wendong's fear. That's not an ordinary corpse. That's a corpse wearing embroidered shoes that lets out cold sneers.】

【A red wedding dress and a pair of embroidered shoes. Instant death!!! I'd rather die!!!】

【No one can truly put themselves in someone else's shoes. Casting my sympathy vote for poor unlucky little Ou.】

...

On the screen, Han Wenlin was about to argue again when Li Zhi interrupted him.

"This is only my guess. It may not actually require consummating the marriage. The exit could also be related to Pan Qiping's true cause of death, the truth behind the ghost marriage, or perhaps... the seal on her body."

"The seal?" The three people who still didn't know what Chi Yi had encountered in the bridal chamber immediately asked, "What seal?"

The moment it was mentioned, Chi Yi felt suffocated.

"There's a steel pipe driven through Pan Qiping's body. Zhizhi and I think that's the murder weapon that killed her. That steel pipe is sealing her, which is why she can't attack us. Once it's pulled out, she'll probably transform into a vicious ghost and begin a massacre."

The three of them immediately looked despairing.

Li Zhi glanced at the evening sky and said to everyone, "I'm going back to the Pan Residence to see if I can find out the truth behind Pan Qiping's death. You all stay here and adapt to whatever happens."

They were all experienced veteran players. They couldn't rely on the expert for everything, so everyone nodded.

Qi Yongyi followed after her. "I'll go with you."

His identity and Li Zhi's identity were the two most likely to have murdered Pan Qiping, and there were no restrictions on them entering or leaving the Pan Residence. Li Zhi did not refuse. The two walked to the front hall and called over a servant to prepare a carriage.

While waiting for the carriage, the old nanny walked over.

"Madam, are you returning to the residence?"

Li Zhi replied calmly, "Yes. I'm a little tired. I'm going back to rest for a while."

She had explored the Latrine Garden that afternoon. Other than the front hall used to entertain guests and the courtyard containing the bridal chamber, there was nowhere for her to rest here.

The old nanny nodded, then said, "After the bridal chamber tonight, the young lady should be buried tomorrow. Everything for the funeral has already been prepared. Madam, please rest well. Tomorrow will be another busy day."

Li Zhi smiled at her. "Thank you for your hard work, Nanny."

The carriage came around the corner. Li Zhi motioned for Qi Yongyi to get on, but just as they were about to board, the old nanny suddenly called out.

"Madam."

Li Zhi turned around and saw a strange smile appear on the wrinkled old woman's face as she said in a low voice,

"When a ghost has somewhere to return to, it will not become a vicious ghost. Now you can rest easy."

When a ghost has somewhere to return to, it will not become a vicious ghost.

Li Zhi's expression remained unchanged as she turned back and boarded the carriage.

The wheels rolled over the stone-paved road as the carriage swayed toward the Pan Residence. Only after they had gone some distance did Qi Yongyi lower his voice and speak.

"In feudal beliefs, a woman who dies before getting married has no husband and becomes a masterless soul. A ghost without a place to belong will become a vicious ghost and wreak havoc everywhere. That's why a ghost marriage is held to marry her off. Once the ghost marriage is completed, she'll have somewhere to belong and won't become a vicious ghost."

So this was why the Pan family had arranged a ghost marriage for Pan Qiping.

They were afraid.

Afraid that she would become a vicious ghost.

"After Pan Qiping died from the steel frame being driven into her body, the Pan family held this ghost marriage for her both to conceal her true cause of death and to prevent her from becoming a vicious ghost seeking revenge."

Murder was a crime in any era, especially for a prominent family like the Pans that attracted so much attention. They had to come up with a reasonable explanation for Pan Qiping's death so no one would become suspicious. They publicly claimed she had suddenly died from an illness, then used the ghost marriage as the excuse to support her entire body with a steel frame. In this way, they could perfectly conceal the true murder weapon.

"Madam Pan went to such great lengths to arrange this ghost marriage. Not only did she not avenge her daughter, she actually helped the murderer cover it up." Qi Yongyi said, "The murderer is either herself or the Pan family's eldest young master."

Li Zhi nodded in agreement. "Only those two people would be worth her doing all this for." She handed the flyer You Jingmeng had found to Qi Yongyi. "If our deduction is correct, then what probably happened is this: after Madam Pan learned that the flames of war were about to spread to this area, she decided to marry Pan Qiping off to a certain warlord in order to preserve the Pan family's fortune and gain his protection. But Pan Qiping was unwilling."

Thinking back to Pan Qiping's question to Chi Yi asking why she had betrayed her, Li Zhi continued slowly,

"So she planned to run away from the marriage. This couldn't be known by her mother or her older brother, but she couldn't accomplish it alone, so she asked her personal maidservant, Butterfly, for help. She thought Butterfly would help her escape, but Butterfly betrayed her and told Madam Pan about it."

"Pan Qiping's attempt to flee the marriage failed, and she was captured and brought back. Before the wedding officially took place, the Pan family would most likely have locked her up. During that time, either Madam Pan or the Pan family's eldest young master would have gone to persuade her to accept it. After all, if they married off a daughter who was unwilling and resentful, they might instead anger the warlord."

"But Pan Qiping was bold enough to flee the marriage in the first place, so she definitely wasn't the type to obediently accept whatever came her way. Facing her mother's and brother's persuasion would only have made her even angrier. So during one of those attempts to persuade her, the two sides got into an argument. The other party most likely killed her accidentally during the dispute. Because they still needed to exchange Pan Qiping's marriage for protection, they wouldn't have wanted her to die."

After listening to Li Zhi's analysis, Qi Yongyi sighed and pointed at himself.

"Looks like the murderer is most likely me. Madam Pan is an elderly woman. She wouldn't have had enough strength to accidentally kill her daughter."

That also explained why Pan Qiping was filled with hatred toward both her brother and her mother.

One was the murderer.

The other was an accomplice.

And they were both the family members closest to her.

The carriage stopped in front of the gates of the Pan Residence.

Qi Yongyi had already explored the Pan Residence that afternoon and was more familiar with the layout than Li Zhi. Avoiding the household servants, the two of them once again came to Pan Qiping's boudoir, where she had stayed before being married that morning.

This was the place where she had lived while alive. Although it had now been decorated as a bright red bridal chamber, traces of her daily life could still be seen everywhere. The display shelves held not only delicate and luxurious ornaments, but also many imported Western novelties that existed only in this era.

There were ancient books on the bookshelf, as well as publications from the new era. Li Zhi even spotted several foreign works written entirely in English. It was clear that, at least before everything changed, Pan Qiping had been deeply cherished by her family.

But precisely because of that, when she was abandoned and hurt, the contrast would have made her suffering even greater.

She had been her mother's most beloved daughter.

Yet she could not compare to this vast family fortune, nor could she compare to her older brother.

Whenever interests came into conflict, she would always be the first one to be abandoned.

"Pan Qiping's primary death scene probably wasn't here." Qi Yongyi carefully searched every corner of the room. "A young lady's boudoir is unlikely to contain a sharp steel frame capable of piercing through her body."

"If a daughter refused to obey, simply locking her in her room might not have been enough to intimidate her." Li Zhi thought for a moment. "If they wanted to force her into submission, they would probably have made her suffer a little. Let's check places like the woodshed."

Outside the screen, the audience felt like their brains were working overtime.

【It suddenly feels like the channel switched to a detective drama.】

【Hearing someone talk about the primary death scene in a period instance is such a bizarre clash of eras. Qi's serious detective act is making me laugh to death.】

【I just went over to take a look. Li Zhi's side is progressing much more smoothly than Pei Hongyu's side. They're stuck over there right now.】

【I also just came back from there. Even though both haunted houses are called "The Red Wedding Dress," the plots are completely different, so it's impossible to guess which team will clear the instance first.】

【Tang Nanshan drew the Bride identity card over there, so they're facing the Ghost Groom.】

【For a moment I can't decide whether the Ghost Bride or the Ghost Groom is scarier.】

【Listen to me! They're both terrifying! Traditional Chinese ghost marriages discriminate against neither men nor women!】

...

The two of them were just about to leave the gloomy boudoir to search for the place where Pan Qiping might have been imprisoned when Li Zhi's gaze was suddenly drawn to a sachet hanging from the red bed curtains.

The small, exquisite blue sachet hung quietly beside the bed curtains like a decorative ornament. It looked inconspicuous. But amid the festive sea of red, this tiny patch of blue clearly did not belong among decorations prepared for a wedding.

There was a very high chance that it had originally belonged to Pan Qiping.

Li Zhi stopped Qi Yongyi and walked over to take it down. The sachet seemed to contain dried flowers or something similar, giving off a faint floral fragrance. One side was embroidered with a lotus flower, the other with a koi fish. In the center of the lotus side, a small character meaning "Green" had been embroidered with green thread.

"Green?" Qi Yongyi saw it too. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Could that be Pan Qiping's childhood nickname?"

Li Zhi looked toward the bookshelf in the room.

"Let's see if there are any letters."

The two of them returned to the bookshelf and began searching again. A short while later, they indeed found several letters exchanged between Pan Qiping and her friends while she was alive.

In the letters, her friends addressed her as "Green Green."

Green Green was Pan Qiping's childhood nickname.

Qi Yongyi heard Li Zhi murmur softly,

"Latrine Garden..."

He froze for a moment, then understood what she meant.

"The 'Qing' in Latrine Garden is made up of the mouth radical surrounding the character for 'Green.' From the pictographic perspective, it traps 'Green' on all sides."

Li Zhi took a deep breath and slowly said,

"I think I know how to find the exit."