Ji Chenjiao, driven mad by the crowd, just wanted to leave quickly. He didn’t care about anything else and took the scholar’s robe. “This is it!”

The courtyard behind the clothing store was the changing area, also providing wigs, makeup, and other items. Ling Lie, bent over like a cat, nudged Ji Chenjiao into the courtyard to change.

Ji Chenjiao thought there would at least be a changing room, but it turned out to be just two sheds, one for men and one for women. What was the difference between this and an animal pen?

“Why are you so picky?” The parade had already started outside, the sound of the suona shaking the sky. Ling Lie was anxious to see the excitement and reached out to pull off Ji Chenjiao’s clothes.

Ji Chenjiao was startled by his rough hands and roared, “You stand still!”

Ling Lie, channeling the cat demon, tucked his hands to his chest and widened his eyes. He actually looked a bit like a cat.

Under his gaze, Ji Chenjiao changed into the scholar’s robe. He found the wig dirty and refused to wear it, planning to just make do. He turned around to see Ling Lie pulling fur off the cat paws.

“?”

Ling Lie stuck the fur on Ji Chenjiao. “A scholar needs cat fur. Pay attention to the details.”

“…”

As night officially fell, Fengchao Island descended into a chaotic dance of demons. Costumed tourists and staff with green faces and long fangs danced together, their shadows swaying in the firelight.

The so-called “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island” was a procession of various ghosts and monsters passing through the main road of West Street, accompanied by ghost cart performances. Tourists acted as little ghosts, running along with the ghost carts.

At first, Ling Lie was full of participatory spirit, squeezing his way into the crowd and insisting on pulling Ji Chenjiao along.

After a few rounds, Ji Chenjiao was covered in the smell of other people’s sweat and perfume, feeling completely dead inside. “Can I be beautiful alone?”

Ling Lie: “That’s a must-not.”

“Why?”

“Aren’t the ghost scholar and the cat demon a pair? Xiao Ji, why can’t you play along?”

Ji Chenjiao: “…” He couldn’t play along?

After a few more rounds, one of Ling Lie’s cat ears fell off. He was panting from exhaustion. Ji Chenjiao took out his phone to search for what breed of cat was the husky of cats. Before the search results came out, Ling Lie said, “I’m done playing.”

Ji Chenjiao raised an eyebrow. “Oh, can’t play along?”

Ling Lie always had something to say. “Work-life balance. Adults should have moderation in their fun. Let’s go, back to the wedding.”

It was a quarter to midnight. Nonghai Hotel was not far away. If they avoided the crowded main road now, they could make it back just in time for the “underworld” wedding.

Ji Chenjiao looked at Ling Lie with slumped shoulders. He knew this person wouldn’t be satisfied so easily.

Ling Lie: “Xiao Ji, what’s with your posture? It’s not like you.”

Reminded, Ji Chenjiao realized he was standing like a crooked tree, twisted in whatever way was comfortable. Usually, he carried himself with a certain air, especially when wearing a uniform, instinctively wanting to stand up straight. But now, in the crumpled scholar’s robe, all that was gone. He was as listless as he wanted to be, a bit of letting himself go.

Occasionally letting go of the burden seemed pretty good.

The two hurried back to the hotel. Ling Lie suddenly tugged at Ji Chenjiao with a cat paw. “Why is Tan Fabin here?”

A man who had been dead for seventeen years was here? Ji Chenjiao was horrified. He followed Ling Lie’s gaze. In the parade procession, there was a not-so-large paper figure of a person. A light was on inside, illuminating the skin to a deathly pale green. The facial features were very similar to Tan Fabin’s photo, but the reason Ling Lie was sure it was Tan Fabin was because below the paper figure, the four large characters “Patriarch Tan” were written in fluorescent lights.

The theme of that procession was local guardian deities. All the famous people of Fengshi had been made into “gods”—it was just that the effect was too “underworld-like,” looking more like ghosts who had just died.

“Interesting. Do you think Shen Wei knows his brother is being worshipped by the people on the island?” Ling Lie said.

Ji Chenjiao felt a little nauseous. If he were Shen Wei, he would only find it disgusting that his family member was being made into such a deathly face.

When they returned to the hotel, the sound of suonas and wailing had replaced the usual romantic music of a wedding. “Black and White Impermanence” were leading the bride in a fiery red wedding dress with soul-hooking chains, bringing her to the groom who was wearing black burial clothes.

Ling Lie shivered. Ji Chenjiao: “Scared?”

“It’s creepy,” Ling Lie said. “I take back my mockery of you this afternoon. I don’t get it either. I’m greatly shocked.”

Hearing that there was an “underworld” wedding at Nonghai, many tourists rushed to see the novelty. The lobby and the beach became more and more crowded, stealing much of the thunder from the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island” outside.

On the beach, soul banners flew everywhere. The scene of the groom borrowing ghost soldiers to welcome the bride was being enacted. Ling Lie saw Weng Keqiu squeezed into the crowd, wearing a ghost soldier costume. “Let’s go, back to the room,” Ling Lie said.

Ji Chenjiao was still a little disbelieving. “You’ve seen enough already?”

Ling Lie tsk-tsked. “I’m suddenly a little superstitious. Looking at this stuff for too long hurts the eyes and shortens your life.”

Ji Chenjiao was amused internally. He didn’t really want to watch either and wished he could take off this scholar’s robe on the spot. But he was worried that even if they went back now, they wouldn’t be able to sleep. What hotel wall could withstand the sound of a suona?

But when they closed the door, the sound really did disappear.

Ling Lie knocked on the wall. “Could it be that because they knew noise disturbs people, they made preparations during construction?”

That was a possibility.

With the noise problem gone, Ji Chenjiao suddenly realized a new problem: how were he and Ling Lie going to sleep tonight?

Who knew Ling Lie had no worries at all. He “shed his skin” and removed his makeup in one go. After washing up, he quickly dived into bed. Seeing Ji Chenjiao standing by the bed, he even patted it deliberately. “Not coming?”

Ji Chenjiao thought to himself: Is this the real cat demon?

Seeing Ji Chenjiao awkwardly pull up the quilt, Ling Lie pounced. Ji Chenjiao had no time to dodge and was pinned down.

Ling Lie acted mischievous. “Are you afraid of having your… sucked by a cat demon?”

Ji Chenjiao: “Shut up!”

Ling Lie rolled away with the quilt. Ji Chenjiao pulled the quilt back. After a bit of tug-of-war, Ling Lie fell asleep. Ji Chenjiao stared at the ceiling, feeling that he might have insomnia again.

He didn’t know what time the wedding ended, but Ji Chenjiao was certain he only fell asleep at five o’clock. Damn it, a vacation was more tiring than work.

The next morning, Ling Lie woke up first. He slipped on his slippers and went downstairs to get brunch, only to see a hotel attendant running down the corridor in a panic.

“What happened?” he stopped one of them.

“The wed-wedding had an accident! The groom seems to be, dead, dead!”

The public area of Nonghai Hotel was a mess. The wedding had lasted until four in the morning, with the participants dancing wildly, like the gates of hell had opened. After the party dispersed, the hotel management, considering that a small number of guests were still not finished and that West Street had a unified cleaning at seven every morning, decided not to clean up for the time being and would deal with the mess during the day.

At seven o’clock, the cleaners entered. They were accustomed to the soul banners, paper money, wreaths, and paper sculptures on the ground. But even they, who lived locally, couldn’t understand why someone would hold such an “underworld” wedding.

The cleaning work had to start with moving the large items out. These wreaths, paper houses, and the like would eventually be collected and burned. One cleaner, while moving a paper house, suddenly felt something was wrong. Why was there blood under the paper house?

The ground was covered with a large area of firecracker debris. He squatted down fearfully, swept away the debris, and saw a ferocious face.

The cleaner screamed. The others rushed over and dug a man’s severed head out of the debris.

At first, some people suspected it was a prop, but what prop could be so realistic? The hotel’s shift manager rushed over. “This, isn’t this Mr. Lu?”

Lu Dongyue, the groom who had welcomed his bride in burial clothes at the wedding. The preliminary preparations for this wedding had been mostly arranged by him personally in communication with the hotel.

The hotel immediately called the police, but Ling Lie arrived at the scene even before the local police.

The few cleaners who had found the head were already pale with fright, unable to speak coherently. Ling Lie instructed the hotel staff to send them to the clinic.

“Who are you?” The manager was a woman in her thirties. Although she was scared, she still maintained basic rationality. “You can’t just touch the scene randomly! The police will be here soon!”

Ling Lie took out his credentials. “Until the police arrive, I will be in charge for the time being.”

The place where the head was found was in the corridor between the main building and the second building of the hotel. This area had been decorated as the open gates of hell. Soul banners were stuck on both sides of the corridor—although most of them had now fallen to the ground. The paper house covering the head was also not uncommon in the corridor.

Ling Lie had passed through here yesterday. The speakers were emitting howling wind sounds, and on both sides were eerily made paper figures with turning necks. When it was crowded, it was easy to accidentally touch a paper figure’s hand, like being grabbed by a vengeful ghost.

The foot traffic here was heavy. Anyone who attended the wedding probably wanted to walk through the “gate of hell.” And because it was a semi-outdoor environment, there were no cameras around.

Ling Lie’s gaze fell on the blood-stained paper house, and he couldn’t help but think of the paper houses that had covered Tan Fabin and Bi Jiang. Was the killer imitating the crime? Or was it just a coincidence? Tan Fabin and Bi Jiang’s entire bodies had been bound and covered by paper houses. Here, only a head was covered.

In deep thought, Ling Lie frowned, suddenly remembering the Tan Fabin paper figure he had seen at the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island” last night. A man who had been dead for seventeen years was being worshipped as a patriarch by the people on Fengchao Island. A young man from outside was hidden under a paper house in a similar way. If this was a coincidence, it was too much of one.

But the facts of the Tan Fabin case had been basically cleared up. Could there be another inside story?

At this time, the local police station arrived, along with several police officers from a branch of the Fengshi bureau. The recent cases at the city bureau had been widely discussed in the Fengshi police circles, and they had all heard of Ling Lie’s great name. The leading detective wanted to shake Ling Lie’s hand. “Teacher Ling, I’ve heard so much about you. I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

After hearing them explain their mission, Ling Lie learned that Fengchao Island was a huge headache for the local police. Although the activities on Fengchao Island could boost the tourism economy, the ghost and deity culture could easily fall into the trap of spreading feudal superstition.

The police had to go to the island for inspection every year, and during the peak summer season, they were on high alert, educating the public about science and carrying out supervision. But even so, some people still wanted to find loopholes. After all, the more mysterious something was made, the more it attracted attention and the easier it was to make money.

But now that a life had been lost, no matter the reason, Fengchao Island would definitely be affected.

There were no medical examiners or crime scene investigators on the island; they had to be dispatched from the city. The branch bureau team could only temporarily seal off the scene, arrange for the investigation of relevant personnel, and check the surveillance.

But they ran into trouble with the very first step. The only surveillance the hotel could provide was from the lobby. The cameras on the various floors were almost all broken, and some were blocked by paper flowers and other decorations.

“What’s wrong with you people? What did I say at the security meeting? Check the surveillance, check the surveillance! Is this how you deal with it?” a team member shouted.

The manager explained, trembling, “We have our difficulties too. Every time we have an event, our expensive cameras get damaged. Basically, all of them have to be reinstalled. That’s a considerable expense. So the boss thought, thought we’d replace them after the event.”

Ling Lie returned to the corridor where the head was found, thinking to himself that it wasn’t just the surveillance. When the crime scene investigators arrived, it would be a tough job too. Countless people had passed through this path, and the killer’s footprints would have been long since submerged. To start the investigation from traditional methods like surveillance and trace evidence would probably be difficult.

The branch bureau currently stationed on the island were public security officers, who couldn’t be of much help to the investigation. Ling Lie called Huang Yi. Huang Yi was on his way to work. When he heard, his blood pressure shot up. He said he would immediately transfer the case from the branch bureau and would also get to the island as soon as possible.

After hanging up, Ling Lie remembered that he had come downstairs to get breakfast. Although he had seen a head first thing in the morning, he still had to eat breakfast. He went to the restaurant, but the chef had already run off in fear, and there was no food.

He had to go out to the street and bought two servings of seafood rice noodle rolls with sauce. He carried them back to the room. The police were gathering the wedding attendees and searching for the rest of the body. Ji Chenjiao didn’t know what had happened yet. He had just come out of the shower when he smelled the unique sour and spicy aroma of the local rice noodle rolls.

Ling Lie said very calmly, “Xiao Ji, come eat breakfast.”

Ji Chenjiao felt that Ling Lie was being quite “well-behaved” this morning. He had gotten up early to buy breakfast, hadn’t bought greasy savory meat buns, and hadn’t been jumping around while he was still asleep. Ji Chenjiao sat down in a good mood. The rice noodle rolls tasted very good too. Light but with a bit of spice, it was quite refreshing to eat in the morning.

They still had a day and a night to play on the island, and their ferry ticket back to the city was for tomorrow morning. Ji Chenjiao thought that today he could go around the island with Ling Lie, a bit more leisurely, not like the brawling of yesterday.

“Have you decided how to play today?” Ji Chenjiao asked. “Swimming? Otherwise, the swimsuits were bought for nothing.”

Ling Lie had already finished his last bite of the rice noodle roll. He put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and looked at Ji Chenjiao sincerely. “The swimsuits might have really been bought for nothing.”

“?”

“I have to work overtime.”

Ji Chenjiao almost choked on a mouthful of rice noodle roll. “What overtime?”

Ling Lie: “When I went down to buy breakfast just now, I saw a head.”

At first, Ji Chenjiao thought Ling Lie was joking. What head? Since they arrived on the island yesterday, hadn’t they seen enough prop heads?

Ji Chenjiao took a few more bites of the rice noodle roll. Seeing that Ling Lie was still staring at him, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. And Ling Lie’s “good behavior” this morning was also very wrong.

“There wasn’t a real murder case, was there?”

Ling Lie nodded grimly and patted Ji Chenjiao’s shoulder. “So Xiao Ji, you have to work overtime too.”

The hotel was fully booked for the peak season. Every guest and staff member was being held for investigation. There were too many people, but not enough police force. The hotel fell into chaos. Although people couldn’t leave the hotel, their internet access was not restricted. Before the city bureau’s criminal investigation detachment arrived, keywords like “Nonghai Murder Case” and “Groom’s Head” were already trending online.

Ling Lie wanted to first determine Lu Dongyue’s whereabouts after the wedding ended. Although everyone who had seen the head and knew Lu Dongyue said it was him, nothing could be concluded before the DNA identification results came out.

But the chaos at the scene multiplied the difficulty of the investigation. Ling Lie couldn’t even find the bride, Yin Xi, or their families. What was even more outrageous was that when the public security officers found Yin Xi in a room and informed her of the situation, she actually claimed that she was not the bride at all and had not married Lu Dongyue.

Ling Lie was called to Yin Xi’s room by the public security officers. With one look, he could tell that the woman with long, disheveled hair, wearing pajamas, was indeed the bride in the big red wedding dress from last night.

Yin Xi’s face showed no sadness, only terror. She was pale, with beads of cold sweat on her forehead, and her speech was a bit incoherent. She was clearly very scared.

Ling Lie asked the male officers to leave, leaving only a female officer. “You say you’re not the bride, but I also attended the wedding last night, and the one who married Lu Dongyue was you.”

“That was me, but the wedding was fake. We never even registered! I don’t know him well either!” Yin Xi’s sweaty hands kept clutching her pajamas. “Oh my god, is Lu Dongyue really dead? How could this happen!”

Ling Lie: “Why was the wedding fake?”

“Because we’re not a real couple! What real couple would hold this kind of ‘underworld’ wedding? Are they crazy?” Yin Xi said. “We just wanted to make a viral video. We really, really didn’t expect something like this to happen!”

Viral, video.

At this time, the criminal investigation detachment finally arrived. The medical examiner and crime scene investigators immediately got to work. Huang Yi found Ji Chenjiao and gradually brought the scene under control. They began to take statements in order of the wedding organizers, invited guests, hotel guests, and staff.

A ridiculous truth emerged—

This wedding was not a real wedding at all, but a hype event planned by a marketing studio—Golden Oak Culture—for traffic.

Golden Oak Culture was a local company in Fengshi and had already produced many short videos that were very popular nationwide. It was already a top marketing company in Fengshi.

Last year, they had set their sights on the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island.” This was Fengshi’s calling card, and they wracked their brains to get their name on it. However, all their competitors were also targeting Fengchao Island. How could they truly stand out?

In the first half of this year, Golden Oak came up with the idea of having two spiritually connected living people hold an “underworld” wedding.

This wedding would inevitably become the highlight of the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island.” The novelty-seeking mentality would contribute countless clicks. And in terms of operation, they were not breaking any rules—everyone has the right to choose their own wedding format, even if it’s called “underworld-like.”

Golden Oak had already prepared the bride and groom’s statements for after they went viral, such as “we both like ghost and deity culture,” “love should be unique,” and “making the once-in-a-lifetime wedding a memory you won’t forget even in the next life”…

Yin Xi was trembling with fear. “I’m just a model. I signed a contract with Golden Oak for this event to play the bride. I didn’t even know Lu Dongyue before signing. The company asked us to cultivate some feelings first. In fact, we only spent half a month together before coming to this island.”

Ling Lie said, “What was the specific date you signed the contract?”

Yin Xi took out her phone and looked. “June 17th. I’m not even from Fengshi. They didn’t dare to find someone locally.”

“Where is your hometown?”

“Linyun City.”

Linyun City and Fengshi were in the southeast and the north, respectively. Golden Oak had indeed prepared thoroughly.

Ling Lie asked again, “Did you have any psychological burden taking this job?”

“I did, but they paid a lot,” Yin Xi said with a frown. “And I have no family, so I’m not worried about the video going viral and reaching my family.”

“Your family?”

Yin Xi smiled bitterly. “My parents passed away when I was very young. I grew up with my aunt, but we don’t have much of a relationship. I left to make a living after graduating from junior high, and we’ve long since lost contact.”

Ling Lie nodded. “What about Lu Dongyue? Was he, like you, a model signed by Golden Oak from another place?”

“He wasn’t. He was an employee of Golden Oak.”

“Oh?”

Yin Xi hesitated to speak. Ling Lie said, “You seem to know something?”

Yin Xi showed a conflicted and pained expression. “I’m afraid of retaliation.”

Ling Lie: “The police will protect the safety of witnesses.”

Yin Xi hesitated again before saying, “Lu Dongyue was actually very unwilling to do this. He was forced by Golden Oak.”

Every company has one or two employees at the bottom of the food chain. At Golden Oak, Lu Dongyue was such a person. He was twenty-seven this year, with a high school education. Although he had joined Golden Oak shortly after it was founded, he had always been doing errands. In this kind of marketing company, what was valuable were ideas and creativity. He had none of that, only obedience and a willingness to work hard.

This year, after Golden Oak formulated the “underworld” wedding plan, they had once looked for other candidates for the groom, but they never found a suitable and willing actor. By the time Yin Xi was confirmed, the groom still hadn’t been found.

As the “Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island” approached day by day, the company decided to push Lu Dongyue forward.

Of course, Lu Dongyue was unwilling. Several leaders took turns talking to him, and the meaning was clear: either you take it, or you get out.

Yin Xi needed to cultivate feelings with Lu Dongyue so that the cameraman could take more videos and photos. That way, even if netizens questioned that they were faking it, Golden Oak could throw out the photos in response.

So after Yin Xi came to Fengshi, she spent most of her time with Lu Dongyue. After they got to know each other, she asked, “If you really can’t accept it, it’s not a big deal to quit, right? It’s not that hard to find a job now. I don’t care, as long as I can make money. My family won’t see it anyway.”

But Lu Dongyue shook his head bitterly. “If I lose this job, I won’t be able to find another one.”

“Don’t say that…”

“I’m self-aware.”

Yin Xi couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Lu Dongyue, but she was also just an employee working for money. At most, she was a colleague to Lu Dongyue. She couldn’t meddle too much.

Ling Lie asked, “Then do you know about his family situation? Did he tell you anything else?”

Yin Xi smoothed her hair and lowered her head. “He doesn’t seem to be from Fengshi either. I don’t know where his hometown is, but I guess his relationship with his family isn’t good, or he’s like me and doesn’t have much family.”

“Why?”

“Because a close relationship with family is probably also a screening criterion. If parents could see this video at any time, that would definitely be a no-go. And what normal family would be willing to let their child film this kind of video? He never mentioned his family either.”

Ling Lie said, “Were you about to say something just now?”

Yin Xi paused, pursed her lips, and after a few seconds said, “We got along well. Lu Dongyue asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I said no. I think he, he probably had some feelings for me, but neither of us said anything.”

Ling Lie thought of Weng Keqiu, whom he had met on the boat, and asked again, “By the way, how did you solve the guest issue? You and Lu Dongyue could act, but what about parents and relatives?”

“They were actually all people from Golden Oak, and their close partners.”

“Is that enough people? I saw a lot of guests last night. I even met someone on the way here who claimed to be the groom’s relative.”

Yin Xi: “That must be fake. But I know Golden Oak’s planning strategy. It’s not hard to create the effect of ten thousand people participating with just a dozen people.”

“Tell me.”

“A normal wedding is actually only organized by the immediate family of the bride and groom. Whether there are dozens of guests or thousands, they are all invited. Golden Oak also invites people, but not by sending invitations to relatives and colleagues. After the hotel was confirmed, they released the news online. Marketing companies are naturally good at creating hype. With tags like ‘Fengchao Island’ and ‘Ten Thousand Ghosts Parade the Island,’ it’s easy for people going to the island to notice and then come to participate spontaneously. They all think the other person is a relative of the bride or groom, but they’re actually all strangers. Some people even make up an identity so others won’t find out they’re just a tourist. Golden Oak takes advantage of this psychology. It’s hard for tourists to expose each other’s identities.”

Weng Keqiu’s figure flashed in his mind again. Ling Lie thought, so he had already encountered a living example at sea.