PFC Chapter 257 The Bride Who Fell into the Well (Part 1)
Chapter 257 The Bride Who Fell into the Well (Part 1)
Upon seeing the footprint on the powder, Lu Zhiyuan had three possibilities. One was that it belonged to the Crown Prince's secret guards; it was only natural that he would leave a few guards to protect her after the Crown Prince returned to the capital on business. Another was that it belonged to bandits who wanted to rob them under cover of night, but hadn't expected Liu Ying and Lu Yun to be so vigilant, and had fled in haste. The third possibility was that it was an eye hidden in the shadows, a pair of eyes that followed her like a shadow, making it impossible for her to determine who was behind it all.
Those eyes first appeared in the other courtyard, right when she first transmigrated into the book, in the bathtub, almost strangled to death by the nanny. She didn't think much of it, assuming it was the nanny's accomplice.
Everyone in the villa except Lu Yun wanted her dead, but she used Lu Yun to bury them all.
Back at the Marquis's residence, those eyes appeared again.
The Marquis's mansion was more complicated than the villa. Apart from her mother, anyone could be the one who held those eyes or their owner. Through her and her mother's joint efforts, her mother divorced her father, the mistress's affair ended, and the Marquis's mansion returned to its former state of decline.
Before the Emperor bestowed marriage upon her and the Crown Prince, those eyes disappeared for a long time, then reappeared in the palace. The palace is a complex place; although she was the Crown Princess chosen by the Emperor and Empress, it was difficult to guarantee that she wouldn't be viewed with suspicion by them. It was normal for someone in the palace to be watching her.
Having been in the palace for seven years, she was always wary of those eyes; many of the palace's mechanisms were designed to monitor them. Fortunately, it was just surveillance, and there had never been any conflict between them.
Those eyes had not entered the Eastern Palace, so she was convinced that they belonged to the Emperor or the Empress.
After checking into the inn in Chunfeng Town, those eyes reappeared. She noticed Fourth Sister, who was helping out in the kitchen. Her hair was simply styled in a slightly messy bun. She wore coarse linen clothes, and her clothes were stained with dirt. Her fingers were rough, and her hands were calloused, as if she had been doing hard labor for years. However, Lu Zhiyuan was certain that she was not a kitchen helper. Makeup could be changed, and clothes could be altered, but temperament and eyes were honed over many years.
Her demeanor didn't seem like that of someone who spent years doing manual labor in the kitchen, and her eyes certainly didn't.
It wasn't until Fourth Sister revealed her identity that she learned of her complicated past. She had been a concubine in the Zhang family, and after escaping from the Zhang family, she used the money she had taken from them to take over an inn and secretly investigated everything related to the Black Goddess Temple, helping the innkeeper and his staff find their daughters who had been sacrificed or their missing relatives.
After leaving Spring Breeze Town, those eyes disappeared, and she thought her judgment was correct. Just now, the moment she saw the fake "Ye Bai," those eyes reappeared.
This is the world within the book. Ever since the mother and father divorced, the original storyline collapsed. The system said that the male lead is undecided, and the female lead must fight for him herself. Only by rebuilding the storyline can she escape the world in the book and return to her original world.
The system didn't say what kind of storyline she wanted to create, and she didn't ask either; it was all in her mind.
Unlike other transmigrators, she was in no hurry to return to the real world. That world held no ties for her; on the contrary, this world held family and friends.
She thought that as long as she followed the plot, she could return to her original world after Lu Zhiyuan's death. Now it seems she had a hidden mission. Those eyes didn't belong to any character or faction in the book, but to the book's official.
Trying to wake up the system, but it didn't respond, so I had no choice but to ask about the spy.
“It wasn’t Ye Bai, it was his accomplice. There were three of them in total, and they split into three groups at the fork in the road.” Lu Yun said, “Madam said that when you encounter such a desperate enemy, don’t pursue them. Go back to where you were and wait for their next move. When you return, smell Madam’s scent and follow that scent to find her.”
"Three people? Did you get a good look at what they looked like?"
"They were wearing headscarves, masks, and night clothes. They were the same height, the same weight, and even their movements were identical. I couldn't see any difference between them. If I hadn't seen the twins before, and if they hadn't split into three groups, I would have thought I was hallucinating from poisoning."
Lu Zhiyuan pondered: "Have you fought with them? What are their martial arts skills like? Are they from the officialdom, the military, or the martial arts world?"
Lu Yun shook his head: "I can't tell. His movements are extremely strange and unpredictable."
Lu Zhiyuan looked up and smiled at the carriage not far away.
The three people Lu Yun encountered were not human, just like the "Ye Bai" she met! But you can't say they weren't human; they were just fictional characters from a book, like Lu Yun and Liu Ying.
Lu Yun and Liu Ying were created by the original author; they are flesh-and-blood characters, living people in the book. The other three, along with "Ye Bai," were created by the book's editor and are essentially puppets.
She wanted to see what this scribe wanted her to do, to remain still and adapt to any situation.
Beside the carriage, Liu Ying held a dagger, looking around warily. Her gaze fell on Lu Zhiyuan and Lu Yun, and she suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, running over without any regard for her image: "Madam, Lu Yun, are you alright? Just now, something was spying around again. I went to look for it with the dagger, but I didn't see anyone or any snake. I was so worried."
Lu Zhiyuan asked, "Which direction?"
Liu Ying pointed and said, "That direction isn't far from the place we went to last time."
Lu Zhiyuan and Lu Yun walked over and found several fresh footprints on the ground. The footprints were not far from the damaged medicine circle, and there were fresh signs of broken branches in the surrounding bushes. Following those tracks, they overlapped with the path they had taken back.
Those people weren't there to spy; they were there to guide them. And that fake Ye Bai—his appearance was probably no coincidence.
Open the map and examine it carefully by the firelight. The place where they spent the night is called Miaojiawan. Following the original route, they can reach the nearest town by tomorrow evening. If they go in the direction where the people disappeared, they will reach Miaojia Village.
Miao Village is a cursed village, and the curse comes from a bride.
A year ago, Miao Han from Miaojia Village got married. On their wedding night, his wife, wearing a red wedding dress and a red veil, fell into a well and died. The well was dry, located just outside the back door of Miao Han's house, and was usually covered by a large stone.
At the time of the incident, Miao Han was toasting guests in the courtyard and did not notice the commotion in the bridal chamber. The villagers who were helping out at Miao Han's house that day also did not notice anything unusual and did not know when the bride went to the backyard or when she opened the door.
There was an eyewitness, a seven-year-old boy from the neighbor's house. He was half-asleep when he was woken up by the noise from the Miao family's house, and when he went to the backyard to relieve himself, he happened to see the bride throw herself into the well.
The child was terrified and developed a high fever for days. A shaman was consulted to help him recover. When questioned afterward, the child only said that the bride stood motionless on the edge of the well, her arms raised as she was about to fall in, her red veil still covering her face. Just before she fell in, her veil was blown open, revealing a deathly pale face.
The child said the bride's face was turned backward.
The dry well was easy to retrieve, so the village chief chose someone with a strong constitution to go down with Miao Han. The bride looked terrible; her head was smashed, her neck was broken, her arm was broken, and one of her embroidered shoes was knocked off. She lay at the bottom of the well in a rather bizarre position.
Even more bizarrely, despite the person's fall, the red veil remained firmly on their head.
Miao Han's family reported the incident to the authorities. The county government sent two constables and a coroner. After examination, the coroner determined that the bride had committed suicide, and that she had not taken any medicine before her death.
There were no signs of binding or coercion, and no obvious fatal injuries. To put it bluntly, she died from the fall after hitting the well.