Chapter 57: Big Event (Part 1)

When I heard this sound, I didn’t get out of bed. The first thing I did was frown.

I don’t know when I first fell in love with the sound of snow falling, but it’s so soft and delicate that it seems to penetrate the deepest recesses of my heart. The word “snow” also carries so much emotion for me that even when I’m asleep, I can hear the sound of snow falling, as if I’m being greatly comforted and can sleep very peacefully.

Today, however, I didn’t want to be interrupted by the sound of gongs and drums, so I subconsciously frowned without thinking about what was going on.

It was still dark outside the window. After calming down my annoyed and irritable mood, I got up, lit the oil lamp, looked at my watch, but it was 5:30 in the morning, an hour earlier than usual. When my brain finally woke up completely, I still reacted, and this usually calm and quiet village, like a pool of stagnant water, was afraid of welcoming something big?

But no matter how big the matter is, is it bigger than the news of the master in the village? I was more and more afraid to think about what the other half meant. As soon as I thought about it, I would think of Xiao Chengqian’s cousin’s silly and stupid appearance, and I couldn’t even comfort myself. All kinds of repressed emotions made me lose all interest in what was happening in this village.

But in this village, the will of the villagers is so insignificant that I want to escape and sleep, but I don’t want to go back to the bed. Before I get back to the bed, the door of my cave is kicked open very hard.

“Change into them and gather in front of the dining hall.” The person who came in was a village official, and the way he kicked the door was very rude. My dishonest little ant naturally didn’t get a good look from them, and I didn’t need to argue with them.

The door was kicked open, accompanied by the sound of a cold wind rushing into the room. Apart from this, the room was unusually silent. I didn’t say anything, but just glanced at the things thrown on the bed. It was a set of all-red jacket and pants, a dazzling mess. Do I have to wear this?

But I still silently changed into it, only glanced out the window at the earth covered in fine snow, sighed in my heart, isn’t it cold?

Seeing that I had obediently changed into the clothes, the village official seemed satisfied and turned to leave my cave. Just before he reached the door, he turned back and warned me, “I don’t want to know or be interested in what you are thinking. If you don’t mind dying, it would be best to be honest today.”

I didn’t say anything because I was busy trying to fasten the difficult buckle. I was dressed in red.

After changing into my clothes and washing up, I walked towards the place the village official had mentioned. In front of the canteen was the largest open space in the area where I lived in the village. Since the gathering was there, I was afraid it would be a grand event that would alert the entire village. In the past, I would have been extremely concerned about any changes.

But now, I was only thinking about my own thoughts, walking silently in the snow and wind… I couldn’t even remember who had vaguely said that I still had seven days of privileges. At this time, wasn’t it the seven-day period?

Without knowing or being interested, I walked to the so-called canteen yard.

It was supposed to be completely dark, but this morning it was brightly lit. The large lights that were usually not turned on and hung around the canteen were all lit.

I arrived late and saw that quite a few people had already gathered in the open space. Everyone was dressed in red, like a sea of blood, and I mingled in quietly, absent-mindedly thinking, “It’s rare for a village with such a tight power supply to be so ‘luxury’! Is the generator going to be turned on for this event? How much fuel will that consume? Such a boring thing.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the village affairs came to take a head count. At the end, I vaguely heard someone say, “This is the third batch. Everyone is here. Let’s go.

Departure, where are we going again? After a delay, it was already almost 7 o’clock in the morning, and the sky was faintly whitening. I finally woke up from a state of absent-mindedness, and a certain feeling in my heart also completely revived with my awakening.

I suddenly froze, because this time the feeling was so strange, inexplicably suffocating, as if only the sound of my heart beating ‘pounding’ and ‘pounding’ remained in the world.

What is this feeling? I have lived for more than 30 years, and I have never had this feeling before. I was suffocating and my heart was pounding. I didn’t know if it was dangerous or safe.

However, before I could think about it, the village affairs that maintained order were like herding animals, urging us to set off. I could only follow the crowd in silence… Gradually, I walked out of my area, out of the village, out of the plain where I had entered, and into the narrow path like a slit in the sky…

A reddish color. I looked up at the narrow sky above me and wondered if it looked like blood flowing from the sky.

This thought was very boring, but it finally slightly relieved my indescribable and inexplicable feeling, because the oppression was too uncomfortable.

Walking out of the narrow sky, we came to the green grassland where we first arrived in the holy village. It was a strange sight. The grass was still green, but it had already been covered with a thin layer of snow. The dense footprints on the ground showed that people had been here before we arrived.

I finally remembered what the third batch meant. It turned out that our group was already the third batch. It seems that it was really a big event for the whole village.

At this point, I had already recovered from the shock and finally remembered the “newlywed” incident. After thinking about it carefully, I realized that it was today! In such cold weather, I suddenly broke into a cold sweat when I thought about it… As for why, it seems that I was slow to react and my thoughts were not focused today, and I had no idea.

This situation made me feel helpless and panicked. I subconsciously looked around, hoping to find a partner among the people in my group. Even just one familiar face would bring me great comfort, but there were only strangers, and I didn’t have a familiar partner. My heart felt even colder.

While I was panicking alone, the long pier was also extremely busy. The boats coming and going were loading people in groups and then heading towards the dead end that seemed to be blocked by a mountain.

There were more boats than the last time I came here. I don’t know if it was just a feeling of being surrounded by a lot of back and forth traffic, or if there were really more boats. Surrounded by negative emotions, I was completely unable to calm down.

I just numbly followed the crowd, and it didn’t feel like I had been waiting long before I stepped onto the long wooden bridge. In a flash, I reached the end of the bridge, and a boat with several large, exaggerated red flowers already waiting there.

“It’s even more grand than the ‘wedding procession’ in the town.” I looked at the boat with its exaggerated decorations and couldn’t help but start daydreaming. What was wrong with me today? If I couldn’t concentrate on my thoughts, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to perform even the simplest of magic.

Thinking about this, my heart became even more anxious. I didn’t know if it was a powerful aura that I didn’t know what was affecting me, or if there was something wrong with me.

“Get on the boat quickly!” The village official, who had been waiting at the end of the long bridge, had no patience for me. Seeing that I was dazed and my expression was changing, he simply didn’t bother to talk nonsense with me. Under his urging, he kicked me over.

The strength was much greater than I had imagined, and I was suddenly kicked onto the deck of the bow and lay there, while the village official’s somewhat irritated voice was still ringing in my ears: “Hurry up and get in there, don’t make me kick you a second time.”

I stood up silently, because I had too many emotions in my heart. I didn’t have any anger at all for that lackey-like village official, and I just walked into the cabin in silence.

This was the first time I had entered the cabin of such a large boat. It was much larger than I had imagined, probably able to seat 20-25 people. I found a place to sit silently, and after loading 20 people, the boatman wearing a straw hat and standing at the bow of the boat, who was silent and a bit too much, started the boat and began to row in the waves.

It seemed that they were used to the silent life in the village, and the people on the boat with me were also unusually silent. Long-term suppression had made people develop the habit of not talking, and it would not change on this boat.

The same was true of the boatman. The only difference was that under the straw hat, he must have had a completely different face from a normal person, like a skull.

I thought to myself, resting my head on the slightly soft black hat, and watched the green mountains at the end of the river, which seemed to block the flow of water, approach…