"Will… Will it work?"
Lu Yuan blinked and asked.
Listening to his wife, she sounded pretty professional.
She was talking about Xingzi and whatnot.
But Lu Yuan was still a little spooked.
Su Liyan, however, said with a determined look:
"Of course it will. My mother taught me. I'll go have a word with it tonight, and it won't dare to scare you again, Brother~"
Seeing Su Liyan look so confident, Lu Yuan dumbly nodded.
'I don't know if this is reliable or not, but just having a word with it… can't hurt…'
In the end, the two took the long way home.
After arriving home, Su Liyan first started tidying up the things in the courtyard.
She put away all the items they had bought from town today.
Lu Yuan didn't help. After all, from now on, Su Liyan would be the one handling all the household chores.
If Lu Yuan lent a hand today, Su Liyan might not be able to find things tomorrow.
'Hmm…'
The main reason was that Lu Yuan had eaten and drunk his fill and was feeling a bit lazy.
Speaking of which, Su Liyan was really efficient. You could tell just by looking that she was used to working hard.
There was a huge pile of things in the courtyard, but Su Liyan had it all cleaned up in less than half an hour.
After she finished, Su Liyan went to a corner of the wall and found a bowl.
They used to have a dog, and the bowl had been its.
After the dog died, the bowl had just been left there, never put away.
Then, Su Liyan found three stones in the corner and grabbed a handful of sand.
Once everything was ready, Su Liyan blinked her beautiful eyes at Lu Yuan and said:
"Brother, shall we go?"
Lu Yuan looked completely baffled.
"What's all this stuff?"
Su Liyan held up the stones in her hand and said:
"These are steamed buns."
Then she held up the broken bowl filled with sand and said:
"This is rice."
"It's all for that Xingzi."
Lu Yuan: "…"
"Will that even work? Aren't you just trying to fool a ghost?"
But Su Liyan nodded very seriously and said:
"Yeah, that's the point. We are fooling a ghost.
A Xingzi is just a ball of resentment. Just making the gesture is enough. It can't tell the difference."
Lu Yuan: "…"
Lu Yuan was a little uneasy and immediately said:
"Let's just steam some real buns, with white flour, and some real rice too.
We have to eat something tonight anyway."
Hearing this, Su Liyan's face was a mask of heartache.
"Huh?
We don't need to. It's a waste to give it to the Xingzi. We can't eat things that have been offered to them…"
Seeing the heartbroken look on his wife's face, Lu Yuan found it rather amusing.
"Come on, be good. Let's get this over with so we can come back and sleep."
Hearing this, Su Liyan's pretty face flushed red, and she immediately went to do as he said.
After everything was ready, Su Liyan left the house with Lu Yuan, a basket on her arm.
There wasn't time for the dough to rise, so she made unleavened buns.
It was fine, though. 'At least it's better than trying to fool it with stones,' Lu Yuan thought.
By now, the sky was completely dark. As the two walked out of the village, Lu Yuan said:
"When we get home later, let's both change into the new clothes we bought.
We'll go to the ancestral hall tonight to pay our respects."
There were no marriage certificates or anything like that here. For a new wife to join the family, she had to go to the ancestral hall and pay respects, letting the ancestors meet her. Only then was the marriage considered official.
Su Liyan nodded shyly.
'I never thought I would ever get married,' Su Liyan mused.
'Even if someone did want me, I was sure they wouldn't be a very good person.'
'But I never expected that today, I would actually be married.'
'And my husband is so good to me, so caring.'
This whole day, Su Liyan truly felt like she was in a dream.
The two of them walked out of the village and were approaching the stone bridge.
Lu Yuan looked at the pitch-black bridge and the gurgling stream below.
For a moment, he felt a chill.
The psychological trauma from before was just too great.
Even though Lu Yuan now had the Holy Body and was immune to all evil…
Logically speaking, this kind of evil spirit shouldn't be able to harm him.
But that wasn't how it worked.
Lu Yuan was genuinely terrified of this kind of thing.
Never mind that he had transmigrated as a Scholar…
'Even if I had transmigrated as Lin Zhengying, I'd still be scared witless seeing these things.'
"Um, maybe I… shouldn't go?
I'll wait for you by that tree?"
Lu Yuan said suddenly.
After Lu Yuan finished speaking, Su Liyan turned to look at her husband with a somewhat curious expression.
For some reason, Su Liyan suddenly found her husband rather cute.
During the day, he was so manly, daring to slam his hand on the village chief's table.
But now he was so afraid of a little evil spirit.
'What's so scary about an evil spirit? Aren't people much scarier than them?'
Snapping back to reality, Su Liyan nodded and said:
"Okay, I can go have a word with it myself."
In the end, Lu Yuan stopped under a large tree.
Su Liyan went to the bank by the stone bridge by herself, carrying the basket.
She lit two candles and then started muttering.
Lu Yuan couldn't hear what she was muttering, so he could only wait.
But as he waited, he didn't know if it was his imagination or something else, but he felt a chill run down his back. He kept feeling like there were things around him staring at him.
Su Liyan had been muttering over there for a long time and hadn't come back yet. Lu Yuan was getting creeped out.
For some reason, he felt that it was safer to be with Su Liyan.
Finally, Lu Yuan mustered his courage and went forward to find Su Liyan.
As he got closer, he could finally hear his wife's muttering.
Lu Yuan had thought it would be some kind of profound incantation.
But it turned out to be just plain talk.
Something along the lines of, "My husband even brought you white flour buns to eat, so don't scare my husband anymore," and so on.
Listening to this, Lu Yuan found it a bit cute, but also a bit dumbfounded. 'Will this stuff actually work…?'
By the time Lu Yuan arrived, Su Liyan had finished muttering.
Finally, she picked up the bowl from the ground and gestured with it in all directions.
After all this was done, the two returned home together, washed up properly, and changed into their new clothes.
Before, Su Liyan had only worn simple linen clothes, but she still had the air of a supermodel.
Now, in a beautiful outfit, with a touch of rouge, and a large red flower pinned into her coiled hair, she looked even more stunning and enchanting under the candlelight.
It made Lu Yuan not even want to go to the ancestral hall anymore.
'Of course, there's no rush. She's my woman now anyway, she's not going anywhere~'
The two arrived at the ancestral hall, found the Lu Family ancestors' memorial tablets, knelt, kowtowed, and said a few words. With that, the matter was settled.
After paying their respects, Lu Yuan hastily pulled a bashful Su Liyan back home.
Lu Yuan told Su Liyan to wait in the room first while he locked all the doors and windows.
When Lu Yuan returned to the room and drew the curtains, he saw Su Liyan already sitting demurely on the edge of the bed, her face full of shyness.
Lu Yuan rubbed his hands together, looked at his endlessly shy wife, and chuckled mischievously:
"Quick, let Brother see your big tail first~"
Su Liyan: "????"