Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Double Happiness

“She laughed as she cried

Guess how she laughed as she cried

As she cried

Look how she cried as she laughed”

A suona’s wail means great joy or great sorrow.

It was clearly a wedding, yet the bride was both crying and laughing. Even though she didn’t fully understand it, Wen Jiaqi could still sense the desolate sorrow in the song.

Like *Emperor’s Flower*, this song, “Double Happiness,” was also about a wedding tinged with bleak sorrow, but the two were different.

After listening to *Emperor’s Flower*, all she wanted to do was cry.

She felt sympathy, admiration, and envy.

But listening to “Double Happiness,” she felt a chill run through her body.

Finally, the wedding ceremony concluded.

The scene changed. The bride in the music video was hanging from a white silk sash, already dead. Her eyes, unwilling to close, were filled with resentment.

There was even a close-up of the embroidered shoes on her feet…

And the dead tree outside the window with its strangely shaped branches.

!!!

Wen Jiaqi was so struck by the scene that she felt as if her heart had stopped for a second.

When she came to her senses, she wanted to scream, but her throat felt too dry to make a sound.

Her Spiritual Body had also emerged. It was now trembling, huddled beside her, its small eyes darting around suspiciously.

The floor-to-ceiling windows, usually so artistic, now made her wonder if something might suddenly appear out of the darkness outside.

Like the hanged bride’s face…

Finally snapping back to reality, Wen Jiaqi burst into tears from fright, bawling her eyes out.

In the next room, Wen Jiahui heard this familiar, teakettle-like wail and was filled with exasperation.

He could only knock on the door to the next room and call out, “Wen Jiaqi, what is it this time? Did you watch another tragedy?”

BANG—the door opened.

A familiar figure lunged at him again, exactly like the last time she’d cried from listening to a song.

“You cried from listening to a song again?”

Wen Jiaqi’s wailing paused. With a tear-streaked face, she asked, “How did you know?”

“Heh, I figured as much. Go on, what tragedy was it this time?”

“WAAAH~ It wasn’t a tragedy this time, I was scared! Jiang Bao’s new music video is terrifying! It scared me to death!!”

As if to prove how scared she was, Wen Jiaqi’s Spiritual Body trembled as it huddled close again.

Seeing the white peacock’s cowardly appearance, Wen Jiahui was utterly speechless.

’Good heavens, how could someone get so scared from a song that their Spiritual Body pops out?’

’And what’s wrong with her Spiritual Body? Its legs can barely hold it up…’

’If word of this got out, wouldn’t all those males pursuing Wen Jiaqi regret it?’

’He’d never seen such a wimpy Spiritual Body!’

***

Meanwhile, many more people were clicking on the music video.

The most absurd part was, the impatient ones didn’t see the warning and just watched it directly. The more careful ones saw it, but that only made them more curious.

So, one by one, they all unhesitatingly pressed play on the music video.

Ning Feiyu was a review blogger who usually posted critiques of songs, movies, and TV shows on his Star Network account.

Because he didn’t accept advertisements and his commentary was sharp and venomous, he had quite a few followers.

After all, in this day and age, anyone who dared to speak the truth on the Star Network was a warrior.

Without some backing, they would have been banned long ago.

But every time he finished ranting, he remained alive and well on the Star Network. Over time, everyone guessed that he must have a pretty strong background.

At the very least, being able to offend so many people without any scruples and not get assassinated was a skill in itself.

Ning Feiyu often suffered from insomnia, so he would go to music platforms every night to find songs to listen to.

Music was supposed to help with sleep, after all. Although it was completely useless for him, he had no other choice, so he decided to just stick with it to the bitter end.

Every day he listened, and every day he couldn’t sleep.

The hostility in his heart continued to grow, and his Riot Value was constantly on the rise.

Finally, one day, he couldn’t take it anymore. He posted a thread flaming those songs, calling them garbage rejected by the Empire’s music industry!

Who would have thought that with just that one post, he would go viral.

After that, a cycle began. He couldn’t sleep, so he’d look for some entertainment. But the movies, shows, and songs were all cringe-worthy in their own ways, so the more he watched and listened, the angrier he got.

Then he’d be even less able to sleep, get even angrier, start ranting, and become even more popular…

He rode that wave of popularity, gaining more and more fans who started demanding daily updates.

Tonight, he still couldn’t sleep, so he decided to just head to the music scene to find some new material to post.

’After all, I’ve been roasting the film and television industry for two months. It’s the music industry’s turn to get flamed. I play no favorites.’

But as soon as he opened the music platform, the homepage recommended a music video to him.

’What angered me the most was that the music video’s cover had a two-line, deliberately mysterious warning. Isn’t that just a trick to get people to spend Star Coins to download it!’

’And “Cowards, do not enter”? Hilarious. Let’s not even talk about whether this music video is actually scary. Even if it were filled with footage of corpses, how scary could it be?’

’Could it be scarier than the monsters from the Cosmic Abyss?’

’Or more disgusting than the Insect Race?’

’If they really put that kind of stuff in a music video, there’s no way the censors would approve it.’

’So the conclusion is, this is a scam music video!’

’It uses cheap mystique to pique people’s curiosity and trick them into downloading it.’

’Today, I’m going to expose this scam and nail this disgusting, shameless hack who’d do anything for money to the cross of public opinion.’

’I’ll make sure they can never scam anyone again.’

Thus, Ning Feiyu unhesitatingly spent 5 Star Coins to download the music video.

……

Five minutes later, with a complex expression on his face and his hands trembling slightly, he clicked on Jiang Qin’s homepage.

Ten minutes ago, she had published a new post.

First, there was a brief explanation of the Ghost Festival.

Then, she introduced the ancient musical instrument used in the song, the suona, as well as ancient wedding customs and the meaning of “the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, an auspicious day.”

’So weddings in ancient times were that complicated?’

The post ended with the story behind the song “Double Happiness.”

I always knew the status of females wasn’t high in ancient times, but I never thought it was this low.

Every era is different.

Yes, humanity has been around for many years, and the status of males and females has shifted several times during that period. It was all for the sake of survival.

We females used to be oppressed too. It’s only Later that we gained our current status.

It was all for survival. Males ruled for such a long time, and now they have willingly accepted the reforms of the era.

What I find strange is, even though there’s only one dead person in the music video, why do I feel like it’s more terrifying than an Alien Beast…

I feel that way too…

I can’t even look at shoes, windows, or the space under my bed anymore…

After Ning Feiyu finished reading Jiang Qin’s post, his wildly beating heart seemed to calm down a little.

Until he turned his head and saw a face pressed against his window…

His eyes rolled back in his head, and he fainted on the spot.

The person outside the window: …

“Seriously, Ning Feiyu, what are you doing? I told you to open the door, AAAAAHH!!

You’re in there but you won’t open the door, you’re not answering my messages, and now you see me and pretend to be asleep? What’s your problem??

Open the door! Hurry up and open the door, I don’t have my key!!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep