bigabreads Chapter 137 Don't hide, the whole village thinks we're reenacting the Liang-Zhu wedding.
Chapter 137 Don't hide, the whole village thinks we're reenacting the Liang-Zhu wedding.
The night was as dark as ink, and the wind on the wasteland carried a biting chill, whipping up the withered grass on the ground and making a mournful howling sound.
Zhao Family Village is in complete chaos.
The collective "night run" of dozens of young men was like a resounding slap in the face of Old Master Zhao, whose face was as bark as an old tree.
Inside the ancestral hall, several elderly clan elders guarded the imperial "Chastity Archway," their dim oil lamps swaying precariously in the wind, as if they might go out at any moment.
"Lock the doors! Lock all the doors!"
Old Master Zhao, leaning on a broken cane, stood at the village entrance and roared, his voice as hoarse as a broken bellows:
"Keep a close eye on all the women in the house! Anyone who dares to glance over there is to have their eyes gouged out!"
The men who hadn't run away yet timidly locked their wives and daughters inside the house and nailed the windows shut with wooden boards.
The entire Zhao Family Village was plunged into a deathly, suffocating darkness and oppression.
However, in this deathly silence, a dazzling white light, almost sacred, suddenly pierced the night sky!
"Sizzle—"
The beam of light shot out from the high platform of the Qin family camp, like a sword of the gods, spanning hundreds of meters of wilderness, and accurately projected onto the huge, newly erected white curtain at the entrance of Zhao Family Village.
"What's that?!"
"The sky has opened? The gods have appeared?"
The villagers, who had been huddled in their houses trembling with fear, peered through the cracks in the doors and holes in the window paper at the blindingly bright white cloth.
Then, something moved on the white cloth.
There was no sound. First, there was a flash of black and white snowflakes. Then, colorful figures and clear scenery flowed out on the screen like a scroll painting.
That was something Su Wan redeemed from her spatial storage—"The Butterfly Lovers".
Moreover, it's a heavily edited version produced by "Qin's Editing".
When the poignant and sorrowful violin concerto "The Butterfly Lovers" resounds through a high-powered sound system, even the hardest heart will tremble.
……
Qin Family Camp, screening room.
This is the only light source center in the entire venue.
An old-fashioned film projector was turning "click-clack," and scorching air blasted out of its ventilation holes, making the cramped operating space unbearably hot.
Su Wan stood in front of the projector, intently watching the film reel move.
Today she wore a fitted cheongsam-style long dress, and to keep warm, she wore Qin Lie's cloak over it. Even so, the heat emanating from the projector still caused a fine layer of sweat to seep onto her forehead.
"Second brother, is this film... really going to work?"
She turned around with some concern.
People of this era had never seen a movie before, and she was afraid of scaring them or making them unable to understand it at all.
"Whether it works or not, Wan'er will know once she sees it."
Qin Mo stood behind her.
He wasn't wearing those gold-rimmed glasses today.
In the backlight of this strong light, his handsome and refined face appeared somewhat blurry, only his narrow phoenix eyes shimmered with an almost eerie light in the flickering light and shadow.
He did not look at the curtain in the distance.
He was looking at her.
Looking at her exquisite profile outlined by the strong light.
I watched as a few strands of her hair, damp with sweat, clung to the back of her fair neck, swaying slightly with her movements.
"Wan'er."
Qin Mo took a step forward.
This step brought him almost touching Su Wan's back.
But he didn't touch her.
He simply reached out a hand over her shoulder, pretending to adjust the projector's focus.
"It feels a bit weak here."
His voice was low, mixed with the roar of the machines, and only Su Wan could hear it.
The hand waved in front of the camera.
moment.
On the huge screen in the distance, where Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were originally swearing brotherhood on the grass bridge, a huge, slender hand shadow suddenly appeared.
The hand shadow did not disrupt the image; instead, it resembled the hand of God, caressing the face of the person in the painting.
"Ah!" Su Wan exclaimed in surprise, quickly grabbing his hand. "Second Brother! Don't block the camera! That's a projection!"
"I know."
Qin Mo did not withdraw his hand.
Instead, he braced his other hand on the side of the projector, his arms forming a complete cage, trapping Su Wan tightly between him and the beam of light.
"Wan'er, look."
He lowered his head, his hot breath brushing against her ear, his voice carrying a hint of wicked seduction:
"Our shadows...are up there."
Su Wan subconsciously looked up at the curtain in the distance.
On the huge white screen, in addition to the movie footage, two overlapping black shadows were projected.
One is tall and the other is short.
The taller man, with his broad shoulders and narrow waist, exuded a protective and possessive aura as he embraced the petite figure from behind.
Because it was so close to the light source, the shadow was magnified to an enormous size, almost covering half the screen.
From the perspective of Zhao Family Village.
Just like Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in the movie, their souls suddenly traveled to reality, and they were having the most intimate and tender moment amidst the interplay of light and shadow.
"Second Brother! Let go! The whole village saw it!"
Su Wan's face flushed bright red instantly, overwhelmed by shame.
This isn't a movie screening at all.
This is clearly a live broadcast!
"So what if I saw it?"
Qin Mo chuckled lightly, and instead of retreating, he advanced even more aggressively.
His chest pressed tightly against her back, and even through the cloak, she could still feel the alarming heat emanating from him.
"They thought...it was an Easter egg in the movie."
"Wan'er, listen, they are crying."
Just as Qin Mo said.
In the distant Zhao Family Village, the air was now filled with weeping.
The women locked inside the house peered through the cracks in the windows, watching the tragic scene of Zhu Yingtai being forced into marriage and torn apart by feudal ethics on the screen. They felt deeply for her and cried their hearts out.
And when they saw those two huge, overlapping black shadows...
They didn't think anything was wrong.
Instead, they were making things up in their minds.
"Is that Zhu Yingtai's spirit? Has she finally embraced Liang Shanbo?"
"Waaaaah... This is so touching... Why can't I choose the man I like?"
"I also want someone to hold me like this... even if it means death..."
This intense emotional resonance made the "shadow embrace" both sacred and poignant.
But behind the projector.
This was a brutal and aggressive form of torture, a kind of death by a thousand cuts.
"Wan'er, this machine... is so hot."
Qin Mo's fingers were no longer content to remain suspended in the air.
Through the fabric, he held Su Wan's slender waist, pressing his thumb precisely on the hollow of her lower back with force.
"Well……"
Su Wan's legs went weak, and she fell backward into his arms.
As they fell, their shadows merged instantly on the curtain, becoming a closer, even somewhat ambiguous shape.
"Wan'er's voice... was so beautiful."
Qin Mo's Adam's apple bobbed as he stared at the back of her neck, which was exposed outside her collar and soaked with sweat.
It was dazzlingly white, yet so fragile that it seemed as if it could be bitten through in one bite.
"Unfortunately, we can't hear it from outside."
"All they can see is... us 'acting'."
He slowly lowered his head, opened his mouth, and looked at the piece of flesh he had longed for.
It wasn't a light kiss.
Instead, it involves grinding.
He gently nibbled at her skin with his teeth, as if savoring a piece of the finest mutton fat jade.
"Second brother...no...that's just a shadow..."
Su Wan gripped the edge of the projector tightly with both hands, her knuckles turning white from the force.
She dared not move.
Because whenever she moves, the shadow on the curtain moves erratically.
The sense of immorality of "performing" in front of hundreds of people, and the oppressive aggression of the man behind her, were like an airtight net, suffocating her.
"What's wrong with the shadow?"
Qin Mo loosened his teeth and licked the patch of skin he had sucked until it was red, his voice hoarse as if he had grit in his mouth:
"The shadow is embracing."
"The shadow is kissing."
"The shadow is... entering the bridal chamber."
He grabbed her fingers with one hand, forcibly squeezing them together to interlock them.
Then, lift it up.
Hold it to the very center of the light source.
then.
Everyone in Zhao Family Village saw it—
Against the backdrop of the poignant music of the butterfly transformation and the colorful butterflies fluttering in the sky.
A huge hand tightly gripped a slender little hand.
We made a pact of life and death, separation and reunion.
This scene was even more breathtaking than the movie itself.
"Wow--!!!"
The crying from Zhao Family Village grew even louder.
That yearning for free love, that longing for a steadfast and open union, completely shattered the facade of chastity at that moment.
"I want to get out! I'm not going to stay a widow anymore! I'm going to find a man!"
A young widow suddenly grabbed a kitchen knife and began frantically hacking at the wooden planks on the window.
"I want to go out too! Even if it means becoming a kitchen maid in the Qin family, I want to find a man who cares for me!"
"Grandpa was lying! This is how a person should live! This is what it means to be alive!"
From the sealed-off houses, the sound of banging on the doors began to emanate.
That was the sound of awakening.
This is also the effect that Qin Mo wanted most for this "shadow puppet show".
……
Inside the control room.
The song ended.
The film reel in the projector had reached its end, spinning idly with a "click-click-click" sound.
The light source is still on.
Qin Mo remained in the same embrace from behind, watching the two intertwined hand shadows on the screen.
His hand, which was holding Su Wan's, was covered in sweat.
It was her sweat, and it was his sweat too.
Sticky, humid, yet damn addictive.
"Wan'er."
He loosened his grip on her fingers and gently rubbed the thin layer of sweat on the back of her hand with his fingertips.
"Look."
"That archway... collapsed."
Su Wan followed his gaze.
Although the specific situation in Zhao Family Village was unclear, the deafening clamor, the sound of resistance erupting after decades of suppression, spoke volumes.
"Second brother...you've got a good plan."
Su Wan, still panting, leaned against him, feeling as if she had just been pulled out of the water.
This "performance" left her physically and mentally exhausted, yet it also made her soul tremble with excitement.
"It's not a scheme."
Qin Mo took off his glasses (though he wasn't wearing them), gracefully wiped the sweat from Su Wan's forehead, and then applied that dampness to his lips.
His eyes gleamed with a light that seemed to say, "Conquest."
"This is education."
"I taught them... what love is."
"By the way..."
He turned her back to face him.
At that moment, the projector light shone directly on his profile, perfectly dividing his expression—half as abstinent like a god, half greedy like a demon.
"Teach Wan'er too..."
"In broad daylight, in full view of everyone..."
"That feeling of wanting to scream but not daring to, wanting to hide but having nowhere to hide..."
"Is it... even more captivating than this movie?"
Looking at him, Su Wan suddenly realized that this seemingly refined scoundrel was actually the craziest of the seven Qin brothers.
"madman."
She muttered a curse under her breath, but her voice was so soft it sounded like she was being coquettish.
"Um."
Qin Mo gladly accepted the title.
He leaned down and kissed her once more in the still-bright light.
This time.
Without the cover of shadows.
Only two souls, burning completely together in light and heat.
……
The next morning.
When the first ray of sunlight shines into Zhao Family Village.
When Zhao Taigong pushed open the door of the ancestral hall, he was completely dumbfounded.
Last night, those women who cried and begged to see a movie, those young wives who usually never leave their homes, even those elderly widows in their sixties...
They all ran away!
The entire village looked like it had been ransacked.
Only a few carefree stray dogs wandered the empty streets.
"Where are they?! Where did everyone go?!"
Old Master Zhao staggered to the village entrance.
Beneath the chastity archway that represented the glory of Zhao Family Village, there lay countless foot-binding cloths from various households, along with books like "Admonitions for Women" and "Biographies of Virtuous Women," which had once been considered their lifeblood.
And on that cement road leading to the Qin Family Special Zone.
A large group of women, carrying bundles, supporting the elderly, and holding children, were desperately moving towards that direction, even though their feet were still bound.
The numbness and lifelessness that used to linger on their faces were gone.
Instead, there was a longing for those two intertwined shadows on that huge screen.
"I'm going to the Qin family!"
"I'm going there to find a man, so he can hold my hand like that!"
"I don't want this memorial arch anymore! I want living, breathing people!"