Chapter 37: The Matriarch

I had been running for my life, yet the old squad leader had still managed to catch up. There was simply no way out!

As the reanimated corpse closed in, realizing I couldn't shake him, pure survival instinct took over. I abruptly stopped and darted into the maze of tables and chairs left over from the banquet in the Zhao family courtyard. I had hoped the gaps between the furniture would hinder his pursuit, but unfortunately, that strategy failed completely.

As I wove through the clutter, the squad leader followed. Unlike me, he didn't bother to navigate around; he plowed through the tables and chairs like an icebreaker, ignoring every obstacle in his path. What happened next left us all frozen in shock. With a cacophony of splintering wood, the squad leader’s corpse smashed through the round tables and stacked chairs as if they were nothing more than paper. Seeing the wood chips flying, I was stunned, forced to acknowledge that the power of this "resurrected corpse" was truly devastating.

My first plan had failed. Watching his iron-blue face and flailing limbs draw nearer, a surge of grief and rage welled up inside me. If I couldn't run, I had to fight. In desperation, I steeled myself, muttered a quick "I'm sorry," grabbed a chair from the banquet, braced myself, and swung it with all my might at his body.

The Zhao family had hosted the squad leader's ghost wedding earlier that day, so the furniture was still scattered about. Though these folding chairs were cheap, pressed-wood junk, they were solid enough to knock a person out cold. I put every ounce of strength into that strike, aiming directly for his face. Against a living man, this would have been a knockout blow, if not fatal.

Yet, I was consumed by a deep sense of pessimism. I didn't expect to knock him unconscious; I only hoped to slow him down or buy myself enough time to peel off this blood-stained shirt. I was wrong. The moment the chair connected with his head, it shattered into pieces, while the squad leader's corpse remained entirely unmoved. It had no effect whatsoever.

The next second, his icy, twisted hands grabbed me. He gripped my throat and lifted me clean off the ground. Suffocation hit instantly, and the remains of the chair clattered to the floor. Instinctive survival and sheer terror clouded my mind. In the haze, I caught a glimpse of Xian Hongye and Zhao Shuihe shouting something at me, but I couldn't hear them. All I could perceive was the squad leader’s mouth slowly widening, and a dark shadow writhing within it.

Suddenly, he lunged to bite me. *Is this the end?* I felt a wave of despair.

Just then, a sharp, piercing laugh cut through the air. It stabbed into my heart, pulling me back from the brink of unconsciousness. Amidst the ringing in my ears, I heard a jubilant voice. An old, quavering voice chuckled, "Oh, son! Look at how lively the Zhao family is! They're getting married today..."

At the old woman's words, the squad leader’s jaw stopped mid-lunge. Though he still held me in a suffocating grip, my bloodshot eyes could vaguely see someone standing behind him—a hunched, elderly figure.

It was the old woman we had met earlier that morning at the entrance to Zhao Family Village—the one clutching the white-faced doll. She was dressed in the same black clothes, her silver hair coiled neatly, still holding the doll she called her "son." She was smiling—a smile that held both the innocence of an elder and a bone-chilling, ghostly malice.

At the sight of her, everyone’s expression shifted. No one knew why she had suddenly appeared in the Zhao courtyard. The murderous glint in the squad leader’s eyes rapidly faded, and his grip on my throat began to loosen.

A moment later, gasping for air, I seized my chance, tore myself free, and collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. The squad leader’s corpse seemed to have forgotten I existed; he turned his head and stared blankly at the old woman standing by the gate.

The old woman continued to laugh, a sound that made our skin crawl. Most bizarrely, she reached out and beckoned to the corpse. "Groom," she chirped, "want to take me to see the bride?"

If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I never would have believed she was speaking to a corpse. And to ask the squad leader to take her to see the bride—a bride who was only nine years old, even counting her ghost years? What was there to see? It was a cold, sick joke that made my hair stand on end.

Yet, someone listened to these nonsensical words. Not only did he listen, he... he laughed.

*Click, click, click...* A sound like a wooden mallet striking a gong emanated from the corpse's throat. It was less a laugh and more of a mockery. I couldn't believe it, but following the old woman's jest, the squad leader’s purple-black face was actually grinning.

As that rattling laughter filled the air, I sat there, gasping for breath, completely bewildered. I couldn't fathom what was happening—not the squad leader’s laughter, nor what this "madwoman" had done to his corpse. It was as if she understood exactly what a corpse needed.

That an old woman could make a dead body "laugh" with a single sentence was shocking enough, but what happened next defied all reason. The squad leader’s corpse actually began to follow her, walking out of the Zhao courtyard step by step, obedient to her call.

Was the squad leader’s corpse... actually being led away by an inexplicable, insane old woman?