DSMC Chapter 179.1

Looking around, the entire street was packed with people, and the whole place was filled with a lively atmosphere.

This was the first time Yan Jiyun had entered such a bustling instance.

The Main Mission was to leave Jiangnan Town before the mission time ended. So, this was Jiangnan Town?

Looking at the bluestone-paved streets and the surrounding architecture, it really did have the style of a Jiangnan water town. Without this lively wedding celebration, it might have been considered a quiet little town.

But now, everywhere he looked was red. Yan Jiyun felt as if he had fallen into a sea of red.

This wedding was being held according to traditional Chinese customs, right?

The festive colors didn’t make Yan Jiyun feel comfortable. Instead, he found them somewhat eerie. It was fine during the day, but if it were nighttime, wouldn’t it be terrifying? Could this be some kind of supernatural love story about a ghost bride and ghost groom?

If this is another supernatural instance, he really would rather cry. 

Yan Jiyun couldn’t find any of his companions among the crowd. Judging by that, the instance’s map was probably quite large.

Based on his understanding of towns, there should be a main street area, with different districts throughout the town and villages scattered around the outskirts.

Several villages together would form a town, and naturally, the town would cover a certain area.

His mission was simply to survive by leaving Jiangnan Town. Wasn’t that somewhat similar to the mission in the Peak Competition?

The Main Mission of a Level 4 instance probably wouldn’t be as simple as it appeared on the surface.

At present, everyone was flowing toward the same direction, that is, the place where the groom was going to marry his bride.

Yan Jiyun followed the crowd for now. Since there was no mission notification yet, he might as well watch this rare traditional Chinese wedding.

This was the first time he’d felt so relaxed after entering an instance. He was simply standing among the crowd, playing the role of an ordinary spectator.

The groom stopped in front of a grand residence with red lanterns hanging outside, making the place look especially festive. The words “Cheng Residence” were written above the entrance. Even the gate itself exuded a strong sense of old-fashioned elegance.

Only one middle-aged man stood outside. He wore a long robe and had two tufts of mustache above his lips. Two young men stood behind him. They were probably the bride’s maternal uncles, coming out to make things difficult for the groom before allowing him to take the bride.

Everything proceeded according to the traditional ceremony, and nothing particularly unusual happened.

After going through all the formalities, the groom finally received his bride.

This was a wedding carried out entirely according to traditional Chinese customs. The bride was dressed from head to toe in an elaborate wedding outfit, complete with a phoenix crown and red ceremonial robes. Even the shoes on her feet were exquisite embroidered shoes.

Yan Jiyun casually asked a middle-aged woman standing beside him, “Auntie, which two families are getting married today?”

The woman gave him a look that clearly said, How do you not know anything? She spat out the sunflower seed shells in her mouth and said, “Have you not been going outside lately? It’s the third son of the Liu family marrying the second daughter of the Cheng family.”

Yan Jiyun said, “The groom is so handsome. His bride must be beautiful too.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Young man, how come you don’t know anything about the Cheng family?”

Yan Jiyun began making things up. “My mom usually doesn’t let me go outside. She just makes me stay home and study.”

Seeing the scholarly, student-like look on his face, the woman didn’t think he was lying. Her appetite for gossip immediately came alive.

“Don’t let this wedding fool you into thinking everything is wonderful. I heard that the second Cheng daughter is mentally ill.” She pointed at her head. “There’s something wrong up here.”

Yan Jiyun pretended not to understand anything. “But she looks perfectly normal, doesn’t she?”

The woman looked regretful. “What do you mean? That second Cheng daughter has hardly ever left the house since she was little. If the eldest son of the Liu family hadn’t hit someone with his car and killed them some time ago, leaving the family with a huge compensation bill to pay, the third son wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to marry the second Cheng daughter to help his brother repay the debt.”

Yan Jiyun said, “Then the third son of the Liu family must be pretty good to his brother.”

“What? It’s not like that. He’s being forced by his mother. The youngest son was born from Lao Liu and some woman outside the family, so he is an unvalued illegitimate son. The third son and his mother depend on sheer pity to survive. How could he dare disobey?”

Yan Jiyun felt as if he were listening to the secrets of a wealthy family from the Republican era. Still, the smaller the place, the more traditional some of its moral values tended to be.

Is this really a romance instance?

It already sounded incredibly complicated. There didn’t seem to be any love involved in this wedding at all.

He continued prompting the woman to reveal more information. “Is the Cheng family very rich?”

The woman continued cracking sunflower seeds. “Of course. I heard their ancestors included a prime minister. They’re incredibly wealthy. They’re a family of scholars, too.”

Yan Jiyun said, “But a prime minister would’ve been hundreds of years ago, right? How much ancestral property could they have left?”

“They make money by running factories. How could they not have money?”

She suddenly lowered her voice. “But the Cheng family is pretty strange. They have children very late, and the first children they have are always daughters. And every single one of them seems prone to problems.”

Important information.

Yan Jiyun wanted to keep asking, but the woman spotted one of her friends. The two happily started chatting about other neighborhood gossip.

‘Well, looks like I’ll have to investigate the rest myself.’

The Liu and Cheng families had formed a marriage alliance. There would probably be quite a few things happening because of it.

Yan Jiyun decisively followed the wedding procession forward. He figured he could at least go eat at the wedding banquet first.

For now, following the NPCs is the right choice.

This instance hadn’t mentioned anything about role-playing. The information available was pitifully scarce. Was this what they called a first-clear exploration instance?

Yan Jiyun felt that he should be more vigilant. He lowered his head slightly and hunched over, blending into the crowd.

He also didn’t dare turn back into a cat right now. He had heard that seeing a black cat at a wedding was considered a bad omen. He couldn’t recklessly transform into a cat, especially since it was broad daylight. If an NPC caught him, that would be terrifying.

For now, everything was perfectly normal. The plot was proceeding smoothly. Not even a little ant had been stepped on.

The Liu family was also considered one of the prominent families in town. Although they had fallen into decline, traces of their former glory remained.

The third son of the Liu family brought the second daughter of the Cheng family through the main entrance. All the guests watched the ceremony.

Every part of the wedding followed traditional customs, executed with just the right amount of propriety and grace. On the surface, they looked like a respectable family.

If the woman hadn’t told him some of the gossip, he would never have known that so many unpleasant things were happening behind the scenes.

This was also the first time Yan Jiyun had watched a traditional Chinese wedding. The whole bowing ceremony was actually quite interesting, and he watched with great interest.

The wedding ceremony here was genuinely traditional. After the bride and groom bowed to each other, they really did send the bride into the bridal chamber.

None of the NPCs at the scene found anything strange about it. The bride being taken directly back to the bridal chamber was apparently perfectly normal.

Liu Father and Liu Mother, seated in the main seats, wore very proper smiles.

Next came the wedding banquet.

Yan Jiyun squeezed his way onto the banquet table of a distant relative. Sitting at the edge made it less likely that anyone would notice he wasn’t actually an invited guest.

The groom hadn’t finished changing clothes and come out to toast the guests yet, but most of the guests had already taken their seats.

The people sitting closer to the host family’s table were all prominent local figures. Yan Jiyun didn’t even need to sit close to hear what they were saying.

However, the banquet had only just begun. Everyone was still being polite, and nobody was going to gossip about the Liu family when there were so many people around.

Yan Jiyun was more serious about eating than listening.

Every dish was very light, which suited his taste perfectly. He had no idea how their chef had been hired, but he really wanted to kidnap him and make him cook cat food for him every day.

[Want to be Human] livestream channel: 

“Kitty Baby entered an instance early even though it hasn’t even been a week. Talk about being dedicated to his job! What a blessing for all of us viewers.”

“Did nobody notice the [NEW] tag above the instance name? What does that mean?”

“As someone who’s been sitting in this livestream ever since players first started streaming, I’m honored to tell you: this is a new instance! This is a new instance! Kitty Baby is pioneering a new instance!”

“I remember it’s been a long time since we got a new instance, right? A batch of new instances came out three years ago, and there haven’t been any new ones since.”

“I noticed that the scale of this new instance release is much larger than before. They released new instances while taking old ones offline. Did you guys see the game announcement on the forums? Nearly thirty old instances were taken offline, and almost fifty new ones were released.”

“[Destiny] really went all out this time. I just don’t understand why the new instances were released so suddenly. Can some expert explain it?”

“The game suddenly releasing new instances… if I had to make a reasonable guess, something probably went wrong with these instances. Either the NPCs or the system malfunctioned.”

“But the instances have been running for so many years without any problems.”

“That’s because you guys don’t pay close enough attention. Haven’t you noticed that the NPCs lately have become really easy to manipulate? Anyway, I feel like the NPCs from Kitty Baby’s perspective have developed some degree of independent consciousness. They’re still following the plot, but something just feels off.”

“Really? How come I didn’t notice? Maybe I was too focused on the kitten and completely missed the NPCs acting strangely. Oh well, the new instances don’t bother me. I’ve never watched players pioneer an instance before.”

“Pioneering an instance is actually pretty interesting. A lot of players will get quite a bit of instance information to help them clear certain stages quickly. Once you’ve watched enough of that, it doesn’t feel like much anymore. But this time is different. Pioneering means that the plot the kitten is about to face is something we can’t predict and haven’t seen before. I was originally thinking of dropping this game, but now my interest has been piqued again.”

Yan Jiyun had no idea what the viewers were thinking. At the moment, he was thinking about how well the wedding banquet suited his taste while listening to the gossip around him gradually increase.

It wasn’t anything particularly specific at first. It was just that once a few chatty older women sat together, they couldn’t help saying a few extra things.

Listening to them for ten minutes was enough to piece together the Liu family’s relationships. If he stayed for another hour, he might even find out which male dog had fathered the puppies of the stray dog wandering around town.

“See that man who looks very frail, like he has Tuberculosis? That’s the eldest son of the Liu family, Liu Jingyi.”

“How can someone who looks like that drive a car and hit someone? He’s coughing that badly. They should just find him a wife to bring him some good luck. Maybe he could live a little longer.”

“Just because he’s coughing like someone with Tuberculosis doesn’t mean he can’t drive. But doesn’t that explain why he hit someone? If he was coughing, he couldn’t concentrate. Of course he’d end up hitting someone.”

Following their conversation, Yan Jiyun found the coughing man.

The man was seated at the main table. His face was pale and his eyes were dull. In his hand was a pale blue handkerchief folded into a square. He pressed it against his lips and dabbed them.

Although he looked as if he were about to cough himself to death, he was actually quite handsome. He was just far too thin, making his suit look somewhat oversized.

After coughing for a while, looking as though he might pass out at any moment, he was helped downstairs by a woman wearing a long dress.

Before leaving, he even politely said something to his uncles and elders.

The woman was probably his wife. She had the typical appearance of a Jiangnan woman.

T/N: to be honest, it’s been a long time since I finished reading this novel, so I did forget/misremember some points. And one of them is remembering this instance takes place in ancient China… which is so stupid bc they drive cars TT^TT

though, I think this arc is not quite modern times? The super traditional wedding + no phone makes me think that way. Probably in early 2000s or late 90s?