The Joy Temple collapsed, and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God's roar echoed through the night over Dreamfold Town. Driven mad by the onslaught of countless memory fragments, Gao Ming fell onto the first floor, plastered with Joy Invitations. Red threads and scraps of the Blissful Paradise Sea scroll merged into him and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God.
"Gao Ming! Wake up!"
No matter how Fu Shu shouted from his back, Gao Ming could not open his eyes. The red threads pierced his eyelids, sewed his eyes shut, and plugged his ears and nose, plunging his consciousness into one nightmare after another.
"Wake up, groom! Look at the time! How are you still asleep?"
An unfamiliar voice reached his ears. Gao Ming opened his eyes and found himself lying in bed, with a middle-aged man dressed as a steward pacing anxiously beside him.
"Who are you?"
The carved wooden door opened, and two sweet-looking maids entered carrying a wedding garment. They deftly helped Gao Ming change.
"A wedding night, a place on the list of successful candidates—you've landed two of life's three great joys at once. You'll have to rein yourself in from now on. No more philandering like before." The steward rambled on while the maids snickered nearby.
With the sun already high, Gao Ming, now fully dressed, rode a tall, imposing horse. The wedding procession followed behind him, and everyone around cast him envious looks.
It should have been a moment of triumphant satisfaction, with his horse's hooves treading over fallen blossoms, yet Gao Ming felt little joy.
Something's wrong. Something just feels wrong.
The wedding procession arrived at the Tang Residence. Before he even saw the bride, Gao Ming suddenly noticed something strange about the two Stone Lions outside its entrance: they had four faces.
He swung down from his