The once-lively wedding feast at the Wang Residence had suddenly fallen quiet, though no one knew when.
It was a silence in which not a single voice could be heard, as though this wedding feast had never existed at all. The guests were false, the beggars and vagrants were false, the dancing was false, the music was false...
Everything was false, just as everything in the past was false. Memory offered no road back. Even the most fiery moments of the past would be buried beneath the endlessly recurring paths through spring fields, trampled flatter and flatter like spring mud until no one spared them another thought. They would simply become ordinary, silently continuing to serve their sole remaining purpose.
Zhao Jingya and Wang Quande had not shut themselves away in their room. The door was indeed locked from the inside, but the window stood half-open. They lay on the bed, Zhao Jingya dressed in a Pomegranate-Red Dress. Her makeup made her look as beautiful as a celestial maiden-no, that exquisite face, coupled with her approachable manner and innate nobility, made her more beautiful and more captivating than any celestial maiden.
The entire Wang Residence-or rather, all of Green City-had now sunk into a dreamlike silence. No one knew what had happened here. Wisps of steam still rose from the soup on the round tables and banquet tables, but sadly, no one could enjoy its flavor now.
The three men in the room paused their unfinished game and went downstairs, pacing back and forth with the concern of gardeners inspecting flowers about to wither and die.
"It worked beautifully. They're all asleep now." Zeng Mu was thoroughly satisfied with the operation. Even without seeing his expression, they could hear it in his voice.
Yao Chun lifted their eyelids with his