The Ghost Wedding Groom Was Someone She Knew?

[Act three: "Ghost Wedding"]

[Role: Youngest daughter]

[Act three identity: Bride]

[The groom will arrive at the Chen Family when act three begins.]

[Bride, please do not mistake someone else for your husband.]

Shen Niannian stared at the last sentence.

She fell silent for two seconds.

"Wait."

"I don't even know what the groom looks like. How am I supposed to make sure I don't mistake someone else for him?"

(￣ー￣)

The Dead Men's Theater clearly had no intention of explaining.

The three-minute intermission ended.

Every white candle in the mourning hall went out at once.

The next second.

The entire Chen Family compound suddenly changed.

White mourning banners were replaced with red silk.

The black coffin in the center of the mourning hall vanished.

Rows of blood-red lanterns hung along both sides.

But a closer look revealed something.

What burned inside the lanterns wasn't candlelight at all.

It was eyeballs, slowly turning.

The sound of mourning and wailing in the air also disappeared.

In its place.

Came the sound of suona horns, drawing closer from the distance.

Woo-

Woo-

Shrill.

Festive.

And indescribably sinister.

All the surviving players gathered again.

[Current surviving players: 11]

The theater tickets in everyone's hands had been updated.

The Chen Family roles, including the master, the madam's paper figure, the eldest daughter, and the steward, remained unchanged.

Several other players who had originally been outside guests had become-

[Wedding procession guest]

[Bridal escort guest]

[Wedding matron]

One player even had the new identity:

[Bridal maid]

The male player in his twenties looked at his theater ticket.

His face turned green.

"I'm a man, and I'm playing a bridal maid?"

No one nearby laughed.

Because the Dead Men's Theater had already proved beyond doubt.

Gender didn't matter.

The actor mattered even less.

If the role said you were something-

You'd better be exactly that.

Ye Qinglan had also finished reading her identity.

[Role: Eldest daughter]

[Act three identity: Elder sister escorting the bride]

[Current task: Ensure the bride marries the correct groom.]

She looked up at Shen Niannian.

"Our goals are aligned in this act."

Shen Niannian nodded.

"The question is, who is the correct groom?"

Soon.

The rules for act three appeared.

[Ghost Wedding Rules]

[1. After the wedding procession arrives, three "grooms" will enter the Chen Family compound.]

[2. The bride may choose only one groom to complete the wedding ceremony.]

[3. The real groom will not volunteer his name.]

[4. The fake grooms will try to prove they are real. Do not make your judgment based solely on their words.]

[5. If the wrong groom is chosen, the ghost wedding will be completed immediately.]

When they saw the fifth rule.

Everyone's expression changed.

"It'll be completed even if she chooses wrong?"

Cao Yong frowned.

"That doesn't sound like a good thing."

Ye Qinglan said gravely, "Most likely, a wrong ghost wedding will be completed, and then the bride will die outright. It might even cause the roles in the entire act to collapse."

Shen Niannian thought so too.

The most troublesome part was.

The rules only told them not to listen to the fake grooms trying to prove their identities.

They didn't tell them how to find the real one.

Just then.

A loud cry suddenly rang out from outside the courtyard.

"The auspicious hour has arrived-"

"The groom enters the residence-"

The Chen Family's main gates.

Swung open with a boom.

An icy chill swept into the courtyard.

The first wedding procession entered.

Eight headless paper figures carried a black bridal sedan.

The sedan door opened.

A young man with a bluish-white complexion stepped out.

He wore red wedding robes.

But a hemp rope was wrapped around his neck.

[Target: Hanged Ghost]

[Danger level: B-rank]

[Current identity: Groom candidate]

[Current status: Expectant]

Immediately afterward.

The second sedan arrived.

The man who stepped out this time had no mouth.

He was tall and broad.

A pair of rusty scissors was embedded in his chest.

[Target: Mouth-Cut Ghost]

[Danger level: Peak B-rank]

[Current identity: Groom candidate]

[Current status: Excited]

Two.

One more to go.

Everyone began to tense up.

Because according to the rules.

Once all three grooms had arrived.

The selection had to begin.

The livestream chat was already going wild.

"Neither of these two looks real."

"The problem is, the fake grooms must know how to pretend too!"

"Rule three says the real one won't volunteer his name, so can they rule out anyone who gives his name without being asked?"

"Not necessarily. A fake groom could deliberately keep his name to himself!"

"This round is all about an information gap!"

Just then.

The third wedding procession appeared.

It was completely different from the first two.

No paper figures.

No bridal sedan.

Only a pitch-black carriage.

All four horses were skinless.

Their blood-red muscles lay exposed.

The wheels rolled over the ground.

Without making a sound.

After the carriage stopped.

The low-level weirds throughout the Chen Family compound.

All fell silent at once.

Even the two B-rank groom candidates instinctively stepped aside.

The carriage door opened.

A youth slowly stepped down.

He looked only fifteen or sixteen.

Black hair.

Golden eyes.

His skin was pale, without a trace of color.

He wore a black-and-gold robe.

His features were exquisite.

Yet so cold that he seemed to have no emotions of a living person at all.

An Identity Archive instantly popped up.

[Target: Xie Linyuan]

[Race: Nightwalking Weird]

[Danger level: Peak A-rank]

[Identity: Young master of the Night Capital]

[Current identity: Groom candidate]

Shen Niannian's eyelid twitched.

Peak A-rank?!

(⊙_⊙)

Wasn't this third candidate suddenly on a whole different level?

Ye Qinglan could clearly feel the pressure too.

Although she couldn't see his exact identity.

His aura was simply beyond anything the first two B-ranks could compare to.

Someone in the livestream had already recognized him.

"Xie Linyuan?!"

"The young master of Night Capital, Xie Linyuan!"

"Public records say he's at the peak of A-rank, and he absolutely loathes humans!"

"Has the Dead Men's Theater gone mad? It brought in something like that to be the groom for the third act of the ghost marriage?"

"Shen Niannian's really in trouble this time!"

Just as everyone was on edge.

Xie Linyuan looked up.

His gaze swept over the Chen Family.

Finally.

It landed on Shen Niannian.

Black-and-red Lolita dress.

Silver hair.

Red eyes.

She was so petite that, however one looked at her, she seemed completely at odds with the word "bride."

He stopped.

The Identity Archive refreshed in sync.

[Current status: calm]

[Current status: bewildered]

Then.

[Current status: shocked]

The next second.

The boy's usually expressionless face.

Cracked visibly for the first time.

"..."

"Shen Niannian?"

The entire courtyard.

Fell silent in an instant.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(・_・;)

Here it came.

That familiar feeling.

After a one-second pause, the livestream chat exploded.

"?????"

"He knows her too?!"

"Wait, even the young master of Night Capital knows her this time?!"

"The Blood Moon Hotel, Mirror City, the Lightless Train, and now Night Capital too?!"

"Just how many places did she go to as a child?!"

Ye Qinglan turned sharply toward Shen Niannian.

During the first two acts.

She had thought the girl had mainly relied on that A-rank Lolita dress to disguise her aura.

But now, that didn't add up.

What Xie Linyuan had called her was-

Her name.

He knew Shen Niannian herself!

Even more absurdly.

Xie Linyuan's next words plunged the entire courtyard into dead silence.

He lowered his head and glanced at the groom's outfit he was wearing.

Then looked at Shen Niannian.

For the first time, an almost absurd emotion appeared in his golden eyes.

"The Dead Men's Theater wants me to marry you?"

Shen Niannian blinked.

"Looks that way."

Xie Linyuan was silent for two seconds.

Then he asked in all seriousness:

"If I back out now, is there still time?"

All the players: "..."

The livestream chat: "..."

(⊙_⊙)

Wait.

You're at the peak of A-rank!

How come you want to run away from the wedding even more than the bride does?!