Free Web NovelChapter 333: Chapter 137: Confession in the Dark (Big Chapter, Please Subscribe)
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The ceiling, of course, could not collapse.
But Xie Xingzhi had already learned of a mad plan. If this plan were to come to fruition, to him it might as well be akin to the sky falling down.
A change of monumental importance, certainly to be recorded in the annals of High Tower history.
Noticing Zheng Yue’s gaze upon him, Xie Xingzhi flashed a smile, slowly making himself appear as natural as possible.
"Speaking of which... when the time comes, how will that lazybones choose? Pang Li, Liu Hu, Wang Su, they should choose to take action, right? Pang Li will be more troublesome... Demon Shadow Form is quite difficult to deal with, and if combined with Zheng Yue’s Mirror Flower, Water Moon... that would be quite thorny indeed. I wonder if they have calculated these variables."
Xie Xingzhi was still very worried.
The wedding venue remained lively, with everyone discussing who the bride and groom were. Since nutritional meals, although they can be decorated quite extravagantly, have a taste that people have adapted to but don’t quite love, no one was eating or drinking.
About ten minutes later, while everyone was joyfully discussing in the festive atmosphere, the wedding finally moved on to the next stage.
Ming Che made his appearance.
He wore a wedding outfit in line with current trends, somewhat retro in style, and his countenance was as joyful as everyone else’s.
He stood on the massive stage assembled in the manor not long ago, ready to reveal the suspense surrounding this wedding.
"Thank you all for coming. It’s an honor for me to be the witness of this wedding, not just because it’s the wedding of the Investigation Corps Captain and the ruler’s daughter but also because they are the most talented and beautiful couple I have seen."
The audience gasped in astonishment. Even though some had guessed it was the Investigation Legion’s Captain getting married, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t be surprised when the answer was announced.
Liu Chengzi lamented, "Ah... the Captain, eh? I only saw him when he became a squad leader. What a pity, he’s taken now."
"Damn, it’s actually the Captain. Why is Ming Che the witness? Shouldn’t it be Bai Wu and the squad leader? Where are they?" Lin Wurou looked around, still accustomed to calling Bai Wu by his real name and referring to Wu Jiu as the squad leader.
"The ruler’s daughter? The Captain is really amazing, hahaha..." Wang Shi laughed heartily.
Yin Shuang, though not very familiar with Captain Qin and with no fondness for the ruler, still nodded silently amidst the blessings. At least in her eyes, the Captain was as admirable as the squad leader.
The wedding of the Investigation Corps’ Captain filled all the attending Investigation Corps members with joy; they raised their glasses and cheered, taking quite a while to settle down.
Ming Che’s smile broadened, knowing that the most important guests for the wedding had arrived.
The Qin siblings had a sense of it; the eldest daughter Qin Yi and the second son Qin Xuan, with the second son being the Captain of the Gao Ta Town Garrison Corps and the eldest daughter overseeing what’s said to be an elite force.
A force that stood above both the Garrison Corps and the Investigation Corps.
Although Ming Che was quite satisfied with his current position, like anyone, he would not pass up the chance to climb higher.
Not just the Qin siblings, but the Yan Family father and son were also there, rulers in their own right. What the Yan Family controlled, Ming Che at his level did not know.
But since the Qin Family was willing to enter into an alliance with the Yan Family, it meant that the Yan Family certainly had assets valuable enough to be taken seriously by the Qin Family, whatever they were, Ming Che hoped he could perform well.
With the groom’s mystery revealed, it was naturally time to unveil the bride.
And this task was no longer Ming Che’s to narrate because the youngest Captain in the history of the Investigation Corps had already led his bride by the hand, stepping out slowly from the right side of the stage.
When the bride came into view, there was another round of exclamation.
She was a somewhat dazed-looking young girl.
At the wedding venue, everyone’s faces were filled with joy; amidst the overwhelming jubilation, her dazed expression made her look like a delicate porcelain doll.
As always, she stood out as an outsider, yet her beauty was so striking that it made people overlook the dissonance.
She had always been beautiful, yet despite living in the Asylum, her beauty was never appreciated, nor had she ever been the lucky recipient of the adage "beauty for the pleasure of a man."
However, when she appeared before everyone with the makeup of a bride, even though her face lacked the bright and moving smile, and her eyes lacked any hint of the joy and shyness a bride should have on her wedding day, she still stunned the crowd.
The entire wedding seemed to reach its liveliest moment; even though it wasn’t yet time for the couple to exchange rings and vows, everyone started exclaiming at the sight of the bride.
Just days ago, she was but an ignored lunatic in the Asylum.
Some had thought perhaps Captain Qin agreed to the marriage due to the woman being from the fifth level, perhaps as a compromise for his career, or maybe the woman wasn’t attractive, but out of respect for Captain Qin, everyone had to appear enthusiastic.
And indeed, they were enthusiastic, both the Investigation Corps and the Garrison Corps because this bride was truly beautiful.
The women of the Yan Family had always been beautiful, especially this bride. If her eyes could show more spirit and her expression could carry joy, she might well be the most beautiful girl in the history of the Yan Family.
Very few people knew the identity of the bride; you could almost say none, except for the seventh squad of the Investigation Corps.
Liu Chengzi stood up, looking at the stunningly beautiful girl on stage with incredulous eyes.
"Why her? Why is she the bride?" Lin Wurou also found it unbelievable.
They had all met this girl before; to Bai Wu, every friend in her life was treasured by this girl.
Yan Jiu.
The girl who couldn’t feel joy, who saw Bai Wu as her entire world, was now standing as a bride at Qin Zong’s wedding.
"What’s going on! Why would Jiu marry the Captain!" Liu Chengzi’s tone carried a hint of anger.
She was Yan Jiu’s best friend, and of all the members in the seventh squad, she interacted with Yan Jiu the most.
She knew the girl’s mind all too well no matter how she tried to teach her, she could never align with her own way of thinking.
Because of Bai Wu, Liu Chengzi believed that Yan Jiu would never be able to learn her own tricks.
Because in her world, there was only Bai Wu.
And yet, now this girl was suddenly married, to someone who was supposed to have no connection with her.
She even wanted to rush up to the stage and demand answers.
But even Liu Chengzi couldn’t decipher the emotionless face of Yan Jiu.
The girl felt no joy; when she wasn’t sad, her face was calm and vacant, and when she was, she would shrink into a corner of the Asylum room, silently murmuring a name.
Suddenly, Liu Chengzi felt lost; she couldn’t understand any of this.
"She... she couldn’t possibly have agreed to marry Captain Qin, it’s impossible!"
The others didn’t understand, but the members of the seventh squad did. They had all monitored that room and had exchanged words with Yan Jiu.
Even Lin Wurou and Wang Shi, one who looked down on women and one who didn’t understand them, were aware of Yan Jiu’s feelings for Bai Wu.
Yin Shuang looked at Yan Jiu silently, a sense of unease stirring within her.
...
Qin Zong began to speak about the marriage, but he didn’t resort to the clichés of recounting how he met the girl.
Even when someone had caused a stir halfway through, attempting to get Captain Qin to talk about the girl, Qin Zong merely smiled and steered the conversation elsewhere.
His speech didn’t sound like that of a husband at his wedding. It was more akin to a leader about to bring transformative change to the Investigation Corps.
Qin Zong was naturally very unwilling to marry Yan Jiu, because not long ago, Bai Wu had come to lobby him.
However, after being warned by his elder brother, he gradually came to understand that the so-called Investigation Corps was just the public force of the Qin Family...
He longed to use this power to change the lower class, and wished for a decent future for the soldiers following him.
In the end, under the family’s threats, Qin Zong had no choice but to compromise.
The Qin Family and the Yan Family even gathered all the elite of the Investigation Corps and the Garrison Corps together.
Of course, it wasn’t for show— they were the behemoths of High Tower. They were the true monsters of this tower, long past the point of needing to prove themselves with grandeur.
They were simply warning Qin Zong that these people could follow him with smiles, the family wouldn’t interfere with how he changed the lives of the lower-class citizens, he could freely pursue his ambitions and heroism.
But the family could also easily... erase it all.
The entire wedding venue was already filled with even more powerful forces from the Qin Family’s real organization—the Guard Army.
If someone caused trouble at the wedding, they wouldn’t mind letting the media revel, churning out headlines about a wedding transformed into a funeral.
As for Yan Jiu?
Yan Jiu was even less willing to marry than Qin Zong.
She curled up in a room in the manor, feeling as if she had arrived in a world full of monsters, as though only the small room on the sixth floor of the asylum could bring her peace.
She began to lose her appetite, suffered from sleepless nights, her body became listless, until finally, the Yan Family forcibly injected her with sleeping medication.
All to ensure that she wouldn’t look so haggard at the wedding.
She was indeed the most dazzling girl at the wedding, stunning everyone with her beauty.
But she didn’t want to get married, she tried her best to remain calm, merely because her inner sadness and resistance were suppressed by fear.
The eight great families had many times cooperated in history, and their relationships were incredibly complex.
But as the news of Zhong Xu’s death was relayed to Qin Zong by Yan Zhao, the panic stemming from the instability in the Wang power base made them all realize that relying on external forces beyond the tower simply wasn’t enough.
Inside High Tower, they perhaps also needed to cooperate, to combine the efforts of both families over the past seven hundred years.
Thus, this marriage alliance became all the more important.
For Yan Heyu, dealing with his daughter was not difficult. This child, who lacked love since childhood, would invariably offer the best of what she had to anyone who treated her kindly.
After learning from Yan Zhishui that Yan Jiu was quite concerned about the madmen of the asylum, their numbers suddenly halved.
Of the two old men playing chess, one disappeared forever.
Doctor Zheng Fengxi still planned to manage the asylum, filled with lunatics including themselves, with the nurses, but the nurses seemed to evaporate from the face of the earth.
In the sixth-floor of the asylum, the transmigrator miraculously escaped disaster, but the Investigation Corps soldier who had been brain-damaged from fighting outside the tower was nowhere to be seen.
When all this was laid out before Yan Jiu, she felt her world beginning to crumble bit by bit.
She knelt and begged her father and brother to spare those people, to let them return to the asylum, and the Yan Family father and son agreed, so long as she was willing to marry Qin Zong.
They clearly didn’t care about Yan Jiu, yet they easily found out her Achilles’ heel, because this young girl... always loved others more than herself.
When Yan Jiu finally realized that everyone she was familiar with in the Investigation Corps would attend the wedding and that their future safety would all depend on her performance, she finally completely compromised.
The frail bride began to get dressed.
The maids of the Manor started to apply her makeup, while designers from the third layer began to select the most beautiful wedding dress for her.
Life is such an irony; the girl, who was heartbroken a second ago, was dressed up to be a stunning bride the next moment.
Everything seemed unbelievable yet incredibly... natural, as if they were just putting a new dress on a doll.
In everyone’s eyes, the girl was fortunate. To marry the leader of the Investigation Corps, the administrator of the fourth layer, this was undoubtedly a great opportunity.
Although they did not know that this girl’s identity was anything but ordinary, her astonishing beauty made people often overlook her other qualities.
...
...
As Qin Zong’s speech came to an end, the soldiers of the Investigation Corps heard many policies favoring those on the lower levels.
These were the policies that Qin Zong had once reasoned and negotiated with the administrators, only to be vetoed by the rulers time after time, including the bill to abolish the insulting policy of "lesser nobility."
And to give people from the lower levels a chance to move up and settle on the third layer. This was undoubtedly shocking news.
If ever recognized, Qin Zong could be hailed as the hero of his time.
At this moment, Yin Shuang probably understood some things.
"This wedding might not just be unfair to Yan Jiu alone... Captain Qin must have his own difficulties," she said.
"Then why are they getting married?" Liu Chengzi’s voice was so loud that many people around looked over.
Lin Wurou looked somewhat dejected, always disliking to think too much, not wanting to contemplate. But at this moment, he felt that the wedding was ludicrous.
"Because of reality, those in high positions, when facing even greater entities, to preserve certain things, to fight for certain rights for those beneath them, also have to bow their heads. I don’t know what exactly happened... But all of Captain Qin’s statements were about future policies, these things can be said, but why say them at the wedding?"
Yin Shuang’s words made Liu Chengzi thoughtful. In the end, Liu Chengzi bowed his head.
The answer, of course, was simple, because Captain Qin had to persuade himself of the bright future that belonged to everyone, to absolve his inner guilt.
The applause was thunderous, drowning out the conversation between the members of the seventh team.
The groom did not share his love story with the bride, which everybody felt was a bit of a pity.
Of course, they were happy to hear about the reforms for the second level of the lower layers. As members of the Investigation Corps, these were their biggest aspirations.
But in this situation, they wanted to hear about the love story of the leader and his lady. Since the leader had not mentioned it, it seemed that the lady’s speech that followed would touch on these matters.
All eyes were on Yan Jiu. Yan Jiu, seeing the joy on countless faces, felt a wave of panic within.
She steadied her breathing, but even after a long while, she could not utter a word.
Her eyes were misty with tears, but due to fear and restraint, the tears never fell.
Some of those close by could see this, yet under the overwhelming joy of the atmosphere, everyone assumed they were tears of happiness.
In the midst of a bustling and jubilant wedding, where crowds were everywhere, Yan Jiu suddenly felt the loneliness washing over her like a tidal wave.
People thought the sweetest moment of the wedding was about to come, but at this time, Xie Xingzhi stepped out from the ranks of the supervisory group, as if he had suddenly received an assignment.
Meanwhile, Yan Jiu, who was ready to deliver a carefully prepared "happiness declaration," suddenly envisioned a scene from another place, and a familiar voice echoed in her ears.
This unexpected information completely disrupted Yan Jiu’s original preparations.
She tried hard to keep her tears at bay, but they fell in an instant, and her entire body began to tremble with pain, her pale face looking somewhat sickly due to the agony.
She began to cough violently, the sound piercing, as if about to vomit something, yet nothing came out.
The Yan Family father and son and the Qin siblings all furrowed their brows at this scene. The Qin siblings were somewhat displeased with the Yan Family daughter’s behavior, and the Yan family father and son felt the same.
On the stage, Ming Che’s glance towards Qin Zong carried a questioning intent, and Qin Zong slowly shook his head, thinking that Yan Jiu was feeling unwell since he was the closest. But just when he was about to say something, Yan Jiu gestured with her hand.
As if suffering from a deep, soulful anguish, she gasped with difficulty. Finally, the pain seemed to slowly fade away, and even the violent coughing gradually ceased.
On her pale face, tears disrupted her makeup, making her look pitiful.
But as if she had finally adjusted her state, she lifted her head again, her gaze sweeping over the entire wedding scene.
Ming Che breathed a sigh of relief, and so did the Yan Family father and son along with the Qin siblings.
The wedding seemed to return to normal, and although the guests didn’t understand why the bride had just acted out of character, it didn’t seem like a big deal, judging from Captain Qin and Ming Che’s expressions. The sweetest moment of the wedding finally arrived.
So at this moment... the spotlight fell on the girl.
In everyone’s eyes, she was supposed to be the star of the evening, a happy woman, after all, Qin Zong was the leader of the Investigation Corps and the scion of the Qin family, the most powerful rulers in the High Tower World.
But she didn’t lift her long skirt with princess-like grace, and there was no joy visible on her face.
Dressed in her wedding gown, she was like a blooming white flower, the tears at the corners of her eyes not detracting from her beautiful and moving appearance.
Yan Jiu seemed to have completely freed herself from some pain, or perhaps she was just struggling to contain some emotion.
She grasped the microphone and began the most rebellious speech of her life:
"A woman once told me that loneliness and disappointment always come unexpectedly. Do you think someone will love you just because you beg in humility? Don’t measure the world’s malice with your innocence."
"At that time, I didn’t understand these words. I always thought that maybe if I could do better, dad and brother would like me more, just like everyone I’ve begged. If no one likes me, maybe it’s just that I’m not good enough."
The girl lifted her head, and the teardrops on her face no longer carried a plaintive or humble meaning, more like jewels radiating light.
"But I gradually understood that in this world, no matter how hard you try, there are people who won’t acknowledge you; between people, there will always be situations that cannot be reconciled!"
"I’ve always wondered why only I can see and hear that woman’s voice, why can’t my brother do the same?"
"Until one day... that woman told me, it’s not that my brother can’t see or hear, it’s just that he doesn’t want to see or listen. Just like you’ve disliked me from childhood, not because I did something wrong, but because you... never wanted to like me..."
Yan Zhishui and Yan Heyu watched Yan Jiu in astonishment; what Yan Jiu was saying was definitely not a bride’s wedding speech. This was totally different from what they had discussed.
Yan Jiu wiped her tears away and looked at her brothers with an expression she had never shown before.
The bride, hardly known by many, had always appeared dull with a touch of humility in her past life.
Yet at that moment, there was a hint of anger and contempt in the girl’s eyes. But probably because of the inertia in their perception of Yan Jiu, or because her words were too strange, the Yan Family father and son froze, not stopping her immediately.
As if determined to sever ties with her past completely, the girl’s tone became calm:
"Even so, this situation... I can still accept it."
"It’s just living on with eyes that regard me as a monster, just slowly getting used to being alone or, gradually realizing that those cruel words are not a hypothesis, but a true reflection of life. It’s just... loneliness."
"It’s okay, anyway, I always hoped that everyone would be happy when they saw me, because I can’t feel happy or joyful... I’ve also been wondering, what exactly is that experience like?"
"Joy, satisfaction, happiness, no matter how I try to feel them, how I try to mimic them, no matter how naturally I smile, I can never truly experience them..."
"I’ve thought more than once, what is it that I’m after, tranquility or joy? Maybe because I’ve never felt joy, I might not even know what it feels like to be deprived of this emotion."
"And because of that, no matter how you treat me, I still think, as long as everyone else is happy, that’s good enough, as long as others are joyous, that’s all that matters."
"Because these are things I’ve never had, if I can see them on your faces, even if it’s while you’re bullying me, maybe I can get a little closer to that emotion and try to understand what it feels like."
Yan Jiu shook her head in self-mockery, seemingly laughing at her naive younger self. Tears fell in big drops, and the tearful eyes mixed with a self-mocking expression fermented into a heart-wrenchingly sad atmosphere at the wedding ceremony.
She never thought that the most natural smile of her life would come from mocking her past self.
The girl’s demeanor had undergone some kind of change.
The Yan Family father and son were inwardly shocked, their words seemingly turning towards an unfavorable direction, so at this moment, the wedding host, having received a hint, was ready to move the wedding onto the next item.
But just as he was about to speak, Qin Zong interrupted him, saying:
"Let her finish!"
Yan Jiu looked at Qin Zong with gratitude, gently wiped away her tears, her smile becoming even more natural:
"I am willing to live like this for a lifetime, a monster should stay in the place meant for monsters. I can spend my days peacefully in the Asylum, even if one day I have to face death alone, I won’t resent this world."
"Even after coming to the Asylum, I realized that this is really where I belong. I started to be grateful for this life because here... no one treats me like a monster. No one ostracizes me deliberately because I cannot laugh."
"How ironic it is, when everyone else can easily be liked, when someone told me that the first thing a person feels in life is familial love, which seems to be a love without reason. Yet these things that you all have from birth, I can only find in a place like this."
Tears overflowing, Yan Jiu looked up, choking up as she said:
"That’s why I cherish it so much, because it’s too hard to have someone who likes me, someone who is kind to me. I’m different from you all, what you take for granted, I have to be so humble and work so hard to obtain."
"For them, I’m also willing to keep yielding, as long as I can keep things this way, even if it means standing here, telling everyone I’m marrying someone I don’t like!"
The last sentence, like a plaintive cry, elicited startled looks on everyone’s faces.
Liu Chengzi couldn’t hold back her tears; she didn’t know what had happened to Yan Jiu, but at that moment, she really wanted to rush up and hug the girl.
She had never seen Yan Jiu like this before, this girl who always accepted life’s challenges passively, now appeared like a wild beast driven to a corner.
Yan Jiu clenched her teeth, and after a long pause, anger sparked in her eyes, her voice growing increasingly strident:
"But why even take away such a life? What exactly did the patients in the Asylum do wrong? What exactly did my uncle-in-law do wrong? What did Bai Wu do wrong?"
"Why, when my life finally showed a glimmer of improvement, why, after you all had already banished me from that Manor, do you still want to come and ruin my life? If you think I’m not worthy of being your daughter, I can give up that identity!"
"They were friends I had finally... made! Even though I am the one who can’t feel happiness... but why is it always you who want to destroy others’ happiness?"
One cry and question after another made it impossible for the Yan Family father and son to remain seated, and Yan Heyu angrily approached Yan Jiu.
But Qin Zong stood in front of Yan Jiu, protecting her behind him.
However, this time Yan Jiu did not hide behind Qin Zong. She gently pushed Qin Zong, signaling him to step aside.
Seeing Yan Jiu’s resolute expression, Yan Zhishui felt alienated from the girl for the first time.
She seemed to have undergone some sort of metamorphosis.
Yan Jiu had indeed undergone a transformation. She had always been waiting for someone to appear because someone once promised her they would come back to take her away. They had also promised to bring her uncle back to her.
That person seemed to be her last support and her entire world, just like the small cottage with surveillance monitors, yet it gave her a sense of security in the Asylum.
But she was destined not to return to that cottage.
Just as she was ready to resign herself to accepting the wedding, ready to recite the script prepared by the Yan Family father and son, a terrible news came through the sea conch from that person’s close friend.
Bai Wu was dead.
She didn’t stop to question the truth of that statement. Since it was conveyed through the mouth of Bai Wu’s most respected captain, it must be true.
The tears she had always held back finally broke through the dam, like the sorrowful clouds that had shrouded a small world, at this moment, released a torrential storm of grief and anguish.
The girl began to cough in agony. It was as if by doing so, she could cough out the grievances and sorrow that had been compressed deep in her soul for years. free𝑤ebnovel.com
She had always endured and humbled herself for the sake of others, but in the moment she learned of Bai Wu’s death, she suddenly realized that all of her concessions had become a mockery of herself.
The emotions suppressed for many years finally erupted in a tirade!
Facing Yan Heyu, she no longer wished to back down. For the first time in years, she glared at her father and brother in anger.
But such rage could not change anything.
"Do you realize how disgraceful your actions just now were? Do you think the words I said to you before the wedding were a joke? I don’t know who gave you the courage to speak such rebellious words in such a place and against our agreement, but do not think that by doing so, you can escape this marriage!"
"You will pay for your actions, and the price might not fall on you, but believe me, it will make you suffer!"
The older ginger is indeed more pungent.
Although Yan Heyu was surprised by Yan Jiu’s gaze, he firmly believed that even though this girl might have changed under a certain stimulus, she was still inherently a person of extreme kindness at heart.
Sure enough, when the final threat came, the anger in Yan Jiu’s eyes suddenly became stranded, and she seemed a bit weary.
"If you don’t want the situation to get worse, then stop your ridiculous behavior and go through the process of this wedding! And Qin Zong, you should rethink your previous statements. Some things are not as firm as you think, and you’d better understand your proper place clearly."
Yan Heyu’s voice was not loud in these words, meant only for Yan Jiu and Qin Zong to hear.
For a moment, Qin Zong seemed to feel Yan Jiu’s emotions and so, when Ming Che wanted to do something, he stopped Ming Che.
But now, he and Yan Jiu shared the same thoughts.
This was truly a disgusting world. Despite one’s efforts to make the lives of those around them better, in such a world, that very thought seems like a mistake, becoming each other’s vulnerability.
Looking at the guests filling the hall, Qin Zong, unable to speak, had to compromise again.
Yan Jiu simply held her chest, still looking angrily at Yan Heyu.
From childhood to adulthood, she had experienced countless disappointments and loneliness, but always managed to carry on with hope. Yet at this moment, she felt as if she had completely given up on this world.
In the flight through a distant space-time, an Evil Fallen with her belly cut open was also holding her chest, as if feeling the distant sorrow.
She talked to another Evil Fallen who had been her companion for seven hundred years about her entanglement with the Yan Family’s children. When she felt that wave of sorrow, she began to silently pray for a miracle to happen.
The wedding on the third floor of the High Tower finally continued, but there was no joy on anyone’s face any longer.
Everyone had come to realize that this wedding—which initially carried everyone’s blessings—turned out to be such a painfully ironic tragedy. They could even feel that the rage in the bride’s eyes hadn’t dissipated.
But what could they do, and what could she do?
Even the most spirited members of the seventh squad of the Investigation Corps could only suppress their inner fury and continue participating in this wedding ceremony.
Because they were facing the ruler.
The supreme existence of the High Tower, though people had indeed rebelled against the tower over the past seven hundred years, none had ever succeeded.
Time and again, people exploded against a system even more distorted than the one outside the tower, but silence always descended swiftly.
Gradually, no one dared to believe that anyone would dare to confront this power within the High Tower again.
The wedding had to go on, and everyone had to pretend as if the bride had already finished her "happiness declaration."
The venue was silent, and on the stage of the wedding, the groom held a ring in his hand, ready to place it onto the trembling left ring finger of the bride.
The ring was dazzling, its brilliance reflecting the shattered world of the girl.
It was at this moment, when everyone thought the wedding was about to proceed to its final phase... the sky suddenly darkened.
It wasn’t the arrival of night, but a complete and utter darkness.
Even at night, the High Tower would only create the atmosphere of night, but it would never be as pitch black as it was now.
As if the ceiling had collapsed all at once, all sources of light lost their luster in that instant.
People who had never experienced such darkness in the High Tower once again broke the silence.
Yan Jiu, listening to the clamor of the guests below, seemed to suddenly capture something. Her heart was already dead, but the news of Bai Wu’s death had given her the courage to hate and despise this world.
But at this moment... amidst the loud noise of the crowd, she could hear her own heartbeat.
Qin Zong felt a familiar presence, while Yan Jiu heard the sound of a cloak fluttering in the wind.
In that brightly shining world, she was out of place, but at the moment of sudden darkness, it was a certain familiar sound that suddenly gave her a sense of belonging.
"Sorry, in order to make someone believe in certain things, I had to lie to you about my death, but thankfully, I’m not too late."
Yan Jiu’s soul, riddled with holes, seemed to be infused with new life by this familiar voice. Her eyes, which she thought had run dry, became misty once again.
She didn’t know why this man had deceived her, nor did she understand why this darkness had descended so suddenly, and she was too lethargic to ponder the consequences this man could bring upon her if he took her away.
Compared to the fact that he was still alive, everything else seemed insignificant. She had a thousand words to say to him at that moment, but she couldn’t utter a single word...
Gradually, people lit fires, and the utterly dark wedding venue gained a faint light.
In the dim light and shadows, she saw the cloak of the Masked Strange Person, like an umbrella in a dire storm, or a curtain dividing this world.
Her little broken world seemed to be completely mended at that moment.
When the cloak covered the wedding dress, the girl felt as if she were back on the sixth floor of the Asylum, in her own room.
Her tears flowed uncontrollably, and Yan Jiu felt the tenderness from the Masked Strange Person, as if she finally knew what she wanted to say:
"Bai Wu... I’ve already said my goodbyes to everything here, take me away..."
"Okay, I promise you!"
