Chapter 245: Chapter 148: Showdown
The vibrant red of his robes highlighted his handsome, jade-like features. However, his solemn disposition and the lingering sharpness in his eyes stripped away the expected joy of a groom, leaving only a grim and untamed air.
"Are you scared?"
Chen Sheng adjusted his cuffs, then suddenly turned his head to look at the magnificently dressed Wang Zilan, whose face was a little pale.
Wang Zilan was taken aback by his question. A defiant spirit immediately welled up inside her. She shot him a look and, forcing herself to remain calm, said:
"This is Luoyun Manor. If anyone should be scared, it’s you."
"Hahaha."
Chen Sheng suddenly let out a low laugh, one filled with an arrogance that disdained the entire world.
With a stretch of his long arm, he pulled Wang Zilan into his embrace amidst her soft gasp. With her soft, fragrant body in his arms, her Simurgh Phoenix Red Robe and his own red robes were a perfect match. Inside the cramped carriage, it created a thrillingly bizarre harmony.
Chen Sheng slowly lowered his head, bringing his lips close to Wang Zilan’s ear. His warm breath brushed against her skin, but his words were as clear as clashing steel:
"In all my life, I have never known the meaning of the word ’fear.’"
Wang Zilan’s body stiffened, but then she relaxed, leaning against his solid chest. Listening to his powerful heartbeat, she felt a strange sense of reassurance.
The arrow was nocked; there was no turning back.
...
The carriage came to a steady halt before the impressive main gates of Luoyun Manor.
The celebratory music reached a crescendo before slowly fading. All eyes were divided: some were fixed on the gilded carriage, while others were on the beaming Lu Maozhi as he stepped forward to receive his bride.
As tradition dictated, Lu Maozhi was to lift the carriage curtain for Wang Zilan himself and welcome her out.
Lu Maozhi took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement and strange unease in his heart. Plastering the most tender smile on his face, he walked to the front of the carriage. He cupped his fists in a salute, his voice clear and loud enough for all the surrounding guests to hear:
"Zhilan, the auspicious hour has arrived. It’s time to alight."
After speaking, he took a golden rod wrapped in red silk from a nearby maidservant. He gracefully extended it toward the carriage and gently lifted the heavy brocade curtain.
Sunlight streamed into the carriage as the curtain was lifted.
In the next instant, the smile on Lu Maozhi’s face froze solid, as if flash-frozen by arctic ice.
His pupils contracted violently, his eyes looking as if they would pop from their sockets. It felt as if all the blood in his body rushed to his head, only to drain away in the next moment, leaving behind a terrifying pallor and a numb, icy chill.
Inside the carriage, there indeed sat Wang Zilan, dressed in her Simurgh Phoenix Red Robe with exquisite makeup.
But beside her, pressed close against her, practically holding her in a half-embrace, was another young man—also dressed in a dazzling, bright red wedding robe.
The man had sharp brows, piercing eyes, and a chiseled face. His head was slightly tilted, a smirk playing on his lips as his cold, sharp gaze looked down upon him.
Chen Sheng!
It was Chen Sheng!
The very same Chen Sheng he hated to the bone, the man he cursed day and night!
He was actually here.
In Wang Zilan’s wedding carriage!
Wearing the wedding robes that should have been his—Lu Maozhi’s!
"Young Master Lu, no need to be so courteous."
Chen Sheng’s voice rang out, calm and not particularly loud, yet it struck the ears of every person at the gates of Luoyun Manor like a clap of thunder.
Before his words had even faded, he wrapped an arm around Wang Zilan—whose body was slightly stiff and whose cheeks were flushed—and stepped out of the carriage with unhurried composure.
The corners of their bright red robes fluttered in the wind, mingling together as they stood side by side in the sunlight, the focus of hundreds of stunned gazes.
Time itself seemed to stretch and freeze in that moment.
Before the gates of Luoyun Manor, the echoes of the thunderous music still seemed to linger in the air and the festive red silks swayed gently in the wind, but all human clamor had been choked into silence, as if throttled by an invisible giant’s hand.
Hundreds of guests, from great personages like Lu Canghai, Wangqingshan, Sun Yuzhi, and Nie Xuanfeng, down to the common servants and onlookers, all wore frozen expressions, their eyes filled with utter disbelief.
What were they seeing?
Chen Sheng, the Deputy Captain of the Jingwu Bureau, wearing the bright red wedding robes that should have belonged to Lu Maozhi, was intimately holding Lu Maozhi’s fiancée, Wang Zilan, as they stepped out of the Wang Family’s betrothal carriage.
This was utterly outrageous!
It was the most brazen provocation and humiliation directed at Luoyun Manor and at Lu Maozhi himself.
A dead silence persisted for several long moments.
Then, as if pulled by invisible strings, every stunned gaze slowly, mechanically, turned toward the figure frozen in place like a statue—Lu Maozhi, his hand still poised as if lifting the curtain.
As for Lu Maozhi, any trace of his earlier jubilance was gone. His face was twisted into a nearly savage expression, flushing blood-red before turning a ghastly shade of blue. Veins bulged on his forehead and neck like writhing earthworms.
His lips trembled uncontrollably, yet no sound came out.
In his eyes, which were locked on Chen Sheng and Wang Zilan, the initial shock and confusion were swiftly devoured by a towering inferno of rage, a bone-deep shame, and the frenzied hatred of one who has been stripped bare and publicly trampled.
The golden rod in his hand, wrapped in festive red silk, fell limply to the ground with a CLATTER, the sound sharp and clear in the dead silence.
And that sound, like a signal, shattered the suffocating stillness.
————
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