Granny Xu continued singing, "The bride crosses the brazier."
Duan Chen's gaze fell upon the brazier. Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn't a brazier at all.
It was clearly an ice basin.
Although there were some coals inside, they were completely burnt ashes.
Ice cubes were piled on top of the ashes, emitting a white mist.
"This is clearly not right," Wang Zihao whispered.
"Who puts ice shards in their brazier?"
The others nodded in unison.
This was truly bizarre.
Just then, Su Baiyi hesitated, then turned to Duan Chen and asked a question.
"Speaking of which... Brother Chen, have you ever searched for this software?"
"What do you mean?" Duan Chen raised an eyebrow.
He waited silently for Su Baiyi to continue.
"I suddenly thought of a word," Su Baiyi said hesitantly, enunciating each syllable as she uttered two words.
"Ice."
"Love."
Duan Chen: ...
He fell silent, unsure how to respond. He gave Su Baiyi a strange look, which made her flustered.
She stomped her foot, "I just happened to stumble upon it!"
Duan Chen twitched his leg slightly, not commenting, and cleverly changed the subject, "Let's keep watching."
Did young girls these days watch such sensational content? He felt out of touch.
The bride was then put down by the groom and stepped over the chilling "brazier." The beauty of her face was dimly visible beneath the bright red veil. Led by the groom, she was taken to the high platform.
Granny Xu appeared as if by magic beside the couple, holding a golden scale.
She continued to sing.
"First bow to heaven and earth."
At this chant, some unknown mechanism was triggered, and the bride suddenly began to struggle.
"Wuwu... wuwuwu!" she cried, wriggling her body.
Beneath her voluminous wedding dress, rough rope marks were visible.
But no one paid any attention. Even Granny Xu continued singing, unaffected, "Second bow to the elders."
Long Yi's eyes suddenly turned blood red. He slammed the table and was about to stand up.
"Damn it!" He stared at the stage with hatred.
Duan Chen immediately let out a cold snort, "Sit down!"
Long Yi gritted his teeth, "She's clearly an innocent human. Aren't we going to save her?"
"Sit down!" Duan Chen commanded for the second time. Long Yi froze mid-air, his backside slightly lifted from the stool, neither able to sit nor stand.
Torn between his conscience and the rule of obeying orders.
Duan Chen didn't give him a chance to hesitate and ordered Lu Shuishui, "Restrain him."
Lu Shuishui, no longer appearing as cold as when they first met, smiled gently. She very obediently extended her small hand and pressed it against the right side of Long Yi's lumbar vertebrae.
Her voice, like a lark's, issued a cheerful warning.
"Okay, Brother, Long Yi, don't move around. Otherwise, I can't guarantee that the ice pick in my hand won't injure some... special area."
"You!" Long Yi dared not move. Any movement made him feel the ice pick near his kidney sink in slightly.
He became hesitant.
If it were anyone else, he might have fought back, but with the perverted Lu Shuishui, it was best to give up.
She was a merciless little demoness who killed without blinking. If not for her upbringing under the red flag, she might have been trained into a little devil.
"Be careful," Lu Shuishui warned, unfazed by Long Yi's opinion of her.
Long Yi could only watch helplessly as the third chant sounded, witnessing the couple's final bow.
"Couple bows to each other."
After this chant, the woman struggling in the bridal attire suddenly stopped moving.
As if her spirit was broken.
"Send them to the bridal chamber," Granny Xu said with a beaming smile.
Just as Long Yi was regretting his indecision, thinking he might have ruined a young girl's life, and clinging to the last shred of hope in his heart.
He suddenly saw Duan Chen's expression turn extremely serious.
"Careful! They're coming!" Duan Chen exclaimed.
He felt a very distinct and peculiar fluctuation.
Qian Huan Pandora slid into his hand.
It was at this moment that the other guests at their table seemed to notice that the seven of them hadn't touched their chopsticks. They greeted them enthusiastically.
"Everyone, eat well, drink well. Eat well, drink well."
"Why aren't you eating?"
The first time, they smiled.
"Why aren't you eating?"
The second time, their smiles had become strangely eerie and horrifying.
Their voices had turned extremely sharp.
They urged them incessantly.
"Eat up!"
"Eat!"
It was as if the King of Hell was calling for their souls.
If this were a horror movie set, it would be easy to see the entire set darken.
Most of the seated guests turned their heads, looking at Duan Chen and his companions.
"Damn it!" Duan Chen cursed under his breath.
The guests who had their backs to them had to twist their heads a full 180 degrees just to look at them.
How absurd was this!
"I... damn it!" Long Yi was almost overwhelmed by the sight before him, a curse escaping his lips involuntarily.
Especially as these guests, like grotesque mutants, began to move their bodies and lunge at them.
"Be careful!" Lu Shuishui shouted and unleashed her ultimate skill.
"Thousand Miles of Ice!"
A shimmer of snow flashed in her hand, and raindrops seemed to fall from the sky. Instantly, the entire venue was plunged into a world of ice and snow.
Long Yi breathed a sigh of relief.
But in the next moment, that breath was immediately stifled.
"Crack, crack."
The sound of cracking ice gradually arose as the frozen guests shed pieces of ice.
"Go, quickly! My Thousand Miles of Ice won't last long on them," Lu Shuishui cried out anxiously, adding another layer of the ice seal.
She had bought them some time to escape, but her complexion had turned extremely pale.
Duan Chen, without a word, swept the petite Lu Shuishui into his arms, his face grim, and charged forward.
"Head for an open space outside first," he said.
The others dared not delay, closely following Duan Chen as they fled the extremely bizarre scene.
After they ran out through the iron gate, the guests inside all broke free.
Those who turned back witnessed a nightmarish scene they would never forget.
The guests did not pursue them.
Instead, with strange smiles on their faces, they pulled out knives and sliced open their own bellies.
Especially the groom and bride standing in the center.
A fishy smell instantly permeated the air, so strong it was like being in a seafood market.
Countless things spilled from their insides.
But they weren't internal organs.
They were strangely shaped embryonic sacs.
The moment these embryos landed, they began to mature. In just a few seconds, they transformed into the monsters Duan Chen had seen under the bed.
They immediately swarmed the courtyard.