Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 185
>Chapter Title: Dusk Wedding
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Chapter 185: Dusk Wedding
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> Seeing Gao Zhijian looking like he was really getting angry, Zhao Wu, who was driving the cart, spoke up. “Gouwa, stop teasing him. If you really rile him up, he’ll whack you with a stick.”
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> “Brother Li, it looks like they’re holding a wedding inside. Should we go check it out? Everyone in the village should be there.”
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> Li Huowang looked up at the fiery sunset sky and nodded, leading the group toward the village. “Hou Shu’s customs are really a bit strange—they actually get married at dusk.”
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> “Brother Li, we do weddings like that back home too!”
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> “Yeah? Why?”
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> “No reason, it’s just always been the custom.”
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> As he chatted idly with them, Li Huowang slowly probed deeper into the village.
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> The wedding house wasn’t hard to find, as villagers carrying rice and eggs in buckets pointed the way for Li Huowang.
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> It wasn’t just rice and eggs—some of the wealthier ones even had live chickens and little lambs in their baskets.
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> The latter clearly had more face than the former; they deliberately walked slower, swinging their shoulder poles harder, as if showing off to everyone else.
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> Following these people, Li Huowang soon found the wedding home.
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> The two stone lions at the entrance proved this family was different from the others in the village.
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> The two greeters at the door, beaming with smiles, hurried over when they saw Li Huowang’s group. “Sirs, you can leave the cart at the gate. This one will watch it for you.”
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> When they learned Li Huowang and the others were escorts and saw the escort manifest, the two men showed no suspicion—instead, they enthusiastically ushered them to seats.
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> It seemed that here, the more guests at a wedding, the more face they gained.
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> Li Huowang felt more and more that choosing to work as escorts had been the right call, as their identity had this unexpected benefit.
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> Of course, the hosts’ warm reception might also have to do with their perfectly normal attire. To ward off the wind and sand, most people here wore bamboo hats and veils.
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> In Si Qi, there was no way they’d invite a group wearing black-veiled hats to a feast.
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> Seated at a small table, Li Huowang first picked up his chopsticks and took a small piece from each dish, secretly passing it under the table to Mantou.
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> It looked a bit unsightly, but Li Huowang had thick skin and didn’t care. He was more afraid this village might be a bandit den with knockout drugs in the food.
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> They’d survived all sorts of chaos on the road—what a joke it would be to get taken down here.
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> A little while later, when Mantou came over licking his chops, wagging his tail, and begging for more food,
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> Li Huowang nodded to the others. “Eat up.”
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> After the long journey, with this table of food before them, no one cared about manners anymore—they all dug in ravenously.
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> Li Huowang didn’t touch the food. Instead, he first lifted the thick tea beside him and drank it down.
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> The blisters in his mouth were torture every moment for someone with his heightened senses. Right now, he just wanted to cool that burning down.
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> Hou Shu cuisine was very different from Si Qi’s—there was hardly any vegetarian food.
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> It was mostly meat and milk, plus roasted buns and date flatbread.
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> The only things that counted as vegetarian were the dried fruits prettily plated and the tea water. Li Huowang’s options were few.
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> “Zhao Wu, try this roasted bun! This roasted bun is great! Crispy outside, fragrant inside! Delicious!”
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> Not everyone was focused on eating. Bai Lingmiao stretched her white neck curiously toward the entrance.
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> Watching the bride, red veil over her head, being helped down from the flower sedan.
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> At that moment, a handsome young man with sword-like brows banged hard on the gong in his hand and shouted fittingly: “Bride enters the gate! Wealth rolls in!!”
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> “Good!!”
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> Seeing everyone else stand and clap and cheer, Li Huowang elbowed the ravenous Gao Zhijian beside him and stood as well.
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> “Clang~” The gong rang again.
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> “Bride steps over the basin~! Red fire and prosperity~!!”
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> “Good! Well said!!” The festive mood in the courtyard grew even more lively.
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> “Clang~!!”
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> “Bride steps over the saddle~! Blessings, fortune, peace~!”
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> Looking at the beaming smiles all around him, even Li Huowang’s mood lifted.
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> Then he spotted the intense envy in Bai Lingmiao’s eyes.
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> He reached over and pinched her soft hand. She turned back to him with a reassuring smile.
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> “Brother Li, everyone else has given gifts. Shouldn’t we send one too? It would be rude not to.”
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> “Fine, you decide.”
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> “We can give some Si Qi specialty preserved fruits. They don’t have them here—it shows our sincerity without costing much silver.”
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> Just as she said this, the fourth gong rang. “Worship~ the~ Joy~ God~!!”
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> “What!?” Li Huowang could hardly believe his ears. “What did he just say they’re worshipping?”
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> In his eyes, the warm and lively atmosphere around him vanished in an instant, replaced by bone-chilling cold enveloping his entire body.
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> “Brother Li, they just said they’re worshipping the Joy God.” Sun Baolu repeated, his mouth stuffed with mutton.
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> Under Li Huowang’s shocked gaze, the couple was ushered into the hall amid laughter and cheers from relatives, where they knelt in worship before a large round red double-joy character on the wall.
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> The smiling young man was about to strike the gong when he spotted Li Huowang in the crowd—his expression soured.
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> “Second Bro! What’re you looking at? Hit the gong!” Hearing the bridegroom’s low urgent reminder, the youth raised the red-wrapped mallet and struck hard.
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> “Clang~~” The piercing gong rang out again.
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> “The Hou family eldest son Hou Qiao takes joy in marriage!! Welcoming Luo Tian as family wife! May the Joy God bless the family’s prosperity, flourishing branches and leaves! An early noble son!”
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> “Haha! Good!!”
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> The atmosphere peaked at that moment, everyone grinning and clapping.
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> As the bride and groom entered the side room, the others gradually sat back down, eating and chatting.
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> This made Li Huowang, standing alone, seem especially out of place.
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> Feeling someone tug his sleeve, the grim-faced Li Huowang sat back down.
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> According to what he’d heard before, the Joy God was something even more terrifying than the Joy God—perhaps one of those things lurking behind the White Jade Capital.
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> For such an entity to become the deity blessing weddings was utterly ironic.
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> He had no idea where this custom came from, but one thing was certain: these worshippers had no clue what they were actually worshipping!
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> “Brother Li, what’s wrong? Nothing happened. Why that face? You… having another episode?”
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> Li Huowang glanced at Gouwa and pointed at the huge round red character on the wall. “Do other places worship that thing at weddings too?”
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> (End of chapter)