A Survival Game Where You Have to Fall in Love with a Madman - Chapter 15

Before the words could fully leave his mouth, the wedding gown suddenly stood upright on its own, as if an invisible person had stepped inside it. A pale hand extended from the sleeve, slowly lifting the red bridal veil—

“Don’t look into its eyes!” You Yan shouted.

But it was already too late.

[Player Guo Xuemei is confirmed dead.]

Jiu Chenjing’s movements faltered slightly, a flash of confusion crossing his face. Did she fail to escape the lantern formation earlier?

Meanwhile, You Yan was clutching the targeted slip of paper he had picked up earlier. The name written across it had now clearly inverted into a single name: Guo Xuemei.

He Yanqing’s red string lashed out, burning a deep singe mark across the surface of the wedding gown. “Catch!” He hurled the copper coin sword, but an invisible barrier deflected it away instantly.

You Yan intentionally knocked over a candlestick, letting the melting wax form a divination trigram on the floor bricks.

“The Kun position! Attack the lower left hem!”

Hearing the direction, He Yanqing flicked his wrist and threw his knife. The wedding gown let out a shrill, girlish scream.

“Is this… flayed human skin?” He Yanqing hoisted a severed fragment onto the tip of his blade, noting that the inner lining was densely packed with embroidered birth dates.

You Yan noticed that the jade prayer beads in Jiu Chenjing’s hand were pulsing with a faint, volatile green light.

“He Yanqing! The prayer beads!” Shouting the command, You Yan lunged toward the altar table and extracted a peach wood sword from beneath the incense burner the definitive hidden item from his original design.

He Yanqing executed a clean roll to land right beside Jiu Chenjing, snatching the prayer beads straight off his wrist.

The moment the jade spheres collided with the wedding gown, a blinding radiance erupted. The red gown shriveled up as if consumed by fire, emitting a series of agonizing shrieks.

“Now!” You Yan hurled the peach wood sword across the room.

He Yanqing caught the hilt mid-air, executing a flawless thrust that drove the peach wood blade straight through the center of the crimson wedding gown. The gown convulsed violently before dissolving into a pool of dark blood that seeped into the floor cracks.

Jiu Chenjing shook his head as if waking from a trance, the clarity returning to his eyes.

“The mind control has been broken.” Jiu Chenjing half-knelt a short distance away, his chest pierced through by transparent puppet threads. Fresh blood dripped steadily down the jade prayer beads. His breathing was weak, but his gaze remained exceptionally sharp. The pocket watch in his hand had completely stopped ticking.

“Oh, look at that. You’re not dead yet,” He Yanqing noted, raising an eyebrow in a flippant tone.

Jiu Chenjing swept a cold glance over him, offering no verbal reply as he coughed up a mouthful of dark blood.

You Yan let out a quiet sigh. Walking over at a leisurely pace, he knelt down, pulled a scalpel from his pocket, and systematically severed the puppet threads binding Jiu Chenjing’s torso.

“You’re saving me?” Jiu Chenjing asked, his voice raspy and his eyes laced with deep wariness.

“Just convenient,” You Yan replied flatly, not even bothering to lift his eyelids. “It would be more of a hassle for me if you died right now anyway.”

He Yanqing let out a low chuckle from the side. “My little theorist, since when did you become so soft-hearted?”

You Yan ignored him entirely, keeping his head down to inspect Jiu Chenjing’s wounds. The puppet threads had already burrowed deep into the flesh. Had he acted a moment later, Jiu Chenjing would have suffered the exact same fate as Liu Xin, becoming just another flattened face pattern on a lantern.

“Bear with it.”

The moment the words left his lips, his scalpel cut cleanly through the skin, his fingertips precisely hooking and pulling the threads out of the open flesh. Jiu Chenjing let out a muffled groan, cold sweat breaking out across his brow, but he didn’t allow another sound to escape his lips.

Watching the procedure with immense interest, He Yanqing suddenly reached out, his fingertips lightly brushing against the back of You Yan’s neck. “You’re significantly gentler with him than you are with me.”

Without turning his head, You Yan replied coldly, “Touch me again, and the next thing I dissect will be you.”

He Yanqing chuckled softly and withdrew his hand, his gaze shifting toward the deepest section of the main hall.

There, the tightly sealed doors to the bridal chamber were slowly creaking open on their own.

The Arrival of the Bride

“The auspicious hour has arrived…”

An ethereal female voice echoed hollowly. It sounded as though it were drifting from a vast distance, yet simultaneously felt like a direct whisper pressed against their earlobes.

Jiu Chenjing snapped his head up. The pocket watch slipped from his fingers, hitting the floor with a sharp metallic clink.

“The bride is here.”

Inside the bridal chamber, red candles flickered wildly, the wax dripping down like fresh blood. The pastries arranged across the central table were crawling with maggots, yet they still emitted a bizarre, sickeningly sweet aroma.

Right in the center, a large dragon-and-phoenix candle burned with a ghostly green flame, illuminating a massive wedding certificate hung on the wall:

The Year of Wuxu, the Seventh Day of the Seventh Lunar Month.

Cheng Hao & Jiang Wan

A bond of Yin and Yang, eternally united in heart.

The script was brilliant red, looking as though it had just been freshly written in wet blood.

You Yan narrowed his eyes, his gaze locking onto the bridal bed. Resting quietly upon the frame was a heavy black coffin. The wood was wrapped in faded red silk, and the lid sat slightly ajar, exposing a fraction of a pale, skeletal finger.

He Yanqing let out a sharp whistle. “It looks like the groom and the bride have been waiting for us.”

Supporting his weight with sheer willpower, Jiu Chenjing stood up, his face as pale as paper. “Do not approach that coffin.”

You Yan didn’t move. He simply leaned lazily against the doorframe. “You two go ahead. I’m taking a break.”

He Yanqing chuckled. “What’s the matter? Scared?”

You Yan shot him a detached glance. “Sleepy.”

Before his voice could even fade, the candlelight inside the bridal chamber snapped out simultaneously, plunging the entire room into pitch darkness.

The very next second, the coffin lid blew entirely off with a resounding crash!

A pair of pale hands extended from the interior, the fingernails as pitch-black as ink, with thick, viscous blood dripping from the tips. The red bridal veil drifted upward without any wind, slowly rising to expose the bride’s countenance—

It was an exquisitely beautiful yet completely lifeless face, her skin as white as parchment, contrasted by lips that were as brilliantly red as fresh blood. Her eyes had been completely scooped out, leaving behind two hollow black voids. From deep within those empty sockets, two lotus flowers on a single stalk were slowly blooming.

“…Husband…”

Her voice seemed to crawl out from the deepest pits of hell, carrying an infinite reservoir of venomous resentment and mournful weeping.

You Yan finally straightened his posture, twirling his scalpel between his fingers. “What a hassle.”

He Yanqing’s short knife was already unsheathed, the red string coiling securely around his wrist as a manic, volatile smile carved across his lips. “I’ve finally waiting for you.”

Jiu Chenjing’s prayer beads hovered within his palm. As he muttered a low incantation, a brilliant golden barrier erupted.

The ghost bride slowly raised her hand, her black fingernails pointing directly at the three of them—

“…Which of you… will be my groom?”

The entire Cheng Estate began to warp and distort. Fresh blood seeped rapidly from the walls, and the muffled wails of countless damned souls echoed from beneath the floorboards.

The cold mechanical voice of the System chimed:

[Main Quest Updated:] Complete the Ghost Marriage Ceremony.

[Warning:] Direct eye contact with the Bride’s eye sockets will trigger an instant-death mechanic.

He Yanqing licked his lips. “Should I go?”

You Yan: “Suit yourself.”

Jiu Chenjing said coldly, “Don’t look for death.”

The ghost bride’s veil fell completely away. Her mouth split wide open to expose rows of pristine white teeth—

“…Choose one…”

Before the final syllable fell, her long black hair surged forward like a nest of striking vipers, lunging toward the three men simultaneously!

He Yanqing’s red string collided with the cascading hair, setting off a shower of brilliant sparks. Jiu Chenjing’s prayer beads expanded into a golden barrier, barely holding the assault at bay. You Yan’s scalpel sliced with absolute precision, severing the strands pushing into his space, but a massive wave of hair continued to flood in from every corner of the room.

“Tch,” You Yan frowned. “Incredibly annoying.”

He Yanqing suddenly turned his head, flashing him a bright smile. “My little theorist, want to place a wager?”

You Yan: “No.”

“How heartless,” He Yanqing chuckled. He suddenly snapped the red string around his wrist. As his fresh blood spattered onto the floor, it instantly ignited into a blazing array of burning talismans!

“With blood as the contract, with the soul as the guide—”

The ghost bride’s hair caught fire, emitting a series of high-pitched, agonizing shrieks. Seizing the opening, Jiu Chenjing finalized a hand seal, forcing his prayer beads to transform into heavy chains that securely pinned the ghost bride’s limbs.

Breaking free from the restraint, the ghost bride lunged forward once more. This time, her trajectory was clear, locking onto a single target You Yan.

Fragmented memory pieces surged into You Yan’s mind once again: Brilliant red wedding candles, a mouth being sewn shut inside a bronze mirror reflection, and deep friction burns carved into wrists by iron chains…

“Close your eyes!” He Yanqing’s palm clapped over his face, his skin temperature burning hot.

Slicing his own fingertip, He Yanqing smeared his blood straight across You Yan’s eyelids, instantly coating his vision in a dark red filter. Through this blood filter, they could finally see the true reality the entire perimeter wall of the Ancestral Hall was constructed out of human bones, and every single bone was deeply engraved with the exact same curse talisman.

Keeping his eyes tightly shut, You Yan allowed He Yanqing to guide his movements, dodging backward in sync.

In his original blueprint parameters, the ghost bride’s definitive vulnerability was—

“The mirror! There is a bronze mirror inside the bridal chamber!”

Hearing the prompt, He Yanqing sprinted toward the right corridor without a moment’s hesitation, leaving Jiu Chenjing to step directly in front of You Yan to hold the line against the ghost bride. Jiu Chenjing’s close-combat martial arts were exceptionally refined, each strike cutting through the air with a sharp whistle, but physical attacks yielded minimal effectiveness against the cursed corpse.

“Catch!” He Yanqing’s voice echoed from the distance. A heavy bronze mirror slid across the floorboards, coming to a halt right at You Yan’s feet.

You Yan scooped up the bronze mirror, aiming the polished surface directly at the oncoming ghost bride. “Jiu Chenjing, get out of the way!”