A Dusk Wedding & the Double Joy God

Look at Gao Zhijian—he really was getting riled up. Zhao Wu, driving the cart, spoke up. “Gouwa, quit teasing him. If you push him too far, he’ll give you a smack.”

“Senior Brother Li, looks like there’s a happy event inside. Want to go take a look? The villagers are probably all there.”

Li Huowang lifted his head to see the sky burning like fire in the sunset. He nodded and led the group toward the village. “The customs in Later Shu really are a bit strange. Getting married at dusk.”

“Senior Brother Li, they do the same where I come from!”

“Is that so? Why?”

“No reason. It’s just always been the custom.”

As he made small talk with them, Li Huowang slowly probed deeper into the village.

The family hosting the wedding wasn’t hard to find. Some villagers carrying buckets of rice and eggs on shoulder poles pointed the way for Li Huowang.

It wasn’t just rice and eggs. The wealthier ones had live chickens and little lambs in their baskets.

Compared to the former, the latter clearly had more face to show. They walked deliberately slowly, their carrying poles swinging more vigorously, as if showing off to the others.

Following these people, Li Huowang quickly found the house where the wedding was being held.

The two stone lions at the gate proved this family was different from the others in the village.

The two men greeting guests at the door saw Li Huowang’s group and hurried over. “Gentlemen, just leave the cart by the door. A servant will keep an eye on it.”

When they learned Li Huowang and his people were escort guards and saw the escort manifest, instead of being wary, they warmly pulled them in to seats of honor.

It seemed around here, the more people who came to a wedding, the more face the host had.

Li Huowang felt more and more that his decision to take on escort work had been the right one. That his identity could have an unexpected effect like this.

Then again, maybe they could do this because their outfits looked perfectly normal. To guard against the sand and wind, most people here wore bamboo hats and veils.

In Siqi, there was no way anyone would invite a party of men in black-veiled hats to a feast.

Sitting cross-legged at a low table in the seat of honor, Li Huowang first picked up his chopsticks. He took a small piece from each dish and secretly passed it to Mantou, who was under the table.

Even if it was a bit crude, Li Huowang had thick skin and didn’t care. He was more afraid this village might be a bandit den, and the food laced with knockout drugs.

He’d survived all sorts of other chaos—it would be ironic if he fell to something like this.

After a while, he saw Mantou licking his face, wagging his tail, and climbing onto his body, begging for more food.

Li Huowang nodded to the others. “Eat.”

After such a long journey, seeing this table full of delicacies, nobody could be bothered with table manners. They all started wolfing it down.

Li Huowang didn’t touch the food. Instead, he first picked up the thick tea beside him and drank it down.

For him, whose senses had been sharpened, the blisters on his mouth were like torture every moment. He just wanted to get this fire quenched as soon as possible.

But the food in Later Shu was very different from Siqi’s. There was very little vegetable dishes.

Most of it was meat and dairy, along with baked buns and date buns.

The only thing that could be called a vegetable dish was the dried fruit in the pretty plates and the tea. Li Huowang had few options.

“Zhao Wu! Try this baked bun! This baked bun is really something! Crispy outside, fragrant inside! Delicious!”

Not everyone was focused on eating, though. Bai Lingmiao stretched her pale, slender neck and looked curiously toward the door.

She watched as the bride, covered in a red veil, was helped down from the wedding sedan.

Just then, the handsome young man with sword-like brows standing at the side gave a sharp bang on his brass gong and called out appropriately, “The bride enters the gate! May wealth and fortune flow without fate!”

“Hear, hear!”

Seeing everyone else stand up, clapping and cheering, Li Huowang used his elbow to nudge Gao Zhijian, who was still wolfing down food, and stood up as well.

Bong— The gong sounded again.

“The bride steps over the basin! May life be red and blazing!”

“Hear, hear! Well said!” The lively atmosphere in the courtyard was growing more and more festive.

Bong—!!

“The bride steps over the saddle! May fortune and peace follow!”

Looking at the smiling, joyful faces all around, even Li Huowang’s mood couldn’t help but lift.

Then he saw the intense envy in Bai Lingmiao’s eyes.

He reached over and squeezed her soft hand. Bai Lingmiao turned back and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Senior Brother Li, everyone else has given gifts. Shouldn’t we give one too? That way we won’t be rude.”

“Alright, you decide.”

“We can give some preserved fruit, a specialty from Siqi. They don’t have anything like that here. It’ll show our goodwill without costing much silver.”

Just as she finished speaking, the fourth gong sounded. “Bowing to the Double Joy God!!”

“What?!” Li Huowang could hardly believe his ears. “What did he just say we’re bowing to?”

In his eyes, the warm, festive atmosphere around him vanished in an instant, replaced by a bone-piercing cold that engulfed his whole body.

“Senior Brother Li, he said they’re bowing to the Double Joy God,” Sun Baolu repeated, his mouth full of lamb.

Under Li Huowang’s shocked gaze, the newlyweds were ushered into the main hall by their laughing, chatting relatives. There, they performed a full kneeling bow to a round, red 囍 character on the wall.

The smiling young man raised his gong to strike, but his eyes landed on Li Huowang in the crowd, and his expression turned sour.

“Second! What are you staring at? Hit the gong!” Hearing the groom’s urgent, low reminder, the young man raised the gong mallet wrapped in red cloth and struck hard.

Bong—!! The piercing gong sounded once more.

“Henceforth, the eldest son of the Hou family, Hou Qiao, takes great joy in wedding! He takes Luo Tian as his lawful wife! The bride is virtuous and dignified. May the Double Joy God bless the family to prosper, spread branches and leaves, and bear sons early!”

“Ha ha! Hear, hear!”

The atmosphere peaked in that moment. Everyone was beaming, clapping their hands.

Watching the groom and bride enter the side door, the others gradually sat back down, chatting and eating.

This made Li Huowang, standing alone there, look especially out of place.

Feeling someone tug at his sleeve, Li Huowang, his expression now dark, sat back down.

According to the information he had gathered before, the Double Joy God was an existence even more terrifying than the Joy Spirit. Maybe it was one of those things hiding behind the White Jade Capital.

And for such an existence to be the god who blessed marriage—it was incredibly ironic.

He didn’t know how this custom had come about, but one thing was certain: the people performing these bows had absolutely no idea what they were bowing to!

“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong? Nothing’s happened, so why the long face? You… are you having an episode again?”

Li Huowang looked at Gouwa, who had spoken, and pointed at the huge, round red character on the wall. “Do they bow to that thing for weddings everywhere else?”