The secret battle between the bride and the legitimate wife
At three quarters past the hour of the twilight, the copper ring at the palace's back door clanged under the torrential rain. Xiaodou huddled beneath the vermilion doorframe, half a Star Wars energy biscuit tucked into her tail. The rune on her claw heart still lingered with the warmth of the glass from Lin Shen's clinic in the modern era. After the mechanical cat's portal malfunctioned, she transformed into a young woman in a moon-white cheongsam, her cuffs embroidered with Western fantasy elemental particles. Holographic petals from the Star Wars story fell as she walked, and a pearl hairpin fashioned from a fragment of a mechanical heart adorned her hair.
"Squeak..." She gazed at her human fingertips and suddenly felt the rat fur lining her cheongsam—a sign of an incomplete cross-personality fusion. Even stranger, the lines of the ancient narrative's primordial numerology emerged on her palm, interwoven with the elemental runes from the Western Fantasy chapter to form the three characters "Shen Mingzhu."
"Found it! It's the concubine's daughter!"
In the halo of lantern light, the maid Cui'er ran over, holding an oil-paper umbrella, followed by servants carrying the wedding sedan. Cui'er stared at the cuffs of Xiaodou's cheongsam and said, "Young lady, why are you wearing Western fabrics? Hurry and change into your wedding dress! Young Marquis Lin's wedding banquet is waiting for you!"
As the red veil from the wedding sedan fell, Xiaodou sneezed at the Cthulhu tentacle text—the edge of the veil was embroidered with bubble letters reading "Sweet Devouring Countdown," deep-sea ink seeping between the stitches. She nibbled at the edge of the veil, but her subdimensional stomach spewed out a martial arts acupuncture manual. On the cover, a mechanical cat's urgent message was posted:
"Warning! You have been identified as the concubine 'Shen Mingzhu' from the ancient story. Mission: Stop the false marriage infiltrated by Cthulhu!"
"Bang--"
The wedding sedan suddenly jolted, and the eldest sister Shen Yurong's sneer came from outside: "Sister, have you forgotten that I should be the one riding in this sedan today?" The curtain of the sedan was opened, and Shen Yurong was wearing a gorgeous dress embroidered with Western fantasy elements for the eldest daughter, with energy earrings from the Star Wars story hanging from her earlobes, and behind her followed a fake groom guard wearing a shackle.
"You're having an affair with a guard, trying to usurp my throne..." Shen Yurong held the Cthulhu tentacle-written marriage certificate in her hand. "I'm afraid my sister won't be able to wear this wedding dress for long."
Xiaodou was startled to realize that her cheongsam had been replaced with a plain blue dress, suitable for concubines, and her hairpin had been replaced with a copper hairpin engraved with the character "庶" (commoner). She took a half step back, and the Western-themed crystals on the soles of her shoes lit up, casting rainbow claw marks on the ground—a sign that the reverse magic had gone out of control.
"Capture him!" the aunt's scream echoed from the corridor. She wore energy earrings, and from her sleeves shone a cloud of evasion from the ancient Chinese story. Xiaodou instinctively unleashed the acupuncture techniques from the martial arts story, while her fingertips erupted with an elemental shield from the Western fantasy story. The holographic text "Cross-Scroll Defense" appeared on the shield's surface, deflecting the evasion.
"This, this is a witchcraft!" The aunt staggered back, and the energy earrings made a sharp buzzing sound.
Xiaodou took the opportunity to nibble on the ancient Chinese characters for happiness on the pillars. His subspace stomach vomited out steampunk gear wrenches, which automatically assembled into a mechanical mouse-shaped alarm, emitting the alarm sound of a mechanical cat: "Cthulhu contamination detected! Cthulhu contamination detected!"
Shen Yurong's face turned pale: "It's just some unorthodox methods..." Before she finished speaking, interstellar holographic petals suddenly floated out from the cuffs of Xiaodou's cheongsam. The petals fell on the marriage certificate, revealing the modern signature of "Lin Shen" - that was the handwriting projected by the mechanical heart.
"What happened?"
The sound of horse hooves echoed through the torrential rain. Young Marquis Lin wore a dark cloak embroidered with the intricate patterns of "L.S." A jade pendant shimmered faintly at his waist. As he approached, Xiaodou's body fragrance (laced with Western fantasy nectar) caused a rash on his neck, which quickly subsided upon contact with the holographic petals.
"Master, my concubine is having an affair with a guard and intends to replace my elder sister!" The concubine was the first to complain.
Young Marquis Lin frowned. The jade pendant suddenly heated up, and a light pattern of "001 + Xiaodou = ∞" appeared on its surface, resonating with the gear rune at Xiaodou's paw. He reached out and pressed against the marriage certificate, and the text on his hand automatically degenerated into a normal marriage certificate, revealing Xiaodou's signature (a foreshadowing from Volume 9).
"This marriage certificate..." He traced the rat's paw print with his fingertips, "It was personally sealed by this Marquis."
Shen Yurong's pupils shrank suddenly: "Impossible! It's obviously me..."
Xiaodou seized the opportunity to swung her cheongsam. The elemental particles on her sleeves formed a holographic projection of "Guardian No. 001." This projection overlapped with the patterns on Young Marquis Lin's jade pendant, revealing the outline of a mechanical heart. As the audience erupted in astonishment, she suddenly transformed back into her elemental rat form and gnawed through the chain of her aunt's energy earrings.
Hooks and Visual Spectacle
- Visual impact:
Xiaodou's elemental rat form stepped on the top of the wedding sedan, and her cheongsam transformed into elemental particles to cover her body again. The gear pattern of a mechanical heart emerged on the hem of her skirt, forming an energy matrix with the jade pendant of Young Marquis Lin, and the fluorescent characters "001+Xiaodou" were reflected on the ground.
- Foreshadowing breaks out:
The aunt's energy earrings rolled into the rainstorm, revealing the Cthulhu tentacle patterns on the inside. The patterns resonated with the remaining pages of the marriage certificate, revealing the bubble text "Sweet Devouring Plan Step 1: Ancient Words".
- Emotional tension:
Young Marquis Lin bent down to pick up Xiaodou. The red light of the jade pendant intertwined with her runes, triggering an allergic rash the moment they came into contact. He gritted his teeth, suppressing the itching, and whispered, "Shen Mingzhu... who are you?"
Xiaodou rolled up the marriage certificate with his tail, revealing the Cthulhu text on the inside: "The Fourteenth Life Memories in the Modern Times" (a foreshadowing of the ninth volume), and the tenth glimmer of light appeared in the center of his claws.
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