Chapter 255

At four-quarters past the hour of the Snake, the red silk hangings in the main hall of Taiye Pavilion suddenly swayed violently. As Lu Jingyuan pinned the wrist of the scholar in the lake-blue robe, a signal firework hidden in the man’s sleeve popped and exploded. Amidst a cloud of dark green smoke, a dozen masked men burst out from the rear hall, their blades wrapped in red silk—the very band of marriage brokers Jiang Rou had arranged. "Protect the couple!" Ren Yao swung her whip, knocking down an incoming hidden weapon, the lash tracing a silver arc in the morning light. "Mr. Zhou, trigger the mechanism!" Jiang Wan hid behind a glass screen, watching as Mr. Zhou threw three brass bells into the air. Fine sand cascaded from the ceiling, and three fishing nets fell like a canopy, trapping the leading assassins. Lu Jingyuan spun and swung his sword; the tassel swept across the face of an assassin. His dark wedding robes lifted during the struggle, revealing the faint shimmer of chainmail beneath—he had been wearing armor all along.