He Jinxi backed away, hands raised in a gesture of surrender. “Whoa, hey, slow down there, plum blossom,” he tried, his voice carefully light despite the tremor in his gut. “Lost your way to the afterparty? We just had a moment, didn't we? Remember the archives? The ledger? Our mutual distaste for soul-harvesting apps?” Liuli didn't respond. Her veiled head tilted, a grotesque caricature of curiosity. Then, with a sudden, silent whip of her hand, a dozen antique opera masks exploded from a nearby display case. Fragments of gilded porcelain and painted wood shrieked through the air, aimed squarely at his chest. Jinxi threw himself sideways, a shower of splinters embedding themselves in the wall where his head had been. “Alright, fine, no talking,” he muttered, scrambling to his feet. “But we don’t *do* violence, remember? That’s for the other, less charming grooms.” He ducked under a swathe of crimson silk, ripped from a nearby curtain, that snapped past his ear like a bladed whip. It was followed by a torrent of torn programs and sheet music, each page stiff and sharp, propelled by unseen forces. Jinxi dodged, weaving through the labyrinthine gantries high above the main stage, sweat stinging his eyelids. He refused to fight her. He couldn't. This wasn't Liuli. This was the software's puppet, twisted into a weapon. “Come on, Liuli, think!” he called out, vaulting over a coiled rope. “Remember that burial wine? You didn’t let me drink it. You saved me. And that *lovely* kiss? Best five-star rating I ever gave.” Her response was a focused, sustained telekinetic push that tore a section of the wooden walkway from its moorings. The rotten planks splintered and crashed to the floor far below, sending up a cloud of dust. Jinxi scrambled across the remaining, shuddering beams, his ribs hitching as dust filled his mouth. [NetherDash Alert: Groom off-script. Engage target with lethal force. Objective: Eliminate.] The message flashed across his vision, a stark red warning. Dong Rui. He knew Dong Rui was pulling strings, but this was a new level of direct interference. Liuli, or rather, the Frenzied Bride, lunged, her movements unnervingly fluid despite their robotic precision. Her long, sharp nails sliced through the air inches from his face. The acrid smell intensified. “Okay, okay, new strategy,” Jinxi panted, retreating along a precarious metal beam. “You want to play rough? Fine. But I play *smarter*.” He fumbled for his phone, swiping furiously at the NetherDash interface. The 'Inventory' tab, usually restricted to his thermos and first-aid spray, flickered. He’d noticed a tiny glitch earlier when Dong Rui tried to lock him out of the archives—a fleeting moment where the interface seemed to lose track of his personal assets. It was a long shot, a desperate gamble. “Hey, app!” he yelled, as if it were a sentient being. “I’m a delivery rider! Where’s my ride? I need my ride to complete the… uh… *post-nuptial arrangements*!” He jammed his thumb on a faint, ghosted icon in his inventory that briefly flashed 'JX-SC001'. It was his beat-up delivery scooter, the battered moped he used for all his late-night runs, currently parked outside the *actual* opera house, miles away. [System Anomaly Detected: Groom Request Unverifiable. Processing…] [Processing complete. Asset Spawned.] A grinding groan echoed from the upper rafters. Above them, a section of the ancient ceiling groaned and ripped apart. With a shower of plaster and dust, his familiar red-and-white delivery scooter, complete with its insulated storage box, materialized. It hung in the air for a suspended moment, impossibly, before gravity took hold. It plummeted downwards, a metallic projectile aimed not at Liuli, but at something far more sinister. Just ahead, a series of gleaming, razor-sharp blades had begun to retract from hidden slots in the flooring—a program-activated trap, undoubtedly. The scooter, a heavy, solid mass, crashed directly into the mechanism with a deafening screech of tortured metal and a shower of sparks. The impact sheared the blades, sending steel teeth flying like shrapnel. The entire framework, already weakened, buckled violently. The metal beam Jinxi stood on screeched beneath his boots. Liuli, caught unaware, was less than a meter away from the impact zone. The force of the explosion didn’t just destroy the blade trap; it shattered the structural integrity of the entire elevated platform they were on. The world tilted. A horrifying crack echoed through the vast space. Then, the floor beneath them gave way. Jinxi felt a sickening lurch as he plunged into the abyss. He barely glimpsed Liuli, her veiled figure frozen in mid-air for a split second, before she too was consumed by the darkness. They fell, screaming metal and splintering wood accompanying their descent, into the pitch-black void below. He hit something soft, then hard, then soft again, before rolling to a stop, disoriented and winded, in what felt like a dusty, cluttered cave. [NetherDash Alert: Rule Violation. Groom off-script. Dismemberment Penalty initiated in 60 seconds.]

Till Dismemberment Do Us Part