Chapter 142: Midnight Wedding

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Midnight Wedding

Perhaps out of sympathy for Shea’s ordeal, after the verdict was announced, two of Captain Lee’s junior officers stopped the furious Dave, preventing him from harming Shea again.

The incident caused a huge stir, so all the neighbors who had been watching knew what happened.

Word spread from one person to the next.

Dave and his lover became notorious in the neighborhood. People would point and stare whenever they were on the street.

Some people’s gazes would even linger pointedly on the spot where his lover had been injured.

Eventually, they couldn’t take it anymore. Dave and his lover had no choice but to pack their bags, slink out of Varden, and find a city where no one knew them to start a new life.

After hearing how it ended, Zoe Sawyer let out a satisfied sigh. ’Stories where the wicked get what they deserve are always more satisfying.’

Just then, Evan Keller and Sean Hughes walked in, looking cheerful.

"All wrapped up?" Heath Hale asked, looking at Evan Keller.

"All wrapped up. We got everything we could out of them. The rest has been transferred to the provincial bureau, handed over to Elder Crowe and his team." Evan Keller sat down at his desk and gave a long stretch.

Varden’s police resources were decent, but they still fell a little short compared to the provincial bureau’s.

Handing over the tough cases they couldn’t crack was standard procedure.

Heath Hale nodded. It was for the best.

Sean Hughes leaned on Zoe Sawyer’s shoulder and said cheerfully, "The chief gave us a day off.

Zoe, so we can all get a proper rest tomorrow, please don’t go opening any doors. If you need a hand with anything, just shout."

"Don’t worry. Starting now, I expect to be waited on hand and foot. I won’t even touch a doorknob," Zoe Sawyer said, rolling her eyes.

The others in the office burst out laughing.

The next day, Zoe Sawyer stayed true to her word and didn’t touch a single doorknob, simply following Sean Hughes around.

That evening, Zoe got out of bed, planning to wash her face before going to sleep.

The moment she opened the door, the scene before her changed completely.

’Crap. You’ve got to be kidding me... not again.’

Zoe Sawyer muttered to herself as she took in the scene on the other side.

But grumbling aside, Zoe let go of the doorknob, grabbed a remote-controlled toy car from a nearby cabinet, aimed, and tossed it through.

She then carefully closed the door, leaving only a small gap.

The toy car was equipped with a GPS tracker and a camera, allowing for more covert observation of the surroundings. It was much safer than going in themselves.

"Zoe—"

Sean Hughes walked in to find Zoe Sawyer in a bizarre position: sitting on the floor, a remote control in her hand.

Her expression was grim, and the door was open just a crack.

As an experienced officer, Sean Hughes instantly understood the situation. He didn’t make another sound, but backed out quietly and, as quickly as he could, went to get Evan Keller and Heath Hale.

Even though they had told Zoe not to open any doors and disturb their hard-earned vacation...

...but if a case actually turned up, work was work.

And so, a little past eleven at night, Evan Keller, Heath Hale, and Sean Hughes were all standing behind Zoe Sawyer.

Zoe was controlling the toy car, her eyes glued to the screen of the remote.

The camera feed allowed Zoe and the others to see the surroundings clearly.

It looked like some sort of village. People were bustling in and out of the rooms, and red "double happiness" characters were pasted everywhere.

They could also see many people approaching, carrying various things.

"A wedding? Who holds a wedding in the middle of the night?" Zoe muttered, carefully maneuvering the car forward.

Although it was clearly a wedding, the atmosphere on the monitor felt so sinister that it sent a shiver down Zoe’s spine.

"Something feels off," Sean Hughes said, rubbing his chin. ’This isn’t right.’

The decorations pointed to a traditional Chinese wedding, but the overall feeling was just... off.

"Zoe, pan the camera to the left, then tilt it up," Heath Hale suddenly interjected, guiding her.

Soon, a pair of white candles came into view.

’Isn’t this a wedding? Why are the dragon and phoenix candles white?’

The expressions of the people around were also strange.

A mixture of joy and fear, with even a hint of excitement.

"Something’s wrong. Something is really wrong here," Zoe said, then glanced at the location displayed beside the screen. "Sunder Village, Dromond County. That doesn’t seem too far from here."

"Let’s see what’s going on first," Evan Keller said. "The moment we confirm something’s wrong, we’ll storm the place and rescue whoever’s in danger."

He said that, but he had a bad feeling. He suspected things weren’t that simple.

’What is going on...? This looks a bit like a ghost marriage...’

The people bustling about all seemed to be in a hurry, completely oblivious to the remote-controlled car at their feet.

Even if they did notice it, they probably just assumed some child had brought it in and paid it no mind.

Zoe navigated the car through the crowd and into the main hall.

A coffin abruptly entered their line of sight.

Evan Keller’s expression darkened instantly. He’d been right.

A ceremony held in the middle of the night, white candles, a bizarre atmosphere, and a coffin placed right in the center of the hall.

The two elderly people weeping beside the coffin must be the parents of one of the ’newlyweds’.

What was unclear was the situation of the other party.

Were they also deceased, or were they... a living person who had been captured?

At a signal from Heath Hale, Zoe drove the RC car into a small corner to observe the situation in the hall.

"For parents to outlive their child... Poor Uncle Dex and Auntie Dex, losing their kid at their age." A woman standing off to the side with a companion couldn’t help but mutter.

’Intel!’

Without needing to be told, Zoe drove the RC car up behind the two women, listening in and taking notes.

"Tell me about it! I wonder if it’s karma for all their past sins, now being visited on their own child.

You just married into the village recently, so you don’t know their family’s story. All of this, you could say they brought it on themselves," the other woman, who clearly knew more, said.

She glanced left and right, and after making sure no one was paying attention, she began whispering to her companion.

"What’s the story, Kim? Quick, tell me!" The eyes of the woman who had started the conversation lit up. She hadn’t expected to hear more gossip!

The woman called Kim chuckled softly, lowering her voice again. "You think this wedding is well-organized, don’t you? Like they’ve got every procedure and the timing down perfectly? Even that coffin—the wood is top-notch."

The woman nodded. It certainly seemed that way.

’Uncle Dex seems to know every single step. It looks like he did a lot of preparation.’

Seeing the other woman’s expression, Kim tsk-tsked and shook her head.

"Not at all. This is what they used to do for a living. It’s all from experience!"