Lin Zhen rarely showed such an indescribable expression.
He glanced down at the bright red dress he was wearing, adorned with minimal embroidery and covered by a thin layer of translucent gauze. Judging by the garment, it was indeed something suitable for a brothel girl. When he had picked it out from the room, he hadn’t thought much about it, only that the other clothes were either too tacky or too plain, and this one suited his taste.
Lin Zhen didn’t resist much; he was always eager to try new and unconventional things. Since he was going to play along, he might as well do it thoroughly. He had rummaged through a few empty rooms before finally settling on this outfit, which left him quite satisfied.
He said, “If I wear this and go outside, wouldn’t it be like causing a ghostly disturbance in broad daylight?”
Yan Wei: “…”
Yan Wei carefully scanned Lin Zhen’s current attire. Aside from the dress, Lin Zhen’s hair, though not neatly tied up, was at least somewhat gathered into a bun. Combined with the long hair that all players in this instance automatically had, regardless of gender, Lin Zhen’s loose locks cascaded down, complementing his sharp features—especially those dark red eyes, so different from Lin Qing’s—giving him a unique charm.
Zhong Bufan muttered enviously, “Why do you all look so convincing when you dress up? Even with such flat chests, you still manage to look harmonious…”
Yan Wei: “…”
He had genuinely forgotten who was the most resistant to dressing up as a brothel girl in the first place.
He couldn’t help but laugh, “Alright, let’s not dwell on it. Lin Zhen, hurry up and come in to change out of that outfit. Although it doesn’t seem like a big deal, it’s still quite unsettling—”
Suddenly, a voice called out from down the corridor, “Young master!”
Yan Wei turned to see Ah Yu hurrying toward them, saying, “What took you so long? Someone from the Shen Estate has arrived. They said it’s a long journey and they don’t want to arrive after dark, so they’re urging us to leave. The manager has already stalled for a while, and I waited for you, but you still haven’t come down. They’re getting impatient, so the manager sent me to fetch you.”
She glanced at Lin Zhen, Yan Mingguang, and Zhong Bufan in the room, first with a look of admiration and surprise, then her expression turned complicated as her gaze lingered on Zhong Bufan.
But she was in a hurry to complete her task and didn’t comment further, quickly saying, “Since you’re all ready, let’s head down. The three of you… well, just go directly to the backyard and get on the carriage.”
It seemed there was no time to delay. Lin Zhen wouldn’t have time to change his clothes and would have to go downstairs dressed like this.
Yan Wei, on the other hand, was quick to throw on a servant’s outer garment.
Although Yan Mingguang and the others had changed their outfits, prolonged scrutiny would still reveal discrepancies. They donned wide-brimmed hats veiled with long gauze and headed to the backyard first, boarding the carriage before the Shen Estate servant could see them.
Ah Yu and Yan Wei walked behind. She glanced at Yan Wei’s attire and sighed, “I always thought the coarse servant clothes were crude and unrefined, but seeing you wear them today, I can actually sense a touch of nobility. It seems it’s not the clothes that are crude.”
But the person.
As she spoke, she reached up and lightly touched her own face.
In the flickering lamplight, Yan Wei glanced sideways at her face. It was indeed ordinary by brothel standards, but to call it crude would be an overstatement.
He had noticed Ah Yu’s concern about her appearance the last time. In a place like this, it was inevitable to feel inadequate in comparison. But Ah Yu didn’t have to face the same fate as the girls like Fengxian. Perhaps her ordinary looks were a form of protection?
He softened his tone, “Appearance is just a shell. Having too much or too little of it can both be troublesome. You’re fine just the way you are.”
“You said the same thing last time. But you possess so much; you’ve never lost anything because of what you lack. Maybe you don’t understand the longing of those who have nothing.”
Yan Wei thought she had a point and didn’t argue further, simply smiling, “But you can’t say you have nothing. Appearance is about the spirit more than the bone, and the bone more than the skin. Perhaps what matters more is your thoughts. I haven’t seen you for a couple of days, and I think you’ve become even more beautiful.”
This wasn’t a lie.
Last time, he had seen Ah Yu’s profile in the candlelight and found nothing particularly memorable.
But this time, standing in the backyard, surrounded by the white snow and intricate tiles, in the bright daylight, he looked again and found her more beautiful.
“Thank you,” Ah Yu seemed genuinely pleased for a moment.
Yan Mingguang and the others had already boarded the carriage, and the servant from the Shen Estate was sitting at the front, ready to drive.
Ah Yu briefed Yan Wei on some of the customs of the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel and the Shen Estate’s transactions, still extremely worried, “Well… when women dress as men, as long as they’re careful, they can usually pull it off. But men dressing as women, unless they have naturally soft features, will eventually give themselves away if looked at too long. Moreover, Master Shen is taking the girls to… do that sort of thing…”
Yan Wei smiled, “No need to worry, we have our own methods.”
All they needed was to infiltrate the Shen Estate, not actually serve Master Shen.
Yan Wei took out all the silver he had on him, “But you, for helping us this time, if anything happens afterward, although we won’t involve the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel, you might still be at risk of taking the blame. Take this money as payment for helping us this time.”
He had left some room in his words.
If something happened at the Shen Estate that implicated the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel, Ah Yu, having helped them and being of low status, would undoubtedly be the scapegoat. Even if the brothel wasn’t implicated, this place was where Jiang Jingyun had lived, and she had killed many people here. Ah Yu staying here was bound to be dangerous.
She was just an NPC in the instance, someone Yan Wei would usually not pay much attention to.
But Yan Mingguang was right. All existences in the world are vivid. To players, NPCs are passersby, and to NPCs, players are passersby. No one truly transcends.
Ah Yu had helped them, and he was willing to lend a hand in this world that was her everything, a world that to him was just a minor effort.
Ah Yu took the money, seemingly shocked by the amount, and stumbled slightly, “This… isn’t this a bit too much…?”
“Not really. This should be enough for you to leave and find a place to settle down. The rest won’t guarantee much. You’re kind-hearted; you deserve a good ending.”
Ah Yu was stunned.
Yan Wei had already turned and boarded the carriage.
The servant from the Shen Estate whipped the reins, and the carriage set off toward the estate.
There weren’t many people out on the streets these days. The servant, likely also afraid of the supernatural disturbances, drove the carriage quickly, jostling along the wide road.
Yan Mingguang and the others sat inside the carriage.
Zhong Bufan looked down at his chest with a sour expression, “Is this how troublesome it is for girls every day? The jolting is so annoying.”
Yan Mingguang simply sat upright beside him, gazing at the hanging curtain of the carriage. Even though only a sliver of the curtain revealed a glimpse of Yan Wei sitting at the front, he seemed content to watch.
Lin Zhen rolled his eyes, “Did you forget to wear a breast binder and just stuffed something in there?”
“…And you did?” Zhong Bufan didn’t want to admit it.
“I’m flat.”
“…”
Yan Wei sat at the front of the carriage.
The servant driving the carriage probably also found Yan Wei’s demeanor unlike that of someone who had been doing menial work for long. He asked a few questions, and Yan Wei brushed him off with an excuse about his family falling on hard times.
Unlike Yan Mingguang, who could kill a conversation with a single sentence, Yan Wei was skilled at keeping things flowing. He asked the servant a few questions in return, feigning curiosity about Master Shen’s vast wealth.
Yan Wei had dealt with all sorts of people, even outside the Tower. In a few exchanges, the servant didn’t realize he was being probed and spilled everything he knew about the Shen Estate.
The Shen Estate was indeed wealthy, but its master, Master Shen, had never married. He had some unspeakable hobbies, often buying girls, and many had been carried out. In recent years, Master Shen had become even more extreme, growing increasingly paranoid and easily frightened. Despite no one in the estate having encountered the supernatural disturbances in town, Master Shen was exceptionally nervous, fearing even the slightest hint of ghostly activity.
Moreover, a few years ago, a large section of the estate’s backyard had been sealed off, deemed unsafe. It was from that time that Master Shen had become more suspicious.
The estate used to have a priest who would come regularly to perform rituals. Later, the priest met with some misfortune, and Master Shen hired several people from elsewhere to exorcise the evil spirits. These experts now lived in a small courtyard within the estate. Next to their courtyard was the sealed-off area, which no servant dared approach, though the experts living next door didn’t seem bothered by the eerie atmosphere.
Yan Wei naturally knew that these so-called experts were players from the Shen Estate faction. With more players in the faction, their tasks were naturally more difficult. Living next to Jiang Jingyun’s coffin, they were likely dealing with the resentment leakage and related issues.
Geng Liang had told him that, so far, the Shen Estate faction still hadn’t obtained the Guanyin Holy Water. Where could it be in the estate?
As Yan Wei pondered, a funeral procession passing by suddenly encountered an accident.
Perhaps due to carelessness during the sealing of the coffin, scratching sounds came from inside, and the coffin lid was suddenly pushed open, slightly displaced. The pallbearers were caught off guard, and the coffin fell to the ground with a loud crash. A corpse covered in cadaveric spots, already bluish-purple, crawled out in burial clothes.
Screams erupted around them, and the carriage driver immediately whipped the horses to speed away.
Yan Wei looked back and saw the reanimated corpse accidentally pierce someone’s chest before being resealed into the coffin by others.
Beside him, the servant driving the carriage, though pale and flustered, didn’t seem too surprised. This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened.
Yan Wei turned his gaze forward, watching the scattered ghost money on the ground.
The Tower’s instances were woven from the emotions of the human world. The more complete and intense the emotions, the higher the floor. They might not be complete, or their existence might be fleeting, destined to be scattered or restructured. But to every ephemeral being in the instance, this was their everything.
Like Ah Yu living in the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel, like Mr. Bai exorcising spirits in Guanyin Town, like this ordinary servant driving the carriage beside him.
To Yan Wei, escaping the Tower meant a broader horizon. But to the beings born within the Tower, asking them to do the same would essentially overturn their entire understanding of existence, wouldn’t it?
Yan Wei didn’t know why his thoughts had drifted so far.
Outside the instance.
The high-level players searching through all player records had dug up the well-known classic instances and pulled down the stories behind the codenames recorded on the Endless Long Monument.
They were looking for traces of Yan Wei.
Suddenly, one player exclaimed, “I found a matching data point—”
When the player’s gaze fell on the codename that matched the data, they abruptly fell silent.
The others turned to look.
The player’s eyes widened, and after a long pause, they finally said, “No way, it can’t be him!”
