Chapter 35
Chapter 35
How were the redheaded woman’s words any different from a death sentence?
If they failed to design the most beautiful diamond, they would remain in this instance forever.
Remain inside a game instance?
Only the dead or monsters could stay inside an instance permanently.
Xiao Huai suddenly laughed. He rose and walked straight toward the redheaded woman.
His velvet-soft voice reached her ears. “Beautiful miss, the phrase ‘most beautiful’ is far too subjective. I think you’re beautiful, for instance, but someone else may disagree. Every person has a different nature and a different heart. How do you define beauty?”
The redheaded woman smiled faintly, seduction and mischief glinting in her eyes.
Apparently pleased by Xiao Huai’s opening, she arched a brow and patiently answered his question.
“Handsome, naturally, you’ll have a great deal to learn over the next seven days. You may consult any books about aesthetics in the studio. I’m certain you’ll produce a work that satisfies the Count.”
She deliberately paused, reached out, and tapped Xiao Huai’s shoulder. Then she enunciated each word.
“Especially you.”
The moment she finished, Lu Yuanshi appeared behind Xiao Huai and bent down to look at her.
“What about me?”
The woman naturally appreciated handsome men. She smiled. “You too.”
With that, she left the carriage.
Lu Yuanshi gave a seemingly satisfied nod, then looked at Xiao Huai.
Xiao Huai noticed his gaze but did not turn to meet it.
The air shifted slightly. Lu Yuanshi raised his right hand toward Xiao Huai’s cheek. Xiao Huai instinctively dodged, but the pad of Lu Yuanshi’s finger brushed lightly across the wound on his neck.
Xiao Huai frowned and slapped the hand aside with his left.
The unexpected touch made him retreat several uncomfortable steps.
Lu Yuanshi lifted the finger that had touched Xiao Huai. A trace of blood remained on its pad. He arched the end of one eyebrow.
“You’re injured?”
“It’s nothing.”
Such a minor wound hardly counted.
Lu Yuanshi walked up to Xiao Huai, reducing the distance between them until each could hear the other’s heartbeat.
He leaned forward. Lu Yuanshi stood more than half a head taller, and whenever he came close, Xiao Huai felt the danger of a shadow descending over him.
Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Xiao Huai felt Lu Yuanshi’s gaze settle upon his eyes.
He instinctively wanted to turn his face aside, yet an invisible force seemed to hold him there. It came from Lu Yuanshi’s eyes: deep and seemingly gentle, but in truth, cold and merciless.
Some indescribable power appeared to lie hidden within them, dormant beneath that serene, beautiful exterior.
The danger he presented was no less lethal than poison eating into the marrow.
Yet that danger made Xiao Huai’s heart race.
It was like knowing an abyss lay ahead and still wanting to leap. Humans were creatures that sought life by approaching death.
Xiao Huai lifted his chin slightly and deliberately leaned his face closer. The faint curve of his lips carried a trace of defiance. His eyes were normally cold, but framed by those beautiful features, they became almost seductive.
“Do you like what you see?”
Lu Yuanshi laughed. Though he was smiling, Xiao Huai sensed a subtle shift in the temperature of his gaze.
Xiao Huai met it with indifference.
Lu Yuanshi watched him in silence.
He was vividly alive: the player most perfectly suited to the horror game. He was heartless and wanted little, a dancer moving along a blade’s edge, a being more perfectly matched with blood than any other.
His eyes resembled stars in a deep night sky. Though their light was cold, Lu Yuanshi longed to catch them in his hands.
Only when Xiao Huai turned his face aside did Lu Yuanshi seem to extend a hand. His fingers never touched Xiao Huai, but the breeze they stirred brushed the corner of his eye like a caress.
For one fleeting instant, Xiao Huai saw something flash through Lu Yuanshi’s carefully veiled gaze: madness and possessiveness so well hidden that they seemed like an illusion.
“The wound will heal.” Xiao Huai raised his eyes, red meeting black. “So I’ll repay what I owe you.”
Lu Yuanshi merely watched him with curved lips. He did not ask how Xiao Huai intended to repay the debt or what payment he would offer.
Somewhat exhausted, Xiao Huai found a seat. He rested his head against the window, and as the carriage rocked, sleep grew steadily heavier.
Hanako’s hide-and-seek game had drained far more of his energy than expected.
His eyelids felt weighted with lead.
Warmth suddenly enveloped him, and a faint fragrance reached his nose. He did not need to open his eyes to know who had sat beside him.
At that moment, Xiao Huai fell asleep.
When he woke again, he truly regretted it.
Losing his memory had not troubled him. Being covered in wounds after playing with Hanako in the Ivy Girls’ School instance had not troubled him either. But now he regretted falling asleep.
Xiao Huai awakened on Lu Yuanshi’s shoulder.
The train had swayed throughout the journey, and he had fallen into a dead sleep. At some point, his head had come to rest against the man beside him.
Xiao Huai opened his eyes. Light swept across Lu Yuanshi’s high nose and cast delicate shadows in his eye sockets. It resembled the boundary where dawn embraced the earth and peeled darkness away.
The announcement that they had reached the terminal sounded over the speakers. Xiao Huai immediately raised his head and sat upright.
“Sorry.” His voice was lazy and hoarse with sleep.
Lu Yuanshi’s lips curved ever so slightly. He said nothing more.
By unspoken agreement, neither man spoke.
The redheaded woman’s appearance broke the inexplicably awkward silence.
“Welcome to Diamond Town. You may call me Victoria. The household servants are already waiting at the station. Until the diamond showcase, I hope all of you will devote yourselves to your designs in the studios. If you require any supplies, instruct a servant to purchase them for you.”
She paused, then lowered her voice. “Never, never go into town alone to buy anything. No one knows where those filthy diamond fiends might spring from, and we cannot guarantee your safety.”
The train wheels screeched against the rails as it slowed to a stop.
A crowd of black-clad people already stood outside Carriage 16. Each wore a hat draped with black netting, forming a dark, oppressive mass.
Anyone who did not know better might have thought they were attending a funeral.
The moment Victoria saw them, however, she waved excitedly.
“Oh, dear God! They’ve welcomed you with the highest honors. Temporary workers, you should be grateful to the Count.”
Tang Weiqi looked puzzled. “By highest honors… do you mean wearing black?”
Victoria glared at him. “You temporary workers have no idea how precious black is. It is one of the most beautiful colors in the world.”
The instant she said that, every player widened their eyes slightly and silently committed her words to memory.
Black was one of the most beautiful colors in the world.
Once the train stopped, passengers disembarked from only Carriage 16, their carriage.
After dedicated staff from the diamond factory escorted Jack and Rose away, a black-clad servant approached each player as they stepped off the train.
Old Mo said, “Wow. They’re treating us like celebrities. Don’t these people look like bodyguards?”
“They certainly do. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Aunt Wang agreed.
Xiao Huai stepped down from the train. A cold wind tugged at his hair and swept across his eyelashes, making the thick black fringe tremble.
A black-clad servant approached him. Xiao Huai raised his eyes and noticed a tiny wound three finger-widths below the person’s collarbone.
It was not only this servant. Nearly every black-clad person here had a tiny wound near the neck.
They did not resemble injuries from a blade. They looked more like… needle punctures.
Once everyone had disembarked, Victoria said, “All right, everyone’s here. Six temporary workers in total, with three studios among you. Draw lots to determine your partners.”
“What? We need partners too?” Old Mo looked troubled.
Tang Weiqi corrected him. “We’re not choosing partners. We’re drawing lots.”
Uncle Li said, “Excellent. At my age, I couldn’t manage a design alone. I’ll feel much better with someone helping me.”
Tang Weiqi murmured, “Having a partner may not be a good thing.”
The main mission required every person to design the most beautiful diamond.
But what if someone plagiarized another’s work? Or what if an unexpected incident occurred?
A partner’s design would become the perfect backup.