Chapter 86

Chapter 86

[Congratulations, Player Ning Banxian. You have successfully completed the main mission.]

His guess confirmed, Ning Shuo turned to Rao Lin. “Do you have a mother?”

Rao Lin had only just snapped out of the plot of this Script. “…Do you know how rude that sounds?”

Realizing he had phrased it poorly, Ning Shuo coughed twice to ease the awkwardness. “What I mean is… does this identity of yours have a birth mother?”

Rao Lin considered it. “Yes, but I’ve never met her, and I don’t know her name.”

“She’s not in the main house?”

“No. Women aren’t allowed to live in the house. And to those animals in Aotianli, women are their private property. Unless they agree to be shared, where a woman lives is up to them to figure out.”

So where Rao Lin’s “birth mother” lived was most likely known only to Father Sun.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door. The Guard who had spoken with them outside earlier pushed the door open. “Eldest Young Master, you usually make quite a racket when you’re playing around. Why’d it suddenly go quiet…”

In the blink of an eye, Ning Wang was about to shove Ning Shuo down onto the bed, but Rao Lin beat him to it and pressed Song Zhu onto the bed first. He also drew half the gauze curtain over the two of them, leaving only two overlapping figures faintly visible behind it.

…You two took up most of the bed. What about us?

Before Ning Wang’s interrupted thoughts could form a Plan B, someone suddenly grabbed him by the collar.

Ning Shuo seized his collar and kissed him forcefully.

“Take off my clothes.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Ning Wang saw the half-open door and understood. He reached out to undo Ning Shuo’s outer robe, pretending to fail several times, as if he were in a great hurry.

The kiss marks on Ning Shuo’s neck were clearly visible.

This was the scene the Guard saw when he entered.

Even then, the Guard still didn’t give up. He stood in the doorway, staring at them. “…Why hasn’t the Eldest Young Master played with the bride yet, but the Second Young Master is already kissing her?”

Rao Lin got up. He had already taken off his outer robe as well, and his lips were a vivid red.

He strode to the doorway and kicked the Guard. “This woman has already been played with by this young master. Since my dear little brother has never tasted a fresh woman before, what harm is there in letting him have a taste? Today, this young master is giving her to my brother to play with. If this young master wants to play with something else that’s fresh, do I need your permission?”

In Aotianli, the difference between men and women was as vast as heaven and earth. The same went for masters and servants.

Not to mention, Rao Lin had scratch marks on his neck, and his domineering manner wasn’t considered OOC either.

However, even after being kicked to the ground, the Guard still noticed something suspicious. “Young Master, since when did you like playing with men? And the Young Master of the Tian Family-although you’re friends with him, you’re not into men!”

Some character settings in the Script could not be changed or explained away.

For example, sexual orientation.

There was no way for Rao Lin to explain that. Just as the air was about to fall silent, a sweet, lilting female voice suddenly came from the bed. “Young Master, why aren’t you continuing?”

Rao Lin froze.

Leaving aside the fact that Scripts requiring men to dress as women were rare, Song Zhu had spent two years in Zone F and dabbled in just about everything-except voice imitation.

The “woman” in a dress leaning against Ning Wang said in a timid, reproachful voice, “We are both women. When the Young Master comes to us is up to the Young Master. How could we urge him?”

The other female voice said, “But…”

“There are no buts. In Aotianli, we have to listen to men. Otherwise…”

The “woman” seemed very frightened. The Guard could even clearly see her shrink back. “Otherwise, we’ll end up like that person who fell to their death…”

The other person fell silent.

The stage had already been set. Rao Lin sneered, “You neglected your duties so badly that you didn’t even know Young Master Tian had already gone back, or that this young master had brought in a woman! Were you chatting with the one outside?!”

That was exactly what had happened.

Many NPCs in Aotianli were characterized as gluttonous, lazy, and obsessed with lust despite failing to properly guard the entrances and exits.
Extreme inequality between men and women seemed to be a defining feature of Aotianli.

The Guard scrambled out in a panic, and Rao Lin’s face immediately fell. “That line was disgusting.”

Because some character settings were impossible to properly grasp, they would buy lines from various ladies in the Rest Area and memorize them, cursing as they recited.

Even after entering a Script, they often stumbled when acting out certain roles.

Lolita’s evaluation of Willow was: a brute whose acting was an absolute mess.

Still, it was enough to fool the NPCs.

Song Zhu drew back the gauze curtain and tied up his loose long hair. “Thank you.”

Ning Shuo, with his back to the Guard and playing two roles at once, used the same voice he had just used to cover for Song Zhu. “No need to stand on ceremony, Young Master Tian.”

…

After being scolded, the Guard members no longer dared to slack off. On top of that, the Ghost Bride was roaming at night, so they simply made do in Rao Lin’s room.

Rock-paper-scissors decided which pair got the bed.

Then, after a best-of-three round in which he joyfully scored a grand total of zero points, Ning Wang carried a quilt over and spread it on the couch. “Just as expected. My luck’s always rotten.”

Ning Shuo removed his makeup in front of the bronze mirror. “It’s been rotten for over twenty years. As expected, this round was only a formality too.”

He met Ning Wang’s eyes in the mirror, then sighed.

…

The couch was small to begin with, and with two grown men on it, it took Ning Shuo ages to fall asleep.

At first, he thought it felt cramped because the couch was too small-until Ning Shuo bumped into a hard board.

Something was wrong.

His drowsiness vanished in an instant. Ning Shuo opened his eyes to complete darkness.

He reached out and felt around him.

The texture of wood. A cramped space. The smells of lacquer and incense ash in his nose.

Ning Shuo had no choice but to admit that he seemed to be inside a coffin.

There was a thing called Spirit Tracing.

A person could not spend too long with a yin spirit. Otherwise, they would lose too much yang energy, and with yin energy seeping into them on top of that, the lesser consequence would be harm to the body, while the worst could damage the soul.

Ning Shuo had done far more than spend too long with one. He had fought her.

And he had been injured.

His soul had been tainted by Mingzhi’s yin energy, so in his sleep, he had attached himself to Mingzhi.

Or rather, he had possessed the past Mingzhi who existed in Mingzhi’s memories.

It was stifling inside the coffin. Ning Shuo raised a hand and touched his mouth.

It had not been sewn shut yet.

He felt the fabric of the clothes he was wearing. Judging by the material, along with the patterns and ornaments, it was probably a wedding dress.

He tried lifting the coffin lid and found that it could move.

Good grief. These people had stuffed Mingzhi into the coffin immediately after the wedding ceremony.

During Spirit Tracing, it was best not to alter another person’s experiences without permission. Otherwise, the Spirit Tracing environment could very likely collapse, and the soul of the person tracing could be damaged.

Ning Shuo pushed at the coffin lid twice. The lid that he had just been able to move was suddenly pressed down by someone outside.

He was using Mingzhi’s body now, so he did not have his usual strength. Being able to push the coffin lid that far was already the limit. The Mingzhi of the past must have failed to escape the same way.

Lolita and Zhuang Yao’s mission was abstract: overturn Aotianli.

Even the wording was exactly the same.

At first, they had only been puzzled by the literal meaning. After staying in Aotianli for two days, they had come to understand what “overturn” meant.

He had wanted to see whether their mission could find a solution through Spirit Tracing, but the coffin lid was suddenly opened.

Two burly men grinned viciously as they pinned his body down and tried to tear at his clothes.

Ning Shuo frowned.

Resisting would indeed damage his soul.

But from the moment Ning Shuo realized this was Spirit Tracing, he had never intended to worry about his soul.

He could not help her in the past, but now, wherever he could help, there was no reason not to.

Besides, no matter what he did, he would suffer.

In that case, why not choose a way of suffering that felt good to him and let the victim vent a little too?

He had always been a very mad person.