Chapter 278: [Unswerving Devotion] Cliche but Effective
It was already dusk by this point.
The sky had dimmed, and a few dim, gloomy candle lamps flickered inside the room.
Carrying the tray of food, the maid walked out.
She was thoughtful enough to shut the door for her, however.
Surfacing a scene that appeared passable on the surface made it all the harder for a “Xu Taotao” with this exact personality to speak of her grievances.
Exuding a look of sorrow, Bai Cha rose to her feet, walking over to sit before the dressing mirror in a posture of admiring herself in the mirror with self-pity.
Naturally, this wouldn’t arouse any suspicion.
The bronze mirror remained quite clear.
Clear enough to let Bai Cha see that her own face belonged to Xu Shengsheng.
Generally speaking, when players entered certain instances, their appearance indeed altered—a temporary identity granted by the system.
Much like every single roleplay Bai Cha had executed previously.
Yet as long as her live stream room retained her own name without a disguise, everyone naturally held clarity regarding her real name.
In the past, whatever those appearances looked like mattered little; at any rate, they were strangers’ faces.
Yet now, this face belonged to her own younger cousin.
Leaning closer to the mirror, Bai Cha inspected her face with meticulous seriousness.
In truth, inspecting it with careful precision revealed subtle differences from Xu Shengsheng.
This face appeared slightly more sorrowful and aggrieved—not owing to her personality, but simply because her facial features carried a touch of bitterness.
Bai Cha observed her reflection thoughtfully.
So this cannot truly be called Xu Shengsheng’s face, but rather a face extraordinarily similar to Xu Shengsheng’s. Was it because of this face that I was brought into this instance?
Who dragged me in here—the game or the Buddha statue?
Even as Bai Cha conducted her observation, the candle flames inside the room flickered subtly.
As if stirred by a gentle breeze.
Bai Cha turned her head slightly to steal a glance.
And then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the figure in the mirror hadn’t moved.
Turning her head back to look at the mirror, everything appeared completely normal.
A figure inside the mirror, huh? I have one too.
She would find an opportunity to draw her out, letting the two get acquainted inside a mirror.
Acting as if she had noticed nothing at all, she sat right there lost in a daze once more.
Motionless, making no move to step outside to see anyone either.
The maid fetched water over once again.
“Miss, it is time for you to wash up and rest.”
Bai Cha actually felt quite cold; during the Lantern Festival around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the weather was naturally still frigid.
Her gaze falling onto the water set down by the maid, it proved to be cold water without surprise.
She looked numb and sorrowful.
“What day of the month is it today?”
The maid said, “Today is already the fifteenth. Speaking of which, the lantern festival outside is about to begin—do you wish to go?”
Expectation gleamed rather brightly in her eyes.
After all, if Bai Cha stepped out, she could tag along outside to play as well.
In fact, many people in the courtyard had gone outside already.
Bai Cha’s expression remained dazed for a brief moment.
“Fetch me a cloak. Let us step out for a walk.”
Delighted, the maid agreed in an instant, fetching a cloak for her with nimble movements.
Bai Cha stepped out of her room.
The courtyard this family inhabited was indeed far from small.
Yet the overall setting exuded a pervasive aura of dilapidation and decay.
After all, the primary masters in charge of the household had essentially all passed away.
Speaking of which, why had they died?
Stepping out of the courtyard gates, the street lay directly ahead.
A bustling throng of crowds and a lively atmosphere swarmed over in an instant.
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes slightly; viewed this way, the courtyard indeed felt a touch too quiet.
Given that it stood directly adjacent to the bustling market without soundproofing measures, how could it be possible to hear absolute nothing from inside?
Yet only upon pushing the door open did the outside noise reveal itself.
Even apartment units in a residential building wouldn’t prove this quiet—a loud noise outside could be heard clearly on the upper floors.
To say nothing of the fact that this courtyard lacked a closed ceiling.
“Miss, are we not heading out?” The maid appeared unable to wait to head onto the street.
The outside was exceedingly lively, with many people holding flower lanterns in their hands.
Brightly lit, it looked far prettier than the interior of the courtyard.
Recalling her character setting, Bai Cha spoke with sorrowful nostalgia: “If only Father and Mother were still around… it is truly so lively.”
A glint flashed through the maid’s eyes.
“Miss, you need not be overly grieved either. It has been three years already; you would do better to seize the time to see if you can find an ideal husband to marry!”
“Master and Madam were a match made in heaven. When Master passed away from illness, Madam was willing to follow him in death—what a touching love story that was! If only I could encounter a love like that as well.”
As the maid spoke, a look of yearning surfaced across her face.
Noticing her phrasing, Bai Cha displayed a similar blend of yearning and emotional sighing on her face.
“Indeed. What a deathlessly devoted love.”
The maid nodded in agreement.
“Truly! I heard long ago that back when Master and Madam first got together, they obtained the Fruit of Love—only then could they love each other with such deep devotion…”
“Alright, Miss, let us head to the street! Who knows, perhaps we might happen upon an ideal husband?”
What ideal husband.
There’s still a ghost haunting the room.
Still, it was indeed time to head to the street to hunt for players.
Yet how could one confirm a player’s identity?
Walking along, Bai Cha observed her surroundings even as she moved.
The maid appeared far more excited than she was.
“Miss, let us head over there—to Biyi Tower! It is extraordinarily lively there during every Lantern Festival!”
Bai Cha put on an attitude of complying with her in everything, even letting herself be pulled along by her without uttering much.
Biyi Tower was a structure towering seven stories high.
A building of this scale was rare even within ancient backgrounds.
Oh, at any rate, this background appeared to be a fictionalized setting.
The entire structure occupied a massive footprint, looking extraordinarily magnificent and grand; even a modern person like her felt quite awed at a single glance.
This place clearly represented a relatively core area of this city, so players ought to gather here as well.
Downstairs, someone was issuing riddles and couplets—they could be posed by the prompt-giver for people to guess, or written down on the spot to find someone to match line for line.
And then Bai Cha caught a couplet prompt.
“This is a couplet posed by a young gentleman, titled ‘Odd changes, even remains unchanged’—wonder who can match the next line? Though this couplet appears exceedingly bizarre.”
Bai Cha: “…”
Just… well…
Forget it, it was indeed effective.
Someone in the crowd raised a hand immediately.
“I’ll try!”
“I can do it too!”
“I know it!”
Casting a glance across them, Bai Cha walked over with a touch of hesitation as well.
Pulling at her, the maid looked at her with a trace of suspicion.
“Miss, what are you doing?”
“I wish to step up and try. Did you not say earlier that I ought to find someone to marry as well?”
Bai Cha spoke with a touch of shyness.
Only then did the maid dismiss her extra thoughts.
“Then go ahead, Miss.”
“Alright. You need not wait for me here either—go play on your own for a bit.”
With Bai Cha phrasing it this way, the maid naturally agreed with glee.
Dismissing the maid, Bai Cha walked over, arriving before the table to pick up a writing brush.
She exchanged glances with the few individuals beside her first.
Including the young man standing on the other side of the table, neither more nor less, exactly seven people.
The seven individuals thereupon picked up writing brushes without making a sound.
Everyone possessed at least a rudimentary grasp of holding a calligraphy brush—after all, certain elementary schools taught it on occasion.
As for what the written characters looked like, that remained uncertain.
At any rate, Bai Cha had never practiced.
She barely managed to scribble down five crooked characters: look at the quadrant sign.
Taking the six strips of paper, the young man on the other side of the table reviewed them one by one, a brilliant smile breaking across his face.
“I didn’t expect six people to match my couplet all at once! Since that’s the case, meeting is fate—why don’t we all head along together?”
And so, the seven of them departed from the crowd in silence.
