According to Hu Xiu's usual understanding of the term "handsome guy," there probably weren't any truly breathtakingly handsome male creatures in real life. Someone who dressed appropriately, was clean, didn't have hair loss, and had a neat appearance was already quite rare. If a man had looks scoring seventy or eighty points, most would likely know they were handsome. At marriageable age, women would flock to them like water, giving them a confidence that was hard to fade.
Over time, Hu Xiu had stopped expecting much from real-life men and women, feeling that all the handsome guys had been moved to parallel universes to become celebrities. The Creator hadn't left any truly handsome men for real life.
But at this moment, she finally understood—the phrase "love at first sight" existed because there were occasions that warranted it. She hadn't experienced it before simply because she hadn't seen enough of the world, hadn't mingled in the right circles, and—most importantly—had never seen what real actors looked like.
All the treasures were hidden in the drama department!
Zhao Xiaorou gently nudged Hu Xiu with her elbow: "So, what do you think? Isn't he really handsome? This is so much better than a two-hundred-yuan Live Action Role Playing Game."Finance Minister Qin Xiaoyi had already turned around, and even his back was broad-shouldered and long-legged, with a neckline straight out of a comic book."
Most importantly, he was exceptionally upright—a lean young man without a slouch, truly top-notch in demeanor.
From this silhouette, Hu Xiu quickly deduced two things:
First, Qin Xiaoyi might have studied dance;
Second, he was definitely younger than her—by quite a bit.
Half of the mall's basement level had been rented out and decorated to resemble Rong City during the Republican era.
The story background was a train bound for Moscow, stranded in Rong City due to heavy snow, forcing passengers to take refuge in Rongcheng Restaurant.
Coincidentally, all the passengers were high-ranking officials from various northern departments returning from the south.
The lights illuminated the dim stone steps as the iron gate of the station opened. Two orderlies stood at the entrance, saluting Qin Xiaoyi.
At the front desk of Hibiscus City Grand Hotel stood a woman holding a feather fan, who introduced herself as Bai Luoyu, the owner of a department store. She handed Qin Xiaoyi the key to the most expensive room in the hotel.
Next, the actors appeared one by one. Police Chief Ning Zechen insisted on searching Qin Xiaoyi and the players, but Qin Xiaoyi refused. Several high-ranking figures checked into the Central Hotel of Rong City, secretly vying for the position of the city's leader.
Though she should have been focusing solely on Qin Xiaoyi, Hu Xiu's mind was overwhelmed at the moment.
How could all the NPCs be so good-looking and poised, and all get into character in an instant? Even the general playing the corpse was acted by a real person, lying there with his eyes closed the entire time.
If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of his chest, she would have thought she was at a funeral.
Zhao Xiaorou, standing beside her, whispered, "That police chief is really handsome. I'm going to go get a mission and tease him later."
Only then did Hu Xiu realize that buying a ticket didn't just mean watching a show. An immersive Interactive Theater meant that players also had to complete tasks—main quests, side quests, Battle Royale—there was plenty to do in three and a half hours.
Her character script as Yamaguchi Nadako, the Japanese intelligence officer, read:
The leader of Rong City has been assassinated. Finance Minister Qin Xiaoyi, Military Commander Feng Youjin, Police Chief Ning Zechen, and Japanese intelligence officer Lin Qiumei are candidates to become the new leader of Rong City. As Yamaguchi Nadako, a trusted aide of the Japanese general, your tasks are as follows:
Main Quest: Assist Lin Qiumei in becoming the leader;Side Quest: Use the code phrase to find the contact, trade the prohibited opium poison you're carrying to obtain the pearl intended for the Emperor. Trading prohibited items in Rong City is a serious crime—proceed with extreme caution; prevent others from obtaining zirconium ore by purchasing it at any cost and shipping it to Japan. If others acquire it, Rong City could face destruction.
Quite mysterious...
Hu Xiu had never played Live Action Role Playing games before. During her graduate school days, when pulling all-nighters playing Werewolf with classmates, her exaggerated acting and poor lying skills often got her voted out early. The few times she lasted until the end were only because she held functional roles rather than being a werewolf, kept on the field as a tool.
Now she had to change costumes and enter an immersive theater to watch others perform while also acting alongside them. She wondered how many rounds her clumsy acting could sustain.
After receiving five thousand dollars from Lin Qiumei and obtaining her first off-script task—to buy alcohol, drug it, lure Feng Youjin out of his room, and search for evidence of arms dealing in his room—she took the drinks and knocked on the door. But when the door opened, she saw Ning Zechen and Qin Xiaoyi sitting opposite each other on the sofa, both looking up at her simultaneously.
Hu Xiu stood at the doorway holding two glasses of alcohol, completely forgetting what lies to tell or whom to trick into drinking, her mind endlessly debating whether the stylish manga-torn man or the muscular mature man was more handsome.
One wore a fitted white vest over a white shirt, the other a military uniform with two buttons undone at the collar—since when did LARP games involve uniform seduction?
Someone bumped into her from behind—Zhao Xiaorou. Alcohol splattered across the floor. As Hu Xiu knelt digging through her bag for tissues to clean up, the two NPCs remained motionless while Zhao Xiaorou's sweet voice hovered overhead: "Minister Qin, you're here! I've obtained a love letter you wrote to Miss Lin. Shall I read it aloud for you?"
"Officer Ning is also present—how inconvenient. If you want this silenced, why not pay ten thousand to buy it back..."
Damn, the audacity of a married woman flirting with NPCs—you had to admire the skill.
While kneeling, Hu Xiu spotted a folded piece of paper under the cabinet. Fortune favors the bold. She secretly stuffed it into her bag, clutched the empty glass, and bolted. Returning to Miss Lin's room, Miss Lin asked: "Did they drink the alcohol?"
"No..."
"Did you obtain the item?"
"Yes..."
"Managing to get it without using the drink to lure him out—Miss Nadeshiko is quite skilled." The actress playing Miss Lin winked and pulled out ten thousand dollars from her bag as a reward.
Hu Xiu thought of Zhao Xiaorou's superb acting and suddenly felt motivated: "A woman's knees hold no gold—if you want things done, just be willing to kneel."
She strode out triumphantly, exchanged code phrases with another unfamiliar player, and offloaded the prohibited items.
Feeling weightless, Hu Xiu walked with renewed energy, but after waiting endlessly, the player who exchanged codes never returned the pearl. Strange.
After circling the city three times and gambling a few rounds at the casino, she finally realized: Qin Xiaoyi had warned before entering the city—never trust anyone around you.
She'd been scammed!
The first round had already ended. Players gathered in the ballroom when suddenly a party emblem was discovered on Minister Qin Xiaoyi. In Rong City, carrying a party emblem meant imprisonment—several military police directly dragged Qin Xiaoyi away.
Watching Qin Xiaoyi's panicked expression and then glancing at Zhao Xiaorou, Hu Xiu felt her expression seemed... triumphant.
When they saw Minister Qin again, the military police threw him to the ground. His clothes were torn and bloodied—beaten unconscious.Ning Zechen kicked him awake and hauled him up. The beaten Qin Xiaoyi looked somewhat provocatively aggrieved: "Ning Zechen, you know perfectly well whether I'm a ghost or not. Everyone here knows it's actually you."
After speaking, he lightly spat toward Ning Zechen's face. Hu Xiu's heart raced wildly—where did they find this handsome guy? Not only did he have a captivating face, but he was also playing the sickly sweet role. Knowing he was handsome yet carelessly exuding charm was nothing short of outrageous.
Before she could process it, the second round had already begun. This round had only one main objective: make money. By helping Lin Qiumei secure the supervisor position, they would gain an extra "knife" to eliminate targets in the third round.
She still hadn't retrieved her pearl, and now she urgently needed to obtain the zirconium ore. Standing at the crossroads of Rong City, Hu Xiu felt frustrated—her real life was tough, and even playing games wasn't going smoothly.
And it was all because she was too foolish. Truly, my fate is mine to master, not heaven's.
She had no choice but to tough it out. She found the player who had taken her contraband items and persistently pestered them for the pearl, bothering them so much they couldn't complete their tasks. Eventually, they spent ten thousand at the black market to hand her the pearl before running off.
Using the twenty thousand she'd won gambling at the casino, Hu Xiu went to an information informant to ask who the ore holder was. The information was ambiguous. After questioning several suspicious players with no success, she realized the informant had deceived her—players couldn't be trusted, and NPCs couldn't be trusted either!
Hu Xiu really hated being lied to. She marched over to the NPC informant Li Mazi, snatched his sunglasses, and ran.
The actor playing Li Mazi naturally looked like a scoundrel and acted the part: "Miss Yamaguchi, I've told you everything I know. Why are you so angry?"
Furious, Hu Xiu turned back, put the sunglasses on herself—perched halfway down her nose—and said, "I like you, is that okay?"
After saying this, she turned around and bumped right into Qin Xiaoyi, who had just been released from the police station.
Hu Xiu felt the embarrassment of having confessed to the wrong person; regret burned from her heart to the tips of her hair.
The other party merely steadied her shoulders to prevent her from falling, silently stepped aside, and left.
Minister Qin had been wrongly arrested and had changed back into his white shirt, his retreating figure seeming to carry a hint of anger.
Hu Xiu stared blankly at his back until Li Mazi snatched back the sunglasses, teasing with a laugh, "Miss Yamaguchi, you and Minister Qin had a past. Don't you remember needing to discuss important matters with him?"
The plot had to be reminded by Li Mazi. Hu Xiu checked the script and indeed found a note: If you need information about the zirconium ore, you can seek help from Finance Minister Qin Xiaoyi when necessary.
Knocking on the door of Room 301 at the end of the corridor, she found Qin Xiaoyi putting on his suit vest in the room.
His arm-spreading movement was imposing. The vest settled on him like a tightening embrace, outlining his slender waist and back along with smooth hip curves.
When he turned around, Qin Xiaoyi was already in character again, seemingly jealous because of her earlier "I like you" remark.
Hu Xiu's breath caught in her throat as she stammered, "The script says... to have me come find you..."
Immediately, she mentally slapped herself. Before entering, she had planned to say: "Minister Qin, given our past relationship, if you tell me the secret of the zirconium ore, don't share it with anyone else."
She hadn't managed to say any of it, resorting to "the script says..." No wonder she couldn't even pass the drama club auditions during her graduate school interviews.Clearly, Qin Xiaoyi was also taken aback upon hearing this, improvising a reply: "So the story between us was merely a script you meticulously crafted."
Now it was Hu Xiu's turn to be at a loss for words. Blushing, she stole a glance at him—Qin Xiaoyi with his long, curled lashes, a tall and straight nose, eyes filled with emotion, and a faint, fleeting smile of disappointment at the corners of his lips. He rose to his feet, bracing his hands on his knees: "For the sake of our past affection, I'll give this information only to you. Had you arrived a moment later, this clue would have belonged to someone else.
However, this is the last time I'll do anything for you. Once you step out this door, there will be no place for you in Qin Xiaoyi's heart anymore."
What kind of cheesy romance drama lines were these? If she had heard them in a TV show, she might have scoffed in disdain.
But here, alone in close quarters with a breathtakingly handsome man who was treating her like the female lead, delivering his lines with deep emotion in an incredibly magnetic voice, his gaze piercing straight into her pupils, pouring both tenderness and pain into her heart—
Hu Xiu felt as if a string of five hundred firecrackers had gone off inside her, the explosion leaving her nose stuffy and ears ringing. Before her eyes, fireworks seemed to blaze across the sky, dazzling and overwhelming.
Qin Xiaoyi waved the envelope in front of her: "Take this letter, and please leave."
And just like that, the romantic scene concluded. The sounds outside the room faded away, as if all had fallen silent. Hu Xiu slowly stood up, feeling as heartbroken as if she had just gone through a breakup, and with great effort, she made her way to the door. For a moment, she struggled to distinguish between dream and reality.
As Qin Xiaoyi gradually disappeared through the crack of the door, Hu Xiu, after gathering her thoughts for a long while, remembered that he was still injured and blurted out: "Are you alright?"
Qin Xiaoyi didn't even lift his head: "I'm fine..."
After obtaining the information about the Zirconium Ore, Hu Xiu quickly located the general's former subordinate, exchanged all the money she had for the ore, and sent it off at the department store, receiving a receipt for fifty thousand in return.
On the second night, the election began. The money pooled together at their table amounted to only one hundred and fifty thousand—a mere fraction compared to the earnings of the other players.
In the end, Qin Xiaoyi emerged as the winner. He stood up, first had Ning Zechen, who had framed him, imprisoned, then drew his gun and aimed it at Feng Youjin. Lin Qiumei stepped forward to shield Feng Youjin, calling him "brother" as large tears rolled down her face. The players around murmured in awe, "Wow, she really is an actress—she can cry on command."
But Hu Xiu couldn't take her eyes off Qin Xiaoyi. She watched the lonely Qin Xiaoyi force Feng Youjin to take his own life and reduce Lin Qiumei to weeping on the ground. The final spotlight on the stage illuminated only him.
He took money from his pocket, scattering it in the air, then pulled out rose petals and tossed them before himself. Some petals landed on his face, sliding from the corner of his mouth down to the ground.
He was smiling. Even as the curtain fell and eerie, terrifying escape music began to play, he was still smiling.
In this lonely ending, he had gained power and possessed wealth, but he had not won the love of anyone.
The third round began. The lights went out completely, and players screamed as they fled in all directions. Hu Xiu was jostled and tossed around the venue, the terrifying background music growing louder and louder. There was nowhere for her to escape.
In the darkness, she bumped into someone. Her intuition told her it was Qin Xiaoyi, who hadn't yet had the chance to leave the stage.
His body was warm even through his shirt, but the hand that protected her was cold.
His slender fingers tightened around hers, leading Hu Xiu toward the light. In the darkness, he whispered softly, "Be careful. Try to hide in corners, not in rooms—you'll have no way to escape."
With that, he vanished. The one who ended up protecting her was Lin Qiumei, who was not in Qin Xiaoyi's group.Hu Xiu couldn't remember how she had been eliminated. In the Battle Royale environment, she was as vulnerable as a white rabbit and was quickly knocked out of the game, yet the words "remembering our past affection" and "don't stay in the room, you'll have no escape route" still echoed in her ears.
Which player ultimately won didn't matter to her. During the curtain call exit, Qin Xiaoyi, as the victorious Non-Player Character, stood at Rong City's main gate seeing players off. His final line was: "Humans die for wealth, birds perish for food. I am Qin Xiaoyi - possessing wealth but no sentiment. Everyone, see you next time on Snowpiercer."
As Rong City's gates closed, the three and a half hours - 210 minutes - passed in the blink of an eye.
In the post-game debriefing room, players were still asking about unfinished plotlines. Zhao Xiaorou nudged Hu Xiu: "What's wrong? Feeling disappointed about not winning the Battle Royale? Don't bring your competitive spirit into games."
"That's not it, I..."
"What then? Were you too focused on completing tasks to check out the handsome guys? Then you basically played for nothing.
Did you see that Ning Zechen? So sexy. And Qin Xiaoyi - devastatingly handsome. Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Hu Xiu truly hadn't heard. She only felt that the moment Rong City's gates closed, she had experienced heartbreak.
That lonely Qin Xiaoyi who scattered roses all over the ground and held her hand - his lingering fragrance remained in her palm.
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