Chapter 2

Focusing Only on Completing Tasks Without Admiring Handsome Guys? Might as Well Have Played Alone 

The most striking thing about him was how upright he stood. A slender young man who didn’t slouch—truly the epitome of elegance.

From that single glimpse of his back, Hu Xiu quickly deduced two things:

1. Qin Xiaoyi probably had some dance training.

2. He was definitely younger than her—by quite a margin.

Half of the B1 floor in the mall had been rented and transformed into a Republican-era version of Rongcheng. 

The story’s backdrop was a train bound for Moscow, stranded in Rongcheng due to heavy snow, forcing the passengers to stay at a local hotel. 

Coincidentally, the train’s passengers happened to be high-ranking officials from various propaganda departments in the north, returning from the south. 

As the iron doors of the train station opened under the dim light illuminating the stone steps, two soldiers saluted Qin Xiaoyi. 

At the front desk of the Rongcheng Grand Hotel stood a woman holding a feather fan, introducing herself as Bai Luoyu, the owner of a department store. She handed Qin Xiaoyi the key to the hotel’s most luxurious room. 

One by one, the actors appeared. Police Chief Ning Zechen tried to forcibly search Qin Xiaoyi and the players but was rebuffed. Several key figures with significant power moved into the Rongcheng Grand Hotel, engaging in a covert struggle for dominance. 

Hu Xiu had intended to keep her eyes glued to Qin Xiaoyi, but her mind was overwhelmed by everything happening around her.

Every NPC was ridiculously good-looking, their acting flawless. Even the general who played a corpse was portrayed by a real person, lying there with his eyes closed the entire time. 

If it weren’t for the faint rise and fall of his stomach, Hu Xiu would’ve thought she was at an actual funeral. 

Standing next to her, Zhao Xiaorou whispered, “That police chief is seriously handsome. Later, I’m going to take a mission just so I can flirt with him.” 

Only then did Hu Xiu snap back to reality. Buying a ticket wasn’t just about watching the show. In an immersive interactive theater, players had to complete tasks—main storylines, side quests, even battle royale scenarios. Three and a half hours packed with objectives to accomplish. 

The character Hu Xiu played, Japanese intelligence agent Yamaguchi Fuko, had the following in her script:

Story Background:

The leader of Rongcheng has been assassinated. Four candidates are in contention to take over: Finance Minister Qin Xiaoyi, Military Commander Feng Youjin, Police Chief Ning Zechen, and Japanese Intelligence Liaison Lin Qiumei.

Main Task: Assist Lin Qiumei in becoming the new leader.

Side Tasks:

- Use a secret code to locate your contact, trade the opium in your possession for pearls intended as a tribute to the Emperor. Trading contraband in Rongcheng is a serious crime, so proceed with caution.

- Prevent others from obtaining zirconium ore. Spend any amount necessary to buy it and send it back to Japan. If others acquire it, Rongcheng might face destruction.

It all sounded rather intense. 

Hu Xiu had never played a murder mystery game before. During her graduate school years, she occasionally stayed up all night playing Werewolf with classmates. Her over-the-top acting and inability to lie often got her voted out early. The rare times she lasted till the end were because she wasn’t a werewolf but a utility role, kept around as a tool by the others. 

Now, dressed up and placed in an immersive theater, watching others perform while having to act herself, Hu Xiu doubted her mediocre acting skills would hold up for more than a few rounds. 

Her first task came from Lin Qiumei: with 5,000 yuan in hand, she was told to drug Feng Youjin by spiking his drink, lure him out of his room, and search his quarters for evidence of illegal arms deals. 

She took the wine and knocked on Feng Youjin’s door, only to open it and find Ning Zechen and Qin Xiaoyi sitting on the sofa, both looking up at her simultaneously. 

Standing in the doorway holding two glasses of wine, Hu Xiu completely forgot what to say, who to deceive, or what to do next. Her mind could only fixate on one question: Which is more handsome—a rakishly suave playboy or a rugged, muscular man? 

One was in a tailored white shirt and vest, the other in a military uniform with two buttons undone at the collar. 

Fine, it’s just a murder mystery game—why throw in uniform temptation too? 

Before she could act, Zhao Xiaorou bumped into her from behind, causing the wine to spill all over the floor. Hu Xiu knelt down, rummaging through her bag for tissues to clean up the mess. The two NPCs remained motionless while Zhao Xiaorou’s sweet voice echoed above her: 

“Minister Qin, here you are. I happen to have a love letter you wrote to Miss Lin. Would you like me to read it aloud?” 

“Police Chief Ning is here too. This is a bit awkward. If you’d like me to keep quiet, how about buying my silence for 10,000 yuan?” 

Damn. The skill level of a married woman flirting with NPCs is truly on another level. 

Still kneeling, Hu Xiu spotted a folded piece of paper under the cabinet. What luck! She discreetly slipped it into her bag, clutched the empty wine glasses, and bolted out of the room. 

Back in Lin Qiumei’s room, Lin asked, “Did you get them to drink?” 

“No…” 

“Did you find anything?” 

“Yes…” 

“Well, not bad, Fuko. Getting results without spiking the drinks takes skill.” The actress playing Lin threw her a flirtatious glance and handed her a reward of 10,000 yuan in cash from her prop stash. 

Thinking of Zhao Xiaorou’s flawless performance, Hu Xiu suddenly felt emboldened. “For a woman, there’s no gold beneath her knees—kneeling is how you get things done.” 

With that, she strode out confidently, exchanged secret codes with another player, and unloaded her contraband. 

Feeling a rare sense of accomplishment, Hu Xiu was practically floating on air. But after waiting for ages, the player she had exchanged codes with still hadn’t returned her pearls. Suspicious. 

She circled the town three times, gambled a bit at the casino, and finally remembered something Qin Xiaoyi had said before entering the city: 

“Don’t trust anyone around you.”

She’d been conned! 

The first round ended. Players gathered in the ballroom, only for a twist to be revealed: Qin Xiaoyi had a party emblem on him. In Rongcheng, possession of a party emblem meant imprisonment. Soldiers dragged Qin Xiaoyi away on the spot. 

Watching Qin Xiaoyi’s panicked expression and then glancing at Zhao Xiaorou, Hu Xiu couldn’t shake the feeling that Zhao’s smirk was one of… triumph. 

The next time she saw Qin Xiaoyi, he was thrown to the ground by the soldiers, his clothes torn and bloodied, unconscious from the beating. 

Ning Zechen kicked him awake and dragged him upright. The battered Qin Xiaoyi, with a slightly dazed but alluring expression, said, “Ning Zechen, you and I both know who the real traitor is. Everyone here knows—it’s you.” 

With that, he spat lightly in Ning’s face. 

Hu Xiu’s heart raced uncontrollably. Where had they found this actor? It was one thing to be born with such an enchanting face, but to also play the role of a tortured antihero so seductively—it was almost criminal. 

Before she could recover, the second round began. This time, the goal was simple: make money, help Lin Qiumei secure leadership, and prepare for the third round where the knives would come out. 

Her pearl still hadn’t been retrieved, and now she had to hurry to get the zirconium ore. Hu Xiu stood at the crossroads of Rongcheng, feeling that nothing was going right in her real life, and even in the game, things weren’t going well.

And it was all her own stupidity causing this; truly, her fate was in her own hands, not controlled by destiny.

She had no choice but to grit her teeth and keep playing. She found the player who had taken her contraband, and shamelessly pestered them for the pearl, bothering the player so much that they couldn’t complete their tasks. In the end, she used 10,000 yuan at the black market to get the pearl, grabbed it, and ran off.

With the 20,000 yuan she earned from gambling at the casino, Hu Xiu approached an informant to inquire about who held the ore, but the information was vague. After questioning several suspicious players, she realized she had been deceived—players couldn’t be trusted, and NPCs couldn’t either!

Hu Xiu really hated being tricked. She walked up to the informant NPC, Li Mazi, and ripped off his sunglasses before running away.

Li Mazi’s actor looked like a rascal and played the role with a cheeky attitude. “Miss Yamaguchi, I’ve told you everything I needed to, where does all this anger come from?”

Fuming with rage, Hu Xiu turned around and put the sunglasses on her own face, the frames resting halfway down her nose. “Do you like me? Is that alright?”

After saying this, she turned around, only to crash right into Qin Shaoyi, who had just been released from the police station.

Hu Xiu felt an awkward sense of having confessed to the wrong person, and regret burned from her heart to the tips of her hair.

Qin Shaoyi merely steadied her by the shoulder to prevent her from falling, and silently moved aside, walking away.

Minister Qin had been wrongly arrested and was now back in his white shirt, his back suggesting a hint of anger.

Hu Xiu stood frozen, staring at his back, and then noticed that Li Mazi had snatched the sunglasses back. With a laugh, he said, “Miss Yamaguchi, didn’t you once have a past with Minister Qin? Still got something to discuss with him, have you forgotten?”

It was Li Mazi’s reminder that brought Hu Xiu back to the plot. She glanced at the script, and sure enough, there was a hint: “If you need information about the zirconium ore, you can ask Finance Minister Qin Shaoyi for help.”

She knocked on the door of Room 301 at the end of the corridor, where Qin Shaoyi was putting on a vest.

His arms spread wide in an elegant motion, and as the vest settled onto his body, it fit him like a tight embrace, outlining his slender waist and smooth hip line.

When he turned around, Qin Shaoyi seemed to enter character again, as if he were jealous about her earlier confession.

Hu Xiu’s breath hitched in her throat as she stammered, “The script says, I… I should come to you...”

She mentally slapped herself. The line she had planned before entering was, “Minister Qin, you and I once had a love affair, the secret of the zirconium ore, if you tell me, don’t tell anyone else.”

She couldn’t say a single word of it. No wonder she never passed the auditions for the drama club back in grad school.

Obviously, Qin Shaoyi was stunned by her statement, and he responded on the spot, “So our past story was just a script you carefully planned?”

Now it was Hu Xiu’s turn to be speechless. She blushed and stole a glance at Qin Shaoyi, whose nose was tall, his lashes long, and his mouth curling into a bittersweet smile. He rose from the chair and spoke, “Since we had past feelings, I’ll give you this information. If you had come a moment later, this clue would have been someone else’s.”

“But this will be the last time I do something for you. After I leave this door, there will be no place for you in my heart anymore.”

Such melodramatic lines were something you’d scoff at in a TV drama.

But when it’s a stunningly handsome man speaking them to you, as if you’re the lead in his love story, with a voice full of magnetism, eyes that pierce your soul, and emotions of tenderness and pain flooding into your heart—

Hu Xiu felt like fireworks exploded in her chest, ringing in her ears, her vision blurry with the dazzling light.

Qin Shaoyi waved an envelope in front of her. “Take this letter, then please leave.”

The romance scene had concluded. Outside the room, all sounds disappeared, and Hu Xiu felt like she had just experienced a breakup. Slowly, she got to her feet and made her way to the door, struggling to tell the difference between reality and a dream.

As Qin Shaoyi disappeared into the crack of the door, Hu Xiu suddenly remembered his injuries and muttered, “Are you alright?”

Qin Shaoyi didn’t even look up. “I’m fine...”

After receiving the information about the zirconium ore, Hu Xiu quickly found the general’s old subordinate and used all her money to buy the ore, then sent it off through the department store, receiving a receipt for 50,000 yuan.

The next night, the election began, and even after pooling the money together, she only had 150,000 yuan. Compared to other players’ earnings, it was just a drop in the ocean.

The winner was Qin Shaoyi. He stood up, first sending the man who framed him, Ning Zechen, to prison, then pulling out a gun and aiming it at Feng Youjin. Lin Qiurui stepped forward to protect Feng Youjin, calling him ‘Brother Feng,’ with tears rolling down her face. The other players exclaimed, “Wow, she’s really an actress—she can cry on command!”

Meanwhile, Hu Xiu couldn’t take her eyes off Qin Shaoyi. She watched as he made Feng Youjin commit suicide and forced Lin Qiurui to collapse in sorrow. The final spotlight on the stage shone only on him.

From his pocket, he pulled out money and waved it in the air, then took out rose petals, letting them fall in front of him. Some petals landed on his face, slipping from the corner of his mouth to the ground.

He smiled, even as the final scene played out, with the eerie music of a deadly chase ringing in the background. He kept smiling.

In the end, he gained power and wealth, but not anyone’s love.

The third round began. All the lights went out, and players screamed and scattered. Hu Xiu was bumped and spun around in the chaos. The terrifying music grew louder, and she had nowhere to escape.

She bumped into someone in the darkness and instinctively realized it was Qin Shaoyi, who hadn’t yet exited the game.

His body, warm even through his shirt, shielded her with his cold hand.

His long fingers gripped hers, guiding her toward the light, and in the darkness, he whispered, “Be careful, try to hide around the corner, don’t stay in the room, there’ll be no way out.”

Then he disappeared.

The one protecting her now was Lin Qiurui, who wasn’t part of Qin Shaoyi’s group.

Hu Xiu forgot how she died. In this escape scene, she was as weak as a rabbit, and soon she was eliminated, but the words “I once had feelings for you” and “Don’t stay in the room, there’ll be no way out” still echoed in her ears.

In the end, it didn’t matter who won for Hu Xiu. As the NPC winner, Qin Shaoyi stood at the gate of Rongcheng, sending the players out of the city. His final line was, “People die for wealth, birds die for food, I am Qin Shaoyi, a man of wealth without affection. See you next time on the Snowpiercer.”

The gate of Rongcheng closed, and the three and a half hours, 210 minutes, passed in the blink of an eye.

In the review room, the players were still asking about the plot they hadn’t completed. Zhao Xiaorou nudged Hu Xiu. “What’s wrong? Didn’t win the Battle Royale? Feeling down? Don’t let your competitiveness get in the way of the game.”

“It’s not that, I...”

“Come on, what’s up? Were you too busy with tasks to notice the handsome guys? If that’s the case, then you’ve just been playing in vain. Did you see that Ning Zechen? So sexy. And Qin Shaoyi, he’s just devastatingly handsome. Hey, are you even listening to me?”

Hu Xiu hadn’t really been listening. She only felt that, the moment the gates of Rongcheng closed, she had lost her heart.

That Qin Shaoyi, who had melancholically scattered the rose petals and then held her hand, left the lingering fragrance of the petals in her palm.