The Fallen's Guide - chapter 12

In the middle of the night, Tang Nian woke up with a sudden palpitation, her heart feeling uncomfortable.

The seventy-two-hour extension of her life was coming to an end. It was the game reminding her that she should enter the next stage of her journey.

After the doctor finished his rounds and left, she quietly took out her phone.

She opened the game. The Temple map had turned gray, indicating it was locked by the game system and could not be entered.

She tried tapping it twice, and a small dialog box popped up on the screen.

“God has descended, this map is temporarily sealed.”

God has descended?

Tang Nian’s attention quickly shifted away from this line, because beside it, two new maps had lit up.

One was called Thorn Castle, and the other Virus Mutation.

Different maps corresponded to different Mission side quests. Before opening the map, Tang Nian could not see the Mission content.

She chose Thorn Castle, which seemed relatively safer.

At least an Ancient Castle was inhabitable, much safer than a virus.

Her experience in the first map was a blank in her mind; her memory had been erased.

It didn’t seem that important.

“Loading…
Generating character…
Character about to go online.”

The music reached her ears before the visuals.

“Ding-”

“Loading complete, please start the game.”

Dazzling, brilliant light flowed across her eyelids. Tang Nian opened her eyes and had already entered the “Thorn Castle” map.

It was a banquet.

The wind was strong. On a high platform not far away, musicians in classical attire played music. In the manor, elegantly dressed people spun and mingled, and the sounds of clinking glasses and laughter could be heard.

She stood alone on the terrace, dressed revealingly, a cigarette between her fingers, and a kiss mark on her collarbone.

The owner of this body led a chaotic life.

Tang Nian tossed away the cigarette, swapped the red wine in her hand for a glass of iced water, refused the Male Servant who tried to entwine around her like a snake, and walked out of the dazzling hall.

But she got lost going downstairs.

This Ancient Castle was simply too large.

Feeling her way, she arrived at what seemed to be a servants’ prep area. Several tall carts were parked at the back door of the banquet, covered with cloths.

Not far away, a few men in servant uniforms were smoking.

The ground was dirty. Tang Nian lifted her skirt as she walked past, when suddenly she heard faint moaning sounds from under the cloth.

Like a cat’s cry.

She took two steps forward, and the sound became clearer. Her skirt seemed to be caught by something, unable to move.

Looking back, a pale, slender hand reached out from under the cloth, clutching the hem of her skirt.

The knuckles were red, and the wrist bore fading bruises from being bound.

Abused, yet alluring.

“…Help…”

A hoarse, weak voice came from inside.

Tang Nian stopped.

“Please…help…”

She crouched down, listening carefully, and finally realized the person was begging passersby for help.

Was there actually a living person locked in the cage?

After a moment’s hesitation, Tang Nian lifted the heavy edge of the cloth. Some light seeped in from her crouched position, but the figure inside seemed to fear the light, flashing white and shrinking back into the shadows.

It was someone very timid, pleading for help, locked in a cage.

Tang Nian hesitated.

This was a game; she shouldn’t be moved by pity.

But as she let go of the cloth and tried to leave, she saw that the hand covered in red marks still clung to her skirt, like grasping at a lifeline.

“I’m sorry, I can’t save you.”

Because of the lighting, she couldn’t see the person hiding in the darkness, but that person could surely see her clearly.

Thinking of the hoarse, weak voice, she handed her glass of water through the bars.

The person didn’t approach for a long time.

She spoke gently, “It’s clean, I haven’t drunk from it.”

Only then did the hand let go of her skirt and reach for the cup she offered.

The process was extremely slow, like a stray cat hurt by humans, unsure whether to trust a stranger showing kindness.

Cautiously, carefully, the person took the cup from her.

Their fingers accidentally brushed hers, and Tang Nian’s arm broke out in goosebumps.

So cold, cold as if bloodless.

The cup was taken.

In the darkness, half of the person’s jaw was faintly illuminated.

Their jelly-like, moist tongue gently licked the surface of the water, then, unable to wait, tilted their head back and gulped it down.

The glass pressed against their lips.

Their lips looked as if they’d been bitten hard, swollen and red. The ice water, swallowed too quickly, dripped down their jaw, moistening their wounded lips.

Not far away, several Male Servants finished their cigarettes and seemed about to come over.
Tang Nian stood up, and the sound of drinking water from inside the cage immediately stopped.

Sensing that she was about to leave.

The person inside seemed to move forward a little.

The cup fell inside the cage, water spilling everywhere. Slender, injured fingers gripped the iron bars, as if watching her.

“I’m leaving now,” Tang Nian informed him.

Before she walked far, she heard a voice from inside the cage.

“…Thank you, don’t be sorry…”

–

She finally walked back to the banquet hall.

The game finished loading, and a brief information panel popped up before her eyes.

Tang Nian’s current identity was that of a pitiful young girl who had just married a Count in his seventies, with one foot stepping into the extravagant upper class, invited by the Nobles to a private party.

And the host of this party was Tang Nian’s ‘stepdaughter’, Rose, the Duke’s daughter.

The lighting in the manor was dazzling yet dim, smoke drifting in and out of sight.

Masked men and women walked along the sides of the grand viewing platform. The spiral staircase led down to a lavishly decorated hall.

Several beautiful young men were dressed in suggestive Male Servant uniforms, the fabric so scant it barely covered their essential parts.

It was even more vulgar than being completely naked.

They were all expensive playthings, clearly priced.

Heavy Chains bound their hands and feet, forcing them into kneeling positions, like delicate flowers waiting to be picked, satisfying the Nobles’ curiosity and desire for novelty.

The guests’ hands roamed freely over them, groping and toying with them as if deliberately humiliating, watching their reactions with great interest.

But today’s main event was not these.

Halfway through the banquet, the noble Count’s daughter finally arrived, fashionably late, surrounded by Attendants and guests.

The Mission had not yet been issued, but Tang Nian’s intuition told her that this game was related to this much-anticipated Count’s daughter.

The stepdaughter was visibly excited, followed by several Attendants. As soon as she entered the hall, she announced to the gathering guests that she had brought back something good from the auction.

People erupted in excited yet suppressed murmurs.

Tang Nian approached calmly, descending the spiral staircase.

The character profile showed that the Count’s daughter extremely disliked Tang Nian, and every time she saw her, she would spare no effort to humiliate her, saying that Tang Nian’s marriage to her father had tainted the air of their manor.

Rose was impatiently pushing away the Male Servants vying for her favor.

No longer paying attention to these once-beloved beautiful youths, she ordered the Attendants to bring out tonight’s grand finale.

The inner door was opened.

A metal cage, two people tall, was pushed out from behind the door, covered with heavy velvet, making one wonder what kind of golden canary was hidden inside.

This was what Rose had bought at the famous Iris Auction for a hefty price.

Tang Nian found the cage somewhat familiar.

As if she had just seen it.

“Uncover it.”

Taking a sip of red wine handed to her by an Attendant, Rose impatiently commanded.

Under the curious gazes of the crowd, the Attendant lifted the heavy drape from the cage.

The air fell silent.

Only the sound of held or barely suppressed breaths remained.

Sitting on a single sofa at the edge, Tang Nian had a good view.

She straightened slightly, revealing a look of astonishment.

Inside the cage was not a golden canary, but a beautiful young man, wearing nothing but a strip of white silk.

It was a decadent, fragile beauty that made one want to ravage him at will.

The youth was very pale.

He crouched in a corner of the cage, his back rising and falling slightly, breathing rapidly.

A bit of blood stained his tightly shut eyelids, his lashes thick and long, trembling violently like butterfly wings trapped in a spider’s web.

He looked utterly tormented, his skin as white as milk tinged with a faint red, covered in many marks from being whipped.

Like a beautiful bubble that would burst at a touch, making one worry that even a slightly heavier breath would shatter this beautiful illusion.

For a moment, even the air was thick with Greed.

Such a dazzlingly pure youth was the easiest to awaken the restless desires deep in people’s hearts.

“Look! What do you think!”

Rose’s face was twisted with excitement.

The sound of heels striking the tiles rang out one after another. The spectators, as if possessed, stared fixedly at the youth in the cage, drawn in by the scent of flesh, approaching like a pack of drooling Hyenas.

Tang Nian propped her chin, watching from the sidelines.

What a coincidence.

She hadn’t expected the owner of those scarred hands to be so stunningly beautiful.

Suddenly, the youth in the cage looked up.

He glanced around, and unexpectedly met her gaze.

A layer of gloomy mist quickly welled up in his gray-violet eyes.