Chapter 31: “Wife, Wife, Why Aren’t You Answering…”
Feng Xun took the elevator straight down to the underground parking lot.
Unlocking the car, stepping inside, driving out of the garage, and exiting the residential area—the entire sequence was executed with seamless fluency.
Instead of taking the main gates, Feng Xun drove out through the west gate of the complex, following the narrow road outside toward the north before slowly pulling over at an intersection.
This intersection was about a few hundred meters away from the main entrance. From his vantage point, he watched Jian Tang walk out of the front gates, hail a taxi by the curb, and head off toward the east.
Feng Xun drove after him.
There were very few vehicles on the streets in the early morning, so Feng Xun didn’t drive too fast, keeping a steady distance far behind.
As he drove with one hand, he reached into his coat pocket with the other and pulled out a silver-thread mask he had prepared long ago.
The mask was incredibly thin, its material flexible and cool to the touch, resembling a silkworm-silk facial sheet. The moment Feng Xun pressed it against his cheeks, it slowly melted into the surface of his skin like thawing ice and snow.
By the time the mask vanished completely, the man had adopted a brand-new face—a literal, physical “face-change.”
Among task-takers, this kind of face-altering item was an absolute travel necessity, especially when entering dungeons. Aside from the final bosses at the deepest levels of public dungeons, the vast majority of eerie monsters could leave their respective domains. For them, a dungeon was merely a workplace; once their shift was over, they could step out into the world and move around freely.
Eerie monsters inside a dungeon wouldn’t truly die. If a task-taker entered using their real appearance and real name and ended up beating a monster too hard, or pulling off some provocative stunt that left the creature holding a bitter grudge, the task-taker would face the risk of being hunted across dimensions once the monsters clocked out.
If a task-taker died inside a dungeon, the penalty was merely being kicked out of the eerie world, never to return. But if they died anywhere outside a dungeon, it wasn’t a simple matter of being expelled—they would be dead for real.
Feng Xun glanced at the rearview mirror. Reflected in the glass was a thoroughly unremarkable, plain face, the kind that would immediately blend into a crowd without drawing a single eye.
It wasn’t just his face. Because he was using a high-grade mask, his build and voice had also undergone subtle shifts. Though the adjustments were limited, they were more than enough to throw off any recognition.
After a drive of about half an hour, the taxi ahead pulled into the courtyard of a five-star hotel.
From a distance, Feng Xun watched Jian Tang step out of the vehicle and hurry into the hotel lobby.
Feng Xun raised an eyebrow slightly. Coming straight here to pick up the clients?
He smoothly pulled his car over by the curb, changed into a set of clothes he had never worn before while sitting inside, and walked into the hotel lobby five minutes later.
It was currently breakfast time, and a steady stream of guests heading down to eat filtered through the lobby toward the dining lounge on the other side. A few others stood at the front desk with their luggage, checking out. Feng Xun’s gaze swept across the crowd, quickly spotting the person he was looking for.
Jian Tang hadn’t taken the elevator. Instead, he was pacing back and forth in the elevator lobby, glancing at his phone from time to time, unsure whether he was waiting for a person or a message.
Feng Xun didn’t approach him. He scanned the surroundings and noticed a lounge area in the northwest corner of the lobby. It was furnished with several sofas, tables, and chairs, as well as a magazine rack and a coffee machine, provided for guests to relax or sit temporarily.
Pretending to be waiting for someone, Feng Xun walked over to the lounge area and sat down on one of the sofas. From this angle, he could perfectly observe everything happening on Jian Tang’s side.
In truth, his decision to secretly shadow Jian Tang today didn’t stem from suspicion or paranoia; he was simply uneasy.
He could tell that Jian Tang’s attitude toward the clients was strictly professional, bowing his head only out of necessity for his job. However, it was hard to say what kind of attitude those clients had toward Jian Tang, or what their ulterior motives might be.
Jian Tang had mentioned yesterday that today would be the final day of his sightseeing tour with the clients. If those clients—especially that “Mr. Pei”—really harbored any indecent thoughts, they would undoubtedly expose themselves on the final day.
Therefore, he had to keep a close eye on the entire process today—both for Jian Tang’s safety and to see exactly what kind of characters these big clients actually were.
Five minutes passed quickly.
Ten minutes vanished in the blink of an eye.
By the fifteen-minute mark, Feng Xun saw Jian Tang finally leave the elevator lobby and approach the front desk, saying something to the staff.
The front desk receptionist nodded with a smile, picked up the landline to make a quick call, and hung up after a brief exchange. She then spoke a few words to Jian Tang.
Because the boy’s back was turned toward him, Feng Xun couldn’t see his expression at that moment. He only saw Jian Tang’s fists abruptly clench at his sides, before slowly loosening again.
His shoulders slumped as well, wearing a look of deep frustration mixed with utter helplessness.
Feng Xun: “?”
What happened?
Could it be… he was stood up by the clients?
As the thought crossed his mind, he saw the boy suddenly turn around.
The other party paused in place for a few seconds, then walked straight in the direction of the lounge area.
—
Jian Tang was genuinely losing his mind.
They had agreed yesterday that he would come to the hotel to pick them up at seven o’clock. Yet at six-thirty, he had received a barrage of messages in the group chat from the three big shots, demanding to know why he hadn’t arrived yet.
He had rushed to the hotel in a frantic panic, but when he asked for their room numbers, every single one of them went dead silent.
Jian Tang waited in the first-floor lobby for a full fifteen minutes before he finally saw A’nie drop a message in the group.
—[We’re currently getting a hot spring SPA. We’ll come down later.]
Jian Tang: “???”
Who on earth goes for a hot spring SPA first thing in the morning?!
…Well, they weren’t exactly human to begin with.
Jian Tang immediately sent a message asking how long they would take, but the other side went silent again. They were likely in the middle of a treatment that made it inconvenient to check a phone.
Even for a little monster with a temper as gentle as Jian Tang’s, he couldn’t help but feel a bit volatile at this point: When I hadn’t arrived, every single one of you rushed me like crazy. Now that I’m here, you stand me up! Are you guys amazing just because you’re Realm Lords?!
…Well, they actually were amazing.
He could only walk over to the front desk sullenly, asking how long a standard hot spring SPA session at the hotel typically lasted.
The answer he received was: even the shortest service package started at one hour minimum.
…His blood pressure spiked.
Wouldn’t it be so much better to spend this hour slacking off and sleeping in at home!
Moreover, his wife was resting at home today. If he had this free time, he could have spent it keeping his wife company instead!
Jian Tang was thoroughly incensed, but considering the tyrannical might of the three Realm Lords… he silently relaxed his clenched fists.
Whatever.
It was just an hour; he could afford to wait.
Besides, this was already the final day of acting as a tour guide for these big shots. If he just grit his teeth and pushed through, he would see the dawn of liberation!
After successfully placating himself, Jian Tang regained his composure.
He swept his gaze across the lobby, noticed the lounge area in the northwest corner, and headed over.
At this hour, the hotel lobby was bustling with people coming and going, but the lounge area was quiet and peaceful. There was only a single human sitting on a single-seater sofa reading a magazine, presumably waiting for someone as well.
Jian Tang wasn’t rude enough to stare at people continuously. He merely cast a brief glance before… wait, hold on.
He snapped his gaze right back.
He stared at the magazine spread open across the man’s lap.
The pages of this magazine… why were they upside down?
Jian Tang looked in confusion at the clearly inverted magazine, and then at the man who was currently staring down at it.
“…”
To think someone can read a book upside down like that.
As expected, there are truly hidden masters among the human populace.
Jian Tang marveled silently in his heart. Perhaps sensing his gaze, the man who was looking down at the book suddenly raised his head and shot a brief glance at him.
Then, following Jian Tang’s line of sight, the man looked down at the magazine on his own lap.
“…”
The man reached out and silently flipped the magazine around, bringing it to a normal reading angle this time.
Jian Tang: “…”
So he wasn’t a master.
This person had literally just been holding the magazine upside down!
Jian Tang couldn’t hold it in for a moment, letting out a sudden pfft of laughter before quickly clapping a hand over his mouth.
“I’m sorry.” Laughing in someone’s face was truly rude, so he quickly explained in a low voice, “I didn’t mean to.”
Although this person looked perfectly ordinary, for some reason, Jian Tang felt that he carried an intensely fierce and terrifying aura. It couldn’t help but remind him of when he had first met his scary wife—back then, he had been too terrified to even look at his wife’s face, but just sensing his aura had been enough to terrify him.
He hadn’t expected to encounter a second human who was this scary.
Fortunately, this “scary bystander” didn’t seem displeased by his laughter. He merely gave a aloof nod, lowered his head, and continued reading his magazine.
Jian Tang breathed a sigh of relief. He slipped over to the coffee machine in the lounge to pour himself a cup, then sat down on another single-seater sofa, separated from the man by the width of a small coffee table.
Taking a sip of the coffee, Jian Tang winced at the bitterness. He set the cup aside and checked the messages in the group.
The three big shots were perfectly quiet; not a single one uttered a sound. They were probably enjoying their hot spring SPA so much that they had forgotten the world existed.
Bored out of his mind, Jian Tang looked this way and that, and then spent a moment admiring the new ring on his middle finger. Suddenly missing his wife terribly, he opened their chat window.
[Wife, are you there?]
After sending the text message, his finger accidentally brushed against a small button next to the input field. The area where he normally typed text vanished, replaced by a large megaphone icon, accompanied by a prompt that read “Hold to Speak.”
Jian Tang: ?
He hesitantly pressed and held the icon, offering a tentative “Hello, hello?” into the phone.
Releasing his grip, the message displayed as successfully sent—not as text, but as an audio bar.
Jian Tang tapped the audio bar and heard his own voice saying “Hello, hello.”
“!!!”
Jian Tang, who had owned a smartphone for barely twenty-four hours, felt as though the gates to a brand-new world had just swung open. He recalled that when he rode the human buses before, some humans would press their phones and speak sentence by sentence. So this was how that function worked!
Thrilled beyond measure, he immediately began sending voice messages to his wife.
“Wife, wife! Are you there!”
The man sitting opposite suddenly raised his head to glance at him. Intoxicated by his excitement, Jian Tang didn’t notice at all, continuing to send voice messages to his phone, one after another.
“Wife! My new phone can actually send my voice over!”
“Wife, wife, you send one back too. I want to hear your voice.”
“Wife, are you still at home? How are you planning to spend your day off today?”
“Wife, are you busy? Why aren’t you answering me?”
“Wife, wife, wife, talk to me please. I miss you, wuwu, wife…”
The man sitting opposite: “…………”
Taking advantage of the fact that Jian Tang wasn’t paying attention, the man silently pulled a phone out of his pocket. The crushed cracks upon it were clearly visible. He pressed and held the power button, but the screen remained completely black, evidently entirely broken.
He had just ruined his phone last night, and he had left the house in too much of a hurry this morning to have any time to buy a new one.
“…”
The man silently stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
Jian Tang sent several voice messages in a row, but all met with complete silence. This finally caused his initial wave of excitement to gradually cool down.
He felt a bit deflated and disappointed.
When you discovered a fun new feature and wanted to share it with your dearest person immediately, only for the other party to show zero interest—this kind of contrast was truly disheartening.
The boy let out a heavy sigh, the ahoge on his head drooping listlessly.
If he had resembled a lively little puppy just now, happily wagging its tail and circling its master continuously for a head pat, he now looked like a pitiful little pup that couldn’t find its owner, its ears and tail entirely slumped, making anyone who saw him feel bad for him.
Jian Tang stared gloomily at the chat log that had been spammed by his own voice messages. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that the person opposite kept shifting his sitting posture, appearing quite restless.
“?”
He subconsciously raised his head to look. To his surprise, the other party happened to be looking at him too, and their gazes locked.
As if a strange switch had been flipped, the man opposite suddenly surged to his feet, his posture carrying an intimidating momentum.
“!”
Jian Tang was startled, and then he heard the man say abruptly in a harsh voice.
“How much longer are you staying?”
Ah?
The question was far too sudden, and the man’s voice was sharp and rigid. The oncoming pressure made Jian Tang break into a sudden shiver as he stammered out.
“S-Still an hour…”
The moment the words left his mouth, the person opposite turned on his heel and ran, disappearing out of the hotel entrance at what was practically a hundred-meter sprint.
“???”
Jian Tang was completely dazed by the sight: What… what is wrong with this person?
He quickly replayed the man’s abrupt question in his mind…
Ah.
Could it be that the man loathed him to an unbearable extent, which was why he had asked “How much longer are you staying?”
Upon learning that he still had an hour left, the man had completely broken down, fleeing this suffocating environment at lightspeed without a single backward glance?
“…”
Jian Tang sat frozen in his seat for a long time. He slowly tugged at his clothes and sniffed them carefully.
There was no unbearable odor; in fact, he smelled rather nice.
He opened his camera again, inspecting himself in the screen.
There was nothing unbearable about his appearance or outfit either; it was perfectly ordinary and normal.
So… why?
Jian Tang was utterly bewildered.
Why was the man so unwilling to even remain in the same lounge area as him, running away faster than a soul rushing to be reincarnated, as if terrified of catching bad luck.
The more the innocent little monster thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. This was the first time he had encountered such blatant rejection in human society, making him subconsciously begin to doubt himself: Could it be that I’m actually doing terribly somewhere, being annoying without realizing it?
He felt a bit hurt.
“Wife.” He picked up his phone again, sadly confiding his thoughts to the other party, “I think someone dislikes me…”
Fifteen minutes later, the guy who supposedly disliked him came back.
Jian Tang: “???”
The other party sat right back down in his original spot, separated from Jian Tang by the distance of a single table—neither too close nor too far.
After catching Jian Tang’s gaze, the man didn’t make any more bizarre moves. He merely pulled out a phone from his coat with an aloof air, lowered his head, and began to tap away at it.
Jian Tang: “…”
What on earth is wrong with this guy.
Jian Tang’s mind was full of question marks, and his urge to complain was incredibly intense. He couldn’t help but send another message to his wife—though this time, he didn’t dare send a voice message, opting for text instead.
[It seems he doesn’t actually dislike me… he’s just a weirdo.]
[Really so weird.]
Almost at the exact moment this text message was sent, a new message appeared in the chat log that had remained silent all this time.
Wife: [I’m here.]
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