Qu Ling's troubled expression didn't fade, but she could only nod and agree. When in Rome, do as the Romans do; she couldn't afford to be picky about the process right now.
Bai Ci stepped forward and stood beside Shen Tan. She didn't completely follow the method the village chief had instructed. Instead, using an orchid finger gesture she wasn't very accustomed to, she pinched the middle of the veil and lifted it upward.
This way, even if some accident occurred, her subconscious reaction under this unfamiliar posture would be to let go, rather than accidentally ripping the entire veil off.
She lifted it just enough to leave a gap, allowing Qu Ling's hand to reach inside and work.
“You can start now,” Bai Ci prompted softly.
Qu Ling immediately adjusted her focus, pulled out her personal makeup tools, and half-crouched in front of Shen Tan. Starting with a soft powder puff, she carefully slipped it through the gap in the veil.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the faint rustling of makeup tools.
The village chief and Shen Li watched them apply the makeup. Before long, the two grown men began nodding off, getting drowsy from watching.
“Mm, not bad. That's exactly how it should be done. Young people really have nimble hands,” the village chief said, nodding with satisfaction.
“You two keep at it. Uncle Li and I are going downstairs to have some tea. We'll be right downstairs, so just call out if you need anything. We'll hear you.”
Seeing that both girls were following the rules, the village chief let go of most of his worries.
He couldn't sit still anymore, and neither could Shen Li beside him, whose hand kept reaching for his tobacco pipe.
Finding an excuse, the two of them headed downstairs to drink tea and smoke.
Quiet descended upon the room once more.
Qu Ling clearly had no intention of letting this silence last. Having finally waited out the two old men, she didn't want to waste this rare opportunity to be alone with the bride NPC.
As for the fact that having Bai Ci there meant it wasn't strictly “alone,” that didn't matter. Bai Ci was just another NPC to her.
Her core purpose on this trip was to search for clues. The Shen Tan before her was the central bride NPC of this Honey Rite, and very likely one of the key breakthroughs for the entire instance.
If she missed this chance for close-up conversation, getting information later would be incredibly difficult.
None of the players in this instance were easy to deal with. To seize the initiative and maintain the upper hand in any future collaborations, she had to grasp clues that others couldn't get.
Qu Ling kept working without pause, adopting a warm, friendly tone as if making casual small talk, deliberately lowering her posture to strike up a conversation. “Little Sister Shen Tan, you look quite young. Are you still in school?”
Sitting upright in the chair, Shen Tan's body stiffened slightly. After a two-second silence, a soft response came through the hazy veil. She made no other movements.
Her voice was still flat, with little fluctuation. “Yes. I'm in university.”
It was aloof and indifferent, clearly indicating she didn't want to talk much.
In university? Bai Ci pondered. This mountain village didn't look like a place where one could attend school. To have made it all the way to university, she must have spent most of her time in the city.
Seeing that Qu Ling's conversational pace was going quite well, she remained silent, refraining from interrupting and disrupting the other woman's rhythm of extracting information.
She simply maintained her awkward orchid-finger posture and kept the veil held up.
Unfazed by Shen Tan's cold attitude, Qu Ling continued smoothly, deliberately trying to narrow the distance between them.
“What a coincidence. We have a student in our team as well. She's doing an internship. You two would probably get along.”
Though her relationship with Xie Lai was average, that didn't stop Qu Ling from bringing her up as a conversational stepping stone.
“You have such a clean and gentle aura. Are you a liberal arts or art major?”
She deliberately threw out a broad guess to coax Shen Tan into speaking more. As long as the other party was willing to respond, she could always piece together useful information from snippets of words.
Shen Tan didn't reply immediately, as if even speaking was an exhausting chore.
The air in the room felt stagnant, so quiet that the faint rustle of the wind outside was clearly audible.
“No.”
Only after a few seconds did she give a soft, brief reply, offering nothing more.
Qu Ling's heart sank slightly.
She was too difficult to talk to.
Both attempts at conversation had fallen flat. She couldn't tell if this bride NPC was overly guarded or just a person of very few words.
From the moment they entered the room until now, the total number of words Shen Tan had spoken might not even reach double digits.
It wasn't just Qu Ling who found it difficult; Bai Ci, who had listened to the whole exchange, also found the situation tricky.
If she were in Qu Ling's shoes, the result would probably be the same.
For a moment, she couldn't think of a good way to break the ice. Perhaps she should start from something Shen Tan was interested in?
But what could she possibly be interested in?
The wind outside blew through the room once more, and a faint, gentle fragrance drifted past Bai Ci's nose. Due to the room's good ventilation, the scent vanished in an instant.
Bai Ci leaned a little closer to Shen Tan. The fragrance seemed to originate from this quiet, doll-like girl.
Just as she suspected.
When she got close enough, she caught that clean fragrance once more.
It wasn't the cloying sweetness of mass-produced perfumes on the market; it was a very healing, gentle scent.
It smelled like pure cotton bedding that had been basked in the scorching sun all day—fluffy, dry, and wrapped in the warm aura of sunlight. It was clean and pure, bringing an inexplicably comforting sense of relaxation and warmth.
Yet, this warm, sunny fragrance was the polar opposite of Shen Tan's actual state.
The girl was shrouded in a stagnant aura of deathly silence, coldness, and lifelessness, like withered wood trapped in a tiny space, never seeing the light of day.
But the scent on her was passionate, warm, and vibrant, filled with the brightest life and sunshine of the world.
This contrast gave Bai Ci a breakthrough.
Having remained silent until now, she finally spoke up slowly, her tone adjusted to be soft and sincere, sounding entirely like a heartfelt exclamation of surprise. “You smell so good.”
“Little Sister Shen Tan, could you recommend the brand of your perfume? I rarely smell anything like this. It's like blankets that have been thoroughly dried in the sun—warm, fluffy, and incredibly comforting.”
The effect was instantaneous.
Shen Tan, who had been sitting rigidly, shifted slightly.
Though she didn't answer immediately, Bai Ci could sense that the cold, aloof barrier around her had quietly cracked open a tiny fraction.
After another two seconds, Shen Tan's voice sounded. Through the veil, her soft voice finally had a slight, weak fluctuation belonging to a living person, no longer holding that hollow, numb tone from before.
“I blended it myself.”
She was finally willing to say a few more words.
It seemed she had found the right path; this was the exact topic Shen Tan was interested in.
Bai Ci smoothly followed up, steering the conversation along her interest. “No wonder it smells so unique. I've never come across anything like it on the market. So you're actually a perfumer.”
“I'm not a professional perfumer,” Shen Tan said, shaking her head slightly. The doll had finally moved.
Her tone held a rare trace of personal emotion—a subtle hint of joy and pride.
“My major is chemistry. Outside of my classes, I like to blend perfumes. It's pretty much my only hobby.”
Rate on N.U.
