Chapter 002 The Widow in the Mansion 2

What a strange question.

Yu Deng wrinkled his delicate nose in confusion, furrowing his elegant brows as he answered his stepson’s inquiry. “I didn’t put on any perfume.”

“You really didn’t?”

The young man seemed a little surprised, but at least he released the arm he had draped around Yu Deng. He rubbed the fingertips that had just touched Yu Deng’s, his gaze lingering for a moment on Yu Deng’s bathrobe.

People are always especially attentive to beauty, whether it’s admiration or desire—just like those people in the living room, who had been staring blatantly at Yu Deng a moment ago.

The young man suggested in an unhurried tone, “Still, Mom, I think you’d better change into something else.”

“Hmm?” Yu Deng responded.

With a hint of inexplicable displeasure, the boy pressed his tongue to his canine tooth. “After all, we have guests at home, and the old man has just left. What do you think?”

Following his stepson’s gaze, Yu Deng glanced down and realized he was still wearing that loose bathrobe—in his haste earlier, he hadn’t changed at all.

His stepson’s words did seem reasonable. Whether for the sake of the current scenario or his upbringing, he really ought to change.

“Oh, I see.” Yu Deng nodded, finally understanding.

He was still unaware of the subtle possessiveness in his stepson’s words, answering with a docile expression.

The youth appeared very polite. “Then, Mom, do you need my help getting changed?”

Yu Deng tilted his head, studying him for several seconds.

His stepson met his gaze openly, letting him look as long as he liked.

Yu Deng’s animal-like intuition, sometimes sharp and sometimes dull, finally sensed that something was off.

He shook his head slowly. “No, I’m not used to having my stepson help me change clothes.”

He was nearly twenty years old; who would have someone else help them dress at this age? How embarrassing!

The young stepson picked up on the rejection.

Even though Yu Deng’s voice was soft and gentle, completely lacking in authority—like a kitten batting away an annoyance with its paw.

“All right.” The youth’s dark eyes betrayed nothing of his thoughts. He apologized with feigned innocence, “Sorry, Mom. I just returned from studying abroad, so maybe I’m a bit more open-minded.”

Yu Deng shook his head again, indicating it was fine.

Bang—

A sudden commotion erupted not far behind them. Yu Deng turned slightly, warily glancing past his stepson.

A short-haired girl clutched her forehead, red from where it had struck the door. Seeing the two nearly entwined figures, her eyes filled with the terror of stumbling upon some scandalous family secret.

She met Yu Deng’s gaze, then waved her hands frantically in a desperate bid for survival. “Sorry! I didn’t see a thing! Please, continue—don’t mind me!”

With that, she scrambled away as if some beast were chasing her.

Interrupted, the young stepson finally abandoned the notion of teasing his beautiful stepmother.

“By the way, I haven’t formally introduced myself yet. My name is Cheng Xiao,” he said politely. “Please take care of me in the future.”

Yu Deng made a noncommittal sound, watching his stepson turn and leave.

At last, his ears were at peace.

During the few minutes he’d been speaking with Cheng Xiao, Yu Deng’s livestream had quietly gone live.

New players’ streams rarely attracted much attention, and Yu Deng’s was no exception, but the few scattered comments were quite enthusiastic.

[Oh, this instance again? Must be a newbie. Let’s see… hmm, seems a bit slow-witted.]
[Wow… what an adorable, beautiful baby! I’m following my new darling hard!]
[What was that pose just now? The stepson’s got designs on his stepmom? Ahhh, why did the stepson leave? Keep going, I can spare the traffic!]
[Seriously, is a pretty face enough to survive an infinite horror instance? I bet ten thousand stream coins this fool won’t survive.]
[For real, this is a horror infinite flow. Pretty boy’s probably dead by day one.]
[I’m remembering your ID, front row. Make sure you pay up when the time comes. Anyway, I’m off to call my friends to watch.]

As for Yu Deng himself, he hadn’t yet noticed that his livestream was running. He lingered for a moment, then nervously returned to the upstairs bedroom.

Dim yellow light leaked through the gap in the dark brown curtains, making the room even gloomier than before. Yu Deng felt his way to the wardrobe.

The amber-toned rosewood wardrobe looked heavy and solid, its doors tightly shut and the surface carved with elaborate patterns.

Yu Deng stared at the wardrobe for a while, his mind flashing with all those “door-opening kills” from movies, hesitating to move.

He just wanted to change clothes—surely nothing would jump out at him from inside, right?

[Host, you don’t need to scare yourself,] the system spoke up.

Yu Deng mumbled defensively, “People who are afraid of ghosts are just like this—we can’t help it.”

He gave himself a little more mental pep talk, then slowly pulled the wardrobe open. Thankfully, nothing leapt out—just a neat row of clothes exuding a faint fragrance.

Yu Deng looked more closely and realized, to his shock, that nearly all the clothes were dresses!

“…?!” Yu Deng asked in disbelief, “System, am I supposed to wear these? Wait, do you even have a gender? Am I calling you the wrong thing?”

[By carbon-based classification, I’m considered male,] the system replied calmly. [Host, the clothing style is tied to your character setting.]

[Just as well—the system has finished initializing. I’ll transmit the instance information now.]

Yu Deng nodded, and the next second, a large chunk of text appeared in his mind.

At the very top was the task assignment he’d heard at the start, along with basics like survival time.

How thoughtful of the system, Yu Deng thought—even forgetful people wouldn’t have to worry about missing details.

Following that was a brief background introduction to the instance.

[The Cheng family is a renowned household in this city, commanding both wealth and power. But no one knows how many secrets are hidden within the Cheng manor…]

Yu Deng perked up, reading carefully.

—The head of the Cheng family was the elderly Master Cheng, who had just died, nearing seventy years old. He had a son and a daughter with his legitimate wife, as well as several younger concubines who also bore children. The family was thriving with descendants.

The eldest daughter by the wife had married a live-in son-in-law, and had twins—a boy and a girl. The brother was to be married in a few days. The legitimate son, heir to the Cheng family, had unfortunately died in an accident a year ago.

After carefully piecing together the information, Yu Deng realized he was playing the late heir’s male spouse.

So, he was a young widower, and his stepson was already so grown up.

“System, my late husband wasn’t that old, was he?” Yu Deng frowned, spotting a new problem. “After all, his son is already this big… Wait, who gave birth to the kid? Don’t tell me I married a twice-widowed old man?!”

Yu Deng found himself quite dissatisfied with his unseen, deceased husband.

The system paused. [By estimation, he was no older than thirty-five. The rest, you’ll have to discover in the instance.]

“Oh…”

Yu Deng tried to scroll further in his mind, hoping for more details on relationships and grudges, but the information ended there.

As for the role he was currently playing—the “First Madam”—there was only a brief description: Wife of the Cheng family heir; mild-mannered and unsociable; a few unusual quirks.

“Is that all?” Yu Deng asked hopefully. “Just this little bit of info?”

Honestly, he really needed more details to fill his empty mind.

[That’s all,] the system replied. [Host, since you’re a special task participant, you’ve been given extra information. Normally, players have to discover things themselves.]

Yu Deng’s brows knitted in disappointment. “All right.”

So that was the system “taking care” of a fool.

[Host, less description means fewer restrictions—you’ll have more room to improvise.]

That did make some sense.

Feeling more at ease, Yu Deng turned his attention back to the clothes in the wardrobe.

[Since you’re a new player, it’s my duty to remind you,] the system added. [Though you have a special identity and players and instance characters will assume you’re an NPC, if you act too out of character, you’ll be found out. So it’s best to hide your player status.]

“Okay, I understand.” When it came to survival, Yu Deng was very obedient.

Of course, being obedient was one thing—putting on a dress right now was quite another. Yu Deng nearly crawled into the wardrobe, rummaging around until he found a white knit sweater and black trousers in a corner.

He slipped out of the bathrobe and tossed it onto the bed, a flash of fair skin quickly concealed by clothing.

Yu Deng hastily finished dressing.

Meanwhile, the comments in his livestream kept increasing.

[Who gets it? Wife muttering to himself is so cute.]
[Deng Deng’s legs are so fair, slurp, I want to pinch his thighs.]
[Why black out the screen while changing?!]
[So many dresses—can you try one on? I really want to see the little beauty in a dress, hehe.]
[I’ll admit it, I’m a perv. I want to see Deng Deng in a cheongsam.]

Yu Deng buttoned up his sweater and was just about to speak when something caught his eye—a patch of rapidly scrolling, pale blue translucent text in his peripheral vision.

What was that?

Yu Deng looked around to make sure he was still safe, then leaned closer to see a barrage of all sorts of wild and brazen comments.

[Hehe, streamer finally noticed us? Give everyone in the chat a smile.]
Yu Deng blushed and blinked, flustered. “Are you talking to me?”

[Yeah, yeah, right here! I’m so into you, baby, I just want to—]
“System, can you do something about these people?” Yu Deng was slow-witted by nature—he could barely handle his stepson, let alone an onslaught of comments that made his mind go blank. Faced with a wall of censored words, he had to call for help.

[…]

[Would you like me to block them for you?] System 01 asked.

Yu Deng replied as if granted amnesty, “Yes, yes, please.”

Comments: [??? Deng Deng, you’re so heartless!]

[Done. You can turn the comments back on anytime,] the system explained. [The stream will remain live throughout the instance, but private moments will black out for privacy.]

[You can interact with the chat, but any clues related to the instance will be filtered. Viewers can tip you, and after the instance, you can convert rewards to points at a ten-to-one rate.]