Ark Simulator, Am I Not Without a Physical Body?

[...]

Su Rui remained silent for a few seconds.

[Showy but impractical.]

Bai Xue smiled, her eyes crinkling. "But he's handsome, isn't he?"

[... Um.]

As evening fell, Bai Xue accompanied Lady Wenyue for a stroll in the courtyard. The early summer breeze carried a faint fragrance of flowers, and Madam Wen Yue gently waved her folding fan, occasionally pausing to instruct the gardener on how to prune the branches.

"Xue'er," Lady Wenyue suddenly spoke, "What do you think of that hydrangea?"

Following the direction she pointed, Bai Xue saw a cluster of blue-purple flowers that stood out vividly in the twilight. "Beautiful."

"[The pH is off.] "Su Rui suddenly interjected, "[The soil pH is wrong; it should be pink.]"

Bai Xue almost choked on her own saliva.

"Madam..." she asked cautiously, "What color was this flower originally?"

Lady Wenyue covered her lips with her folding fan, a hint of a smile flashing in her eyes, "Pink. It seems our gardener still needs to adjust the soil."

Bai Xue: "..."

She suddenly realized that Su Rui might be even more terrifying than she had imagined.

In the stillness of the night, Bai Xue lay on the tatami mat, staring blankly at the ceiling. Moonlight streamed through the window, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor.

"Su Rui," she called softly.

[Um.]

"Did you... used to chat with people like this?"

Bai Xue knelt in the corner of the tea room, holding a cup of hot tea. Morning light filtered through the paper door, casting dappled patterns of light on the cuffs of her kimono. Lady Wenyue was talking to a visitor behind a screen, her gentle voice mingling with the aroma of tea.

The tea has gone cold.

Su Rui's voice suddenly rang in her mind. Bai Xue looked down at the teacup and saw that the steam had indeed dissipated most of its heat.

"You're really nosy," she muttered under her breath, but still picked up her teacup and took a sip.

Temperature affects taste.

"Yes, yes, Lord Su Rui," Bai Xue deliberately drew out her words, "You also have knowledge of the tea ceremony?"

[The previous host was a tea master from the Eastern Kingdom.]

The teacup trembled slightly in Bai Xue's hand.

"... Oh." She put down her cup, her fingertips unconsciously tracing the rim. "The tea she brewed was delicious?"

[generally.]

"You remember it so clearly?"

[Inertial recording data.]

Bai Xue gave a soft "humph," picked up her teacup, and drank it all in one gulp. The tea had cooled down and had a slightly astringent taste.

On the training field, Bai Xue was practicing shuriken throwing. Three giant shuriken drew silver arcs in the air and embedded themselves deeply into the wooden target in the distance.

Volume 15, Chapter 816: How did she find out?

[Seventh throw, angle deviation 0.5 degrees.]

"You even remembered this?" Bai Xue wiped the sweat from her brow. "Were you this strict with the previous hosts as well?"

Data recording is instinctive.

"Oh..." She went over to retrieve the weapons, "So how are they doing?"

[...&...%&...34&%&]

"Stop!" Bai Xue whirled around, nearly dropping her shuriken. "That's not what I'm asking!"

A subtle ripple came from my Sea of Consciousness, like a child who had successfully pulled off a prank.

What do you want to ask?

"..." Bai Xue took a deep breath, "I mean, they..." she carefully chose her words, "... do they get along well with you?"

[Define 'good'?]

"Well..." she suddenly found herself at a loss for words, "... would we be able to chat? Would we be able to train together? Would we be able to...?"

[These are still available...]

In the courtyard at dusk, Lady Wenyue was pruning a camellia. Bai Xue stood under the veranda, watching the sunset turn the petals gold.

"Su Rui," she suddenly spoke, "What do you think of the current host?"

[Redundancy issue.]

Answer me.

[...]

A few seconds of silence Sea of Consciousness.

[Talkative.]

Bai Xue laughed out loud.

[Loves to laugh.]

The corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up.

[Slacking off during training.]

"Hello!"

[...]

Su Rui's voice suddenly softened.

[special.]

A gentle evening breeze blew, and camellia petals fluttered down. Bai Xue reached out and caught one, watching it tremble gently in her palm.

"Su Rui."

[Um.]

"I'm so happy," she whispered. "It's my turn now."

[...]

[Um.]

Lady Wenyue gently parted the curtain with her folding fan and, through the half-open paper door of the tea room, saw Bai Xue adjusting the angle of her hairpin in front of the bronze mirror. The morning light slanted down on the girl's shoulder, making the plain silver hairpin sparkle.

"Strange..." Bai Xue muttered to herself, taking off the hairpin for the third time and retying her hair. Her fingertips hesitated at her temples before finally pinning on a newly bought light pink silk flower.

The folding fan snapped shut with a "whoosh." A ripple appeared in Lady Wenyue's eyes—this was the third time this month she had seen the guards tidying their appearance in front of the mirror before morning training. Not to mention the things that had suddenly appeared in Bai Xue's room: a box of candied plums bought from the night market, a headband with cartoon patterns, and even a whole set of nail care tools that were supposedly "limited edition."

"Madam?" Bai Xue suddenly turned her head, the silk flower trembling slightly with the movement. As she hurriedly knelt down to pay her respects, the silver bell at the end of her hairpin made a soft, tinkling sound.

"This Bell..." Lady Wenyue lightly tapped her hair with the tip of her fan, "Is it a new product from that old shop on Three Sparrows Street last week?"

The tips of Bai Xue's ears were instantly stained a red even more vibrant than the silk flowers.

The kitchen was filled with the aroma of caramel at dusk. The cooks looked at Bai Xue, who was always strict about etiquette, and she was now tiptoeing to reach for the pastry box on the top shelf of the cupboard.

"Um..." Bai Xue cleared her throat, "I heard there were extra yokan (sweet bean jelly) today?"

The older cook suddenly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Three years ago, on a snowy night, this same young girl, her lips blue from the cold, stood at the kitchen doorway, saying, "Excuse me, do you have any ginger soup to warm my hands? Madam has caught a chill."

"I've saved the matcha and red bean flavors for you," the cook said, tucking a gilded lacquer box into her arms. "And some freshly made perilla honey..."

[Too sweet.]

The voice in Bai Xue's mind made her hand tremble, and she almost spilled her drink on her kimono. She secretly wrinkled her nose at the air, but still grabbed an extra jar of honey-preserved cherry blossoms.

Lady Wenyue stared at the chessboard on the table, and suddenly realized that the most recently collected "abnormal reports" could be stacked into a book:

--At dawn on the seventh day of the lunar month, Bai Xue secretly ate taiyaki in a corner of the training ground, and the crumbs attracted three sparrows;

--On the night of the fifteenth, suspicious humming came from the guardhouse, the tune sounding exactly like a popular idol song.

This morning was even worse; she saw Bai Xue posing in front of the camellias in the courtyard in what appeared to be a selfie...

"Clatter."

The black jade chess piece landed in the "center" position. The lady suddenly remembered a snowy night twenty years ago when she had secretly dyed her nails red with rouge for the first time.

"Madam?" Bai Xue appeared in the corridor carrying a tea tray, her hair adorned with pale yellow forsythia blossoms today. As she walked in quietly, Lady Wenyue noticed the new light blue woven bracelet on her wrist—which peeked out from under her fingernails with each movement—as well as the faint cherry pink on her nails.

Amidst the fragrant aroma of tea, a folding fan suddenly pressed against Bai Xue's chin.

"Xue'er," Lady Wenyue gazed at her gradually brightening eyes and brows, "Tomorrow is a day off..."

"Your subordinate is ready to serve at any time!"

Let's go on a date.

"... Huh?"

The lacquerware teacup reflected the girl's suddenly wide eyes and Lady Wenyue's sly smile. A sniper hidden deep within Bai Xue's Sea of Consciousness was momentarily stunned by the sudden surge in heart rate data.

The night market lights cascaded like a galaxy. Bai Xue stood before a takoyaki stall, her soul locked in a fierce battle with the voice echoing in her mind:

The third one from the right is cooked perfectly.

"That middle-aged man glared at me!"

[Ignore it. Focus on the goal.]

"This isn't a sniping mission..."

Finally, she carried the cardboard box into the alley, the golden takoyaki glistening in the moonlight. Suddenly, Bai Xue held the bamboo skewers up to her eyes, as if she were holding some kind of precision instrument.

"Su Rui," she narrowed one eye, "You think... Lady Wenyue has discovered it?"

[Probability 87.6%]

The tip of the bamboo skewer pierced the crispy outer layer, and the rising steam blurred her vision. Bai Xue recalled that when she was getting ready this morning, the lady had specially asked the maid to bring her that set of light purple blouses embroidered with night-blooming cereus.

"Actually..." she bit into half a takoyaki, hissing as she burned herself, "It's actually quite nice like this."

Cherry blossoms fluttered down onto the paper bag containing candied fruit. A sniper, unwilling to admit it, secretly noted the sugar content, the ambient temperature, and the girl's cheeks, hotter than takoyaki. Deep within the data stream, an encrypted folder was named "Special Observation Records."

Meanwhile, at the window of the teahouse in the distance, Lady Wenyue was gently placing a scented note painted with cherry blossoms in the snow into a wooden box commemorating her growth.

Bai Xue knelt in the corner of the tea room, her fingers unconsciously stroking her newly bought hairpin. Lady Wenyue was talking with a merchant representative behind a screen; the sound of her folding fan opening and closing sounded like some kind of secret code.

"Su Rui," she asked herself softly, "How exactly did Madam find out?"

[In progress with data analysis.]

A sound like keyboard typing came from her Sea of Consciousness. Bai Xue quietly raised her eyes and saw Lady Wenyue suddenly point in her direction with the tip of her fan, which startled her so much that she immediately lowered her head and pretended to adjust her cuffs.

[Possibility 1: Consumption of sweets increased by 240% year-on-year]

"..."

Bai Xue remembered the three boxes of honey candy hidden under the bed and pursed her lips guiltily.

[Possibility 2: Training ground usage time reduced by 35%]

"I clearly do it every day..."

[27% of them were looking in the mirror.]

The image of practicing smiling in front of the bronze mirror suddenly flashed through her mind, and the tips of Bai Xue's ears instantly turned redder than the silk flowers in her hair. She picked up her teacup and took a big gulp, but choked and coughed.

"Ahem... that doesn't prove anything!" she argued softly, covering her mouth with a handkerchief. "You don't have a physical form, Madam wouldn't..."

The sound of a folding fan tapping on the table suddenly rang out.

"Xue'er." Lady Wenyue, who had ended the conversation at some point, was looking at her with a half-smile, "Go and change the incense in the west wing."

"Yes!"

Bai Xue rose as if granted a pardon, but as she passed the lady, she heard a soft laugh, "I want wisteria incense, but don't get the calming kind again."