KK Translates

Arc 4: Castle Escape
Chapter 86

The man pursed his thin pale lips and frowned slightly, “Sorry, I’m not interested in minors.”

…………

Xu Ziyue was stunned for a few seconds. He looked at that man and blinked……and blinked again. He didn’t seem to understand the words he just heard.

But the next moment, Xu Ziyue gently jumped off the sofa arm and pointed at his nose, “I…..I’m a minor?”

The makeup assistant nearby and the person with the identity of a manager had noticed the commotion here. It wasn’t just them. After the earlier incident, the others had more or less noticed Xiyue and they came over to watch the show.

Anyone would be curious.

So when Xu Ziyue said this, the others looked at Xu Ziyue strangely. The makeup assistant (male) asked back, “You’re an adult?”

Xu Ziyue nodded affirmatively, “I’m already an adult!”

The makeup artist who looked quite nice asked tentatively, “Then how old are you?”

Xu Ziyue replied, “I’m 18. Isn’t 18 an adult?”

The man who Xu Ziyue had taken a liking to looked at Xu Ziyue a little more seriously, “……Just come of age?”

Please read this from kk translates

“Hey, he might be intentionally lying and is really just 16 or 17 years old.” The other artists nearby interjected.

“No.” Xu Ziyue retorted, “Before I die-… I mean, I did become an adult. It has been several months already.”

Having accidentally let slip, Xu Ziyue quickly tried to salvage himself, “Got too anxious and pronounced it wrong.”

The others just smiled while carrying different thoughts. Their interest in teasing Xu Ziyue had also lessened somewhat.

Real players would’ve understood Xu Ziyue’s words. He was saying that he had already come of age before entering the game world and for NPC’s……They probably thought that Xu Ziyue really did bite his tongue and say the wrong thing.

Xu Ziyue patted his sinful mouth and then looked at the man and said with a whisper, “You see?…..I’m not a minor.” Xu Ziyue squatted down and sprawled across the arm of the sofa, looking pitifully at the man, “I’m not asking for anything else. Can you just tell me your name, hmm?”

The man looked at Xu Ziyue for a while before sighing and saying helplessly, “Gu Ze.”

Xu Ziyue shook his head, “The Gu from ‘Topple the men of the city, and then topple the men of the country’, and the Ze from ‘The brilliant orchard and the many fragrant herbs’?”

Gu Ze froze for a moment and then nodded to confirm.

“I didn’t expect you to be so knowledgeable?” The male makeup assistant interjected.

“You should see my college examination results.” Xu Ziyue however sighed. Only a few months had passed and, in fact, he could only remember this much

Now knowing his name, Xu Ziyue became more obedient.

The manager at this moment was discussing with the butler regarding the shooting location and time. He seemed to be very anxious about it and eventually decided to start the shoot after lunch.

Xu Ziyue was quite curious because he had never seen it before so he asked the manager if he could watch. The manager glanced at his task sheet in his hand and nodded, “Doesn’t say that I can’t let others watch so it should be fine.”

And so, Xu Ziyue happily waited for the afternoon to come.

The chef took out the ingredients without any incident and then the butler led him over to the kitchen. The others also curiously followed them over to look.

There were two doors covered by black curtains on both sides of the hall. The one on the left led down to the cool room while the other was flat ground leading to the dining room, kitchen, a small hot spring and a storage room.

The kitchen was large and very well stocked but what made them most curious was the storage room. Since it wasn’t much, the butler opened the door to the storage room for everyone to see.

The storage room looked like it had been unused for a very long time and everything inside was covered in a layer of dust. There were boxes of books, an abandoned piano, a rusted hoe beside the door…….All kinds of miscellaneous items were accumulated in this room.

“Doesn’t seem useful.” The photographer waved his hand to fan away some of the dust.

“It may seem useless right now but you never know in the future.”

Xu Ziyue looked around and then returned back to the door.

As for the hot spring…..It was not a problem for twenty-one of them to all use it but there were no partitions here so if the men went, the women couldn’t.

Once they were done looking around, they returned to the dining room to wait for their lunch.

When the chef finally came out with the cart, the food they saw seemed quite normal.

And when they picked up their chopsticks……That’s right. Although they are in a castle, the cook and the people there are Asian so they naturally ate Chinese food.

But this Chinese food………Is too difficult to eat!

Either it had no taste, or it tasted strange due to all kinds of seasoning being added. Only two or three of them were normal.

Everyone turned their attention to the chef.

The person with the identity of a chef smiled awkwardly, “My identity is a chef but the most I’ve made are instant noodles.”

And his task stipulated that he was responsible for all their meals.

Then that would mean that they would eat this for ten whole days!

Even if tasted bad, everyone still managed to swallow it down.

It was better to eat than starve.

After lunch, everyone got ready for the shoot. Xu Ziyue followed behind the manager taking in the situation. Because Xu Ziyue’s face was tender and he didn’t look dangerous…….Since he didn’t seem like he would pose any harm to the others, they lowered their guards. As such, Xu Ziyue managed to succeed in looking at the managers task sheet.

Needless to say, his task sheet was also longer than Xu Ziyue’s.

Roughly put, it was to organise the artists’ jobs, protect them and take care of their daily needs. It looked overall like the role of a nanny; a high-level nanny that can help in all matters.

There were several different locations required for the shoot so it wouldn’t be done in just one day. For this afternoon, the shoot was to be done in the hall.

Please read this from kk translates

Xu Ziyue looked at the makeup artist and then at the photographer and proceeded to ask them if the two of them had the skills stipulated by their identity.

The makeup artist sister looked gentle in both appearance and speech. When Xu Ziyue asked, she had already opened the makeup box and was going through it. She thought about it and answered, “My work is a little related to this so I’m pretty good with doing makeup.”

Xu Ziyue let out a sigh of relief. If she couldn’t do it then Gu Ze’s image would be ruined.

The photographer also said that he had worked at a photo studio in the past, but it was only for taking ID photos and the like. However, since he had learned a few things from that, shooting shouldn’t be a problem.

Xu Ziyue continued to wander around and look around.

The cleaner’s task was to clean the entire castle. After eating, she went to the kitchen to get the equipment and then started to work on the stairs.

But just by looking at her actions one could tell that it was only cleaning on the surface. Even the rag wasn’t wet.

Xu Ziyue sat cross-legged on the carpet next to Gu Ze and watched him rest his eyes as he sat in a single sofa. After a while, seemingly having noticed Xu Ziyue’s stare, he opened his eyes and stared back at Xu Ziyue.

Xu Ziyue maintained it for one second, two seconds, three seconds…….And couldn’t help but break eye contact at five seconds and look away with red ears.

Gu Ze lightly coughed a few times before straightening up, leaning forward such that his head was in front of Xu Ziyue’s and reaching out with a look of helplessness.

Xu Ziyue squeezed his eyes shut thinking that Gu Ze wanted to knock his head.

Afterall, being stared at by someone was indeed……..

A large hand brushed past his hair, gently rubbing the top of his head. His soft and smooth hair became a little messy before the culprit was retracted back.

Xu Ziyue heard the sound of breathing move away then followed by the sound of footsteps going away……When he secretly opened his right eye, he saw Gu Ze walking over to talk to the manager.

Seeing that Gu Ze wasn’t going to look back at him, Xu Ziyue also opened his left eye. Watching Gu Ze’s back, he raised his hand and fixed up his hair.

Rubbing the head……..Xu Ziyue pinched his earlobe. It felt hotter than his fingers.

*****

The makeup artist sister’s work was very detailed, and she wasn’t too slow. With seven people, every time one was done, they would go ahead to do the shoot. As for the finished product, not many of them paid it much mind.

In any case, they just needed to complete their task.

There were two makeup assistants; one male who shares the same room as Xu Ziyue, and the other a female who doesn’t talk much. Even after the male makeup assistant chattered on next to her, she probably only said one line the whole time.

Since Gu Ze was getting his makeup done and with the incident earlier, Xu Ziyue was too embarrassed to approach him, so he stayed together with the two makeup assistants, chatting while admiring Gu Ze’s face.

Nothing special happened on the first day. Everyone covered themselves up very tightly so as not to reveal their identities but as for Xu Ziyue………he was already deemed by the others to be someone who very likely is just a player.

But this at least ensured that Xu Ziyue wouldn’t be voted out the next day.

Dinner as usual wasn’t a very nice dinner and the dishes that tasted slightly better would be snatched up very quickly. If it wasn’t because the ingredients were limited, the others would’ve definitely made the chef remake it.

After dinner, the makeup assistant and the other staff busied themselves packing up their equipment in the hall. Xu Ziyue thought about it and decided to follow Gu Ze upstairs.

Then they reached the front of Gu Ze’s room…….

Gu Ze with one hand on the handle looked back at Xu Ziyue. Xu Ziyue’s eyes trembled before avoiding his gaze and continuing to walk past Gu Ze’s room.

“Wait a minute.”

Xu Ziyue immediately turned around.

Gu Ze walked over and held out his hand. Xu Ziyue held out his in response with a look of confusion and spread open his palm.

A single candy wrapped in colourful, transparent wrapping paper fell into his hand.

When Xu Ziyue looked up again, Gu Ze had already turned around and returned to his room, closing the door behind him.

Xu Ziyue: ……Giving me candy? What’s he trying to do?

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KK has something to say:
Candy?? 🍬🍬🍬