Xia Ge put her hands behind her back, twisting them together.  She’d been trying to figure out how to get more information from the reticent cloaked person, but suddenly noticed the cloaked person was standing motionless with that fox mask, eyeing Xia Ge closely.

Even though the other person’ head was covered with a bamboo hat, inexplicable goosebumps rose yet again all over Xia Ge’s body.

Not enjoying being stared at in such a manner, Xia Ge decided to take the initiative and use small talk as a ‘side-by-side strike.’

“Umm……you left just now to go and……buy some clothes?”

The cloaked person took a long time to respond: “Mmm.”

Looking at the tidy pile on the sofa, Xia Ge saw that there were snow-white underclothes and soft black silk outer clothes.  But, at second glance, weren’t the clothes a little too small?

Xia Ge silently checked the cloaked person’ height against the size of the clothes, hesitating before eventually saying: “But……those clothes seem a bit small for you.”

Could it be that this cloaked person’s apparent tall height was false?  Like Xia Ge had faked her height with the stilts?

……no way, right?

It didn’t seem like it.

“They’re not too small,” The cloaked person answered smoothly, “They’re definitely the right size.”

Xia Ge couldn’t hold her tongue: “……you’re wearing stilts too?”

System: [……]

Cloaked person: “Huh?”

Xia Ge: “Nevermind, nevermind, I’m just playing, haha.”

The cloaked person regarded Xia Ge for a moment, before walking towards Xia Ge, fox mask in hand.  Faced with the disparity between 1.7 meters and 1.5 meters, Xia Ge abruptly suffered some strong psychological pressure.  She wanted to retreat, even though knowing that behind her was the room door.  Still, for every forward step the cloaked person took, Xia Ge fell back two steps, until inevitably her back was firmly against the door.

The cloaked person’s voice was flat and steady: “Afraid?”

Xia Ge forced a smile: “……not in the slightest.”

A slight pause later, and Xia Ge whispered: “It’s just that……you’re kinda tall.”

Playing with the fox mask in their hand, the cloaked person went ‘hmm,’ as if in deep thought: “Afraid because I’m tall……that’s it?”

Flustered, Xia Ge snapped back: “Stresses me out a little, nothing more.”

Heaving a sigh, the cloaked person stretched out an elegant hand and grasped Xia Ge’s shoulder again: “So, you do still know how to be afraid.”

Xia Ge: “???”

The next instant Xia Ge felt herself being gently lifted by the shoulder, and in that split-second her world shifted, bare feet moved from the ice-cold floor to the sofa.    Eyes wide behind her bronze mask, Xia Ge stood on a soft cushion, the folded clothes beside her feet, and the face-hiding conical bamboo hat slightly lower than her own head.

Having put Xia Ge up on the sofa, the cloaked person now stood below Xia Ge.  They still held onto the fox mask as they looked up at Xia Ge, their tone neutral: “What if it’s like this?  Still afraid?”

Xia Ge, discombobulated by the feel of the soft sofa on the soles of her feet, answered without thinking: “Not anymore.”

Yet as soon as she said that, Xia Ge realized, to her despair, that she was getting further and further away from the room door.

Cloaked person: “Mmm.”

Adding a moment later: “Good, don’t be afraid.”

Then they reached out to take Xia Ge’s bronze mask off her face.  Startled, Xia Ge covered the mask with her hands: “No, you can’t take it off!”

The cloaked person gestured with the fox mask: “I’ll exchange it with this one.”

Xia Ge: “……no exchanges!”

Cloaked person cocked their head: “But the fox mask suits you so much.”

Xia Ge glared at the fox mask with its sly smile: “……”

Lies!  Suits her how?!  How does she resemble a fox in any way?!

Practically choking on her outrage, Xia Ge declared: “It does not!”

“Fine, it doesn’t suit you,” The cloaked person conceded, “However, that doesn’t change the fact that someone is trying to hunt you down outside this room.”

Xia Ge: “……”

The cloaked person continued: “Bronze mask, height between five and six feet, and a shabby black cloak.”

Xia Ge, remembering Bairen’s words as she’d made her getaway, knew the cloaked person wasn’t joking.

After a long moment, the cloaked person’s voice softened: “Change your mask.  I’ll close my eyes.”

Xia Ge peered at the conical bamboo hat that completely covered the cloaked person’s face: “……”

This person wasn’t credible in the slightest.

Suffocating.

“Who are you?”  Putting her hands down, Xia Ge decided to stop beating around the bush, “Do I know you?  Why are you helping me?”

The cloaked person was silent, but as Xia Ge waited patiently for a reply, her face suddenly felt slightly cooler.

Her narrow field of vision from the bronze mask became wider.  And before she could even react, two wrapped hands smoothly replaced the bronze mask with the fox mask.

The fox mask perfectly fit Xia Ge’s face, not obstructing her sight the way the bronze mask had, as fingertips brushed across her cheeks, bringing tinges of heat.  Xia Ge’s eyes were very wide: “You……”

Holding the bronze mask with the missing piece, the cloaked person affirmed: “I closed my eyes.”

An aggrieved Xia Ge was not convinced: “……you’re lying.”

Cloaked person: “I don’t lie.”

Xia Ge: “Fine then, who are you?”

The cloaked person ignored the question, instead looking over the pitiful red ribbon tied in a bow and noting: “You tricked it.”

Oh, so the cloaked person wouldn’t lie, they’d just avoid what they didn’t want to talk about.

Twisting with excitation now that it’d caught the attention of its owner, the red ribbon was essentially issuing pathetic distress signals.  Yet the cloaked person made no move to retrieve it.

Xia Ge: “……”

Xia Ge did think the cloaked person’s modus operandi of avoiding lying by either saying nothing or changing the subject kinda familiar.

System: [……Isn’t That How You Usually Operate?]

Gloomy, Xia Ge snapped back: {you’re the one who likes to talk a lot.  who are they?}

System: [Their Cloak Is Concealing Their Identity.  I Can’t Detect Anything.]

While Xia Ge was busy racking her brain on how to discover the other’s identity, the cloaked person sympathetically suggested: “If you really want to know, how about we each truthfully answer one question from the other?”

Xia Ge’s lips twitched: “I won’t play that game.  How am I going to know if you’re actually telling the truth?  I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t lie,” The cloaked person softly asserted, “And as long as you don’t lie, I won’t lie.”

Xia Ge: “But how am I gonna tell whether or not you’ve lied?”

The cloaked person simply reiterated yet again: “I won’t lie to you.”

Xia Ge: “……”

Finally, the cloaked person seemed to realize they weren’t exactly being convincing.  After some thought, they took out a green orb, about the size of a fist.

“This is the Soul Speech orb,” The cloaked person paused, “If you say a lie in front of it, that lie becomes the truth.”

Xia Ge: “……ah?!”

“But if you speak the truth, there is no effect,” The cloaked person’s voice was detached, “Everything will stay as it is.”

Xia Ge’s immediate reaction: “So if I say I’m multi-millionaire, it’ll come true?”

System: [……]  Sigh.

Cloaked person: “Well, apparently you are not one at the moment.”

Xia Ge: “……”  Did you chuckle just now?  You found that funny, didn’t you?!”

Cloaked person: “Don’t lie in front of the Soul Speech orb.  If you use it to turn the false true, than whatever you receive you will pay a very grievous price for it.”

“And no one knows for sure what that price is.  Maybe it’s qi, a soul, or perhaps a life.”

Xia Ge squinted at the green orb as the system scanned it.

[Soul Speech Orb*Earth: Mystical Qi Object, Extremely Rare, That Can Turn A Lie Into The Truth.  The Cost Of Making A Lie Into The Truth Is Extremely Tragic.  Use With Caution.]

Xia Ge’s sense of reality was shaken.  What the hell?  There was actually such a scary thing in this world?

Rather dangerous, no matter which way you looked at it.

Feeling vaguely guilty, Xia Ge said: “We were just talking casually, why’d you have to make everything so serious?”

The cloaked person replied in a dispassionate tone: “Because you don’t believe me.”