"I'm Leo Li, an intern at Dreamweavers Inc., and my current mission is to play matchmaker for the 'Master of Giving Away Maidens,' Li Xunhuan..."
Snow fell in a boundless flurry, the wind as sharp as a blade.
They were in the world of
Xiao Li Feidao, inside a small town tavern just beyond the border, when Roxanne Tang appeared and Leo's internal monologue was cut short.
The two of them stared at each other, wide-eyed.
Leo wore a wig with long, flowing hair and was bundled up in a Ming Dynasty-style, duck-down-filled coat. A satchel was slung across his chest, and he carried an ornate longsword, perfectly cosplaying a young, dashing adventurer from ancient times.
Roxie, on the other hand, had her hair in a simple ponytail and was wearing a breezy, white floral sundress. She looked refreshingly cool—far too cool for the blizzard outside. In her hand, she was even holding an iced milk tea.
Seeing his client's attire, Leo knew the worst had happened. His mission difficulty had just been cranked up.
"Roxie, you didn't prepare at all, did you?" Leo asked, already knowing the pointless answer.
Roxie looked around at the rustic tavern in a daze. "Prepare for what?"
"I reminded you multiple times," Leo said with a sigh. "And you took a copy of the contract with you."
His inexperience as an intern was on full display; he hadn't properly emphasized the dangers and the very real nature of the world they were entering.
"But I thought it was a dream," Roxie said, looking around. She spread her arms and spun in a circle, giddy with excitement. "This has to be a dream, right? It's a blizzard outside, but I don't feel cold at all! What an interesting dream! The plot is even connected to the last one. It's magical!"
Leo recalled his own recruitment into the company and reminded her, "Miss Tang, you were fully conscious when you were transported to the company, weren't you? And are you sure you fell asleep while drinking milk tea? I regret to inform you that this is not a dream. See this protective barrier around us? We have a five-minute transition window where the outside world can't affect us. After that, we will officially enter the world of
Xiao Li Feidao."
"Not a dream?" Roxie asked, her voice laced with doubt.
She surreptitiously pinched her own thigh, the oldest trick in the book for a reality check.
The sensation was real. It hurt.
And most importantly, she didn't wake up.
The color drained from Roxie's face.
Leo smirked. "Figured it out?"
She didn't answer, her mind latching onto something even more terrifying. "That contract in my head… that was real, too?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Leo sighed. "Miss Tang, did you never stop to think how bizarre it was to have a contract suddenly appear in your mind?"
A flicker of excitement replaced her fear. "So we really traversed?"
"Yes," Leo confirmed.
Roxie's eyes sparkled. "And I can really have a grand, epic romance with the handsome Li Xunhuan?" she asked tentatively.
Leo glanced at her and nodded. "Of course. And you'll even have a little fruit of your love to show for it."
Roxie's face flushed crimson. She glared at him. "When I'm trying to fantasize about something beautiful, can you not mention the gross parts!"
"Gross?" Leo raised an eyebrow. "Miss Tang, please respect your own dream. Before this journey begins, I need you to confirm one more time: regardless of the process, our ultimate goal is for you to conceive Li Xunhuan's child. Only when that outcome is achieved will our contract be terminated."
"I know it was my dream," Roxie said, her eyes gazing at the new world outside their bubble, "but now that it's actually happening, it feels so… mortifying!"
"…" For a moment, Leo was at a loss for words.
"Can I back out?" Roxie asked, testing the waters.
Of course you can back out, and then my first job is a total failure! Is the spirit of the contract really that worthless to you? You're ruining my future!
Leo glanced at Roxie and temporarily silenced his conscience.
Thinking of the bright future at Dreamweavers Inc. and the grim fate of the interns who had failed before him, Leo took a deep breath and hardened his heart. "The moment you signed the contract, the option to back out was gone. Miss Tang, I reminded you to consider your decision carefully."
"I thought it was a dream! You know how people aren't exactly rational in dreams!" Roxie watched the martial artists outside like monkeys in a zoo. She shuffled closer to Leo, grabbing his arm and blinking her big eyes pleadingly. "Mister, can we just do the romance part with Li Xunhuan and skip the baby part? Please?"
What a pain-in-the-ass client!
Just romance, no baby? Are you kidding me!
Leo glanced disdainfully at the soft arm clinging to his, then offered a slight smile. "No."
Her go-to charm offensive had failed. Roxie yanked her arm back, infuriated. "Why are you so stubborn? How can you force me to do something like that? I'm still a girl, you know? I don't want to be an unwed mother with some stranger's child!"
Idiot!
Leo was speechless, quickly assessing his predicament.
Maybe the failures of my predecessors weren't just about mission difficulty, but also about the clients themselves!
But for him, failure was not an option.
Leo's face became a mask of indifference. "Miss Tang, once the Dreamweaver contract is signed, if you don't achieve your dream, we will both be trapped in this world. Neither of us can go back."
Roxie glared at him, adopting an air of stubborn defiance. "Even if I can't go back, I am not having Li Xunhuan's child!"
"Alright, let me correct my previous statement," Leo said, giving her a look and a devilish smile. "
You can't go back. As a Dreamweaver, this just counts as one failed mission for me. I lose my commission, but I can still go home."
"You're lying!" Roxie shot back, but then took a sip of her iced tea, feigning nonchalance. "So what if I can't go back? Traversing to another world is something people dream of!"
"Traversing?" Leo snorted, looking at the naive girl. "Miss Tang, since you made a wish to have Li Xunhuan's child, you should have some idea of what kind of world this is. Might makes right. For the people living here, killing is commonplace, there's no law, no ethics. And of course, no electricity and no WiFi. Try to imagine what your life would be like here."
For the sake of his career, Leo shoved his conscience aside and went into full intimidation mode.
Roxie's expression faltered, but she held her ground. "I'm a modern woman. I have knowledge a thousand years ahead of them. Even if I'm stuck here, I can live a good life, just like Qingchuan or Ruoxi!"
"How proficient are you in Traditional Chinese characters?" Leo asked suddenly.
"…" said Roxie.
"What's the chemical formula for soap?" Leo pressed.
"…" said Roxie.
"Do you have any silver?" Leo asked.
"…" said Roxie.
"They don't have sanitary pads here," Leo stated flatly.
"…" said Roxie.
"See that fat man with the purple-red face over there? That's Zhuge Lei of the Golden Lion Escort Agency. If he decides to force you into doing something against your will after we step out of this bubble, how exactly do you plan to resist?" Leo pointed to the character at a nearby table.
The five-minute bubble allowed them to see the world, but the world couldn't see them.
"…"
Roxie instinctively looked at Zhuge Lei, who was laughing boisterously with his men. He was crude, ugly, and dirty. She felt as if she could smell him even through the transparent barrier.
The thought of being captured by him made her shudder, and her face went pale.
"Wake up. This is the real Jianghu, not some beautiful, sanitized TV drama. If you've ever read some of the darker wuxia authors, the horrible fates of the heroines in those stories are closer to the truth. In the real world, the villains don't politely preserve the heroine's 'first time' for the protagonist…" Leo said coolly. "And let's say you get incredibly lucky and escape his grasp. In a world without navigation, you probably can't even find your way around. I imagine freezing to death would be the best-case scenario. Or maybe starving. I doubt you have any wilderness survival skills."
Dreams are beautiful; reality is cruel.
One by one, Leo ruthlessly popped the beautiful soap bubbles of her fantasy.
"Waaah!"
Roxie burst into tears.
Under Leo's relentless questioning, Roxie was forced to realize that outside of her familiar environment, she was utterly helpless. Transmigration novels were all lies!
"Miss Tang, you have two more minutes to cry," Leo said, glancing at his watch. "After that, the protective shield will disappear, and we will enter the world of
Xiao Li Feidao. I'll ask you one last time: are you sure you want to give up on your dream?"
"Is there no other way?" Roxie felt wronged, trying to negotiate with Leo. "Can you think of something? Maybe there's a loophole in the contract we can use! I'm a 'demo-heiress' back home, I got twenty-three apartments in Shengjing. If you get me back, I'll compensate you for all your losses!"
What kind of compensation could possibly compare to a position at Dreamweavers Inc.?!
Besides, with your fickle personality, you think I'd ever see a dime of that money?
Who are you kidding!
Compared to the vast future offered by Dreamweavers Inc., a real estate heiress was nothing!
He refused her flatly: "Unless you fulfill your dream, there is absolutely no way for you to leave this world."
Roxie fell silent, her eyes darting between the rough-looking men in the tavern and Leo. Her expression was a battlefield of conflict as she struggled with the decision.
"Ahem." Leo cleared his throat, his gaze drifting away. "Miss Tang, the chance to cross dimensions and realize a dream is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. So many people would kill for it. Once the dream is fulfilled, it will be a beautiful memory for the rest of your life. And if you have regrets? A few pills can solve everything! Then you can go back to being a carefree heiress and live happily ever after. If you don't say anything, no one will ever know what happened here."
At that moment, Leo felt like a scoundrel luring an innocent person astray.
So much for conscience and morality. The moment you step out of a stable social order, they're worth nothing!
His words were the final straw that broke Roxie.
She glared at him, biting her lip. "Scumbag!"
"What's it got to do with me!" Leo chuckled, trying to hide his own embarrassment. "Roxie, you made the wish, you signed the contract. I'm just the Dreamweaver helping you achieve it."
"Can I bring things from this world back to Earth?" Perhaps swayed by his words, or perhaps by the sheer allure of traversing worlds, Roxie wiped her tears and started looking for a silver lining.
Compared to the terrifying prospect of being stranded here, getting pregnant in secret didn't seem so unacceptable. It was just like a mosquito bite, she told herself. Besides, it really
was her dream.
"No more than one kilogram," Leo said.
"And you'll guarantee my safety, right?" Roxie asked.
"As long as you follow my instructions, yes," Leo replied.
"Fine. I'll do it." Roxie stared at Leo, as if trying to burn his face into her memory, and said through clenched teeth, "I don't want a third person to know about what happens here."
"Of course." Leo breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "We signed a confidentiality agreement."
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Li Xiaobai."
Leo glanced at the Green Lotus Sword in his hand and plucked a name out of thin air.
The Green Lotus Sword was a prop provided by the company, resembling a game peripheral from a certain online marketplace. It was one meter twenty in length, strictly forged according to the game's design, and was as flashy as could be.
This was a weapon Leo specifically chose to complement his
Cinematic Disarm ability.
Just like the intern skills, the gear provided by Dreamweavers Inc. for its interns was all flash and no substance.
Roxie asked with a stern face, "Your real name?"
Leo grinned. "Fake!"
When you're drifting in the Jianghu, an alias is essential!
In a wuxia world, a name might not matter much.
But what if a future mission was in a high-level xianxia world, full of witchcraft and sorcery, where knowing a name was enough to curse someone? An alias would save a lot of trouble.
Besides, he would have to coexist with this client in the same world later. Given his deceptive behavior, who knew if she'd hold a grudge!
"Hmph!" Roxie stared at his face intently. "I'll remember you," she said coldly.
"No use," Leo whispered, leaning in with a sly grin. "Don't be afraid to hear this, but this face is fake, too! Miss Tang, ours is a one-time partnership. Once the contract is complete, we won't be seeing each other again."
"…" said Roxie.