Absolutely True

While Ye Qingyun was deep in thought, a maid from Sweetwater Lane brought over the bathwater.

“Miss Qingrou, your bathwater has arrived. Do you require our assistance?” a respectful girl of fifteen or sixteen asked.

The moment she spoke, Ye Qingyun immediately refused.

“Ah? No, no, it’s fine, I’ll manage myself.” Ye Qingyun hastily shook his head.

It was out of the question; he hadn’t even grown accustomed to his new body yet. How could he possibly let someone attend to him?

The official game developers had imposed gender restrictions precisely for this reason. They feared male players might maliciously use female characters for lewd fantasies. After all, the true nature of the game world remained unknown, making it difficult to distinguish between players and NPCs.

Certainly, Ye Qingyun wasn’t the only player in Sweetwater Lane. In ancient times, a woman’s identity was generally limited to a few types, easily counted on one’s fingers.

Yet, Ye Qingyun was exceptional. He was simply too beautiful, so much so that even the system had made a mistake in its judgment.

Moreover, it was too late to change anything now. Had Ye Qingyun not entered the game, he might have been able to contact the official company for a modification. However, the identity had already been implanted, rendering even the developers powerless to intervene.

After ushering the maid out, Ye Qingyun hesitantly surveyed his own body. He approached the dressing mirror, examining himself from left to right. Curiosity certainly stirred within him, yet Ye Qingyun was not a lecherous person, nor did he harbor any lascivious thoughts.

The issue was that, playing a female character, it would be incredibly difficult for him to avoid physical contact.

In the mirror, Ye Qingyun appeared stunningly cold yet alluring, a true enchantress. It was no wonder he had become Sweetwater Lane’s top courtesan. While Ye Qingyun understood the system’s hints, he was not a woman. To expect him to flaunt his charms and bewitch men like one? Frankly, only a man with an incredibly thick skin could pull that off. His own skin was far too thin for such an endeavor.

“How did I manage to trap myself like this? Why did I have to make my character so beautiful? I should have just made her ordinary, sigh!” Ye Qingyun gazed at his character, a look of utter exasperation on his face.

He felt certain that his character’s excessive beauty was precisely why he had been assigned such an identity.

After a moment of internal struggle, he still decided to take a bath. Bathing was a necessity, required daily after each performance.

‘So what if I look? It’s not someone else, it’s my own character. Can’t I even look at myself?’ Ye Qingyun deliberated beside the bathtub for a long while before finally steeling his resolve.

He slowly shed his clothes. With each garment removed, he felt a certain innocent bashfulness within his heart begin to dissipate.

As soon as he was undressed, he quickly slipped into the bathtub, feeling utterly uncertain of how to proceed. The sensation of the hot water was equally, startlingly real.

Settling into the tub, Ye Qingyun remained still for a moment. Then, he slowly opened his eyes and shyly glanced down. At once, his face flushed crimson. He had seen everything.

“Damn it, why is this game so realistic? There’s absolutely no privacy or concealment. No wonder they had to restrict genders, this is insane,” Ye Qingyun muttered, a pained expression on his face.

“Pervert! Don’t you dare look!” Ye Qingxue chastised, utterly abashed.

Ye Qingyun’s face burned. He had almost forgotten that his younger sister was still observing him from within his body.

However, what was there to agonize over now that he had already seen it? Everything had a first time; once that initial hurdle was cleared, everything else would be much simpler.

Human desires, once indulged for the first time, become almost impossible to suppress.

This was the most arduous bath Ye Qingyun had ever taken. The sensations and reactions of a woman’s body flooded his nerves completely. In reality, he was not a woman, and these feelings were utterly foreign to him.

He spent an entire hour in the water. Only when the bathwater turned cold did he limply rise, then opened the wardrobe. Inside, Ye Qingyun’s wardrobe contained only red garments.

He tried his best to choose clothing that wasn’t too revealing. However, for a woman in a pleasure quarter, even the most conservative attire still had its limits.

Few of the clothes in the wardrobe were truly modest. Most were designs with exposed shoulders, open backs, or skirts that offered tantalizing glimpses of the thighs with every step.

In ancient times, such clothing was never worn by respectable women; only those from the pleasure district would dress in such a manner.

Fortunately, Ye Qingyun was a modern person. To a contemporary eye, these outfits were still considered somewhat conservative.

He changed into a dress with a rather high slit—it was the only one he could currently tolerate.

Ye Qingyun considered for a moment. He couldn’t simply waste time like this. He needed to first understand the situation in this Song Kingdom, and the best way to do that was to ask others.

The system would not reveal unknown information; it only provided answers to existing questions. For anything unfamiliar, he would have to acquire knowledge within this world himself.

‘What should I do? I can’t just sit here and wait. I need to figure out the situation first,’ Ye Qingyun thought to himself.

After his bath, he opened the door and looked at the two maids standing outside.

One maid was named Dong’er, and the other Qiu’er. They had been sent by Sweetwater Lane to attend to Ye Qingyun. They enjoyed far more freedom than Ye Qingyun, who wasn’t even permitted to leave Sweetwater Lane.

“Dong’er, Qiu’er, both of you, come in for a moment,” Ye Qingyun called out.

The two young girls paused for a brief moment, then dutifully stepped inside.

“Miss Qingrou, do you have something you wish to instruct us to do?” Dong’er asked, a hint of confusion in her voice.

Ye Qingyun walked over to the bed and sat down, then proceeded to check the two girls’ information.

[System scan initiated…]

[Scan successful.]

Name: Dong’er, Qiu’er.

Identity: Sweetwater Lane maids.

Age: 16.

Strength: Pathetic.

Affection: Indifferent.

Ye Qingyun’s primary concern was this ‘affection’ rating. During the internal beta, he had learned that increasing an NPC’s affection could lead to unexpected results. Thus, these two maids were potentially exploitable.

“Ahem, Dong’er, Qiu’er, when did both of you arrive at Sweetwater Lane?” Ye Qingyun began to engage them in conversation, aiming to build rapport.

If he wanted these two girls to obey him, he would need to increase their affection. This principle was the same in reality; no stranger would help you without reason.

“Ah? Miss, why do you ask about this?” The two young girls looked at each other, a little surprised, then inquired.

“Oh, it’s like this. As you know, I’ve been in Sweetwater Lane for ten years, only making my debut two years ago. Due to some issues, I’ve been at odds with Mama Li. I only came to my senses today. Since you two are my personal maids, it’s only natural for me to want to understand you better,” Ye Qingyun explained, speaking indirectly.

These young girls were only sixteen. How could they possibly be a match for Ye Qingyun? Soon enough, both of them were drawn into his ploy.

“Is that so? Miss Qingrou, you really should have realized this sooner. Resistance is futile here. Let me tell you, Mama Li was almost ready to sell you to the Beauty Pavilion. That place is far worse than our Sweetwater Lane,” Dong’er suddenly revealed to Ye Qingyun.

“Hmm? Beauty Pavilion? What kind of place is that?” Ye Qingyun asked, feeling a touch of confusion. There were so many song and dance houses in the pleasure quarter; he couldn’t keep track of their various types.

Seeing Ye Qingyun press for details, Dong’er’s face immediately flushed. Then, bashfully, she whispered something into Ye Qingyun’s ear.

Upon hearing her words, Ye Qingyun’s lips twitched involuntarily, and his expression turned exceedingly grim.

The Beauty Pavilion, it turned out, was a place where women sold their bodies.

‘Damn, I almost screwed up big time.’ Ye Qingyun breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. It was a good thing he hadn’t chosen to resist. Had he done so, he likely would have had to find a place to commit suicide and restart.