The Otherworldly Adventures of a Super Naive Girl

445: Alante

It took Rain an hour to finish chopping the wood after Feng Wu walked over to help. Afterwards, they returned to their room.

Their roommates had been talking, but the moment Feng Wu and Rain entered, they became quiet and immediately broke away from each other to go to their respective beds, completely ignoring Rain and Feng Wu.

Rain wasn’t like them. She was only at the castle to complete the task and get her bonus, so of course she didn’t care how the other maids saw her.

The four girls were divided into two factions: Feng Wu and Rain were one, and the two girls were the other.

Neither of the girls wanted to be dragged down with Rain after the trouble earlier that day, so they chose to keep their distance from her. As a result, their first night was tense and awkward.

The four girls got their assignments the next morning. Feng Wu was assigned clean up duty. Her primary responsibility would be the second floor.

Rain was assigned kitchen duty. Her main responsibility would be to help out in the kitchen doing whatever odds and ends needed doing.

The other two girls were assigned yard duty in the back. As long as they diligently stayed on top of sweeping the leaves everyday, it would be an easy task.

They thought Rain would be assigned heavy work, that the lady maids would pull some kind of trick behind the scenes to make her suffer because of what happened yesterday, so they were surprised when this was unexpectedly not the case.

Could the maids have generously forgiven Rain?

No, thinking like that gave the maids too much credit. Servants getting along like that during normal times in a home like the count’s was rare enough. Letting a lower ranked servant get away with insult would be even more rare.

Sure enough, a few days later the maids showed up in the kitchen to give Rain trouble, assigning her random extra tasks, then deliberately looking for fault with Rain so they could justify asking Tingli to punish her.

Rain, who had a constant stream of trouble, had no time to investigate the countess. It took all she had to suppress her anger and not reveal their disguise.

The original plan was to have Rain do most of the legwork, but with her being the center of so much attention, it was impossible. She would only draw unwanted attention if she were to start asking questions about the countess.

This meant Wind, Pei Qing, and Feng Wu had to take over and do all the work. Unfortunately, Wind and Pei Qing were men, so it was hard for them to ask about and get information on the countess. Which meant in reality, the only one who could investigate was the socially inept Feng Wu.

Feng Wu was allowed to clean the guest rooms and corridors but wasn’t permitted to work near the masters because she was too new.

In the three days since entering the castle, they hadn’t found anything. In fact, they hadn’t even laid eyes on the count or countess. The husband and wife were almost always locked away in their rooms, doing who knew what.

Though there was gossip the countess occasionally came out to delegate tasks, Feng Wu herself had never seen the elusive lady.

Feng Wu only had ten days to complete the task before the individual challenge started. She worked hard to investigate the countess because she was on a tight schedule. Let’s look at all the ways she tried.

First Attempt:

“Why are you here? This floor is the masters’ private residence. No one comes up unless they’ve been summoned! How did you get up here?!” A maid with a wary face stopped Feng Wu.

“Sister Tingli asked me to come to the fourth floor to clean.” Feng Wu replied with a deadpan expression while raising her rag and bucket.

“This is the fifth floor! The fourth floor is below this one!” The maid angrily pointed to the floor.

“Oh.” Feng Wu nodded and went downstairs with her bucket and rag.

The plan to pretend to clean the count’s room failed.

Second attempt:

“The countess didn’t say she wanted to eat snacks. Who asked you to bring those here without permission!” A maid asked Feng Wu after stopping her.

“These are the new pastries from the kitchen. The old lady asked me to bring some to the count.” Feng Wu replied.

“The old lady asked you to bring them over? Eat one and show me.” The maid looked suspiciously at Feng Wu.

Without a word, Feng Wu ate one of the pastries. . . 

After awhile the plate bottomed out.

Maid:. . . 

Feng Wu: Delicious.

The plan to approach the target with snacks failed.

Attempt three:

Attempt four:

And so on. . . 

The fifth floor was guarded by those loyal to the count and countess. Feng Wu tried really hard using many different methods, but none worked and she couldn’t get in to see either of her targets.

But luckily, because she kept persisting, the fourth day brought a reward. Feng Wu was cleaning the corridor when she saw a beautiful woman escorted by a lady’s maid. She didn’t know who this person was, so when she saw her approach, Feng Wu stood with a blank look on her face without performing the customary greeting.

“How brazen! Not greeting even though you see the countess approach?!” Lamia berated Feng Wu loudly.

Was this the countess?! Feng Wu was a little surprised, but she stepped aside and offered her greetings.

“It’s quite all right Lamia. Don’t scare the girl. Come, don’t be afraid, tell this lady your name.” The countess said kindly to Feng Wu after addressing her maid.

“My name is Feng Wu.” Feng Wu had lowered her head, so it was impossible to read her eyes.

“What a fine name for such a beautiful girl. It’s rare to see one so beautiful amongst the servants,” praised the countess before walking away with her maid.

Although the servants were all young, beautiful women, their beauty was separated into different grades for rank. Feng Wu’s beauty was a rarity amongst the women.

The countess sat quietly in front of her dresser as she combed her hair in the room she shared with her husband. She smiled while stroking the smooth skin on her face.

“Alante.” An emaciated and withered man struggled to call out her name from the bed.

“My dear Nigusu, are you uncomfortable?” Alante asked her husband tenderly.

“I am fine Alante. Where did you go just now? Why didn’t you stay by my side, my love. I don’t want us to be apart even for a moment.” Nigusu’s eyes were lit with affection.

“I won’t ever leave you. We’ll be together forever, and ever. . . ” Alante promised with a smile.

446: Feng Wu is Targeted

After Nigusu fell asleep, a sudden breeze blew apart the curtains by the window. An incredibly beautiful and curvy woman appeared in the room. The long, black dress she wore caressed against her body sinuously under the cloak she had on. She only needed to glance at a man and he would be willing to die for her.

“Alante, do you have a new target?” The woman smiled, completely unconcerned about Count Nigusu being in the room.

“Yes, she’s a new servant, young and very beautiful with a body full of vitality. I will be able to stay with my precious Nigusu for a while longer if I absorb her blood.” Alante glanced at the man she loved with all her heart. She would gladly have sold her soul for him.

The woman played with her porcelain-like fingers as she casually said, “I like women like you, you’ll ignore everything and do whatever it takes to pursue your goals. But don’t forget, I got you the man you love, but you still have not completed what you promised me you would.”

“Don’t worry. I will do what I promised. I won’t fail.” Alante poured herself a glass of wine and sipped it carefully.

“All right. I will wait for the good news then.” The woman smiled before transforming into a bat and flying off into the night sky.

Alante walked over to her husband and gently laid down to sleep next to him.

Until the day she encountered Nigusu, she had thought it was her lot in life to remain a commoner.

She was born a noble lady, but became a commoner through a trick of fate.

As a child, her family hadn’t liked her because she lacked beauty. She was eventually pushed out to fend for herself by her beautiful half sister from her father’s concubine wife.

Before being pushed out, she had endured constant eye rolls and condescending glances. Having suffered this since she was young, it made her hungry for a beautiful face and the perfect romance.

She would never forget the day Nigusu helped her despite her appearance.

Her half sister, afraid she would return and usurp the favored daughter position, had hired a group of thugs to destroy her beyond recognition. There was no need for it though. Alante knew better than anyone else, her parents cared more about their reputation than they did about their daughter.

So that day, a group of men, intent on rape then murder, had surrounded Alante. Fortunately, Nigusu rescued her, so their plan failed. She fell in love with Nigusu on sight, but it was a hopeless love because she was so ugly.

Just when she wanted to die from the pain, the woman appeared. She was told her dreams could come true if she was willing to pay the price.

Alante didn’t care about the cost, as long as her dreams came true, she would accept.

She did as told and drank a drop of the woman’s blood. The next thing she knew, she had somehow transformed into a peerless beauty. However there was a catch. Her beauty was temporary and needed to be maintained with the blood of beautiful, young girls.

The first girl she drank was none other than the girl who stole her identity, her beautiful half-sister. She would never forget the horror and disbelief in her half-sister's eyes before dying.

It was a rush. Alante loved how satisfying her new strength felt, for she had gained more than just beauty after drinking the woman’s blood, she had also gained extraordinary power.

Her beauty grew so that any man who saw her fell in love with her, however, she wasn't interested in any of them. There was only one man she wanted.

In order to create a chance encounter with Nigusu, she reverted to being a commoner and from there successfully made him fall in love with her. But just as she thought they would be happy together, Nigusu began exhibiting health problems. His once handsome face grew haggard as he became weaker every day. didn’t matter to Alante though. She loved him regardless of how he looked.

She knew his change had to be connected to her somehow so she confronted the woman who gave her beauty and power to find out.

The woman easily admitted to it. She explained that ordinary humans couldn’t withstand the power of the transformed qi in her blood. It was only because Nigusu had practiced the arts for so long and his strength was good, that he was still alive, otherwise he would have already died some time ago from being in her vicinity.

She would have to leave him forever if she wanted him to live.

This, she was unwilling to do. She didn’t want to leave the man she had loved for so long. If he had to die, then she would kill herself too. Then they would be together as a loving couple even after death.

It didn’t matter whether it was life or death. They would always be together. They loved each other so much, they shouldn’t be separated. Who would even think of separating them? Perish the thought!

Feng Wu didn’t know it, but she didn’t need to spend energy to investigate the countess anymore because the countess already had her eyes on Feng Wu.

The next day, Lamia found Feng Wu and told her to go to the countess’s room, that the countess wanted to see her.

Lamia didn’t take Feng Wu up through the servant stairs; instead she took her up via a secret stairway.

Feng Wu was skeptical Lamia would bring her to the countess’s room so she took note of the route they took and secretly told Rui Baby to send a message to Pei Qing.

Rui Baby hadn’t dared come out and had been hiding in her sleeves the entire time they were in the count’s castle. He was antsy from being cooped up for so many days. He flew off immediately after Feng Wu told him the message.

Lamia was just an ordinary person, so she was incapable of seeing Rui Baby fly away.

Feng Wu followed behind Lamia around until they came to door. Faint red light seeped through the opening.

“The countess is inside; you can go in alone.” Lamia gestured with her eyes as she spoke.

Feng Wu silently nodded before pushing the door open. She’d only taken a single step when Lamia shoved her from behind.

It would have been easy for Feng Wu to escape but Pei Qing had said they couldn’t reveal their identities, so because of this, she didn’t resist or dodge and Lamia was able to easily shove her into the room.

The door clang shut immediately behind her.