Pale Requiem: Transformed into a Girl

Chapter 13: A National Treasure

When Luo Nansheng saw Bai Lengci clearly, her graceful tone carried a faint trace of barely perceptible coldness.

“You are looking for whom?”

Bai Lengci’s calm gaze met hers.

With her newly sharpened senses, she caught the fleeting scrutiny in the other’s eyes.

This kind of beauty carried a sense of distance, different from her own current inhuman whiteness.

It was more like something carefully maintained, built upon a life of privilege—an ultimate perfection that belonged to the mortal world.

Bai Lengci spoke neither humbly nor arrogantly.

“My name is Bai Lengci. I came today to ask Mr. Yu something. Could I trouble you to let him know?”

Luo Nansheng’s beautiful eyes lingered on Bai Lengci’s face for a few seconds.

“Please wait a moment.”

With that, she closed the door halfway.

Bai Lengci stood quietly on the tall steps, the cold winter wind brushing against her raised collar.

With Mr. Yu’s status in the Academy of Social Sciences, he was not someone one could simply ask to see.

This was not a place with doors wide open to guests.

It was usually a housekeeper who answered the door if there was no appointment.

A simple:

“Mr. Li is not here. Please call.”

—was the standard response, without even a chance to report further.

Today, it happened to be this unfamiliar woman who opened the door.

After a moment, the door opened again.

“Come in. The teacher asked you to go inside.”

Bai Lengci gave a slight nod.

Following Luo Nansheng into the entryway, she was met with the warmth of the heater, mingled with the scents of old books, fine wood, and a faint trace of incense.

Beyond the vast floor-to-ceiling windows stretched a misty expanse of lake.

The interior was a low-key luxury—simple, elegant Chinese furniture paired with a few weighty Western antiques.

Ink paintings with far-reaching moods hung on the walls.

The scenery itself was already pleasing to the eye, but when Luo Nansheng turned gracefully to gesture, standing in that interplay of light and refinement, she herself became the centerpiece of a breathtaking “mortal beauty.”

Of course, this was merely Bai Lengci’s extremely calm and objective judgment.

“Slippers.”

Luo Nansheng’s voice remained cool as she handed over a pair of brand-new indoor slippers.

“Thank you.”

Bai Lengci bent down to change her shoes.

As she leaned forward, the collar of her dark coat opened slightly.

The warmth of the room seemed to wrap more tightly around her, bringing with it a faint sense of restraint.

She straightened, naturally taking off her coat and draping it over her arm.

In that instant, as the coat came off, Luo Nansheng’s gaze inevitably fell upon her face.

Without the cover of the collar, Bai Lengci’s flawless features were fully exposed under the light.

Luo Nansheng’s pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

Even though she herself was a rare beauty, at that moment a silent line of past commentary flitted through her heart:

“The brilliance of mountains, the voice of water, the hue of the moon, the fragrance of flowers, the charm of a scholar, the grace of a beauty—indescribable, unattainable, enough to summon soul and dream, to overturn thoughts and feelings.”

With her heightened senses, Bai Lengci clearly caught the brief stillness and deeper scrutiny in the gaze beside her.

She was not surprised in the least.

She even calmly agreed inwardly.

With this body’s current appearance, it truly could be called “a calamity to nations and people.”

But so what?

It was only a vessel.

“This way.”

Luo Nansheng quickly withdrew her gaze.

Her expression returned to its cool, distant demeanor, as if that momentary daze had never occurred.

They passed through the spacious living room and entered a corridor leading toward the study.

Flames leapt softly in the fireplace, crackling faintly.

The door to the study was ajar.

Luo Nansheng knocked gently twice before pushing it open.

“Teacher, she is here.”

The study carried a tranquil air of aged paper and fine wood.

Behind a wide rosewood desk, a middle-aged man sat facing the doorway.

On the desk before him, there were no books or papers—only a chessboard, its black and white stones scattered in an unfinished game.

He was Yu Chunqiu.

His hair was parted long down the middle, giving him an air of artistry.

His features were gaunt, his eyes small, often carrying a faintly narrowed smile.

At this moment, the corners of his mouth were habitually curved upward, as if he were always smiling.

Bai Lengci stepped into the study and bowed slightly in his direction.

“Mr. Yu.”

Yu Chunqiu’s gaze landed on her face.

For a fleeting moment, his usually narrowed eyes seemed to open just a fraction wider before bending again into their familiar arc, his smile deepening.

“Hehehe, Xiao Bai, it really has been so long since you last came by.”

His voice was mellow.

“It’s been a while, and you’ve grown even more… beautiful.”

Bai Lengci’s expression did not ripple, as if the comment were not directed at her.

“Mr. Yu jests.”

She went straight to the point.

“I came today because I have a question to ask you. I may need your help.”

Yu Chunqiu waved his hand with a smile, leaning slightly forward, his attention returning to the chessboard.

“Oh? No rush, no rush. Let me finish this game first.”

He lifted his head to glance at the grandfather clock in the corner.

“Besides, it’s nearly mealtime. People are made of iron, food is made of steel—skip a meal and you’ll be starving.Let’s eat first, and then slowly talk about your question. How about that?”

As he spoke, he was just about to place down a white stone.

But beside him, Luo Nansheng, standing like a painting, suddenly spoke.

Her voice was still cool, but wrapped with a sharp thread of anger:

“Teacher!”

Yu Chunqiu’s hand holding the stone froze in mid-air, puzzled as he looked at her.

Luo Nansheng pointed to an unremarkable corner of the chessboard.

There, where it should have been empty, a black stone now lay.

Her delicate brows furrowed.

“Just now, when I went to open the door, did you put back the ‘Black Nine–Three’ I had already captured? That stone—I clearly removed it!”

Yu Chunqiu’s smile stiffened instantly.

His small eyes darted, and his fingers holding the black stone instinctively pulled back.

He coughed dryly, trying to argue.

“Cough, cough… Xixi, you must have seen wrong? This… this black stone, it must have slid over on its own? Or… the wind? Yes! Just now a breeze came through the window crack…”

“Teacher, you’re being shameless again.”

Yu Chunqiu waved his hand grandly.

“Alright, alright, we’ll let it go this time. I won’t take stones again next time.”

Hearing him speak as if granting her leniency, Luo Nansheng was utterly speechless.

“Teacher, at your age, can you not at least have some decency in chess? Last time, you swapped out my ‘White West–Six.’ The time before that, you pretended to slip and spilled the jar to reset the board… And now this, even worse—you went and ‘resurrected’ a dead stone while I was away!”

Yu Chunqiu, called out so bluntly by his student, felt his old face a bit hard to keep.

Still, he forced himself to act upright, widening his little eyes in feigned innocence.

“Xixi, how can you slander your teacher like this? I’ve always been rigorous in scholarship, upright and aboveboard. How could I ever stoop to such, such… cough, such base acts?”

But when he said the words “upright and aboveboard,” his voice lacked any conviction.

“Base or not, you know it well yourself.”

Luo Nansheng showed no mercy, her face stern.

“In any case! There must not be a next time!”