The Simple and Honest Aiguyi

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A cloud of choking smoke billowed into Yun Ze's face, sending him into a violent coughing fit. He waved a hand, trying to disperse the thick smoke before him, but it did little good.

With his vision obscured, he was forced to feel his way forward.

He eventually touched a cold wall and followed it along until his hands found a large door.

With a soft creak, the door swung open.

The ease of it startled him. He had expected to endure some form of Suffering to open it, just as he had before.

A sweet voice cut through the darkness, making Yun Ze jump.

"Welcome to Aiguyi Town. I hope you weren't bumped or injured in the church?"

His eyes first landed on a nun's habit. The black and white clothes made him instinctively think of the eerie, obsessive nun from moments ago.

He immediately scrambled backward.

In the darkness, he failed to notice a piece of wood on the ground. He lost his balance and tumbled backward.

Thump.

To his surprise, he didn't hit the ground. Instead, the woman in the nun's habit caught him, steadying him on his feet.

A look of concern crossed her face.

"Are you hurt? Did you twist your ankle? Do you need me to carry you to the doctor?"

The barrage of concerned questions caught Yun Ze completely off guard.

This NPC was all wrong. Shouldn't she have asked if his ankle hurt? And if it didn't, shouldn't she offer to saw his leg off? After all, Suffering was the core of their faith here.

But now that she was closer, Yun Ze could see her clearly. This nun looked completely different from the previous one.

She was like an ordinary country girl. Her features weren't delicate or beautiful, and her skin wasn't fine. A few scattered freckles dotted her face, adding to her plainness.

The hand that steadied him was also a bit rough, with several calluses. It looked like she was no stranger to farm work. Other than the nun's habit she wore, nothing about her matched his image of a nun.

She was nothing like the one from before. The nun in the other church had a holy, inviolable face, her skin as exquisitely flawless as a porcelain doll's, even as her limbs twisted bizarrely with every move. The feeling she gave him was a tangled mix of the sacred and the strange.

It was that deep sense of dissonance that had made the other nun's presence so oppressive.

"Hello? Can you hear me? Did you hit your head?" the nun asked, her voice laced with even more worry.

She reached for Yun Ze's forehead, intending to check for wounds.

Startled, he recoiled.

"No, no, I'm fine. May I ask who you are?"

Seeing that he wasn't injured, the nun let out a long sigh of relief. She led Yun Ze out of the church.

"My name is Chen Xiuxiu," she explained. "I am your exclusive guide."

"Huh?"

Yun Ze was stunned. The girl's features were indeed those of a typical East Asian. But this was Aiguyi, a place with a holy church. It looked like a classic Western coastal town.

What was an Eastern girl doing here?

"Every Outlander who first arrives in the town is assigned an exclusive guide," she continued. "We are responsible for taking care of your daily needs and showing you the beauty of the town."

With that, Chen Xiuxiu flashed a pure, innocent smile. For a moment, it made Yun Ze think he had arrived in the countryside back home, not some bizarre town of Suffering.

But the more normal she acted, the more uneasy he felt.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The beauty of the town? He'd had to break his own finger just to get here. What part of that was beautiful?

Chen Xiuxiu noticed Yun Ze's wary expression but didn't react strangely. Instead, she just apologized quietly.

"I'm so sorry you were smoked out in the church. I didn't expect an Outlander to arrive so late."

She gestured behind her.

"So I let the local kids roast some sweet potatoes here."

As she finished speaking, several small figures poked their heads out from behind the church. Yun Ze frowned and walked over.

He was startled to find four or five children, none of them older than ten or taller than his waist. Their faces were grimy, and their clothes were covered in patches. They clearly weren't living well.

An earthen pit had been dug in the ground next to them, still filled with a large amount of burnt-black charcoal. Because no one had dug an air vent, the thick smoke rose straight up, right next to the church window.

No wonder he had nearly choked to death inside.

"They are poor, homeless children who usually sleep in the church," Chen Xiuxiu said, her tone apologetic. "Please don't blame them."

Yun Ze assessed the situation. He concluded that this resident, Chen Xiuxiu, was at least someone he could communicate with. She probably wouldn't snap and transform at the slightest disagreement like the previous nun.

So, he decided to ask.

"In that case, could you please tell me about Aiguyi Town?"

Hearing his question, Chen Xiuxiu's face immediately lit up with joy. She pointed toward a small path in front of the church.

"The place where you'll be resting is inside the town," she said happily. "I'll tell you all about it on the way."

Yun Ze glanced around. This church was indeed on the very outskirts of the town. Any further out and it would be deserted wilderness.

In the blurry distance, he could see what looked like another row of similar buildings on a hill on the other side. They formed a ring, seemingly enclosing the entire town.

How many churches does this town have?

Still, entering the town was a must, and having a guide was even better. Yun Ze decided to follow Chen Xiuxiu down the country path.

As they walked, she explained everything about the town in a gentle voice. She held nothing back, answering his every question. Even when he repeated himself or asked tricky questions, she never showed any impatience, simply smiling and explaining it all over again.

From Chen Xiuxiu, he learned that Aiguyi Town was isolated from the rest of the world. The townsfolk were self-sufficient, living off the fish they caught along the coast. It had since developed into a town with a population of over a thousand.

The most common faith in the town was【Suffering】.

But Chen Xiuxiu said that although they believed in【Suffering】, they would not force it upon others. Those who believed would only offer up their own suffering.

Therefore, in Aiguyi Town, harming others was the greatest sin. Even if two people were caught in a drunken brawl and only suffered a few scrapes, they would still have to spend a full year in jail to reflect on their actions.

She described the town as a kind of hidden paradise, and her simple, honest demeanor seemed to reflect that.

As they talked, the two arrived in the town proper. Just as they reached the entrance, Yun Ze let out a short, dry laugh.

He saw a dried corpse hanging from the town's tall gate.

Its face was twisted into a terrifying grimace, and its body was riddled with countless knife wounds.

The few pedestrians who occasionally passed by paid it no mind, as if they were already used to the sight.

"Now this is more like it," he thought. "This is how it should be."

Yun Ze found his own thoughts ironic. When faced with a harmony so perfect it could barely exist in the real world, he had been terrified.

Now, discovering the twisted reality beneath that harmony, he felt a sense of relief.

"Yun Ze!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice called out from the other end of the road.

The sound sent a shiver down his spine.

It can't be him, can it?