Purple Illusion wore a pretty little dress and neat round leather shoes, petals and river stones swapped in for armor, a different girl under the same moon.
“Welcome to Purple Illusion’s café,” she said, her voice a silver bell in a violet hall.
The girl smiled like a crescent, thumbed a switch with a soft click; the door rumbled like thunder, and some hidden shutter slid down like an iron curtain.
“You lured us here, didn’t you? That’s vile!” Anger surged first like sparks in dry reeds, then Yin Mu flicked her gun’s safety and leveled it like a drawn bow at Purple Illusion.
“It’s not like that; I didn’t seal your way back… I just want what comes next to not rattle the guests inside, like a wind kept from lanterns.”
“Next?”
“You want to save Dreamwood Star… but before that, there’s one truth you need to carve into stone.”
“Huh? Save Dreamwood Star!?” Yue Liuyi’s heart skipped like a pebble dropped into a well, rings spreading under still water.
“Right. Since you plan a Donglin New Park, your aim is clear as frost… but I’m telling you, the road isn’t that simple, it twists like a mountain path.”
The purple‑haired girl stepped forward without fear, a swallow cutting through dusk; another door yawned open like a mouth in the wall.
This door was set into the violet corridor, seamless as bark to a tree; beyond lay a bright room, square tables and sofas like chess pieces, flowers and plants growing like small constellations.
“Standing is tiring as holding rain on your back; let’s sit and talk~” Her words fluttered like ribbons as she gestured them in.
“Eh? This is…”
“LittleSnow, should we…”
“In that case, Xiao Yue, let’s be guests for a moment; I want to hear what her wind carries.” After a breath like weighing stones, the silver‑haired girl nodded and took Yue Liuyi’s hand like threading warm silk.
“Wait, my queen! It’s a trap for sure; we need our shields up!” Yin Mu’s warning cracked the air like a snapped twig.
“We’ll be careful, yes—but Yin Mu, we also need to know what’s really happening here, like feeling the current before crossing.” Yue Liuyi glanced at Purple Illusion, then felt Dixue’s warmth in her palm like a live ember.
She decided to go in as a guest, stepping onto a blade’s edge where risk and harvest share one stalk.
Because risk and reward grow like twin vines on the same trellis.
…
…
“Master, another cup?” The voice drifted like steam curling from porcelain.
“No more, no more… though for my cute Little Huan, I could force one more down, like a reluctant sip of bitter tea.”
The “lounge” holding the girls was actually a monitoring room, a still pond hiding fish.
Through pale‑violet amethyst screens, tiny private rooms bloomed like lanterns; maids fluttered like swallows, serving their masters with drinks and little rituals.
Beyond the ordinary rooms, unique compartments waited like masked stages; attendants in strange costumes served within, crafting bespoke experiences like tailored robes.
“Woof! Hubby, you’re amazing! (male voice)” The line barked out like a stray dog in an alley.
“Hahaha! Of course I am!!!!” Laughter crashed like cymbals, brash and bright.
There was nothing eighteen‑plus on screen, but the hints were fireflies in dusk; the girls flushed scarlet, eyes skittering away like minnows.
“Y‑you made my master and me watch this? Is this a tour of your café’s business?” Yin Mu sat on the sofa like a perched cat, mask still on, wary as frost on glass.
“Exactly; I want you to see how these clients spend, like rain poured from a full gourd… that bottle of Lafite just opened? Three hundred thousand yuan per bottle.”
“Th‑three hundred thousand a bottle?!” Yue Liuyi jolted like a bell struck hard.
“Sure; the base price is only a hundred thousand~ but since it’s in Purple Illusion’s café, that number isn’t strange, like a peony priced for spring.”
“S‑so expensive?” The blue‑haired girl shrank into herself like a folded umbrella; Moon Post Bookstore hadn’t earned two hundred thousand since it opened.
“Hee‑hee, exactly~” Purple Illusion laughed lively as a skipping stone, then pointed to another room, a star picked from the sky: “That’s our headliner; her booking fee is three thousand yuan an hour, which means an hour’s work brings in several thousand like fruit dropping into a basket.”
“H‑huh?” Yue Liuyi looked in; the serving girl’s aura flowed like incense smoke, every move carrying an unnamed flavor, a cup of tea you can smell before you sip.
Her face might not match LittleSnow’s snow‑bright beauty, yet she hit Yue Liuyi like that first meeting with LittleSnow, a déjà vu in spring light.
“Of course~ if Miss Yue comes, I promise you’ll earn the same; not just you—the silver‑haired big sis too… the rest may not be headliners, but their treatment won’t trail far, like boats on the same tide.”
“Uh…” The word fell like a pebble, small but real.
“Wow! I’d never do that—as the main character, how could I just… I mean… if it were me, how much per hour?” Yin Mu ripped off her mask like a bandage, cheeks shining like apples.
“Oh! Pretty cute; under my training, at least a thousand yuan an hour, like picking coins from a ripe field.”
“Yay!! I can earn a thousand too!!” (Yin Mu’s expression) Her smile burst like fireworks before she caught herself.
“Yin Mu, w‑wait!” Yue Liuyi’s voice rang like a wind chime, sharp with worry.
“It’s not about money… is it really right to have these girls do this? Look how close they are to clients; parts of their bodies already exposed like leaves in a storm! This isn’t… healthy.”
“Oh? If not this, how should they live?” Purple Illusion’s smile curved like a blade’s edge, the question smooth and cold.
“L‑live?” The word tasted like unboiled water on Yue Liuyi’s tongue.
“They were born and raised on Dreamwood Star, simple girls like wild grass; not the brightest, and with no gift for force. Without my training, they’d be sales clerks or servers, bottom‑rung jobs, earning a few dozen yuan a day like gathering dew.”
Purple Illusion’s words slipped in like a knife, point first, straight into Yue Liuyi’s chest.
Not everyone has a quick mind or rare talent; most people are pebbles in the river, scraping forward to survive as Purple Illusion said.
“Mm…” The sound trembled like a moth against paper.
“I’m only offering a door to anyone who wants to earn, an open gate in a wall… even the boys; if they’re willing to bend, they can make big money like bamboo bent into a bow.”
“B‑but…” The protest fluttered like a trapped sparrow, because Purple Illusion’s point weighed like a stone.
In today’s fallen Dreamwood Star, selling cheap labor is dry well water; what Purple Illusion runs is the third sector the city needs, a market street lit at dusk.
It may feel unhealthy, a crooked alley under lanterns, yet the purple‑haired girl is giving people jobs, and taxes flow like streams to feed the city’s bones.
“So you must be clear on this~~ if you cause chaos in Xinke District, Little Huan and these cute girls will lose their jobs, and you’ll be the sinners, names etched like stains.”
“Mm…” Guilt pooled like ink in Yue Liuyi’s chest.
Just as she drew breath to speak, hurried footsteps drummed outside like rain on tiles.
“Sister Huan, bad news! Mechanical Monster is attacking again!” The cry sliced the air like a siren, sharp and cold.
