Eldritch Horror Theatre

Another new player?

Besides, it sounded like this room was quite lively.

”Anna” was undoubtedly a female name. Given the context, Fu Qian thought it was completely obvious what she and Don Juan had been up to in here.

It made sense when he thought about it. For one, Don Juan’s reputation in this regard was already prominent. His father had personally confirmed earlier that nearly a third of the female guests at the wedding had shared physical intimacy with him.

On the other hand, the lady outside had just mentioned a key point. Don Juan had called this place ”the only private corner in Ehm Palace,” a ”place where you wouldn’t be discovered no matter what you did.”

In Fu Qian’s view, there was likely some truth to those words.

As a Transcendent of at least Tier 2, if Jose wanted to, he could keep every movement in the entire Ehm Palace under surveillance.

From this perspective, growing up as his offspring must have been somewhat oppressive for Don Juan.

Under those circumstances, giving the kid a private space for the sake of his mental health was actually quite necessary.

And this private space had to be genuine. Like Chief Yuan’s office, it needed special materials and arrangements to block out prying eyes to a certain extent.For Don Juan—whether it was to avoid his father’s live guidance or to help the women he fancied lower their guard—bringing people here for in-depth exchanges was an entirely logical choice.

The only question was: why would Jose care about the kid’s mental health?

From his brief performance in the Small Prayer Room earlier, one could tell the man wasn’t exactly the warm and tender type.

’Even a vicious tiger will not eat its cubs’ might apply here, but how much care he actually put into the boy’s upbringing was hard to say.

Regardless, it was almost certain that this lady Anna was one of Don Juan’s lovers, and just as certain that she had been here before.

She had even been caught here by the lady currently outside.

But here lay the strange part. How did that young lady outside manage to act as a spectator in a place that even Old Man Jose couldn’t pry into?

”Anna, she...”

While Fu Qian pondered this, the male lead outside clearly stumbled on the name, looking like he’d been caught red-handed.

Naturally, Fu Qian knew that no matter how natural it looked, it was essentially just an act.

Don’t forget, this ”Don Juan” was fake. Unless he possessed a true Soul-Searching Technique, the fact that his actor, Old Man Ji, could find this place—let alone this lover—was already incredibly impressive.

Unfortunately, up to this point, Fu Qian had noted that while the entire Bookstore World might be teeming with extraordinary powers, he had yet to encounter a character capable of directly seeing into a target’s mind—unless the target was already a puppet.

After all, even the widely notorious Excellency Patches was only capable of twisting concepts along certain elements; he had completely failed to anticipate Fu Qian’s ”high noon” resolve at the time.

So, in Fu Qian’s view, beneath Old Man Ji’s seemingly normal reaction, he was probably just as baffled right now about how the person across from him had managed to walk in on such a thing.

”It was just a casual fling with her.”

After a brief moment of thought, his response wasn’t surprising.

On one hand, he was vague; on the other, he heavily emphasized, ”You’re different. Those vulgar women can’t even compare to you.”

”Really? Then why did it look like you were enjoying it so much?”

Unfortunately, the only response he received was a cold sneer. The person across from him was clearly stewing in double the resentment and wouldn’t be swayed so easily.

Amid her mockery, the hem of a burgundy dress flashed into Camera Five’s field of vision. The young lady was actually turning to storm off in a rage.

She stopped a moment later, evidently having been pulled back.

”You were right here at the time—in that cabinet?”

Her ridicule had not been in vain. Old Man Ji, who had clearly grabbed her hand, finally realized something.

The very next moment, a hand entered the field of vision, pointing straight in this direction.

...

Did that even need to be said? Of course she was.

Silence fell outside once more. Despite being the sole target of that pointing finger, Fu Qian felt no panic at the trouble suddenly landing on his doorstep. He merely sighed inwardly.

It couldn’t be any simpler.

He just had to think a little deeper about the contradiction he noted earlier to find the answer.

How could a young woman like her pry into a place that even Jose couldn’t observe from the outside? She couldn’t—unless she was spying from the inside.

Blocking surveillance didn’t mean blocking physical entry, not to mention that the young lady had clearly been brought here before.

Whether she had wanted to leave a surprise or sensed something wrong and prepared to catch him cheating, she had sneaked into this place ahead of time and ultimately witnessed ”her lover and his lover doing things lovers do.”

It really wasn’t a hard scenario to imagine.

Even though he hadn’t yet caught a glimpse of the entire room...

...judging purely by the size of the space, there likely weren’t many hiding spots like this cabinet.

Summing it all up, a rather agonizing scene—cue the classic ”I should be under the car, not in the cabinet”—instantly popped into his head.

Furthermore, there was another piece of circumstantial evidence: wasn’t Camera Five currently inside the cabinet too?

From the beginning until now, all of these camera angles had been based on living people. Naturally, this one was no exception.

There was someone in the cabinet right now.

...

Yes, fortune takes turns. This time, it was the turn of the person who had once been in the cabinet to become the one being observed.

Although Camera Five’s perspective was currently pressed dead against the crack in the middle of the cabinet doors, it didn’t stop Fu Qian from confirming that its host was a hunched-over woman.

She might have been slightly older than the lady outside, but from the corner of his eye, he could still see her pale, slender fingers encased in semi-transparent mesh gloves.

A story within a story. It was obvious that ”Don Juan” hadn’t even finished explaining himself outside before reenacting another scene of getting caught red-handed.

As for why Professor Fu wasn’t panicking in the slightest over such a melodramatic scene?

One direct reason was, naturally, his previous experience.

As an audience member, no matter how melodramatic the plot got, even if ”Don Juan” ran right over and yanked the cabinet open, it wouldn’t affect him in the slightest.

Beyond that, there was actually another reason—a blind spot that looked like a loophole.

That wasn’t Don Juan out there; it was Elite Warehouse Senior, Old Man Ji.

This room might have had the effect of blocking Transcendent Perception, but did this cabinet?

They had been talking for quite a while now. Was there any reason he wouldn’t have noticed someone inside the cabinet?

The only explanation was that he was pretending not to notice.

So for Fu Qian, after realizing it was Old Man Ji outside, one of his core anticipations was seeing how he would handle the voyeur in the cabinet.