143: You can only see the skin, but you can't smell the stench.

BASIS International School, Jinling.

The soundproofing in the piano room was excellent, blocking out both the chill outside the window and the clamor of the campus.

Only the final note from the Steinway reverberated in the empty room for a long time, eventually fading into dead silence.

Ye Xi slumped on the piano bench, her bangs dampened by sweat, clinging to her smooth forehead.

The 150-minute high-intensity practice she had just finished made her feel as if her fingers were about to break.

What her father had brought back from Vienna wasn't a gift, but a training schedule that ran until 11:00 PM.

That critique— "Plenty of wildness, but lacking in discipline"—hung over her head like a ruler, forcing her to repeat this piece forty times every single day.

"Talk about discipline... it's all just shackles."

Ye Xi muttered, letting her hands, insured for eight figures, hang at her sides without a hint of grace, while her other hand skillfully fished her phone out from the inner pocket of her schoolbag.

Her only mental support was reading web literature after finishing her practice.

Although the finale of the ferryman had left her sobbing uncontrollably, the book Hell Dream Weaver was like a hook, snagging her curiosity and leaving her itching for more.

The screen lit up, and the Hongguo Reading app refreshed automatically.

【Hell Dream Weaver】 updated a chapter: the fox immortals medicine》.

Her previously limp fingers suddenly found strength the moment they touched the edge of the phone, and the cold light from the screen reflected in her eyes, dispelling her lethargic drowsiness.

She kicked off her shoes and curled up in the corner of the piano bench, her fingertip hovering over the title.

The words poured out like quicksilver, spreading across the screen.

The story in this chapter was not complex, yet it exuded a nauseating, eerie quality.

The protagonist of the story was a plain-looking, even somewhat ugly girl.

In this era of judging by appearances, she had encountered countless cold stares and ridicule.

Until one day, she stumbled into a convenience store called "No. 444".

Zhao Li, who was always wearing a black trench coat with a cold look in his eyes, handed her a bottle of liquid emitting a strange fragrance.

"This is called the fox immortals medicine."

In the book, Zhao Li leaned against the shelf, toying with the small bottle, his tone lazy and dangerous.

"Just one drop is enough to transform you into a peerless beauty. However, it has side effects."

The girl asked: "What side effects? Is it money? I can borrow it, I can take out a loan!"

Zhao Li laughed, and that smile looked particularly chilling under the cold light of the phone screen: "Money? Money is the one thing hell has in abundance. The catalyst for this medicine is your greed. The greedier you are, the more fragrant it becomes; the more you want to hold onto beauty, the more of you it will consume."

The girl took the medicine.

The text on the screen was like some kind of viscous liquid.

【The face in the mirror was glowing. The sunken bridge of her nose seemed to be pinched by an invisible hand, and her pores closed rapidly under the nourishment of the medicine. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but that strange fragrance grew stronger and stronger, like a piece of rotting meat left out in the summer sun, sprayed with cheap perfume.】

Ye Xi subconsciously held her breath, her fingers frozen above the screen.

She became an internet celebrity, a goddess, enjoying the adoration of countless men and the financial support they provided.

However, that strange fragrance grew stronger and stronger, until it turned into the stench of corpse oil.

She saw in the mirror that something seemed to be wriggling under her perfect skin.

To maintain this fake beauty, she had to beg the fox immortals for more medicine, and the price she paid grew higher and higher, from her fingernails, to her hair, and then to... her lifespan.

Ye Xi held her breath, her fingers scrolling rapidly.

At the end of the story, the girl did not find salvation.

On a thundering, rainy night, in her live stream, right in front of millions of fans, that perfect face suddenly fell off like peeling wallpaper, revealing the flesh and blood underneath, which had long since been riddled with holes by greed.

She let out a final scream in despair, then leaped from the high-rise building.

【Zhao Li stood downstairs, looking at the bloody mess, and expressionlessly took back the empty bottle.】

【"Beautiful skins are all alike, while interesting souls are one in a million. Unfortunately, most people in this world only see the skin, but cannot smell the stench of a rotting soul."】

【"Next."】

The chapter ended abruptly.

"Hoo—"

Ye Xi suddenly lifted her head from the screen, only to realize that she had broken into a cold sweat at some point.

The heating in the piano room was very strong, yet she felt a chill running down her spine.

That fear didn't come from ghosts, but from reality.

The girl in the Dream Weaver's writing, that madness of doing anything to become beautiful, that despair of being pushed into the abyss step by step by desire, was too real.

Real enough that it was as if... it was happening right beside her.

"This Dream Weaver is practically a pervert..."

Ye Xi muttered to herself, but her eyes were full of shock.

"But he dissects human nature too thoroughly."

She calmed herself down, her fingers habitually scrolling down, wanting to see how the silly netizens were "protecting their bodies" in the comments section.

However, the comment section today had an unusually eerie vibe.

Gone were the usual banter and the typical jokes.

The top comment was from a netizen with the ID 【Jiangcheng Bai Xiaosheng】, containing only an image and a sentence.

The image was a screenshot of a newspaper, with the headline circled in red: 《Female College Student in Jinling Falls to Her Death Late at Night! Burdened with Million-Yuan "Beauty Loan" Before Death》.

【Bai Xiaosheng】: Brothers, I have goosebumps. This news was just published this morning, in the margins of the Su Province Daily. Is this chapter from Dream Weaver Great Master... a coincidence?

Under this comment, the replies had already built a high-rise of thousands of floors.

【One Straw Rain】: Holy crap! When I read the news, I just thought that girl was stupid, but after reading this chapter, I suddenly understood that kind of despair. Is this a novel? This is investigative journalism, right?

【Midnight Watchman】: Look closely at the time the news happened; it was last night. Dream Weaver Great Master's update time was tonight. In other words, he wrote this chapter the moment the news came out? This speed, this intent... it's terrifying to think about.

【Melon-Eating Crowd】: I noticed it too! The news said that the girl was using some unknown, three-no-brand skincare product before she died, claiming it could rejuvenate her skin, and it was only after her face rotted that she took out the loan. This is exactly the same as the "the fox immortals medicine" in the book!

【Passerby A】: Who exactly is Dream Weaver? Does he live at the crime scene? Or is it that...

Ye Xi looked at those comments, her heart skipping a beat.

She quickly exited the reading app and opened her browser to search for the news.

Sure enough, there were reports everywhere.

The time, location, cause of death, and even the girl's psychological state before she died, all had a staggering degree of overlap with the description in the novel.

The only difference was that in the novel, it was the fox immortals claiming a life, while in reality, it was loan sharks forcing someone to their death.

But what difference was there, essentially, between the two?

Both utilized human greed, promised false beauty, and in the end, devoured their victims skin and bone.

"This can't just be a coincidence..."

Ye Xi's fingers gripping the phone turned slightly white.

If it were just to chase trends, one couldn't write such a profound core.

That compassion for the deceased, that criticism of society's morbid aesthetics, could never be achieved by a mere web novel writer who only knew how to type.

This "Hell Dream Weaver", his eyes, they were too sharp.

Ye Xi suddenly had a strong urge; she wanted to find someone to confide in about this shock.

She tapped on WeChat and found the pinned conversation, whose profile picture was a pitch-black starry sky.

【Fugitive Beethoven】: Master Lin! Are you there? [Peeking.jpg]

【Fugitive Beethoven】: You must go read the new chapter of soul ferry》! And today's Su Province Daily》!

【Fugitive Beethoven】: How can there be such a coincidence in this world?

...