Golden Willow Street.
This is the famous den of indulging in brothels in Lingyao City, a paradise for men.
Qinlou and Chuguan, each with its own unique style, stand on both sides of the street. The gatehouses are exquisitely decorated, and the bright red lanterns are particularly conspicuous in the night.
At the door and in front of the railing upstairs, women in cool clothes are dressed up and smiling sweetly, soliciting customers.
The smell of cosmetics in the air is stronger than anywhere else.
The faintest and most lascivious music came from somewhere.
A young man of medium height and ordinary appearance came to a brothel. This man was Xue Huan, who had changed his appearance and clothes after leaving the inn.
She looked at the plaque of the brothel, which had three large characters "Narcissus Pavilion" written on it.
Among all the gorgeous and gorgeous buildings, this brothel is truly fresh and unconventional.
Not only were there no cool and beautiful women soliciting customers in front of the door, but there were also checkpoints set up one after another, and only those who successfully passed were qualified to enter.
This is also the reason why she chose this brothel at first sight.
After all, she wasn't really there to visit the brothel, but to sleep.
Xuan Ling squatted on her shoulder and sniffed the strong scent of powder in the air. He couldn't help but sneeze, "Is this the place you mentioned?"
"That's right. One look at this Narcissus Pavilion tells you it's a high-end yet elegant place. The women inside are definitely the type who sell their art but not their bodies. Furthermore, the environment is quite elegant, much better than the Tianheng Inn."
Xue Huan walked up the steps and came to the porch. A pretty maid in a green dress came to greet her. "You look unfamiliar, young master. This must be your first time at Narcissus Pavilion. We have a rule at Narcissus Pavilion that guests must pass through three checkpoints before entering."
Xue Huan nodded. "I came here specifically because I heard about this rule. I want to see how difficult the levels of your Narcissus Pavilion are."
The maidservant in green pursed her lips and smiled: "Then you must watch carefully, sir."
She clapped her hands, and two servants brought out two standing stands as tall as a person. These were two easels, each with a scroll of painting on it. The maid in green put the two paintings down.
At first glance, the two paintings that were put down looked the same. They depicted a woman leaning against a bush and playing with a cat. The painting style was delicate and beautiful, especially the eyes of the beauty in the painting. The eyes were moving and very vivid and expressive, as if she was really looking at you.
The maid in green lit a stick of incense nearby and said to Xue Huan, "Master, there are nine subtle differences between these two paintings. You need to find all of them within one stick of incense to pass the level."
Xue Huan was a little surprised. She had thought that the levels in Narcissus Pavilion would involve reciting poems, composing fu, playing the piano, etc., but she didn't expect that it would be about finding differences in pictures. It was quite interesting.
She used to be obsessed with this kind of game for a while and was the best at finding faults.
Xue Huan's eyes fell on the two paintings, and she began to look for the differences between them. Xuan Ling, who was squatting on her shoulder, also started looking with her.
"Here, the hairpins worn by the beauties are all magnolia flowers, but the hairpin in the painting on the left has an extra petal."
Xue Huan quickly found the first place.
The maid in green smiled and nodded.
"The second place is the earrings. One has pearls and the other doesn't."
"The third place is at the collar. There's an extra stroke on the left side of the pattern."
"The fourth place..."
"The fifth place..."
It didn't take Xue Huan long to find five differences. These five were the most obvious and easiest to find, but the remaining four were more difficult to find than the last.
The maid in green clothes said: "Young Master, you have a sharp eye. You found five places so quickly. Previous guests couldn't find five places in such a short time."
Xue Huan's eyes were still fixed on the painting, and he smiled without saying a word to her.
After some time, she found two more places.
One is that the number of petals on a peony in the bush is different, and the other is that the scene reflected in the cat's eyes is different.
There are two left.
Xuan Ling: "Shoes."
Xue Huan took a look and saw that there was indeed a slight difference in the tips of the shoes that were visible under the skirts of the beauties in the two paintings.
She pointed to the painting and said, "Here are the shoes."
There is one last place.
However, no matter how hard Xue Huan and Xuan Ling tried, they could not find the final difference.
Seeing that the incense stick was about to burn out, she took two steps back and looked at the two paintings from an overall perspective. Suddenly, she discovered something!
“The two paintings are made of different materials!”
Although she was not sure what kind of paper was used for each of the two paintings, if she looked closely, she would find that there were slight differences in the texture and color of the paper. Of course, these differences were very subtle and difficult to detect with the naked eye.
But her five senses are much sharper than those of ordinary people, so she was able to discover it.
The maidservant in green clothes smiled and said, "Congratulations, sir, you have passed the first level."
The second level is a puzzle.
At the instruction of the maid in green, the servant brought in another table. On the table was a picture frame the size of a chessboard. In the box next to it were 108 puzzle pieces.
The full picture happens to be the beauty picture used in the first level.
Time is also a stick of incense.
The maid in green clothes said: "There are two redundant small pictures here. Please carefully identify them."
It was difficult enough to piece together the 108 small pictures within the time of an incense stick, and now she was told that two of them were redundant?
Xue Huan felt that the second level was becoming more difficult.
Fortunately, she is not alone.
The picture of the beauty was not removed and was left on the table for Xue Huan to refer to.
But she did not look up frequently while doing the puzzle, because she had already imprinted every detail of the beauty picture in her mind.
When the incense burned to the bottom, she placed the last piece of the puzzle where it belonged.
A complete picture of beauty emerges.
But in fact, there was not a single piece of the puzzle more or less, and the maid in green was saying that to disturb her.
It wasn't until the second half that she realized this.
"Congratulations, sir, for passing the second level." The maid in green clothes was like a diligent NPC who was clearing the level, always saying this at the first opportunity.
"Level Three - As you can see, there are ten cups of wine here, nine of which are poisonous, and only one is non-toxic. Please pick it out and drink it."
The servant brought out a tray with ten cups of wine on it, and then the maid in green said these words.
There was no visible difference between the ten glasses of wine. The wine was all clear and mellow, and it was impossible to tell which ones were poisonous.
Xue Huan asked, "What if you drink the poisoned wine?"
The maidservant in green clothes said: "Then you can only consider yourself unlucky."
Xue Huan: “…”
Oh, this Narcissus Pavilion is really arrogant. They play such a big game for an entrance level. Aren’t they afraid of getting into a lawsuit for murder? But since they dare to play, they can definitely bear the consequences.
What's more, she really asked for this herself.
"It seems like it's not worth it. Can I give up?" Xue Huan said half-truthfully.
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