Amnesiac General and Infatuated Brothel Keeper 2

The next second, a pile of data panels composed of electronic light particles that did not belong to this era appeared before Su Jinzhi's eyes. On them were clearly marked the tasks he needed to complete in this world—

[Salvation Target: Feng Jiuli/Jiang Lishan (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Branch Salvation Targets: Yun Mengchen (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Jun Changwu (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Yan Hui (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Qiu Yi (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Li Feng (Salvation in progress) 10/100

Punishment World Additional Target: Jun Changle (Salvation not yet started) 0/100

Bonus Point Targets: Ping'an (Salvation in progress) 0/100

Xile (Salvation not yet started) 0/100]

After reading these names, Su Jinzhi only felt his vision go dark. "I have to save this many people?!"

No. 1 asked him, "Is it a lot?"

"How is it not a lot?" Su Jinzhi retorted. "In the last world, one Qin Yezhou was already enough for me to handle. This time, nine show up at once, and there's even a task where I have to save myself?"

"Don't panic, there are bonus point targets." No. 1 corrected him. "And you're not saving yourself, you're saving Jun Changle."

Su Jinzhi said, "What's the difference? Isn't Jun Changle me right now?"

No. 1 said, "Right, so you have to live well and fulfill what Jun Changle wishes for in his heart."

Su Jinzhi asked, "How do I know what Jun Changle wants?"

No. 1 let out a cold sneer. "What's the difference? Aren't you Jun Changle right now? How could you not know what you want?"

Su Jinzhi: "..."

No. 1 continued, "No. 0 felt sorry for you, so we've already skipped the 'whipping' and 'tattooing' plotlines from the past life that made Jun Changle wish for death. Be content, Host."

Tattooing? Su Jinzhi remembered the man he saw when he woke up last time and what he had said. Startled, he hurriedly ran to the bronze mirror on the north side of the room.

The mirror-making technology of the ancients was not yet mature, but even in such a blurry and distorted bronze mirror, Su Jinzhi could see how stunningly beautiful the person in the mirror was—the eyebrows and eyes still looked like his own original appearance, but they were far more exquisite and alluring than before. Just a single glance could captivate a soul.

The person in the mirror had dark eyebrows like distant mountains, long eyelashes like butterfly wings, and pupils like peach petals. A touch of faint red at the corners of his eyes spread out into a rich, amorous spring hue, complementing the blood-red teardrop mole right below his eye. From the neck down, the exposed skin, illuminated by the faint candlelight, looked like peerless beautiful jade, glowing with a lustrous and soft sheen. A section of a budding flower branch spread from his back to his right collarbone, utterly bewitching. His raven-feather-like long hair hung heavily down his back. Although his face still carried a bit of a youth's immaturity, one could easily imagine just how enchanting he would become once he fully matured.

Su Jinzhi couldn't help but raise his hand, gently touching the peony bud at his collarbone. However, the skin his fingertips brushed against wasn't the smooth and delicate texture one would imagine, but rather had a slightly raised, rough sensation.

Jun Changle was sold by that group of bandits from Chongluo to Zhuhua. The current owner of Huaqi Pavilion, Li Feng, bought him the moment he first laid eyes on him in the human trafficking market, brought him back to Huaqi Pavilion, and had this peony tattoo that covered half of his body inked onto him.

The peony: unparalleled in beauty beneath the heavens, the number one fragrance in the human realm.

All the courtesans in Huaqi Pavilion had various flower tattoos on their bodies, corresponding to their identities. Li Feng looked rather gentle and graceful, so his tattoo was a peach blossom, striking but not overly delicate; Jun Changle was too overwhelmingly beautiful, so only the king of flowers, the peony, could suit him.

Everyone in the world knew that on the back of Zhuhua Kingdom's number one beauty, Hua Wuyan, was a Splendid Peony Tattoo in full bloom. Normally, it was a gorgeous orange-red and pale yellow. Only during lovemaking would it gradually deepen and darken along with his increasingly burning body, fully blooming into an ultimate crimson at the peak of ecstasy.

Just like the man himself—exquisite beauty and heavenly fragrance, unparalleled in the world, making the people of this world wish they could die on top of him.

The world all said this peony was flawlessly beautiful, but they didn't know that this Blood-carved Tattoo was to cover up the whip marks and burn scars inflicted by those bandits when Jun Changle was caught after failing to escape their lair back then. To ink such a Splendid Peony Tattoo onto a heavily scarred body, one couldn't just dip a needle into pigment and continuously prick the skin. It required carving out the overly raised, ugly scar tissue and beginning the tattooing process before the flesh fully healed. Furthermore, during the tattooing, no medicine could be used to numb the body; one could only bite down on a wooden handle and endure the pain of tens of thousands of needles. Once the new flesh grew, a new layer of the design would be tattooed.

Because of this, the person with the tattoo would normally have pale-colored, budding flowers on their back, and only when their blood surged would the other tattoo, inked beneath the skin and within the flesh, emerge.

The twin flowers intertwined and overlapped, all the buds completely blooming, overflowing with floral fragrance, bursting with vibrant and stunning beauty—only then was it the true Splendid Peony Tattoo.

However, as beautiful as this Blood-carved Tattoo was, the original owner was the only one in the entire Huaqi Pavilion to possess it. After all, the tattooing process was too bloody and agonizing; very few male courtesans could endure it. The original owner had no choice, so he could only choose to endure it.

But even given a second chance, Su Jinzhi was powerless to stop the wheels of Jun Changle's fate from rolling forward and overturning.

When he woke up, the dust had already settled. Jiang Lishan still forgot him, he still entered Huaqi Pavilion, and this Splendid Peony Tattoo, which forced him into the abyss of no return, ultimately still bloomed across his back, taking deep root into his body.

And according to the timeline, Li Feng had already almost finished healing his injuries, slathering him in floral dew and fragrant balms as if they cost nothing, making it clear he wanted to mold him into Huaqi Pavilion's new cash cow.

"Aren't I the brothel keeper? Why do I still have to go out and sell myself?"

Su Jinzhi calculated the time. In seven days, it would be Zhuhua Kingdom's Lantern Festival. Every time it arrived, Peach Blossom Street would select and introduce a new Flower Lord.

Before Li Feng retired to become a brothel keeper, he held the title of Flower Lord for seven consecutive years. Last year's Flower Lord was Qiu Yi, who was also one of Su Jinzhi's branch salvation targets. This year, Li Feng had originally planned to continue letting Qiu Yi act as Huaqi Pavilion's top courtesan to compete for the Flower Lord position at the Lantern Festival, but as it happened, he managed to buy a truly breathtaking flower.

It was on this night that the original owner officially plummeted from a noble young master of the Jun Family of Chongluo into this depraved, man-eating pleasure den, becoming the number one beauty of Zhuhua renowned across the five kingdoms, Hua Wuyan.

Su Jinzhi wore a miserable expression. "Can I run away?" He didn't want to be a male prostitute, getting pinned down all day by who knows what kind of men. He might even have to serve people with special kinks. Just thinking about it made him feel like dying. To think Jun Changle actually endured it for a full ten years.

No. 1 told him, "You already tried running."

Su Jinzhi: "Huh?"

No. 1 continued finishing his sentence, "But you failed."

Su Jinzhi: "..."

"Remember that jade pendant Jiang Lishan put on you before he left?" No. 1 suddenly asked him. "That is the only relic left behind by Jiang Lishan's mother, and also his most precious possession. It wasn't that Jun Changle didn't try to escape after entering Huaqi Pavilion, but Li Feng used that jade pendant to threaten him, so Jun Changle stayed."

"He wanted to protect Jiang Lishan's most precious possession and wait for him to come back and pick him up."

Su Jinzhi froze for a moment and murmured, "But Jiang Lishan didn't come."

No. 1 said, "So Jun Changle died."

Su Jinzhi fell silent. His neck felt bare and empty—that piece of jade had already been taken away by Li Feng, so right now, not only could he not run away, but he also had to stay in Huaqi Pavilion to get the jade pendant back.

"Then what about me receiving guests?" Su Jinzhi asked again.

"Don't you have the 'Priceless Spring Night' benefit?" No. 1 said. "Your patrons aren't your salvation targets, so you can use it on them."

Su Jinzhi narrowed his eyes. "Why do I feel like this benefit is scamming me?"

No. 1 replied coldly, "That's right, this was a punishment world to begin with. If not you, who else are we going to scam?"

Su Jinzhi: "..."

"Then my last world was...?"

No. 1 said concisely, "Mission failed."

Of course Su Jinzhi knew the mission failed. By the time he died, Qin Yezhou's Progress Value had only just reached 50 points, still a full half away from 100 points. What he wanted to know about was the scene where Qin Yezhou stood up from his wheelchair at the very end. "I was trying to ask..."

"He wasn't disabled." No. 1 quickly gave him the answer. "Let alone saving him, Host, you didn't even earn his trust."

Su Jinzhi: "..." So he had completed his mission that poorly.

No. 1 continued, "The original mission for the last world required the host to awaken the love for life in 10 people and the Salvation Target for the mission to be considered a success. The money-grubbing first mate, the internally ugly Kong Shifei and Yun Feifei, the ill-gotten wealth earner He Ziyue, and the treacherous Qin Luo—all were originally targets you needed to save, Host. But No. 0 gave you the most preferential benefit—you only needed to save the Salvation Target."

Su Jinzhi didn't pay much attention to the first few names, but he froze when he heard Qin Luo's. "Qin Luo?"

"He harbored a secret crush on Qin Yezhou," No. 1 explained to him. "So he deliberately 'slipped up' and killed you."

Su Jinzhi said, "Then I died so unjustly..."

"Host." No. 1 coldly interrupted him, asking seriously and cautiously, "Have you truly been completing your missions in earnest?"

Su Jinzhi was stunned.

No. 1 said, "When you are to enter a character, your soul must belong entirely to him."

"Who you want to play, who you want to become—Host, are you truly prepared?"

Frowning, Su Jinzhi stayed silent and began to reflect on his mistakes.

What No. 1 said was actually right. He had never taken the missions seriously, acting as if he was just playing a role-playing game. He hadn't even devoted himself fully to it, only caring about his own enjoyment. Yet, his mission was to awaken the love for life in those people, and in the end, he had gone through that world without accomplishing a single thing.

They didn't love life, and he couldn't save them. He didn't want to die; he wanted to live well, healthily and happily, free from illness and disaster. Weren't they the exact same...?

No. 1 interrupted his melancholy and said sternly, "Host, if you continue like this, we won't be able to build a great harmonious society."

Su Jinzhi: "..."

For some reason, upon hearing No. 1's words, the flame of determination that had just ignited in Su Jinzhi's heart immediately extinguished.

"Given that the host failed the mission in the previous world, the host's initial illness condition in this world is level two." No. 1's mechanical voice gradually drifted away. "Please complete the mission earnestly, Host, and live well..."

No wonder he coughed up blood the moment he arrived. Now that he woke up, his chest also felt stuffy, as if weighed down by a thousand-pound boulder, preventing him from breathing comfortably. Just as Su Jinzhi thought of this, No. 0's lively voice suddenly popped up in his mind: "Lord Host, No. 0 has returned from headquarters!"

Hmm, No. 0?

Had No. 1 already left?

No. 0 said, "No. 0 has fought for the newest benefit for Lord Host from headquarters! But I can't tell the host right now, you have to wait until the next world!"