"What? Seagull?"
Li Nian looked toward the carriage, her face filled with disbelief.
Although her title was "Master Thief," Li Nian wasn't the type to only focus on people's valuables without caring who they were.
She usually paid attention to both the valuables AND the person's identity.
The reason she hadn't recognized that Young Mistress as Seagull earlier was simple...
"Wasn't Seagull a guy?"
Li Nian racked her memory. In her impression, Seagull was definitely male—a trendy, fashion-forward guy who looked like the type to listen to obscure foreign rappers, an edgy boy.
Although Seagull had never declared his gender, neither his voice nor his appearance showed any feminine traits. The possibility of him being a androgynous woman, or a woman disguising as a man, was extremely low.
"Are you sure, Sister Yao?"
Lin Yu nodded.
"I'm ninety percent sure."
Although Li Nian had sharp eyes, he was even better at recognizing people than she was.
Even though he'd only caught a glimpse of a side profile from a distance, that brief moment when the person climbed into the carriage was enough for Lin Yu to lock onto that person being Seagull!
Although the body shape and face had changed, for Lin Yu—who frequently made subtle adjustments to his own appearance—he could still quickly identify the person as Seagull through unchanging key features and a posture that absolutely didn't belong to a sheltered young lady.
It could be a coincidence...
But if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you might as well treat it as a duck first.
"Alright, since you say so, let's catch up to him."
Li Nian said, and the two quickened their pace toward the carriage, which had already traveled some distance away.
Normally, horses run faster than people, but first of all, Lin Yu and Li Nian weren't exactly normal people. With their [items] unsealed, instantly accelerating faster than a horse wasn't difficult.
Still, they didn't need to rush that much—after all, this was inside a bustling town. The reason for using a carriage was more about "saving effort" than "saving time."
It was faster than walking, sure, but not by that much.
"But why would he turn into a woman? Could it be that this young lady Seagull fused with was actually a mentally disturbed man cross-dressing?"
Li Nian muttered to herself.
"Obviously not. Unless there's some special appearance-altering technique or some miraculous little drug from the Prison Mountain Realm that can change body structure, the skeleton structure of that person is clearly closer to a female's."
Lin Yu shook his head.
Li Nian rubbed her chin again. "Then I get it. Seagull is actually secretly transgender, right? He doesn't identify as male deep down?"
"Wow, our Death Game is keeping up with international trends now, even including the politically correct LGBT part."
Hearing Li Nian's obviously joking remark, Lin Yu sighed helplessly.
"Anyway, we'll just catch up and ask."
As they bantered, the two quickly caught up to the carriage.
The carriage was moving at a steady, unhurried pace. Just as Lin Yu was considering whether to grab onto the carriage and climb inside directly, or to have the carriage stop, Li Nian suddenly accelerated, passing the carriage by a short distance.
Then, she spun around, stood in the middle of the road, and shouted: "Hold up!"
The coachman driving the carriage was startled and quickly reined in the horses.
At the distance Li Nian had calculated, the carriage came to an abrupt halt just in time. The lead horse's head stopped not far from Li Nian.
Seeing it was a young girl, the coachman rolled up his sleeves, raised both hands, and prepared to curse.
"Hey! Suddenly jumping out like that is so dangerous, you little—"
But just as he started his angry scolding, the curtain at the front of the carriage was pushed aside, and Seagull—in the guise of a refined young lady, a daughter ready for marriage—pulled the curtain open.
"It's you? You're finally here! Hurry, get on!"
Seagull's surprised voice came from behind the coachman.
Hearing his young lady's words, the coachman's words didn't stop.
"...you, this esteemed and precious guest of our Miss Wan, the most important VIP of our Wan family! A person of your golden value, if injured by us reckless servants and ignorant beasts, how terrible would that be! We would die ten thousand deaths and still not be able to make amends!"
Although the coachman's words didn't pause, his tone did a complete one-eighty-degree turn.
Lin Yu slowly walked around from the side of the carriage, couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, and sighed inwardly...
This coachman was truly skilled—both the braking and the direction change were completed in an instant.
And his emotional shift was really excellent material... that fawning and gentleness that appeared on his face in a split second—Lin Yu himself would have a hard time acting it out.
Lin Yu's soft laugh caught Seagull's eye. Seeing Lin Yu, he was even happier than when he saw Li Nian.
"Oh, great, you're here too! Both of you get on! Let's talk inside the carriage!"
Seagull pulled the curtain open wider and enthusiastically invited Lin Yu and Li Nian to come in.
The two naturally didn't stand on ceremony and jumped lightly onto the carriage.
The carriage curtain fell, and the three sat inside. Seagull rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"I finally ran into you... I have so many questions to ask you. This place is way too strange..."
Li Nian waved her hand. "Don't ask yet. I have a question I want to ask you first—why did you turn into a woman?"
Hearing this, Seagull's face fell. "I don't know either. As soon as I regained consciousness, I found myself like this."
"I started inside a big noble manor. Everyone called me Miss Wan, which scared me half to death. Then I quickly checked and found out I'd turned into a woman—that completely freaked me out."
"And when I got scared, everyone around me seemed scared too. They said tomorrow was my wedding day and asked if I was okay... How the hell was I supposed to know what was going on? So I just mumbled something vaguely agreeing, but that made them even more scared. They insisted I might be possessed by a demon or something, and they wanted to invite some expert to check on me."
"I was afraid that any expert they invited would just kill me on sight without a second word. Then I remembered we came to Willow Town to find that Zhu Qiansi—and she happens to be a fortune teller. So I said I wanted Zhu Qiansi to treat me! No one else! And I wanted to go in person!"
"Because I thought you guys might also find your way to Zhu Qiansi's place. At that point, I was really grasping at straws. Honestly, even getting killed by someone would've been better than having some 'expert' mess with my mind, leaving me all dazed and helpless, then getting married off tomorrow without even knowing what hit me."
At this point, Seagull shivered.
Hearing Seagull's words, Lin Yu expressed full understanding.
But more than that, he marveled at how reckless and bold Seagull was.
"You're pretty lucky, directly shouting out the name Zhu Qiansi like that..."
"But at least we can confirm this much—talking about her openly or acting like you're coming for her right in front of these natives is fine."
