On one side, a sentimental young master; on the other, a domineering Evil God.
Tao Tao retorted, “What do you think?”
Xue Rong said, “Don’t overthink it. I don’t believe you would harm me, and even if you did, I’d accept it. I’m just curious…”
Tao Tao took out a card and handed it to her. “This is my number. Keep it safe and don’t let anyone else see it. I have a bad feeling—this isn’t over.”
“As for evil spirits…” she chuckled dismissively, “just think of me as one.”
She waved and walked away, leaving Xue Rong standing there in a daze.
…
In front of the Anatomy Building, hidden among the bushes, Wu Liang took Feng Xiaojuan’s hand.
Her fair palm was dripping with blood, the skin that had touched the peach wood sculpture scorched away.
Wu Liang asked, “What was that red light? How could a human carry such heavy Evil Qi? If it hadn’t withdrawn at the last moment, not only the ghost vines, but even we would have been annihilated.”
Feng Xiaojuan replied, “I don’t know.”
Wu Liang pressed further, “That girl tested you earlier. Did she notice something?”
Feng Xiaojuan shook her head, her face pale as she stared in the direction Tao Tao had left.
Outside Chengho Medical College.
In the early morning, there were few people or cars on the road. Tao Tao stood by the damp roadside, holding a palm-sized booklet up to the light. But the booklet was too small, and the dim light at just past five made it hard to see. After straining her eyes without finding the information she wanted, she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a pair of black round-framed glasses to put on.
Lin Quan walked up beside her. He was always elusive—nowhere to be seen while she was talking to Xue Rong, but appearing out of nowhere now that she was alone by the roadside.
“Where are you going?”
“None of your business,” Tao Tao replied, taking off her glasses and closing the booklet as she tried to hail a taxi.
“I thought I had explained everything about the corpse pool.”
“Whether it’s clear or not doesn’t matter. We’re just not going the same way,” Tao Tao said. “Even though you’re a Spirit Master from the Chaotic Tomb, I’m a bit odd and don’t like making friends. Since we’re out now, let’s go our separate ways. Don’t bother me, and I won’t bother you.”
Lin Quan smiled. “Alright.”
He stood at the bus stop about three meters away from Tao Tao and didn’t speak to her again.
There were hardly any taxis on the road, and Tao Tao waited for a long time without success. She raised her wrist to check the time, thinking of calling Jin Youchen, but after a moment’s hesitation, she lowered her hand.
A bus approached in the distance, its destination reading “Chaoyang Hutong”—exactly where Tao Tao needed to go. She had never taken a bus before, but she figured it couldn’t be too different from a taxi. As Jin Youchen had once said—the rules and order of the city weren’t hard to understand. When you didn’t know how to do something, just observe those around you, and you usually wouldn’t go wrong.
Two passengers boarded ahead of her. Tao Tao tilted her head to watch as they didn’t pay with cash but instead swiped a thin card over a dark, unassuming machine. After the machine beeped, they walked straight to the back of the bus.
Tao Tao followed them onto the bus. Without a card, she pressed her Chaotic Tomb booklet against the machine.
The driver: “”
At that moment, there was nothing about Tao Tao that was presentable. Her Daoist robe and wooden sword were already strange enough, but having just come from the Anatomy Building, she hadn’t had time to wash off the formaldehyde and the slime from the living corpses. Her entire body emitted a strikingly foul odor.
She didn’t quite understand the meaning behind the driver’s look, yet she seemed to grasp his disdain. She turned to get off, but Lin Quan blocked the door.
He waved his wallet: “I have money.”
Tao Tao said: “I have some too.”
“Then why are you getting off?” Lin Quan asked the driver, “How much per person?”
The driver pinched his nose: “Two yuan.”
Tao Tao fished out her handful of crumpled bills again—this was Li Sanjiu’s little stash, dug out from under the bedboard in his room before she descended the mountain. Among them was an almost out-of-circulation two-yuan note.
Just as Tao Tao was about to hand it over, Lin Quan stopped her, pointing at the characters on it: “This says ‘Two Yuan,’ not ‘two yuan.'”
“Aren’t they the same?” Tao Tao wasn’t sure either.
“Probably not.” Lin Quan himself couldn’t tell the difference, so he simply handed over all the loose change from his wallet, “Use mine.”
The driver: “…”
After the two boarded, the foul smell spread. The other passengers consciously moved toward the back of the bus, leaving only the two front seats for them.
Tao Tao sat down: “Why are you following me?”
“Just heading the same way.” Lin Quan said indifferently, “It’s not like you’re the only one going to Chaoyang Hutong.”
Tao Tao let out an “oh” and ignored him, continuing to fiddle with the stack of paper bills in her hand. Lin Quan asked: “What are you looking at?”
Since he had just paid for her bus fare, Tao Tao, for once, didn’t give him a cold shoulder. She said: “I’m thinking. Look, here’s a ‘Five Yuan’ and a ‘Five Jiao.’ I still haven’t figured out which one is five yuan. Things in the city are really complicated. You should know, right?”
Lin Quan shook his head: “I don’t know.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“A twenty-seven-year-old can’t tell money apart?”
“I could originally, but last night when the car crashed into the roadside barrier, I bumped my head.” Lin Quan said without changing his expression, “Seems like I got a concussion. I’ve forgotten some things.”
Tao Tao: “…”
He pointed at the larger bill: “It should be this one, right?”
“This is five yuan? Then Master’s decades of savings would be less than twenty yuan, not even enough for a taxi ride. That can’t be right.”
The driver’s nose was filled with their stench, and his ears were full of their bizarre conversation. For the first time in his career, he wondered if he was driving ghosts. He observed them in the mirror—the two were completely oblivious, spending the entire ride debating which bill was the “yuan” note without reaching a conclusion.
When the bus reached the stop, Tao Tao got off without a second thought: “Bye.”
Lin Quan said politely: “Bye.”
Tao Tao turned and walked away without looking back. Only after her figure disappeared did Lin Quan move.
He lifted his head, squinting his eyes to feel the warm morning sun.
…
During the morning rush hour, Chaoyang Hutong was bustling with traffic and people. Various steaming foods and commuting office workers crowded the small street.
Tao Tao’s strange attire and filthy appearance gave her unparalleled attention wherever she went.
She quickly crossed the street and turned into an old bathhouse with a half-fallen sign in the alley, getting a ticket at the front desk.
This was the Chaotic Tomb’s dedicated bathhouse, specifically built for Spirit Masters who needed cleaning after exorcisms.
The landlady was curled up in her chair, reading a CEO romance novel on her phone. She lifted her head at the foul smell and, upon seeing the strange, dried mucus on Tao Tao’s body, swiftly grabbed a mask from beside her and put it on. “Welcome. The bath pools aren’t open in the morning, only showers. One hour per session, twenty for water.”
Tao Tao glanced at the price list on the wall. “Isn’t it ten?”
“That’s for other people,” the landlady replied in a thick northeastern accent. “You’re stinking up the place—how much water are you gonna waste? Twenty’s cheap for you.”
Tao Tao bristled at that. “I just saved someone’s life last night, almost lost my own in that damn place! And you’re nickel-and-diming me over water?!”
“So what?” the landlady said coldly. “Even if you just saved the world, you still gotta pay to shower.”
Tao Tao pulled a handful of crumpled bills from her bag. She’d studied them all the way here and couldn’t bear to look anymore, so she tossed them onto the counter. “That’s all I’ve got. Count it yourself.”
The money added up to only eighteen yuan and twenty mao. The landlady reluctantly accepted it, opened a locker for her, and handed her a plastic bag. “You’re short one yuan eighty mao, so I’m docking you two minutes of shower time. Put your dirty clothes in this bag and stash it in the corner. If you stink up the locker, there’ll be an extra charge.”
Tao Tao, thoroughly annoyed, grabbed the bag and headed into the shower room.
She spent twenty minutes washing off the grime, then cleaned her dirty clothes. She didn’t know how to use the free hairdryer provided in the bathroom, so she just wrung out her clothes and hung them on a rack to dry. After making herself somewhat presentable, she turned on her smartwatch and called Jin Youchen back.
The boy’s voice was hoarse. “So you finally decided to call back?”
Seeing his red-rimmed eyes, Tao Tao felt a twinge of guilt. She softened her tone. “I had to hang up earlier because it was dangerous. I’m out now, don’t worry.”
“Really, you’re okay?”
Tao Tao hummed in affirmation, brushing her damp hair aside. “Have you finished your homework?”
“I completed all pre-university courses through self-study last year. School assignments are meaningless to me. My father wanted me to get started on business and programming basics over the summer—a month’s worth of coursework. I finished it in twenty days. I had ten days free… I originally wanted to invite you to spend them with me at my home.”
Jin Youchen asked, “Tao Tao, would you be willing?”
Tao Tao had only meant to urge him to focus on his studies and stop clinging to her, but now, after hearing this, she found it hard to refuse.
The spot in her mouth burned from the formaldehyde, and her face was etched with exhaustion after a sleepless night. “Xiao You, someone like me doesn’t have things like rest time or holidays. Every day I have left is precious to me. I have more important things to do. Please ask someone else to keep you company.”
“But to me, time spent with anyone else is a waste. Only the days with you count as precious.” Jin Youchen gazed at Tao Tao, his elegant blue eyes filled with a melancholy that was almost heartbreaking. “You look tired. I won’t bother you further. I’ll just have Butler Li take you to the hospital for a check-up, okay?”
Tao Tao: “No, that’s not necessary.”
In less than an hour, the landlady came in right on time to shoo her out.
Tao Tao gathered her things and said to the boy on the screen, “I’ll make time to visit you. Be good.”
Jin Youchen stayed silent. Tao Tao ended the call.
The proprietress glanced at her watch: “You’re that spirit-hiding body? Heard you saved some conglomerate’s young master a few years back, and he fell head over heels for you at first sight, pestering you relentlessly. They say he once surrounded Qu Mountain with over a dozen hot air balloons just to celebrate your birthday—wouldn’t be him, would it? Looks a bit young, but his family must be loaded.”
Tao Tao: “How do you know that?”
Proprietress: “Your old man used to come soak here often, all nonsense from him. Weren’t you cursed with the Eternal Coexistence Curse by an Evil God when you were seven? Eternal coexistence means forever as one, inseparable even unto death—not even a Bell Ringer can break it. Your ID says you’re past eighteen now, and he still hasn’t come to marry you? What’s the deal, didn’t the Evil God call off the engagement?”
Tao Tao expressionlessly: “Did the old man say all that too?”
The proprietress scoffed: “He didn’t need to—who in Chaotic Tomb doesn’t know about your curse? Don’t take it too hard, I’ve read tons of domineering CEO novels. Arranged marriages turning into love were never reliable anyway—might even end up with him draining your blood or harvesting your kidneys after the wedding. Humans and gods are different paths; if he dumped you, let him dump you. He’ll definitely regret it and come crawling back someday.”
“Besides, maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t want you. Otherwise, you’d have a passionate young master on one side and a domineering Evil God on the other—too hard to choose.” She patted Tao Tao’s shoulder. “Listen to your sis: untrustworthy men aren’t worth keeping. If he can dump you once, he can do it twice. That young master sounds nice, though—just how rich is his family? If you marry him, will the property deeds have your name on them?”
Tao Tao, annoyed by her chatter, shook off her hand and snapped: “Don’t you have anything better to gossip about?!”
She grabbed her things and stormed out, kicking the door shut without looking back.
The proprietress smacked her lips: “I didn’t even say much—why’d she get so worked up?”
The janitor uncle nearby leaned in: “That’s Ying Tao Tao? The legendary bride of the Evil God?”
“Don’t you have anything better to gossip about?” the proprietress mimicked Tao Tao, then pointed at the women’s bath area with disgust. “Hurry up and clean that mess—a pool of foul water, just holding up my opening.”
The janitor uncle rolled his eyes, hoisted his mop, and went in to clean.
The proprietress returned to reading her novel at the front desk when someone else entered. Without looking up, she called out: “Ten bucks for a bath—”
She caught a whiff of the exact same scent Tao Tao had been carrying. Looking up at Lin Quan’s face, she pinched her nose: “What happened, did you go digging through manure with Ying Tao Tao last night? With that stench, it’s twenty—not a cent less.”
Lin Quan didn’t take out any money. Instead, he asked: “Spirit Masters newly transferred to the Jiangnan district are supposed to register here, correct?”
“Yeah, you new? I haven’t received any notice about a Spirit Master transfer recently. Show me your transfer document from your original jurisdiction.”
Lin Quan didn’t move. The proprietress frowned: “Don’t have it? Then no transfer. Go back and get a certificate from your supervisor before coming again. I can’t accept you without it.”
She lowered her head to read her book, but the man at the counter didn’t leave. She looked up to shoo him away: “I said you—”
Her words cut off abruptly as she met a pair of crimson eyes. Everything around her grew hazy and unreal, as if beyond the void, and she heard the man’s distant voice.
“May I?”
Against her will, she nodded.