The rich woman’s preference was a bit strange—she wanted you to play the role of a useless good-for-nothing.
Lin Quan: “Whether something is feasible depends on whether its internal logic is coherent, not on dismissing it based on superficial judgments.”
Tao Tao: “I understood that sentence. Even though you said it in such a highfalutin way, you were actually calling me stupid.”
Lin Quan: “I once had the fortune of reading an out-of-print ancient text that recorded how the first Bell Ringer of the Chaotic Tomb three hundred years ago planted spiritual veins for a spirit-hiding body. A spirit-hiding body is a vessel for spirits, and spiritual veins are also vessels for spirits—their essence is the same. The reason you cannot condense spiritual veins is that you yourself are a massive spiritual vein, and humans cannot control such immense power.”
“A spirit-hiding body cannot use ordinary cultivation methods. Only by tearing open its original Seal from the outside and extracting a portion of the spirit to transform it into ordinary spiritual veins can you use it.”
“It sounds simple, but don’t forget—three hundred years ago, that Venerable One was an unprecedented Nine-Vein Spirit Master. What was effortless for him may not be for others.”
“How will you know if you don’t try?” Lin Quan said. “Take your time to think it over. Come find me when you’ve made up your mind.”
After Luo Hou finished serving everyone their meals, he carried his tray over and sat down: “I didn’t get a chance to ask you last night—which district were you transferred from?”
Lin Quan: “The southeastern district.”
Luo Hou: “The southeast, huh? I was stationed there a few years ago. It’s close to headquarters, so resources are good. I heard the current person in charge is Master Kuang. How’s his health?”
Lin Quan: “He’s fine.”
“Fine?” Luo Hou pondered thoughtfully. “I heard he was severely injured while exorcising evil spirits half a year ago and has been recuperating in the district. Has he recovered now?”
“Probably. I usually keep to myself and don’t pay much attention to these things.”
Luo Hou looked at him: “That won’t do. After all, he’s the senior who signed your transfer papers. You should still show some concern when you have time. By the way, why did you want to transfer to Jiangnan? The cost of living here is ridiculously expensive, the Chaotic Tomb doesn’t cover household registration, and many Spirit Masters complain that the basic subsidies are too low, so they’re unwilling to work here.”
Lin Quan: “While I’m young, I want to travel around and broaden my horizons.”
Luo Hou smiled: “Then you’ve come to the right place.”
…
After lunch, back in the classroom, Tao Tao discovered that Luo Hou himself would be teaching this class. On each desk sat a plastic foot model.
Clearly, after studying Spirit Master theory in the morning, they would be practicing foot massage in the afternoon.
Compared to Zhuang Xiaomeng, Luo Hou was hardly a qualified teacher. Under the glaring afternoon sun, he sat at the lectern wearing sunglasses, drowsily teaching the students to recite the foot massage mantra: “Gently gather, slowly twist, stroke and lift, left foot first, then the right…”
So the students also grew drowsy: “Gently gather, slowly twist, stroke and lift, left foot first, then the right…”
“Big feet get a firm press, small feet get a gentle tap, firm and gentle alternate, big feet and small feet all washed clean.”
“…firm and gentle alternate, big feet and small feet all washed clean.”
Luo Hou asked listlessly: “Have you all memorized the mantra? The foot models in your hands are marked with acupoints. Take them and memorize them now. After that, pair up in twos and wash each other’s feet. Once everyone has washed three times, class is dismissed for a break.”
Pairing up in twos, no one dared to ask the young mistress to wash their feet, so Tao Tao ended up being the odd one out.
Lin Quan was new, and no one had asked him to team up, so he was left alone. Luo Hou then paired the two of them together.
Tao Tao asked, “Are you going to wash my feet?”
Lin Quan replied, “If you want me to.”
She asked again, “Do you want me to wash your feet?”
Lin Quan said, “I wouldn’t dare think such a thing.”
So Tao Tao happily relaxed, sitting there playing with the foot model.
She followed Luo Hou’s instructions to massage the model’s feet, but her hands were too rough, and she accidentally crushed it.
Luo Hou jumped up immediately at the sound: “Young Mistress, these foot models cost fifty yuan each! Be careful when you massage them!”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward them again, and Tao Tao felt a bit awkward: “Oh, I see. Just deduct it from my salary.”
…
Finally, the afternoon foot massage class was over. As soon as six o’clock in the evening passed, Luo Hou promptly opened the main door.
Everyone changed into their technician uniforms and gathered at the entrance, lining up in three rows according to height.
When Tingting pulled Tao Tao to the front row, she was still confused: “What are we doing?”
Tingting said, “Oh, you’ll find out in a moment.”
Zhuang Xiaomeng brought out a speaker and walked to the front of the line. Tao Tao still didn’t know what was going on.
Zhuang Xiaomeng put her hands on her hips. Tao Tao still didn’t understand.
Just as Tao Tao was about to ask again, the song “Little Apple” started playing from the speaker.
Then, Zhuang Xiaomeng began to dance.
Tao Tao: “…”
Luo Hou stood to the side, the large gold chain around his neck swaying as he moved. He raised his hands, lifted his knees, twisted his waist, and turned his hips—his rhythm was just right. He said coolly, “This is corporate culture, Young Mistress. Keep up with the beat and start moving!”
Tao Tao turned to leave but was pulled back by Tingting, who wrapped her arms around her waist: “Sister Tao Tao, we’re family!”
Tao Tao could only follow along expressionlessly, swaying her hips. She noticed Lin Quan standing to the side, not dancing, and asked unhappily, “Why doesn’t he have to participate in the corporate culture?”
Tingting said, “Because he’s good-looking!”
“Is he the only good-looking one here?” Tao Tao said indignantly. “Don’t you know my nickname is the Chaotic Tomb’s Number One Useless Beauty?”
“No, no…” Tingting lowered her voice and whispered in her ear, “Because only wealthy ladies would request handsome guys to wash their feet, and wealthy ladies often have strange demands. They not only want foot washing but also role-playing—like asking him to act as a domineering CEO who makes the Wang family go bankrupt during the day and gently serves his wife after work at night… A domineering CEO can’t dance to ‘Little Apple’; it would ruin his character.”
“What’s ‘ruin his character’?”
“It’s… oh, you wouldn’t understand even if I explained. Anyway, Master Luo said that Lin Quan is now the most handsome poster boy at Yelaixiang. He doesn’t need to dance.”
In front of everyone, Tao Tao barely held back the urge to roll her eyes.
Many onlookers had gathered around, and some were even recording videos on their phones to upload online.
Qiangzi shouted through a megaphone: “Big sale, big sale! Foot washing and massages starting at 38 yuan! Members who recharge 500 get additional discounts! Come take a look—”
After the whole routine, the foot-washing parlor opened its doors, and customers gradually started coming in.
It was Tao Tao’s first day at work, and her photo wasn’t yet in the technician booklet, so Luo Hou had her do odd jobs—carrying essential oils, pouring water, all simple errands that kept her busy but were easy.
While wandering around the second floor, she noticed Lin Quan was already preparing to start work.
He stood in the employee changing room, with Qiangzi helping him tie his tie and Tingting spraying perfume on him. He turned his head away, looking indifferent.
Tingting said, “Brother Lin Quan, tonight’s rich lady has a bit of a strange preference. She wants you to play the role of a useless loser—someone who works diligently every day as a low-level clerk, barely earning any money, and comes home only to be scolded by his wife. She might actually yell at you and even throw pillows at you, but you absolutely must not talk back. After she finishes scolding, bring her a basin of foot-washing water, wash her feet, and say, ‘I’m sorry, dear’…”
Tao Tao nearly couldn’t hold back her laughter and quickly hid behind the wall, covering her mouth.
Qiangzi said, “Brother Lin Quan, we didn’t want to assign you such a difficult customer on your first day, but when you were standing at the entrance just now, the rich lady saw you and specifically requested you. Washing her feet pays 80, and she’s giving an extra 600 in tips. That’s more than we could earn in an entire night!”
Lin Quan remained indifferent, took the employee card, clipped it to his clothes, and entered the room.
…
Early morning.
Lin Quan returned to the room, where Tao Tao was lying on the bed teasing the bird.
Fugui, seeing him return, spread its wings and flew toward him with concern.
Tao Tao asked knowingly, “You look so pale. Is washing feet that exhausting?”
“It’s fine,” Lin Quan replied, patting Fugui’s head.
Tao Tao, her mischievous plan foiled, asked again, “Were there many customers today?”
“Only three.”
“I heard from Tingting that it was a rich lady with a lot of demands. She didn’t give you a hard time, did she?”
Lin Quan grabbed a handful of birdseed and let Fugui peck at it from his palm. “They were all very friendly people.”
His gentleness was as solid as a fortress, giving no hint that he had just played the roles of a pathetic office worker, a desperate husband chasing his wife in a crematorium, and a cold-hearted emperor who unified the world but only cared for an ordinary palace maid.
Seeing that she couldn’t get anything out of him, Tao Tao turned over, covered her head with the blanket, and went to sleep.
She planned to sneak a peek at Lin Quan’s work scene when she had some free time, to see if he could remain as gentle as he was now while playing the role of a useless loser.
She didn’t know if Luo Hou was doing it on purpose, but it had already been a week, and he still hadn’t assigned Tao Tao any foot-washing work.
During these days, Tao Tao attended classes during the day to learn how to wash feet and serve customers, and worked odd jobs at night. Although it was leisurely, she calculated that a base salary of 1,500 per month wasn’t much. Once she finished dealing with matters at Chengho Medical College, she would leave Shencheng, and she wasn’t sure how long this money would last.
Today was the weekend, and business was relatively good, with half of the technicians serving customers.
Tao Tao stayed in the staff room, receiving messages from upstairs and delivering the items they needed.
The phone rang, and Tingting asked, “Sister Tao Tao, the customer wants a late-night snack. Can you help buy it?”
Tao Tao went outside to buy the snack and brought it upstairs. Tingting came out to take it. “Thank you so much. This customer is really hard to deal with. I was worried you might be too busy.”
Tao Tao peeked through the crack in the door and saw a middle-aged man with a large belly sitting in the recliner, looking quite wealthy.
As soon as Tingting entered, he complained, “Little beauty, you’re too slow. I’ve been waiting impatiently.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
The man persisted, “The foot-washing water has gone cold. Aren’t you going to change it for me?”
Tingting reached her hand into the water. “The temperature is still very warm. Any hotter and it might burn you.”
Seeing her hand in the water, the man immediately stretched his thick foot in and stepped on her. Tingting tried to pull her hand out, but he pressed down even harder. His foot, softened by the water, felt like a slippery loach, an oddly unsettling sensation. “Little beauty, massage me a bit more. If you make me comfortable, I won’t ask for a water change.”
“Sir, this is a legitimate foot-washing establishment…” Tingting had never encountered such a customer before and was so frightened that her voice trembled with tears. “Oh, don’t step on me! What are you doing?”
“I never said you weren’t legitimate,” the man replied, moving his feet again and splashing water that dampened the stray hairs by Tingting’s ears.
Tao Tao pushed the door open and entered. “Tingting, Manager Luo wants you downstairs. I’ll take over here.”
She wore a neat ponytail, a pure white foot-towel draped over her shoulder, and had rolled up the sleeves of her technician uniform with practiced ease—a sight that left no doubt she was far from a first-day novice.
In fact, she wasn’t a novice at all. Over the past few days, she had learned a great deal during training, even mastering the identification of different coins, though she lacked hands-on experience.
Tingting fled with tearful gratitude.
Tao Tao knelt by the foot basin and asked gently, “Sir, the water has cooled. Would you like me to replace it with fresh water?”
The man squinted. “Of course.”
As she poured out the dirty water, Tao Tao remarked casually, “I’ve washed many customers’ feet, but this is the first time I’ve seen such beautiful ones.”
“Beautiful?”
“Yes,” Tao Tao praised sincerely. “High arches, thick but not plump soles, smooth veins on the instep, and light bones. Your feet may not look exceptionally beautiful on the surface, but from a physiognomic perspective, they are quite striking.”
“You can read fortunes?”
“My grandfather was a fortune-teller, and he taught me.” Tao Tao gently pressed the bones of his ankle and glanced at his face. “You’re around forty-five or forty-six this year?”
The middle-aged man was astonished. “Forty-five. You really can tell fortunes?”
Bone-reading and fortune-telling didn’t require Spiritual Power; Li Sanjiu had taught her these skills when she was very young.
“I know a little. But sir, I see a purple glow on your forehead. Your great fortune should arrive within the next two years.”
“Really? I don’t see it,” the man said, turning to look in the mirror.
“The purple glow on the forehead isn’t literally purple; ordinary eyes can’t perceive it,” Tao Tao explained, adjusting the foot basin. “Why would I lie to you? But seizing great fortune requires timing—heaven, earth, and human effort must align. Our shop offers a Provence Lavender Gold Powder Milk Bath, which is excellent for turning luck around. Would you like to order one to soak in? It’s very affordable.”
The middle-aged man was swayed by her words. “Affordable? Sure.”
Tao Tao went to the adjacent room, opened a carton of Mengniu pure milk that everyone drank in the morning, poured it into the foot basin, added lavender essential oil and a ten-yuan box of gold eyeshadow powder Tingting had bought from an underground passage, mixing it into a “Gold Powder Milk Bath.”
Returning to the room, she immersed the man’s feet in the mixture. The man, still harboring lecherous thoughts, felt an itch at the sight of the pretty girl and tried stepping on her again.
Suddenly, Tao Tao withdrew her hands from the basin, stood up, and fetched a second-hand iPad from the cabinet.
Kneeling on one knee, she respectfully presented the screen filled with QR codes to the man. “Three thousand two hundred and eighty-eight, sir. Would you prefer cash, credit card, WeChat, or Alipay?”
The man protested immediately. “Didn’t you say it was very affordable?”
“It’s such a bargain!” Tao Tao said with an innocent expression. “The lavender is airlifted from Provence, the milk is freshly squeezed from alpine cows in New Zealand’s pure natural pastures, and the gold powder is sourced from the North Lagoons gold mine in San Diego. Just the shipping costs for these items alone are worth more than this price! The original price was eight thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. I only gave you a discount because I think you’re about to have great fortune, boss, and I want to curry favor with you. No one else gets this treatment. Besides, with your style, you shouldn’t be a man who cares about three thousand dollars, right?”
“Could it be that you don’t have the money? Then forget it, I’ll take this basin of Provence lavender gold powder milk foot soak back.”
With her saying this, the man found it hard to back down. He had no choice but to act generously, pulling out his phone to pay, his chubby face trembling with pain as he did so.
He stared at Tao Tao, gritting his teeth. “You’re really something.”
Tao Tao replied humbly, “No need to be polite, this is part of my job. I receive a salary from the Yelaixiang Foot Spa, so taking good care of the boss is only right.”
The man asked, “What’s your monthly salary?”
“Fifteen hundred,” Tao Tao said. “Before taxes.”
The man: “…”
Tao Tao collected the money and, while silently reciting Luo Hou’s foot massage song, helped him wash his feet. She thought to herself, “Is this really the same feet that Ting Ting just washed? They’re unbelievably smelly!” Whether intentionally or not, the man seemed to be retaliating, stepping hard on her hands several times during the process. As a result, her silent recitation of the foot massage song gradually turned into a mantra for calming the mind.
Finally, the washing was done. Tao Tao dried his feet with a towel, but the man didn’t put on his shoes. Instead, he placed his feet directly on Tao Tao’s arm.
“Washing people’s feet must be so hard,” he said, leaning down closer to Tao Tao. “Little girl, why don’t you come with me? I’ll give you two thousand a month, how about that?”
Tao Tao thought to herself, “A single basin of foot soak costs three thousand two hundred eighty-eight, and you’re only offering me two thousand a month? Isn’t that a bit too stingy! If the young master found out, wouldn’t he chop you into eight hundred pieces and throw you into the Yangtze River to feed the fish?”
She stared at the foot resting on her arm. Soaked in milk, it looked pale and bloated, like the living corpses she had seen in the Anatomy Building.
If anyone had dared to press their feet against her like this before, the outcome likely wouldn’t have been good.
At that moment, two little figures were tugging back and forth in Tao Tao’s mind.
The Tao Tao with devil horns on her head said, “He actually dares to put his smelly feet on you! Beat him up, beat him up right now! Even if you can’t kill him, break half his bones!”
The Tao Tao with a tuft of hair sticking up on her head, like an angel, said, “No, no, no! Luo Hou said we can’t take action! If we cause this place to shut down for rectification, these poor kids will have nothing to eat!”
In the end, Tao Tao didn’t take action. She put on a professional fake smile and called out in the classic farewell tone, “Thank you for coming, please come again—”
…
Next door.
Lin Quan sat in a soft chair, facing a female guest whose gaze was unfocused as she stared into his red eyes.
He was looking at the opposite wall—or rather, it wasn’t a wall at that moment, but a transparent, thin curtain. Through it, he could see everything happening next door.
The man wore a grim expression and, as he stood up, deliberately pressed his foot against Tao Tao.
Tao Tao’s skin was delicate and tender, and that single press left a clear footprint on her fair arm.
Lin Quan stood up and walked over to the female guest, his voice low and mesmerizing. “You’ve had your feet washed and are very satisfied. You might come back here again, but you won’t look for me anymore.”
The woman looked at him blankly and nodded.
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Fugui poked a small head out from the window, flew toward Lin Quan, and landed on his fingertip, its eyes filled with human-like concern as it gazed at him.
“It’s nothing,” Lin Quan wiped the bloodstain from his lips. “Just a bit of mental exhaustion.”
He released Fugui out the window, pulled open the door, and walked out.
…
Although Tao Tao had been stepped on several times, her first customer service went quite smoothly.
She thought to herself that as long as she worked hard, in time, she would surely earn a commission of ten thousand and become the top foot masseuse here!
She washed her hands and went downstairs to find Tingting. As she descended, she heard a man’s cursing voice coming from the staircase.
She turned around. The man had just finished using the restroom and was descending the stairs while fastening his belt in a very indecent manner. “Damn little brats, none of you are willing to wash my feet, and you even cheat me out of money. I’ll come back tomorrow, and I’ll request you again. Let’s see if you’ll wash them or not…”
Lin Quan stood quietly behind the man, the corners of his eyes tinged with crimson, a faint trace of blood lingering at the corner of his lips.
He looked extremely gentle, like an exiled immortal from mythology, untouchable by the filth of the mortal world.
Yet at the same time, he exuded a powerful, dark pressure that made one want to lower their head, bend their waist, and kneel down in worship without hesitation.
Tao Tao had never seen Lin Quan like this before. She couldn’t understand how such two extreme temperaments could coexist in one person.
Lin Quan reached out his hand. A certain string in Tao Tao’s heart suddenly tightened. Somehow, she seemed to anticipate what he was about to do.
“Stop! Lin Quan—”
As soon as her words fell, the man on the stairs let out a scream. He missed a step, and his obese body tumbled down the stairs like a kite with its string cut.
Lin Quan withdrew his hand, wiping his fingertips on his sleeve as if they were stained with something dirty.
One finger, then another… unhurried, still gentle.
But the lingering crimson at the corners of his eyes deepened. He looked up, and as his gaze met Tao Tao’s, his eyes were dyed with blood, like a solitary, frigid snow-capped peak, isolated from the bustling world and the clamor of humanity by an insurmountable chasm under the howling polar winds.
Author’s Note:
Everyone, this novel will enter its VIP chapters tomorrow. After midnight, three chapters will be updated directly. After entering VIP, I’ll try to update two chapters daily, so please don’t wait too long to read.
Also, in the first few days after entering VIP, everyone who leaves a comment on the VIP chapters will receive a red envelope. Red envelopes will also be distributed irregularly afterward. Thank you all for your support, and I hope you enjoy reading!