Like a red lotus burning within the Karmic Fire, enchanting all beings, bewitching to the extreme.
Luo Hou was drinking tea among the employees when Ting Ting rushed in: “Master Luo, did you ask Sister Tao Tao to give a foot massage to the guest for me?”
Although Luo Hou was stubborn, he still feared the Jin Clan Consortium. He had only intended for Tao Tao to do some light work like serving tea and water, never expecting her to give foot massages. So upon hearing this, he instinctively tensed up, his hand holding the teacup trembling slightly.
“No,” he replied, looking utterly calm.
“Then why did the front desk just show a deposit of three thousand two hundred eighty-eight for Room Two? I thought you had Sister Tao Tao do it.”
Hearing this, Luo Hou spilled most of the water from his teacup. He narrowed his eyes and listened as Ting Ting continued, “And as soon as Sister Tao Tao came out, that guest rolled down the stairs…”
As she finished speaking, there was a blur before her eyes. The glass teacup shattered on the floor, and Luo Hou had already rushed out of the room, disappearing from sight.
He wanted to demand an explanation, but when he reached the lobby, all he saw was a crowd gathered around the unconscious man. As for Tao Tao, not even her shadow was in sight.
…
In a dimly lit corner.
Tao Tao pressed Lin Quan against the dusty wall, her hand on his shoulder: “What did you do?”
“As you saw.”
“Why did you push him?”
The crimson in Lin Quan’s eyes had already faded. He smiled gently: “I wanted to, so I did.”
His attitude infuriated Tao Tao. She grabbed his collar: “This place shelters children with Spiritual Power. If this incident escalates and we’re forced to shut down for rectification, they’ll all have to go out and face the evil spirits outside, and I’ll be left homeless. You have to give me a reasonable explanation today, or I won’t cover for you when Luo Hou asks.”
Lin Quan’s gaze drifted downward, landing on Tao Tao’s hand tightly gripping his shoulder. His smile faded, and he suddenly began coughing.
Tao Tao stared at the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the back of her hand, stunned: “You…”
Lin Quan collapsed onto her.
The weight of a grown man was not light, causing Tao Tao’s shoulder to tilt to one side: “Hey! I didn’t even use much force, don’t try to fake an injury…”
“You’re too weak for a grown man!” Tao Tao was speechless, wanting to bang her head against the wall. “Even with my life force draining away like that, I don’t just faint randomly! Are you faking it? Wake up!”
Luo Hou was calling for her outside, his tone sounding far from pleasant. She had no choice but to carry Lin Quan back to his room via the other staircase.
After settling Lin Quan, she went downstairs and was immediately caught by Luo Hou, who had been searching everywhere for her. He unleashed a torrent of scolding: “Ying Tao Tao, I hired you to work, not to wreck the place!”
“Don’t yell at me. Young Mistress has a fragile heart. If you keep shouting, I’ll go complain to the Young Master.”
“What about the three thousand dollars?”
Tao Tao: “Foot washing fee.”
“Did you wash his feet with holy water soaked in gold?”
“Of course not.” Tao Tao spread her fair, clean hand and extended it in front of Luo Hou. “It’s just that Young Mistress’s hands are quite precious.”
Luo Hou: “Don’t play games with me. I checked the surveillance footage. Before the guest rolled down the stairs, you shouted something in his direction. Are you really not involved in this?”
Tao Tao: “If you’ve already watched the surveillance, why are you bothering me? Every grievance has its debtor, and this has nothing to do with me.”
“Then who does it involve?”
Tao Tao observed Luo Hou’s expression and, seeing he wasn’t joking, said, “Let me see the surveillance footage.”
Luo Hou pulled up the video. After watching it, Tao Tao’s face changed.
From start to finish, Lin Quan never appeared in the footage. The man who fell down the stairs had nothing behind him—he had rolled down the steps on his own after hearing Tao Tao’s shout.
Luo Hou took out a black piece of Spirit Paper and handed it to her. “You’d better be telling the truth. If this has anything to do with you, resolve it before the police arrive. Otherwise, pack your things and get out tomorrow.”
“Understood.” Tao Tao took the spell talisman.
An ambulance arrived. Because of the commotion, no other customers came that night.
Tao Tao returned to her room and examined the curse patterns on the Spirit Paper under the light. This was the Soul-Forgetting Curse specially made by Chaotic Tomb. If used within twenty-four hours of an incident, it could make someone lose memories related to supernatural forces. Luo Hou meant for her to find a way to erase the man’s memories.
Lin Quan was still unconscious. Tao Tao checked his breathing and listened to his heartbeat. He was alive, but she couldn’t wake him.
After some thought, she changed into a set of black clothes and left while it was dark.
The ambulance that came at night was from the First People’s Hospital. By the time Tao Tao arrived, the outpatient department was already closed. She remembered the man’s name was Liang Dechang from when she collected payment. At the information desk, she learned that after his examination, the man had been moved to a room on the ninth floor of the inpatient department.
She arrived outside the room. The man was already awake, chatting with a friend.
“That girl is so sly—she asked for three thousand yuan right off the bat.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“Of course. It would’ve been too embarrassing not to.”
“Three thousand yuan could get you an overnight stay elsewhere. You really lost out.”
“Not at all. Once I recover, I’ll go back and ask for that girl every day to give me the cheapest foot wash. A few more chances to cop a feel, and I’ll make it back. If she doesn’t listen, when the police come tomorrow, I’ll say it was because she cheated me out of money that I was so preoccupied I accidentally fell down the stairs. But it’s strange—I really felt like someone pushed me from behind. How come no one showed up on the surveillance footage…”
Tao Tao stood in the hallway with her arms crossed, listening to their nonsense.
Night deepened. The friend went home, and Liang Dechang lay down to sleep after his final examination.
Tao Tao slipped into the medication preparation room, put on a nurse’s uniform hanging on a chair, and pushed a small cart into the room.
She mixed the powdered Soul-Forgetting Curse into a cup of Water and took out two vitamin C tablets. Just as she was about to wake him to take the medicine, the door behind her suddenly creaked.
She quickly rolled under the bed, pulling the cart over to hide herself.
The door not far away swung open. Tao Tao held her breath, staring at the entrance, but no one came in.
The late-night silence was profound. Just as Tao Tao was growing bored and nearly dozing off, the door closed again.
Baffled, Tao Tao crawled out to continue administering the curse, but the cup containing the curse powder had somehow tipped over. The cursed Water had spilled everywhere and was now unusable.
The night was deep and boundless. Liang Dechang’s eyes widened in terror. His limbs had now become ethereal, completely devoid of substance.
Surrounded by darkness, he floated in a void. An invisible hand gripped his throat, choking him so he could neither speak nor breathe.
Footsteps sounded in the distance—someone was approaching him. He let out a gurgling cry for help, only to see a man shrouded entirely in a black robe emerge from the direction of the sound.
The man’s face was unclear, but in his left hand, he held a blood-red sickle, looking exactly like the death god from stories who comes to claim lives.
“Pitch black, but this is the mortal realm.”
The man’s words sounded like a voice from beyond the heavens, utterly unreal.
The next second, the darkness before Liang Dechang’s eyes vanished, and the world turned gray. Countless transparent Soul Forms filed past him, their faces sorrowful and voices mournful. Ragged and tattered, they walked toward the end of the road.
When he looked toward the end of the road, he saw barren plains covered with blades. Lakes and seas around churned with molten lava, and living beings were crushed like ants on an anvil, ground into mud in iron mortars. Fiery saws and axes split their bodies, flesh and blood spilling everywhere in a scene of utter horror.
“This… is Purgatory.”
The man walked up to him, the curved tip of the sickle pressing against the side of his ear. A cold sensation slid down his skin. “Bullying the weak and oppressing the good—into the boiling oil prison. Deceit, wickedness, and debauchery—into the volcanic prison. The Ten-Directions Purgatory, cycles of death and rebirth, a thousand miles of blood and corpses… there will always be a place for you.”
“Why… why…”
The man’s voice was as gentle as Water: “You did something wrong.”
Liang Dechang trembled. “Yes, I was wrong. Please, don’t… I beg you…”
The man raised his hand, and in an instant, hellfire surged, sweeping across the sky with a pervasive bloody aura.
Liang Dechang’s body felt as light as floating floss, drifting toward the molten lava. He tried to speak, but no sound came out. The last image he saw was the man’s smile, hidden beneath the hood—like a red lotus burning within the Karmic Fire, enchanting and devastatingly beautiful.
In the early hours of the morning, Liang Dechang jolted awake from his hospital bed, feeling a chill between his legs.
He looked down and realized he had been so terrified by the nightmare that he had wet himself.
With no buses running late at night and no money for a taxi, Tao Tao walked all the way back to Yelaixiang. By the time she arrived, the sky was already bright. She went straight to find Luo Hou. “Give me another Soul-Forgetting Curse. I didn’t finish the job.”
“What are you talking about?” Luo Hou yawned and pointed to a bright red banner on the wall. “The client just sent someone to thank us. He said he wasn’t feeling well last night, and if it weren’t for your excellent foot massage and us contacting the hospital in time, he might not have made it.”
Tao Tao was stunned. “I didn’t even do anything. What’s he thanking me for?”
Luo Hou shrugged indifferently. “Who knows? Maybe he really thought your massage was good. Young Mistress, I was wrong about you. You’re a rare talent in our line of work. Keep up the good effort.”
Confused, Tao Tao returned to her room and found Lin Quan already awake, sitting on the windowsill and gazing outside.
“What are you looking at?”
Lin Quan: “Steamed buns.”
Tao Tao walked to the window and saw the breakfast stall downstairs had just opened. Dozens of steaming white buns sat in bamboo trays, exuding the warmth and charm of everyday life.
“What’s that?” Lin Quan pointed to something next to the buns.
“Soy milk.”
“And that?”
Tao Tao: “You don’t even recognize bread? How come someone from the mountains like me knows more than you?”
Lin Quan: “I hit my head.”
Tao Tao: “…”
She remembered she still hadn’t settled the score with him. Just as she was about to speak, Lin Quan spoke first. “I’m sorry. I acted impulsively last night.”
His smile was as harmless as a warm breeze across a field. “I overheard Tingting talking about that client’s behavior and got angry for a moment. I caused you trouble.”
The matter was already resolved, and with his attitude being so good, Tao Tao found it hard to say anything more: “It’s not about causing trouble for me, but for Luo Hou. If there’s a next time, I won’t cover for you. Last night, I only kept quiet because you were unconscious. A grown man fainting out of nowhere—your body is too weak, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Lin Quan replied meekly. “I won’t faint on Tao Tao so casually in the future.”
“And what about the surveillance footage from last night…”
“I used an Invisibility Talisman. Of course, I couldn’t be caught doing something bad.”
Tao Tao was half-convinced, half-doubtful: “Really? You even forgot the bread, yet you remembered to avoid the surveillance?”
“During class the day before yesterday, Master Luo explained the layout of surveillance in the foot-washing parlor. You were asleep.”
“And that man coming to thank us this morning—could that have anything to do with you?”
Lin Quan remained composed: “I just woke up and haven’t had time to go. Even if I did, what could a One-Pillar Spiritual Master like me do?”
He wasn’t lying about this. Manipulating someone’s will and actions required immense power, something Lin Quan, with his limited abilities, likely couldn’t achieve.
Tao Tao said, “Since Luo Hou isn’t pursuing it, let’s consider this matter closed. But I’m keeping my suspicions about you.”
“From the first time we met until now, even though you’ve given seemingly reasonable explanations for every unreasonable thing, my instincts can’t be wrong. If you really have a fox’s tail, you’d better hide it well. Otherwise, once it’s caught, I’ll skin you and send the fur to a tailor shop to make a winter scarf.”
After saying this, she turned to leave, only to feel a sharp tug on her scalp. Looking back, she saw her hair had tangled in the wind chime string on the window.
Just as she was about to tear her hair free by force, Lin Quan’s hand covered hers.
His fingers were slender, distinct, and clean. Tao Tao wanted to pull away, but she heard his gentle voice say, “Then starting tomorrow, I’ll eat a few more bowls of rice.”
Tao Tao: “Afraid that once I expose you, you won’t have another chance to taste the things of this world?”
Lin Quan: “Afraid the fox fur will be too short to keep you warm.”
Tao Tao froze.
Lin Quan patiently helped untangle her hair, pure, focused, and undistracted.
He smiled at Tao Tao: “Such beautiful hair—I couldn’t bear to break it. Next time it gets tangled in a string, just call me.”
In this motion, he was extremely close to her. With just a glance from the corner of her eye, Tao Tao could see his profile. Suddenly, the image of Lin Quan standing on the stairs last night flashed through her mind—cold, bewitching, as if separated from the mortal world by a sea of blood. That didn’t seem like his usual self but resembled someone else entirely.
—An evil spirit that existed only in her dreams.
The moment this thought surfaced, Tao Tao sharply inhaled and pushed Lin Quan away.