Chapter Three: First Encounter with the Red Face, Second Meeting with the Red Eyes

Qin Daofei regarded the innkeeper with a cold gaze and said indifferently, “Alive is alive. With that look on your face, I almost thought you’d seen a ghost.”

“The problem is, she’s caught Wang Shun. Wang Shun holds evidence of the Overlord’s treason in his hands.” The innkeeper whispered bitterly in Qin Daofei’s ear.

A faint glimmer flashed in the depths of Qin Daofei’s eyes, as vast and cold as the sea. He spoke with calm detachment, “What does she want?”

“A hundred thousand taels of silver!” The innkeeper looked at Qin Daofei, cautiously gesturing the number ten.

Qin Daofei’s lips curled into a mocking smile. After a moment’s thought, he said to the innkeeper, “Just give it to her.”

Half a day later.

Linglong arrived with Wang Shun to collect the silver. The innkeeper bowed low and said, “Madam, would you please follow me to the inner hall?”

“Innkeeper, is your memory poor or is your mind faulty? My name is Linglong. If my surname were ‘Da’, I’d call myself ‘Master Da’; I certainly wouldn’t go by ‘Madam’, that sounds dreadful!” Linglong’s clear voice drifted into the inner hall, where the man clenched his fists, veins standing out on the back of his hand.

Linglong stepped inside and saw the man sitting in the round-backed chair, his cool eyes fixed on her. Suddenly, it felt as if her heart were gripped in an iron fist—her breath stuttered and faltered.

“Um... I must have come to the wrong place. We’ll never meet again!” Linglong didn’t even care about Wang Shun, who was worth a hundred thousand taels; she simply turned and made to leave.

In the blink of an eye, the man who had been sitting was now blocking the doorway, looming over Linglong with his height. He looked down at her and said, “What’s this? Running away as soon as you see me? You dare kill a man, but you’re afraid of me?”

“Of course I’m afraid. As a murderer, seeing the profit-hungry Master Qin of Carefree Manor, would I really wait around for you to send me to prison again?” Linglong’s tone was flippant, but her fingers curled tightly into a fist, knuckles turning white.

Qin Daofei’s gaze darkened, and his voice was cool and detached. “You’ve already died once, and yet you haven’t changed that impudent attitude.”

“What can I do? Evil lingers for a thousand years. I’ve survived twice—how could I bear to change my ways?” Linglong closed the distance between them with playful bravado, causing Qin Daofei to frown and step back, as if avoiding a plague.

Ignoring the pain twisting tightly in her chest, Linglong laughed, “Are you going to turn me in, Master Qin? If not, I’m leaving.”

Qin Daofei’s eyes became deep and inscrutable, as if both unfeeling and resolute as stone, yet somehow entwined with a thousand threads of gentle water, vast and mysterious as the smoky sea—impossible to grasp or see through.

“Really not going to report me? Then, farewell forever!” Linglong turned to leave, but he seized her wrist and pressed her against the wall.

He seemed repulsed by her presence, not actually drawing close, but bracing his elbow against her neck so she couldn’t move, as if being near her was the greatest insult to him.

He had always been this way. Linglong was used to it.

“Take the silver and go. I don’t want to owe you anything.” Qin Daofei released her coldly. Freed from his restraint, Linglong didn’t flee at once.

Her legs were numb.

Or perhaps, it was her heart that had gone numb.

Qin Daofei personally handed her the banknotes for a hundred thousand taels. Linglong feigned reluctance, “How can I accept this?”

Yet even as she spoke, her hands swiftly snatched the notes and tucked them away.

Most infuriating of all, that rogueish, unruly flair of hers was almost enough to make one nostalgic.

With the banknotes in hand, Linglong left without looking back. As she moved, the dice at her waist swung free. Qin Daofei noticed, and in that instant, his eyes turned to ice.

Ah, that famed Linglong dice, red as beans—do you know whose longing has entered your very bones?

Whose bones have been pierced?

And for whom is that longing?