Let's Go to the Bathroom Together!

He Jiaqing stared in astonishment. "Why did you leave the thing at the Train Station?"

Li Banfeng sighed. "It's a long story."

Li Banfeng stood at the door, hesitating over whether to go in.

He Jiaqing had already shut the front gate.

If he did not go in now, it would be the same as openly falling out with him.

If they fell out face-to-face, would he still be able to stay alive?

"Come inside first." He Jiaqing led Li Banfeng into the entryway. Li Banfeng had trudged for an entire day, and his leather shoes were covered in mud and water. After taking two steps through the entryway, he left two muddy footprints on the carpet.

He Jiaqing looked at the carpet. Li Banfeng gave an embarrassed smile and hurriedly took off his shoes.

In truth, his socks were not much better than his shoes. When he had tangled with the black bear, mud and water had flooded into his shoes. After drying along the way, they had now set into shape.

Li Banfeng put on slippers and handed the Feather Duster to He Jiaqing.

He Jiaqing took the duster, unable to understand what it meant.

Li Banfeng said, "This is a token of my regard."

Holding the Feather Duster, He Jiaqing shook his head and sighed. "Ban Feng, you really never act properly."

Li Banfeng put on a solemn expression. "Bringing a gift when visiting someone's home—is that improper?"

He Jiaqing helplessly shook his head and casually placed the Feather Duster in a corner of the living room. That reminded Li Banfeng of something Old Woman Wu had once said at the Welfare Institute:

Proper households never kept a Feather Duster in the living room. It easily invited chicken feathers and garlic skins—trivial troubles.

Now was not the time to think about Feather Dusters.

He Jiaqing brought Li Banfeng into the living room, and Li Banfeng sat down on the sofa.

Though the residence was lavish, it had no electricity. He Jiaqing lit the candlestick on the coffee table and asked about Li Banfeng's experiences along the way.

"Ban Feng, I sent you messages all along the way. Why didn't you reply?" He Jiaqing poured Li Banfeng a cup of tea.

"Once I got to Belt Ridge, my phone ran out of battery. Then the train broke down too, and I couldn't charge it. I couldn't see your messages at all." Li Banfeng picked up the teacup and was about to take a sip, but when he brought it near his nose, he caught a fishy smell from the tea.

"This isn't water for raising goldfish, is it?" Li Banfeng frowned.

"What nonsense are you talking? What do you mean, water for raising goldfish? This is top-grade tea! I usually cannot bear to bring it out for just anyone!"

"So it's good tea." Li Banfeng lifted the cup and made the motion of drinking, but the tea level did not drop, because he had not actually drunk any.

He Jiaqing said, "I heard something happened to the train. I was afraid you had nothing to eat on board, and my heart had been hanging in the air these past few days."

Li Banfeng smiled. "There was food, but what I saw and heard along the way was far too strange. Jiaqing, you still haven't told me what exactly happened. What kind of place is this? And who exactly is the person lying in the hospital?"

He Jiaqing smiled. "There's too much to this. We couldn't finish explaining it in three days and three nights. I heard the train arrived yesterday, so why did you only come find me today?"

"I was just..." Halfway through his sentence, Li Banfeng suddenly heard a sound from the entryway.

He Jiaqing also looked toward the entryway. There really were soft rustling footsteps there.

The two went to the entryway one after the other. After looking around for a while, they saw no one, only a tabby cat curled beneath the shoe rack, holding a bowl of cat food as it wolfed down its meal.

Li Banfeng asked, "I saw a black cat earlier. Why is there a tabby cat now?"

He Jiaqing smiled. "They're all stray cats from around here. They used to live in the old house, but when I moved back in, I took over their home.

"I couldn't bear it, so I prepare some food for them every day. This residence is so large, and I live here alone anyway. Having them around for company is quite nice."

Li Banfeng looked at the cat food bowl. Inside was an unidentifiable paste. It definitely was not fish, yet it also gave off a fishy smell.

Why did everything smell fishy today?

Is there something wrong with my nose?

Li Banfeng swept his gaze over the entryway again and suddenly noticed the brightly colored Feather Duster he had brought.

That Feather Duster had originally been placed by He Jiaqing in a corner of the living room, but it had now been set beside the shoe rack.

Following the Feather Duster upward to the shoe rack, he saw that his leather shoes, formerly covered in mud and water, had become very clean. Not only was the mud gone, they had been polished until they gleamed.

Looking from the shoe rack to the carpet, the carpet was also spotless, without a speck of dust.

The two muddy footprints he had left when entering were gone as well.

"Ban Feng, what are you spacing out for?"

Li Banfeng smiled. "I was looking at that cat."

"What are you looking at it for? You must be hungry too!" He Jiaqing smiled. "Sit tight. I'll cook you a bowl of meat soup."

Li Banfeng returned to the sofa, picked up the teacup, and poured the tea onto the carpet.

He wanted to see what would happen to the carpet.

In less than two minutes, the tea on the carpet had dried, leaving no trace behind.

He Jiaqing was busy in the kitchen. A white cat lay sleeping beneath the cabinet.

On the chopping board was a skinned animal, about a foot long.

He Jiaqing sliced several pieces of meat from the animal and put them into the pot.

The slices were thin, and He Jiaqing was somewhat reluctant to part with them.

But after hesitating for a moment, He Jiaqing smiled.

He muttered soundlessly to himself:

By tomorrow, I won't have to eat this anymore.

By tomorrow, I won't have to stay here anymore.

The happier He Jiaqing smiled, the more than half the cat meat on the chopping board he stripped off and put into the pot.

"Ban Feng, have some soup." He Jiaqing set the bowl before Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng looked at the meat soup and smiled. "It's too hot. I'll let it cool first."

He Jiaqing saw that the teacup was empty and asked, "Are you really thirsty? Shall I make you another cup?"

Li Banfeng shook his head. "No need. I'm not used to drinking tea this good."

After chatting idly for a few sentences, He Jiaqing raised the serious matter. "Why did you leave the thing at the Train Station?"

Li Banfeng gave a bitter laugh. "That's what I should ask you. What exactly is that thing? It got me followed all the way here! If I hadn't stored it at the Train Station, I never would have made it to your home!"

He Jiaqing froze. "After you reached Medicine King Gully, someone was still following you?"

"Yes. The moment I left the Train Station, two people said they wanted to kill me. It scared me so badly that I ran around like a headless fly. In the end, I found a rickshaw puller and finally got away. Guess how much that rickshaw puller charged me?"

He Jiaqing pondered for a moment. "That depends on whether the vehicle had fire wheels."

"You know about fire wheels too?" Li Banfeng said in delight. "He said his rickshaw had fire wheels, and one ride cost five hundred."

He Jiaqing nodded. "Five hundred isn't expensive. Someone with fire wheels isn't ordinary. That price is quite fair."

"That price is fair?" Li Banfeng looked pained. "You have no idea how much it hurt when I paid."

"Don't worry. Would I let you suffer a loss? I'll cover it." He Jiaqing immediately took out three thousand dollars and stuffed it into Li Banfeng's hand.

Li Banfeng did not stand on ceremony and directly put it into his wallet.

"Jiaqing, if you're in a hurry, let's go to the Train Station now and retrieve the thing." Li Banfeng wanted to leave this house as quickly as possible.

"No need. We'll talk about it tomorrow morning. Ban Feng, drink the soup!" He Jiaqing did not seem to be in much of a hurry.

Li Banfeng picked up the soup bowl and caught another sharp, pungent fishy smell.

The tabby cat finished its food, walked to the living room window, and yawned.

Li Banfeng put down the soup bowl and yawned too.

The tabby cat lay down beneath the window and fell asleep. Li Banfeng rubbed his eyes, seeming as though he were about to fall asleep at once.

"Ban Feng, are you sleepy?"

"A little..." Li Banfeng rubbed his eyes.

He Jiaqing stood up. "I've prepared a room for you. Come upstairs with me."

Li Banfeng followed He Jiaqing upstairs. The second room on the left of the staircase was Li Banfeng's bedroom.

The bedroom was spacious. The window was shut, while vines dangling from the ceiling swayed back and forth in front of it with the night wind.

"This room is a little stuffy. Can the window be opened?" Li Banfeng asked casually.

"The window hinges have rusted shut, so it can't be opened. If you feel hot, take a bath. There's a bathroom on the second floor, at the end of the hallway."

"I won't bathe. I'm sleepy." Without even taking off his clothes, Li Banfeng plunged headfirst onto the large bed.

The bed was more than two meters wide. Since coming into this world, Li Banfeng had never slept in such a large bed.

He Jiaqing frowned. "I prepared pajamas for you. Those clothes of yours..."

Li Banfeng's clothes were covered in mud. Seeing that He Jiaqing was unhappy, he hurriedly took them off and changed into the pajamas.

He Jiaqing casually took the clothes. "I'll wash them for you."

"I really couldn't trouble you."

"What are brothers for?" He Jiaqing picked up Li Banfeng's clothes.

Damn it, he took all my clothes.

Good thing the key isn't in them.

"Jiaqing, after so much has happened, you still haven't explained things clearly to me." Li Banfeng yawned.

"Get a good night's sleep first. I'll explain it to you slowly tomorrow."

Li Banfeng lay on the bed, squinting at He Jiaqing, then suddenly asked, "Teacher Song has a birthmark on her peach. Have you seen it?"

He Jiaqing smiled. "Of course I have. Do you want to see it?"

Li Banfeng smiled. "I do, but I'm afraid Teacher Song won't allow it."

"You lecher!" Carrying Li Banfeng's dirty clothes, He Jiaqing left the bedroom and shut the door. Then he took Li Banfeng's wallet from his pocket.

Li Banfeng's identification was inside the wallet. With his identification, he could retrieve the thing Li Banfeng had stored at the Train Station.

After going downstairs, He Jiaqing entered the kitchen and poured Li Banfeng's untouched meat soup into the slop bucket.

This soup could not be drunk, because it had seasoning in it.

He grabbed the cat's remains from the chopping board and gnawed raw meat directly from the bones, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth drop by drop.

He would never have to eat this again.

By tomorrow morning, he would never have to eat this again.

When Li Banfeng had suddenly mentioned the birthmark earlier, he had nearly been stumped.

That filthy bastard—if I hadn't reacted quickly, I would have given myself away just then.

In fact, he had exposed himself long ago. He simply had not realized it yet.

He Jiaqing knew that Li Banfeng had seen Teacher Song's birthmark.

This was Li Banfeng's final test.

From the moment he entered, Li Banfeng had spotted the flaws.

The person living in this residence was not He Jiaqing. He did not even recognize Li Banfeng's backpack.

That backpack had been a gift from He Jiaqing to Li Banfeng, bought from a street stall.

Who exactly was he?

Where was the real He Jiaqing?

Now was not the time to think about that. What he needed to consider was whether he could get out alive!

Li Banfeng opened his eyes and looked at the candlestick on the table.

There was no electricity in this house. What had he used to charge his phone?

If his phone had no battery, how had he sent me messages?

Li Banfeng sat up and looked at the slippers on the floor.

His filthy socks had originally left plenty of mud on the slippers, but now all that mud was gone.

He recalled something Ma Wu had said:

Home Spirits love cleanliness. When they encounter something unclean, they find a way to clean it up.

There was a Home Spirit in this house.

He also recalled what the Peddler had said:

If a Home Spirit is abandoned, it becomes a Vengeful Spirit. It lures others into living in the house. As long as someone stays in the house for one night, they become the Home Spirit's prisoner.

Unless someone comes to replace the imprisoned person, the Home Spirit imprisons that person until death.

And there was another passage:

Snooping Cultivators like to hang hooks on phones..."

That person was a Snooping Cultivator.

He knew what was happening around me, and he could keep sending me messages, because he was a Snooping Cultivator. He used a Snooping Cultivator's technique to track my phone. This was the Wind-Following Ears the Peddler had mentioned.

He tricked me. He tricked me all the way to Pro State. He was trapped by the Home Spirit and had become its prisoner. He lured me here to make me his replacement!

Li Banfeng got out of bed and reached toward the window, carefully testing it several times.

The window would not open.

Li Banfeng had already entered the ranks of both House Cultivators and Travel Cultivators. He was much stronger than an ordinary person, yet he could clearly sense that he could not open this window. The Home Spirit's power was on it.

If he could not leave through the window, then he would leave through the door?

The person impersonating He Jiaqing would not let me leave. Even if he had to risk his life, he would not let me go.

Could I beat him?

That was hard to say. Most likely, I could not beat him, but he probably was not certain he could subdue me either.

Though he was a Dark Energy User, though his cultivation was certainly above mine, under the Home Spirit's control, he was likely under some restrictions. Otherwise, he could have tied me up and thrown me into the house to wait for dawn.

But even if I could beat him, could I definitely get out?

I could not open the window, and I might not be able to open the door either.

Then that fake He Jiaqing and the Home Spirit would plot against me together, and even with wings, I would not be able to fly away.

As he thought, Li Banfeng heard a rustling sound of crawling and scrambling.

Leaving the bedroom, Li Banfeng discovered that the sound came from the bathroom.

Those were cat footsteps. Li Banfeng heard them.

There was a way.

Li Banfeng walked to the bathroom door, revealing a faint, imperceptible smile, when he suddenly saw He Jiaqing appear beside him.

"Ban Feng, you're not asleep?"

Li Banfeng smiled. "I was asleep. I woke up because I had to piss. I'm going to the bathroom. Want to come with me?"

PS: Dear readers, such a good work—vote for Salad, leave Salad some comments!

Two updates today, four thousand words per chapter.

(End of chapter)