Lin Shou had been busy all night, exhausted in body and mind. Once he lay down and relaxed, he slept so deeply he lost all sense of day and night.
By the time he woke again, the sun was already sinking in the west.
The Capital City at dusk was steeped in the warmth of everyday life. Smoke curled from the stoves of the Caishikou neighborhood as people started cooking, while food vendors pushed out steaming baskets and opened for the night market.
Lin Shou woke on the cold couch.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a beauty by his side.
Ning Luowei sat in a chair, her elbow resting on the cold couch and her hand supporting her soft, jade-like cheek. Leaning lazily close, she blinked her catlike, peach-blossom eyes at him.
"Why haven't you left yet?"
Lin Shou closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, speaking impatiently. Don't ask him how he dared to be so brazen toward the notorious Scalp-Cutter, whose fearsome reputation shook the Capital City. The answer was that when he stitched her up last night, Ning Luowei had whined and wailed like a ghost. After seeing that, nobody could look at her the same way again. It was ridiculous how much of a fuss this patient made. In his previous life, when he took his little niece to the hospital, he'd never seen a child kick up such a racket.
This fussy woman had completely reshaped Lin Shou's image of the high-level martial arts criminals of Great Jing, lowering the moral standards of aspiring criminals everywhere.
"I thought if I left without saying goodbye, you might feel lost for a long time. After all, you might never see another woman as beautiful as me."
Ning Luowei blinked her catlike eyes and smiled at Lin Shou. This narcissistic, conceited little woman had already forgotten the pain now that her wounds were healed. She looked awfully pleased with herself.
Lin Shou shook his head and said,
"No. When the Six Fan School catches you and drags you to the execution ground at Caishikou to be beheaded, I'll go watch you die. I might even be the one to stitch up your corpse afterward."
"Bah, bah, bah! Wish me something nice!"
Ning Luowei spat three times, then wandered around the Corpse-Stitching Shop, touching Lin Shou's jars and bottles and corpse-stitching tools. She acted as if she were completely at home.
"The Six Fan School won't catch me anytime soon. My sect hasn't sent me any new orders, and as long as I don't make a move, they won't find me. Of course, you'd better not report me, or I might have to silence you."
Ning Luowei waved her Willow Leaf Blade, trying to scare Lin Shou. He always wore the same calm expression, as if nothing could ever move him, which made her want to grit her teeth.
Of course, she wouldn't really do anything to Lin Shou. Aside from the unspoken rule among people of the martial world never to harm a doctor, Lin Shou had stitched her up last night, and that alone was a great kindness.
Besides, she'd been dazed by her injuries last night and had said all sorts of ridiculous things. Thinking back on it made Ning Luowei feel embarrassed. But she'd already said some of those things, and she couldn't help feeling unwilling to let them go unanswered.
Ning Luowei nudged Lin Shou with her calf, then looked in every direction except straight at him, doing her best to seem unconcerned as she asked,
"Hey, what I said last night..."
"Forgotten."
"..."
One heart longed, the other cared not.
Ning Luowei was furious. She turned away and sat down, sulking.
Lin Shou found her a headache. What would he say if someone came by right now? She was a wanted criminal of the imperial court.
He thought for a moment, then managed to say,
"If you don't want to use your sword anymore, then put it aside for a while."
Ning Luowei turned to look at him, her alluring catlike eyes narrowing into crescents. At last, she showed a hint of a smile. Lin Shou said he was satisfied, so she could leave now—and he seized the chance to hurry her out.
As for capturing the Scalp-Cutter and handing her over to the authorities?
He couldn't be bothered with that sort of trouble.
Lin Shou looked at the wanted poster on the wall, with its portrait of the long-haired mole-faced man, and pondered the rumors about the Minister of Justice that had been circulating through the martial world lately.
A few days ago, in the Lantern of Life of the constable's corpse, he had seen the man die at the hands of the Canal Gang at Shallow Water Pier. Now, looking at the Minister of Justice and the Scalp-Cutter's wanted notice, the clues seemed to connect. They might have something to do with the Western Affairs Party's dealings with comprador merchants within the court.
Lin Shou had no desire to get dragged into those murky waters for a thousand taels in reward money.
Wasn't it much better to burn a little Greed-Abstinence Silver every day, cultivate his character in this little Corpse-Stitching Shop, and, in his spare time, visit a teahouse to listen to stories and chat about romance with the pretty Shopkeeper Xia?
So Lin Shou hadn't planned to send Ning Luowei to the authorities for the reward, either. He'd send her on her way, and they could forget each other from then on.
But heaven rarely granted people their wishes.
Especially when someone was stirring up trouble.
After sending Ning Luowei off, Lin Shou enjoyed a few peaceful days.
One morning, when he opened the door, he was astonished to see a long line stretching down the street at Caishikou.
Following the queue with his eyes, he saw that the shop across the street, which had been vacant for ages, had finally opened. A crowd was packed tightly outside.
Curious about the commotion, Lin Shou asked a customer in line what was going on. He was told that a new tofu shop had opened, and the owner, the Tofu Beauty, was so gorgeous she looked like an immortal who'd descended to earth.
Lin Shou chuckled when he heard that. What a stroke of luck! It was right across from his own Corpse-Stitching Shop, just a few steps away. From now on, he could sit in his shop and feast his eyes on her every day.
But when he got a good look at the Tofu Beauty, his expression immediately fell. He turned back into his shop and shut the door tight.
Toward evening, someone knocked. Lin Shou ignored it.
But when he didn't open the door, the other person kept knocking, so Lin Shou finally let them in.
Ning Luowei came in carrying a bowl of fragrant tofu pudding and brought it over to Lin Shou. The bowl was hot, and she pinched her earlobes as she said, "My new shop just opened, and you didn't even come support my business?"
The owner of the new tofu shop across from Lin Shou's Corpse-Stitching Shop had drawn men from eighteen nearby streets, all of them getting up earlier than roosters every morning to queue for tofu, just for a glimpse of the Tofu Beauty.
And the Tofu Beauty was none other than Ning Luowei.
Lin Shou thought this was bizarre. How could a wanted criminal of the imperial court walk around in public every day, swaggering through the streets and showing off, and the Six Fan School still fail to catch her?
And you, Ning Luowei—aren't you a criminal of Great Jing? You should have ideals, ambitions, and goals of your own. You should be carrying out terrorist attacks, kidnapping court officials, or assassinating the emperor of Great Jing. How could you open a tofu shop and waste your life away?
As he thought, Lin Shou scooped up the tofu pudding and ate it.
What a disaster. He shouldn't have said "put your sword aside" that day. Now this troublesome woman had latched onto him.
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