Jing Tao's Fragrance

Jing Tao nodded, feeling somewhat apprehensive.

Power struggles had always been a matter of life and death. Back then, Jing Hesheng had lost, and the entire family had been slaughtered until Jing Tao was the only one left.

And that was only because Jing Tao was a girl.

Jing Tao told Xu Yi that if he hadn't appeared, she might have been forced into marriage with one of her relatives' sons right after graduating from school.

By then, those relatives could have inherited the Jing family's main branch holdings in her name, transferred ownership of Lingtong Hall's company seal, and swallowed up every last one of the main branch's assets.

They weren't good at much else, but they were experts at devouring a family's inheritance—and they were very good at it!

If Jing Tao had been a boy, she would probably have died long ago in some nameless gutter.

Now that Jing Tao had finally turned the tables and seized the initiative, she naturally intended to settle all past grievances at once.

...Mr. Ye Hai had understood the stakes. Certain that Xu Yi couldn't stand up to the Jing family's ruthless collateral branches, he had been confident that Xu Yi would be unlikely to return from this mission alive.

But he didn't know that Xu Yi could already control spirituality, or that he could face the monsters in the Hundred Night Miasma alone and come back unscathed.

Mr. Ye Hai didn't know that Xu Yi was no longer the simple, countrified young fool who had left his hometown for Puxi to seek his help.

Xu Yi said goodbye to Jing Tao. At the department store, which had finally opened for business, he spent ten copper coins on a small alarm clock and another five on a bottle of medicinal liniment for bruises and sprains.

He didn't return to the Golden Orchid Nunnery right away. Instead, he found an inn and paid three copper coins for a room.

He hadn't yet helped Jing Tao secure her footing, so it wouldn't be convenient to report the outcome of the mission to Mr. Ye Hai.

Once all this was settled and the Jing family's affairs had been wrapped up properly, he would surely be able to surprise Mr. Ye Hai!

Xu Yi went into his room and locked the door. He placed the little glass vase in the room on the doorknob. That way, if anyone came in, the vase would shatter and wake him at once.

He tore a strip from the bedsheet, then applied the medicinal liniment to his left wrist and gently rubbed it.

He hadn't felt much pain before applying the liniment, but now his wrist burned fiercely. The pain soon seemed to seep through his skin and into his bones and tendons, leaving him drenched in sweat.

Xu Yi knew that with an injury like this, if he didn't quickly rub the displaced tendon back into place, it might become a chronic problem.

The liniment hurt, but without it, he might be left with a lingering injury that would cause even more trouble later.

Better a short, sharp pain than a long one. Xu Yi had always been ruthless with himself.

This simple act drained all his strength. By the time he had rubbed the displaced tendon back into place, he felt so dizzy he could barely sit upright.

He struggled to set the alarm clock for noon, placed the soda bottle filled with gasoline on the table, then hesitated before tucking the jade pendant Jing Tao had given him under his pillow.

Jing Tao's faint, unusual fragrance lingered in his nostrils. Xu Yi didn't try to smell it. He was simply too tired. The whole world spun before his eyes, and he didn't even have the strength to take off his clothes. He collapsed flat on the bed.

Not even the pain could keep him awake.

The morning in the 38th Shop District was noisy. The commotion in the lanes and streets had no effect on Xu Yi's near-comatose sleep.

Xu Yi had another dream.

He dreamed he was soaking in a hot spring. He seemed to be somewhere on the slopes of a snowy mountain. Snow blanketed the land, and dense pines surrounded the spring. Even though the north wind howled outside, the spring itself wasn't cold at all.

Xu Yi felt wonderfully comfortable. The exhaustion that had built up over the past day and night slowly ebbed away.

"Heh..."

A soft laugh drifted over. Half-asleep and hazy, Xu Yi opened his eyes in the hot spring. On the other side, through veils of cloud and drifting steam, stood a woman.

"Who are you?" Xu Yi asked groggily.

The woman didn't answer. She only smiled.

More steam rose from the hot spring, and Xu Yi felt even more comfortable.

Just as Xu Yi was enjoying himself, the mountain suddenly shook, and spring water splashed everywhere!

As he grew more alert, he heard the rumbling grow louder and more piercing by the second...

"Ring-ring-ring!"

Xu Yi jerked awake from his dream and sat up, reaching for the alarm clock.

The shrill ringing stopped.

Coming out of his daze, Xu Yi finally realized that the earth-shaking tremors in his dream had actually been the alarm clock ringing in the real world!

Then the sounds from the main street in the 38th Shop District drifted through the window and reached his ears.

Xu Yi heard the wheels of a wooden handcart rumbling over the bluestone road. The uneven surface made the cart jolt along, and the dull clacks of wood striking stone came in rapid succession.

Xu Yi heard a customer haggling with a vendor. The customer was probably new to Puxi City and unfamiliar with local prices. He was short on money, too, and spent ages bargaining with the vendor over a single copper coin, only to leave without buying the item.

Xu Yi heard dense but irregular footsteps. He could almost make out exactly which way they were heading.

Suddenly, a mayfly hovered outside the curtains. It was clearly afraid of the sunlight and frantically searched for shade. Its wings must have fluttered more than a hundred times before it finally found a cool spot in the corner.

Xu Yi's eyes widened. He felt more clearheaded than ever before.

"Keen hearing and sharp eyesight?"

He was astonished by the state he was in.

Suddenly, he raised his left hand.

He realized what was happening and abruptly turned his wrist over.

The wrist that had hurt so badly before he fell asleep no longer hurt at all. It was only a little numb!

As if in a daze, he slipped the smooth jade pendant out from under his pillow. After a brief silence, he slowly brought it close to his nose.

Jing Tao's fragrance rose from it. The scents of osmanthus and gardenia mingled, then separated distinctly as he breathed them in.

The fragrance entered his mind and mingled with his spirituality, making it more unusual.

That unusual spirituality surged through his body. The feeling of keen hearing and sharp eyesight grew stronger, and at the same time, even the numbness in his wrist disappeared!

Holding the jade pendant, Xu Yi took another deep sniff.

The scents of osmanthus and gardenia suddenly grew much stronger. The unusual spirituality formed from the mingling of fragrance and spirituality doubled in concentration. Xu Yi suddenly felt dizzy, and his stomach churned.

He went to the latrine, but it didn't help at all. It was as if he'd taken a laxative—he couldn't stop it!

He had no choice but to go to a medical clinic for help.

The doctor said it was food poisoning.

Holding a packet of pills, Xu Yi walked out of the clinic in a daze and stood in the street. His left hand was in his pocket, rubbing the jade pendant, while he kept thinking about the unusual fragrance he'd just smelled.

That fragrance had caused him quite a bit of suffering, but he still liked it.

Xu Yi had already asked for some water at the clinic and taken a pill. The doctor had also helped him induce vomiting, so he was feeling much better now.

"Could different fragrances really have different effects...?"