Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “The Sewer Has Quieted Down”

Key Plot Points and Events

• While eating with Jinzi, Liu Zheng questions her about Paradise Bath, a prestigious bathhouse on Bathhouse Street owned by the powerful Granny Qian—also known as Granny Tang. The bathhouse’s security is difficult to assess, but its owner is rumored to be an extremely powerful spirit medium capable of inviting gods into her body.
• Jinzi explains that many of Paradise Bath’s elite customers are valuable “ingredients” who avoid entering the Metropolis because restaurants such as Bloodstained Restaurant might hunt them.
• Liu Zheng becomes dissatisfied with Jinzi’s vague intelligence and initially refuses the job of rescuing Jingzi. When Jinzi attempts to provoke him, he responds with genuine hostility, drawing his boning knife and making it clear that he will not accept manipulation or insufficient information.
• Jinzi apologizes and offers to reimburse him for gathering intelligence himself. Liu Zheng agrees, but adds a ten-percent errand fee and demands a 100,000 deposit. Jinzi accepts, and Mirror delivers the cash.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Yakuza Sento and reunites with Guokou Tangzi and the Seasoning Quartet. He bickers with Guokou Tangzi in their usual hostile but familiar manner, while the Quartet struggles to manage their arguments.
• He gives the Seasoning Quartet rare ingredients brought from outside the border, intending to help the Ultimate Flavor Group when its restaurant reopens. Guokou Tangzi initially assumes the ingredients are meant for her, but Liu Zheng corrects her, leading to another argument.
• The group confirms that Jinzi’s clan is trustworthy and has strong ties to both the bathhouse industry and the Yakuza. However, they consider whether the rescue request might be a trap engineered by Peacock or Mr. Li. Guokou Tangzi agrees to investigate secretly.
• After leaving the bathhouse, Liu Zheng receives a call from Fisherman informing him that the Sewer has become quiet and that he can return. Liu Zheng travels to Rose Street, enters the Sewer, and finds only Fisherman waiting.
• Fisherman reveals that Killer Bro was injured more severely and is recovering. He and Liu Zheng exchange crude jokes and threats, including references to Sea Woman, Nightingale, and the Garbage Processing Plant.
• Liu Zheng ultimately asks Fisherman to help him contact the Sewer, signaling the beginning of his next investigation.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains cautious and pragmatic. Despite enjoying Jinzi’s company, he refuses to accept a dangerous contract without adequate intelligence. His willingness to renegotiate the terms shows that he values both profit and self-preservation, while his threatening display reminds Jinzi that he is still a dangerous outlaw.
• Jinzi shifts from playful teasing to nervous submission once Liu Zheng reveals how seriously he takes the lack of information. She demonstrates flexibility by agreeing to reimburse his expenses and pay an additional fee, preserving the business relationship.
• Guokou Tangzi shows that she values Liu Zheng’s connection to the Ultimate Flavor Group, even though she expresses it through insults and bickering. She also agrees to investigate the Jinzi Clan’s situation, indicating trust and concern beneath her abrasive behavior.
• The Seasoning Quartet continue acting as mediators between Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi. Their loyalty to Liu Zheng is evident in their excitement over his gifts and their willingness to interrupt the bosses’ quarrel.
• Fisherman remains Liu Zheng’s rough, antagonistic ally. Their insults conceal familiarity and mutual reliance, while Fisherman’s mention of Killer Bro’s injuries establishes that the Sewer’s recent conflict had serious consequences.

Significant Themes

• Trust and verification: Liu Zheng refuses to act on incomplete information and insists that trust must be supported by reliable intelligence and fair compensation.
• Business versus loyalty: The rescue mission is treated as a transaction, but the characters’ relationships are shaped by personal loyalty, reputation, and shared history.
• Power and influence: The chapter emphasizes that powerful figures such as Granny Tang, Peacock, and Mr. Li can operate across organizational and industrial boundaries.
• Comedic intimacy through conflict: Liu Zheng’s relationships with Jinzi, Guokou Tangzi, and Fisherman are expressed through teasing, insults, and threats rather than sincerity, creating a mixture of danger and humor.
• The value of rare resources: The special ingredients Liu Zheng brings back demonstrate how scarce goods, food, and “ingredients” function as sources of wealth and influence in the Metropolis.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Jinzi: Their flirtatious meal turns tense when Liu Zheng challenges Jinzi’s inadequate information. His knife display forces her to acknowledge his seriousness, after which they reach a revised business agreement.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi: They trade insults over his return to the men’s bath and the rare ingredients. Their hostility is clearly familiar and affectionate enough that the Seasoning Quartet interpret it as flirtatious bickering.
• Liu Zheng and the Seasoning Quartet: He gives them valuable ingredients and receives their gratitude. Their loyalty and concern for him are clear, though they cannot prevent his departure.
• Liu Zheng and Fisherman: Their crude verbal duel reflects a close, antagonistic relationship. Despite the jokes, Liu Zheng quickly focuses on the practical matter of contacting the Sewer.
• Guokou Tangzi and her group: She directs the Quartet to gather intelligence about Jinzi’s request, reinforcing her role as the group’s leader and strategist.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng visits Fisherman to arrange a trade with the Sewer. His boss, Si Xue, wants the Sewer’s brain, offering the contaminated Black Deer Head in exchange.
• Fisherman warns that the Black Deer Head carries contamination comparable to the Garbage Processing Plant and could provoke the recently operated, semiconscious Sewer.
• The Sewer manifests through a tumor-like growth in the sewer ceiling. It questions Liu Zheng about the Bloodstained Restaurant’s current owner. When Liu Zheng identifies Si Xue, the Sewer slaps him for allowing someone to discipline an employee on its territory.
• Liu Zheng reveals that Si Xue wants the Sewer’s brain. The Sewer explains that it is only one of many wills inhabiting the Sewer’s body and therefore cannot decide to give away the entire brain.
• Instead, it offers a bargain: Liu Zheng must capture a former doppelgänger of the Sewer, whose body died more than ten years ago in the Cemetery but whose powerful will may still survive. In return, the Sewer will provide the doppelgänger’s brain as a substitute.
• The Sewer explains that its avatars are fundamentally different from ordinary Cemetery ghosts. Their souls are not strengthened or corrupted by the Cemetery, while ordinary souls become bound to it. It also clarifies that the old Vampire Liu Zheng mentioned had its soul destroyed through a ritual attack.
• Before leaving, Liu Zheng attempts to keep the Black Deer Head and offer another item instead, explaining his separate deal with Bad-Luck Coffee. The Sewer recognizes that Liu Zheng is manipulating several powerful factions at once.
• Rather than demand exclusive loyalty, the Sewer accepts Liu Zheng’s continued role as a go-between, comparing him to a dog serving multiple masters.
• The Sewer agrees to separate and give Liu Zheng the Black Deer corpse’s heart instead of the entire object. Its condition is that Liu Zheng help it beat up Red Ghost.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains opportunistic, cautious, and irreverent even when dealing with terrifying entities. He is frightened of the Sewer’s demands but still tries to negotiate for greater profit.
• His survival strategy becomes clearer: because he is weak compared with Metropolis’s major powers, he relies on bargains, flexible loyalties, and exploiting opportunities.
• The Sewer is revealed to be more intelligent and self-aware than Liu Zheng assumed. It possesses multiple wills, understands its own limitations, and has a surprisingly pragmatic view of Liu Zheng’s divided loyalties.
• Fisherman acts as a wary intermediary and protector, though he also mocks Liu Zheng and allows the Sewer to slap him.
• Si Xue’s influence is emphasized through her ability to send Liu Zheng after something as dangerous as the Sewer’s brain.
• Red Ghost is established as a new target and likely threat, since the Sewer specifically wants Liu Zheng’s help against it.

Significant Themes

• Survival through negotiation: Liu Zheng survives by turning dangerous assignments into mutually beneficial trades rather than relying on strength.
• Fragmented identity and will: The Sewer’s many wills, independent avatar, and brain-as-vessel concept explore how consciousness can divide and persist separately from the body.
• Power and loyalty: The chapter questions whether loyalty must be exclusive. The Sewer accepts Liu Zheng as a servant of multiple powers so long as he remains useful.
• The dangers of ambition: Liu Zheng’s attempt to profit from the same object in multiple deals illustrates both his resourcefulness and the danger of being caught between powerful factions.
• The difference between appearance and reality: The Sewer initially seems foolish and hostile, but proves perceptive, knowledgeable, and capable of sophisticated judgment.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Fisherman argue over the risks of presenting the Black Deer Head to the Sewer, with Fisherman repeatedly warning that Liu Zheng may be killed.
• Liu Zheng and the Sewer exchange insults and threats, but their conversation gradually becomes a serious negotiation.
• The Sewer punishes Liu Zheng for revealing the Restaurant’s ownership and for attempting to obtain its brain, yet it also acknowledges that Liu Zheng is valuable rather than genuinely weak.
• Liu Zheng attempts to renegotiate the original trade by keeping the Black Deer Head, but the Sewer sees through his attempt and offers only the corpse’s heart.
• The chapter ends with the Sewer giving Liu Zheng a new mission: help defeat Red Ghost in exchange for the heart.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Sewer orders Liu Zheng to defeat Red Ghost as part of a private deal. Liu initially resists because he and Red Ghost are familiar, but the Sewer offers him a reward: one future favor, even in a battle that could mean certain death.
• The Sewer demands that Liu cause massive destruction within the Sewer—preferably enough to leave the Sewer seriously injured—so that Liu can fulfill the conditions of their agreement.
• Fisherman objects to Liu keeping the Black Deer Head, recognizing that the revised deal is likely dangerous. Liu jokes about marrying Sea Woman, provoking Fisherman, before asking for help locating Red Ghost.
• Fisherman reveals that Red Ghost is directly behind Liu, then escapes before becoming involved.
• Liu enters Red Ghost’s Shelter, where Red Ghost agrees to discuss the arrangement. Liu explains that the Sewer wants him to beat Red Ghost before honoring their deal.
• Red Ghost agrees not to fight back, but only if Liu brings twenty barrels of Netherworld Milk for the children. When Liu asks to record the beating, Red Ghost raises the price to forty barrels. Liu reluctantly accepts.
• Red Ghost also forces Liu to generate electricity for the Shelter, explaining that the children’s increased activity has raised power consumption. Liu submits to the generator chair and later plays with the children.
• Red Ghost admits internally that accepting Liu’s attack is partly an attempt to repair relations with the Sewer, since Shelter will remain within the Sewer and the Sewer could make Red Ghost’s existence difficult despite being unable to defeat it.
• After leaving Shelter, Liu contacts Cow-Horse to ask about Bathhouse Street. Cow-Horse suspects Liu is preparing another destructive “rescue” operation, and the chapter ends with it asking whom he intends to save.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to rely on shamelessness, improvisation, and clever bargaining rather than strength. He turns a potentially fatal order into a profitable arrangement and insists on recording the event to prevent the Sewer from denying the deal.
• The Sewer is shown to value freedom above longevity or safety. Its willingness to arrange its own serious injury suggests a larger plan involving the conditions for replacing its brain or escaping its current bondage.
• Red Ghost displays restraint, practicality, and hidden pride. Though offended by the idea of being beaten, it accepts the arrangement because Liu poses no real threat and because maintaining good relations with the Sewer is strategically important.
• Fisherman remains irritable but helpful. He refuses to accompany Liu, yet provides the crucial information needed to find Red Ghost before disappearing to avoid further trouble.
• Cow-Horse is characterized as lazy, crude, and perceptive. It quickly recognizes Liu’s reputation for causing explosions while pretending they are merely part of rescue efforts.

Significant Themes

• Freedom versus security: The Sewer claims that one day of freedom is worth more than a thousand years of bondage, emphasizing the value of autonomy even at the cost of death.
• Negotiation and manipulation: Liu repeatedly transforms dangerous situations into bargains, exploiting the interests and personalities of powerful beings.
• Reputation and diplomacy: Red Ghost’s willingness to endure humiliation reflects the importance of maintaining political relationships in a dangerous supernatural society.
• Power and exploitation: Liu is repeatedly used as a disposable tool—by the Sewer, Red Ghost, and others—yet he also turns these arrangements to his advantage.
• Humor amid danger: Threats of death, destruction, and bodily harm are undercut by jokes about marriage, electricity generation, and Liu’s supposed “rescue” explosions.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the Sewer engage in a tense but sarcastic negotiation, with the Sewer threatening him while also acknowledging his usefulness.
• Liu and Fisherman exchange insults over Sea Woman, Nightingale, and the possibility of Liu becoming Fisherman’s son-in-law. Their antagonistic banter masks a degree of familiarity.
• Liu and Red Ghost negotiate the terms of the planned attack. Red Ghost’s calm acceptance contrasts with Liu’s surprise and opportunistic insistence on recording the encounter.
• Red Ghost and the Shelter children are shown to have a warm relationship, with Liu also interacting playfully with them after completing his forced power-generation duty.
• Red Ghost’s decision is partly motivated by its need to coexist with the Sewer, revealing that their relationship is politically complicated despite their hostility.
• Liu’s conversation with Cow-Horse establishes the next likely plotline involving Bathhouse Street and another potentially explosive rescue mission.

Chapter Summary: “Cow-Horse: How Much? You Said How Much?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng tells Cow-Horse that Jinzi, the receptionist at Yakuza Sento, has asked him to rescue her niece, who is being held by a powerful Bathhouse Street boss. Rather than simply demanding money, the boss is using the girl as bait to ambush anyone who comes to help.
• Liu Zheng tries to recruit Cow-Horse by offering a share of the reward: a piece of Legendary Deliveryman’s equipment, specifically the underwear. Cow-Horse is initially disgusted, but becomes interested after learning that the equipment dramatically boosts its wearer’s abilities.
• Cow-Horse refuses to leave the city because its wife is there, but Liu Zheng then reveals a second opportunity involving a potential ten-million reward from Bad-Luck Coffee’s general manager.
• The job would require Liu Zheng to trade Black Deer Head for Sewer’s brain. Cow-Horse immediately rejects the mission, recognizing that involving both Bloodstained Restaurant and Sewer makes the risk far too great—even for seven million.
• Liu Zheng explains that he has already negotiated with Sewer and arranged for it to pretend to attack Red Ghost, making the situation safer than it appears. He still needs Cow-Horse’s help because Red Pig may react violently to his unfinished commission, the 404 Project may ambush them at Cemetery, and Liu’s other allies are unavailable or too weak.
• Cow-Horse agrees to accompany him for one hour, demanding half the reward. Liu Zheng accepts, intending to use the money from the Black Deer Head deal to pay Cow-Horse’s share of the Legendary equipment.
• Liu Zheng arranges transportation through the Restaurant’s driver, Colonel, who arrives in a blue Bugatti Veyron. The expensive car incurs a tenfold rental surcharge, but Liu insists that the cost is insignificant.
• Colonel and Cow-Horse exchange insults over Liu Zheng’s employment and leadership. Colonel offers to recruit Liu into the drivers’ squad and criticizes Cow-Horse for failing to protect its subordinate.
• Cow-Horse becomes enraged, enters desperation mode, and prepares to confront Colonel. The chapter ends as the tension threatens to become an actual fight.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to demonstrate his opportunistic, resourceful nature. He manipulates Cow-Horse with humor, money, and carefully presented information, while also arranging multiple alliances and backup plans.
• He shows that his willingness to take dangerous jobs is not simple greed. Powerful figures have already marked him as a pawn, and he believes he must grow stronger quickly rather than rely on chance or wait for circumstances to improve.
• Cow-Horse is shown to be both greedy and pragmatic. It is willing to risk itself for an enormous reward, but refuses missions it considers nearly suicidal. Its priorities have shifted because it has a wife and an expected child, making it less reckless than Liu Zheng assumes.
• Cow-Horse also displays genuine concern for Liu Zheng, advising him not to endanger himself constantly and offering to pass on its connections after retirement.
• Colonel, the Restaurant’s driver, reveals greater pride and authority than his humorous demeanor initially suggests. He defends Liu Zheng and challenges Cow-Horse’s treatment of him, indicating a strong sense of loyalty and personal dignity.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse’s relationship remains that of bickering partners: they insult each other constantly, but both trust the other’s abilities and are willing to cooperate when necessary.

Significant Themes

• Risk versus responsibility: Cow-Horse’s decision to reject the Sewer mission reflects the conflict between dangerous ambition and responsibility toward family. Liu Zheng, by contrast, feels compelled to keep risking his life because powerful forces are already controlling his fate.
• Money and survival: Nearly every decision is measured in money, from rescue rewards and equipment value to transportation fees. Wealth represents security, freedom, and the ability to protect one’s family, but it also tempts characters into fatal risks.
• Power and leverage: Liu Zheng survives by negotiating among stronger beings and turning enemies, employers, and allies against one another. His strength lies as much in networking and manipulation as in combat.
• Found family and loyalty: Cow-Horse’s advice and willingness to accompany Liu Zheng show that their relationship is more meaningful than their insults suggest. Colonel’s defense of Liu likewise emphasizes loyalty within the Restaurant’s broader network.
• The burden of ambition: Liu Zheng rejects Cow-Horse’s suggestion that he settle into a stable life because he believes his circumstances will not allow it. His ambition is driven by necessity as much as desire.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their conversation shifts from joking about underwear and pregnancy to negotiating a dangerous mission. Their playful insults conceal mutual reliance and trust.
• Liu Zheng and Colonel: Liu uses his influence and charm to obtain an expensive vehicle and reduced labor costs. Colonel appears amused by Liu’s shamelessness but respects his talent.
• Cow-Horse and Colonel: Their exchange escalates from teasing to direct provocation. Colonel implies that Cow-Horse cannot protect Liu Zheng, while Cow-Horse takes the insult as a challenge and enters desperation mode.
• Liu Zheng mediating: Recognizing that the argument may turn violent, Liu physically intervenes and tries to prevent the two powerful figures from fighting.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng stops an argument between Cow-Horse and the driver, reminding them that they came to make money and must save their strength for dealing with Red Pig.
• The dispute reveals the characters’ backgrounds and motivations:
  • Cow-Horse is fiercely loyal to Liu Zheng and considers the driver’s insults toward it personal.
  • The driver was once a military commander who led armored formations but has fallen into the role of a delivery driver. He longs for excitement and hopes Liu Zheng will create increasingly dangerous situations.
• Liu Zheng, frustrated by having to mediate between powerful and eccentric non-humans, takes Cow-Horse into the Cemetery while the driver waits outside.
• At the Cemetery entrance, they discover a promotional notice that living beings cannot read. The driver, being a spirit/dead entity, can decipher it. The notice advertises discounted grave-visiting services, cemetery products, group purchases, and a free ghost-lantern service with a first tomb-robbing purchase.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse meet Old Cowboy, the Cemetery’s caretaker, and confirm that the promotion is genuine. Liu Zheng cleverly asks Old Cowboy for advice, recognizing that the caretaker may have interests separate from the Cemetery itself.
• Liu Zheng purchases a discounted B-Rank Grave-Sweeping Package and attempts to buy twenty barrels of Netherworld Milk for the children.
• Old Cowboy tries to upsell him to Hell Honey Yogurt, an expensive upgraded product. When Liu Zheng cannot pay, Old Cowboy offers a ninety-percent discount in exchange for another coffin made from the special tree bark Liu Zheng previously supplied.
• Old Cowboy refuses to let them return until they bring the coffin, effectively turning the purchase into a debt obligation.
• Liu Zheng asks Cow-Horse for a loan. Cow-Horse initially refuses, realizing Liu brought it partly to extract money, but eventually gives him 100,000 after recalling Liu’s impressive recent ability to make money.
• The chapter ends with Cow-Horse revealing the cash from inside its mouth, while Liu Zheng jokes that it may enjoy repeatedly arranging and disassembling its money stacks.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues evolving into a mediator and negotiator rather than merely a fighter. He manages dangerous personalities, identifies hidden rules, and uses charm and indirect reasoning to get favorable deals.
• Cow-Horse shows strong loyalty and emotional attachment to Liu Zheng, defending him aggressively. Despite its greed and suspicion, it trusts Liu enough to provide a large loan.
• The driver is established as a powerful former military commander with a nostalgic desire for warfare and danger. His rivalry with Cow-Horse is hostile but also hints at mutual recognition and shared history.
• Old Cowboy is reinforced as a calculating merchant. He speaks in a flat, professional manner while manipulating prices, upselling products, and tying Liu Zheng to a future obligation.
• Liu Zheng’s financial success is emphasized: in only eight days, he has already earned or secured several hundred thousand through various ventures, making even Cow-Horse acknowledge his business ability.

Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: The driver argues that the strong eliminate the weak, while Cow-Horse challenges the idea by asking what happens when someone stronger appears. Both characters’ histories show that even former rulers can be reduced to subordinate roles.
• Money and exploitation: The Cemetery’s promotional discounts, overpriced yogurt, and bargaining over payment highlight how supernatural institutions commercialize everything.
• Negotiation and social survival: Liu Zheng survives not through overwhelming strength but by understanding personalities, exploiting loopholes, and maintaining relationships with dangerous beings.
• Loyalty and mutual benefit: Cow-Horse’s loyalty to Liu Zheng is both emotional and practical. Their relationship is built on trust, profitable cooperation, and repeated financial exchanges.
• Absurdity in a supernatural world: Powerful non-humans argue like petty civilians, a cemetery advertises products through ghost-only notices, and a horse caretaker conducts aggressive sales negotiations, creating comic contrast with the characters’ immense power.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng repeatedly mediates the driver’s and Cow-Horse’s quarrels, threatening to abandon their destination if they continue fighting.
• He defends Cow-Horse to the driver, warning that insulting his boss is equivalent to insulting him.
• Liu Zheng and the driver cooperate over the unreadable notice, strengthening their friendship through mutual assistance.
• Cow-Horse and the driver remain openly antagonistic, trading insults about weakness, past failures, and the use of vehicles or horns in battle.
• Old Cowboy and Liu Zheng engage in a polite but manipulative business negotiation, with Liu Zheng trying to exploit the caretaker’s managerial authority and Old Cowboy countering with increasingly expensive offers.
• Liu Zheng persuades Cow-Horse to lend him money by appealing to their profitable history, while Cow-Horse complains that Liu is the first person besides its wife to successfully get money out of it.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng buys a B-Rank Grave-Sweeping Package and concentrated Hell Honey Yogurt from Old Cowboy. The yogurt restores stamina, protects against Netherworld Aura, and permanently boosts the attributes of beings with the “Dead” constitution.
• Hoping to help Sesha, Nile Doctor’s adopted daughter, Liu Zheng buys two extra barrels with Cow-Horse’s money, intending to gain Nile Doctor’s favor and possibly earn a reward.
• Old Cowboy promotes a tomb-raiding service that includes Ghost Lantern Lighting, which protects explorers from harmful effects and allows a Changgui to perform one emergency action. Liu Zheng is tempted by the offer but ultimately abandons the idea after Cow-Horse warns him against recklessness.
• Old Cowboy reveals that he recognizes the aura of the Dead on Liu Zheng’s badges, suggesting a connection to a powerful figure Liu Zheng knows. When Old Cowboy demands a one-dollar deposit, Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse realize the payment may activate a dangerous ritual.
• Cow-Horse prepares to defend Liu Zheng and tells him to run. Instead, Liu Zheng throws the coin toward Old Cowboy, technically fulfilling the payment while avoiding direct submission. Old Cowboy’s golden bullet breaks Cow-Horse’s attack, and he departs after warning Liu Zheng to bring a coffin next time.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse continue to gravestone number 10086, where they must determine who will use the grave-sweeping package. Both suspect that sweeping the grave will provoke an attack, so they argue and refuse to go first.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains opportunistic, clever, and willing to exploit dangerous situations for possible rewards. However, he also shows genuine concern for Sesha and relies increasingly on Cow-Horse’s protection.
• His improved memory from previous attribute gains allows him to recall complicated information, demonstrating the practical benefits of his growing abilities.
• Liu Zheng proves capable of manipulating a threatening situation: rather than simply obeying Old Cowboy or fleeing, he finds a way to complete the payment while trying to avoid its consequences.
• Cow-Horse displays strong loyalty and courage by placing herself between Liu Zheng and Old Cowboy, preparing to fight despite the enormous power gap. Her anger afterward comes from feeling that Liu Zheng deceived her after she risked her life for him.
• Cow-Horse’s relationship with Liu Zheng becomes more openly affectionate beneath their insults and bickering. She continues to accompany and protect him even while claiming she will never help him again.

Significant Themes

• Trust and deception: Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse risk their lives for one another, yet both still assume the other may be scheming. Their mutual distrust creates both tension and humor.
• Dangerous bargains: The one-dollar deposit represents how seemingly minor transactions in Metropolis may conceal rituals, obligations, or threats far beyond their apparent value.
• Survival through caution and cleverness: Liu Zheng survives not through strength, but through negotiation, careful wording, and improvisation.
• The absurdity of Metropolis: Products, insurance policies, promotional offers, and supernatural services are treated as ordinary commercial matters, creating a darkly comic contrast with their lethal consequences.
• Growing supernatural significance: Powerful figures continue to take interest in Liu Zheng, implying that his connections and identity are becoming increasingly important in Metropolis.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse trade insults over poverty, money, and their respective willingness to face danger.
• Liu Zheng persuades Cow-Horse to fund the extra yogurt by promising that Nile Doctor may reward them or waive consultation fees.
• Cow-Horse tries to stop Liu Zheng from accepting Old Cowboy’s dangerous offer, even physically restraining him.
• When Old Cowboy threatens to turn Cow-Horse into a shepherding beast, she confronts him with her blood mist and Bronze Bull Head, while Liu Zheng pretends to retreat.
• Liu Zheng’s deceptive coin toss saves him from immediately surrendering to Old Cowboy but enrages Cow-Horse, who had been prepared to protect him.
• At the final gravestone, Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse mirror each other’s suspicion, each trying to make the other sweep first because they expect the grave’s occupant to retaliate.

Chapter Summary: “Stop Fighting, You Won’t Kill Anyone Like This”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse argue over who should face Red Pig’s wrath, each claiming to have risked more for the other. They settle the matter by tossing the Human-Bone Crutch; the handle points toward Cow-Horse, but Liu Zheng ends up approaching Red Pig’s grave.
• Red Pig attacks Liu Zheng immediately, despite shouting Cow-Horse’s name. He brutally beats Liu Zheng while Cow-Horse waits for the right moment to intervene.
• Cow-Horse eventually kicks Red Pig apart, but Red Pig reconstructs himself in a larger, more feral form and attacks again. The two engage in a prolonged battle, carefully avoiding damage to Cemetery’s public facilities because of its strict punishment rules.
• After both are exhausted, Liu Zheng reveals that he is investigating Bathhouse Street to rescue Jingzi, a woman imprisoned because of her relationship with Red Pig. Hearing Jingzi’s name—and especially her former name, Chihaya—calms Red Pig and restores his memories of his wife.
• Red Pig explains that Granny Tang controls much of Bathhouse Street, owning five of its ten major bathhouses. The most powerful bathhouse is Night Parade Bathhouse, which serves influential demons and monsters from the High Plain of Heaven faction.
• Liu Zheng reveals that he bears the mark of Amaterasu Omikami. Red Pig confirms that the mark should help him enter Night Parade Bathhouse as a legitimate customer, though it will not eliminate the difficulties of a rescue mission.
• Red Pig also identifies Blissful Bathhouse as the only serious rival to Granny Tang. It rose rapidly through strong organization, combat ability, and possible backing from a City Hall bureau chief. Liu Zheng considers seeking its support and asks how to gain it.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness and courage. Although he is terrified of being beaten by Red Pig, he endures the attack rather than waste valuable items, then shifts the conversation toward his real objective.
• Cow-Horse shows both selfishness and loyalty. He deliberately allows Liu Zheng to draw Red Pig’s attention so he can land an effective attack, but he intervenes before Liu Zheng is killed. His history with Red Pig reveals that he helped preserve Red Pig’s undead existence despite their mutual resentment.
• Red Pig begins as a mindless, rage-driven undead creature, but memories of Chihaya gradually restore his composure. His bitterness toward Cow-Horse masks grief, loneliness, and a lingering attachment to his dead wife.
• Liu Zheng’s status rises in Red Pig’s eyes after he reveals Amaterasu’s mark. Red Pig recognizes that influence and connections can be more valuable than combat strength in Metropolis.
• Cow-Horse and Red Pig’s old relationship becomes clearer: they were members of the Animal Farm Band, along with Black Claw and Yellow Monkey. Cow-Horse is now the only surviving member besides the undead Red Pig and still treats Red Pig as his drummer and former subordinate.

Significant Themes

• Friendship expressed through hostility: Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse constantly insult and exploit one another, yet their willingness to protect each other reveals genuine companionship.
• Grief and the inability to move on: Red Pig’s rage is rooted in Chihaya’s death and his resentment toward Cow-Horse for forcing him to continue existing.
• Power versus connections: The chapter emphasizes that influence, citizenship, money, blood ties, and political backing often matter more than personal strength in Metropolis.
• Social exclusion and identity: Red Pig’s status as neither fully human nor pig leaves him without a natural community, demonstrating how race and belonging affect access to power.
• Controlled violence and social rules: Even while fighting fiercely, Cow-Horse and Red Pig avoid damaging Cemetery because institutional rules and punishment remain powerful constraints.
• Strategic cooperation: Liu Zheng realizes that rescuing Jingzi will require alliances and information, not merely force. The possible support of Blissful Bathhouse may be crucial.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their argument over who owes whom more turns into a comic contest, but their battle strategy shows mutual reliance. Cow-Horse uses Liu Zheng as a distraction, while Liu Zheng trusts Cow-Horse to prevent Red Pig from killing him.
• Cow-Horse and Red Pig: Their exchange combines hatred, old friendship, and bandmate rivalry. They blame each other over Chihaya’s death and the cost of maintaining Red Pig’s grave, yet still refer to their former musical partnership.
• Liu Zheng and Red Pig: Liu Zheng calms Red Pig by connecting the rescue mission to Chihaya’s relative, Jingzi. He then carefully questions Red Pig about Bathhouse Street, Granny Tang, Night Parade Bathhouse, and Blissful Bathhouse.
• Red Pig and Liu Zheng’s divine mark: Red Pig recognizes Amaterasu Omikami’s symbol and concludes that Liu Zheng can use political and religious connections to operate more freely in Night Parade Bathhouse.
• Liu Zheng and the Bathhouse Street factions: Liu Zheng learns that Granny Tang controls the dominant faction, while Blissful Bathhouse represents the strongest potential opposition and may become an important ally.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng asks Red Pig how to gain the support of Blissful Bathhouse on Bathhouse Street. Red Pig explains two paths:
  • Long-term: apply for a job, rise through the ranks, and gain the bathhouse’s backing.
  • Short-term: impress the bathhouse by drinking and fighting its members, either alone or with one companion.
• Since Liu Zheng cannot realistically defeat the bathhouse’s fighters alone, he considers potential companions. Most of his allies are unavailable, too weak, or too dangerous to involve. He eventually decides that Nile Doctor is the best candidate.
• Liu Zheng proposes a loophole: drinking poisonous alcohol that the bathhouse members cannot consume might still count as drinking them under the table. Red Pig reluctantly agrees and directs him toward Authentic Massage, which has ties to Blissful Bathhouse.
• Before leaving, Red Pig reminds Liu Zheng about an unfinished commission but agrees to wait, joking that Liu Zheng can be punished after death if necessary.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse travel to Imhotep Clinic. The Sphinx and Cow-Horse immediately antagonize each other, exchanging attacks and insults. Liu Zheng attempts to mediate but is struck and sent flying into the clinic by the Sphinx.
• At the clinic, Liu Zheng gives Nile Doctor two bottles of Hell Honey Yogurt, purchased for Sesha. Nile Doctor pays him the full original price and eagerly accepts the gift.
• Liu Zheng asks Nile Doctor to accompany him to Bathhouse Street to rescue someone. Nile Doctor agrees, provided Liu Zheng gives him advance notice.
• After leaving, Liu Zheng repays Cow-Horse’s loan, though Cow-Horse also demands an unreasonable amount of interest. Liu Zheng reluctantly pays.
• The chapter ends with Liu Zheng promising to bring the Sphinx dried fish. Cow-Horse crudely suggests that the Sphinx would make a suitable mate for Liu Zheng, prompting Liu Zheng to remark that Cow-Horse’s behavior explains the Sphinx’s hostility.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resourcefulness and adaptability. He searches for unconventional solutions to the Bathhouse Street problem, including using poison resistance as a possible advantage and recruiting Nile Doctor as his companion.
• He also shows growing influence and confidence: he negotiates with Red Pig, bargains with Cow-Horse, and uses his business connections to secure help.
• Red Pig continues to act as a blunt but useful adviser. Although sarcastic and impatient, he provides practical intelligence and remains willing to support Liu Zheng.
• Nile Doctor reveals a strong emotional investment in Sesha’s well-being. His excitement over the Hell Honey Yogurt shows his concern for her, while his immediate agreement to help Liu Zheng highlights his loyalty to the Delivery Department.
• Cow-Horse remains greedy, shameless, and provocative, but it still accompanies Liu Zheng and contributes useful information. Its predatory humor repeatedly creates conflict.
• The Sphinx is portrayed as protective, irritable, and physically powerful. Despite disliking Cow-Horse, it accepts Liu Zheng’s promise to provide dried fish and appears willing to tolerate him.
• Liu Zheng’s difficulty finding suitable allies emphasizes how limited his personal network remains.

3. Significant Themes

• Friendship and alliances as practical necessities: Liu Zheng’s mission cannot be completed through strength alone; success depends on building relationships and securing support.
• Resourcefulness versus brute force: Rather than directly overpowering Blissful Bathhouse, Liu Zheng looks for loopholes, favors, commercial ties, and diplomatic approaches.
• Debt and transactional relationships: Money, commissions, interest, and favors shape many interactions. Even friendship is often expressed through payment or future obligation.
• Loyalty and mutual understanding: Nile Doctor’s willingness to help reflects the trust built within the Delivery Department, where explicit explanations are often unnecessary.
• Comedic absurdity in a dangerous world: Violent supernatural beings argue over food, interest rates, and insults, while serious rescue plans coexist with crude jokes and slapstick attacks.
• Prejudice and social boundaries: Liu Zheng’s concern about how others interpret his relationships, along with Cow-Horse’s inappropriate comments about the Sphinx, highlights the strange but socially complicated nature of the nonhuman world.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Red Pig: Their conversation is advisory and strategic, with Red Pig mocking Liu Zheng while still offering valuable information and directions.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: They bicker constantly. Liu Zheng relies on Cow-Horse but resents its greed and vulgarity, while Cow-Horse enjoys humiliating and financially exploiting him.
• Cow-Horse and the Sphinx: Their longstanding hostility is expressed through physical attacks, insults, and mutual contempt.
• Liu Zheng and the Sphinx: Liu Zheng tries to maintain cordial relations by greeting it and promising food. The Sphinx tolerates him more than Cow-Horse but still reacts aggressively when he interferes.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: Their relationship is based on trust and professional cooperation. Nile Doctor accepts both the yogurt and the request for help, though he remains eager to end the visit.
• Nile Doctor and Sesha: Although Sesha does not appear, Nile Doctor’s concern for her motivates his enthusiastic response to the yogurt and reinforces their close relationship.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Zhengzong’s Authentic Massage Parlor is suffering from a severe decline in business. Regular customers are disappearing, new customers are rare, and the shop is struggling to cover wages and its mortgage.
• Lin considers asking Blissful Bathhouse for help but hesitates because doing so would consume a valuable favor that might be needed during a more serious crisis.
• Liu Zheng and his enormous subordinate, Cow-Horse, arrive at the parlor. Their Bloodstained Restaurant uniforms frighten Lin and his apprentice Yinghu, who initially assume they are there to cause trouble.
• Liu explains that he is seeking contact with Blissful Bathhouse to rescue a woman detained by Granny Tang, the owner of Night Parade Bathhouse. Red Pig, a former customer of Lin’s, directed Liu to use Lin as an intermediary.
• Liu wins Lin over through flattery, praising his calligraphy and negotiating to acquire it while keeping the introduction to Blissful Bathhouse as a separate favor.
• Lin reveals that Yinghu is both his eldest apprentice and effectively his adopted son, allowing Yinghu to participate in the discussion.
• Lin hesitates to help because approaching Blissful Bathhouse could damage his own relationships. Liu then offers to solve Lin’s business crisis in exchange.
• Liu calls Wang Manni and arranges a large team-building event at the massage parlor for City Hall employees. He promises to prepay the expenses and encourages Wang to bring as many people as possible.
• With dozens of wealthy white-collar customers now guaranteed to visit, Lin’s business prospects immediately improve. Liu then confidently returns to negotiating for the introduction to Blissful Bathhouse.

2. Character Developments

• Lin Zhengzong: Initially anxious and pessimistic, Lin is shown to be cautious, socially calculating, and protective of his business connections. He cares deeply for Yinghu and treats it like family. Liu’s solution to his financial problems makes Lin more receptive and gives him renewed confidence.
• Yinghu: Yinghu demonstrates loyalty, courage, and business-mindedness. Although frightened by Liu and Cow-Horse, it is prepared to protect Lin and even suggests advertising or working extra hours to save the parlor. Its devotion confirms its role as Lin’s trusted heir.
• Liu Zheng: Liu is revealed as highly persuasive and opportunistic, using politeness, flattery, social connections, money, and political influence to achieve his goals. He presents himself as generous toward allies while openly acknowledging that he is also exceptionally good at creating trouble.
• Cow-Horse: Cow-Horse remains physically intimidating and proud, though Liu casually manages and placates him. Their interaction shows a familiar relationship in which Cow-Horse is both Liu’s boss and someone Liu can humor.
• Wang Manni: Wang treats Liu with great respect and readily accepts his instructions, illustrating his influence over City Hall employees and connections.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and reputation: The Bloodstained Restaurant’s terrifying reputation causes immediate fear, even before Liu explains himself. Liu’s City Hall credentials further demonstrate how influence can be more powerful than direct force.
• Favors and social networks: The chapter emphasizes that favors are valuable currency in the Metropolis. Lin’s decision is complicated because helping Liu could consume his connection with Blissful Bathhouse.
• Pragmatic friendship: Liu claims that anyone who helps him becomes his friend and will not suffer losses. His generosity is genuine but also strategic, turning business assistance into leverage.
• Economic survival: Lin’s anxiety reflects the fragility of small businesses. Customer traffic, employee morale, and personal relationships are all tied to survival.
• Manipulation through courtesy: Liu’s praise of Lin’s calligraphy and calm manner contrast with his dangerous reputation. His polite behavior allows him to dominate negotiations without openly threatening anyone.
• Loyalty and family: Lin and Yinghu’s master-apprentice relationship is portrayed as familial, with Yinghu willing to sacrifice its own time and safety for Lin’s sake.

4. Character Interactions

• Lin and Yinghu discuss the parlor’s declining business, revealing their closeness and shared responsibility.
• Yinghu instinctively tries to shield Lin from Liu and Cow-Horse, while Lin reluctantly accepts the protection.
• Liu reassures the frightened pair, then builds rapport with Lin through compliments and respectful negotiation.
• Lin introduces Yinghu as his adopted son and trusted partner, establishing that it should remain involved in sensitive discussions.
• Liu and Cow-Horse exchange a brief humorous argument over who was beaten by Red Pig.
• Liu pressures Lin indirectly by offering a highly valuable solution to his business troubles rather than making a direct threat.
• By arranging a lucrative City Hall outing, Liu proves his ability to reward cooperation and places Lin in a position where refusing his request becomes much more difficult.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Zhengzong explains the history connecting his family with the owner of the Blissful Bathhouse. Their fathers were fellow disciples whose martial arts school collapsed after the master’s death led to infighting and intervention by the Public Security Division.
• Both men became bathhouse scrubbers. The Blissful Bathhouse owner’s father later founded a successful business, while Lin Zhengzong’s father used his share of the profits to establish Authentic Massage Parlor.
• Lin Zhengzong clarifies that “Lin Zhengzong” is a hereditary title for the head of his family, meaning Yinghu—and possibly future heads—must adopt the same name.
• Liu Zheng seeks the Blissful Bathhouse’s help rescuing Jingzi, Jinzi’s niece. Lin explains that the bathhouse will not risk open conflict without a strong incentive.
• Lin reveals that the key to controlling a bathhouse is its scrubbing department. Liu must effectively defeat its workers through drinking, fighting, and especially superior massage.
• Liu demonstrates his unusual tentacle-based massage technique on Lin Zhengzong. Although powerful enough to earn a top position at Authentic Massage Parlor, it is not yet sufficient to surpass the Blissful Bathhouse’s best masseurs.
• Lin gives Liu one of three inherited “Empowerment Golden Needles.” The item temporarily grants Liu the massage abilities of its creator for a single session.
• Lin contacts Mao Huowang, the Blissful Bathhouse’s owner, who agrees to receive Liu. The question of rescuing Jingzi will be discussed after their meeting.
• Liu and Cow-Horse return to Yakuza Sento to update Jinzi. Their teasing and quarrelling continue, but Jinzi mediates them and prepares food and drinks.
• Cow-Horse asks about Kyoko, whose bubble bath he praises as the best in the Metropolis. Jinzi reveals that Kyoko is her great-grandmother.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng shows increasing strategic sophistication. Rather than relying on brute force, he builds alliances, gathers information, and accepts Lin’s help to gain access to the Blissful Bathhouse. He also demonstrates unusual confidence in his massage abilities.
• Lin Zhengzong is established as a cautious but knowledgeable businessman and martial-arts heir. He values stability over profit, understands the bathhouse industry deeply, and ultimately chooses to aid Liu by providing the golden needle.
• Cow-Horse remains impulsive, domineering, and skeptical of Liu’s complicated plans. He favors direct infiltration and violence, but his complaints also highlight the gap between his overwhelming strength and Liu’s more limited abilities.
• Jinzi continues to treat Liu warmly and affectionately, welcoming him back and caring for both him and Cow-Horse. She also acts as a mediator between the two.
• The Blissful Bathhouse’s owner, Mao Huowang, is introduced indirectly as a respected businessman who may be receptive to Liu’s proposal because of his family’s shared history with Lin’s family.

3. Significant Themes

• Strength versus strategy: Liu cannot simply overpower his opponents, so he relies on alliances, specialized skills, and careful negotiation.
• Inheritance and tradition: Martial arts, massage techniques, family businesses, titles, and even supernatural abilities pass from one generation to another.
• Business as a form of conflict: The chapter humorously treats competition between bathhouses like a martial arts battle, with the scrubbing department functioning as the decisive battlefield.
• Friendship and obligation: Lin helps Liu because of the old bond between their fathers, showing how inherited relationships continue to influence present events.
• Adaptation to abnormality: Strange customs—such as hereditary names, tentacle massages, and supernatural golden needles—are treated as ordinary within the Metropolis.
• Found family and camaraderie: Despite their constant bickering, Liu, Cow-Horse, and Jinzi display an affectionate, quasi-familial relationship.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu and Lin develop a cooperative relationship based on mutual respect. Liu seeks Lin’s expertise, while Lin becomes impressed by Liu’s skills and willingness to negotiate.
• Liu’s massage test reveals both his practical abilities and the grotesque humor of the setting, as his tentacles strike Lin’s body like hammers.
• Cow-Horse mocks Liu’s elaborate approach, while Liu counters that limited strength requires more careful methods. Their argument reinforces their contrasting personalities.
• Liu tricks Cow-Horse into entering Yakuza Sento by falsely claiming Jinzi will withhold his share of the money, leading to another comic confrontation.
• Jinzi restrains Cow-Horse and mediates the quarrel, while Cow-Horse immediately shifts from threatening Liu to taking advantage of Jinzi’s hospitality.
• The chapter ends by introducing Kyoko, Jinzi’s great-grandmother, whose legendary bubble bath establishes a likely new source of help, comedy, or plot development.

Chapter Summary: “Then I'll Have No Choice but to Let You Have Your Way”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng privately briefs Jinzi on the situation surrounding Jingzi and explains that he has developed a plan to rescue her from Bathhouse Street.
• Jinzi demonstrates a protective technique by transforming one of her hairs into a wire-like weapon and implanting it in Liu Zheng. The hair will react when he approaches Jingzi, defend against certain curses and supernatural attacks, and potentially help identify the real Jingzi.
• Jinzi promises to help create a protective talisman for Liu Zheng after he rescues Jingzi. Liu Zheng also receives reimbursement for recent expenses, taking 200,000 in cash.
• While waiting for Cow-Horse, Liu Zheng eats an enormous amount of food. Cow-Horse returns from its treatment and angrily interrupts Liu Zheng and Jinzi, believing they are playing Go without it. It takes over the game, loses to Jinzi, and blames Liu Zheng before declaring the match a draw.
• Liu Zheng then travels toward Rose Street to visit the French Plane Tree, Dai Lego. Cow-Horse refuses to accompany him because it fears being attacked by the tree.
• Liu Zheng tricks Dai Lego into admitting that it still has some of the special liquor he previously gave it. He explains that he needs the liquor to help rescue Jingzi, since he may be unable to outdrink the bathhouse attendants directly.
• By flattering Dai Lego and promising to repay it with equally special alcohol, Liu Zheng obtains the six remaining bottles of Fifteen-Year Ascension Hair Moss.
• He then shamelessly asks Dai Lego for another life-saving item. Though irritated, Dai Lego begins searching through the soil for something useful.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to act as a capable problem-solver who combines planning, manipulation, resourcefulness, and shameless bargaining. He recognizes his defensive weaknesses and is willing to accept help and protective items rather than relying solely on offense.
• Jinzi becomes more openly affectionate and supportive toward Liu Zheng. Her willingness to provide a protective talisman reflects both personal attachment and the Jinzi Clan’s desire to secure Liu Zheng as a powerful ally.
• Cow-Horse displays its pride, competitiveness, and comedic pettiness. It values its relationship with Liu Zheng despite pretending to be angry, and its unusually fast departure suggests that it is genuinely wary of Dai Lego.
• Dai Lego/French Plane Tree is revealed as both arrogant and easily manipulated by praise, especially when alcohol is involved. It resents Liu Zheng’s tricks but still helps him because it wants access to rare liquor.
• The driver provides practical commentary on Cow-Horse’s behavior and confirms that even powerful figures avoid provoking Dai Lego.

Significant Themes

• Mutual benefit disguised as affection or hostility: Jinzi’s support is motivated by both genuine closeness and the Jinzi Clan’s political interest in Liu Zheng, while Dai Lego’s assistance is driven by its love of alcohol.
• Resourcefulness over brute force: Liu Zheng seeks protective tools, identification methods, and unconventional tactics because direct competition may not be enough to rescue Jingzi.
• Manipulation and bargaining: Flattery, deception, and promises are repeatedly used to obtain cooperation from stronger or more troublesome characters.
• Power and vulnerability: Although Liu Zheng has formidable offensive strength, he acknowledges weaknesses in his defenses and the dangers posed by curses, witchcraft, and supernatural suppression.
• Comedic relationships and rivalry: The chapter balances serious rescue preparations with humorous scenes involving Go, excessive eating, flirtation, and characters blaming one another.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Jinzi share flirtatious intimacy while discussing practical preparations for the rescue. Jinzi teases him, offers physical affection, and provides a supernatural protective measure.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse maintain a teasing, employer-like relationship. Cow-Horse accuses him of disrespect, blames him for losing at Go, and theatrically declares victory despite clearly losing.
• Liu Zheng and Dai Lego engage in a battle of wits. Liu Zheng uses compliments and carefully chosen provocations to make Dai Lego surrender its liquor, while Dai Lego threatens to beat him whenever it sees him until he repays the debt.
• The chapter ends with Dai Lego reluctantly searching for an additional survival aid, leaving Liu Zheng’s preparations for the mission still in progress.

Chapter Summary: “Firepower Was Never Meant to Be So Inconvenient”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng receives a Mutant Wine Worm from French Plane Tree. The single-use item grants a beneficial, alcohol-related bonus for one hour and can be taken out of the instance.
• He leaves the tree and prepares to travel to Bathhouse Street, first stopping at Nile Doctor’s clinic.
• The driver warns that traveling outside the city will be dangerous and inefficient in their current vehicle. He offers a specialized tank called Hound, designed for speed and protection rather than conventional firepower.
• Hound has no cannon. Instead, the driver plans to use the tank itself as a projectile by ramming enemies, while Liu Zheng throws high-yield ammunition from the vehicle.
• At the clinic, Liu Zheng speaks with the Sphinx and the cleaner, then meets Nile Doctor, who is wearing a crown made from a feather left by a fallen Winged Dragon. The feather is intended for Dai Lego and allows Nile Doctor to communicate with Ra.
• Liu Zheng tells Nile Doctor that he traded Ra’s Ember to Amaterasu Omikami. Nile Doctor consults Ra, who says the trade is not necessarily harmful but advises caution.
• Concerned about the clinic and Sesha’s safety while Nile Doctor is away, Liu Zheng recommends moving Sesha to Sewer. Nile Doctor agrees and sends the cleaner home early.
• Sesha is taken to Sewer, where Fisherman and Sha-chan agree to look after her. Sha-chan gives her food and covers her with the Dragon Robe Shroud.
• Nile Doctor reflects bitterly on Bloodstained Restaurant, remembering how members of his kind were slaughtered and turned into food there. Liu Zheng also mentions the unresolved traitor, but Nile Doctor insists he can wait and that he will not act impulsively.
• The driver returns with Hound, a compact, heavily armored tank. Its ammunition is powerful but dangerous to handle, so Liu Zheng is expected to throw the shells himself.
• Liu Zheng, Nile Doctor, and the driver finally depart for Bathhouse Street, with Hound speeding away through the city.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to act as a practical organizer and protector. He secures useful items, makes contingency plans for Sesha, and worries about causing trouble for Nile Doctor through his dealings with Ra’s Ember.
• His relationship with Nile Doctor deepens. Their interactions show mutual trust, familiarity, and concern, even though they continue to mock one another.
• Nile Doctor demonstrates political awareness and restraint. He understands the value of Liu Zheng’s trust, acknowledges the strategic importance of Dai Lego and Ra’s lineage, and chooses to protect Sesha rather than pursue revenge immediately.
• Sesha shows small but meaningful intellectual and social progress after consuming the honey yogurt. She now speaks more intelligently and even adds “Uncle” when thanking Sha-chan.
• Fisherman and Sha-chan reveal their willingness to help because of their friendship with Liu Zheng, despite the dangers and inconveniences involved.
• The driver is characterized as eccentric, persuasive, and deeply attached to his vehicles, treating Hound like a child and defending its unconventional design with complete confidence.
• The Sphinx remains suspicious and sarcastic, while the cleaner has become more comfortable enough with Liu Zheng to tease and laugh at his complaints.

Significant Themes

• Trust in a dangerous society: In Metropolis, trust is rare and often exists only through contracts, making genuine personal trust extremely valuable.
• Protection and responsibility: Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor prioritize Sesha’s safety and the protection of Ra’s remaining wealth over convenience or personal revenge.
• Political alliances and succession: Nile Doctor’s discussion of Dai Lego shows how powerful beings seek patrons and opportunities to rise, especially when former rulers have weakened.
• The living versus the dead: Liu Zheng recalls the idea that the living matter more than the dead, reinforcing Nile Doctor’s decision not to rush after the traitor.
• Absurdity amid danger: Serious threats, divine artifacts, and emotional trauma are repeatedly undercut by comic situations—especially Hound’s “firepower,” the ammunition plan, and the characters’ sarcastic exchanges.
• Adaptation and unconventional power: Hound’s design embodies the chapter’s central joke: traditional firepower is unnecessary when speed, armor, and sheer impact can serve as weapons.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: Their exchange is rude but familiar, ending with Liu Zheng receiving the Mutant Wine Worm despite their mutual insults.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: The driver persuades him to use Hound, while Liu Zheng repeatedly questions the tank’s speed, weapons, cost, and ammunition.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: They discuss Ra’s Ember, Sesha’s safety, revenge, and the unresolved traitor. Their banter reflects growing trust and companionship.
• Nile Doctor and Ra: Nile Doctor uses the Winged Dragon’s feather to pray to Ra and receives cautious approval regarding the Ember trade.
• Sesha, Fisherman, and Sha-chan: Sesha is placed under their protection. Sha-chan treats her warmly, offering food and clothing, while Sesha begins responding more politely.
• Liu Zheng and the Sphinx: Liu Zheng jokingly tries to bribe or tease the cat with alcohol, but the Sphinx remains suspicious and dismissive.
• Liu Zheng, Nile Doctor, and the driver aboard Hound: Their argument over who should throw the explosives provides the chapter’s main comedic sequence before the journey begins.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Metropolis is portrayed as both inclusive and oppressive: nonhuman and even evil-god followers may live openly if they obey City Hall, while those who reject its rules face persecution. Humans generally remain inside the city for protection from being enslaved or eaten.
• Liu Zheng arrives at Bathhouse Street, a lively district outside Metropolis, driving his black tank-like vehicle, “Corgi” or “Hound.”
• At the entrance, twin Oxhead guards, Niu Daji and Niu Xiaoji, are stationed beneath a torii gate. Niu Daji is alert but irritable, while Niu Xiaoji is sleepy, foolish, and easily distracted.
• The brothers initially fail to recognize Liu Zheng’s Bloodstained Restaurant uniform. When Liu identifies himself as a Deliveryman, they panic because Bloodstained Restaurant is infamous as a place associated with death, hell, and final meals before execution.
• Niu Xiaoji flees into Bathhouse Street, while Niu Daji attacks Liu’s tank, knocks himself unconscious, and wakes in confusion.
• Liu revives and intimidates Niu Daji using slaps, threats, a boning knife, and a tentacle. He clarifies that he is not delivering food to the brothers and only wanted directions.
• Liu pays Niu Daji with cash to compensate for the wound he inflicted. Niu Daji becomes increasingly cooperative as the money accumulates, even deliberately reopening the wound to continue receiving payment.
• Niu Daji explains that he and his brother are merely the entrance guards and that Bathhouse Street security would know about any serious disturbance. He contacts his mother to control Niu Xiaoji.
• Liu asks Niu Daji to guide him through Bathhouse Street. Niu agrees eagerly because of the promised payment, though he arranges for another family member to cover his hereditary guard position.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng is shown as intimidating, pragmatic, and darkly humorous. He uses violence and money strategically, adapting his behavior to force Niu Daji to cooperate. Despite his brutality, he is not needlessly murderous and stops once he has obtained the information he wants.
• Niu Daji changes from a blustering, suspicious guard into a submissive and money-driven guide. His fear of Bloodstained Restaurant reveals his awareness of its terrifying reputation, while his eagerness to be paid exposes his greed and opportunism.
• Niu Xiaoji remains comically incompetent and unpredictable. He falls asleep on duty, misunderstands the situation, panics, and runs away, reinforcing that he depends on his brother and mother for control.
• The Oxhead family is introduced as a hereditary guard family with two ancestral positions at Bathhouse Street. Their family structure appears chaotic but functional, with their mother acting as the authority who manages the brothers.

3. Significant Themes

• Fear and reputation: Bloodstained Restaurant’s reputation is powerful enough to cause panic before Liu has done anything. Its Deliverymen are viewed as death-bringers.
• Money as power: Cash quickly replaces violence as Liu’s most effective tool. Niu Daji’s loyalty and cooperation are directly tied to financial reward.
• Survival and paranoia: The dangerous social environment of Metropolis has made its inhabitants wary of strangers and potential threats. Niu Daji’s fear is exaggerated but rooted in a genuinely violent world.
• Social order and exclusion: Metropolis’s apparent tolerance depends on strict obedience to official rules, while Bathhouse Street exists as a lively but more dangerous space beyond direct urban protection.
• Comedy amid brutality: The chapter repeatedly contrasts threats of death, injury, and cannibalism with slapstick misunderstandings, childish sibling arguments, and absurd dialogue.
• Power and communication: Liu concludes that Niu Daji only responds to force, suggesting that different beings in this world require different forms of communication and authority.

4. Character Interactions

• Niu Daji repeatedly scolds and insults Niu Xiaoji, while Xiaoji threatens to report him to their mother. Their quarrels establish a comic sibling rivalry.
• Liu’s calm questions about the location contrast with the brothers’ exaggerated panic.
• Liu physically subdues Niu Daji, then alternates threats with monetary compensation, creating a relationship based on fear, greed, and reluctant cooperation.
• Niu Daji initially treats Liu as a dangerous executioner but later flatters him and eagerly offers his local knowledge.
• Liu recognizes a humorous “fate” connecting his boss, Cow-Horse, with the Oxhead guards and uses this joke to frame their cooperation.
• By the end, Niu Daji becomes Liu’s prospective guide, while his family prepares to cover his post and manage the still-absent Niu Xiaoji.

Chapter Summary: “What Are You Looking At?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng has Niu Daji guide him and Nile Doctor into Bathhouse Street, intending to avoid the bank’s security and potentially turn Niu Daji into an ally or informant.
• Niu Daji’s younger brother, Niu Daxiang, arrives and joins them. Their conversation humorously reveals the enormous Niu family, whose members have similarly patterned names.
• Liu Zheng’s tank, the Hound, cannot enter Bathhouse Street without triggering alarms, so its driver remains outside to repair damage sustained during an encounter with protected Butterfly-Deer Pigs. The group avoided fighting the creatures because harming them would attract punishment from City Hall and the Biological Management Bureau.
• After crossing the Torii, Liu Zheng enters Bathhouse Street, a lively district filled with strange residents, bathhouses, rickshaws, sedan chairs, and supernatural customs.
• Niu Daji explains that visitors are automatically dressed in illusory red-and-white robes and that vehicles transport VIP bathhouse customers while concealing their identities.
• Liu Zheng claims he wants to visit Blissful Bathhouse for its food and scrubbing services. Niu Daji warns him not to stare at other guests, since eye contact can trigger contests or fights known as “What Are You Looking At?”
• Along the way, the group encounters Black Dumplings—small, furry monsters resembling moldy coal briquettes—that beg for money. Liu Zheng gives them a large amount of cash, despite Niu Daji’s warning that rival Black Dumpling Families may try to rob them.
• Liu Zheng orders Niu Daji to protect the creatures, effectively placing responsibility for their safety on him. The Black Dumplings thank Liu Zheng by forming characters meaning “Goodbye” before disappearing.
• The chapter ends as Niu Daji announces that they have arrived at Blissful Bathhouse.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates strategic caution by using Niu Daji as a guide while simultaneously keeping him under pressure. He also displays confidence, generosity, and a growing fascination with the strange inhabitants of Bathhouse Street.
• Liu’s playful interaction with the Black Dumplings reveals a softer, more affectionate side. He enjoys fluffy creatures and treats them generously, but remains alert to potential threats.
• Niu Daji continues acting as an informant and guide. He is knowledgeable about Bathhouse Street’s customs but becomes nervous when Liu Zheng threatens to hold him accountable for the Black Dumplings’ safety.
• Nile Doctor remains mostly silent and obedient while serving as Liu Zheng’s muscle. His brief emotional disclosure reveals deep resentment and grief over the capture and mistreatment of his people.
• Niu Daxiang is introduced as a quiet, obedient younger brother, while the broader Niu family is portrayed comically as large and highly regimented.

Significant Themes

• Strategic manipulation and control: Liu Zheng uses Niu Daji’s assistance while ensuring that Daji remains invested in the group’s success.
• The contrast between city and countryside: Bathhouse Street is less orderly and clean than the Metropolis, yet it possesses a lively social atmosphere and its own complex customs.
• Generosity and responsibility: Liu Zheng’s gift to the Black Dumplings appears charitable, but it creates new risks and obligations, emphasizing that kindness can have consequences.
• Alien yet ordinary society: Despite its monstrous inhabitants and supernatural rules, Bathhouse Street operates like a normal community, complete with commerce, entertainment, class distinctions, beggars, and social etiquette.
• Trauma and survival: Nile Doctor’s bitterness reflects the lasting effects of captivity and exploitation, contrasting with Liu Zheng’s ability to remain curious and amused by the world around him.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng teases Niu Daji about his family’s naming conventions, establishing their unequal but increasingly familiar relationship.
• Niu Daji explains Bathhouse Street’s rules and customs, while Liu Zheng repeatedly tests the limits of those rules through pointed questions.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor discuss happiness, loss, and the fate of Nile Doctor’s people. Liu encourages him to move forward, though he struggles to offer meaningful comfort.
• Liu’s interaction with the Black Dumplings shifts from curiosity to playful generosity and affection. Their gratitude creates one of the chapter’s warmest moments.
• By threatening Niu Daji with responsibility for the creatures’ safety, Liu turns a casual act of charity into another means of asserting authority.

Chapter Summary: “The Bathhouse Turned into a Bloodbath”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Niu Daji arrive at the luxurious Blissful Bathhouse, one of the top ten bathhouses on Bathhouse Street.
• A sheep-headed man named Yang Xixi mocks Niu Daji, insulting his family and suggesting they are dishonest swindlers. Niu Daji is angry but restrains himself.
• Liu Zheng decides not to confront Yang Xixi immediately, implying that any eventual retaliation should happen inside the bathhouse rather than at the entrance.
• Inside, a greeter explains the bathhouse’s ticket packages. Liu Zheng chooses to buy a membership card and casually deposits 20,000, shocking the staff.
• Liu Zheng also gives the greeter a large tip, demonstrating his wealth and intimidating generosity. The greeter uses the money to provide refreshments for the staff.
• When the staff record Liu Zheng’s name, the lobby manager realizes that Liu is wearing the distinctive uniform of the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• The bathhouse employees panic because the Bloodstained Restaurant is notorious and feared. They believe Liu’s arrival could turn the bathhouse’s pools into “blood pools.”
• The greeter begs the manager for protection and bribes him with countryside chickens and a goose. The manager accepts while pretending to act out of concern for his subordinate.
• The lobby manager finally approaches Liu and begins handling the situation personally. He politely replaces Liu’s fruit platter and reveals that the bathhouse’s boss had already been expecting him.
• The manager subtly suggests that Liu’s lavish membership purchase was unnecessary and may reflect poorly on the manager’s hospitality.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Remains calm, observant, and deliberately provocative. He uses money, confidence, and social pressure to control the bathhouse staff. He also shows a mischievous willingness to retaliate against Yang Xixi, though he prefers to do so strategically.
• Niu Daji: Displays loyalty and respect toward Liu but is intimidated by Yang Xixi. His restrained anger suggests that he has a history of conflict with Yang and may come from a family associated with deception or questionable business practices.
• Yang Xixi: Is introduced as arrogant, insulting, and socially aggressive. He looks down on Niu Daji and immediately assumes Liu is an outsider who can be manipulated.
• The Greeter: Begins as enthusiastic and sales-oriented, but quickly becomes terrified when he learns Liu’s identity. His fear highlights the Bloodstained Restaurant’s reputation.
• The Lobby Manager: Appears self-important and practical. Though initially dismissive of the large cash payment, he becomes extremely cautious after recognizing Liu’s uniform. He protects himself first but presents his actions as responsible leadership.
• Niu Daji’s family: Although they do not appear directly, Yang’s insults and Niu’s reaction imply that the family has a reputation for using innocent appearances to deceive others.

Significant Themes

• Reputation and fear: The Bloodstained Restaurant’s uniform carries more influence than Liu’s money. Its reputation causes the bathhouse staff to panic before Liu does anything threatening.
• Social manipulation and power: Liu controls conversations through wealth, confidence, and implied menace, while the manager uses politeness and hidden warnings to protect his establishment.
• Appearances versus reality: The luxurious bathhouse, polite service, and friendly staff conceal fear, opportunism, and the possibility of violence. Likewise, Niu Daji’s honest appearance contrasts with his family’s alleged schemes.
• Greed and self-interest: The manager and greeter quickly negotiate over chickens, geese, tips, and commissions even during a crisis, showing that profit remains central to their behavior.
• Strategic conflict: Liu does not respond impulsively to Yang Xixi’s provocation. Instead, he hints that revenge should be carried out under more advantageous circumstances.

Character Interactions

• Yang Xixi humiliates Niu Daji while Liu questions the nature of their feud.
• Liu and Niu discuss whether to confront Yang, with Liu encouraging a more calculated approach.
• The greeter attempts to sell Liu an expensive package and membership, then becomes nervous after receiving an unusually large payment.
• The greeter and lobby manager exchange frightened whispers after identifying Liu as a Bloodstained Restaurant member.
• The greeter bargains with the manager for protection using food from his family’s farm.
• The lobby manager approaches Liu with exaggerated respect, replaces the fruit platter to accommodate his preferences, and hints that the boss personally anticipated Liu’s visit.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng arrives at Blissful Bathhouse with Nile Doctor and Niu Daji to discuss a potential partnership. He immediately purchases a twenty-thousand-unit membership card, claiming it is a gift for friends and a sign of goodwill.
• The lobby manager, Old Fourth, recognizes Liu Zheng as a Deliveryman from the Bloodstained Restaurant and realizes that he is far more dangerous and influential than he appears. Old Fourth tries to avoid making decisions and takes Liu and his companions to meet the bathhouse’s owner.
• The owner is absent from her office. Her secretary, Secretary Li, explains that the owner received a phone call and left unexpectedly, but had specifically instructed them to treat a guest surnamed Liu well.
• Old Fourth and Secretary Li privately discuss the situation. They suspect the owner left because of an ongoing divorce dispute with her husband, Zhen Xinzai. The divorce has already disrupted the bathhouse for months, and Old Fourth fears the owner will not return soon enough to handle Liu’s visit.
• Liu, Nile Doctor, and Niu Daji are given VIP wristbands and bathing facilities while Old Fourth and Secretary Li decide how to manage them. Old Fourth returns to keep them occupied and secretly hopes Secretary Li can contact the owner.
• The bath scene becomes grotesquely comic: Nile Doctor, a mummy and former priest of Ra, scrubs himself thoroughly and orders Niu Daji to clean him using sandpaper. He later complains that the sandpaper was not fine enough for his buttocks.
• Old Fourth plays along with the bizarre complaint and promises to purchase finer sandpaper, demonstrating how normalized supernatural absurdity is in this world.
• After bathing, Liu directly asks Old Fourth to proceed with the real purpose of his visit: discussing cooperation. Old Fourth attempts to delay him with food, drinks, and other services.
• Liu rejects the stalling and threatens that, although he came peacefully, he has enough power to destroy the bathhouse if Blissful Bathhouse shows no sincerity. The chapter ends with the negotiation becoming openly tense.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates confidence, sharp social instincts, and controlled intimidation. He begins diplomatically by presenting himself as generous and friendly, but quickly shifts to a direct and threatening approach when he senses that the bathhouse is delaying him.
• Old Fourth is revealed as evasive, opportunistic, and self-preserving. He fears Liu’s connections and power, avoids taking responsibility, and repeatedly tries to pass the problem to Secretary Li. Despite his cowardice, he remains capable of performing his managerial duties and placating dangerous guests.
• Secretary Li initially appears professional and refined but becomes blunt, foul-mouthed, and irritable in private. She is more perceptive than Old Fourth and understands that the owner’s absence is connected to the divorce, though she has little control over the situation.
• Nile Doctor remains strange, arrogant, and casually domineering. He is respectful toward Liu but treats Niu Daji as an inferior servant, reinforcing his old identity as a noble priest. His confidence in surviving water and drying himself with sunlight highlights his supernatural nature.
• Niu Daji is timid and submissive in the bathhouse, reluctantly accepting Nile Doctor’s unreasonable orders. His discomfort provides much of the chapter’s physical comedy.
• The bathhouse owner never appears, but her absence becomes a central source of tension. Her personal problems and possible avoidance interfere with the business negotiations.

Significant Themes

• Politeness masking intimidation: Liu uses the language of friendship, hospitality, and business etiquette, but his words contain increasingly clear threats. Courtesy becomes a weapon rather than a sign of trust.
• Power and responsibility: Old Fourth and Secretary Li struggle to manage a guest far beyond their authority. The chapter shows how employees in a dangerous supernatural society survive by shifting responsibility and appeasing stronger figures.
• The absurdity of the twisted world: Mummies bathing, using sandpaper on their bodies, and discussing grit standards are treated as ordinary matters. Liu’s internal reaction emphasizes that everyday incongruity can be more unsettling than overt supernatural violence.
• Personal conflict affecting business: The owner’s divorce creates operational instability and prevents the bathhouse from handling important negotiations properly. Private emotional and legal disputes spill into professional affairs.
• Sincerity versus delay: Liu sees hospitality and small talk as attempts to avoid the real issue. His insistence on reaching the “main course” reflects his limited time and his unwillingness to tolerate evasive negotiations.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Old Fourth engage in a polite but hostile verbal contest, with Liu repeatedly exposing Old Fourth’s attempts to delay him.
• Old Fourth and Secretary Li argue privately over the owner’s disappearance, the divorce, and who should take responsibility for Liu.
• Nile Doctor orders Niu Daji to scrub him with sandpaper, treating him as a subordinate rather than an equal.
• Liu silently refuses to intervene on Niu Daji’s behalf, accepting the absurd task as harmless.
• Old Fourth humorously responds to Nile Doctor’s bizarre complaint as though it were normal customer feedback.
• The chapter closes with Liu confronting Old Fourth directly and implying that failure to negotiate sincerely could lead to the destruction of Blissful Bathhouse.

Chapter Summary: “We’re Friends Bound by Life and Death”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and his companions arrive at Blissful Bathhouse to meet its owner, but Old Fourth explains that she has temporarily returned to the city because of an ongoing divorce and property dispute with her husband.
• Liu Zheng becomes suspicious that the husband might have arranged an ambush, especially if he has debts and stands to gain a larger share of the marital property through murder. The owner’s sudden departure with only two guards increases his concern.
• While waiting, Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor accompany Old Fourth through the bathhouse. Liu Zheng observes that many of the customers are long-term residents of the area rather than city dwellers, comparing them to people who work in a city but eventually return home.
• Liu Zheng decides to test the bathhouse’s “What Are You Looking At?” feature, a rule-based confrontation triggered when one guest challenges another for staring.
• He provokes a white-haired guest known as Half-Whitehead, mocking his appearance and trading insults with him. Liu Zheng also discovers that the guest is related to a security guard from Green Laurel Garden Crazy City—someone Liu Zheng knows personally.
• Half-Whitehead proudly declares that he and Liu Zheng’s acquaintance are “brothers.” Liu Zheng reveals that he and the security guard are “friends bound by life and death,” clarifying that they have nearly killed each other in the past.
• Half-Whitehead challenges Liu Zheng to either a drinking contest or a fight. Liu Zheng pretends to notice Half-Whitehead’s second brother nearby, tricking him into turning around and creating an opening for a surprise attack.
• Half-Whitehead’s hair proves to be a formidable weapon and defense. He launches chest hairs like needles, impaling Liu Zheng and exploding his upper body.
• Despite suffering catastrophic injuries, Liu Zheng regenerates completely. He explains that Half-Whitehead celebrated too soon and easily overpowers him once the latter is exhausted.
• Liu Zheng shaves nearly all of Half-Whitehead’s hair, humiliating him. Because hair represents both strength and pride for Half-Whitehead’s clan, the shaving is effectively a severe personal defeat.
• Half-Whitehead begs Liu Zheng to leave one strand. Liu Zheng agrees on the condition that Half-Whitehead contact his second brother so Liu Zheng can question him.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Demonstrates his usual combination of suspicion, manipulation, humor, and overwhelming resilience. He is alert to possible political or personal danger surrounding the bathhouse owner, and he uses psychological tricks rather than brute force whenever possible. His regeneration and combat ability are again emphasized, as is his tendency to turn opponents’ weaknesses into opportunities.
• Old Fourth: Acts as a cautious mediator and practical manager. He explains the bathhouse’s rules, tries to prevent Liu Zheng from causing excessive damage, and avoids intervening once the confrontation legally falls under the “What Are You Looking At?” mechanism.
• Nile Doctor: Shows curiosity about the bathhouse’s local social structure and acknowledges that experience and information can come from profession and environment, not merely age.
• Niu Daji: Senses danger and is allowed to leave the group temporarily. His instinctive fear suggests that Liu Zheng’s presence and intentions are more dangerous than they appear.
• Half-Whitehead: Begins as an arrogant, foul-mouthed customer confident in his clan’s combat abilities. After his attack fails and Liu Zheng shaves his head, he becomes frightened, humiliated, and submissive, ultimately agreeing to cooperate.
• The bathhouse owner’s husband: Though absent, he is presented as a possible antagonist. His financial motives and potential access to an ambush create suspense around the owner’s safety.

Significant Themes

• Suspicion and hidden danger: Ordinary personal disputes, such as divorce and property division, may conceal murder plots or larger threats.
• Violence beneath everyday life: The bathhouse appears lively and recreational, but its guests operate under dangerous rules where a simple glance can trigger combat.
• Local knowledge versus outside power: Niu Daji’s family and the bathhouse’s long-established residents possess forms of influence and experience that outsiders may lack.
• Pride and humiliation: Half-Whitehead’s hair symbolizes both identity and strength. Losing it is more devastating than physical injury and forces him into submission.
• Cunning over strength: Liu Zheng wins by deception, timing, and psychological manipulation rather than accepting a straightforward fight.
• Regeneration and near-immortality: Liu Zheng’s ability to recover from fatal wounds reinforces his abnormal nature and makes conventional attacks ineffective.
• Relationships defined by conflict: Liu Zheng’s description of being “friends bound by life and death” suggests that deep bonds in this world may be formed through mutual betrayal, combat, and survival rather than trust alone.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Old Fourth: Their conversation combines negotiation, mutual caution, and practical cooperation. Old Fourth tries to keep Liu Zheng from disrupting the bathhouse while still helping him navigate its rules.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: They discuss the value of local experience and information, establishing Liu Zheng’s background as a former reporter who understands marginalized communities.
• Liu Zheng and Half-Whitehead: Their exchange escalates from verbal provocation to a deceptive duel. Liu Zheng exploits Half-Whitehead’s gullibility, survives his strongest attack, and defeats him through humiliation.
• Liu Zheng and Half-Whitehead’s second brother: Although the brother does not directly appear, their shared history drives the confrontation and sets up a future inquiry.
• Old Fourth and Half-Whitehead: Old Fourth refuses to intervene because the bathhouse’s rules place responsibility on the participants. His neutrality allows Liu Zheng to punish Half-Whitehead without official interference.

Chapter Summary: “Get Rid of That Deliveryman, Promotion by Three Ranks”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wang Dongdong, a proud and highly vigilant security guard at Green Laurel Garden Crazy City, continues blocking deliverymen from entering the residential complex. He is especially determined to stop Liu Zheng, the Deliveryman from Bloodstained Restaurant.
• The security captain informs him that headquarters is offering extraordinary rewards for dealing with deliverymen:
  • Stopping one earns a one-grade pay raise.
  • Causing one to fail a delivery leads to promotion to property manager.
  • Killing one grants a three-bedroom apartment.
• Although Wang Dongdong is tempted by the prospect of owning an apartment, the captain warns him that the offer is suspicious. The company has never previously announced such generous rewards, and an order supposedly issued by the chairman should have been made public.
• Wang Dongdong receives a call from his cousin Wang Xiaoba, who has been captured by Liu Zheng at Blissful Bathhouse. Liu has shaved Xiaoba’s head and uses him to contact Wang Dongdong.
• Liu explains that he only grabbed Xiaoba because the family’s distinctive hair attracted his attention. He insists that he is not trying to blackmail Wang Dongdong into allowing him into the complex and that professional conflicts should remain separate from personal matters.
• Liu asks for information about the resident of Building 4, Room 606. Wang initially refuses to disclose resident information, but Liu claims that he is personally connected to the resident and has delivered food to her twice.
• Wang eventually believes Liu’s explanation but decides he should receive a consultation fee for revealing the information.
• Liu refuses to pay and threatens to shave Xiaoba completely bald and write an insulting message on his head. He then holds a boning knife over Xiaoba’s final strand of hair.
• Just as Liu appears ready to finish shaving him, Wang hurriedly offers to provide another piece of information, leaving the negotiation unresolved.

Character Developments

• Wang Dongdong: His confidence and pride remain strong, but his greed and ambition are exposed by the promise of an apartment and promotion. At the same time, he shows caution and practical intelligence by recognizing that the reward announcement may be a trap. He is also fiercely protective of his cousin, though he tries to preserve his dignity during the negotiation.
• Liu Zheng: He demonstrates confidence, sarcasm, and psychological control. Rather than killing Wang Xiaoba, he uses humiliation and intimidation to force Wang Dongdong into conversation. He also maintains a strict distinction between work-related conflict and personal revenge, suggesting that he has his own principles despite his threatening behavior.
• Wang Xiaoba: He is portrayed as reckless, loudmouthed, and vulnerable. His tendency to stare at Liu leads to his capture, while his dependence on Wang Dongdong highlights the family’s close but combative relationship.
• The Security Captain: He acts as a cautious mentor figure. Though willing to discuss the reward, he warns Wang Dongdong not to get involved in something suspicious and chooses not to gamble with his own life.

Significant Themes

• Greed versus self-preservation: The apartment reward represents wealth, status, and a better future, tempting Wang Dongdong to risk his life despite recognizing the danger.
• Power and hidden political conflict: The unusually generous anti-deliveryman rewards suggest that larger forces—possibly the property group, Bloodstained Restaurant, or other powers in Metropolis—are maneuvering behind the scenes.
• Professional duty versus personal conflict: Liu insists that Wang Dongdong’s job-related opposition should not automatically become a family feud, even while exploiting Xiaoba to gain access to him.
• Information as currency: Resident information is dangerous and valuable. Wang’s hesitation shows that knowledge in Crazy City can carry lethal consequences and must be traded carefully.
• Family loyalty and crude bravado: The Wang family uses insults and aggressive speech as a form of pride and solidarity, while Wang Dongdong’s willingness to bargain for Xiaoba reveals genuine loyalty beneath his bluster.
• Humor amid danger: Threats involving baldness, cigarettes, family insults, and exaggerated security-guard pride create a comedic tone despite the serious violence surrounding the characters.

Character Interactions

• Wang Dongdong and the captain discuss the suspicious promotion scheme, revealing their differing attitudes toward risk.
• Their cigarette exchange reflects workplace hierarchy, favoritism, and Wang’s attempt to gain useful advice without appearing overly ambitious.
• Liu Zheng and Wang Xiaoba’s encounter leads to Xiaoba’s humiliation and capture, primarily because of his curiosity and distinctive appearance.
• Liu and Wang Dongdong engage in a tense but sarcastic negotiation. Liu mocks Wang’s assumptions, while Wang tries to protect Xiaoba, preserve his bargaining position, and obtain compensation.
• The chapter ends with Liu threatening Xiaoba and Wang attempting one last counteroffer, setting up the revelation of potentially important information about the resident of Building 4, Room 606.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wang Dongdong reveals that his information concerns Liu Zheng’s life and demands one million. Liu rejects the price, reminding him that powerful figures such as Peacock and Wang’s superiors have failed to kill him.
• Liu counters Wang’s threat by pointing out that killing him could bring retaliation and that, even as one of the Dead, Liu could reveal dangerous secrets. Wang finally agrees to sell the information for 100,000, with the exchange to occur after Liu returns to the city.
• Liu releases Wang Xiaoba, honoring his arrangement with Wang Dongdong and showing that he never intended to kill the younger man.
• Wang Xiaoba calls Wang Dongdong, who angrily curses him. Old Fourth uses the situation to force Liu and Wang Xiaoba into a symbolic “friendship” ritual involving cigarettes. Liu intimidates Wang Xiaoba into smoking and having him light Liu’s cigarette.
• Smoking Blissful Bathhouse’s special product, “What Are You Looking At?”, gives Liu an intense euphoric vision and increases his Sanity Value limit by five points. Combined with the Golden Mead he received earlier, Liu has partially recovered from the damage caused by Divine Descent.
• Liu praises the Bathhouse, while Old Fourth hints that its failed special services may be unsettling but insists they are “green and healthy.” Liu allows Wang Xiaoba to enjoy the Bathhouse at Liu’s expense, threatening to assign him unpleasant work if he hesitates.
• Old Fourth leads Liu and Nile Doctor to the sauna area. Because Liu is a valued guest, he only needs to challenge the odd-numbered rooms rather than every room.
• Liu enters Sauna Room No. 1, initially heated to 100°C. He is burned upon touching the door but relies on Flesh Rebirth to recover.
• Inside, Liu meets an elderly man who offers to make the sauna “spicier.” The man cuts open his own belly, scoops out his fat, and throws it onto the sauna stones, creating a supernatural yellow mist and raising the heat to several hundred degrees.
• As Liu’s body begins to suffer severe damage, he seals his sensory organs and enters a calm, meditative state, ending the chapter amid the overwhelming heat.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains confident, calculating, and intimidating. He uses threats and knowledge of the supernatural world to negotiate Wang Dongdong down from one million to 100,000, demonstrating both strategic restraint and awareness of political consequences.
• His willingness to spare Wang Xiaoba emphasizes that his cruelty is primarily defensive rather than bloodthirsty. He uses fear to control others but does not kill without reason.
• Liu also shows adaptability and curiosity. He embraces the Bathhouse’s bizarre customs, appreciates its special effects, and treats dangerous challenges as opportunities to test his limits.
• His recovery of five Sanity Value points is significant because he recognizes that his diminished sanity limit could become a major weakness in a future dungeon.
• Wang Dongdong is portrayed as ruthless and proud but ultimately pragmatic. Though he threatens Liu, he recognizes the danger of killing him and accepts a much smaller payment.
• Wang Xiaoba is cowardly and easily intimidated, especially by Liu’s Cleaver, but is reluctantly drawn into the Bathhouse’s strange social ritual.
• Old Fourth acts as a smooth, manipulative host. He maintains the Bathhouse’s authority through flattery, social pressure, and subtle threats while enjoying Liu’s unusual reactions.
• Nile Doctor functions as a practical observer, occasionally interrupting Liu and Old Fourth’s mutual flattery to keep events moving.
• The elderly sauna occupant appears bizarrely resilient and masochistic, treating self-mutilation and extreme heat as ordinary hospitality.

Significant Themes

• Survival through intimidation and negotiation: Liu’s power lies not only in physical strength but also in the secrets, allies, and consequences surrounding him.
• Violence versus restraint: Although Liu cultivates a frightening reputation, he distinguishes between necessary violence and pointless killing.
• The supernatural as ordinary commerce: Information, entertainment, pain, and bodily transformation are all treated as services that can be negotiated and purchased.
• Pain and pleasure: The Bathhouse repeatedly blurs the line between suffering and enjoyment. The cigarette produces euphoria, while the sauna’s deadly heat is framed as a form of “spiciness.”
• Sanity and self-control: Liu’s recovery of Sanity Value and his final meditation show that preserving mental stability is as important as enduring physical danger.
• Social performance and mutual flattery: Liu and Old Fourth exchange exaggerated praise while each understands the other’s ulterior motives, highlighting the importance of etiquette and manipulation in the Bathhouse.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Wang Dongdong engage in a tense negotiation based on threats, leverage, and mutual awareness of danger.
• Liu releases Wang Xiaoba and permits him to speak with Wang Dongdong, maintaining the terms of their bargain.
• Old Fourth forces Liu and Wang Xiaoba into a pseudo-reconciliation through smoking, with Liu using intimidation and Old Fourth using authority.
• Liu and Old Fourth trade polite compliments that conceal suspicion and strategic calculation.
• Nile Doctor acts as a mildly exasperated witness to their flattery and helps redirect the group toward the sauna trials.
• In the sauna, Liu and the elderly occupant bond—or at least establish mutual respect—over their willingness to endure increasingly extreme heat, with Liu requesting the most painful level possible.

Chapter Summary: “Now I Really Am Teppanyaki Squid”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng undergoes the second sauna-room trial at Blissful Bathhouse, where an old man repeatedly pours scalding fat over his body. Despite being nearly “cooked” and suffering severe burns, Liu endures the ordeal and passes.
• The old man reveals that he emptied the fat reserves from his own stomach to complete the test. He then heals his stomach with a sauna stone, though the process leaves him extremely thin.
• Liu pays the required five hundred and receives a bottle of Secret Badger Oil, a healing item that treats burns and restores stamina. He drinks it despite its disturbing origin and experiences increased pain as his damaged nerves begin repairing themselves.
• Liu’s burned appearance prompts Nile Doctor to compare him to teppanyaki squid. Liu jokes that he might open a grilled-food stall if he ever stops working as a deliveryman.
• During an intermission, Liu eats Bathhouse Street specialties, including pork “brisket fat” and green “solid eggs.” He suspects the meat may have once belonged to people transformed into pigs, but accepts it as food regardless.
• After recovering, Liu continues to the third sauna room. There he observes an intense cricket fight, in which a red-headed cricket defeats and devours a black cricket.
• The cricket-fighting old man recognizes Liu as a Bloodstained Restaurant Deliveryman and proposes that Liu marry his daughter. He offers access to the family’s secret cricket-fighting art, family property, and a possible method of escaping death.
• The old man’s proposed method of rebirth is revealed to be reincarnation as a cricket.

Character Development

• Liu Zheng demonstrates exceptional endurance, pragmatism, and emotional composure. He tolerates horrific pain, drinks a grotesque medicine without hesitation, and continues the Bathhouse challenge after recovering.
• His identity as a Bloodstained Restaurant Deliveryman is emphasized as a source of unusual strength and status. Liu proudly argues that Delivery is the Restaurant’s core division, describing his boss’s absurdly ruthless standards.
• Liu’s morality is shown to be flexible and survival-oriented. He can recognize the disturbing possibility that the food was once transformed people, yet still consumes it without hesitation.
• He also displays social intelligence and restraint. Rather than interrupting the cricket fight, he waits respectfully because the old man is deeply focused.
• The Bathhouse workers, especially Old Fourth and Nile Doctor, become more comfortable joking with Liu. Their teasing reflects growing familiarity and mutual respect.
• The old men of the Bathhouse are portrayed as eccentric but powerful figures who test Liu, sell or provide unusual remedies, and evaluate him as a possible ally or family member.

Significant Themes

• Endurance and survival: Liu’s ability to withstand extreme physical suffering reflects the harsh demands of his profession and his determination to advance.
• Absurdity and dark humor: Torture, cannibalistic food, grotesque medicine, and reincarnation are treated with casual comedic banter.
• Food and transformation: The chapter repeatedly blurs the boundary between people, animals, and food, especially through the pork fat that may have originated from transformed humans and Liu’s comparison to grilled squid.
• Strength hidden in humble roles: The Delivery Department appears unimportant to outsiders, yet its members are portrayed as exceptionally capable and dangerous.
• Death and escape: The old man’s offer introduces the possibility that Liu might one day escape the deadly fate associated with the Bloodstained Restaurant, though the proposed solution—becoming a cricket—is bizarre and uncertain.
• Tradition versus practicality: The old man values secret family arts and inheritance, while Liu evaluates everything in terms of usefulness, risk, and personal benefit.

Character Interactions

• Liu and the second sauna attendant exchange mutual recognition: the old man acknowledges Liu’s toughness, while Liu praises the Bathhouse’s reputation.
• Liu jokingly describes his boss and the Delivery Department, leading the old man to question whether the Restaurant’s deliverymen are professionals or deranged criminals.
• Nile Doctor and Old Fourth tease Liu about looking like teppanyaki squid, and Liu responds enthusiastically, strengthening the group’s humorous camaraderie.
• During the meal, Liu and Old Fourth discuss the unusual ingredients and cooking techniques of Bathhouse Street, including the transformed-pig meat and solid eggs.
• In the third room, Liu earns the cricket master’s approval through his patience and respectful observation. Their conversation shifts from cricket fighting to marriage, inheritance, descendants, and reincarnation.
• The chapter ends with Liu’s curiosity awakened when the old man claims he can reincarnate him as a cricket, setting up the next stage of the trial and possibly a new avenue for escaping death.