The Snail Maiden really was a maiden

At three thirty the next afternoon, Wen Ning arrived downstairs at Gong Kai's building right on time.

A starch sausage he had just bought at the entrance to the residential complex hung from his mouth.

He ambled into the elevator.

Honestly, he wasn't as nervous as he had been going to his interview at the Heavenly Court.

Bai Lu had a point. Nothing had happened in over a month.

Whatever this was, it probably meant no harm.

He was more concerned about how to start the conversation when they met. Surely he couldn't just say, "Hello, are you a Screw Spirit or a Broom Spirit?"

That sort of opening seemed a little rude. Even if nothing was wrong, he might end up making trouble for himself.

When Wen Ning stepped out of the elevator and reached Gong Kai's door, he first pressed his ear against it to check whether anyone was inside.

It was quiet inside, without any sign of movement.

He checked his phone. Three forty-two. There were still a little over ten minutes until four.

He unlocked the door with the key, tiptoed inside, and left the door ajar.

The living room looked exactly as it had when he left the night before.

Wen Ning sat straight down on the couch and put his phone on silent, ready to see just who was coming to clean up after that fat bastard Gong Kai.

The seconds and minutes ticked by.

Four o'clock came, but nothing happened.

Wen Ning began to wonder whether his presence had scared the Snail Maiden away.

She wouldn't even let a surveillance camera catch her, let alone show herself with a living, breathing person sitting right here.

He was considering whether to go outside and keep watch by the door instead.

Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him.

It sounded like a faucet dripping in the dead of night.

Then a faint scent of Liby laundry detergent drifted over.

It was exactly the same scent Wen Ning had smelled in the room the night before.

But it was much stronger this time, as though its source was just a short distance behind him.

Wen Ning didn't turn around. Deep within his dantian, the magical energy of the Five Thunder Righteous Method

suddenly stirred.

It didn't feel like a reaction to some evil demon or monster.

It felt more like it had simply stirred upon encountering a supernatural being.

Wen Ning's hand instinctively pressed against his dantian.

That warm energy stirred again, this time with a clear sense of direction.

It nudged toward his back, as though something were drawing it there.

Wen Ning slowly turned his head to look.

A young woman was bending over, picking up the snack wrappers Gong Kai had left on the coffee table the day before, one by one.

She looked about twenty-five or twenty-six and wore a simple T-shirt and jeans.

She had a gentle face, with willow-leaf eyebrows, a delicate nose, and pursed lips. Her expression was so serious that she might have been doing the most important thing in the world. Holding a wastebasket in her left hand, she placed the snack wrappers from the coffee table into it with her right, her movements light, quick, and utterly silent.

She looked clean and neat from head to toe, nothing like a transformed screw or a Broom Spirit.

Wen Ning watched her finish tidying the coffee table, then walk over to the TV stand and start dusting it with a cloth. Hey, miss, there's a whole living person sitting here. Didn't you see me?

Wen Ning stared, a little stunned. He had imagined countless possibilities: a snail spirit, a Broom Spirit, even some rich woman falling for Gong Kai's build and sending someone over every day to clean for him.

But never in a million years would he have guessed that the person cleaning for Gong Kai every day was such a young woman—and a pretty one at that.

What had that fat bastard Gong Kai ever done to deserve such a pretty Snail Maiden cleaning his home?

Just then, the energy in Wen Ning's dantian gave another violent stir.

Wen Ning felt a slight tingling in his fingertips. He glanced down at his palm and caught a faint flash of electricity between his fingers.

The woman suddenly stopped what she was doing.

Still holding the cloth, she remained bent over, but her body was visibly less relaxed than before.

Her nose twitched slightly, as though she were sniffing out some scent in the air.

Then she slowly straightened, turned around, and looked directly at Wen Ning.

Wen Ning sat on the couch, facing her from three meters away.

The room suddenly fell so quiet that he could hear his own breathing.

Her initial blank expression shifted into mild surprise.

Then that surprise faded, little by little.

In its place came a wariness he couldn't quite describe.

She set the cloth on the table, folded her hands in front of her, and stood very straight.

But Wen Ning noticed that her fingertips had curled slightly inward. Her nails were a pale pinkish white, as though she were digging them into her palms.

"You..."

She spoke in a soft, gentle voice, but her words were clear.

"Smell like an immortal."

Wen Ning instinctively glanced at his palm again. Could it be some lingering scent I picked up when I went to the Heavenly Court the other day?

The arc of electricity had vanished from his hand, but that warm energy was still flowing slowly through his meridians.

The woman stared at him for a long while, looking him up and down. Her gaze paused on Wen Ning's face before moving lower, lingering over his chest and his dantian.

Her brows drew together slightly, as though she were trying to identify something. Then those willow-leaf eyebrows slowly relaxed.

The wariness in her eyes gradually became something more complicated. It wasn't fear or hostility, but something closer to uncertainty.

"You don't look like you're here to cause trouble."

There was a hint of probing in her tone.

"But you don't look like you're just passing through, either. I was planning to erase your memory of seeing me in a bit."

Wen Ning opened his mouth and realized he had no idea what to say.

He cleared his throat and tried to sound less nervous. After all, this was his first time dealing with anything like this.

"Do you clean for Gong Kai every day? Are you a Screw Spirit or a Broom Spirit?"

After all that thinking, Wen Ning ended up asking it anyway. He was pretty curious himself.

The young woman didn't answer his question.

She merely tilted her head slightly and looked into Wen Ning's eyes for about two seconds before speaking again.

"Are you an immortal? You don't seem like one. You have no cultivation."

Her tone didn't change as she said it.

Wen Ning didn't answer immediately. His hand unconsciously pressed into his pocket.

"Not yet, but I will be soon," Wen Ning replied.

At his answer, the woman's fingers loosened slightly where her hands were folded in front of her.

Her lips moved as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only let out a soft sigh.

It was as though a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Finally."

The young woman spoke.

"Just to make this clear, I'm neither a Screw Spirit nor a Broom Spirit. I'm a fox spirit."

Wen Ning was startled by her answer. A fox spirit? She doesn't look like one.

In my mind, aren't fox spirits all supposed to be so beautiful they could bring kingdoms to their knees?

Although this young woman was pretty, hers was the kind of beauty that grew on you. She was still some way off from being a kingdom-toppling beauty.

"Then why do you tidy up Gong Kai's place every day?"