Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, basement level two-Hu Tao's workshop.
"Hey, girl, do you even know how to do makeup? Ah, forget it. Follow my lead. Step one: pick up your facial cleanser, add a little water, and rub it onto my handsome face."
"Yes, yes, be gentle. Nice and soft, or you'll hurt my newborn baby skin."
Under the dim light, Hu Tao rubbed her foam-covered hands over a round, talking head.
"Hey, the facial cleanser isn't getting it off. Would dish soap work?"
"What! Pretty girl, I'm warning you seriously: Captain Yummy Pants' face is not a dirty plate in your sink! Ugh, use bar soap. Actually, forget it. Go pour me a cup of tea first. All this makeup instruction has worn me out. Ha, my throat's on fire."
Hu Tao left her chair, rinsed the foam from her hands at the sink, then poured a cup of tea at the table and brought it back.
"Coming, coming. Open wide."
Glug, glug, glug.
The speaker drank with gusto, but anyone who barged into the room at that moment would have been scared out of their wits.
In the very center of the dim room stood a wooden platform covered with a white cloth, with a human head sitting in the middle.
The girl held the cup and gently fed the head tea. As his throat worked to swallow, red-stained tea streamed out of his severed neck.
The tea went in one end and out the other. Seeing this, Hu Tao simply found a bowl and placed it beneath the short length of neck that had just regrown, catching the rest of the tea.
"Phew, I feel much better. Hey, isn't putting a bowl there going a little too far? You're stealing my bodily essence!"
Wade rocked his head back