My wife is the stand-in.

This was the shared thought of the knights-errant who were warily surrounding the building.

No, that's not right.

To be honest, how did this building even come about?

Naturally, everyone's attention turned to Yubaba, who stood in front of the red-painted wooden arch bridge of the bathhouse, receiving bows and salutes from hundreds of uniformly dressed employees.

Of course, most of the attention was focused on Amanosaki.

Thanks to inside information from members of the Yushan branch's supply team and Granny Tang's outstanding performance, within a few hours, people from all walks of life were inquiring about the origins of this elderly yet incredibly powerful "newcomer" Granny.

When they learned that Yubaba was Amanosaki's supernatural ability and also his girlfriend, the news spread even faster.

Yubaba's fame owes much to Amanosaki's public confession during the day.

Everyone at the scene put down their work and gathered in large numbers at the bridgehead, looking at Amanosaki with complicated and curious eyes.

As the saying goes, "Three men can make a tiger," and "Many mouths can melt metal."

Unable to bear the stares and whispers any longer, Amanosaki tightened his grip on Yubaba, who was holding him close, and asked with a forced smile, "Yubaba, could we all go in and relax in the bath?"

Yubaba rolled her eyes: "What nonsense are you talking about? If it weren't for you, would I have gone to such lengths to summon the bathhouse?"

She pointed to a young, long-faced girl wearing a red floral dress, who was anxiously looking at the rows of employees at her bathhouse: "Xiaoling! You take care of the master! Take him to the innermost room and ask the boiler master for the best medicinal bath brand!"

When Amanosaki heard the name "Lin," he immediately opened his eyes wide and looked. Sure enough, he recognized the horse-faced girl as the older sister in "Spirited Away" who took care of Chihiro for a grilled salamander.

However, today Nozaki is already a man in his twenties, and the woman he used to call "older sister" is now just a younger sister.

Amanosaki's face contorted in pain as his waist was twisted. He saw Yubaba, who was a head shorter than him, staring at him with murderous eyes.

"You can't resist walking past young girls, can you?"

Amanosaki forced a smile and explained, "How could that be? Tom, you know me. Miss Lin, JK, and that little nun are all beauties, right? But in my eyes, none of them are as pretty as you."

"Actually, I'm relieved to see you like this now. If you were still as beautiful as before, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

"Why?" Yubaba asked Amanosaki with a smile.

"That's because there are more eyes on you now, and more people coveting you. It's already hard enough for me to maintain my position as your boyfriend. If some nobodies and rich kids who are after your looks come along, wouldn't I be exhausted to death?"

"So Tom, this is just right for you."

"You're so sweet-talking." Granny Tang covered her mouth with her lace fan and chuckled, leaving Xiaoling, who was waiting respectfully to the side, dumbfounded.

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and help the master inside!" When Granny Tang saw Xiaoling, her smile vanished, and she reverted to her usual sternness. She stared at Xiaoling with eyes that looked at a termite, her voice not loud, but it sent shivers down the spines of all the employees.

In this bathhouse, employees deemed lazy by Yubaba will be turned into pigs and sent to the pigsty to be raised and eaten!

Xiaoling immediately took over the task of supporting Amanosaki with a charming smile, trying her best to remain respectful without appearing to be seducing him.

When they were halfway across the bridge, a frog and a human from the staff immediately scurried into the bathhouse, and soon came running back carrying a small sedan chair.

The frog knelt beside Amanosaki, arching its back, while the man with a mustache beside it smiled obsequiously: "Master, please get into the sedan chair."

"No need, no need," Amanosaki quickly waved his hand.

Just a few days ago, he was a proletarian who had to earn a living by drawing with his own hands. This sudden shift to the style of a big capitalist was something he really couldn't adapt to.

Besides, why would you step on someone's back? Couldn't you just use a stool?

Xiaoling could tell that Granny Tang disliked this kind of talk, so she opened her mouth and her sharp words flew out:

"Don't you even look at yourselves? You think you can let the master, a man of such noble birth, step on you? Bah! Don't you even think your pustules on your backs are dirtying the master's feet?!"

"But... I'm a frog." The frog man, wearing a black hat, looked at his finger with a wronged expression.

Xiaoling's scolding intensified: "You still know you're a frog? You're all sticky and dirty. Go get a soft stool. What, are you waiting to turn into a pig?"

Upon hearing this, the frog man scrambled into the bathhouse, panting as he carried out a soft stool with gold-embroidered edges, which he carefully placed at Amanosaki's feet.

Seeing this, Amanosaki knew that these people had been ruled by Yubaba for so long that their lives were in her hands, and it wouldn't change in a short time. So he sighed, stepped onto the stool, and sat in the sedan chair.

"Master, please pay attention, the sedan chair is being lifted." The man with the mustache kindly instructed, and diligently helped the frog man lift the sedan chair, raising his legs high and lowering them gently, taking small steps, passing by envious glances, and swaggering into the bathhouse.

Judging from his appearance, it's as if serving Amanosaki, Yubaba's beloved, makes him superior in the bathhouse.

As for Xiaoling, she instructed several of her close sisters to follow and serve her, and without even changing her shoes, she ran barefoot towards the underground boiler room.

She also had to rush to personally draw water and massage the master in order to leave a good impression on him!

Everyone turned to watch as the young man with the green mustache and the man with the mustache, who had volunteered, managed to snatch the opportunity to curry favor with the new master. Then, a thunderous voice rang out from the other side of the bridge: "You bunch of lazy pigs! The guests have arrived! Get back to work!"

After a hurried bow, everyone rushed into the bathhouse. Yubaba, seeing her still not diligent enough employees, was furious.

But when she turned around, she adopted a warm demeanor, waving her lace fan and speaking with a hint of passion:

"The bathhouse, originally reserved for the gods, is now open to everyone for one night only!"

"The hot springs at Tangwu have numerous benefits, including tonifying the kidneys and strengthening yang, nourishing yin and beautifying the skin, and strengthening the body! Spending over 100,000 can upgrade to a VIP private room, where you can enjoy a special medicinal bath, and it can even nourish the soul, prolong life, and enhance supernatural abilities!"

"Cash and gold only!"

Yubaba chanted loudly using her magic, and the curtain of the bathhouse was secretly lifted a corner. The receptionist peered through the curtain and clicked her tongue in amazement: "Yubaba herself came out to promote and welcome guests. In the past, this was something that only happened when the river god or during festivals, right?"

The owner of the other pair of eyes scoffed: "What a joke! Does our bathhouse need to advertise itself? Even if the River God comes, Yubaba will only receive him inside; she will never step out!"

The crowd stood in front of the wooden bridge, but no one was willing to step into the bathhouse that had suddenly appeared.

Watching Amanosaki disappear into the bathhouse, Lin Shuyu bit her lip, her eyes gleaming faintly. She used the [Heavenly Man Appearance] to perform a detailed deduction, and then resolutely stepped out onto the wooden bridge.

"Miss Lin! Be careful!" someone from the Yushan branch whispered a warning.

Lin Shuyu paused, remembering her great-uncle's words. Having made up her mind to be persistent for love, she said without turning her head, "Tell my great-uncle where I am, but don't tell my grandfather."

After saying that, he strode towards the bathhouse.

"Tsk!"

Granny Tang on the bridge clicked her tongue in displeasure when she saw that Lin Shuyu was the first one to arrive.

But in order to set an example for others, she did not stop her and let Lin Shuyu in.

"Anyway, Amanosaki is in the innermost room. Without someone to guide you, you can't get in." Yubaba was extremely confident in her witchcraft and the bathhouse.

Despite its tower-like appearance, the bathhouse has an enormous interior space. Under the influence of witchcraft, the interior area is dozens of times larger than its actual floor area.

Her own penthouse has countless rooms and luxurious Victorian-style doors separating it.

After shouting a few times, Granny Tang felt that her words should have been relayed to the people above by the onlookers, so she bowed politely and then returned to the bathhouse with graceful steps.

"Sigh, it's really not easy to save up some belongings for you. I have to sell my old face."

Granny Tang shook her head as she entered the bathhouse and told someone to prepare the elevator to take her to the top floor.

Witchcraft could indeed bring Amanosaki a large windfall immediately, whether it was gold, jewels, or paper money. A small amount could be tolerated, but too much would lead to government intervention or even accountability.

Yubaba is no longer the fledgling she once was; she has run the bathhouse for many years and is more sensitive to wealth and systems. The reason she was unwilling to give Amanosaki a jewel was that she worried Amanosaki would become a spendthrift who indulged himself by spending money on everything.

It's actually more about fear of the government.

While there are many heroes in this world, they are still ordinary people at the core. The government has always strictly monitored those superpowers that can make people instantly rich. Some superpowers that can manipulate metal are even under the strict surveillance of the Heroes Mountain, in order to prevent a large amount of precious metals from flowing into the market and disrupting the stability of the existing currency market.

The plots in fantasy novels where the male protagonist receives hundreds of billions or even trillions from the system will not exist in this world, because that would mean the country's credibility would depreciate along with these suddenly appearing currencies.

This is a slap in the face to the country.

"But this should be enough, right? The bathhouse only appears for one night, and Nozaki can't keep making a fortune off it. I also brought out the bathhouse's treasured medicinal bath that can enhance superpowers and prolong life in exchange... These dog-like politicians and idol-like heroes will definitely be unable to resist coming in."

"With this powerful but unstable support, Nozaki will undoubtedly be able to live a better life."

Grandma Yu looked at her reflection in the metal doors of the elevator and gave a wry smile: "I should leave those glamorous lives to the young people... Well, it's all my own doing anyway, so I'm not losing out."

Outside the bathhouse, the heroes who had received permission from their superiors were eager to go in. After several heroes from the Yushan branch followed Lin Shuyu inside, people began to enter the bathhouse one after another.

"what!"

Yubaba, who knew the bathhouse inside and out, looked at these timid people and sneered disdainfully.

"If you don't come in now, it will be too late when you run out of time."

Chapter Sixty-Two: I shall bear the rotten dregs of feudalism alone!

"Sir, is the force just right?"

"Suitable."

Amanosaki squinted and groaned as he answered Xiaoling's question.

He is currently taking a bath in the most central private bathroom of the bathhouse. In the bowl-shaped purple clay bathtub with a diameter of 20 meters, only Amanosaki is lying down.

The dark green, magical hot soup exuded a faint, bitter fragrance, like the scent of broken grass. In the rising steam, Amanosaki seemed to be lying on a bright grassland, supported by the hot soup, not sinking down. Xiaoling stood in front of the workbench on the bathtub, bending over to apply various medicinal liquids to Amanosaki's back, and then gently brushing it with a soft mouse hair brush.

She was not entitled to enjoy this top-class medicinal bath, and as a staff member, she could not freely enter the hot soup prepared for the guests; she could only serve in this awkward way, as was the rule.

Yubaba's rules.

In Japanese, "soup" means boiled or warm water, and the word itself originates from classical Chinese. For Chinese people, the most typical way to encounter this word, besides anime, is through the line "because someone held the hot water and poured it over him, then covered him with a quilt, and after a long time it became warm" in the middle school textbook "Preface to Sending Ma Sheng of Dongyang".

The so-called "yuya" is simply a bathhouse, except that it uses hot spring water.

Amanosaki had been soaking for half an hour. Usually, by this time, his fingers and toes would be wrinkled from being soaked in water for so long. But after soaking in the medicinal baths of different colors, scents, and effects, his skin not only didn't have wrinkles or turn white, but it even became more rosy.

Amanosaki rubbed his fingers together, feeling as if he had become younger.

Xiaoling, who had worked at the bathhouse for many years, was quick-witted. Seeing Amanosaki's actions, she smiled and explained, "Baba instructed that the master should have the best medicinal bath, but those medicines were originally for healing gods. Although the master is exceptionally talented, he was injured when he entered the bathhouse, so it's not appropriate to use those strong medicines right away. Therefore, Xiaoling took the liberty of getting various brands from Boiler Man to help the master recover before he goes for a bath."

Amanosaki looked up at these words, and said in surprise, "I want to soak again!?"

“Yes!” Xiaoling nodded matter-of-factly. “Right now we’re soaking in a soup made with sea fish bone powder and Ganoderma lucidum and cypress leaves to strengthen bones and improve health. We’ll need to soak in two other medicinal soups later before we can go into the final medicinal bath!”

Amanosaki blinked: "But I'm hungry."

He only ate breakfast today, then rushed to Sanjiang Reservoir without stopping, and then went to Sanjiang Hall to fight all the way until the afternoon. He only drank a few bottles of glucose in between, and his stomach was empty. After soaking for half an hour, his stomach started to protest.

"Will this work?" Amanosaki straightened up and sank into the bath. "I'll go get dinner now, and then come back for a bath."

Xiaoling smiled and said, "Sir, you're too kind. A bathhouse is more than just a bathhouse."

After she finished speaking, she stood up and tapped the long, mouse-hair brush on the workbench a few times, drawing flowing clouds and green pines. The paper sliding door, which was seven or eight meters high, was pushed open by a short, frog-like man who was only one meter tall. His frog-faced man smiled obsequiously and waved.

A dozen or so handcarts carrying trays entered the house. The man with the mustache, with his hands clasped together, and a group of human-looking men stepped onto the damp wooden planks and entered the bathroom. They quickly erected a two-meter-high, exquisitely crafted platform, with a wooden ladder placed next to the bathtub.

"Please change your clothes, sir," said the man with the mustache. At the same time, Xiaoling turned around and stood in the corner, waiting quietly.

Amanosaki, shaking off the dripping water, stepped onto the table. The short men eagerly gathered around to help him change into a bathrobe, hang a sachet, light the incense burner beside the table, display a painting, and arrange flowers. A large, low table was placed in the very center.