Taoist priest goes to America

When Ang Lee and Fineria returned to the apartment, it was already surrounded by police and paramedics.

At least six police cars were parked in front of the mansion, their red and blue lights and sirens blaring, illuminating the building's walls in red and blue.

Three ambulances were parked side by side at the driveway entrance, with their back doors open, and uniformed paramedics were carrying stretchers in and out.

Yellow police tape surrounded the entire house, making it look like a crime scene. Police officers in heavy riot gear and helmets rushed up the porch steps, rifles and riot shields in their hands.

A crowd had already gathered outside the police cordon. Several guests, who were clearly those who had escaped from the banquet and hadn't gone far, were gesturing wildly to the police, their dresses wrinkled and their makeup ruined.

"What's wrong?" Fineria's eyes widened. "What happened?"

The crowd outside the police cordon was buzzing with discussion. One person, in a trembling voice, said, "I saw it with my own eyes. It flew out of a second-floor window. It was huge, white, like a bear, but not a bear..."

"The Harrington guy, I heard he fell from the second floor and landed directly on the stone pavement, blood splattering several meters away. The paramedics were shocked when they arrived..." another person added, with a hint of curious excitement in their voice.

Fineria stopped in her tracks; she heard that name—Harrington.

She turned to look at the person who was speaking, her voice tinged with disbelief: "What did you just say? What happened to Harrington?"

The man was startled by her sudden conversation. Upon seeing her face, he immediately recognized her as Lofi Brown Fineria and eagerly repeated what he had just said, adding even more details:

"I heard that his genitals were completely bitten off, and his neck was broken. He was unconscious when he was taken to the hospital. I don't know if he can be saved."

Fineria fell silent, then turned to look at Ang Lee with a complex expression on her face; she was clearly trying hard not to laugh.

She pursed her lips and then relaxed them, finally unable to suppress the corners of her mouth, revealing a small smile.

"That's terrible," she said in a voice only Ang Lee could hear. "Looks like he's had bad luck."

"Phinelia!"

A sharp female voice came from the front, pulling Fineria out of her reverie.

She looked in the direction of the sound and saw Tinas Grey standing at the end of the corridor, hands on her hips, her long golden hair cascading over her shoulders.

She was still wearing the dark green dress from last night, covered in dust, and the heel of her left shoe was broken in half, causing her to limp as she walked.

Her makeup was ruined, her eyeliner smudged at the corners of her eyes, making her look like she had just escaped from the set of a disaster movie, and she stood in front of them with great momentum.

Tinas strode up to Fineria, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her out of Ang Lee's arms.

The movement was quick and forceful; Fineria was pulled so hard she stumbled and almost lost her balance.

"You—" Tinas glanced down at Fineria, her eyes conveying the message, "I'll settle the score with you later," her gaze as stern as an older sister discovering her younger sister sneaking out the window for a date in the middle of the night.

Fineria shrank back under her gaze, swallowing back all the explanation that was on the tip of her tongue.

Then Tinas raised her head, her gray-green eyes meeting Li An's.

"Is this the method you were talking about?" she asked through gritted teeth, her voice low, clearly not wanting anyone nearby to hear.

Ang Lee's expression remained unchanged. He looked at Tinas and shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just took Finney out for a bit."

Old White has become a puppet, jumping under Fineria's bed. Even if the police dared to search her room, they wouldn't be able to find anything amiss.

Tinas stared into his eyes and pulled Fineria behind her.

"I don't know what method you used." Tinas took a step forward, her height only reaching Li An's chin, her aura menacing.

"It might be some kind of Eastern witchcraft or something, which I don't understand, but I can be sure of one thing!"

She poked Ang Lee in the chest with her index finger. "You're a dangerous person. I can't let you live with Finney."

"Tinas!" Fineria poked her head out from behind Tinas. "Li An didn't do anything, he just took me—"

"You can't get into the house tonight. The police said that dangerous creature might still be inside, and they're worried about us noble ladies, so they've sealed off the place."

"I've booked a hotel, just two blocks away. You and I will share a room, and this Eastern wizard will have a room to himself."

"Neither of you will be able to be all lovey-dovey with the other tonight. I'll be watching you!"

Fineria was about to say something when Tinas raised her other hand and waved to the side. A minivan, as if pre-arranged, turned and stopped smoothly in front of them.

"Get in." Tinas opened the back door, first shoving Fineria inside, holding the frame with one hand to prevent Fineria from hitting her head, and then neatly pushing her into the inner part of the back seat with the other.

Then she climbed in herself and sat in the middle of the back seat, forming a human wall that divided the back seat in two.

Tinas patted the empty seat next to her and shouted at Ang Lee, who was still standing, "What are you standing there for? Do you want to walk there?"

Ang Lee smiled to himself, bent down and got into the taxi, sitting down next to Tina.

The drive from the luxury apartment to the hotel is less than ten minutes, but the atmosphere in the back seat during those ten minutes is particularly subtle.

Tinas sat in the middle, her gaze fixed straight ahead, without saying a word.

Fineria was squeezed into a window seat, her face turned outwards, looking at Ang Lee's face faintly reflected in the car window.

Ang Lee sat on the other side without saying a word. He knew very well that saying anything at this time would be wrong, and the smartest thing to do was to say nothing.

The taxi stopped in front of the hotel. It was a standard five-star hotel with a spacious entrance and a brightly lit lobby behind the revolving door. The doorman, dressed in a smart uniform, stood at the entrance and quickly stepped forward to open the car door when he saw the taxi stop.

The receptionist handed over a room key. Li An looked at the key in his hand; the room number on the card was 1808, on the 18th floor. Tinas, meanwhile, was tossing a room key for the 14th floor and pulling Fineria toward the elevator.

Fineria turned to look at him, her lips moving as if to say, "See you tomorrow."

……

The sound of a showerhead spraying water came from the bathroom. Li An stood in the bathroom, hot water poured down his head, flowing down his back and shoulders, washing away the fatigue of the whole night into the sewer.

He closed his eyes and went over the events of the night in his mind. Harrington was taken care of by Old White, and his two companions were also dealt with cleanly.

Meanwhile, Old White has turned into a puppet and is hiding in Fineria's room. Who would know that the harmless puppet is actually the man-eating beast?

The investigation revealed wild animal attacks, and the questions of where the wild animals came from and where they went could keep the police busy for months.

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped. Li An changed into the white bathrobe provided by the hotel, tied around his waist. Water droplets dripped from his wet hair. He grabbed a towel with one hand to dry his hair, and with the other hand, he opened the bathroom door and walked out barefoot.

His phone screen was lit up, and a new message notification popped up automatically.

Fineria: "Are you asleep?"

Ang Lee glanced at the time in the upper right corner; it was 11:30. He had probably sent the message secretly in bed while his best friend was taking a shower after being lectured by Tina.

He picked up his phone with one hand, while continuing to dry his hair with the other, just as he was about to type a reply, the doorbell rang.

Ding dong.

There are only a few possibilities for someone ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night—room service, Tinas checking up on you, or…

Ang Lee picked up a pistol, cocked it, walked to the door, and covered his right eye with a peephole.

The cat's eye's wide-angle lens compressed the scene in the corridor, and standing in front of his door was a little girl.

She was wearing a hotel waitress uniform. She was very short, with her head only reaching about Ang Lee's chin. Her petite figure made the uniform look very wide, and the sleeves were a little too long, almost covering her fingers.

Her hands were folded in front of her, holding a silver tray covered with a white napkin. The bulge under the napkin made it impossible to tell what it was.

Her head was lowered, and a waitress's hat was pulled down low, the shadow of the brim completely obscuring the upper half of her face. Only the tip of her nose and a small mouth were visible below the brim, her lips coated with glossy lip gloss.

"Who is it?" Li An asked.

The little girl outside the door spoke. Her voice was very soft, and her pronunciation was like the soft sound of cotton candy melting on the tip of her tongue, with a sweet and gentle ending.

"Excuse me, sir, would you like any special services? They're very comfortable, aren't they?"

Is this a special service offered by a star-rated hotel? And they even come to your door at 11:30 at night?

"No need, please leave." As soon as Li An finished speaking, he immediately knelt down.

The instant Li An jumped down, five bullets had already pierced the door panel, exploding into many wood chips.

The gunshots were muffled by the silencer into five dull "thump-thump" sounds, which sounded like someone was punching the sofa in the quiet room.

The bullet holes were distributed over an area that would cover the chest of an adult man. The bullet pierced through the solid wood door and embedded itself in the interior wall of the room.

Li An silently brushed the sawdust off his hair. Why was he always getting shot?