After being poisoned by mushrooms, all the strange creatures became fascinated by me.

The bed board was so hard it could kill a mouse.

Pillows can be used too. Pillows are made of porcelain.

Tang Li sighed expressionlessly on the bed, watching the flower girl slowly walk over after washing up.

A single lamp flickered dimly.

Admiring a beauty under the lamplight.

The flower girl was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with the appearance of a classical beauty, slender and graceful. Apart from a simple hairpin, she wore no other jewelry. She held Tang Li in her arms, but there was no fragrance in her bosom.

The flower girl lazily brushed a strand of hair behind her ear with her unpainted fingers. Seeing the little girl silently looking up at her, she somehow guessed what the little girl was thinking.

She laughed and said, "In our line of work, we can't wear gold or jade, for fear of their reflection and the noise they make. We can't even wear a sachet, and we can't scent our clothes, for fear of attracting attention with that smell."

As the flower girl spoke, a hint of melancholy crept into her voice. But the next moment, she broke into a smile, pulling off her hairpin with one hand, letting her black hair cascade down her back, while her other hand covered Tang Li's eyes.

She said softly, "Go to sleep, you have to get up early tomorrow."

Tang Li blinked in her palm. Thinking about the martial arts practice she had to do tomorrow, her vision went black again.

Let me tell you a story.

In the darkness, Tang Li heard the flower girl laugh, "I've heard that children from ordinary families need their parents to tell them stories before bed."

"—Let me tell you the story of my first time killing someone."

In the darkness, Tang Li felt the hairs on her body begin to stand up one by one.

"In our 'Jiebailing' village, there's an unwritten rule," the flower seller said in a drawn-out, vivid voice, "that the first time someone kills someone, they have to draw lots, just like when a child chooses lots for their first birthday celebration."

"On a long table, all sorts of swords, halberds, axes, spears, arrows, traps, ropes, and deadly poisons, as well as writhing venomous snakes... everything was laid out completely. You were told to be blindfolded and use whichever one you touched."

"Legend has it that the more vicious the killer's methods of murder, the greater their future achievements will be."

"Well," the flower girl's voice carried a hint of pride, "I'm quite something."

"—I caught a poisonous insect."

Goosebumps suddenly appeared all over Tang Li's arms.

The blindfolded assassin found a poisonous insect on the long table.

"That poisonous insect is quite potent," the flower seller laughed, as if sharing some lucky experience. "It's multicolored, with tufts of downy hair all over its body. A single insect like that would cost a thousand taels of silver, and I've only just started out, and it's already been given to me. Who wouldn't envy my luck?"

Tang Li shrank further under the covers, afraid of catching her bad luck.

The flower girl's voice continued to echo softly.

"The first person I killed was a girl."

"That girl was only sixteen or seventeen years old. She wasn't from a wealthy or noble family. I don't know where she got the chance to offend someone who hates her so much that they'd spend money to kill her."

"Even though I'm just an untrained assassin, it still costs a lot of money to hire me to kill someone."

"I took advantage of the night, around this time, to enter the girl's boudoir. She wasn't asleep yet; she had lit a lamp, and without having any maids serve her, she was rubbing and tapping some wooden sticks and blocks under the lamp."

"Later I found out that it was called incense making."

"She saw me and was terrified. Not only did she throw a stick at me, but she also screamed. I couldn't let her scream, so I quickly covered her mouth. As I covered her mouth, I noticed that she gradually stopped struggling and her body went limp."

The flower girl's voice was tinged with anger and resentment.

"You really gave me a fright. Remember what I said earlier? 'Jie Bailing' assassins have to draw lots for their first kill. If I had actually smothered her to death, everyone would have laughed at me for failing the mission, and I wouldn't have the face to come back."

"I quickly loosened her up and found she was still breathing. I didn't dare delay, so I pried open her mouth and stuffed the poisonous insect into it."

Tang Li's body went numb again.

"These poisonous insects are born to lay eggs in a person's abdomen, so as soon as they entered her mouth, they wriggled and burrowed into her throat. The girl's throat was thin, and I could see a wriggling fleshy bulge out from that layer of skin, constantly pushing downwards."

"The hairs on the insect were poisonous, and the onset was extremely fast. Wherever it crawled, a layer of extremely bright red would appear. At this time, the girl was still alive. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and stared straight at me, gurgling in her throat but unable to speak. Her mouth was open, and she was begging me to save her."

"Seeing her like that startled me too. Luckily, I had put in the effort when I was learning about poisonous insects. Guess what happened?"

"A person poisoned by this insect will have their tongue turn red!" the flower girl hurriedly interjected. "I know you'll say that tongues are naturally red. I was curious about that when I was in school, but when you see it with your own eyes, you'll know it's different."

As the flower seller talked, she became so engrossed in her story that she exclaimed, "That girl's tongue turned as red as... as henna, it was so beautiful, it's not a color that should be on a human body."

"And then," she whispered, "she died."

...Then, Tang Li fell asleep.

She was so tired that even after listening to the flower girl's "ghost story" before bed, she slept soundly. Until one moment, she suddenly woke up silently.

She was sleeping on the mat, facing the wall, with her back to the flower girl.

A subtle, persistent sense of unease nibbled at the back of her neck and spine like the sharp beak of a chick. Tang Li silently opened her eyes. The small lamp she had lit before going to bed had long since gone out, but the room wasn't pitch black.

And there's moonlight.

Tang Li felt the gaze upon her.

Someone was watching her from behind.

Her heart was pounding like a drum, but unfortunately the shop was closed, so she couldn't use any items to check what was behind her.

...Is she a flower girl?

The room was eerily quiet; there wasn't even a sound of breathing.

Tang Li tensed up, maintaining her previous posture. She strained so much that her back ached from the stiffness. Just then, she made up her mind, pretending to be a restless sleeper, and slowly turned over.

She lowered her eyelids, using her eyelashes to cover the sliver of her pupils that she secretly peered out.

Tang Li suddenly met the flower girl's eyes, which were staring straight at her.

She was jolted awake.

A buzzing sound filled my ears. My heart pounded heavily.

Tang Li cursed silently in her heart and opened her eyes wide.

There's no need to hide it anymore, no need to pretend to be asleep.

—The flower girl is dead.

—He died on the very bed he shared with Tang Li.