Chapter 740 --740

Chapter 740: Chapter-740

A slow, wicked smirk curled the corner of Heena’s lips. That was a vulnerability she could drive a knife straight through. If Su Jin prided himself on holding the Lu family’s favor, and Lu Mei was secretly obsessed with a sensory standard that Su Jin couldn’t meet...

"And what about Su Jin?" Heena pressed quietly. "A pious, weeping noble husband wouldn’t dare set foot in the pleasure district himself. Yet a man who schemes as hard as he does always leaves footprints in the gutter."

Qiu looked at Heena for a moment, then leaned in slightly, lowering her voice so it wouldn’t carry down the alley.

"You want the real dirt, little viper? That pretty brother-in-law of yours doesn’t come here, no. If an unmarried or married noble ma was caught within three blocks of a brothel, he’d be drowned in a pig cage before dawn," Qiu whispered. "But his personal mute servant? An old woman with a limp in her left leg? She comes down to the black-market apothecary stalls at the very back of this lane once a month."

Heena’s posture stiffened slightly, her dark eyes locking onto Qiu’s face. "An old woman with a limp. That is Mammy Liu, his wet nurse from his maiden home. What is she buying here?"

"Not face powder, that’s for sure," Qiu grinned, showing a crooked gold tooth. "She buys Red Silkworm Ash from the shady dealer at the end of the block. Pays in pure, unclipped silver."

"Red Silkworm Ash?" the System asked, frantically running a scan through its database. "Wait... searching local botanical records... Host! Red Silkworm Ash isn’t a cosmetic! In this world, it’s an illicit, untraceable nerve stimulant and mild aphrodisiac that slowly rots a person’s liver if burned in their bedroom incense over a few years! Wait—why is that white-lotus bastard buying slow-acting poison?!"

Heena’s blood ran cold, not with fear, but with the thrilling, icy clarity of a hunter who had just found the beast’s lair.

Su Jin—the delicate, weeping husband who had framed her for assault to protect his "purity"—was secretly buying an illicit, liver-rotting stimulant from the red-light district’s black market. Whether he was using it to drug the Lu Matriarch into compliant stupidity, or using it to manipulate Lu Mei behind closed doors, one thing was certain: if a man of noble standing was caught purchasing brothel-grade aphrodisiacs and slow poisons, the Lu family wouldn’t just cast him out. They would skin him alive.

Heena pushed herself off the brick wall, smoothing down the front of her coarse, blood-stained tunic. She had walked into this alley with a single copper coin and walked out with a noose big enough to hang the entire Lu estate.

"And the second thing you wanted?" Qiu asked, raising her scarred brow as Heena turned to leave.

Heena paused, glancing back over her shoulder at the gatekeeper and the towering, gilded walls of the Whispering Willows and the Crimson Lotus rising above them.

"In three days, I am going to bring two small porcelain vials into this alley," Heena said smoothly. "One will contain a fragrance that makes Lord Yan’s ’Southern incense’ smell like a pigsty. The other will contain a face powder that makes these chalk-faced dolls out front look twenty years younger. You are going to sneak them past the Madam and put them directly into the hands of the lowest-ranked, most desperate male courtesan in the Crimson Lotus."

Qiu blinked, caught completely off guard by the sudden pivot from blood feud to merchant business. "Wait—why would I do that?"

"Because when that bottom-ranked courtesan steals every single wealthy patron on the street overnight—including my dear sister Lu Mei—every boy in these five pavilions is going to beg you to tell them where to buy the supply," Heena smiled, her dark eyes glittering like polished obsidian in the shadows. "And I will give you twenty percent of every silver tael that passes through this back door."

Qiu stared at the bruised, ragged girl standing in the filth of the service alley. For the first time in twenty years of working the underworld, a genuine chill ran down the veteran gatekeeper’s spine.

"Three days, little viper," Qiu rasped, tapping her pipe against the barrel in a salute of pure respect. "Don’t be late."

.

.

.

As soon as Heena stepped out of the damp, shadowed service alley and back into the bright, sunlit thoroughfare, the System floated up into her line of sight, its digital tail swishing with reluctant admiration.

"Wow, Host," the golden lion cub admitted, crossing its glowing blue paws. "So you actually came down here for work, huh? You secured a black-market distribution network and dug up lethal dirt on your brother-in-law for the price of a single copper."

Heena smoothed a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear, tilting her chin up with insufferable arrogance. "Of course. What, did you genuinely think I was a shameless hooligan like you?"

The System immediately scoffed, rolling its eyes so hard its entire round head spun in a circle. "Oh, come on, Host! Drop the saintly act! You sprinted three blocks on fractured ribs solely to ogle half-naked men! Don’t you dare try to play the stoic gentleman with me now!"

"Excuse me?" Heena narrowed her eyes, casting a lethal sideways glare at the empty air beside her shoulder. "Watch your tone, furball. Do you even remember that I am your master?"

"We are contractual partners, not master and servant!" the System shot back, puffing up its digital mane indignantly. "And secondly, if you are so pure and professional, Host, swear on your soul right now that you definitely did not come to this street just to stare at men’s collarbones!"

Heena stopped walking for a fraction of a second.

Then, with an expression of profound, unbothered tranquility, she deliberately turned her head ninety degrees away from the floating lion, gazing up at the clear blue sky above the gilded rooftops.

"Wow," Heena murmured aloud, her voice remarkably flat. "The weather today is truly exceptional."

"Oh, did you just realize it?!" the System jeered, throwing its paws in the air. "You couldn’t even fake a soul oath for two seconds! Your silence is deafening, Host!"

Heena completely ignored the AI’s heckling, casually letting her gaze sweep over one last sheer-robed beauty lounging against a crimson pillar before she finally turned the corner and exited the red-light avenue.

Now that the business in the underworld was settled, it was time for the real reward of the morning.

Hurrying out of the pleasure district and back into the bustling, noisy lanes of the general market, Heena patted the heavy pouch of copper coins tied securely to her waistband. Thanks to Old Zhao—or Old Wang, or whatever that loudmouthed poultry woman’s name was—funding her morning expenses, Heena was officially ready to go on a proper shopping spree.

She couldn’t exactly make a habit of creeping into the woods every evening to kidnap and assassinate stray neighborhood pets, especially now that the entire east sector was on high alert. She needed actual groceries.

Moving from stall to stall with the brisk efficiency of a quartermaster stocking a garrison, Heena began peeling copper coins off her freshly extorted strings. She bought a heavy sack of coarse white salt, a bag of polished rice, a jar of clear pressed lard for cooking, and two bundles of fresh scallions.