Chapter 721: The Smell of Meat

This woman was like the heroine Boule de Suif from Guy de Maupassant's novel—exceedingly plump, yet not at all repulsive.

"Hey, I'm talking to you. Are you new here?" The woman had thick lips. They were full and moist, though the grease smeared across them ruined the picture somewhat.

I hid the bag containing the severed hand behind my back and slipped the Mirror Fragment away unnoticed before finally speaking. "I'm wearing a mask, yet you still dare to open your door in the dead of night. You've got some nerve."

"There are plenty of people in the Pig Cage Apartments stranger than you. Besides, people are the least terrifying things here." The woman winked at me. "If you want money, I don't have any; if you want me, come on over and take me."

Her nimble tongue licked away the grease lingering on her lips. I had to admit, this plain-looking woman was remarkably skilled at handling men.

"People are the least terrifying... things in the Red Building? Interesting choice of words." I smiled and left it at that, scanning the room. The lights were off. The furniture layout in this sparse apartment was completely different from the other rentals. Right in the center of the living room sat a massive dining table, a single red candle burning on it.

The faint candlelight danced, illuminating the wooden table that took up a quarter of the living room.

I took a casual glance. Once I had a good grasp of the layout, I touched the cold mask on my face. "You haven't even seen my face. How can you be so sure I'm a new tenant? Do you know every old resident in the entire Red Building?"

"I wouldn't say I know everyone, but I recognize most of the men." The woman looked up, lifting the hem of her shirt as she walked toward me. "The Red Building has its own rules. Nobody wanders around on a rainy night. So, you're either a new tenant or an outsider."

When her gaze swept over Li Ming, it lingered unnaturally for about half a second. Then, as if to cover her slip, she deliberately added, "Also, men who come to my place never bring a kid tagging along."

I caught her brief half-second of panic. It seemed this wasn't her first time seeing Li Ming.

I didn't reply, my mind turning over a question.

Not a single tenant in the Red Building was normal. Among the few I had interacted with, Zhu Li and Bai Ya'er knew each other. The Doctor seemed unfamiliar with Zhu Li and the rest, but in reality, that was likely an intentional act.

Zhu Li painted using corpse specimens. His handling of those specimens was incredibly adept—anyone could tell he had professional assistance. And the person acting as a proxy for a tiger was very likely the Doctor.

Thinking about it that way, the three of them were actually in cahoots.

In the very beginning, I had found a braided wig inside Bai Ya'er's pillow, a child's skull inside the Doctor's apartment, and those slime-oozing black plastic bags hidden in Zhu Li's place. Connecting all these clues, I had formed a bold deduction.

Li Ming had likely been abducted and brought to the Red Building by those three. These perverts used Jinghai City's urban legends to target lone children, dragging them back to the Red Building to torture and kill them to satisfy their twisted psychological needs.

But looking at the situation now, that wasn't the case. If I hadn't seen Li Ming with my own eyes and discovered the bizarre changes within the child, I probably would have firmly believed that deduction was the truth. But after seeing Li Ming in person, my certainty wavered.

The child's fear was a facade. When he smiled at the mirror, his expression completely lacked the innocence a six- or seven-year-old should possess. Some unknown change had occurred within him. If I wanted to break through this situation, figuring out the cause of Li Ming's transformation was key. This was probably the biggest secret held by the Red Building's tenants.

I raised my head and stared at the woman's face. Her little slip-up just now had already exposed that she was in on it too.

The mask hid my expression. The woman in front of me was highly perceptive. She hesitated for a moment before swaying her hips and walking toward me. "Why are you wearing a mask anyway? Afraid of being seen? Don't worry, I won't breathe a word."

Her soft, seemingly boneless body pressed close to me. Like a cat greeting its owner, she acted incredibly docile, trying to nuzzle into my embrace.

As the woman drew near, my brow slowly furrowed. She didn't reek of cheap, gaudy perfume; instead, she gave off an incredibly bizarre, greasy odor.

I took a step back. The woman froze for a moment before bursting into laughter. "You've already made it all the way to my place. What is there to be shy about?"

She opened her snow-white arms. Her soft, plump body swayed gracefully like a field of spring wheat, an alluring sight that left plenty to the imagination.

Frankly speaking, this woman wasn't off-putting at all, even if her clothes were greasy and she was what Zhu Li called a 'dirty' woman.

She leaned against the wall, unclipping her hairpin and letting her dark hair cascade over her shoulders. "You were in such a rush to get inside a minute ago. Why are you backing away now?"

Crooking a finger, the woman whispered suggestively, pressing her full, moist lips near my chest. "Your heart is beating so fast. Come into the bedroom."

"I think you've misunderstood." The greasy odor clinging to her made me deeply uncomfortable, and my heartbeat had absolutely nothing to do with her. Ever since my Heart Aperture opened, every beat of my heart had been exceptionally powerful.

"Misunderstood what? It's pouring outside, so you definitely aren't planning to go back tonight. You clearly have some naughty thoughts, yet you refuse to admit them." She reached out, pressing a plump fingertip against her shirt button. "But let's get one thing straight—if you stay the night, that costs extra."

The woman's behavior had a very interesting

quirk. She was trying her hardest to seduce me, her attention seemingly entirely focused on me. But she probably didn't even realize it herself: every time she got close, her gaze would unconsciously dart toward Li Ming standing by my side.

"Why are you in a bigger rush than I am?" I neither explicitly rejected her nor made any inappropriate moves. Instead, I grabbed Li Ming's hand, walked into the living room, and sat down at the dining table.

The red candle on the table provided the room's only light. Under its dim, jaundiced glow, I could see just how heavily stained the dining table was with grease.

"Do you really like eating meat?" After pondering for a long while, I finally voiced the question weighing on my mind.

"Why do you ask?" The top button of the woman's collar was already undone, offering a faint glimpse of pale cleavage.

"Nothing." I pulled a banknote from my pocket and slapped it onto the table. "Go whip me up something to eat. Money isn't an issue."

"You're a real weirdo." The woman twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "You came all the way to my place just to eat?"

"I need to be full to have the energy to mess around," I replied flatly.

"Alright, alright, whatever you say." The woman happily pocketed the money and turned toward the kitchen. "Give me just a minute."

Sitting at the dining table, I tapped my fingers against the back of the chair. As I watched the woman's retreating figure, my brows knit together.

Compared to Zhu Li and the Doctor, this woman was almost too normal. Her words, behavior, and mannerisms perfectly matched her profession. I couldn't pick out a single flaw.

'A woman who sells "meat" lives on the eighth floor. That's exactly what Zhu Li said. Was he actually telling the truth?' A normal person couldn't survive living in a place like the Red Building, yet she had been renting here for a long time. She had likely lived here even longer than Bai Ya'er.

'But there is one piece of good news. Based on her figure alone, she is definitely not the live show streamer I'm looking for.' I rubbed my fingers against the grime on the table. It was caked on thick, nearly impossible to scrape off. 'Just how much meat has she eaten in this room?'

At that thought, I turned to look toward the kitchen. There was no refrigerator in this run-down apartment. The woman had reached straight into a cupboard and pulled out a rock-hard black plastic bag. Inside seemed to be a massive chunk of meat.

She removed the bag. Whether intentionally or not, her body perfectly blocked the meat from my line of sight. All I could see was her raising a cleaver, chopping the meat apart piece by piece.

Once the meat was thoroughly minced and stripped of its original shape, she grabbed a filthy rag next to the cutting board, wiped her hands, and glanced back at me with a smile. "It'll be ready soon. I'm turning on the stove now."

She casually shut the kitchen door. Only then did I hear the click of the stove igniting. Before long, a rich, savory aroma of meat wafted out from the kitchen.

It was an incredibly appetizing scent. Had it been any other occasion, it might have made my mouth water. But in this specific moment, the smell only made my stomach churn.

The reason was simple. I was still holding a black plastic bag of my own—a bag absolutely identical to the one the woman had just pulled her meat from. Except my bag contained a severed hand.

The savory aroma in the room grew thicker. Li Ming rubbed his belly and glanced around, the terror in his eyes having faded considerably.

"Hungry?" I patted Li Ming's head, the corners of my lips curling upward. "Don't eat too much later. If you eat too much, you won't be able to run fast."

More than ten minutes later, the kitchen door swung open, and the woman walked out carrying two small basins.

"Sorry for the wait. Have a taste." She set the basins on the table. One contained braised chunks of meat, while the other was a clear broth with minced meat.

The woman had excellent knife skills. The bones were entirely removed, making it impossible to tell what the meat had originally looked like.

"Here are your chopsticks. Give it a try." She pulled up a chair and sat close to me, giving Li Ming a wide berth.

Before she could say another word, Li Ming picked up his chopsticks and dug in. The little guy was clearly starving, wolfing the food down.

I picked up a large chunk of meat as well, though I wasn't in any rush to eat it. I activated my Judging Eye and stared at it. The meat had been skinned, and the flesh was tender.

"My cooking is quite good, you know. That money was well spent." The woman plastered a smile across her face, leaning half her body against the back of my chair.

I flared my nostrils and took a sniff. "It really is fragrant. Did you add some secret spice blend?"

"No, I just threw it together."

"You're being modest. With hands this skilled, I really don't think you should be suffering in a place like this." I let out a sigh and took off the Good and Evil Asura Mask, revealing the Human Skin Mask beneath it. "I hope this thing didn't scare you."

"What do you mean? I live in the Pig Cage Apartments. What kind of weirdo haven't I seen?" The woman chuckled. Seeing me take off the mask, she visibly relaxed and pressed even closer.

"What's your name? We might be neighbors from now on." Instead of pulling away, I casually chatted with her. We kept to lighthearted topics, and I even wove in a few mild hypnotic suggestions as we spoke.

"Zhang Shuxue." She leaned against the back of my chair, her plump body sinking into it like a thawing snowman.

"An elegant name. It suits you."

My eye twitched, but my expression only grew gentler. I leaned in, and once she had completely lowered her guard, I picked up a piece of meat with my chopsticks and held it up to her. "Here, let me feed you."

The woman didn't think twice, swallowing the fatty meat in a single bite. A hazy, unfocused look had already clouded her eyes.

"This meat is truly delicious. It's even better than human flesh."

I tossed the comment out casually. Swallowing the meat, she didn't process the words at all and instinctively replied, "If you ask me, human flesh is still better..."