"Eat tangyuan, eat tangyuan, Gui Nianqiu's tangyuan are soft and warm, two tangyuan soft and warm, tangyuan, tangyuan, eat tangyuan..."
Tao Bai hummed a little tune softly as he used his key to open the door to Room 602.
Only after entering did he realize there seemed to be an extra person in the room tonight, so he hurriedly stopped his tone-deaf singing.
However, because Gui Nianqiu possessed spiritual power now, her hearing was significantly better than before.
In the kitchen, Gui Nianqiu was pinching the edges of a dumpling, preparing to slowly seal it, when she heard Tao Bai at the door humming that adapted song.
What on earth is he singing?
It sounds terrible...
Gui Nianqiu grumbled inwardly.
She suddenly felt her face heat up;
Her hands paused involuntarily, and the dumpling wasn't sealed properly.
When her eyes met Tao Bai's, she shot him a dissatisfied glare before resuming her task of sealing the dumpling.
Tao Bai looked at Gui Nianqiu and smiled.
It seemed Gui Nianqiu's cultivation had indeed improved a bit more.
To be precise, it had stabilized.
She could mobilize her spiritual power more effectively.
"Boss, you're back!"
"Oh, Liang Yue is here too!"
Liang Yue, who was standing next to Gui Nianqiu, wrapping dumplings, nodded.
She gave a confirmation sound without lifting her head and replied,
"Although our silk shop is on holiday today, my hometown is too far away, so I didn't plan on going back.
So, this morning, the Lady Boss let me go to the vegetable market with her.
We bought a lot of things and prepared dumplings with various fillings.
The Lady Boss is wrapping Guangxi-style dumplings, and I'm wrapping Nancheng-style dumplings.
Boss, you can taste dumplings with different characteristics tonight, sai!"
...
Tao Bai had never really been in the kitchen since he was a child.
Usually, he just ate whatever was available and wasn't a picky eater.
Seeing them working while he couldn't help, he had to sit on the sofa and play with his phone.
Just as he opened the 'Old Daoist Dictionary' app on his phone, preparing to study a foreign language, he received a message:
[Tan Yang sent a message. XXX View, Ignore]
Tao Bai chose to view it, thinking it would be information related to dumplings, but it wasn't.
Tan Yang:
[I just took on a case, very bizarre.
A dozen people vanished into thin air, all lost contact.
I saw a 'True Dragon Prosperity' cigarette butt at the scene.
Senior Brother（师兄 Shixiong） seems to like smoking this brand too.]
Then Tan Yang sent a picture of the cigarette butt.
Careless...
I shouldn't have smoked at the scene, even if it might not become valid evidence...
Sigh, not long after crossing the spatial rift to the mortal realm, my tight strings have loosened...
Tao Bai replied briefly:
[Do you think it was me?]
Tan Yang:
[That's not what I mean.
The client is willing to give me 100,000 yuan.
If I find their whereabouts, would Senior Brother be willing to cooperate?
We split it fifty-fifty?]
Tao Bai: [Fifty-fifty, what do you mean?]
Tao Bai was stalling with Tan Yang.
Tao Bai hadn't expected that someone among those families had actually contacted Tan Yang.
And what those families didn't expect was that Master Tan, who was omnipotent in their eyes, seemed to have hit a wall with this matter.
He had tried various Maoshan tracking arts and soul-summoning techniques, even using a few secret, unteachable arts, yet he couldn't find the people, nor could he summon their souls.
He even made a trip to the Underworld personally, but couldn't gather any information.
It should be known that the materials required for some of these spells were expensive.
He had been busy for two hours and invested over ten thousand yuan in material costs without seeing even a ripple of success.
Perplexed, he could only temporarily define the case as a mysterious disappearance.
He told the clients that the difficulty of this matter exceeded his imagination, and if they wanted him to continue, they had to add money.
Later, the four middle-aged men negotiated and raised the reward to 200,000 yuan.
If he asked his fellow sect seniors for help, the majority of that 200,000 would likely be taken away.
So, he thought of Tao Bai; only in this way could he possibly keep the lion's share...
Anyway, asking wouldn't hurt.
Tao Bai:
[Who gets half?
Not talking to you anymore, I'm getting ready to eat tangyuan.]
Tao Bai dropped that sentence and walked to the table.
Gui Nianqiu said, "Were you chatting with some beauty just now?"
"To me, all women are called beauties;
It's just that the places where they are beautiful differ."
"That's right, this is called 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder',"
Liang Yue expressed her agreement.
She set down a bowl of dumplings and said,
"This bowl has fish mint root filling..."
Tao Bai looked at Liang Yue, puzzled.
"Fish mint root be used as a dumpling filling?"
"Why not? It all depends on human effort!" Liang Yue said.
Several bowls of dumplings with different fillings were placed on the table, and then Gui Nianqiu brought over a pot of Five-Color Rice and several dishes.
The method for Five-Color Rice involved using plant juices to dye glutinous rice:
Maple leaves for black, red-blue herb for red, yellow flowers for yellow, and purple-blue herb for purple.
White did not need dyeing.
The three of them chatted while eating, spending a fulfilling dinner time.
It wasn't until 9 PM that Liang Yue returned to her rented apartment.
Gui Nianqiu looked at the pots and pans piled up in the sink and felt a bit of pressure.
Usually, when she ate alone or with just two people, it was fine.
But a big meal for three meant a lot of things to wash, and she didn't really want to do it.
"Let's get a housekeeper tomorrow!"
Tao Bai said from the kitchen doorway.
"Alright."
Gui Nianqiu responded, washed her hands, and said happily, "Then I'll go take a shower first!"
After saying that, she took a set of clothes to change into and walked into the bathroom.
Thirty minutes later, having dried her hair, she threw herself into the arms of Tao Bai, who was already lying on the bed.
...
At 2 PM the next day, Tao Bai received a text message from Lord Ba:
[See you at 7 PM tonight, same private room as before.]
Gui Nianqiu also saw this message and, unprecedentedly, engaged in the tenth round of close-quarters combat with Tao Bai.
The result of the exchange was, once again, a draw.
Gui Nianqiu kissed Tao Bai deeply before reluctantly letting him get dressed.
Tao Bai teleported to the roof, summoned his wooden sword, and flew at extreme speed.
Finally, he walked into a small private room right at the agreed time.
"I want to send you the longing of the sun that never sets, send out a postcard representing love.
I want to send you a love where the sun never sets, heart connected to heart, walking all over the world, you are the sunny day..."
The song "Sun Will Never Set("Sunshine in the Rain"HuaXianese Version)" was playing in the small room.
As it reached this line, Tao Bai pushed the door open and walked in.
The waiter had just left.
Lord Ba saw a stranger enter, so he muted the karaoke sound and looked at Tao Bai with confusion.
"Nong, do you need help?"
Tao Bai sized up the 'Lord Ba' that Yu Qiong had spoken of.
He looked to be over forty, with deep brown skin, a prominent brow bone, deep-set eyes, and thin, purplish lips.
He had trimmed his two eyebrows, so they formed an "inverted eight" shape.
He was dressed all in black, with a string of bone beads made from some unknown beast hanging around his neck.
He wore three layers on his upper body, and judging by the fabric, they were expensive, yet on his feet were a pair of worn-out flip-flops.
Lord Ba, whose real name was Bajit Linsakun, was a genuine Thai, but he dealt with HuaXianese people all year round, so his HuaXianese was quite standard.
While Tao Bai was sizing him up, Bajit was also sizing up Tao Bai.
Except the latter's eyes held a look of scrutiny.
"Pee, give me some magical powder."
Note: ("พี่" (Pee) is pronounced similarly to the HuaXianese word for 'Fart' (Pi).
Its original meaning is older brother or senior, extended as a respectful title for males older than oneself.
Even if you don't know them, as long as they look older than you, you can call them Pee.
The term [Nong] mentioned above is the opposite.)
"What magical powder?"