Chapter 264: Chapter 225: Frost Leaves are Redder than February Flowers
Time passed even faster than he had imagined. Living on the 6th floor, Li Qingxuan kept psyching himself up. He had accepted the task from the young woman purely because it was on the 4th floor, where Yang Xiao also lived. He hoped to use the opportunity to chat with Teacher Yang.
The task was set to begin at 11 o’clock, but Li Qingxuan left home 10 minutes early, concerned that he might run into trouble on the way and be late.
"Tap."
"Tap."
Taking the elevator was, of course, out of the question. Li Qingxuan chose the same method as Yang Xiao, descending the stairs from the emergency exit in the corridor.
With his heart in his throat, thankfully, nothing unexpected happened by the time he stood in front of the client’s door, number 4017.
Taking a deep breath, Li Qingxuan raised his hand and knocked on the door, gently and politely.
"Thump."
"Thump, thump."
"Is it Miss Su? I’m here for the home service."
There was no sound of footsteps from behind the door. The door creaked open, suddenly revealing a sliver of a haggard face.
The moment the door opened, Li Qingxuan immediately put on a professional smile, bright, polite, and with a touch of shyness that left no room for fault.
The woman’s dull eyes lit up at the sight of Li Qingxuan, and she quickly opened the door wider. It was then that Li Qingxuan noticed that the woman standing before him was tall and fair-skinned, and was wearing nothing but a thin red silk nightgown.
Seeing Li Qingxuan staring at her, the woman’s lips curled up, displaying a seductive smile that seemed to say, "I’ve got you now." She twisted her slim waist, stepped aside, and Li Qingxuan walked in obediently.
"Bang!"
Li Qingxuan flinched. As soon as he walked in, the woman quickly closed the door, locked it behind him, and didn’t stop there; she swiftly added two more traditional slide bolts, moving as though she feared he might run away.
The room was quite dark, lit only by a dim yellow chandelier. With the help of this sole source of light, Li Qingxuan noticed that the room’s setup was rather peculiar, lacking basic amenities such as a TV or telephone. Not far from the door, along the wall, stood a large, old-fashioned green double-door refrigerator and a buzzing large freezer.
On an elaborate high-legged dining table covered with a Western-style checkered tablecloth, there was a small plate with some leftover sauce, seemingly from a steak or similar food, and beside it, a glass of wine as red and thick as fresh blood.
The woman with the surname Su stared intently at Li Qingxuan, her heated gaze wandering over his body. After a moment, she licked her lips and asked, "Would you like something to eat?"
"No, thank you, I’m here to serve you," Li Qingxuan said, standing upright. He didn’t want to waste any time, as he needed to leave before midnight.
Li Qingxuan scrutinized the woman’s face. Her heavy makeup and exaggerated wavy hairstyle suited her well. Honestly speaking, she was a very beautiful woman. Now that he was closer, Li Qingxuan could even smell a strange, pungent perfume on her.
The woman had applied far too much perfume, even more so than what he had smelled on Western women in foreign elevators.
After throwing a coquettish glance at Li Qingxuan, the woman swayed her hips and pushed open the bedroom door, "Come with me, I need a massage to relax."
Inside the bedroom, a single red candle flickered softly, casting an increasingly intimate glow over the modest room.
A man and a woman alone in a room, Li Qingxuan could guess the likely scenario that would unfold next without even thinking.
The young woman lay on the bed, asking Li Qingxuan to massage her, and they chatted intermittently. Typically, the woman would ask a question, and Li Qingxuan would reply.
Whether intentional or not, the woman’s fingers occasionally brushed against Li Qingxuan’s legs, scaring him to the point of turning pale.
Even though there was a layer of clothing between them, he could still feel the chilling coldness of the body in front of him, as if he were massaging a corpse.
Suddenly, as if by accident, Li Qingxuan pressed on the woman’s ticklish spot. The woman laughed nonstop, her body shaking continuously, "You’re quite amusing. I’ll ask you a question. If you answer correctly, sister has a reward for you."
Li Qingxuan dared not refuse and could only brace himself for what was coming.
"Frost leaves are redder than the flowers of February. What is the line before this?" The woman turned her head, her seductive eyes staring intently at Li Qingxuan.
"I...don’t know."
The woman laughed even harder, "Silly boy. Then let me change the question. The hoeing of millet at noon represents a pair of loving sweethearts. There is a poem written exclusively for them; you should know that, right?"
"I’m just a country bumpkin who tends cattle; never had no schooling," Li Qingxuan pretended to be dumbfounded, "I’m a simple man."
Upon hearing this, the woman’s eyes brightened, and the way she looked at Li Qingxuan was as if she was about to devour him, "Rough country folk are great; I like that. My ex-boyfriend came from the countryside too."
But moments later, as if remembering something, her voice suddenly turned icy cold, "But don’t you follow in his footsteps. He was scum. Even when I caught him cheating, he still tried to act cultured and refined, writing those whining love poems to me, begging for my forgiveness."
It was then that Li Qingxuan noticed the bedroom walls were plastered with love letters, some written with a pen, while others were blood letters plainly written with a finger pricked open.
Due to the lighting, he couldn’t make out exactly what was written, but the increasingly disordered handwriting revealed the writer’s inner terror.
Seeing the woman’s gaze turn colder, Li Qingxuan couldn’t bear it anymore and quickly interrupted, "Miss Su, I... I need to use the bathroom."
"Go ahead, and remember to bring me back a bottle of beer. It’s in the second compartment at the bottom of the fridge," the woman withdrew her gaze, lazily sprawled on the bed.
Li Qingxuan walked out of the bedroom as if pardoned from death, his back soaked through with cold sweat. He was almost certain that the woman’s boyfriend was more unlucky than lucky.
He cautiously opened the door to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water, barely calming himself. Then he noticed something peculiar: besides the pink toothbrush likely used by the woman, there were also three blue toothbrushes of the same kind, each with its own separate rinse cup, and it was clear that all had been used.
The pink toothbrush must belong to the woman, but these three blue toothbrushes could be for...
"What are you dawdling for?" A lazy voice called out from the bedroom, but Li Qingxuan detected dissatisfaction in it.
"Coming, coming." Li Qingxuan emerged from the bathroom, stood in front of the fridge, grabbed the handle, and opened the freezer drawer below.
The next second, he was struck by what he saw. The freezer compartment was stuffed with black plastic bags of various sizes and odd shapes.
A bold speculation flashed in Li Qingxuan’s mind. He thought he knew where the woman’s boyfriend had gone.
But he didn’t dare to make sure. Slowly, his hand reached out, lightly pushing aside the heavy black bags. He was looking for beer, the beer that the woman had asked for.
Through the plastic bags, a strange sensation came from his fingertips. Li Qingxuan didn’t dare to think any further.
Finally, in the deepest part of the second large compartment, he found a few cans of cold beer. Oddly, despite the temperature, the beers weren’t frozen solid.
Just as he managed to grasp a beer can and tried to pull it out between two bags, something unexpected happened.
The bag on the left accidentally tore open, creating a slit, and the next second, Li Qingxuan’s head buzzed, and he sat down on the floor with a thud.
From within the slit, a frozen, contorted human face was revealed.
