Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 436: Chapter-436

Without a moment’s hesitation, Heena dove straight through the back door, dodging hanging carcasses and surprised workers.

"What the heck?!" the Head Butcher roared, dropping his cleaver. It wasn’t every day a striking, dark-clothed youth stormed through a meat locker.

"My apologies, corporate business!" Heena shouted over her shoulder, completely unapologetic as she ducked under a row of sausages and bolted through the shop’s front entrance.

When Samuel tried to charge through right behind her, the heavily built butcher had already reached his absolute limit with these trespassing troublemakers. The man grabbed a massive, heavy marrow bone from the counter and swung it with full force.

’CRACK.’

Samuel, who was focusing entirely on keeping his eyes on Heena’s cloak, was violently clipped right on the side of his head by the flying bone. He stumbled, grabbing his head as a massive, painful bump instantly swelled up under his hair. Grimacing in agonizing confusion, he ignored the throbbing pain and pressed forward, sprinting out of the butcher shop to catch up with his master.

And then, Heena suddenly paused.

They were standing in front of a spectacular, sprawling five-story building. For this medieval-fantasy era, a five-story structure was a massive, shocking architectural marvel. But the true shock didn’t come from the height of the building.

Samuel stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Heena’s dark, handsome male traveling clothes. Then he looked up at the glittering pink silk banners, the heavy floral incense drifting through the air, and the beautiful, scantily clad men lounging gracefully on the balconies above, waving silk handkerchiefs at the passing patrons.

There was only one horrifying realization in his eyes. ’This... it can’t be.’

A surge of pure, possessive panic took over. Samuel stepped forward, gripped Heena firmly by her waist, and pulled her back against his chest. "What is this?!" he hissed, his voice trembling with a chaotic mix of fury and distress. "What are we looking at?! Why the heck are we here?!"

Heena twisted in his grip, looking thoroughly annoyed by his sudden clinginess. "Leave me go! I told you we’re on a mission!"

Samuel felt his entire universe completely collapse into ashes. In front of him stood a massive, elite ’’male brothel’’—a high-end pleasure house catering exclusively to wealthy clients seeking the company of handsome male courtesans. And his wife was currently dressed as a stunningly attractive, rogue young mercenary lord, standing right at the front gate.

Samuel felt like he was about to literally vomit blood right there on the street.

As they crossed the threshold, it was like stepping into a completely different realm. No less than ten staggeringly beautiful men, dressed in flowing, translucent traditional silks that left far too much to the imagination, turned their synchronized, smoldering gazes directly toward Heena.

"We have been waiting for you all day, handsome young master," they chimed in unison, their voices dropping into a low, honeyed chorus.

Heena knew—she ’knew’—this was just the standard, rehearsed corporate tagline they threw at every single living breathing client who walked through that door. But looking at the sheer concentration of peak-tier visual aesthetics surrounding her, she felt a dangerous warmth rising rapidly to her nose. ’Hold it together, you fucking moron!’ she screamed at herself internally. ’You are a professional! You are on a mission! Control the nosebleed!’

Steeling her expression into a chilly, arrogant smirk, she swept her eyes over the crowd and let out a sharp, commanding chuckle. "Where is your boss? Tell him I want to buy him out for the entire night."

A collective, scandalous gasp rippled through the beautiful men.

"Oh? To buy me out for an entire evening... what a fiercely bold little hawk we have here."

The smoky, velvety baritone voice drifted down from the grand, winding staircase. Walking down steps with an agonizingly slow, seductive grace was a man who looked to be in his mid-forties—perhaps forty-two or forty-five. He wore a single, loose silk robe that didn’t even bother trying to hide anything; his toned, sun-kissed chest was completely exposed to the navel, and with every fluid stride he took, the high slit of the robe parted to reveal a dangerously distracting amount of leg. A long, silver smoking pipe was balanced elegantly between his fingers, a lazy wisp of sweet cherry smoke curling around his loosely tied, cascading dark hair.

He descended the final step, gliding straight into Heena’s personal space. He leaned in, his lips brushing mere inches from her ear as he exhaled a fragrant cloud of smoke.

"My Lady..." he purred, his sharp, amber eyes gleaming with instant amusement. "We really do have a peculiar, exquisite taste tonight, don’t we?"

Heena didn’t even flinch at the fact that he had instantly seen through her male disguise. This man ran the most elite information and pleasure hub in the capital; of course he knew a woman’s silhouette when he saw one, no matter how dashingly handsome she looked in mercenary leather.

Before she could speak, the boss lazily extended a finger, gently hooking it under the brim of Heena’s wide-brimmed traveler’s hat and tilting her face upward.

"To think such a breathtakingly fierce creature would dress up like a rogue lord just to break into my humble establishment," he murmured, his thumb daringly brushing against the line of her jaw. His eyes swept over her features with absolute, shameless admiration. "Tell me, sweetheart... are you truly here to buy my night, or did you just come to ruin my sanity? Because looking at you right now, I might just give you a discount. In fact, I might even let you have me for free."

Behind them, the temperature in the room instantly dropped to absolute zero.

Samuel stood frozen in the doorway, the giant marrow bone bump on his head practically throbbing with pure, unadulterated murderous rage. The dark, suffocating pressure radiating from his body was so immense that the heavy crystal chandeliers overhead began to violently rattle. If looks could kill, the brothel boss would have already been sliced into a million pieces, fried, and served as an appetizer.

The boss’s amber eyes danced with heavy, playful mischief as he waited for this mysterious lady to flush red or snap in anger.

Instead, Heena didn’t blink. A slow, deeply dangerous smile spread across her face.

She leaned forward, intentionally narrowing the distance between them until her breath fanned across his exposed collarbone. She reached up with a slow, fluid motion, her leather-gloved fingers gently wrapping around the stem of his silver smoking pipe. Without breaking eye contact, she smoothly tilted the pipe away from his lips and took a lazy, elegant drag of the sweet cherry smoke herself, exhaling it right into his face.

"Free?" Heena purred, her voice dropping into a velvety, devastatingly confident pitch that sent a visible shiver down the boss’s spine. "Now, where is the fun in that? A man of your... ’exquisite caliber’ shouldn’t come cheap. I prefer to pay for my pleasures, darling. That way, I know I completely own them for the night."

The boss’s breath hitched. He had spent twenty years teasing the most powerful nobles in the empire, but this girl’s casual, high-tier audacity was hitting him like a physical truck. His cheeks actually flared with a sudden, genuine heat.