Chapter 758 --758
"Mother," Ren whispered, his dark eyes tightening with quiet confusion as he searched her weathered face. "Why are you actually letting me go down there? You know better than anyone how dangerous those south-avenue alleys are after dusk. Five minutes ago, you were ready to break the pestle over her head just for asking."
Old Lady Lin let out a slow, heavy sigh, the fierce, barking bluster she used in front of Heena melting away into cold, hardened calculation.
"Don’t worry," she murmured, reaching deep into the hidden inner pocket of her apron. She pulled out a tiny, wax-stopped ceramic vial and a tightly folded square of oiled paper, pressing both firmly into Ren’s palm. "Here. Keep these tucked inside your right cuff, where your fingers can reach them without looking."
Ren looked down at the two items in his hand, his brow furrowing as he recognized the distinct weight of the vial and the sharp, acrid tang faintly bleeding through the oiled paper. "This is...?"
"Concentrated blistering dew in the bottle, and seven-step weeping lime in the paper," Old Lady Lin said flatly, curling his fingers shut around the weapons. "If a single person in that alley tries to lay a hand on you, don’t hesitate and don’t act like a soft-hearted healer—throw both straight into their faces. And if things truly go south, shove that noble girl right into their path as a meat shield to cover your back and run straight out whenever you feel threatened."
Ren fell completely silent for a beat, staring down at the deadly alchemical powder in his palm. Slowly, he tucked the packet and the vial into the inner fold of his sleeve, then raised his eyes back to hers.
"You still didn’t answer my question," he said quietly. "Why are you sending me in there with her?"
Old Lady Lin looked at her son for a long moment, lifting a rough, calloused hand to straighten the collar of his tunic.
"Because you have to give an inch if you want to take the whole land, my dear," she whispered, a sharp, knowing glint in her eyes. "We talked about this last night. A suspicious wolf like Lu Heena won’t ever trust someone who only sits back in a safe house waiting to count silver. If you walk into that dark alley at her side tonight when she can barely stand, she will owe you a debt she can never brush off. Just believe in me. With her pride, she won’t let a hair on your head be touched while you are walking under her name."
𝚏𝗋ℯⅇ𝘄𝖾𝒃𝘯𝒐𝘃𝔢𝓵.𝔠𝖔𝘮
She patted his shoulder firmly, her expression hardening with practical reassurance.
"Besides, you aren’t some helpless porcelain doll from an upper-ring courtyard—I raised you in these slums, and you have the wits to survive," Old Lady Lin added, glancing toward the door. "I will be waiting right outside the mouth of the market lane with an iron rod in my hands. The second I hear a commotion, I will charge straight in. And with those potions in your sleeve, even if the whole brothel turns on you, you can definitely blind them all and escape. Who cares what happens to her if a fight breaks out? Just make sure you bring yourself back to me in one piece."
Ren didn’t nod when she told him to use Heena as a meat shield, nor did he argue with her logic. He simply adjusted his right cuff so the oiled paper packet sat snugly against his wrist, picked up the veiled bamboo hat, and pushed the storage room door open.
Back in the treatment room, Heena was waiting by the edge of the examination table, her pale face already schooled into a mask of cold, aristocratic boredom.
floating two feet above the medicine cabinets, the System was staring toward the back hallway with its glowing blue mouth hanging wide open.
"Host! Did you hear that?!" the golden lion cub gasped, zooming down to hover frantically beside Heena’s ear. "That old woman literally just handed her son chemical warfare agents and told him to throw you to the wolves as a human shield if a fight starts! This entire family is a nest of vipers!"
"Good," Heena replied mentally, not a single ripple disturbing her dark eyes as Ren walked back in. "I have no use for incompetent saints who freeze up in an alley. If the boy has poison in his sleeves and knows how to throw it, that saves me the trouble of lifting my arms."
Without a word, Ren stepped up behind her and carefully draped the heavy black wool cloak over her shoulders, tying the thick silk cord loosely at her throat so it wouldn’t press against her collarbones or pull on the tight bandages beneath. The oversized dark fabric swallowed her slender frame completely, hiding the stiff, unnatural posture of her spine and making her look remarkably imposing in the dim light.
Next, Ren placed the wide-brimmed bamboo hat onto his own head, letting the double layer of dark black gauze fall past his shoulders to completely obscure his striking face, before slinging the padded wooden medicine box across his chest.
𝗳𝚛𝕖𝔢𝔴𝒆𝑏𝓃𝒐𝐯𝖾𝓁.𝔠𝔬𝗆
"Ready?" Heena asked, her voice a low, raspy purr.
"Ready," Ren murmured from behind the dark veil. He stepped neatly to her left side and offered his forearm, keeping his posture slightly bowed like a dutiful, high-ranking personal servant.
Heena rested her pale fingers lightly on the crook of his arm—just enough to secretly brace her balance against him without looking like she was leaning on a crutch—and together, the three of them slipped out the clinic’s repaired front gate into the gathering purple twilight.
By the time they reached the southern edge of the district, the sky had bruised into a deep indigo, and the red-light thoroughfare was waking up in all its decadent, noisy glory.
Hundreds of crimson and peach-colored silk lanterns glowed along the gilded balconies of the five massive pleasure houses, bathing the cobblestones in a warm, hazy red light. Rich noblewomen and wealthy guild bosses in embroidered robes were already arriving in lacquered carriages, laughing loudly as the sheer-robed male courtesans stepped forward to greet them with fluttering fans and practiced smiles.
Old Lady Lin stopped at the shadowy corner of a dry-goods stall just across the main street, leaning heavily on a thick, rusted iron crowbar she had brought along as a "walking stick." She gave her son one sharp, silent nod, her hawk-like eyes locking onto the narrow mouth of the service alley between the Crimson Lotus Pavilion and the House of Whispering Willows.
Heena didn’t pause. With her chin tilted up and the heavy black cloak billowing slightly behind her heels, she bypassed the glittering front gates entirely and glided straight into the damp, shadowed gap between the two towering brothels, with Ren walking half a pace behind her shoulder.
The temperature dropped instantly as they stepped out of the lantern light. The narrow alley smelled of wet stone, kitchen grease, and the heavy, souring animal-fat perfumes drifting down from the dressing rooms above.
Halfway down the passage, right beside the iron-reinforced back door of the Crimson Lotus, the familiar orange pinpoint of a lit tobacco pipe glowed in the dark.