Lin Hai raised an eyebrow, his eyes fixed intently on Tao Tao.
He knew that whether Hou Xianpin lived or died was about to be revealed.
“Mr. Ghost Officer, after Brother Hou wakes up, please tell him that Tao Tao was also controlled by someone else along the way. She didn’t mean to harm him. Tao Tao’s feelings for him are real. Tao Tao loves him.”
As she spoke, Tao Tao slowly stood up, a smile on her face.
“What does a hundred lifetimes of torment matter? As long as it can save Brother Hou, Tao Tao is willing to turn into peach blossoms and let her soul fall into hell!”
Tao Tao’s expression suddenly became incredibly resolute.
“Brother Hou, Tao Tao is leaving now. This love can wait. After a hundred lifetimes, we’ll see each other again!”
As she spoke, Tao Tao’s body suddenly turned into tiny specks of light.
“Brother Hou, Brother Hou…” Tao Tao reached out, wanting to gently touch Hou Xianpin’s face. But separated by life and death, her fingers passed right through him. Even this final wish could never be fulfilled.
As Tao Tao’s figure slowly faded away, peach blossom petals suddenly began to fall above Hou Xianpin, impossibly beautiful and sorrowful.
The peach blossoms drifted without any wind, clustering tightly around Hou Xianpin’s body, lingering for a long time without dispersing.
It seemed as if they were waiting for their beloved to wake up.
Lin Hai let out a soft sigh. “Falling flowers are not heartless things. They turn into spring soil to better protect the flowers. Tao Tao’s true feelings for Hou Xianpin—even as her soul fades away—she still wants to give him a little more protection.”
“Where is this?” Suddenly, Hou Xianpin slowly opened his eyes on the hospital bed.
“Brother Hou, you’re awake. You’re in the hospital.” Lin Hai was delighted and quickly came closer.
“Xiao Lin? Why am I in the hospital? And why do I see peach blossoms falling in front of my eyes?”
“Peach blossoms? Brother Hou, you just woke up. You must be seeing things.” Lin Hai looked at the peach blossoms drifting down before his eyes and sighed inwardly.
Suddenly, Hou Xianpin clutched his chest sharply, his face twisted in pain.
“Xiao Lin, why does my heart hurt so much? And why do I suddenly miss Tao Tao so terribly?”
“Brother Hou, it’s okay. It’ll get better soon. Look, Mayor Tang is here too.”
“Xiao Hou, you’re awake?” Tang Sen walked over at that moment.
“Mayor Tang, look, the peach blossoms seem to be surrounding me, unwilling to leave. But why do I feel so miserable looking at them?”
Tang Sen gave Hou Xianpin a concerned look.
“Xiao Hou, you’ve just woken up. Get some good rest. You’ve probably been working too hard lately.” Tang Sen sighed softly. Although Xiao Hou was awake, he was already having hallucinations. It would probably take some time for him to fully recover.
After everyone had left, Lin Hai leaned close to Hou Xianpin.
“Tao Tao is dead.”
“What?” Hou Xianpin clutched his chest sharply, a tearing pain erupting in his heart.
“She asked me to tell you that she loved you.” Lin Hai was affected by the moment, and his mood also became a little low.
Hou Xianpin sat there stunned, tears rolling down his face.
After leaving the hospital, Lin Hai got into his car and called Peng Tao.
“Don’t investigate that woman’s cause of death anymore. You won’t find anything even if you try. Just treat it as an unexplained death.”
“Director, what did he say?” Xu Tian looked at Peng Tao’s somewhat strange expression and quickly asked.
“Mr. Lin said not to investigate anymore. We won’t find anything even if we try.”
“What? We waited for him for so long. Forget that he didn’t come. Now, without even taking a look, he’s telling us not to investigate? Who does he think he—”
“Enough.” Peng Tao cut off Xu Tian’s complaint. “Pack it up. Handle it as a normal death.”
Somewhere else.
“The peach blossom murder curse has been broken? It’s that Lin Hai again!” The man smashed the cup in his hand with a loud crack.
“I wanted to control his father through Zhao Kun. I didn’t expect that idiot Zhao Kun to be so useless. Looks like I’ll have to think long-term.”
Lin Hai took out Tao Tao’s phone and found the voice recording she had received from Hou Xianpin.
Lin Hai listened to it very carefully from start to finish and finally gained a general understanding of the Hu Corporation’s asset auction.
There were still fifteen days until the auction. The starting bid for Jinbi Huihuang was 50 million, and the auction deposit was 8 million.
That was about all the useful information for him.
Lin Hai furrowed his brow. The deposit wasn’t a problem. Last time, he used Ah Hua to scam 5 million from that idiot Zhao Kun. Added to his previous savings, he could scrape together the 8 million.
But what about the 50 million starting bid? He couldn’t just pay the 8 million deposit just to get in and watch the show, could he?
He only had three days. Lin Hai had to get moving on his previous plan.
Getting into his car, Lin Hai found a relatively large pharmacy. Following the recipe for the dog-skin plaster, he bought three batches of Chinese herbal medicine and some dog skin.
Lin Hai returned home. Seeing that his parents weren’t back yet, he figured Guang Tou Qiang was still showing them around.
Lin Hai completely ignored Chu Liner, who was absorbed in playing Gomoku, and took the herbal medicine and dog skin to the kitchen.
After bringing a pot of water to a boil, Lin Hai carefully began adding the Chinese herbs into the boiling water, following the dosages and the correct order.
“Damn!” Lin Hai wasn’t paying attention for a moment and accidentally knocked one of the herbs into the pot.
The boiling water instantly turned dark green and gave off a faint, pleasant fragrance.
“Crap, ruined!” Lin Hai was frustrated. Although the smell was nice, he knew this batch of medicine was no longer effective.
Lin Hai had to dump out all the water and herbs and start over.
The second time, Lin Hai was much more careful. Finally, after adding the last ingredient, a foul stench rose from the pot.
When Lin Hai smelled that odor, instead of worrying, he was overjoyed.
“Success!” He remembered very clearly that when he had applied the plaster to his father, this was exactly the smell.
Lin Hai watched the medicine’s changes closely, carefully monitoring the heat. When the water in the pot had almost evaporated and the herbs had cooked down into a sticky, black porridge-like paste, Lin Hai quickly turned off the heat.
No sooner had the fire gone out than the black paste suddenly seemed to lose all its moisture and rapidly stuck to the bottom of the pot.
“God damn it!” Lin Hai cursed under his breath, almost dying of frustration.
“Damn it, I failed again on the last step. So close, yet so far.”
He looked at what he had left. Only one batch of herbs remained.
Damn it, success or failure, this was it.
Lin Hai changed the water and started boiling another batch.
This time, Lin Hai was extremely careful. Having learned from his two previous failures, things actually went much more smoothly.
When Lin Hai evenly spread the cooked medicinal paste onto the dog skin and sealed it with a layer of soft film, he finally let out a long breath.
It was very rough, but at least it was done.
However, Lin Hai eventually shook his head.
He had originally wanted to try and see if he could mass-produce these. But after this attempt, it was clearly impossible.
With this kind of speed and difficulty, he was sure no pharmaceutical company would want to work with him. He couldn’t just sell the recipe, could he?
The idea of raising money through the dog-skin plaster had fallen through. That being the case, Lin Hai would have to think of something else.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Hai called Liu Liang.
“Liang, do you know which cosmetics company is the biggest in our Jiangnan City?”
“The biggest cosmetics company?” Liu Liang thought for a moment. “It should be the Mei Mei Da Cosmetics Company under the Ye Corporation.”
“Mei Mei Da? Don’t they have a face mask called that?” Lin Hai suddenly remembered the face mask he had sent to the Fairy of Yaochi.
“Yeah, that’s their main product.”
After hanging up, Lin Hai had made up his mind.
He opened WeChat and found the Fairy of Yaochi.
Little Confused Immortal: Fairy, are you there?
Fairy of Yaochi: Yes, I’ve been waiting for you all along. You finally remembered me.
Pfft!
Damn, Lin Hai nearly spat out his drink when he saw the Fairy’s reply.
Did she have to make it sound so flirtatious?
Little Confused Immortal: Since that’s the case, let’s talk about working together.
