Chapter 80 The Livor Mortis (2/2)

That girl really was a hamster. Her eyes shone as the smell of the rice reached her nose.

Feng Chunsheng and I put down the dishes on our table and went to the bar to get a few beers.

It took only three or four minutes for that girl to wolf down more than half of the food. Now she was greedily scooping up more rice. She took the rice spoon and piled a mound of rice into her rice bowl. Then she pressed the rice flat with the spoon to make room for more, and continued piling more and more into the bowl. Eventually, she started eating huge mouthfuls of it.

We were very surprised and froze on the spot, watching her for a long time.

Then she noticed us and looked up suddenly. She smiled at us in embarrassment: “Sorry, Boss, I was too concentrated.”

“It’s OK.” I waved my hands, and swallowed when I saw the empty dishes. Then I asked her: “Cang Shu, do you often eat like this?”

“Yes.” She nodded quickly.

I just had nothing to say.

Feng Chunsheng and I didn’t eat anything, while Cang Shu finished all of the dishes by herself.

I felt I was wrong to only deduct five hundred for her meals.

Good heavens, this girl could eat enough for several people. I thought it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to deduct her entire salary for the meals.

I went to Cang Shu and said with a smile: “Hey, hey, Cang, Cang, let me tell you something… Well, I won’t deduct anything from your salary and pay you three thousand and five hundred per month; then you can go and order food by yourself with that money. Is that OK for you?”

“But, boss… You told me to eat as much as I can.” She looked at me with puppy eyes

Well, OK.

I had no way to refuse her… She looked pitiful.

I had to accept that every meal for her would cost seventy or eighty Yuan.

I stood up and said: “All right… you can eat as much as you like.”

So, she stayed in my shop.

In the afternoon, during the break from Cang Shu’s training, Feng Chunsheng came to talk to me. He said he had ordered good food this afternoon, and she ate so much because she didn’t have such delicious meals before. She might not eat so much in the evening.

I thought the explanation was reasonable… but… She ate six whole bowls of rice.

Maybe she could earn two thousand and five hundred from me per month, but it would cost her four thousand and five hundred per month to pay for all the food.

But the only comfort was… Cang Shu was a hard-working girl. She was willing to do everything. In the evening, she would clean the studio so well we might think we had hired someone from a cleaning company.

Feng Chunsheng looked at Cang Shu and said to me with a smile: “Well, Shui, she’s OK. She eats a lot, but she works very hard at the same time.”

I shook my head and said: “I don’t care how much she eats, but I wonder… Does she have something to do with that ‘black tiger with four wings’, and is that why she eats so much?”

I’d heard from my master that the black tiger with four wings was a big eater. It could eat mountains of food. It was very powerful, strong and brave.

This girl had a similar character to that tiger.

“I don’t know, but I can feel this girl is just unusual.” Feng Chunsheng had the same feeling.

It was around seven or eight o’ clock in the evening when Cang Shu left work. Feng Chunsheng and I were also ready to go home, but then a girl came in.

It was a quiet and tall girl, but she seemed strange because she covered herself with long-sleeved clothes and wore gloves on her hands.

It wouldn’t be strange to dress like that in the winter, but this was summer and it was rather hot outside.

She came in and asked: “Who’s the Yin and Yang Tattoo master?”

“It’s me,” I replied to that girl.

She smiled. She had a very dignified appearance with good temperament, and she appeared very gentle when she smiled, too.

Then she told me: “May I ask you something?”

“Yes, please,” I said.

She asked me: “Do you know about Yin and Yang?”

“Of course he does. He makes Yin and Yang Tattoos.” Feng Chunsheng said with a smile.

Actually, I didn’t know much about it, but Feng Chunsheng could probably answer her question.

Then that girl smiled to Feng Chunsheng and said: “Then I want to ask you for advice.”

After that, she pulled up her long sleeves and said: “Well, please look at this.”

I saw many purple patches on her body.

Those patches were scary because they were connected to each other.

Then I said: “This is… livor mortis.”

I had inked some dead people in the past, and I could find these patches on them. I also heard from Mr. Guan that those patches were actually formed by the blood pooling after the heart stopped beating, but they only appeared on dead people, and never on a live person.

She didn’t get angry or nervous when I said ‘livor mortis’. She only stared at me and asked, “Livor mortis? Are you sure?”

I nodded and replied: “Yes… I’m sure.”

“All right.” Then she smiled and said: “So, can you help me? ‘Yin and Yang Tattoos; tattoos of Yin and Yang. Life and death; riches and honor; a safe journey’. Can we do business?”

I waved my hands and refused.

I just wanted to take it easy and calm down after dealing with so many strange things recently.

But this girl offered me a price that I could never refuse… One hundred thousand Yuan.

“Help me remove this livor mortis, and I will pay you one hundred thousand.” She stretched one finger.

One hundred thousand… That was a huge amount of money for one tattoo.