274: One kick and it's gone!

Inside the Fujian-style restaurant, the lights were bright, and the place was bustling with noise.

It was the peak of the dinner rush, and the small shop was packed with diners.

Yi Yue wore an apron, bustling back and forth between the cashier and the kitchen. Fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead, yet a smile remained on her face as she nimbly checked menus and greeted customers.

Honestly, she had become increasingly skilled at this line of work.

From a complete novice in the restaurant business, she had leaped into becoming a skilled worker; even Xiao Ya's father praised how impressive she was.

Plus, her cooking was exceptional, leading to more and more customers...

Xiao Ya, with a neat ponytail, nimbly wove between the tables with a tray, both of them so busy they barely had a moment to stand still.

In an inconspicuous corner near the restroom by the back door sat a special guest.

It was a woman.

She was dressed in casual clothes, a white shirt paired with jeans.

In front of her sat only a bowl of clear broth noodles, long since gone cold, with chopsticks resting on the rim, untouched.

She sat there expressionless, eyes downcast, as if isolated from the bustling noise around her, existing in a different world.

Only when she occasionally lifted her eyelids would a flash of cold, icy light in her eyes reveal something unusual.

Her name was Li Mei.

A person who should have died in the cold seawater, with no remains left.

Yet here she was, sitting here today.

Yes, she hadn't died.

Not only did she survive, but she turned a misfortune into a blessing; swept into an undercurrent, she drifted to the southern coast and was rescued by a passing deacon of the Miao Sect who was out gathering herbs.

The Miao Sect, that mysterious sect hidden deep in the mountains of the southwest, passing down ancient Gu arts and secret techniques.

They saw the intense desire to survive that erupted from her in a desperate situation, as well as the resentment deep in her bones, and believed she was excellent material for practicing Gu arts.

Thus, she survived and became the thirteenth disciple of the Miao Sect Master.

After days of inhuman torture and training, being bitten by countless poisonous insects, and tempering her body with secret medicines, she had long been transformed from the inside out, becoming unrecognizable.

The only thought that sustained her through those days and nights of agony worse than death was—

Revenge!

Revenge against Ye Chen!

Revenge against everyone related to Ye Chen!

She wanted to crush everything Ye Chen cared about, bit by bit, and finally make him kneel before her, tasting pain and despair a hundred, a thousand times deeper than what she had experienced.

This time, upon her return, her first target was not to directly confront the unfathomably powerful Ye Chen.

But rather the seemingly soft and vulnerable "weaknesses" around him.

Based on her careful inquiries and observations, the gentle-smiling proprietress bustling about the shop before her—Yi Yue—was one of the women Ye Chen cared about quite a bit.

It was said that Ye Chen often came here and took good care of her.

"Let's start with you..."

Li Mei's lips curled up as she whispered with a sinister smile.

"Turning you into an obedient puppet, serving by my side day and night—I wonder what kind of expression Ye Chen will have when he sees that?"

Her right hand, placed under the table, trembled slightly at the fingertips.

The next moment.

A dark golden centipede, about the thickness of a little finger, slid silently from her sleeve, crawled nimbly down her leg, and onto the floor.

This was no ordinary centipede; it was the offspring worm of the "Mother-Child Heart-Linking Gu" that she had painstakingly refined in the Miao Sect using her own essence blood mixed with dozens of poisonous insects.

The mother worm was inside her, and once the offspring worm entered the target's body, it would release special neurotoxins and Gu eggs, gradually eroding the target's consciousness and body, eventually making them completely obedient to the commands of the mother worm's holder, like the most faithful marionette.

After landing, the offspring worm raised its head slightly, its two antennae probing the air, and quickly locked onto Yi Yue's scent.

With a bend and a stretch of its body, it hugged the shadows along the wall and crawled at an incredible speed toward Yi Yue, who was busy calculating accounts behind the counter with her head down.

The smooth tiled floor posed no obstacle to it, and its dark golden body was almost impossible to detect in the shadows.

The distance closed bit by bit.

Five meters, three meters, two meters...

In Li Mei's eyes, the cold excitement grew stronger.

She seemed to have already seen the offspring worm burrowing into Yi Yue's ankle, seen Yi Yue's body stiffen slightly yet remain oblivious, seen the Gu poison slowly take effect, and seen this gentle woman eventually standing before her with hollow eyes...

Just as the offspring worm emerged from a shadow, crossed the aisle, and was less than half a meter from Yi Yue's feet—

"Xiao Ya! Add an order of Lychee Pork to table three, and urge the kitchen for the Oyster Omelet on table five!"

Yi Yue looked up and called out to Xiao Ya, who had just returned from delivering dishes.

"Coming, Sister Yi Yue!"

Xiao Ya replied with a crisp voice, turned, and trotted toward the kitchen.

She was stepping quickly and didn't pay attention to her feet at all.

"Squish."

The sound was faint; Xiao Ya's right foot happened to step right over the dark golden centipede.

Xiao Ya, completely unaware, continued walking.

And there, on the spot, that highly anticipated Mother-Child Heart-Linking Gu worm was flattened right there...

Li Mei: "???"

No way!

The Gu worm she had painstakingly refined was just stepped to death by a waitress like that?!

She had calculated everything—that Ye Chen might not be there, that Yi Yue was just an ordinary woman, the timing and path for the Gu...

But she failed to account for one thing.

That a little girl would just happen to pass by and, in the process, take her carefully refined offspring Gu...

And step it! To! Death!

She was furious!

"Bang!"

She slammed her hand onto the table, the solid wood surface vibrating enough to make the bowls and chopsticks jump.

The commotion was not small; the originally noisy restaurant instantly went quiet, and almost all the diners stopped eating, turning their heads in surprise to look at the woman in the corner.

Xiao Ya had just run to the kitchen door; she was startled by the sound, quickly turned around, and trotted over with an apologetic look on her face: "Miss, what's wrong? Is there something we did poorly? Please don't be angry, let's talk this out!"

Li Mei's chest heaved violently, her eyes fixed on Xiao Ya, and she berated her, unable to contain her rage.

"You... you stepped on my pet!!!"

"Huh?" Xiao Ya was completely stunned, instinctively looking down at her feet, then glancing around the clean tiled floor, "Pet? Where... where is it, Miss? I don't see it?"

She was truly confused; she had just been running, how could she have stepped on a pet?

The floor was clean; there wasn't even a vegetable leaf.

The curiosity of the surrounding diners was piqued, and they all stretched their necks to look, whispering to each other.

"Pet? What kind of pet? A cat or a dog? I don't see anything."

"What's wrong with this woman? She's so jumpy!"

"Is she looking for trouble? She looks like she's in a bad mood; she isn't crazy, is she?"

...

Seeing Xiao Ya's baffled expression and the confused gazes of the people around, Li Mei's anger flared up instantly.

She took a sharp step forward, pointed in one direction, and growled.

"My pet is that!"

"Stepped to death by you!"

Everyone looked in the direction her finger was pointing.

They saw that at the edge of the tile gap, there was indeed a small, barely distinguishable flat mark.

Upon closer inspection, one could make out the silhouette of a multi-legged arthropod, though it was now completely flattened.

Everyone saw it clearly.

And everyone was dumbfounded.

That wasn't a cat or dog, not even a hamster or a turtle.

That thing was...

A bug???

Xiao Ya's mouth twitched uncontrollably, and she said with a bitter smile.

"No... no, Miss, are you mistaken?"

"The pet you mentioned is this... bug?"

"Hahahaha!" Before Li Mei could answer, a bald man at a nearby table couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Girl, if you're going to scam someone, you have to follow some basic logic, right? Keeping a bug as a pet? And blaming the waitress for stepping on it? It crawled out and got stepped on; who can you blame for that?"

"Exactly, exactly!"

Another middle-aged woman chimed in with a pout, "I've lived this long, and I've seen people keep birds, fish, and turtles, but this is the first time I've heard of keeping a centipede as a pet and bringing it out to dinner. If this thing crawled out and scared someone, whose fault would that be?"

"Trying to scam a free meal? This trick is too novel!"

"Call the police! This kind of person needs to be handled by the police!"

"That's right! We'll testify for the restaurant staff!"

...

The surrounding chatter grew louder, and Li Mei's face became increasingly ugly.

Messed with my pet, and now you want to send me to the police station?

Too much bullying!

Her face turned cold, and she shouted furiously: "Shut up! If anyone else makes another sound, I'll kill you with one slash!!!"