The night sky was clear, and stars were s.h.i.+ning in the dark blue depths. They seemed to be a language that told the story of worlds beyond the earth.

Ning Tao painted a blood lock on the wall of the rooftop over Jiang Hao's house. As he inserted the key into the pattern, the blood lock spread out like ripples, and the inky convenient door appeared on the wall. Ning Tao strode toward the door. After two seconds of darkness, the light returned to his sight, which was the light of the seven-star lamp. In just two seconds, he was back at the Sky Clinic in Shan City, more than 1,800 kilometers away from Beidu.

Above the good-evil tripod hovered black and white air. They were intertwined without scattering, but they were much weaker than before the rent was collected.

Ning Tao sat cross-legged next to the good-evil tripod and ran the ABC of elementary cultivation method.

An hour later, he left the clinic and went to the hillside behind the clinic to cut a big bundle of aloe vera. As he returned to the clinic again, he began to make delicate perfumed creams with the delicate perfumed tripod. After giving Zhao Wushuang and Fan Huaying each a bottle of delicate perfumed cream, he had only one bottle left. Three days later, the remained bottle of delicate perfumed cream had to be used to treat Zhao Wushuang's facial scars. After that, he had none creams. It would be bad if Zhao Wushuang or Fan Huaying recommended the delicate perfumed cream to a money guy and he couldn't provide it.

That was why he traveled thousands of miles to the Sky Clinic.

An hour later, Ning Tao was back on the rooftop with the blood lock painted on the wall. Instead of erasing the blood lock, he decided to use it as a fast track between his clinic and Beidu.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"I'm coming." As soon as the door knocked, Jiang Hao's voice was heard in the room, along with the springy steps of her slippers.

Then the door opened.

At the sight of Ning Tao's face, Jiang Hao felt like she felt the warmth of the sun at night. Even in the dimly lit corridor, Ning Tao still gave her a kind and comfortable feeling.

What she didn't know, however, was that it was only one of his two sides and she had never seen the other side of him.

"You're back. Come in. I'll carry the chest for you," Jiang Hao offered, reaching for Ning Tao's medicine chest. Her reaction was like a housewife greeting her husband back home after working overtime.

Ning Tao, on the other hand, stuck a small white porcelain bottle in her hand.

"What... what is it?" Jiang Hao asked in surprise.

Ning Tao entered the house by her side while replying, "It's delicate perfumed cream, my homemade beauty balm. It has good cosmetic effect. It's for you."

A blush crept into Jiang Hao's face, and her voice trailed off. "Why did you give me the cosmetic?"

She rarely used cosmetics, but the significance of this bottle was remarkable.

"You try it. I'll give you another bottle when you use it up." Ning Tao walked over to the couch and put down his medicine chest. This couch was his bed for tonight.

The TV in the living room was on with a variety.

Suddenly, Ning Tao remembered Zhao Wushuang. "Guess who my patient was this evening?" he asked.

Jiang Hao, who had already closed the door and was back in the living room, was so fond of the delicate perfumed cream that she could not take her hands off it. "Who?" she asked casually.

"Zhao Wushuang," Ning Tao responded.

"Who's Zhao Wushuang?"

Ning Tao's a little speechless by her question.

He was already quite unconcerned about entertainment news, but he didn't expect that Jiang Hao was even less concerned than he was.

"I'll get a bottle of wine and let's have a drink," Jiang Hao suggested, still clutching the small white porcelain bottle as she made her way to the part.i.tioned dining room.

Ning Tao asked curiously, "Why do we drink?"

Jiang Hao, squatting to get a drink out of the closet, responded, "I just want to have a drink to relax."

"Well, I'll drink with you," Ning Tao uttered.

Then Jiang Hao came over with a bottle of wine and two gla.s.ses before she quickly and firmly sat beside Ning Tao, and put the wine on the tea table.

Ning Tao was shocked by the wine that Jiang Hao put on the tea table. It was a bottle of Chinese vodka, and it hadn't been opened yet.

"Er... Is that what you drink to relax?" Ning Tao felt a little out of his mind. He thought Jiang Hao would bring beer, but it turned out to be strong arrack.

Jiang Hao stared straight at Ning Tao. "What, dare you drink it?" she questioned, with a hint of defiance in her voice. "You are a man and I am a woman. Are you afraid of me?"

Ning Tao gave a wry smile and said, "All right, I'll have a drink with you. But I can't hold my liquor. I could only drink two bottles of beer at most when I was in school, and this is my first time to drink arrack."

"No excuses. I'll pour you some wine," Jiang Hao said decisively, uns.c.r.e.w.i.n.g the cap and filling both gla.s.ses.

The gla.s.ses she brought were not goblets, but tumblers with a capacity of 100ml, which were supposed to be used for drinking water, but now were used as wine gla.s.ses by Jiang Hao.

In a twinkling, the two wine gla.s.ses were filled with Chinese vodka, and the liquor flavor filled the air between them.

The situation gave Ning Tao a headache. "You're determined to get me drunk, aren't you?"

Jiang Hao picked up a wine gla.s.s and shoved it into Ning Tao's hand, with a defiant smile on her lips. "You're a man. What are you afraid of even if you're drunk? I'm not going to do anything to you."

Her words successfully kept Ning Tao quiet.

Jiang Hao held up the other gla.s.s, clinking it against Ning Tao's without his consent. "Come on, drink up."

"Drink... up?" Ning Tao's surprise was beyond words. He had always known that Jiang Hao was tough, different from the average woman, but she was acting out of his imagination!

However, Jiang Hao lifted her head and poured the Chinese vodka into her mouth. In a moment, her gla.s.s was empty.

Ning Tao was stunned by the valiant woman beside him.

Jiang Hao wiped the wine stains on her mouth and urged, "I've drained my gla.s.s. What are you waiting for?"

Ning Tao looked at the gla.s.s filled with arrack in his hand, not having the courage to drink it all at once. After all, he had never drunk it before.

Jiang Hao curled her mouth and urged, "Come on. If you're a man, drink it quickly."

She was using the widely-used way to goad somebody into action, but it worked for most men.

Ning Tao picked up the gla.s.s, imagined the liquor in the gla.s.s as beer, and forced himself to pour it into his mouth. As soon as the first sip of the liquor entered his throat, he felt as if his throat had been set alight, burning with pain. But the next second, with a gentle tremble from his Niwan acupoint, the spiritual power field rippled from between his brows to all the capillaries of his body, from his head to his feet, and even to every cell!

The wine in his mouth was still the taste of wine, but it had lost its effect.

It took Ning Tao about the same amount of time as Jiang Hao to drink a gla.s.s of Chinese vodka into his stomach. His stomach was full of arrack, but to him it was like a gla.s.s of water.

There was a flash of wonder in Jiang Hao's eyes. Then she filled Ning Tao another gla.s.s to the brim and filled her own.

"Stop drinking," Ning Tao advised. "It's bad for your health to drink so much arrack in the evening. Besides, your liver needs rest."

"You doctors always ask for trouble. Whatever you do will be related to health. I'm not happy. I want to drink. What's the matter?" Jiang Hao shouted. Her cheeks were already red. Apparently, the 100ml of arrack was already working.

"What are you unhappy about?" Ning Tao inquired solicitously. "Tell me, what happened?"

"You drink this and I'll tell you," Jiang Hao demanded.

Ning Tao picked up the gla.s.s and drank the second gla.s.s of arrack into his stomach. Then he put the gla.s.s on the tea table and said, "Now tell me."

However, Jiang Hao also took the gla.s.s and poured the wine into her mouth. Ning Tao reached for her gla.s.s and she gave him a slap on his hand.

Ning Tao felt strange, and wondered, "She was in a good mood just now. Why is she in a bad mood all of a sudden? Has anything really happened to her?"

Jiang Hao put the gla.s.s on the table, shook her head, and said, "What... what did you... ask me?"

"I asked you, what are you unhappy about?" Ning Tao responded.

"Haha..." Jiang Hao giggled.

"You're drunk. Why did you have to drink when I stopped you?" Ning Tao rebuked.

"My mom said... said... she, she..." Jiang Hao began to stammer.

Ning Tao glanced unconsciously at Tang Zhen's bedroom door and pondered, "Is something wrong with her mother?"

"She, she... like you!" Jiang Hao finally finished the sentence.

"What?" Ning Tao was startled.

"She also said... she, she wanted you to be... to be... her..."

Ning Tao's forehead began to sweat. Despite his utter lack of interest in having a girlfriend, the age gap between him and Jiang Hao's mother was huge!

"To be her... her... son-in-law!" Jiang Hao grunted, leaning over to Ning Tao, with alcohol on her breath. "Or... or she, she'll... cut me off! Hahaha..."

Ning Tao let out a secret sigh of relief and quickly took his eyes off Tang Zhen's bedroom door. Just then Jiang Hao, still giggling, fell into his arms. All of a sudden his nerves were taut. He had never held a woman so close. The physical contact made him nervous. His energy field of spiritual power could purify the alcohol in the body, but could not purify man's instinctive impulses.

"I... I have half a year..." Jiang Hao reached over and grabbed Ning Tao by the collar. "Help, help me, all right?"

How could he help her?

"You're drunk. I'll carry you back to your bedroom to rest," Ning Tao uttered. As far as his body was concerned, he was eager to help, but at the thought of the 300 points of good-evil rent of the Sky Clinic and his status as a pract.i.tioner, a voice in his head kept saying, "No, you can't do that..."

"You... have feelings... for me?" Jiang Hao's lips edged closer to Ning Tao's face, her eyes filled with thrilled and searing light.

Ning Tao looked away and nervously said, "You're drunk. Don't do that."

"I don't know what, what... to do... I seem to have a crush on you... But I, I... I don't know how to express it... Woo..." With that, she burst into tears, hot tears rolling down her cheeks and landing on Ning Tao's neck.

Ning Tao's heart raced instantly and he almost couldn't help kissing Jiang Hao on the lips, but the voice that stopped him echoed in his head, restraining his impulses and desires. Finally, he picked Jiang Hao up and went to her bedroom. In the process, Jiang Hao pa.s.sed out drunk.

Ning Tao put her on her bed, then took off her slippers and covered her with a quilt. He thought about using his spiritual power to cleanse Jiang Hao of alcohol, but then he gave up. If she woke up and offered to do something to him, would he be able to control his impulses and desires? After all, they were alone in the room.

Then Ning Tao turned and left, went to the door and pulled it open.

At the door, Tang Zhen was holding her ear to the door.

Ning Tao froze for three seconds before he blurted out, "Haven't you slept yet?"

"Why don't you sleep?" Tang Zhen asked almost at the same time.

"I'm, I'm going to bed right now." Ning Tao sidled through the door and made for the living room as if fleeing.

Tang Zhen looked at Ning Tao's back and murmured, "Doesn't it say drinking can make people lose control? My daughter is drunk, how come he didn't... lose control?"