The owner glanced in the direction Qin Ruqing pointed and replied, “Oh, that’s Rain Alley. The houses there belong to the wealthy families in our town.”

“Yes, the lady who gave you the coins is the young mistress of the Rain Alley Lu family, a well-known philanthropist in the area.”

Qin Ruqing nodded, noted the information, and returned to her position at the trash heap.

Her fellow beggars, seeing her return, instinctively moved away from her.

As Qin Ruqing leaned against the wall, she pondered whether the Lu family would be relevant to the storyline.

After what felt like three days in the illusion, Qin Ruqing, who had been scavenging food from other beggars, found herself in a different situation.

The beggars initially tried to steal from her, but now that she was taking from them, she felt no moral conflict.

On the third day, a plot twist occurred. Qin Ruqing’s attention to cleanliness and her now clean, attractive face caught the eye of the owner of the tooth shop, who took her away from the beggar group.

Qin Ruqing followed the owner, thinking she might be sold to a brothel, as per the script’s usual pattern.

However, the plot was more restrained than she expected.

Instead of being sold to a brothel, she was purchased by a wealthy family to become a maid.

The tooth shop owner, looking at her with a touch of regret, said, “This pretty face would fetch a high price in a brothel. But you’re lucky. The Lu family from Rain Alley recently wanted a young maid with a neat appearance, around ten years old, and they’re offering a good price. You’re just right for the role.”

The Lu family…

Qin Ruqing was cleaned up and taken to meet the Lu family’s young mistress, the same kind lady who had given her the copper coins.

The lady did not recognize her as the beggar from that day, as Qin Ruqing’s face was now clean.

The lady was pleased with Qin Ruqing’s appearance and gave her a few instructions.

It turned out the Lu family had paid a high price for a young maid, specifically wanting someone neat and around ten years old to be a companion for the lady’s daughter.

Qin Ruqing found it a bit strange. Why would someone buy a playmate for their daughter from a pawnshop?

Wouldn’t it be better to find a little girl from relatives or friends?

It wasn’t until she actually met the woman’s daughter that Qin Ruqing understood.

The young lady from the Lu family had some unusual characteristics!

She had only four fingers, and her nails were unusually sharp, requiring daily trimming.

Additionally, her eyes appeared normal in regular light but turned into vertical slits at night.

Qin Ruqing thought, “Alright, this is starting to feel like something out of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.”

The young lady’s nurse sternly instructed Qin Ruqing to keep the girl’s true condition a secret, warning her not to reveal anything.

Qin Ruqing’s service contract was in their hands, and if she leaked any information, she would face severe consequences.

Qin Ruqing naturally nodded in agreement, not daring to say more.

Aside from her unusual physical traits, the little girl was quite lively, but otherwise normal.

Qin Ruqing found this new job relatively easy.

A few days later, Qin Ruqing met the head of the Lu family.

He was tall and handsome, treating his wife and daughter with great kindness.

He would always return promptly from his outside affairs to spend time with his family. In the evenings, he would paint for his wife and daughter under the grapevine in the moonlight.

Qin Ruqing happened to witness this scene. She stood by the pillar with her arms crossed, observing without commenting.

On a moonlit, windy night, with the full moon high in the sky, sounds came from the main house.

Qin Ruqing suddenly opened her eyes in the corner room, quietly moved to the window, and saw the head of the household leaving through the gate.

She followed him.

Although she had no spiritual energy, she had mastered the art of holding her breath and, with her young and light frame, moved silently. Following someone was no problem at all.

She saw the head of the household weaving through the streets and finally leaping onto the roof of a building, where his figure vanished.

When Qin Ruqing found a vantage point to observe, she saw the man revealing demonic eyes and extending claws to extract the heart of a mortal.

“Well… definitely following the Strange Stories route,” Qin Ruqing thought to herself, clicking her tongue as she silently returned to the Lu family’s home.

In the days that followed, Qin Ruqing kept a close watch on the head of the household and discovered that he went out monthly to collect a heart.

Killing innocents as a demon was not without consequences.

The demonic aura surrounding him increased, leading to a worsening temperament and frequent arguments between the husband and wife.

This wasn’t surprising, but the issue escalated— the demonic aura began to affect the wife, causing her to gradually weaken.

Qin Ruqing had always held goodwill towards this one kind person from the Lu family, who had once given her two copper coins.

She knew it was time for her to act.

She summoned a slender sword in her hand, the same one given to her at the start of the task.

As the plot reached its climax, Qin Ruqing knew exactly what she had to do.

The sword was meant to taste blood, and she needed to kill those who deserved it.

The demon had slaughtered at least a hundred mortals, and it was clear who needed to be eliminated.

That night, when Qin Ruqing went to the main house to hunt the demon, the head of the household and his wife happened to have a fierce argument.

Qin Ruqing glanced at the sky. On this full moon night, it seemed like it was the day the head of the household went out hunting.

She crouched on the roof like a cat, sword in hand, listening to the commotion inside.

The mistress, weakly, said, “Don’t go… never go again.”

The master, shocked, asked, “You knew?!”

“I’ve felt your absence every full moon night. I’m your wife; how could I not notice? Besides, our daughter, Xi’er… I’ve known for a long time that you are a demon.”

The main room fell silent for a long time, with the master not speaking.

After a while, his hoarse voice came through, “I have no choice… If I don’t do this, I can’t maintain my human form! How could we ever have Xi’er otherwise!” The master’s emotions flared up.

Now, the mistress fell silent, struggling with a question she had long hidden in her heart, finally asking, “Will Xi’er… turn out like you in the future…”

The words “like you” seemed particularly piercing.

The master, hit with the pain, laughed loudly, “Like me? What am I like? Xi’er is my daughter; isn’t it natural for her to be like me!”

After laughing, his expression darkened, “I have lived among humans for so long, and I’ve never thought humans are superior to us beasts! Humans are hypocritical, cunning, and deceitful! If it weren’t for you and Xi’er, would I have become this inhuman, beastly form?!”

“A beast, but you’re a demon…” The mistress didn’t understand.

The master seemed unwilling to argue, knowing it was pointless.

His tone softened again, as if coaxing, “Don’t worry about Xi’er. Later, I will feed her some human blood. In time, her beastly traits will gradually disappear, and she will be just like any other child!”

Qin Ruqing, overhearing, quietly lifted a tile and peeked inside.

At this moment, the mistress collapsed to the ground.

The master knelt before her, gripping her shoulders with an eerie excitement in his gaze, “Let me out… This won’t last much longer. Once I find a way to counteract the backlash of the rules, I won’t need to kill anymore! Trust me!”

Seeing the mistress unresponsive, the master stood up, and the mistress could only weakly clutch his robe.

Qin Ruqing noticed the master’s patience had worn thin and finally removed the tile completely, jumping down.

A new figure appeared in the room. Qin Ruqing, agile and holding a fine sword, looked at them, especially at the husband. Though she smiled, her gaze was sharper than the blade she held.

The mistress, feeling a sudden soul-deep danger, blocked the husband with her body, shouting, “Don’t kill him!”

The master looked at Qin Ruqing, incredulous, “You’re Xi’er’s maid. Do you dare kill me?!” Despite his words, he felt the danger from Qin Ruqing and became highly cautious.

Qin Ruqing did not look at him but at the mistress.

The mistress’s cheeks were wet with tears. She trembled as she said, “I remember you. You were the beggar on the roadside who looked like Xi’er. I gave you two copper coins. Although I didn’t recognize you at first, later I…”

“Please, for those two copper coins, don’t kill him!”

Qin Ruqing calmly replied, “Madam, he deserves to die.”

“Not because he is a beast, but because he has killed hundreds of innocent mortals.”

With that, her sword was already drawn. Under the terrified gaze of the mistress, the sword’s cold light flashed as it pierced through the husband’s chest.

He couldn’t avoid it; Qin Ruqing’s movements were too fast for him to catch.

The master’s throat made a rasping sound as he looked in disbelief at the sword piercing his chest.

If it had merely pierced his heart, he might have had a chance, but this sword had precisely struck his beast core.

Understanding his fate, the master took one last reluctant look at the mistress before collapsing.

As the sword drank the beast’s blood, Qin Ruqing received a notification that her task was complete.

Killing a beast that, despite loving its wife and daughter, caused chaos around was not difficult for her and carried no psychological burden.

Yet, she still felt a sense of melancholy.

Qin Ruqing thought about the hatred in the benefactress’s eyes when she acted. She wondered how the mistress and her daughter, with half-beast blood, would survive.

But what did it matter to her, Qin Ruqing? It was just an illusion in the trial tower.

A feeling of indifference passed through her mind, and she found it strange, but before she could think more, she was already transported away.