Stein's sudden declaration left me puzzled. I immediately asked what was wrong.
He slapped himself and confessed he couldn't resist temptation, failing to do what I'd asked of him.
Hearing this, I knew something was amiss and pressed him for details.
It turned out that when he went to Violet's place last night, he discovered something - buried beneath the southern side of the villa was a heart.
He noticed it because moonlight shone directly on that spot, unmoving. Finding this strange, Stein stepped on the soil and felt something buried underneath.
Curious, he dug with his hands and unearthed a living heart with a strange talisman (Fulu) placed atop it - one he'd never seen before.
Even more bizarre, the heart was still beating and bright red.
Just then, someone emerged from the villa. Stein hastily reburied the heart.
It was Amelia who came out. She invited Stein inside (Violet was absent at the time) and soon began seducing him with suggestive talk. Within minutes, they retreated to a bedroom.
That vixen Amelia coiled around Stein like a snake all night, draining him completely.
Stein had intended to finish with Amelia and investigate the heart at midnight, but after their encounter, he lacked even the energy to care, sleeping straight through until dawn. When he woke, his legs were still weak and his mind foggy.
Angry, I asked why he hadn't mentioned this earlier. "Now that the Tattoos of Gods and Ghosts is done, were you planning to tell me next year?"
Stein slapped himself again, explaining his morning grogginess and only now remembering after proper rest.
Stella, confused by our cryptic conversation, needed a full explanation. I recounted everything about Violet from beginning to end, including the white-shirted man.
Frowning, Stella said Violet must be hiding something - perhaps deliberately having Amelia distract Stein.
I asked them about the significance of the buried heart and the white-shirted man at the villa.
When both shook their heads cluelessly, I declared we'd investigate again tonight. "That villa holds secrets. Even with the Tattoos of Gods and Ghosts completed, I'm still curious."
Stella said she wasn't interested. Because of Chloe's matter, she'd already missed two or three days of school. If she didn't return soon, she might get expelled.
Turns out Stella was still a college student, just a sophomore this year. She usually attended Master Raul's practice sessions on weekends. There was no way she had energy left to go messing around with me.
After saying this, she left without even looking back. I called after her, "When are you going to work off your debt?"
Stella straightened her ample chest, turned back and said: "When I have time to come by. I might even bring you some customers - but I'll want commission. And don't you dare complain to my sister, or else..." She finished by shaking a small pink fist at me.
I said no problem. If she brought customers, that would be great - I was seriously lacking clients.
After Stella left, I gave Stein a thorough beating. How dare he sleep with a woman when he was supposed to be working, ruining my important business! Unforgivable!
If I didn't teach him a lesson, he wouldn't know what was important.
After getting beaten black and blue, Stein begged for mercy and even volunteered for a pay cut to reduce his punishment.
That evening, Stein and I returned to Violet's villa. I still had the access card she gave me, so entering the neighborhood was easy. I guessed Violet never expected we'd return after completing the Tattoos of Gods and Ghosts.
Stein was worried. "We found the heart last night. What if they've moved it by now?"
I disagreed. "Violet wouldn't expect us to come back. This surprise attack should work."
Arriving at Violet's cottage, we began sneaking around. The lights were on inside, meaning someone was home, so we had to be careful.
The moonlight was bright tonight, but just as Stein described, one particular beam shone steadily on a patch of dirt to the south.
"There!" Stein pointed.
I got down and dug with my hands, quickly unearthing a heart with a Fulu talisman on top. Incredibly, it was still beating.
Alive? How wicked! A heart buried in earth yet still beating?
I peeled off the Fulu, and the heart immediately stopped. When I replaced it, the beating resumed.
"I see. It's this strange talisman!" But what kind of talisman was it?
Stein shook his head. He didn't recognize it either. It definitely wasn't a standard ghost-hunting exorcism talisman - maybe a Shaman's Charm.
There were many types of Shaman's Charms with various functions, mostly evil - completely different from proper charms. Drawing this kind of charm could shorten one's lifespan.
But more than the talisman, I wondered - why bury a heart here? And who did it? Violet? Who would bury a heart near their own home?
After I dug up the heart, the moonlight shifted, shining on a new location to the west.
Damn, can this thing actually move? I looked up at the moon, wondering if it could be possessed too.
While I was puzzling over this, Stein had already started digging at the new spot. There, he unearthed a lung with another talisman placed on it.
Next came the east and north directions. We dug up a liver and kidney respectively from those locations.
Now we were completely confused. What was happening around this villa? Why were human organs buried in all four cardinal directions?
Just then, Stein seemed to have a realization. He whispered excitedly, "Little Boss, I've got it! This is a Five Elements Feng Shui Formation."
"Five Elements? Feng Shui? What do you mean?"
Stein explained that human organs correspond to the Five Elements: wood for liver, fire for heart, earth for spleen, metal for lungs, and water for kidneys.
These Five Elements in turn correspond to five directions: wood to east, fire to south, metal to west, water to north, and earth to center.
Therefore, we'd found different organs buried in each of the four directions. If his guess was correct, there should also be a spleen buried on the villa's roof - representing earth at the center - completing this Five Elements Feng Shui Formation made of human organs.
This was an extremely evil formation. After brutally killing someone, the murderer takes their organs to consecrate this Five Elements Formation, forcibly altering the mansion's feng shui.
However, such a formation is so externally wicked and internally dark that sunlight cannot shine upon the mansion, while moonlight gets drawn by the evil qi emanating from the organs.
The mansion's resident would find smooth success in their career, but the victim whose organs were taken suffers endlessly - unable to reincarnate while enduring perpetual agony. The sensation of having one's organs forcibly removed would haunt their ghost forever.
Thus, this is an exceptionally evil and vicious formation, typically used against enemies. More cruel than dismemberment, it simultaneously brings prosperity to one's own household.