White smoke billowed through the tiny room, where a pink immersion heater stood upside down in a water bottle, making a bubbling sound as boiling water continuously splashed out.
Right beside the boiling water, a stunning and voluptuous beauty reclined on an off-white lounge chair. A pink silk nightgown tightly hugged her vibrant, alluring figure, its low-cut neckline draped across the chair to reveal a vast expanse of snow-white skin below. The lofty, upright contours of her breasts were faintly visible, and a pair of deep crimson ** lay right before the eyes.
At that moment, the sexy beauty was engrossed in a copy of "Virtual World" magazine, her delicate face flushed with a rosy glow, completely absorbed as if she had forgotten everything around her.
That's right, she is my boss—Xu Lin, the owner of a small underground foot-reflexology parlor in the city!They are called underground foot massage parlors because, while they are a dime a dozen in the city—often numbering dozens on a single street—they rarely open for business before eight o'clock in the evening. They are essentially legal establishments that prefer to avoid the light of day.
Operators of such parlors share an unspoken understanding. They generally unlock their doors only after eight o'clock to welcome arriving patrons. By ten o'clock—around the time the police have finished their shifts, gone home, and climbed into bed with their wives—each parlor has its attendants slip into bathrobes and sit on the lobby sofas. Passersby on the street can often catch glimpses of the women's pale flesh through the wide glass doors; those who are particularly lewd can even stoop a little to peek at the colors of their undergarments.
Yielding to this temptation of the flesh, late-returning men with poor self-control frequently find their desires stirred, unable to resist stepping inside to sample what the women have to offer. Of course, there are also those who simply drool as they press their faces against the glass, content to look without paying a cent.Our foot bath center is neither huge nor tiny. Excluding Xu Lin, there are five masseuses and one genuine pedicurist. As for me, I am the only male in the entire establishment. My responsibilities are quite straightforward: I handle the heavier, more strenuous chores, and sometimes I even wash the masseuses' clothes. The logic is simple—they are responsible for servicing the customers, while I am responsible for servicing them. Fortunately, none of them have made any excessive demands of me so far.
Beyond that, I also shoulder a lofty mission: drumming up customers!
Undoubtedly, soliciting customers is illegal, so I tend to be quite bashful about it. Under normal circumstances, my weekly performance maxes out at one or two clients, and the most outrageous instance was a month where I didn't pull in a single one.
Roughly calculating, I have been here for nearly half a year now, and my income has consistently hovered in that barely-surviving state of neither starving nor getting full. Xu Lin treats her employees fairly well and occasionally jokes around with everyone. As for why she chose to get into this line of work, that remains anyone's guess.
Glancing at the steaming water heater rod, I set down the copy of *Esports Guide* I was holding and called out from my reclining chair:
"Sister Lin, you can unplug it now. The water is splashing everywhere!"
"..."
Total silence. Xu Lin didn't budge an inch, still absorbed in her copy of *Virtual World*.
"Sister Lin, unplug it already! It's making such a loud noise—if you don't unplug it soon, it's going to break!"
"..."
Still dead silence.
I cranked up the volume: "Sister Lin, if you don't unplug it now, it's going to go limp!"
Following a profound silence..."Boom!"
An exquisite throw pillow smashed right into my head. Xu Lin glared at me with sharp, beautiful eyes and snapped, "If you want to pull it out, do it yourself! That thing isn't even mine!"
Damn it! I suddenly remembered—I was the one who had paid for that immersion heater out of my own pocket!
Xu Lin glanced down at the book in her hand and said to me, "Hey, Xiaolin! Go wake those girls up. I have something to discuss with them, and you need to come in and listen too. It might concern our future livelihood."
I nodded. Even though I didn't fully understand what was going on, I still did as she said and went to wake up the girls who were still fast asleep.
Inside the lounge room, five or six girls were sprawled haphazardly across a row of pushed-together beds. The only one who showed any bit of modesty was Lu Xuehan, sleeping at the very far end. She was a foot-massage therapist here and the only young woman who wasn't a hostess.
"Hey, all of you, get up!"
"Lin Fan, are you looking for a death wish?! You just ruined my beauty sleep!"
My status here wasn't high, so the girls often flew into a rage at me.
"The boss has something to announce! Anyone who isn't there in five minutes gets a 500 fine!"
"Ah?!"
Amidst a flurry of chaos, the girls couldn't even be bothered to put on their undergarments. They simply wrapped themselves in blankets one by one and rushed toward the room where Xu Lin was resting.
I frowned. Lu Xuehan, sleeping at the very end, hadn't moved at all. She merely pulled her blanket higher up against her chest, looking at me timidly with a faint blush coloring her lovely, delicate face.
"Lu Xuehan, why aren't you going to the meeting? Aren't you afraid of the fine?"I am not averse to beautiful women, but I am somewhat allergic to Lu Xuehan's looks. Since she is not one of the hostesses, I can only look and nothing more. The other girls are different; even if I don't flirt with them, they will come and flirt with me. After all, my looks are passable...
Lu Xuehan bit her rosy lips and said in a low voice, "Could you... please step outside for a moment? I'm not wearing any clothes..."
I was taken aback. This girl doesn't wear clothes to sleep? It seems she really has been led astray by the others!
"Hurry up then, this is very important..."
I quickly pulled the door shut. For some reason, whenever I faced Lu Xuehan, I always felt completely uneasy. It wasn't like the feeling a young boy gets when he meets his crush, but rather a persistent feeling that Lu Xuehan shouldn't be in such an unclean place...
And what about me? Why am I here?
I shook my head and stopped thinking about it. There are some things I no longer wish to bring up, lest I lose even the mood to look at beautiful women.
I poured a cup of water from the water dispenser in the corridor and glanced at the endless stream of pedestrians outside. This bustling world—it seemed to have abandoned me...
"Hey, aren't you going over for the meeting yet?"
Lu Xuehan's voice was very sweet, belonging to that of a young girl.
I turned back to look and saw that she had already put on a light yellow nightgown. Even beneath such loose clothing, her full, upright breasts still maintained a vibrant shape. Her delicate figure, matched with her creamy complexion and beautiful, lively eyes, always gave the impression of someone exquisitely tender.
Perhaps I was staring too intently, as Lu Xuehan actually blushed. She glared at me before walking toward Xu Lin's room.