Chen Lee returned to the tavern and quickly descended into the hidden black market. This time, the owner gave him a brief instruction by saying , " please, head to the blue-door shop in the seventh tunnel for magical potions. "
Upon entering the shop, he was greeted by a mesmerizing display of shelves filled with magical artifacts and some of them were even floating in the air.
Then a moment later, a graceful elven woman behind the counter noticed him and asked,
"What are you looking for, sir?"
"I need a magic potion that can dissolve things," Chen Lee replied.
"I have a low-grade basic corrosive potion," she said. "It can even melt thin iron sheets. Will that do?"
Chen Lee quickly considered to decompose the elf corpse as the dead body is not that hard to dissolve .
So he answered,
"Yes, that'll work," .
Soon the elf shopkeeper fetched a small magical bottle filled with a dark, smoky liquid and handed it to him.
"Here you go and that'll be five silvers."
Chen Lee was taken aback by such a high price for such a basic level magical potion , but he paid it without any argument. As potion got into his hand, he then hurriedly rushed towards Ash's house to destroy the body.
Once there, he lingered outside for a few cautious minutes before slipping inside. He quicklyrushed to the cabinet and found the body still hidden. So without any delay, he poured the corrosive liquid over it. Within half an hour, the corpse dissolved completely, leaving no evidence behind.
Seeing this, Chen Lee then transformed himself to look like Ash, adjusting his voice to match, just as he had once mimicked Shahjahan's voice from a distance.
Soon, disguised and confident, he returned to Ash's home. As he stepped through the door, he called out,
"Sophia, I heard you were looking for me."
Sophia appeared and instead asked, "Sweetheart, why didn't you come home last night?"
Still playing the part, Chen Lee replied,
"Darling, Shahjahan and I got assigned to rotating night shifts starting yesterday. And by the way, Miss Mumtaz Mahal, Shahjahan is on duty tonight. We'll be taking turns from now on."
Mahal raised an eyebrow. "But Shahjahan never mentioned anything about that."
"Miss," he responded smoothly, "the blacksmith shop owner only informed him today when he came searching for me."
With that, Chen Lee gently took Sophia's hand.
"Let's go home, love," he said.
Together, they left Shahjahan's house, glancing back to see his son laughing with a chubby neighborhood child.
As they walked, Chen Lee's mind wandered about what should he do next beside pretending to be Ash.