“I repeat, I don’t know where he is.”
Naga-ashi lowered its head, refusing to make eye contact with Lin Sanjiu. It smacked its hand on the kneading board and hissed, “If I knew where he was, I would have killed him already.”
It seemed that its human positive side had deteriorated in light of its transformation into a duoluozhong. There was only hatred in it, and its enmity towards Timo, who was its childhood sweetheart, was fueled by the fact that Timo did not get turned into a duoluozhong.
“Leave me alone, or I will call the cops,” the duoluozhong growled. Its eyes were turning bloodshot, the mask puffing and then crinkling back in a papery rustle of accordion folds across its nose and mouth.
Lin Sanjiu remained steadfast in the face of Naga-ashi’s sudden hostility. She roved over the duoluozhong up and down, and then turned away without saying anything.
As she moved down the street, Lin Sanjiu could feel Naga-ashi’s gaze glaring into her back. She paid no mind to the duoluozhong’s conspicuous hostility and turned around the corner. Then, after a short while, the sound of the duoluozhong’s hands falling on the chopping board filled the air anew.
Initially, Lin Sanjiu planned to sound out some information about the former owner of Exodus from Timo. After all, Timo was his assigned real estate agent, and since the man could get his hand on a spacecraft, he might have clues about the location of other spacecraft. In the event that she couldn’t manage to scoop anything out of the man, at the very least, she would know where he hid all his fortunes.
Her money was enough to buy another house, but not a spacecraft.
“Forget it,” Lin Sanjiu sighed deeply. “I don’t hold out much hope either,” she said to Mrs. Manas as she alighted from the bus. “I think I need to find another way to look for a spacecraft.”
She waited for a while, but Mrs. Manas remained silent. Lin Sanjiu didn’t know where she had gone, but she did not plan to find out.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked ahead. Mid Mountsburg seemed to have been shrouded in a perpetual hail. The posthumans over here had refitted the buildings into their own liking. All of them had a different style, and they all particularly stood out from the white snow.
Lin Sanjiu touched her [Mask]. She did not go straight to the varicolored building at the center of the town but instead headed towards a tavern that was situated at a hill.
As she went near the tavern, she stopped and looked up. Even though there were several languages written on the signboard, she knew none of them. Although she couldn’t tell if the building in front of her was a tavern or not, she did not mind much about it. She pushed the door open and stepped into the tavern.
She looked around and found herself a table near the window. She took a seat and looked out the window. The Bliss Convention Center and its surroundings were bathed in a symphony of red and blue. The scene was mesmerizing and pleasing to one’s eyes. She retracted her gaze and began examining the interior of the tavern. There was a group of four bald hunks sitting next to her. All four of them had the same appearance, and their body sizes were too large for the tavern, making it look small while accomodating them. They didn’t speak but merely stared at each other sternly. Just as Lin Sanjiu was sizing them up, a soft voice rang out beside her, “They are the gestalt brothers. I have never seen you around before, is this your first time coming here?”
Perhaps no one would use color to describe a voice. However, Lin Sanjiu saw the color of the voice when it slid into her ears. It was purple. Flabbergasted at the feeling, Lin Sanjiu looked at the man.
The man who greeted her was donned in a white apron. He had a soft-looking face like white dough, and the smile that split across his face reminded Lin Sanjiu of the rounded grin on bread. She would probably forget how he looked after she turned her eyes away, but she was certain she would never forget his voice—the purplish, soft yet rich voice. “Here is our menu. See if there is anything you would like to order?”
Lin Sanjiu didn’t understand anything on the menu, nor did she come here to eat or drink. Since everything looked the same to her, she arbitrarily pointed at a dish that was written in a font that resembled cat dung and said, “Give me one of this.”
“All right, thank you. Please wait a moment, your dish will be served shortly,” the purplish voice said. After that, the tavern owner wedged himself through the crowded guests like an apparition and disappeared into the kitchen.
There were so many strange specimens in the Twelve Worlds, some of whom may not even be called human beings. Even though she had stayed in Heaven Underworld for a couple of months, she still couldn’t help but begin scrutinizing the frequenters in the tavern. Amongst the people, she saw one guest who looked more like a giant hornet than a human.
Suddenly, an image of Silvan popped up in her head. Considering his flawless appearance, in a sense, Silvan could also be considered as a “strange specimen”.
While she was busy inspecting the guest inside the tavern, the tavern owner returned out of the blue and made Lin Sanjiu jump. She calmed herself down and then offered the owner a grin as she asked, “Are you familiar with Bliss?”
As he helped her to set the table, he nodded assentingly, “Of course I do. Bliss is the biggest sightseeing spot in Mid Mountsburg. Without Bliss, none of our businesses could survive. Do you wish to go there?”
“Well,” Lin Sanjiu cleared her throat and lowered her voice, “Do you know Jezebel?”
An understanding smile crawled upon the owner’s face as he replied, “So you are Ms. Jezebel’s fan too. She has come to my tavern a few times in the past. She is a very beautiful girl, certainly.”
“Yeah, I… Ahem, I like her a lot, and I’ve… I’ve seen her once…” Lin Sanjiu said, feeling her face getting hotter underneath her mask, “I hope I can see her again…”
The tavern owner maintained his friendly smile and nodded. His voice began to spread out in a purplish hue before her eyes. “That is everybody’s dream. Her head of cascading black hair is truly a candy to one’s eyes.”
“It’s so great that you can understand me,” Lin Sanjiu exclaimed. A plan had already formed in her head. She planned to feign as a fervent fan who was infatuated by Jezebel’s beauty. She put on a nervous expression and added, a serious expression dawned upon her face. “Normally, what time Ms. Jezebel will come out from Bliss?”
However, her heart dropped when she saw the frown on the tavern owner’s face. She hastily stretched her arm across the table and shoved a fistful of red crystals into the owner’s pocket.
The man’s face lightened up. When he began to speak again, the purplish glow in his voice toned down and became lighter, “Well, I do appreciate your kindness, but I don’t know about Ms. Jezebel’s schedule as well.”
“It’s alright. Let’s chat,” Lin Sanjiu laughed, “Normally, when will she go to Bliss?”
Perhaps because of the red crystals, the tavern owner did not go away. He pulled out a cloth and began wiping the table. “Sometimes she will go in the morning, sometime at night. Ms. Jezebel did not have a fixed schedule, so nobody knows when she will be at Bliss.”
“Isn’t she going to be at Bliss every day?”
“Oh no,” the tavern owner chuckled, “But you will know when she is here.”
“What do you mean?”
“She is too famous,” the tavern owner said slowly, “Every time she is here, there will be a hundred people gathered outside of the center just to see her.” Then, he pointed at the Bliss Convention Center and added, “Can you see that? The snow is too clean. This means that she isn’t here today.”
Just as Lin Sanjiu was dazed for a moment, the tavern owner slipped away again. She glanced at the odd-shaped cutleries on the table, but she did not know how to use them. One of them looked like a horn and another that looked like a glass bottle that was shattered into half. She peeled her eyes away from the cutleries and looked out the window, immersing herself into her own world.
When the tavern owner once again returned with her order, she gave him another handful of red crystals. This time, she asked everything she could think of about Jezebel, hoping that she could make up the missing pieces as much as possible.
However, despite the tavern owner having told her a lot of things about Jezebel, she found nothing interesting about her. Just like what the peacock head had dug up on Jezebel, Jezebel was a legendary figure who had no connection to her whatsoever.
Lin Sanjiu sighed dejectedly as she saw the tavern owner pour a slime-like liquid into a small stump. She picked it up and took a sniff. It had a strong scent which made her wrinkle her nose. She picked up another brownish piece that had a spongy texture and dipped it into the liquid. She took one bite and her five senses exploded. Tears, snots, and sweat oozed out from her pores as blood shot up into her brain. Overwhelmed by the sensation, she “cried” for a long while and it took her about six minutes before she finally recovered and regained her senses.
Even though her back was wet with sweat after getting assaulted by the food, she still gave the tavern owner a nod when he walked past her table. She squeezed a forced smile onto her face and said, “This… this is so delicious. Keep this table for me. Burp. I will come here every day.”
Mayhaps her acting skill was too great, the tavern owner believed her. Every time she came to the tavern, there would always be a cup of the liquid on her table waiting for her. Bathing in the smell that almost crushed her spirit, Lin Sanjiu waited from morning until midnight, yet she still didn’t see Jezebel.
Then, on the seventh day, she couldn’t hold it anymore.
“Since Ms. Jezebel didn’t show up, I guess I have to change my approach,” said Lin Sanjiu. Her voice had become hoarse from the consumption of the weird food. “Perhaps I should go into Bliss and become their…”
Midway through her sentence, she was interrupted by a swarming wave of applaud and cheer. Lin Sanjiu was taken aback a little. Then, the owner smiled at her, “Here comes Ms. Jezebel.”
When she looked out the window, she found that the entire street was crowded with people. A streamlined aircraft with an “Ubume” sign slowed to a stop. Its whirring engine blew up the snow into the air. The people retreated and made way as they all looked intently at the aircraft.
A figure draped in a red blouse stepped down from the aircraft, followed by a few posthumans. She truly did justice to her fame and Lin Sanjiu could see why she was so famous. There weren’t any flaws or blemishes in every aspect of her being. She was like a red rose that blossomed in the snow, and her cascading black hair that fluttered in the wind made her look like a person walking out of a drawing. As she traveled down the street, she waved her hand at the crowd, giving the people a glimpse of her delicate body that wrapped beneath her blouse.
Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at the red figure until Jezebel turned around and greeted the crowd at the tavern. Even though she was very far away, Lin Sanjiu could still see the glimmering in her glowing eyes.
Lin Sanjiu froze.
She did not know this woman.
