Normally, the people of the JiJiu Town didn’t come out during the night, thus there was no such thing as a ‘night market’ either. Once it was dark, the streets became pitch black, with only a few buildings that would emit light from their windows. The HaoLai Inn was one of those buildings. From afar, one could see a few of the rooms on the second floor were still lit.
The HaoLai Inn sign shook violently under the night’s cold and violent winds.
In the lobby of the inn, the innkeeper came out of the corner with an oil lamp in hand. Within the darkness, lit only by a dim oil lamp, the innkeeper looked very scary and frightening.
The innkeeper carried the lamp up the stairs and, as he walked, a creaking noise could be heard. In the silence of the night, it was amplified a by hundred fold.
Once up, the innkeeper walked over to the rooms with their lights on. His wrinkly face made an eerie smile.
In the room, You XiaoMo was concentrated on staring at Ling Xiao when there was a sudden knock on the door.
Who would knock at such a hour?
You XiaoMo felt confused but still went to open the door. He was greeted with the innkeeper standing outside, holding an oil lamp beneath his chin, scaring him instantly. He felt as if he’d seen a ghost.
The innkeeper made a smile that was meant to please as he put down his lamp on the floor. He then held out his other hand that had a tray and said, “Customer, this is a free midnight snack from my shop to you.”
You XiaoMo said, “No thanks, I’m not hungry, you can take it back.”
He wasn’t in the mood for food, even if someone gave him ten free bowls, he still wouldn’t eat it.
After that, he prepared to close to door.
Quickly, the innkeeper held out his hand to stop him. With a modest smile he said, “Customer, even if you aren’t hungry right now, you can have it when you are. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anyone to eat it, and it would be such a waste.”
You XiaoMo furrowed his brows but still took the tray. Instantly, the innkeeper smiled as if blooming a flower and left with the lamp.
Once he was back in his room, You XiaoMo finally realized the abnormality in the innkeeper’s actions. The people of the JiJiu Town were very excluding to outsiders, why would one suddenly give him free snacks?
His brain was a mess and he didn’t have the time to think about other complicated stuff, so he just left the tray on the table, for it to feel the loneliness.
On the first floor lobby.
The two shop assistants were both male, whereas the chef was a middle aged women. After they saw the innkeeper come down, they instantly surrounded him. but before they asked anything, they saw his gloomy expression.
“Innkeeper, what’s wrong?” Hurriedly, the chef asked.
With a darkened expression, he replied, “We may have to cancel our plan.”
“Why?” Everyone asked, confused. They had even come prepared.
The innkeeper said, “One of the customers wasn’t interested in the snack. Even though I still sent it, it’s most likely that they won’t eat it. If we can’t drug them, they could pose a hindrance to our plan.”
“Then are we just going to leave them be? From what I heard from A Chuan, they are big fishes!” The chef said venomously as her kitchen knife let out a cold shine.
“Of course not.” The innkeeper replied, “From what I see, those two won’t be leaving JiJiu Town anytime soon. One of them seemed injured. It’s likely that they will stay until his wounds are healed. As long as they are still in the inn, we have plenty of chances.’
One the assistants then asked, “Then what about the other two?”
Recently a lot of outsiders came to JiJiu Town. With the help of A Chuan, there were four outsiders currently staying there. Two of them may leave the next day.
“They have probably already eaten the snack I sent them. We have to get rid of them today, otherwise they will find out that something was in it by tomorrow.” The innkeeper thought about it and continued, “Okay, so I’ll go and distract the two that didn’t eat the snack while you guys go tie up the other two. Make sure to keep it quiet, we don’t want to be discovered.”
“Okay!”
The four split up and got to work. The HaoLai Inn was one of those ‘shady’ shops.
A Chuan was truly from the JiJiu Town but he also had another identity and that was to introduce foreigners to HaoLai Inn. They then drugged them, tied them up and stole all of their belongings. Of course, killing and such were also included, since they were just a bunch of outsiders.
Thus, it wasn’t even thirty minutes when the innkeeper knocked on You XiaoMo’s door again.
With impatience You XiaoMo opened the door, “What do you want this time?”
With a smile to placate, the innkeeper said, “Customer, I thought that you may be feeling worried over your friend there, so I made two side dishes for you and a small bottle of wine. If you feel bored, you can have the wine with something to snack on.”
You XiaoMo suddenly felt that this innkeeper was a bit interesting. After seeing the stuff on his hand, he said, “If I remember correctly, the people of the JiJiu Town were very excluding, shouldn’t you guys be the same? Why are you being so nice and giving me free food?”
“What you say is correct, the JiJiu Town is very excluding to outsiders, but there is a small section that isn’t, like me. Although we still charged you such an expensive rate, it was out of necessity. If we were to stand out, then we would be targeted by the people of the town, wouldn’t you agree?” With no rush, the innkeeper answered calmly.
“Okay then, you can leave the stuff.” You XiaoMo thought that there was some truth to what he said. What he didn’t know was that it was on purpose.
With his consent, the innkeeper walked in with his head lowered. However, seamlessly, he also took a peak and saw that blurry figure behind the screen.
Once he put the stuff down, the innkeeper took the previous stuff and said, “Customer, these snack’s have gone cold so I’ll take it down stairs with me.”
Neither the wine nor the dishes were drugged. So as to make sure he didn’t discover the drug, he came with the purpose to also retrieve the evidence.
You XiaoMo waved his hand to shoo him away. The innkeeper figured that it was probably enough time and left the room.
Once he arrived at the kitchen, he emptied the two snacks into a bucket and hurried to the firewood storage. Expectedly, his people were already there with the two outsiders tied up.
Although they were practitioners, the drugs they used weren’t normal. The normal stuff would only work on normal people after all.
The four striped them of all their riches but there were only two magic bags.
It was too bad that they were just normal practitioners. Their combined spirit gems didn’t even reach a hundred. Although it was still a decent amount, that was enough to satisfy them. By the looks of things, they couldn’t let the big fishes off the hook. They must have a lot on them.
Turning to the chef, the innkeeper said, “Then I’m leaving the rest to you.”
Slapping her chest, the chef affirmed with an eerie expression, “Don’t worry innkeeper, just leave the rest to me.” Then she brought out her trusty kitchen knife.
On the second floor, You XiaoMo was wholly unaware that the other two outsiders were already gone.
The two dishes that the innkeeper had bought were peanuts and sugar lotus slices. He hadn’t eaten these in a long time, that it really got his appetite up.
If the innkeeper knew that this was all that was needed to lure You XiaoMo, he wouldn’t have been so regretful of his decision to not drug it. It was a waste of a perfectly good opportunity, although, with only You XiaoMo eating it, it was destined to fail anyways.
On the morning of the second day, Ling Xiao was still recuperating on the bed.
You XiaoMo made a lazy stretch. It was very uncomfortable, sleeping on the table. He felt sore all over. If he wasn’t afraid of disturbing Ling Xiao by sleeping on the bed, there was no way he would have given it up.
Seeing that Ling Xiao’s condition wasn’t bad, You XiaoMo walked out of the room, yawning. At the staircase, he met with the shopkeeper.
“Customer, you’re up early.”
You XiaoMo thought that this was the perfect opportunity, since didn’t need to get down. You XiaoMo said, “The sugar lotus slices from last night were delicious, give me another, also some other stuff. No need for wine, just tea.”
The innkeeper affirmed and went down to get it prepared.
You XiaoMo guessed that it was probably pre-prepared since it wasn’t even five minutes after that the innkeeper returned with everything. There were the lotus slices he ordered, a steamy meat bun and two bowls of congee. All in good serving.
This time, You XiaoMo didn’t let him in but shooed him off after he took the stuff.
Once he placed the stuff down, he walked over to the screen to check on Ling Xiao. Seeing that his eyes were still unopened, he didn’t call in fear of disturbing him.
You XiaoMo looked at the lotus slices that got his appetite up but his gaze was drawn to the steamy bun beside it. It was a pure white, very big and made one’s mouth water just by looking at it.
You XiaoMo couldn’t help but take one and pull it apart. He had a weird habit of eating buns, he always split it in half, that way, according to him, it tasted better.
But just as he was preparing to take a bite, he found something odd about the filling. There was something sharp in the meat?
You XiaoMo took the stuff out and upon a closer inspection, realized that it was a piece of a nail. There was a human nail in the bun?
You XiaoMo’s hands shook and with that the bun fell onto the floor.
What amazing luck he had, he just found a human meat bun!
