Shekh glanced at him, picked through the crumpled bag of cookies, took the largest one, and handed it to Shi Jinzhe.
Three-layer sandwich cookies are too dry to swallow directly, so Shekh eats them by pinching a handful from the outside of the bag.
The cookie in her hand was the only one that survived with her body intact.
Shi Jinzhe held the Shehena biscuit in his hand, brought it to his mouth, and took a bite.
"Thank you." He held the half-eaten cookie in his hand and turned to open the door.
Meng Chengxi got bored and started counting the stripes on the wooden door before the door to room 403 was finally opened.
Shi Jin swallowed the biscuit: "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"Not long, just ten minutes." Meng Chengxi, followed by Xiao Fang, tilted his head and stood at the door, asking Shi Jinzhe, "Can he come in?"
He had seen Shekh’s snake tail before, but Meng Chengxi didn’t know if they would be willing to let others see it.
Xiao Fang is just a roommate. I tacitly allow him to come along, but that doesn't mean others agree.
Hearing the question while sitting inside, Shekh replied, "Come in."
The dungeon world already has ghosts, so it's not surprising that there's another snake.
Even if others see her here, it won't affect Shi Jinzhe's daily life.
Having received permission, Meng Chengxi turned back and warned Xiao Fang, "Keep your mouth shut and don't make a sound when you go inside."
Xiao Fang nodded repeatedly, her round cheeks trembling. "I understand."
He followed Meng Chengxi inside, closing the door behind him. When he saw the tail on the floor, Xiao Fang let out a muffled utterance from his mouth, which was covered by a hand: "#%…#shui~".
"...What are you talking about?" Meng Chengxi raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Are you chanting a spell?"
"It's...it's my hometown dialect, hehe, I got a little excited and just blurted it out."
Xiao Fang took his hand down, his expression strange, showing no fear, no surprise, not even doubt or panic.
His face was filled with excitement and surprise, and his eyes even shone brightly when they were focused on Shekh's snake tail.
In front of the three people, Xiao Fang first rubbed her hands on her clothes, then fiddled with her hair a couple of times, and then stretched her clothes hard to smooth out the wrinkles and tidy her appearance.
He spoke to Shekh very cautiously, "Hello." His expression was as tense as if he had seen a bodhisattva appear, afraid of offending Shekh.
"What did you just say?" Shekh asked curiously, as this was the first time someone had looked at him with such respect.
"If you want to compliment my looks," Xiao Fang repeated, her neck turning red with embarrassment.
Without his hand obstructing his view, Shi Jinzhe could now clearly hear his accent, "Are you from Fujian?"
Meng Chengxi tugged at Xiao Fang, "Stop staring at her like that."
How can this kid be so clueless?
Shi Jinzhe's eyes had already circled him twice, as if he were looking at meat being appraised.
"Ah, no..." Xiao Fang hurriedly explained, "This is the first time I've ever seen such a big snake, especially one like this. I'm so happy, I'm sorry."
"You really like snakes?"
Shi Jinzhe could see a sense of satisfaction in Xiao Fang's expression, which showed that his wishes had come true, he had achieved his goal, and he had no regrets even in death.
His expression was calm when he asked the question, but upon closer inspection, the corners of his mouth were pursed.
So he was the only one afraid of snakes; when he first met Shekh, he was so scared he didn't dare move.
He looked at Shekh's face; she seemed to be in a good mood as well as from the little round face's attitude.
Shi Jinzhe unintentionally harbored even more resentment towards the Cheng family.
If he hadn't been afraid of snakes in the first place, would Sheikh have treated him better?
"It's more than just liking, it's love!"
A probing gaze fell upon them, and Xiao Fang belatedly realized what was happening, quickly trying to cover it up, "Our whole family likes it!"
"The Minyue people worship snakes. Although people now say they are descendants of the dragon, my elders prefer to say they are descendants of the snake. We all love snakes. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, while others celebrate the Qixi Festival, we celebrate the Snake King Festival."
"Are there really festivals like this?" Shekh became interested; it was surprising that there were places that worshipped snakes in this way.
Xiao Fang: "Yes, we even have a Snake King Temple where we live. Every year during festivals, every family welcomes snakes. In my family, my great-grandfather would never say the word 'snake' to avoid it."
"If we don't talk about snakes, what should we talk about?"
"It's strange, these two words sound similar in the dialect, and he likes to say 'evil'. Our family is usually very respectful when we see snakes. When other people get snakes into their homes, they have to find a way to get snake repellent to drive them away. Our family would rather burn incense and make offerings to them as soon as possible. There is a saying that when a snake enters the house, it means that there is a noble person. We should treat it well."
"That's right, snakes are the totem of worship in many parts of Fujian and Yue." Meng Chengxi was particularly fond of reading about gods and ghosts for a while and had also heard of such folk customs.
Shekh's heart fluttered. He hooked his fingers around Shi Jin's broken fingers, looked up at him, and said, "Let's go play there after we go out."
Shi Jinzhe had no choice but to ask Xiao Fang, "Do you usually have these kinds of activities?"
Seeing the snake's tail disappear, Xiao Fang said in a daze, "Let's go after the New Year, on the first or fifteenth of the month. It's the end of the year now, there's nothing to see there."
Shi Jinzhe: "It's alright, we'll just treat it as experiencing the local customs."
It's still more than half a year until the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, and Sheh certainly doesn't have the patience to wait that long. Let's take her there once first.
"Then let's clear this mission quickly!" Shekh's usually calm speech quickened, and his emotions changed noticeably.
Shi Jinzhe knew this had piqued her interest, and she couldn't wait any longer.
He turned to Meng Chengxi and asked him something serious, "Did you come here to find out something?"
Meng Chengxi crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Something happened to the resident of apartment 503 upstairs."
"Someone died? The player didn't die, but the natives got into trouble first?"
"She didn't die, but she went crazy. She would hit anyone who came near her, and she kept covering herself with a quilt, saying she was cold. Someone was touching her. The group of people with that girl couldn't call 120 (emergency services), so they demanded compensation and a refund from the hotel. They made a scene on the first floor all morning."
"What about the girl who lives with her and has the cat?" Shekh told the three of them about the conversation she overheard yesterday. "The two of them got into an argument because of the cat, and the girl didn't go back to her room even after finding the cat."
Meng Chengxi: "She was the one who discovered it. She said that when she returned to her room in the morning, she was scratched on the face as soon as she opened the door. Her cat was also almost snatched away and thrown to its death by that crazy person because it was aggressive towards her."
Shi Jinzhe asked, "Where is that girl now? How is she?"
Meng Chengxi: "When I came up, they changed my room. The compensation issue is still under negotiation. The front desk said that I have to ask the landlady, and he can't make the decision."
"This wasn't over before you came up, was it?" Shi Jinzhe pondered. "The landlady lives on the seventh floor. Let's go see what they're going to do. If someone's gone mad, this definitely won't end well."
The four of them put their heads together and decided to go downstairs under the guise of joining in the fun to find out what was going on.
As Shi Jinzhe opened the door to room 403 and stepped into the corridor, he unexpectedly came face to face with the female receptionist in a red shirt.
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