Inn on fire
Can’t they taste the weird flavor in the wontons…?
Liu Jingyu didn't look particularly surprised. She simply turned her head back, thoughtfully gazing at the half-eaten wonton in the spoon in her hand. The meat filling was very white, so white that it was almost indistinguishable from the wonton wrapper. The difference was indistinguishable, though, perhaps due to the lighting, a faint green hue shone through the white.
Liu Jingyu brought the wontons in the spoon close to her nose and sniffed. There was no sour smell or meat smell.
She put down the soup spoon, and dipped the white porcelain spoon with half a wonton into the soup with clusters of oil floating on the surface. She didn't say much, but signaled the plain-dressed woman opposite to put down the copper coins with her eyes, and then left the stall with her people.
"Miss, the food in that stall is clearly rotten." Amid the lively noise, the woman next to her whispered in the girl's ear.
The other four nodded in unison.
Perhaps Liu Jingyu would only know something was wrong after eating it, but she couldn't accurately judge what was going on. But the others understood that this was the taste of ingredients that had been spoiled for a long time.
Liu Jingyu nodded.
She led her people forward along the crowded flow of people, stopped when passing a small stall, asked for six bowls of noodles, and then calmly sat down at the table with the five people.
"Hey, are you here to attend our celebration too?" The stall owner was a middle-aged woman who looked very blessed. A broad smile spread across her round face. As she served the noodles, she casually said, "Haha, we don't see any outsiders here on normal days. Only during celebrations do a lot of outsiders come. If I didn't see strangers at this time, I would have suspected that we were isolated from the world, haha!"
Liu Jingyu listened, a curious look on her face. She asked, "Eh? Then, Auntie, tell me, is our 'mountain cat' very powerful? Otherwise, how could it become a guardian angel?"
"Haha, I knew you outsiders would like to hear this." The middle-aged woman's smile grew wider, and her whole appearance was filled with joy. "Oh, I have to tell you about this in detail. In the past, I just heard others talk about it, but this time, let me say it myself!"
She cleared her throat, a smug smile on her face, folded her hands in front of her abdomen, and said, "That was a long, long time ago—"
"Legend has it that one night, an old hunter in the city with over a decade of experience received a revelation from a lynx in his dream. The next morning, at dawn, he hurriedly jumped out of bed, ignoring his wife's cries of alarm. Without even changing his clothes or shoes, he hurried out of the city...
"Everyone else in the city was dumbfounded. This old hunter, boasting his intelligence and arrogance, chose to go against the grain, always waiting until the sun was high in the sky before heading out to hunt. So, his unusual behavior that day, along with his wife's cries, spread throughout the city within half an hour... Almost everyone was eagerly awaiting his return.
"Quickly, within an hour, he returned from outside the city. Everyone surrounded him, eager to understand what had happened, but he ignored them. He simply knelt on the ground, his face filled with emotion, and kowtowed to the sky, his head covered in blood.
"Everyone was frightened by him and pushed and shoved away from him. But..."
The middle-aged woman's smile gradually became mysterious, and she narrowed her eyes as she looked at the people at the table in front of her.
Her story wasn't very exciting, and it was clear she had no experience, but Liu Jingyu and the others still looked at her with anticipation.
"But what?"
"Auntie, please tell us quickly! But what is it? It makes me feel like there are bugs crawling in my heart!"
"Yeah, yeah, stop keeping us in suspense!"
The smile on the middle-aged woman's face grew wider, revealing her white teeth. She said, "Okay, okay, I'll tell you right away. I'll make sure you hear it in detail and understand it clearly!"
“Okay, okay!”
"Auntie, you are so nice!"
The people at the table smiled and applauded.
"Oh, don't be anxious. You guys eat the noodles, you guys eat, I'll tell you." The middle-aged woman raised her hand, palm down, pressed it, and said with a smile.
Liu Jingyu lowered her head and tasted a mouthful of noodles. As expected, a fishy and sour taste rushed straight to her head.
The six people raised their heads and glanced at each other calmly. Then no one stopped eating. They just picked up the noodles with their chopsticks and listened attentively to the middle-aged woman next to them:
“Those people didn’t know what happened that day. What a pity! They just spent that memorable day in a daze!
“When night fell, everyone in the sleeping city saw the miracle!”
She said: "No one knew what they saw that night, but from the next day, everyone in the city put down their work and focused on building a statue for the 'Lynx' - from then on, the 'Lynx' became the patron saint of our city."
The middle-aged woman smacked her lips, a look of obvious regret on her face, as if she wished she could travel back to that day and witness the miracle with her own eyes.
"Why is there no record? Why don't you remember it? Why don't you remember it..." The middle-aged woman spoke, her tone increasingly sounding like she was suppressing some kind of pain caused by extreme regret. Her facial features were distorted, her hands were twisted together, and her face was filled with obvious anxiety.
Liu Jingyu suddenly interrupted, blinking her eyelashes, "Auntie, what do you think of the inn in the west of the city?"
"Ah..." The middle-aged woman at the table was stunned for a moment, and her hands, which had been scratched and bleeding, loosened. She looked confused and said, "Inn? There are no inns in our city."
She added, "It seems to have happened in the past, but one day after the 'Bobcat' arrived, all the inns in the city caught fire at the same time, killing many people. Since then, anyone who tried to rebuild, no matter what they built, would be burned down the next day. After three or four times, no one dared to go near the places that were once inns."
Hearing this, the six people sitting at the table looked at each other, and then one of them asked with a smile: "If there is no inn, where do outsiders stay?"
"Ah, yes, yes... Where do outsiders live...?" The middle-aged woman's face was full of confusion, her eyes were empty, and she murmured absentmindedly, "Where do they live? Where do outsiders live..."
Seeing that they couldn't get any more information out of her, they smiled and stood up, left their money, waved goodbye and left: "Auntie, we're leaving first!"
"Go ahead and do your work, we're leaving!"
"Bye, bye, bye, no need to see you off."
As the six figures spoke, they walked farther and farther away, and soon disappeared into the crowd.
The middle-aged woman at the stall had a round face with a pair of dark, round eyes that were lifeless. Her mouth moved as she said in the direction they were leaving:
"Ah, ah, noodles, noodles are not finished yet... Okay, then you can go, bye, bye..."
On the streets decorated with lights, six people shuttled through the crowd. After getting away from the stalls, they found a secluded alley and went in.
The alley was quiet, as if covered with a layer of cloth that blocked out all the noise from the street.
Finally, someone squeezed in front of Liu Jingyu. The person's eyes widened in disbelief and said, "She actually said there are no inns in the city?! If there are no inns, then where did we stay last night?!"
"Calm down," another person said, pulling her away. "This means we've found the problem! It's obvious that the strangeness here is related to the inn... Oh, and the 'Bobcat', it must be the 'Bobcat'."
The person next to him hesitated for a moment and said, "If that's the case, then we shouldn't go back to the inn."
"But will this mountain city really let us out in five days?" another person questioned.
As for this question, the six people present actually had the answer in their hearts.
——After going to so much trouble to trap these outsiders, how could they be willing to let them leave in the end?
The same thought suddenly popped up in the minds of the six people: "These five days will definitely not be easy!" It is very likely that outsiders will die within these few days without having to wait until the fifth day.
Seeing that Liu Jingyu remained silent for a long time, everyone also fell silent and waited quietly for Liu Jingyu to finish thinking.
The hustle and bustle in the back continued. After a few hours, it seemed as if the city's daytime bustle would never stop. As Liu Jingyu pondered, a thought flashed through his mind: "How could such a remote, isolated and strange place be so bustling?"
Is it a bit too lively?
Do people in the city not need to work, or is this only the case during the festival?
There are celebrations every six months, which means twice a year... The frequency is not high, but it seems that these overly remote places cannot afford it.
Are all ghosts like this? Because it is arranged by ghosts, it does not conform to the common sense of the human world?
"It shouldn't be...?" Liu Jingyu thought with some fear.
If the entire city was built by ghosts, then how powerful must it, or they, be... If that were true, it could indeed be called a miracle...
In this case, can these outsiders really escape successfully?
Liu Jingyu couldn't help but feel regretful. If only they hadn't entered the city, if only they had forced themselves to avoid it despite their exhaustion—even if they had stayed in the wild mountains instead of being trapped in this hellish place.
Just when she was feeling a little frustrated, she suddenly perked up, as if she remembered something.
That's not right.
If this ghost was truly that powerful, then they should have died the moment they entered the city. Even if not, they should have died the next day at most. But what was the reality? They did indeed fall into a coma in the early morning and were unable to wake up, but it didn't seem like they were in any danger of death.
This ghost certainly cannot kill people at will, whether it is restricted by rules or for some other reason, it, or they, cannot quickly get rid of outsiders.
——What's more, she felt that the ghost might not be that powerful.
There is no need to be nervous. After all, until the last moment before death, these outsiders have room for maneuver and they all have the opportunity to leave this mountain city.
Thinking of this, Liu Jingyu's thoughts suddenly became clear. She came back to her senses, looked at the five people in front of her, and said calmly, "We won't go back to the inn today. Let's go tonight and see what the celebration is all about."
"Yes, Miss!"
"yes!"
"Good! I want to see how there are two different scenes in the city at night!"
This is the path that must be taken. Those who can follow Liu Jingyu will not easily think of retreating. On the contrary, they actually have a crazy energy - this energy will make them fight to the death to protect Liu Jingyu from escaping in times of crisis.
Seeing the girl in front of them smile, everyone suddenly became full of confidence, and they were all eager to meet the "mountain cat", the so-called guardian angel.
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