They went to the county and settled down in a hotel, all staying in one room although they booked four. After all, Su Bai was now the only one who was still able to fight since Seven, Gyatso and Fatty were almost disabled. It would be a great loss if anything happened while Su Bai was not watching. He had brought them back to help with future plots, and to have them owe him, not to be killed easily afterwards.
It didn't matter if they tried to trap each other in the story world, such a favor would stay until it was paid off, no matter what.
If someone didn't want to return the favor, he would have to kill them all, otherwise, he would destroy his own reputation.
Well, Su Bai didn't think so much when he picked them up. He just felt sorry to see them lying there desperately. It would be great if they were grateful, and he would not lose anything even if they didn't return the favor. It wasn't much of a problem to bring them back anyway.
That night, Gyatso, who was most badly injured, slept on the bed, Seven sat by a wall meditating, and Su Bai and Fatty made beds on the floor.
They were so tired that none of them woke up until noontime the next day. Of course, people here would always keep an eye open even when they were sleeping.
Fatty's main problem was the horrible injury on his chest and the damage to his soul by that knife, so he was still able to move. After he got up, he walked downstairs supporting himself against the handrail, asked the waiter to go out and buy some breakfast with him and then ordered the waiter to bring the food upstairs to their room.
It wasn't a big breakfast, just some soybean milk, fried bread sticks, and buns with vegetables or meat. Fatty didn't care about the taste since all he wanted was to be full. Gyatso and Fatty sat with him after cleaning up, but they weren't eating in a hurry.
Fatty swallowed a bun, wiped his lips and asked in surprise:
"What ? You're not hungry? I'm almost full, but you guys haven't eat anything yet. What, monks can live without food? "
Gyatso and Seven smiled but said nothing.
Fatty finished his breakfast, threw himself onto the bed and was quite satisfied. Just then, Su Bai, who didn't show up during the breakfast, had finally come back. He was holding two hampers filled with desserts from a famous local restaurant. They looked much finer than what Fatty had bought. Apparently, Su Bai had left after Fatty went out, and told Gyatso and Seven where he was going, so they were waiting for him without telling Fatty.
"Sh*t! You should have told me! Now I can't have anything more!" Fatty said reluctantly. In fact, he already had two bowls of noodles before heading back.
"Food is probably the only thing we can enjoy in ancient China. Why not treat ourselves with something nicer? We've got enough money anyway. It's not like we're bringing the rest of the money back to the real world. "
Su Bai gave the kid a piece of dessert. The kid took a bite and smiled with his eyes narrowed when he found it was so sweet.
Fatty just let go of his envy very soon. When a person was already full, no food would be attractive, no matter how tasty it seemed to be. He just waved his hand and asked:
"Are we staying here for long or leaving today?"
Su Bai drank his tea and said, "We can't fool those people forever. After breakfast, pack some necessities and herbs. We're leaving by noon. Even if we can't hurry off to the nest, we can still use some deserted place out of this county so you can both get better in four or five days. At least you won't be helpless when facing those westerners."
Seven agreed. "We can never be too careful. Those people are not stupid, and we were just lucky to have fooled them yesterday, but they will come for a second attempt. We shall get out of this crowded county and set up some enchantment to hide our traces so it will be difficult to track us down even if they are skilled."
"Fine, then I'll have some sleep before we leave."
Fatty
Fatty immediately started sleeping with one leg overlapping the other. His priority was to fix his soul, or he wouldn't be able to apply his Taoist skills, which was as good as being disabled.
But it was not that easy for Gyatso. Even though he had pushed his flesh and bones to heal despite the great pain, it was much slower since he was not a vampire like Su Bai. It would take a long time, and there was no guarantee of full recovery.
And it was even more complicated with Seven, who was damaged both physically and mentally, but somehow, he looked the best of them all. One couldn't tell how much he had recovered.
After the meal, they packed some food and were ready to go.
Most of the stuff was carried on Su Bai's back; even the baby was settled in a bag hanging in front of Su Bai's chest.
Fatty was the first one to walk out the door, and Su Bai was the last.
"Sir, are you leaving?" The waiter greeted Fatty. Clearly, he had made friends with Fatty in the morning.
Suddenly, Su Bai raised his hand.
"Wait."
Fatty paused for a second. Then, he didn't just stop but also backed up.
Gyatso also looked at Su Bai.
Seven looked downstairs and around, then asked with confusion: "What have you seen?"
"Go back and pretend nothing's wrong. Fatty, call the waiter for tea."
Then, Su Bai went back with all the luggage on his back, and so did Gyatso and Seven, without drawing any attention. Fatty stood by the stairs and yelled for tea, so as to cover for their unusualness.
When all of them were back in the room, Fatty closed the
closed the door.
Gyatso, Seven and Fatty were staring at Su Bai who put the kid on the bed before he talked:
"Those people eating around a table downstairs, I know them."
"You know them?" Fatty muttered, "From a story world?"
Su Bai nodded. "Indeed."
"Anything particular?"
Fatty was not stupid at all. There must be a reason why Su Bai called everyone back with great solemnity. No one would think he was just afraid of shadows, especially after they saw him eat fresh human liver the other day.
"I remember them making Beggar's Chicken outside the county in dirty clothes. And now they are sitting there dining in fine clothes. I don't think they were just cosplaying for fun."
The others fell silent. Yesterday, Su Bai was the closest to the beggars, so no one else had seen their faces clearly except for him. Then the westerners appeared, and they were all focusing on them instead of the beggars.
Most importantly, if the beggars who happened to be cooking there had turned to be rich guests downstairs in the hotel that they were staying in, it must be more than just a coincidence… or even creepy.
"So… those westerners are not the main course served by Dreadful Radio? The real main course is somewhere we've never noticed?" Fatty shook the empty tea cup. "If it's true, this must be a really interesting story. But something doesn't add up. If they were fully aware of our whereabouts, then the fight between the westerners and us, could it be one of their tests?"
"But it was just a spur of the moment that I wanted to eat that chicken. How could they know that we would pa.s.s by, be hungry and try to grab the chicken?"
Gyatso said, "They may be some particular people, but it might be a coincidence that they were there when we fought with the westerners…"
Seven was knocking the table with his finger. He hadn't talked for a long time, but now he said slowly:
"It makes no sense. No sense."
With a knock on the door, the waiter's voice came: "Sir, your tea is ready."
"Come in." Fatty replied.
The waiter walked in, served the tea, left and closed the door behind.
Su Bai picked up the teapot and poured all the tea on the table.
Fatty's eyes narrowed, "Poisoned?"
Su Bai shook his head and answered honestly, "Dunno. But the waiter that greeted you has been replaced. One of those guests in fine clothes has dressed up like a waiter and served the tea."
Seven stared at Su Bai, "Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent. The real waiter had talked to me when I came back. He said one of my friend, the fat one, had bought breakfast already and was very polite to have noodles with him. But he accidentally spilled some soup on his clothes."
Fatty nodded, "Yes, when he was eating noodles."
"The waiter just came in was a different person but in the same clothes." Su Bai said convincingly. "That is to say, from the moment we stepped out to just now, one of those guests had put on the real waiter's clothes and served us tea."
Author's Note:
The official account "kongbu66" exists and can be followed on WeChat. Just click "Add Contact" on the right upper concert, search "kongbu66" and follow.