“Yingying, you’re dead. If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll punch the life out of you. What exactly did you see? Stop playing games.”
Su Shuang’er lowered her voice and gave Mu Yingying a sharp kick under the table.
Normally, she would have smacked this scatterbrained woman’s head, but given the Weirdness of their current surroundings, she could only urge her on through gritted teeth.
[‘Yeah, Auntie Ying, hurry up and tell us. What exactly is wrong with this photo?’]
White Night was also extremely anxious; this clue was a matter of life and death.
“Oh, please. I just saw the two of you sweating from nerves and wanted to lighten the mood.”
“You need to relax. The more tense you are, the easier it is to make a mistake. Those who fear death the most tend to die the fastest — that’s my experience talking.”
Mu Yingying brushed the dust off her leg and tucked away her usual cynical smile. Her eyes grew sharp.
She leaned forward slightly and whispered mysteriously, “Look closely at the eyes of those two young men. The youth standing on the left — though his body is upright, his eyes and the slight tilt of his shoulders show that all his attention is focused on that girl. It’s obviously a crush.”
“What’s so strange about that? Just a teenage crush,” Su Shuang’er muttered, frowning.
“Don’t be in such a hurry. The good part is coming up.”
The corners of Mu Yingying’s mouth curled into a mysterious arc as her slender finger pointed toward the other side of the photo.
“Look at the youth on the right. He isn’t looking at the camera, and he isn’t looking at the old man. He is staring deathly — almost obsessively — at the youth on the left.”
“What?”
Su Shuang’er’s eyes widened slightly.
“Exactly,” Mu Yingying said, slapping her thigh with conviction.
“The one on the left likes the girl, but the one on the right likes the one on the left. It’s a love triangle.”
After hearing this, a look of absurdity flashed across Su Shuang’er’s cold face. “Just from a look? What time do you think it is? You’re still using that ridiculous imagination of yours. What if you’re wrong? What if they just have a deep brotherly bond?”
“Shuang’er, you can insult my character, but you cannot insult my professional expertise.”
Mu Yingying arched an eyebrow, her tone brimming with confidence.
“I’ve never been in a relationship, but does a person need to be a pig to know how a pig runs?”
“I’ve watched over 100 Yuri Anime. I’m basically a master of romance and same-sex psychology. Whether it’s straight, gay, or a love triangle, I can see right through it.”
Faced with Mu Yingying’s explosive theory, both Su Shuang’er and White Night, who was currently a Rusty Bicycle, fell silent.
Following Mu Yingying’s hint, they looked at the Family Portrait once more.
Sure enough.
They saw the detail they had previously overlooked.
The way the youth on the right looked at the youth on the left was definitely not right.
[‘Auntie Ying is usually such a letdown, but her radar in this area is… unexpectedly accurate.’]
White Night complained silently to herself.
She felt this information might be very useful, so she memorized it while continuing to observe the other photos.
At the neighboring table less than two meters away, Wang Ziming was naturally not idling either.
He pushed up his Gold-rimmed Glasses, his gaze fixed on the black-and-white Family Portrait.
With his meticulous mind and sharp eyes, he had also noticed the emotional undercurrents between the three young people.
Moreover, his gaze slowly shifted to another, slightly smaller photo nearby.
In that photo, only the two young men were present.
The one on the right seemed to have a cheerful personality, laughing defenselessly as he draped an arm over the other youth’s shoulder.
The youth on the left was turning his face away with a look of pure disgust.
Looking at this photo, the light glinted off Wang Ziming’s lenses. A plan to break the deadlock quickly formed in his mind.
As long as he could survive, he was willing to do anything.
However, there were still too few clues. Was it really worth the risk?
The plan was far too dangerous.
If he gambled wrong, he would certainly meet a miserable end.
He gripped the frames of his Gold-rimmed Glasses, still hesitating.
Just then, the sound of rhythmic rolling carts echoed through the hall.
*Rumble—*
Dozens of Red-clothed Waitresses pushed silver dining carts covered in white cloths. Like ghosts, they filed out from the Transparent Kitchen and stopped precisely beside each Golden Round Table.
“Honored guests, thank you for waiting. Please enjoy today’s Chef’s Recommended Set Menu.”
Accompanied by the sweet yet emotionless voices of the Waitresses, the silver, hemispherical dish covers were lifted simultaneously.
There was no mouth-watering aroma. Instead, a thick, putrid stench of rot filled the air.
“Ugh…”
At the neighboring table and even several tables further away, survivors were already covering their mouths, letting out painful retches.
Su Shuang’er and Mu Yingying fought the churning in their stomachs as they looked down at the food on the table.
With just one look, their scalps tingled with horror.
The first course was a plate of paper-thin meat slices, but the meat was completely raw and dripping with blood. The muscle fibers even twitched unnervingly.
The second course was a stewed fish.
However, the fish’s eyeballs were unnaturally large, staring straight at the ceiling. They looked almost exactly like a pair of resentful human eyes.
The third course was a bowl of murky, thick soup. Indistinct animal hair and fingernails floated inside. The soup was a greenish-black color, looking like sediment scooped from a septic tank.
The most terrifying part was the main dish in the center.
It was a plate of unidentified roasted meat. The surface of the meat was covered in green mold. Under the bright lights, one could clearly see dense clusters of fat, white maggots writhing frantically in the flesh, burrowing in and out.
[‘Gag… is the Head Chef of this hotel some kind of garbage spirit? This is just too disgusting.’]
Although White Night had no physical body and could not vomit, her soul felt sick just looking at it. This was pure mental pollution.
The hall fell into a deathly silence.
The survivors were pale as ghosts, pressing themselves firmly against the backs of their chairs. No one dared to touch the chopsticks on the table.
“Dear guests…”
The smiles on the faces of the Waitresses standing by the tables gradually vanished. The corners of their mouths curled downward into a bizarre, inverted arc.
Their pitch-black eyes stared intensely at everyone. Their voices were no longer sweet, but instead carried a bone-chilling gloom and malice. “Why aren’t you eating? Do you not like it? Lord Head Chef worked very hard to prepare this for you.”
“No, no, no, not at all.”
Mu Yingying reacted quickly, shaking her head frantically. Cold sweat instantly soaked through her clothes.
“We just… we just think the dishes are so exquisite. We didn’t want to ruin the artistic presentation so quickly. We were just admiring it first.”
“Then please, hurry and eat while it’s hot. If the food gets cold, Lord Head Chef will be very angry. The consequences… will be very serious.”
The Waitress’s tone was sinister, and a blatant killing intent flickered in her eyes.
[‘Cold? That plate of maggot-infested meat was already cold to begin with.’]
White Night was speechless.
In the midst of this suffocating standoff, the still-hesitating Wang Ziming witnessed a horrific scene.
At a table not far from them, someone finally picked up their chopsticks.
“I… I’ll eat! I’ll eat!”
It was a thin, gaunt man whose eyes were green with hunger. He was already on the verge of a mental breakdown.
He tremblingly picked up the silver chopsticks. He was too hungry, and with the Waitresses’ murderous glares forcing him, he avoided the maggot-filled meat. Closing his eyes, he picked up a piece of rotten flesh from the dead fish and shoved it into his mouth.
The moment he chewed.
The man’s face turned the color of a pig’s liver. His eyes bulged, and his eyeballs became bloodshot.
It didn’t taste like fish. It was the pungent stench of a corpse that had fermented for over ten days, mixed with the disgusting smell of sewer sludge.
“Bluergh—!”
He couldn’t control the violent spasms in his stomach. He doubled over and vomited the rotten meat along with his stomach acid onto the magnificent floor.
The hall instantly fell into a dead silence.
Everyone turned to look at the vomiting man.
The smile on the Waitress standing beside him disappeared completely.