"Don't worry, everything is under control." Chen Ge stood up and stretched. Just by comparing his condition with how the other passengers looked right now, it was obvious how much better Chen Ge's physical fitness really was.
"This restaurant belongs to another entity's territory. That headless female ghost wouldn't dare come in for the time being." Chen Ge rubbed the white cat's belly. The little thing had been scared half to death—it had even forgotten to resist.
"Wait a second, that statement was loaded! What do you mean 'another entity's territory'? Does this restaurant have a similar female ghost living in it too?!" The drunkard realized he had grown a lot over the course of this evening; even his brain was working better now.
"Something like that, yeah. But don't worry—that ghost is still dormant and won't wake up for now." Chen Ge walked deeper into the restaurant, leaving the passengers standing there in a daze.
"He actually admitted it? There really is a ghost? Fighting poison with poison? Isn't that a bit much?" The drunkard looked at the Doctor and Scissors. "Come on, you two, say something! There's a female ghost right outside the door—she's a ghost!"
"Keep it down. So what if she's a ghost?" Scissors slapped the drunkard's hand away. His voice was ice-cold. "Provoke me, and I'll kill a ghost right in front of you."
Of the group, only the Doctor stayed calm. "Didn't you notice the word he kept using? 'For now.' That means the ghost outside might come in later, and the dormant ghost might wake up. We could end up facing two vengeful spirits at the same time."
"What are you saying?" The drunkard felt the Doctor was the steadiest and most dependable of them all, and tried to read the hidden meaning behind his words.
"What I'm saying is—you should warm up your body, because things might get worse than they are now." The Doctor was also panting heavily. Of the three passengers, Scissors had the best stamina. It was clear he had prepared extensively for this day, including training and hardening his body.
"You've got to be kidding… Who did I even offend? I was just trying to drink!" The drunkard hauled himself off the floor, listening to the thudding sounds coming from the door, cold sweat pouring down his back.
"Anyone here?" Chen Ge walked up to the counter. The restaurant still had the style of something from over a decade ago, much like the scene in Xiao Bu's game.
After waiting about ten seconds, a man's voice called out from a room deep in the hallway: "One moment! I'll be right there!"
Another minute passed before the passengers finally saw a portly man emerge from the hallway.
He was tying an apron around his waist. It was clearly brand-new—not a single stain on it.
"What took you so long? No efficiency at all. You need to remember at all times—as part of the service industry, customer experience comes first." Chen Ge eyed the man with impatience.
"Sorry about that, I was helping out in the kitchen." The middle-aged man wasn't offended at all, smiling amiably. His round face looked rather approachable.
"Helping in the kitchen?" Chen Ge noticed that the man's hands were wet—he had just washed them. But perhaps due to the haste, there were still some dark reddish stains under his fingernails.
"That's right, we only have one cook here, so I pitch in sometimes." The portly man chuckled. His eyes were small—if he didn't turn his head, you could barely tell who he was looking at.
"Are you the boss here?" The drunkard felt a small thrill—since entering Liwan Town, this was the first person he could actually have a normal conversation with.
"I have to help in the back kitchen, wait tables, and do the books. Being the boss is honestly worse than being an employee." The portly man stepped behind the counter. "Are you looking to stay the night, or just eat?"
"How much does it cost?" The Doctor frowned. He had a nagging feeling something was off. Anyone who could run a shop in a town shrouded in blood fog—there had to be something wrong with the place.
"The first night, stay wherever you like—no charge. If you want to stay a second night, we'll take one thing from each of you as payment." The portly boss seemed afraid they might misunderstand and added quickly: "Money doesn't mean much to us. We'd prefer something a bit more… special as souvenirs."
"What if we want to stay a third night?" Chen Ge asked casually.
"We take another thing. And only once you have nothing left to give will we kick you out." The boss looked perfectly genial. "This is probably the safest place in the whole town."
"Got it." The drunkard nodded. "This is like a safe zone in a game. Why don't the four of us stay here for the night?"
"Here are your room numbers." The portly boss, as if terrified the drunkard might change his mind, pulled four keys from under the counter, each with a numbered tag.
"We don't need four rooms. We can share two." The Doctor was more cautious.
"That works too—whatever you decide. I'll go check on the kitchen and have dinner ready for you shortly." The boss headed toward the back kitchen, leaving in a different direction from where he had come.
After the boss was gone, the Doctor picked two adjacent rooms. "We'll take these two rooms. All four of us stay in one and leave the other empty. We'll take turns standing watch at night. Pay attention to both rooms—if anything goes wrong in either one, wake everyone up immediately."
"Now that's more like it!" Hope rekindled in the drunkard's eyes. "As long as we hold out until dawn—or until this fog clears—we'll definitely be able to escape this town!"
Scissors agreed with the Doctor's plan. Among them all, only Chen Ge wore a strange expression.
"This should be the safest approach," the Doctor said, looking at Chen Ge. After all, Chen Ge was the backbone of the group.
"The four of us hiding in a room means we're handing the initiative over to them on a silver platter. They'll have plenty of time to set up all kinds of traps and mechanisms, while we can only sit passively in our room and wait." Chen Ge didn't even glance at the keys on the counter.
"Then what do you suggest?" They were all curious about Chen Ge's plan.
"Simple. The boss just said it himself—aside from him, there's only one cook here." A smile spread across Chen Ge's face as he held up his fingers. "That's two of them. We've got four of us. Rather than spending a restless night, I'd rather take the initiative and spend the night as the boss of this establishment."
"You want to be the boss?!" The drunkard felt his entire worldview shatter. "Bro, he was just talking to us politely! And you're already plotting to take over his shop? That doesn't seem right…"
"A shop that even a red-robed vengeful spirit won't dare enter—and you really think the boss was just being polite?" Chen Ge had played Xiao Bu's game. He knew what this restaurant really was: the customers were the food, all of them destined to end up in the refrigerator inside that red-robed figure's belly. "Wait until dinner time. Then you'll understand why I'm doing this."
Chen Ge set the white cat on his shoulder and gathered all four keys in his hand. "Not a single slip-up. I hope you can trust me, and I'll tell you right now—I'm a good person. It's just that my kindness has teeth."