Chapter 15: The Bride of the Enigmatic King (15)

"Do you just deliver the food without serving us as we eat?"
The old man holding the dry tobacco pipe fixed a venomous gaze on Jiang Xiuwen, as if he were looking at a corpse.
Jiang Xiuwen trembled in fright.
He longed to turn and flee, but he couldn't. He could only obey the old man's orders and set the tableware for the guests.
The old man tapped the tabletop with the end of his pipe. "Use the chopsticks. Tear off some of the pig's trotter meat and bring it to my mouth. Serve me well and you can live. If you don't, then you die!"
When he uttered the word "die," the old man's eyes, cloudy and yellowed, turned ghostly white in an instant.
This sudden change frightened Jiang Xiuwen so much that he wet his pants.
A foul stench drifted into the air.
The old man with the pipe looked at him with extra disgust.
"Seems like another coward who quakes before even serving. These days, you can't find a single decent youngster."
At the next table, a Manchu woman in traditional dress with bound feet sneered coldly.
"Kids nowadays, all raised in greenhouses, delicate as flowers. Nothing like our time."
"Hmph. So what? When men grow up, they should marry, and women should wed. What a pity for my only child, gone too soon, lonely beneath the earth with no wife to accompany him... At least today this worry is finally laid to rest."
Had Jiang Xiuwen been more perceptive, he might have realized he'd triggered the plot.
But his head was filled only with thoughts of survival.
"Don't eat me, please! I beg you! I'll serve you well... I promise!"
His craven pleas earned only further scorn from the guests.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Separate the meat from the bone and serve it up!"
Again, the old man tapped the table with his pipe.
Jiang Xiuwen could move once more.
Timidly, he picked up the chopsticks and, hands shaking, tore the meat from the pig's trotter and fed it to the old man.
The old man chewed, his face darkening. "Do you know what meat this is, or what was used to cook it?"
Jiang Xiuwen shuddered in fear.
The chopsticks slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the table.
"I... I don't know..." Surely it couldn't be what he feared?
"This dish doesn't suit my taste. Tell your chef to make it again!"
As he spoke, the old man flipped his pipe and pressed the burning bowl hard against the back of Jiang Xiuwen's hand.
"Ugh..."
Jiang Xiuwen's right hand burned, his body trembling for a long moment, yet he dared only grit his teeth and endure.

"This is your warning," the old man growled. "If the next dish you bring doesn't please me, you'll never cross the river again. Stay here with us instead!"
No, he didn't want to die!
Face ashen, Jiang Xiuwen carried the dish back to the kitchen.
"This dish doesn't suit the guest's taste," he announced miserably.
"How can that be?" Wang Qing was puzzled. "I watched the headless chef prepare this dish. I even tasted the broth before serving. It smelled wonderful—nothing wrong with it."
Seeing Tang Mu enter to deliver a dish, Wang Qing immediately pushed the braised pig's trotter toward her.
"Table 02's dish—take it back out."
Tang Mu shot Wang Qing a glare. "I'm responsible for table 04. Why should I deliver it?"
Xue Fen, seeing Tang Mu being bullied, immediately jumped in. "I'll go!"
Tang Mu glared at Xue Fen. "Why would you? If you die, I'll be dragged down with you. Go back and cook your food."
Xue Fen, resigned, fell silent.
Sometimes, being paired up was more a burden than a blessing.
"Brother Joseph," Xue Fen suddenly turned to Joseph, "since you like Sister Tang Mu so much, it shouldn't be a problem to do this for her, right?"
Damn it.
Joseph cursed Xue Fen inwardly for his sly ways; outwardly, he kept up his charming, unflappable demeanor.
"Of course, I am willing to do anything for Miss Tang."
Watching Joseph truly willing to risk himself for Tang Mu by bringing the "unqualified" dish back to table 02, Xue Fen seethed.
Go ahead, keep pretending. Xue Fen was eager to see how long Joseph could keep up the act.
Wang Qing too felt uncomfortable.
Hearing how Joseph was willing to take risks for Tang Mu, her heart twisted with envy.
But she didn't vent her anger on Joseph.
Instead, she lashed out at Jiang Xiuwen. "There's nothing wrong with the dish, the problem is you! You must have done something to upset the guest!"
Jiang Xiuwen, innocent and bewildered, could only stammer, "?"
His knees buckled in terror. "No, please, help me, I don't want to die..."
As he faltered, news reached the kitchen that the servers at tables 06 and 08 had been thrown off the ghostly boat for serving unsatisfactory dishes.
Their teammates, bound to them, were instantly dragged into the sewers by ghostly hands.
In just a short while,
Four more had died.
The atmosphere in the kitchen grew tense and heavy.

"I'll go," Tang Mu suddenly said, stepping forward.
She needed to know why those two servers had died.
But as soon as she volunteered, Xue Fen and Joseph grew nervous.
"Sister Tang Mu, don't be the one to stick your neck out. Like you said, if something happens to you, it'll be bad for me, too. So it's better for Brother Joseph to go—he isn't bound to you, so if he dies, you won't be affected. Right, Brother Joseph?"
Though Xue Fen was about the same age as Joseph, he called him "brother" and Tang Mu "sister" with practiced ease.
Joseph was so exasperated by Xue Fen's act that he wanted to strangle him, but outwardly, he still played the gallant suitor ready to risk everything for the lady.
"Yes, I can go. Let me."
Tang Mu glanced coolly at Joseph and Xue Fen and showed the ring on her right hand.
"I have an item. I should be fine."
With that, she ignored them both.
She stroked the cursed ring, her mind already made up.
Even if the ring failed, she still had the "Worn Bamboo Umbrella (F)" and the "Petrification Talisman (E)" as backup.
Protecting herself shouldn't be a problem.
"Excuse me, sir, pardon my interruption," Tang Mu approached the old man at table 02, maintaining a flawless smile. "Could you tell me exactly what about the dish didn't suit your taste?"
The old man, at first, intended to scold the new server and toss her off the ghost ship.
But the moment he saw Tang Mu's face—
He paused for several seconds.
Then he abandoned his previous intent.
"I like it a bit more sour," he said.
Tang Mu was taken aback.
The old man was now so amiable he hardly seemed a monster at all.
"Take it back and add some pickled greens. This one's too spicy."
How smoothly it went—
Tang Mu felt as if
she was playing an entirely different game from everyone else.