Chapter 16: The Bride of the Enigmatic King (16)

After Tang Mu took the dish back to be remade—

At Table 2, the woman dressed in a Manchu robe with bound feet wore a face full of rage.

“Old man, didn’t you say before we got here that you’d teach these players a lesson?”

“And this dish is clearly supposed to be mixed with demonic blood. Why did you tell them to add pickled vegetables? Even if you want to openly go easy on them, that's not the way to do it!”

The old man with the long-stemmed pipe took a drag, exhaled slowly, and replied, “What’s it to you? Just eat your cold peanuts and mind your own business!”

But when Jiang Xiuwen brought back the braised pig’s feet with pickled vegetables and presented it to the old pipe-smoker—

The old man’s face darkened again.

Splash!

The sound of someone falling into the water.

Jiang Xiuwen, out.

The kitchen runners and chefs were left speechless.

“Are these guests insane or something?!” The players in the kitchen were almost driven mad by these unpredictable, rule-breaking monsters.

“He was the one who said to add pickled vegetables! How is it wrong again?”

Wang Qing seized the opportunity to vent her anger at Tang Mu.

“You must have misrepresented the guests’ requests, and that’s why Jiang Xiuwen died! You need to take responsibility for this!”

Faced with Wang Qing’s baseless accusation, Tang Mu responded with a cold, derisive laugh.

“Then why don’t you serve the dishes?” Tang Mu mercilessly exposed Wang Qing’s true intentions. “You just don’t want to face the risks outside, so you hide in the kitchen cooking. As if no one knows? Now that something’s gone wrong, you’re quick to shift the blame. Why don’t you admit that your cooking was at fault and that’s what killed Jiang Xiuwen?”

“You think it’s my fault? If you’re so capable, why don’t you do it?”

“That’s enough, both of you.” The others, already in a foul mood, now had to endure the argument between two women, which made them even more exasperated.

“None of us knows what the death mechanism actually is. We don’t even know if these guests are playing tricks on us. The only thing we can do is try to figure out as quickly as possible what triggers the deaths.”

“So, before things reach the final step, can we just work together for now?”

Wang Qing fell silent.

Tang Mu also held back for the time being.

But the situation was dire.

Four servers were dead, and two chefs as well.

They were critically understaffed now.

If they didn’t find a way to save themselves soon, the next mysteriously dead person might be any one of them.

“Table 4 has placed an order.”

A call came from outside.

Table 4 was Tang Mu’s responsibility.

The kitchen quickly received the order: a plate of steamed perch.

Tang Mu carried the steamed perch to Table 4.

There sat a little girl in a red dress with a Qing Dynasty hairdo. Her clothes were shabby and old, and she looked frail and malnourished—like a breeze could topple her.

Beside her was a man dressed as a woodcutter.

The woodcutter clung tightly to her hand, unwilling to let go even for a moment. His gaze was locked anxiously on the girl, as if afraid that if he looked away, she’d be snatched away.

Yet every time the little girl looked up and met his nervous eyes, she would respond with a weak, pale smile.

As if she held secrets in her heart.

“Hello, here’s your order.”

The girl in red picked up her chopsticks, took a bite of fish, and grew even paler.

“Jiang Lang, is this our last meal?”

The woodcutter, called Jiang Lang, tightened his grip on her hand. “No. I won’t let them hurt you. You’re on the list, but nothing’s been decided yet, has it?”

The bride and the woodcutter?

Tang Mu found their identities suspicious.

She covertly used her right hand, with the demon ring, to touch the corner of the red-clad girl’s clothes when the girl wasn’t looking.

[The Chosen Bride]: In a feudal society, a poor family’s daughter is powerless to defy her fate. Her relatives abandon her, selling her to local gentry or clan powers. When a family’s son dies young, they select a bride to marry him in a ghost wedding.

Ahua was the unfortunate one chosen. All she wanted was to spend her life with her Jiang Lang. Why wouldn’t fate let her go?

Upon seeing this, Tang Mu understood.

Ahua and Jiang Lang were the main characters of “The Bride of the Ghost King.”

Faced with this, Tang Mu decided to act directly.

“You’re the chosen bride.”

Ahua, bewildered: “???”

“Run. If you don’t, you’ll be buried alive.”

Ahua and Jiang Lang: “(；´д｀)ゞ.”

Why was this player not following the script? Normally, players helped the monsters, not the NPCs!

The other tables’ monsters were thrown into confusion.

They’d been playing their parts properly this time, yet the player still wouldn’t cooperate!

Ahua and Jiang Lang froze for a couple of seconds.

Jiang Lang immediately grabbed Ahua’s hand and tried to lead her off the ghost ship.

At the neighboring table, the old man with the pipe erupted in fury, “Stop them!”

The guests responded at once.

The ghost ship was too small; Ahua and Jiang Lang had barely taken two steps before the other guests had surrounded them tightly at the ship’s edge.

Seeing that Ahua and Jiang Lang were completely trapped, the old pipe-smoker finally relaxed.

He patted his pipe, silently packed in more tobacco, then glared menacingly at Ahua and Jiang Lang.

“Run? Where can you run to?”

“I’ll tell you straight. Ahua’s gambler father owed a huge sum to the gambling house, and our master paid it off! In exchange, Ahua must marry our young master!”

“Bah! Your young master is long dead. Why should a living girl be buried with a corpse? Ahua is mine, and I won’t let you lay a finger on her!”

The commotion outside drew the servers and chefs from the kitchen, who couldn’t help but set aside their work to crowd onto the ghost ship’s deck and watch the drama unfold.

Xue Fen sidled up to Tang Mu, eyes wide as she witnessed the scene.

“When I watched the ‘Bride of the Ghost King’ livestream before, this never happened. Sister Tang Mu, what did you do to trigger a hidden plotline?”

“What happened before?”

Xue Fen thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Livestreams usually don’t show everything. There’s just a beginning and an end. The story ends with the Ghost King killing all the NPCs and players.”

“But sometimes the banquet on the deck is shown, though it’s always a silent film with the sound muted. Lip-reading experts said that as long as you fulfill the guests’ dining requests, you can clear the game.”

“As for Ahua and Jiang Lang… those two NPCs have always been quiet, unlike the other monsters who cause trouble.”

While Xue Fen explained, the drama aboard the ghost ship continued.

Ahua’s eyes brimmed with tears. “My mother and I left my father long ago. His debts have nothing to do with us!”