Chapter 202: Condition
Although this restaurant was forcing sales and purchases, suspected to be a shady restaurant, it had to be admitted that its service was still very attentive.
The waiter behind him, worried that Zhang Qian couldn’t reach the dish, very thoughtfully planned to bring it over for him.
An arm wrapped under black cloth clothing stretched out from behind Zhang Qian. At first it looked fairly normal, but then that arm kept stretching longer and longer, soon exceeding the limit of the sleeve.
The palm hidden under the sleeve appeared, dry and emaciated, looking not like a human hand but rather like several wooden sticks.
Immediately after, the increasingly long arm stretched out as well, its dark brown skin already starting to wrinkle, inexplicably reminding Zhang Qian of the specialty dried beef jerky from the grasslands.
But the waiter clearly didn’t care about these minor details.
He slowly pulled the plate under the porcelain bowl, dragging them together in front of Zhang Qian.
Then he lifted the lid on the porcelain bowl and enthusiastically introduced, “This is our restaurant’s signboard dish, made with carefully selected ham, vibrant in color, fragrant but not greasy, please taste it, guest!”
Zhang Qian looked up.
The thing in the bowl couldn’t be said to not resemble ham; it could only be said to be completely unrelated.
Several pieces of pallid meat chunks of unknown type were piled in the bowl, topped with some foul-smelling blood that might be for flavoring.
Just opening the lid already released a sour stench, and if this weren’t on the ghost ship, it would definitely attract swarms of flies.
It was unimaginable what such a thing would taste like, and the most outrageous part was that the chef had even stolen some to eat, with plenty of bite marks on these small chunks of meat.
Zhang Qian naturally wouldn’t eat such a strange thing, not even pretending to, just calmly sitting motionless on the chair as if he had fallen asleep.
The waiter on the side was very concerned about his situation and leaned in again to ask, “How is the taste? Is it to your liking?”
As soon as this guy leaned in, Zhang Qian frowned, strongly suppressing the urge to slap him twice.
However, the waiter seemed unaware of how annoying he was, sticking right behind Zhang Qian’s ear, showing no intention of leaving without an answer.
Seeing that he wouldn’t give up easily, Zhang Qian thought for a moment and still decided to respond.
“It’s a reward for you, you eat it.” Zhang Qian casually waved his hand.
If he forced himself to say it was good, this waiter might force-feed it to him.
If he said it was bad, it might trigger a rule and bring an attack.
So Zhang Qian chose to avoid the problem, wanting to see the waiter’s reaction.
As the so-called honored guest, would his command be effective? Would this waiter really eat these chunks of meat that were even more disgusting than swill?
“Thank you for the reward!” The thing behind him excitedly shouted.
Then the emaciated arm shot out at extreme speed, grabbed the porcelain bowl, and quickly retracted into the darkness, as if afraid Zhang Qian would change his mind.
Immediately after, a crunching chewing sound came from behind the chair.
His nearly falling-out teeth couldn’t withstand the offensive of these large fatty meat chunks and all chose to go on strike.
But the waiter didn’t care at all, chewing raw meat with his gums, squeezing out every drop of pus before swallowing it into his stomach along with his own teeth.
Still not satisfied, he licked his shriveled lips, and the waiter’s emotions became somewhat excited as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Next dish!”
Almost the instant the sound fell.
A bowl identical in style to the previous one appeared on the tablecloth.
But this time Zhang Qian didn’t miss the details, noticing that these dishes didn’t appear out of thin air.
An emaciated hand had brought these bowls to the table, and it looked somewhat similar to the waiter’s arm.
“One stewed bear paw with south leg!”
Eagerly opening the lid for Zhang Qian, the waiter urged again, “Guest, taste it while it’s hot.”
Though he said that, the sound of him swallowing saliva from time to time couldn’t be covered up, clearly hoping more to eat it himself than to let Zhang Qian taste it.
“Now this is getting interesting…”
Zhang Qian had originally thought these dishes would have all sorts of traps, and eating them might lead to some kind of attack.
But judging by the waiter’s performance, these foods really seemed like rare delicacies, and not eating them would be Zhang Qian’s loss.
Should he try eating a bit?
Would the opportunity to leave be by eating these dishes?
After a slight hesitation, Zhang Qian dismissed the thought.
This so-called bear paw had slender joints, and the length of its five fingers didn’t look like it came from any other creature; it could only be from a human.
Although he wasn’t unfamiliar with eating similar things, this situation was different from the time he consumed the ghost hand.
Eating the ghost hand made sense, partly to increase his strength, but more importantly because he didn’t see the fierce ghost as human.
Moreover, calling it eating was actually refining it into a pill and absorbing it, not gnawing on a claw raw like this.
“Forget it, it definitely won’t only serve a few dishes; if he really wants to eat, there’s no rush at this moment.”
Zhang Qian shook his head slightly and casually said to the waiter on the side who was already hungry and impatient, “You eat it.”
“Got it!” The waiter cheered.
He picked up the porcelain bowl to his mouth and slurped the “bear paw” into his mouth in one go.
The bear paw, already softened and rotten from decay, instantly separated bone from flesh, turning into meat strands swallowed into his stomach.
He even couldn’t bear to discard those bones, constantly slurping to extract the soup juice inside.
Seeing how happy he was, Zhang Qian suddenly asked, “How can I leave this place?”
This waiter didn’t seem like a fierce ghost and appeared to be capable of communication, so Zhang Qian tried for a shortcut.
If he could get an answer, great; if not, there shouldn’t be any loss.
Moreover, given that he’d treated him to two dishes, he shouldn’t refuse to reveal even a bit of information, right?
“Aro… slurp slurp…”
With several bone chunks in his mouth, the waiter’s voice was unclear. But he didn’t want to neglect the honored guest and hurriedly swallowed the bones whole.
“Clang.”
The huge palm bone tore through the skin of his throat and fell straight to the ground.
While bending down to pick it up, the waiter responded to Zhang Qian’s earlier question, “Wait until the banquet ends, and you can naturally leave.”
That simple?
Zhang Qian was slightly stunned; so he just needed to stay here for a while to leave?
The waiter picked up the palm bone without disdain and casually stuffed it back into his mouth to chew, savoring the taste with the meat soup.
Hearing the clattering sounds from his side, Zhang Qian felt a bit hungry himself.
“Then don’t dawdle, keep serving the dishes.”
