Chapter 204: Impervious To Reason
“You want to welch on the bill?” The waiter also reacted.
It pressed one hand on the back of that chair, its withered hands gripping the wood with creaking sounds, as if strongly suppressing the anger in its heart, or like giving Zhang Qian a warning.
Zhang Qian didn’t have any emotions of fear, just seriously shook his head, “Don’t make it sound so bad, I’m reasoning with you right now. After all, those things didn’t go into my mouth, why should I pay for them?”
Reasoning with a ghost naturally wouldn’t work, but this waiter was clearly not a fierce ghost, more like a waiter in the tattoo parlor, a normal person controlled by the supernatural.
Although it didn’t have much autonomy, it could still communicate normally.
Since communication was possible, there was always some hope.
Hearing Zhang Qian make excuses to dodge the bill, the waiter no longer put on airs, lowering its voice gloomily: “Who can you blame for ordering food and not eating it? Whether you eat it or not, you have to pay.”
Accompanied by a thick fishy stench, the waiter’s head wrapped under dry skin slowly extended from the darkness.
It quietly turned its head sideways, with only two bean-sized eyes under the deeply sunken eye sockets, staring intently at Zhang Qian in front of it, as if warning him not to act recklessly.
However, Zhang Qian didn’t buy this at all, instead couldn’t help letting out a pfft.
No way around it, the waiter’s face trying hard to make a serious expression looked a bit like a turtle stretching its neck, its appearance truly somewhat comical.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you just now, I just thought of something funny.” Zhang Qian covered his curved mouth with his hand, seriously saying, “Where were we?”
“Don’t waste time.”
The waiter lacked Zhang Qian’s sense of humor, its withered head inching closer under the support of its neck, “If you can’t pay, don’t blame me for not being polite.”
“Heh, who can’t afford this small amount of money?” Zhang Qian disdainfully fanned the air in front of him, “Move back a bit, your body odor is too strong.”
“Hmph…”
With a cold snort, the gradually approaching waiter still stopped its actions, after all, it was still hoping Zhang Qian could settle the bill.
“One thousand three hundred yuan, as long as you pay, sir, I won’t hold those previous jokes against you, you are still our store’s most honored guest.”
Zhang Qian glanced at the messy table, casually throwing the bill in his hand onto the table, “I’m a reasonable person, if those dishes were really ordered by me, I’d naturally pay.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t remember when I ordered dishes, but you indiscriminately served such a big table, wanting to force a sale on me.”
“In short, you just want to welch on the bill?” The waiter cracked open its big mouth, several yellowish teeth swaying precariously in the air.
“Do you really want to force me to kill you?”
“Heh.” Zhang Qian put his hands behind his head, leisurely saying, “Then I’d like to see how you plan to kill me.”
He wasn’t worried at all about dying here, not because there was no sense of crisis warning, but more from his guess about the rules of this place.
The waiter wasn’t the owner of the restaurant, so while the restaurant constrained its customers with those rules, the rules should also apply to the waiter inside.
“You think I really don’t dare to kill you?” The waiter once again shoved its face close, baring teeth and claws in threat.
Zhang Qian yawned, “Stop wasting time, kill or cut as you please.”
If the waiter really wanted to act, it should have launched an attack when he chose to welch on the bill, instead of dragging it out until now.
There must be some reason making it give up that option.
Is it unable… or just useless?
He glanced sideways.
On his body was the jacket he wore from home, that long gown brought from inside the music hall seemed to have disappeared.
“When the mannequin disappeared, I felt something was off, but at that time I wasn’t sure if there was danger around, so I had to prioritize my own safety first and couldn’t search for its whereabouts.”
Zhang Qian stared at the waiter in front of him, but his thoughts drifted thousands of miles away.
“And the true qi that mysteriously disappeared, it doesn’t feel like it was suppressed by the supernatural, more like it completely vanished…”
And that occasional feeling of body losing control, also not quite like a supernatural attack…
Just as Zhang Qian was pondering the information he had gathered earlier, the waiter gave up the pointless threats, instead leaning close to Zhang Qian with an almost negotiating tone.
“Heh heh, sir don’t be angry, the front was just going through the motions, now let’s properly discuss, the matter isn’t unsolvable.”
“You’ve finally decided to comp my bill?” Zhang Qian asked curiously.
Although he wasn’t afraid of the ghost restaurant, naturally it was better to resolve it peacefully if possible.
After all, behind such a supernatural land was definitely a Republic of China Era big shot, becoming enemies with such a big shot for no reason felt thrilling just thinking about it.
The waiter was choked, awkwardly saying: “Comp’ing the bill isn’t really possible, but I can decide to give you another discount, even pay whatever you have is fine.”
The ghost restaurant had its own way of dealing with bad debts, and that method would soon be used on Zhang Qian, even if Zhang Qian really paid it would be useless.
The waiter just wanted to scam as much as possible before that, after all, once Zhang Qian died, this bill would probably be written off, and the money squeezed from Zhang Qian would be extra income.
“Just this?” Zhang Qian disappointedly turned his head away, “No chance for that, no money, but one life, though you’ll have to take it yourself.”
He was certain the waiter couldn’t do anything to him, not only unafraid of attacks, but even hoping they would come sooner.
That way at least he could escape this strange state, at least be able to use true qi and true blades to fight fierce ghosts, instead of listening to this neither human nor ghost thing babble here.
The waiter persuaded, “Your earlier guess was right, I have no way to deal with you myself. Because this space is very special for you, although you can’t command fierce ghosts inside here, I also can’t attack you.”
“But this restriction only applies to me, I can’t do anything to you, doesn’t mean the restaurant can’t. Even if I let you go, there will be others to deal with you.”
“The consequences of welching on the bill are definitely not what you want to bear, paying even a little is better than nothing…”
Zhang Qian slightly shook his head, “No nonsense.”
If spending some ghost money could really settle it, he wouldn’t be reluctant, but unfortunately withdrawing money outside required signing that completely incomprehensible agreement.
That paper was just a sheet of black, who knows how many traps were in it?
“Go ahead, whether this is a dream or whatever,”
