Chapter 195
Chapter 195
The Proprietress leaned half her body against the doorframe, leisurely cracking spiced melon seeds as she quietly watched Jiang Li work.
Only after Jiang Li returned the sword to Xu Haoran did the Proprietress speak up with a fake smile.
“Thank you, Young Lady. The wall clock in our shop is always breaking down, and you actually went to the trouble of fixing it. Young people really are capable.”
The Proprietress smiled without the slightest warmth in her eyes, then spat another mouthful of melon seed shells onto the floor right in front of Jiang Li.
Jiang Li’s gaze swept lightly over the ground.
The melon seed shells spat from the Proprietress’s mouth fell to the floor and turned into several long, slender fingernails stained with blood.
“Come on in. I’ll get you two the drink menus.”
The Proprietress reached out and pushed aside the sparse bead curtain at the entrance, then lifted her foot and stepped into the tavern on her own.
Jiang Li was silent for one second before calling after her.
“Proprietress, we’re two separate parties, not together. Bring us two drink menus.”
Jiang Li wanted to distance herself from Xu Haoran.
Xu Haoran did not quite understand her intention, but under Jiang Li’s pointed look, he did not argue.
The Proprietress, who had already reached the inside of the counter, looked up in surprise when she heard Jiang Li’s words and glanced toward the entrance.
Outside the tavern, the two soldiers were holding the horses and clearly had no intention of coming in to sit.
As for Jiang Li and Xu Haoran, the two of them were obviously companions.
“Fine. Got it.” The Proprietress did not make things difficult for them.
Only after receiving that affirmative answer did Jiang Li push aside the bead curtain, lift her foot over the threshold, and enter the tavern.
Xu Haoran, meanwhile, lingered behind and took another look at the rules posted by the door.
Before Jiang Li had gone in, she had tapped the final rule on the Note twice with her finger.
Forest Tavern Survival Rules, Rule Seven:
[After staying inside the tavern for ten full minutes, you and your companions may ask the Proprietress one question. The Proprietress will tell you the answer truthfully.]
In order to obtain clues about Zhao Qingqing, Jiang Li and Xu Haoran had to enter the tavern no matter what.
If the two of them entered as companions, Jiang Li and the others would only be able to ask the Proprietress one question.
But if Jiang Li and Xu Haoran entered as two separate groups of customers, they would gain one additional chance to ask a question.
Jiang Li and Xu Haoran entered one after the other.
Jiang Li looked around.
The tables inside the tavern were all long and narrow.
People could sit on either side of the table, with two chairs on each side, for a total of four seats per table.
There were no customers to be seen in the entire tavern.
However, there were several empty wooden chairs facing the tables, their backs tilted up as they rocked back and forth with a creak, creak.
Jiang Li walked toward a table by the window.
Only the tables and chairs there looked relatively normal.
Jiang Li sat down calmly, and Xu Haoran followed right after.
Xu Haoran deliberately asked loudly, “Ahem, mind if I share the table? This seat has a pretty good view.”
Jiang Li lowered her eyes. “Suit yourself.”
“Thanks.” Xu Haoran sat down diagonally across from Jiang Li.
After taking their seats, the two of them simultaneously turned the wooden chairs beside them so that the empty chairs faced away from the table.
Forest Tavern Survival Rules, Rule Two:
[There are four people to a table in the tavern. If your party has fewer than four people, be sure to move away the extra wooden chairs beside the table, or turn the wooden chairs so they face away from the table.]
The Proprietress watched what the two of them were doing, the corners of her mouth dipping downward. Then she carried two drink menus over.
“Take a look and see what you’d like to drink. I seem to remember… the last person who came in without buying anything didn’t make it back out.”
The Proprietress covered her mouth and giggled twice, then placed the drink menus on the table with a perfectly serious expression.
A faint sense of foreboding rose in both Jiang Li and Xu Haoran’s hearts.
Each of them took a drink menu, opened it, and began choosing.
On the drink menu, every beverage corresponded to a different price.
Jiang Li looked at the price list and felt a headache coming on.
At a careless glance, one might have thought they had stumbled into a large-scale body-part trading market.
Jiang Li flipped through a few pages.
The item she had most wanted to order, “Plain Water Paid for with Hair,” had been crossed out and marked “Sold Out.”
After thinking it over, Jiang Li chose a cup of honey lemon tea from the “light beverages” category.
It was the cheapest drink in the tavern, priced at ten fingernails.
She chose it partly because of the price.
And partly to avoid the trouble mentioned in “Rule Five.”
Forest Tavern Survival Rules, Rule Five:
[All alcoholic drinks served in the tavern are colorless. If your alcoholic drink turns red, please stand up immediately, place the glass in front of an empty wooden chair, close your eyes, and wait ten seconds. Once the glass is empty, say thank you and leave.]
If she did not order alcohol, she could avoid it.
Xu Haoran held the drinks menu, clearly reluctant to order.
But the Proprietress’s hint had been obvious. If he came in and spent nothing, she would not let him leave alive.
Xu Haoran stretched out his hand and looked at his fingernails.
After weighing it again and again, he very unwillingly ordered a honey pomelo tea from the “light beverages” section.
Honey pomelo tea was also priced at ten fingernails.
“That’s all you’re drinking?”
The Proprietress pointed at the menu and tried her hardest to sell them the tavern’s signature cocktail.
The price of the signature cocktail was one section of neck.
The Proprietress urged them, “Mr. Duck and Ms. Giraffe order this cocktail all the time. It’s absolutely delicious! The tavern is having an anniversary promotion lately, so I can give you a twenty percent discount. How about it?”
Jiang Li smiled and politely declined. “No, thank you, Proprietress. I rode a horse today. Don’t drink and ride, don’t ride after drinking.”
Jiang Li gestured for the Proprietress to look out the window.
Outside the window, in the thatched shed in the tavern’s front yard, Jiang Li’s horse was still waiting there.
“Don’t you have a soldier? Just have the soldier take you. Besides, when I saw you arrive, wasn’t it the soldier riding?” The Proprietress seized on the loophole and challenged her.
Jiang Li thought for a moment, then shook her head. “The soldier has been riding for quite a while, from yesterday until today. He can’t ‘ride while fatigued.'”
Jiang Li could not lie in the fairy-tale world.
And every word Jiang Li said was true.
The soldier had ridden the horse past the midnight mark, so he had indeed been “riding from yesterday until today.”
The Proprietress was left with nothing to say.
“What about you?” Unwilling to give up, the Proprietress turned to Xu Haoran.
Xu Haoran said, “Same for me.”
The Proprietress took away the drinks menu, muttering a couple of complaints under her breath.
Because the drinks Jiang Li and Xu Haoran had ordered were both the cheapest in the tavern, there was hardly any profit in them.
The Proprietress went to the counter and brought over the Nail-Removal Pliers, then tossed them onto the table with a clack.
“Are you paying later, or paying now?” The Proprietress’s attitude was far worse than before.
There were still bloodstains on the Nail-Removal Pliers from the last customer.
The situation… reached a stalemate.
Jiang Li and Xu Haoran stared at the pliers for several seconds, silent.
According to the Proprietress, any customer who entered the shop without buying anything was certainly doomed.
But even the cheapest purchase meant pain that went straight from all ten fingers to the heart.
“We’ll pay later,” Jiang Li said, brushing her off.
The Proprietress eyed the two of them sideways for a few seconds, then turned and left. “Don’t even think about dining and dashing.”
The moment the Proprietress left, Xu Haoran could not help complaining to Jiang Li.
“This is so damn suffocating! It’s a total scam shop! You have to spend money the second you walk in? Who the hell made that rule?! If this isn’t ripping customers off, what is?”
Xu Haoran’s temper flared up at once.
If the Proprietress had written something like “all customers must make a purchase” in the rules, Xu Haoran would not have felt like he had just been fleeced.
“No rush. I have a plan.” Jiang Li stood up and walked out of the tavern.
She came to the pile of “sunflower seed shells” at the tavern entrance, crouched down, and began picking them up carefully.