Chapter 197
Chapter 197
The Drunkard crawled into the seat beside Xu Haoran, turned the chair around by its back, and sat down drooling, looking simpleminded and dazed.
“Whose wine jug fell on the floor? Do you still want it? If not, I’m throwing it away!”
The Proprietress shouted irritably.
In her hand was the empty wine jug she had picked up from the tavern entrance. Reluctantly, she walked toward Jiang Li’s table.
“Is this your wine jug?”
The Proprietress snapped at the Drunkard.
She had not brought a wine list, nor did she have the slightest intention of doing business with the Drunkard.
Hearing the Proprietress’s question, the Drunkard lifted his eyelids and glanced at her, then ignored her entirely.
With a long face, the Proprietress set the wine jug on the table and turned away in disgust.
At that moment, the Drunkard had both legs draped across Xu Haoran’s thighs.
His arms were hooked around Xu Haoran’s neck, his gaze unfocused as he stared intently at Xu Haoran, as if admiring a delicious meal that had already reached his mouth.
“Smells so good…” The Drunkard leaned close to Xu Haoran and inhaled his scent twice in intoxicated delight.
Holding the Drunkard in his arms, Xu Haoran looked helplessly at Jiang Li for help.
Bound by the rules, Xu Haoran had to get along peacefully with the “Guest in Black Rain Boots.”
But Xu Haoran had never expected the man to be a drunken maniac.
“Proprietress, why don’t you take this Brother away? Aren’t you going to serve him properly?” Xu Haoran called out to the Proprietress, who was about to leave.
The Proprietress clicked her tongue and looked back at Xu Haoran, her expression far from friendly.
“Whoever wants to do business with this Mr. Leech can go right ahead. I won’t! That guy owes a mountain of bad debts out there. Who would dare sell wine to someone like him? I run a business, not a charity.”
Judging by the Proprietress’s attitude, she seemed to know the Drunkard, but she did not think much of him.
Xu Haoran suddenly remembered something the Proprietress had said when he placed his order.
With a strange look on his face, Xu Haoran asked, “Proprietress, didn’t you say that anyone who comes in without buying anything won’t be allowed to walk out? Are you letting him off now?”
Xu Haoran stared hard at the Proprietress.
The Proprietress looked guilty for a moment, but her tone remained somewhat self-righteous. “W-Well, yes. Every time he gets dead drunk… he crawls out.”
Hearing this, Xu Haoran realized he had been tricked. He slammed the table and shot to his feet, gripping the hilt of his sword, his knuckles tightening.
Seeing this, the Proprietress hurriedly shouted for the Cook in the Kitchen and fled there in a panic.
Beside the wine table, the Drunkard pulled the angry Xu Haoran back down into his chair.
Using both arms and legs, the Drunkard clung tightly to Xu Haoran and peered at him from up close.
His eyes were intoxicated and obsessed. The more he looked at Xu Haoran, the more satisfied he became.
The next second, the Drunkard pressed himself close to Xu Haoran’s neck, his mouth suctioning onto it like a cup.
At the same time, the Drunkard’s skin began to change, becoming blackish brown, slick, wet, and soft like a leech.
On the table, from the empty wine jug the Drunkard had drained, there seemed to come the sound of water dripping in, as though wine was slowly being stored inside it.
“Drip, drip, drip-”
The sound of water continued inside the jug.
The Drunkard. Mr. Leech.
And leeches… sucked blood.
The Drunkard’s wine was human blood.
That was also the reason for rule three of the Forest Tavern Survival Rules: “Do not drink wine offered by the Drunkard.”
“Ugh, it hurts! Let go!!!” Agonizing pain shot through Xu Haoran’s neck.
He wanted to shove the Drunkard away, but the Drunkard’s mouth was suctioned on tight.
The harder Xu Haoran pulled outward, the deeper the Drunkard’s mouth burrowed into his flesh.
Jiang Li stood up in panic, her eyes already widened in terror.
Because she had seen with her own eyes that, in just one or two seconds, Xu Haoran’s Health Points had dropped by three or four points!
Rule six of the Forest Tavern Survival Rules stated that one had to get along peacefully with the Guest in Black Rain Boots.
The Drunkard was the Guest in Black Rain Boots, so neither Xu Haoran nor Jiang Li could attack him.
But if they still did nothing, by the time Xu Haoran’s blood was completely drained, it would be too late!
“Ugh! Ahh!! Let go already!!!”
Xu Haoran screamed in pain, desperately tearing at the Drunkard’s mouth.
But the Drunkard’s “suction-cup mouth” was simply too powerful. It could not be pulled off at all.
Xu Haoran could have killed the Drunkard with his sword, but that would clearly violate the Forest Tavern rule about “getting along peacefully.”
If he broke the rule, Xu Haoran would die even faster.
What should they do…
Jiang Li’s breathing tightened, her fingers curled, and a layer of cold sweat broke out along her back.
Xu Haoran stood up and struggled wildly.
The violent pain nearly made him overturn every table and chair in the tavern.
Yet the Drunkard still showed no intention of letting go.
When he saw Xu Haoran stand up, he clamped Xu Haoran with both legs and hooked his arms around Xu Haoran’s neck.
His mouth remained sealed tight to Xu Haoran’s throat, still sucking at the fresh, warm blood inside.
Beside Jiang Li’s table, the guests who had originally enjoyed rocking their wooden chairs stopped moving too.
Although Jiang Li couldn’t see them, she could sense that those guests had all turned their gazes this way.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Jiang Li picked up the dagger Xu Haoran had left on the table, then looked toward the Drunkard and Xu Haoran.
And at that moment, Jiang Li also noticed that those onlookers seemed to have drawn something as well.
Judging by the sound, it seemed to be something like knives.
What were they doing…
Guarding against Jiang Li?
Or rather, guarding against Jiang Li making a move on the Drunkard?
You must get along peacefully with the Guest in Black Rain Boots. You must get along peacefully with the Guest in Black Rain Boots…
Jiang Li looked back at the Black Rain Boots worn by the “Drunkard hanging off Xu Haoran,” the sentence replaying over and over in her mind.
One second later, Jiang Li stepped forward.
Fast and precise, she pulled the Black Rain Boots off the Drunkard’s feet.
Then, with one slash, she cut off the Drunkard’s mouth!
The rules stated that they could not attack the Guest in Black Rain Boots. It did not say they could not attack the Drunkard.
The Drunkard could be the Guest in Black Rain Boots, or he could also not be!
As long as the Drunkard was not wearing the Black Rain Boots, Jiang Li had not violated Rule Six.
[You must get along peacefully with the Guest in Black Rain Boots.]
Seeing that nothing happened to Jiang Li after she attacked the Drunkard, Xu Haoran no longer hesitated and flung the Drunkard off his body.
The Drunkard crashed to the floor. Without his mouth, his face was covered in blood, and even his drunkenness cleared somewhat.
Xu Haoran touched his neck in disgust, then pulled the Drunkard’s mouth, still lodged in his flesh, out and threw it to the ground with loathing.
The Drunkard, now lying on the floor and sobering up, gradually revealed a sinister, venomous look in his eyes.
He quickly scrambled up from the ground, shoved aside the Proprietress who was watching the show, and charged straight into the Kitchen to snatch the Kitchen Knife from the Cook.
“Put it on!” Jiang Li threw the right boot from the Black Rain Boots to Xu Haoran and kept the left one for herself.
Each of them took one rain boot and quickly put it on.
Jiang Li and Xu Haoran each became a “Guest in Black Rain Boots.”
The Drunkard, having seized the Kitchen Knife in the Kitchen, rushed out with bloodshot eyes, roaring as he raised the blade in fury, intending to hack them both to death.
Xu Haoran picked up his Knight’s Sword and pressed the hilt, transforming the dagger into a longsword.
He gripped the hilt with both hands, his brows sharp and cold, staring at the Drunkard charging toward them, ready to strike at any moment.
But just as the Drunkard was only a meter or two away, he was caught off guard and tripped over the air beneath his feet.
With an “ow,” the Drunkard fell flat on his face.
The Kitchen Knife in his hand flew out as well, smashing toward the top of Jiang Li’s foot.
Just as Jiang Li stepped back to dodge, the Kitchen Knife… stopped in the air before her.
An invisible hand had caught the Kitchen Knife.
“Are you all right? Be careful.” A man’s voice rang out from the air in front of her.
The man was speaking to Jiang Li.
This man… seemed to be one of the guests in the tavern who especially liked rocking his chair.
“Those shoes are very pretty. Don’t damage them,” the man said.
With that, the man carried the Kitchen Knife over to the Drunkard, who had fallen to the ground.
The Drunkard lay sprawled on the floor, cursing nonstop as he tried to get up.
But it was as though something were pressing down on him, and he couldn’t rise at all.
Jiang Li guessed that the ones pinning the Drunkard down were probably this invisible man’s brothers.
There were three or four of them in total, all invisible people.
“We’ll help you kill him, but you have to give us the rain boots. That’s the condition.”
The man’s voice came again. He was speaking to Xu Haoran and Jiang Li.
This group had already been staking out the area around the tavern for many days.
They had always recognized only the shoes, not the person.
Xu Haoran and Jiang Li nodded, gladly agreeing.
Then Jiang Li saw the Drunkard on the floor begin to shrivel up bit by bit.
The Drunkard wailed and begged for mercy.
The Drunkard, Mr. Leech-the moisture inside his body was completely drained dry at that moment, and the Drunkard died violently on the spot.
Because the rules had said that one must get along peacefully with the “Guest in Black Rain Boots.”
And the Drunkard… had broken the rule.