Chapter 39: Gourmet Appreciation

The production crew’s tour bus pulled into the courtyard.

Since the small restaurant had been fully booked by the crew, they were the only group coming today. The driver didn’t worry about finding a parking space and simply parked the bus right in the middle of the yard.

As soon as the vehicle came to a steady stop, the group of people who had been starving all day couldn’t wait to scramble off. No one had the patience to listen to the producer continue bragging about how delicious the food at this little restaurant was.

The producer scratched his cheek sheepishly. Having lost his audience, he lost his urge to talk and followed the main group off the bus.

The moment the doors opened, Xie Sui was nearly knocked unconscious by a foul stench wafting from the restaurant.

It wasn’t just a smell in the olfactory sense; it was pungent, both choking and nauseating.

To Xie Sui, this scent was a physical assault, as if someone had punched him square in the nose. His sense of smell was completely haywire now, and his eyes were beginning to sting.

Is this place cooking excrement? And excrement mixed with ghost peppers at that?

Xie Sui had no desire to get off the bus, but the fact that everyone else had disembarked while he remained caught the driver’s attention.

The driver urged him impatiently. He couldn’t lock the bus until everyone was out, and he was in a hurry to eat.

Seeing that the others had no reaction to the smell coming from the restaurant, Xie Sui assumed something was wrong with his body again. He was forced to suppress his discomfort and slowly stepped off the bus, his face pale as he trailed behind the crowd.

Old Liu noticed his boss’s unusual behavior. Instead of rushing into the restaurant like the others, he slowed his pace and came to Xie Sui’s side. “Boss, you don’t look so good. Are you motion sick? I have some motion sickness pills, do you want one?”

Xie Sui shook his head silently, not daring to open his mouth. He simply gestured for Old Liu to stay by his side.

The Blood Calamity on Old Liu hadn’t fully dissipated yet. In a strange place, it was better to keep him close.

Although Old Liu was also starving and wanted nothing more than to rush into the restaurant and feast, his dedication as an employee triumphed over his hunger. His boss was clearly in a state of great distress; as an excellent employee, how could he abandon him? Moreover, Xie Sui was a rare, good boss who took the initiative to pay salaries and even helped upgrade his employee’s equipment.

Xie Sui covered his nose and walked forward slowly, with Old Liu following patiently beside him.

Fortunately, the sensation of being choked to a standstill only lasted a moment before the pungent odor faded into a more ordinary stink.

Xie Sui let out a long breath, though he still didn’t dare to breathe deeply as he trudged toward the restaurant entrance.

So many things had gone wrong before the variety show had even started filming. He felt as though he were fundamentally at odds with this production crew.

As Xie Sui walked toward the door, he suddenly noticed something beneath a tree near the courtyard wall.

Although there were no light sources in the yard other than the neon sign at the entrance, the darkness didn’t hinder Xie Sui’s vision. He keenly caught a black silhouette at the base of the tree.

It was the corpse of a black cat.

He could vaguely see dark red patterns on the fur of the cat’s chest, resembling a type of talisman.

There were countless cultivation techniques in the Xuanmen, and tens of thousands of types of talismans. There were many folk creations that weren’t even officially recorded, so Xie Sui, who had never systematically studied Xuanmen arts, couldn’t identify the purpose of the talisman on the cat’s chest.

After noticing the dead cat under the tree, Xie Sui instinctively looked up at the branches. There were no ropes or woven bags as he had expected.

In his hometown, there was an old saying: “Hang a dead cat from a tree, cast a dead dog into the stream¹.”

The proverb meant that for spiritual animals like cats and dogs, burying them in the earth after death would prevent them from entering reincarnation. Their souls would then turn into monsters or spirits to haunt their owners, ensuring they never knew peace.

Therefore, in remote areas where spirits were likely to dwell, if people found a dead stray cat, they would put the body in a woven bag and hang it from a tree. If they found a dead dog, they would throw the body into a river to let it drift away with the current.

This shop was in such a remote wilderness, and a cat had died right at its doorstep – a black cat, the most spiritual kind. Instead of hanging it from a tree, the shop owner had simply tossed it at the foot of the tree. This was even more offensive to a cat’s spirit than total neglect.

The soul would see the path to reincarnation right in front of it but would be unable to reach it. The cat’s resentment would grow stronger and stronger… was the owner not afraid of the soul causing trouble?

It was very strange. Before even stepping inside, Xie Sui already felt this shop was bizarre.

Xie Sui stopped in his tracks, watching the crew members run past him one by one with the speed of students rushing to a cafeteria.

Once almost everyone had entered the building, Xie Sui turned and walked to the tree. He took off his outer coat, placed the black cat’s body inside, and then hung it from the tree.

Having finished this, Xie Sui brushed the cat fur off his hands.

Sigh, he really was worrying himself sick for this production crew.

Old Liu stood obediently a short distance away, waiting for his boss to return. Although he didn’t know what Xie Sui was doing, he didn’t ask.

No matter how hard Xie Sui tried to stall, the size of the courtyard wouldn’t change. The two eventually reached the restaurant entrance.

Strangely, the moment Xie Sui stepped over the threshold, the foul stench that had been clinging to his nose vanished instantly, replaced by a peculiar aroma of meat.

A very kind-looking old woman stood by the door, a warm smile on her face as she gazed out into the yard. It was unclear how long she had been waiting there.

She looked to be in her seventies or eighties. Her skin was dark, with large patches of brown age spots scattered among layers of deep wrinkles. She had a severe hunchback, making her look very short. Her salt-and-pepper hair was pulled back by a wavy headband. A white apron was tied around her waist, and beneath it was a long grey robe that seemed inconvenient for movement, completely covering her legs.

Once Xie Sui and Old Liu entered the restaurant, the old woman closed the two wooden doors behind them.

Hearing the tooth-gritting screech of the wooden door scraping against the floor, Xie Sui glanced back at the old woman.

The restaurant’s entrance consisted of double-leaf solid wooden doors. They looked incredibly heavy, the kind that even an adult would struggle to push or pull. However, the frail-looking old woman had closed them with effortless ease.

Xie Sui’s expression grew solemn. He no longer viewed this establishment as an ordinary restaurant.

This dilapidated little place was riddled with oddities.

He had originally assumed that the location chosen by the production crew for the guests to rest would be safe, and that any problems would arise during the search for the filming site or at the site itself…

It seemed he had underestimated the crew’s knack for stirring up trouble.

Then again, if they were capable of selecting a filming location that cursed every guest with misfortune, conjuring up a problematic little restaurant was hardly a stretch. He shouldn’t have held any expectations for this unlucky production team.

The layout inside the restaurant was quite open, consisting of only two rooms. Upon entering, there was a large open space serving as the dining area, with a small room to the side acting as the kitchen.

Directly facing the door was a large pot set upon a stove, with meat broth simmering inside. The area next to the stove had been built up with extra bricks to serve as a tabletop. Eight people sat on small stools around the stove, clutching their bowls and chopsticks as they stared longingly at the contents of the pot.

Behind the stove stood a massive wooden pillar, thick enough to require two adults to link arms around it. The pillar appeared ancient; the section adjacent to the stove had been blackened by smoke, and the wooden surface was coated in a greasy, brownish patina. Near the middle and lower sections of the pillar, there were clear marks from rope friction.

Further inside was a large earthen kang² that occupied half the room. Two round tables were set on the left and right sides of the kang. Each table had a recessed area in the center where a large copper pot sat, stewing something within.

The remaining people were divided into two groups, sitting cross-legged on the kang with their shoes off, gathered around the round tables waiting for the food to be served.

A kang was a platform made of brick and stone common in northern rural areas, which could be heated for warmth and used as a sleeping area.

It wasn’t just the staff; even the celebrities had dropped their idol baggage. They looked as natural as if they were in their own homes, kicking off their shoes to sit cross-legged on the kang. They all seemed to have their attention entirely captured by the aroma of the food, oblivious to their own behavior.

After scanning the room, Xie Sui frowned.

Four people were missing.

To ensure he hadn’t miscounted, Xie Sui counted everyone again from the beginning.

Including the driver, their group should have totaled 34 people. But adding everyone in the room together, there were only 30.

Because they had only known each other for a short time, Xie Sui hadn’t memorized everyone’s faces. However, the five celebrity guests he remembered and their burly bodyguards were all present, as were the producer and the driver. The ones missing were likely members of the accompanying staff.

Xie Sui and Old Liu were the last to enter. He had confirmed everyone was off the bus before stepping directly into the restaurant.

Seeing Xie Sui and Old Liu standing dazed at the door, the producer sitting by the stove waved them over. “Come over and sit. The food is about to be served.”

There were two spots left by the stove, seemingly reserved specifically for them. Xie Sui hesitated for a moment before leading Liu Wuyong over to sit down.

Once settled, Xie Sui looked at the producer sitting next to him. “Haven’t you noticed we’re missing four people?”

The producer gave Xie Sui a bewildered look. “What do you mean, missing four people?”

“Didn’t thirty-four of us come here? I just checked, and there are only thirty people in the room… Are the other four in the kitchen helping out?”

The expression on the producer’s face grew even stranger. “You must have remembered wrong. Only thirty of us came. Twelve staff members, seventeen guests and assistants, plus one driver.”

Xie Sui fell silent.

The producer looked to be about the same age as Old Liu, around thirty-five. He was successful in his career and at the peak of his vitality and ambition… First, Xie Sui ruled out the possibility of sudden onset Alzheimer’s.

Xie Sui looked at Old Liu.

Liu Wuyong had clearly overheard the conversation. His expression was grim. Looking at the fragrant meat broth simmering in the pot before him, he had completely lost his appetite.

Having worked under Zhang Dadao for eight years, Liu Wuyong had been trained to be highly sensitive to metaphysical incidents.

As if knowing what Xie Sui wanted to ask, Liu Wuyong said solemnly, “It’s thirty-four people. Boss, you didn’t remember wrong. Didn’t the driver confirm the count after we gathered and before the bus started? I remember clearly, it was thirty-four including the driver.”

Having confirmed what he needed to know, Xie Sui didn’t argue further with the producer.

Judging by everyone’s behavior, their minds had already been affected. Only he and Old Liu, who were the last to enter, remained clear-headed.

Xie Sui looked toward the tightly closed kitchen door.

He could clearly hear a rhythmic thudding coming from inside. Judging by the force of the knife hitting the cutting board, someone inside was chopping meat.

Xie Sui suppressed the urge to charge straight into the kitchen.

It was better to wait for the owner of this shop to show up voluntarily. He needed to figure out exactly what was going on here.

The four missing people were currently equivalent to hostages. Without knowing where they were hidden, it wasn’t wise to act rashly.

While waiting for the owner to appear, Xie Sui idly toyed with the chopsticks in his hand. He noticed several distinct clumps of spiderwebs at the corner where the stove met the floor… No, they weren’t spiderwebs. Those white silk threads were significantly thicker than a spider’s web.

Xie Sui intentionally dropped his chopsticks on the floor. Using the motion of picking them up as cover, he grabbed a handful of the white silk threads.

It was silk.

Xie Sui didn’t know much about the environment silkworms needed to spin silk and form cocoons, but it certainly shouldn’t be in a sweltering place like the side of a stove.

The presence of this silk felt more like a mark. Just as the home of someone who raised Gu³ would be exceptionally clean, or the home of someone who raised Little Ghosts would be filled with toys… what did this silk represent?

Before Xie Sui could think further, the sound of the kitchen door opening diverted his attention.

The kitchen was pitch black, as if the lights hadn’t been turned on. Just as Xie Sui tried to take a closer look, the door was slammed shut.

A middle-aged man dressed as a chef walked out carrying a basin of bright red donkey meat, followed by an old man.

The old man was similar in age to the old woman guarding the door, with the same hunched and small stature. He held a clean tray in both hands.

The middle-aged man first came to the stove where Xie Sui was sitting. He placed the basin of donkey meat beside the stove, then lifted the iron pot off the burner and hung it on an iron hook dangling from the ceiling.

With the iron pot moved away, the flatbreads that had been pressed against the edge of the stove were revealed, toasted until they were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The middle-aged man in chef’s clothes pulled out a long knife and a pair of tongs from somewhere.

He used the tongs to pick up a flatbread from the stove, sliced it down the middle with the knife, and then used the long blade to scoop a heap of finely chopped donkey meat from the basin. He stuffed the meat perfectly into the bread, not leaving behind a single shred.

The people gathered around the stove watched the Donkey Meat Burger in the chef’s hand with fanatical eyes.

The rugged-looking chef looked at the producer, a simple smile appearing on his face, and then placed the freshly made Donkey Meat Burger onto the plate in front of him.

He seemed to know who had paid to book the entire restaurant, so he handed the first burger to the producer.

Xie Sui was about to stop him, but the producer grabbed the Donkey Meat Burger with his bare hands and took a massive bite under the envious gazes of those around him. His eating manner was shocking; he tore at it and gulped it down ravenously, the fresh, tender juices of the donkey meat overflowing from his mouth and dripping onto his collar.

The producer soon stuffed the entire Donkey Meat Burger into his mouth. He gave the chef a thumbs-up and mumbled “delicious” while chewing.

Everyone else gathered around the stove swallowed hard.

The chef didn’t make the others wait long. With a series of fluid and practiced movements, he quickly finished the remaining Donkey Meat Burgers and distributed them to everyone.

After serving those sitting around the stove, the chef used the tongs to remove all the flatbreads from the edge of the stove, placing them on the tray held by the old man. Then, he lowered the hanging iron pot back onto the stove to continue simmering.

Having finished this, he took the flatbreads and the basin of donkey meat toward the earthen bed area.

Except for Xie Sui and Old Liu, everyone around the stove began eating impatiently.

Xie Sui wanted to stop the others from eating, but he was powerless. No one paid him any mind. If Xie Sui had tried to physically snatch the food away, they would have shown the fierce expressions of beasts guarding their prey, as if they had completely discarded human reason and were entirely possessed by the desire of gluttony.

A Donkey Meat Burger was finished in just a few bites, and everyone present looked like they hadn’t had enough.

The producer licked the corner of his mouth and said to the chef, “Boss Shao, when are you going to serve us your signature dish? I’ve been on the waiting list for half a year just for this bite.”

Judging by the tone he used with the chef, the producer seemed to be a regular at this establishment.

The chef smiled at the producer. “Thank you for your patronage, Mr. Jin. I’ll go see how the ingredients are being processed. Please wait a moment.” With that, he turned and went back into the small kitchen.

After the chef and the old man left, the old woman who had been guarding the door earlier appeared from nowhere with a large tray filled with dishes.

The seemingly frail and small old woman steadily carried the massive tray full of food to the stove.

The tray held various home-style stir-fries, all of which were vegetarian dishes without a trace of meat.

With a kind smile, she placed the dishes from the tray in front of everyone one by one. “If you’re really in a hurry, you can eat some vegetables first to line your stomachs.”

The producer laughed and said, “Auntie Zhang, this isn’t right. Are you afraid we’ll eat too much of your meat, so you’re trying to fool us with this stuff? I’m not eating these leaves.”

The old woman didn’t push further. She maintained her kind smile and retreated back into the kitchen with the now-empty tray.

The producer looked at the untouched Donkey Meat Burger on Xie Sui’s plate and licked his lips again. “Mr. Xie, do you have no appetite? Why don’t you give me the burger on your plate? This thing is only good when it’s hot; it won’t taste right once it’s cold.”

Xie Sui shook his head and moved his plate to the side. “I don’t like eating things that are too dry. I’m planning to wait a bit and have it with some soup.”

He didn’t know which part of his sentence struck a chord with the producer, but the man suddenly slapped Xie Sui hard on the shoulder, looking as if he had found a kindred spirit. “It seems Mr. Xie is also an expert. You know that the burger should be eaten with the broth of the ‘Living Bellowing Donkey⁴.’ Don’t worry, there’s plenty of donkey meat here. That was just an appetizer; the main event is coming up.”

Living Bellowing Donkey?

Xie Sui didn’t understand what the producer was talking about at all.

But in the next moment, someone explained what a “Living Bellowing Donkey” was through action.

The middle-aged man dressed as a chef walked out of the kitchen again, but this time he was leading a donkey by a rope.

The donkey’s fur had been brushed until it was glossy and clean. However, it didn’t seem to be in good spirits, appearing somewhat wilted.

Xie Sui could actually see an expression of despair on the donkey’s face.

As soon as it left the kitchen, the donkey refused to move no matter what. It stiffened its neck to resist the chef, its four hooves digging in, preferring to die rather than take another step forward.

The middle-aged chef didn’t tolerate its foul temper. He gave a cold snort and yanked hard, making the adult donkey stumble with just one hand.

Using almost pure brute force, the chef dragged the donkey to a pillar behind the stove and tied the rope securely to it.

The donkey’s eyes were filled with a human-like look of panic. With tears in its eyes, it strained its neck with all its might, trying to snap the rope.

But the humble-looking hemp rope was incredibly strong. The only result of the donkey’s struggle was a ring of friction marks worn into the pillar.

Xie Sui finally understood what the ring of friction marks on the pillar was about. It looked like they were all caused by the struggling of the donkeys previously tied there.

Seeing the chef lead the donkey out, the producer’s eyes lit up. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he subconsciously swallowed his saliva.

The chef pulled a pointed knife from his waist, wiped it with the towel draped over his shoulder, and then made a show of cupping his hands to everyone in the room.

“What I am about to serve to our distinguished guests is our Shao’s Restaurant signature dish, ‘Living Bellowing Donkey’.”

With that, he flourished his knife with a flick of his wrist and looked at the producer with a wide grin, revealing a mouth full of white teeth that glinted coldly. “Mr. Jin, you’re the host today. I’ll give the first cut to you. Which part of the meat would you like to eat?”

Xie Sui spoke up before the producer could answer. “What’s the story behind this dish? Why is it called that?”

A ghastly smile appeared on the chef’s face. “To put it simply, ‘Living Bellowing Donkey’ involves cutting meat off a live donkey to eat. You take the sliced meat and dip it directly into a specially prepared broth. Tsk, tsk, tsk, the freshness is unparalleled.”

“You eat and dip while listening to the donkey bray, continuing until the live donkey dies. That’s why this dish is called ‘Living Bellowing Donkey’.”

After saying this, he wiped the knife in his hand. The reflective surface of the pointed blade mirrored the chef’s face. In the cold light of the steel, his smile looked somewhat hideous.

“Today, I’ll show you guests a master skill to open your eyes. With my, Old Shao’s, technique, even if this donkey is carved down to nothing but a skeleton, it won’t die. You can eat while watching its heart beat. I guarantee this meal will be a feast for both your eyes and your palate.”

As the chef finished speaking, the room immediately erupted in cheers.

Xie Sui watched everyone in the room expressionlessly.

Even the female celebrity in the crowd, who loved marketing herself as a fragile animal lover, looked excited. Her eyes were full of a craving for food, and a predatory red light seemed to flicker in her bright eyes.

They had all gone mad.

Nie Pengpeng was also very excited. An inexplicable violent emotion filled her heart. Right now, she only wanted to see blood flow like a river; the more stimulating, the better.

Just as her emotions reached their peak, a sudden sharp pain came from her left knee, as if someone had pressed a red-hot iron firmly against her leg.

Nie Pengpeng shuddered violently. Before she could figure out what was happening, she felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. A wave of nausea surged up instantly.

She hurriedly scrambled off the heated brick bed, wanting to run to the outdoor toilet to vomit. But before she could take two steps, she couldn’t help but kneel on the ground and begin throwing up.

The vomit was not the undigested Donkey Meat Burgers she expected, but clumps of bright red raw meat still dripping with blood.

Seeing what she had thrown up, the nausea in Nie Pengpeng’s stomach grew even stronger. She clutched the clothes over her abdomen tightly, wishing she could reach her hand into her stomach to give it a thorough cleaning.

Hearing the sound of vomiting amidst the cheers, the smile on the chef’s face stiffened. He looked at Nie Pengpeng with an extremely terrifying gaze.

He sized up the kneeling, vomiting Nie Pengpeng, his gaze as sharp as a knife. In his eyes, Nie Pengpeng seemed like a piece of livestock that could be dissected and butchered at any moment.

Sensing the chef’s gaze, Nie Pengpeng, whose limbs were weak from vomiting, hurriedly scrambled up from the floor. She didn’t even bother to wipe the bile from the corner of her mouth as she stumbled toward Xie Sui.

The chef expressionlessly flourished his knife. His gaze followed Nie Pengpeng’s movement, and the knife flipping in his hand looked as if it might fly out and impale her at any second.

Nie Pengpeng’s bangs were flying as she ran. she had never run so fast in her life. Under the immense crisis of life and death, she fully stimulated all her potential, instantly darting behind Xie Sui. She used Xie Sui’s thin frame to barely block the chef’s cold, murderous gaze.

Except for Xie Sui and Liu Wuyong, no one present cared about Nie Pengpeng’s sudden vomiting, nor did they care about what she had thrown up.

Old Liu looked at the raw meat mixed with gastric juice and bile on the floor and silently pushed the plate of burgers in front of him a little further away.

The cheering ended, and the producer continued the topic Xie Sui had interrupted.

“Boss Shao, just this one donkey isn’t enough for us to eat.” He wasn’t angry about Xie Sui speaking out of turn. Stroking his chin, he looked at the chef with a smile. “You surely didn’t only prepare this one, did you?”

The vicious look the chef had directed at Nie Pengpeng softened for a moment. He once again revealed a standard eight-tooth smile and spoke respectfully to the producer. “Rest assured, I haven’t been idle this past month. I’ve prepared a total of four donkeys, plus two newborn foals. I guarantee you’ll eat your fill.”

Hearing there were foals, the expression on the producer’s face changed instantly. “Then why didn’t you serve the foals first?! You’re hiding the good stuff. Boss Shao, that’s not honest of you. You weren’t planning to keep them for yourself, were you? Come, come, serve the foals first. We almost missed out on a delicacy.”

“Hahaha, easily done, easily done. I’ll satisfy whatever you want to eat today. Just wait a moment, I’ll go lead the foals out.” After saying this, he wiped his knife again, gave Nie Pengpeng a cold look, and turned to walk toward the kitchen.

Nie Pengpeng knelt on the ground, her hands deathly tight around the legs of the small stool Xie Sui was sitting on. She whispered a frantic mantra under her breath. “Help me, help me, help me, Xie Sui… Mr. Xie, are you awake? Mr. Xie? There’s a huge problem with this restaurant!”

Looking at her posture, it seemed that if Xie Sui didn’t answer her, she would directly flip the stool over to help him “wake up” physically.

Xie Sui looked back at Nie Pengpeng and sighed with some helplessness. “I am very much awake. As for you… please calm down.”

Nie Pengpeng’s teeth were chattering with nerves. “Is this the same as when we met the female ghost on the bus? Is that chef a person or a ghost? What did he feed me? Has he targeted me? Is he going to kill me? Can I call the police? If I kill him in self-defense when he tries to kill me, will it be considered excessive force? I’m not going to make my debut on a legal news program, am I? I’m still very young, I haven’t experienced what it’s like to be a superstar yet. My two million followers were all bought by myself, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so vain, I…”

Before Nie Pengpeng could link this incident to the fact that she had stepped out with her left foot first that morning, Xie Sui hurriedly interrupted her rambling. “Stop. There’s no need for a confession. This has absolutely nothing to do with you buying two million followers.”

Nie Pengpeng fell silent instantly.

However, her hands seemed welded to the stool, still gripping the legs of Xie Sui’s seat with a death grip, refusing to let go.

To prevent himself from being subjected to a critical hit from a friendly ally, Xie Sui stood up and yielded his stool to Nie Pengpeng.

Nie Pengpeng hugged the stool and let out a loud, shuddering sob. “The producer chose this creepy restaurant. Does he want us all to die here?”

“It’s not clear yet. Calm your emotions first. You must stay cool-headed when facing danger…”

Just then, the sound of the kitchen door opening rang out again. Xie Sui instinctively turned his head to look.

The chef walked out of the kitchen carrying a young donkey foal. The foal kicked its legs incessantly, but no matter how it struggled, it couldn’t break free from the chef’s iron-grip arms.

Xie Sui, who had just been advising someone else to stay calm, froze. A surge of uncontrollable rage suddenly ignited in his heart.

What donkey foal? That was clearly a five or six-year-old little girl!

Seeing the chef come out with the foal, the producer stood up impatiently, pushing past Xie Sui. Drooling, he said to the chef, “I want to eat the donkey face meat-“

In the next second, the producer was slammed in the face with a stool. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell straight backward, unconscious.

“Eat your damn self,” Xie Sui said, slowly lowering the hand that held the stool.

Nie Pengpeng looked at her empty hands, then at the producer passed out beside her with his eyes rolled back. She scrambled backward on all fours, clearing the combat space for Xie Sui.

Mr. Xie really swung that stool with lethal force.

The chef used a hemp rope to bind the four limbs of the foal in his arms and tossed it directly onto the ground. Then, he drew a long knife from his waist, pointing the tip at Xie Sui.

Xie Sui showed no fear on his face. He sneered and said, “This is Zaochu, isn’t it? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such disgusting sorcery.”

Zaochu was a folk sorcery passed down through street performers and human traffickers that used witchcraft to turn humans into animals.

A common Zaochu method used in ancient sideshows was the human-faced dog. They would skin a child, leaving only the skin on the face, and then tightly graft a freshly flayed dog skin onto the child’s body. Aided by incantations, the child would be transformed into a monster with a human head and a dog’s body.

They chose children over adults because of their small size; a dog’s skin could completely wrap around their bodies. Although they became dogs, they could still speak human words and shed tears. Because the pain was too great, these children turned into human-faced dogs rarely lived longer than a year.

These low-life street performers created such deformities just to catch people’s eyes and collect tips.

Another use was a method for human traffickers to kidnap children in ancient times. They would drape a flayed sheepskin or donkey skin over a kidnapped child and recite a specific sorcery mantra, turning the child into a donkey or a sheep. The traffickers would then drive the herd of donkeys or sheep right past the parents who were anxiously searching for their children, swaggering out of the city gates.

To be honest, Xie Sui thought this disgusting sorcery had been lost to time. He hadn’t expected to encounter it again today in this small restaurant.

Thinking back to the human-like actions and expressions of the adult donkey from earlier, although Xie Sui hadn’t seen anything unusual about it at the time, it was likely a human who had been transformed through Zaochu as well.

Because this sorcery utilized actual animal skins as a medium, it was difficult for even high-level practitioners of the Xuanmen to distinguish the truth unless the sorcerer revealed a flaw themselves.

If the chef hadn’t used a child for Zaochu, Xie Sui might truly have failed to notice his methods.

Because he had been a White Tiger Fetal Fiend before his reincarnation, Xie Sui was extremely sensitive to the painful emotions of children. This allowed him to see through the sorcery’s illusion and recognize the true form of the donkey foal the chef held in his arms.

The chef’s expression was exceptionally hideous. His lips curled into a twisted arc as he let out a hoarse, grating laugh. “You actually saw through it. Then your reward will be becoming the ingredient for a ‘Living Bellowing Donkey’… I won’t let you die until I’ve carved a thousand pieces of meat off your body.”

Xie Sui tapped his finger lightly on the stove, looking at the chef as if he were a clown. “What a coincidence. I was thinking the exact same thing.”

“If I don’t cut you into a thousand pieces, I’ll be doing a disservice to all the innocent victims you’ve murdered.”

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Translator’s Notes

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1. Hang a dead cat from a tree, cast a dead dog into the stream: A traditional folk superstition (猫挂树头，狗扔河里). It was believed that burying these animals would trap their spirits in the earth, leading them to haunt the owners. ↩
2. kang: A traditional heatable brick bed-stove system found in northern China. It serves as a living, dining, and sleeping platform, utilizing the exhaust from the kitchen stove to provide warmth. ↩
3. Gu: A venomous, supernatural poison or curse associated with southern Chinese folklore, created by sealing various poisonous creatures in a container until one remains. ↩
4. Living Bellowing Donkey: A reference to ‘Huo Jia Lü’ (活叫驴), a notorious and extremely cruel historical dish. It involves slicing meat off a live, restrained donkey and eating it while the animal is still alive. It is often cited in literature as a peak of culinary depravity. ↩