By the time they came down from the Snake God’s Temple, it was already five in the afternoon.
Min Min reluctantly said goodbye to Dong Qing, agreeing to have dinner at his house tomorrow.
On the way back, the four girls were walking quickly. They hailed a taxi to rush home, chatting endlessly throughout the ride.
Min Min: “Finally, we can go back. Soon I’ll be able to eat dragon meat.”
The short-haired girl: “Tsk, tsk, Chen Min Min, that’s not what you said earlier. Weren’t you just telling your Brother Dong Qing ten minutes ago that ‘you really didn’t want to say goodbye’?”
Min Min snorted, “What do you know? No man is more important than myself. My first love is always me. I like handsome men just to please myself.”
The short-haired girl rolled her eyes.
The long-haired girl, who had been pale yesterday, was now glowing with energy. “Shen Qiu, it’s so strange. Snake God’s Mountain must really be a sacred place, right? If this were any other time, I would be completely exhausted by now after climbing up and down the mountain. But now I don’t feel tired at all and even have endless energy.”
Shen Qiu raised her arm in the cramped taxi, revealing toned and beautiful biceps. “Look at my muscles. I feel like I could knock out a champion in the boxing ring right now.”
Bai Lixin, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, quietly observed the four girls in the rearview mirror.
From his experience, aside from the short-haired girl, the other three girls clearly didn’t exercise much based on their muscle tone. After climbing up and down the Snake God’s Temple, theoretically speaking, they should be exhausted.
Yet all four of them were full of energy, and were not even out of breath.
Snake God’s Temple wasn’t far from where they were staying, and in just over ten minutes, they arrived at their destination.
As soon as they got out of the car, the girls rushed straight to the barbecue courtyard.
Just as they reached the small yard, a strong smell hit them.
The girls quickened their pace and left Bai Lixin behind in an instant.
Bai Lixin frowned and covered his nose.
The stench was terrible.
It was a foul mix of burning plastic and rotting meat, worse than the smell of sewage.
The closer he got to the barbecue courtyard, the stronger the stench became.
By the time he entered the yard, his frown had relaxed, and Bai Lixin had already replaced it with a gentle smile.
In the yard, a young couple was wolfing down golden dragon meat, while the four girls stood nearby.
Each of them was staring greedily at the dragon meat on the couple’s table. Man Man asked the barbecue boss angrily, “Boss, didn’t I pay ten times the price for your dragon meat yesterday? Why did you give it to them?”
The couple kept their heads down, eating, ignoring the girls.
The boss hurriedly wiped his hands and explained, “It’s not what you think. This dragon meat was brought by these two guests, and I’m just grilling it for them. Your dragon meat is kept well for you. I’ll bring it out now.”
Man Man’s expression softened, and the four of them quietly found a table to sit at.
After a while, two men and a woman, dressed like tourists, walked in.
They stood at the door and took a deep breath. One of them said, “Who would’ve thought there’d be such a barbecue spot hidden in this alley? What’s that delicious smell? I’ve decided. We’re eating here tonight.”
“You’re too late,” Min Min spoke up. “What you’re smelling is the specialty of Snake God Mountain—dragon meat. But we’ve already bought all of it. If you want some, come back tomorrow.”
The three tourists exchanged glances and still sat down. “Even if we can’t eat it, we can at least smell it. Let’s see what’s so special about it.”
As they spoke, the boss came out of the kitchen holding a large bunch of meat skewers.
Once the meat hit the grill, the rich aroma filled the entire courtyard.
Bai Lixin had to control his breathing and expression to stop himself from vomiting.
‘It skinks, it’s so stinky!’.
The meat still looked golden and delicious, but to him, the aroma from yesterday had turned into the stench of sewage.
He believed that he was the only one who smelled it because everyone else was salivating and staring intently at the grill.
When the twenty skewers of dragon meat were brought to the table, Bai Lixin subconsciously pulled his seat back.
The four girls scrambled to grab the dragon meat skewers, no longer caring about maintaining their image, devouring them like bandits in their lair.
This time, they didn’t ask if Bai Lixin wanted any, nor did they offer to share. Each of them ate as much as they could, afraid they wouldn’t get enough.
In less than a minute, there were only two skewers left.
The short-haired girl had the fastest hands, she grabbed the second-to-last skewer before finishing the one she was already eating.
Man Man took the last one.
Min Min stared at the empty plate, and glared at the short-haired girl. “Shen Qiu! You ate six skewers! You had the most!”
Shen Qiu shoved more dragon meat into her mouth and chewed hurriedly. “You didn’t eat that little either. You had four.”
Min Min raised her voice. “Yes, there are twenty skewers, we are four people, that’s five skewers each. You ate one of mine!!!”
Shen Qiu swallowed the last piece of meat and tossed the bamboo skewer onto the plate. “Does this skewer have your name on it? Who told you to eat so slow? Is that my fault? Fine, I’ll buy you a few more lamb skewers later. Happy now?”
Min Min’s face flushed red with anger. She stood up, her eyes red, pointing at Shen Qiu and yelling, “Shen Qiu, you bitch! You’ll die a horrible death!”
With that, Min Min stormed off and left the yard.
“I’ll go check on her. You guys carry on,” Bai Lixin got up to follow her. When he caught up with Min Min, he saw her walking past the inn’s courtyard gate, heading towards a small river in front of the inn.
Perhaps it was because she had eaten the dragon meat, but Min Min was walking so fast that Bai Lixin had to jog to keep up.
The sky had already darkened.
Seeing that Min Min had reached the riverbank without slowing down, Bai Lixin hurriedly rushed forward and grabbed Min Min, who was about to fall into the river. “Chen Min Min, what are you doing?”
When Min Min turned around, Bai Lixin’s expression froze.
This was not Min Min.
A greenish face appeared before his eyes, her face covered in mottled scales like those of a python. Her eyes were golden with vertical pupils, her protruding mouth opened, revealing two sharp white fangs and a red snake tongue.
Min Min’s neck suddenly became long and flexible. She twisted her head around, her neck coiling around her waist and then winding around Bai his body, climbing upward like a python constricting its prey.
Bai Lixin could feel Min Min’s neck tightening around him, and he even heard the sound of his bones cracking.
That greenish snake-like face moved closer to Bai Lixin’s face, golden vertical pupils staring intently into his eyes, hissing as the snake tongue flicked out.
The tighter her neck coiled, the more difficult it became for Bai Lixin to breathe.
Just when the snake head opened its bloody mouth in front of him, Bai Lixin reached into his pocket and pulled out the yellow talisman he had taken from Su Zhen’s suitcase.
He pressed the talisman against the creature’s body, and in the next second, a burning sound and white smoke arose where the talisman touched the snake.
The green snake let out a shriek, and the tight constriction immediately loosened.
Bai Lixin’s vision went black, and when he came to his senses, he heard Min Min’s confused voice beside him.
Looking around, he realized he was no longer by the river but standing in front of the inn. Min Min had her hands on her hips and was staring at him. Her face didn’t look good, but it was her normal human face, not the green snake face.
Bai Lixin looked at Min Min in confusion.
Min Min frowned and asked, “Were you possessed just now? You were walking behind me, and then you suddenly just stopped. Your eyes were wide open, it scared me to death.”
Bai Lixin collected his thoughts. “Sorry, I was lost in thought. My apologies.”
Min Min muttered with a frown, “What could you be thinking about so deeply? How annoying.”
She stomped off back towards the inn.
Bai Lixin watched Min Min’s back as she walked away, then turned and headed toward the riverbank not far from the inn.
Now that it was dark, the river water was pitch black.
He reached the spot where he had been attacked by the green snake and inspected the area. The area was clean, with no sign that anyone had been there.
Could it have been another illusion?
Without thinking, Bai Lixin put his hand into his pocket but then froze.
The yellow talisman in his pocket was gone…
That night, Bai Lixin fought off sleepiness and sat in a chair instead.
The room wasn’t soundproof, and the sound of a bed creaking and a couple’s passionate voices came from upstairs.
He waited until midnight before the noise upstairs finally quieted down.
Footsteps echoed outside again. Bai Lixin opened the door and found it was the inn’s boss sleepwalking again.
He was walking from the hall towards the corridor, his hand constantly tapping the walls. His eyes were half-open and half-closed, and his arms and legs were swinging stiffly.
The proprietress followed behind him, smiling apologetically at Bai Lixin and making a “shh” gesture.
After the boss turned around and left, the proprietress came over and said, “Sorry, did we wake you again?”
Bai Lixin pointed upstairs. “Not tonight. The noise upstairs was too loud. I couldn’t sleep.”
The proprietress glanced up where Bai Lixin was pointing. Her expression shifted briefly but she maintained her smile. “Yes, our soundproofing here isn’t great. I’m so sorry you haven’t been able to sleep well for two nights. I’ll waive half of your room fee.”
Bai Lixin watched the boss’s back and asked, “Does he do this often?”
The proprietress nodded, “Yes.”
Bai Lixin studied the boss’s movements. “It looks like he’s searching for something?”
The proprietress smiled lightly. “Who knows? Anyway, you should get some rest, I need to keep an eye on my husband.”
Watching the boss and his wife leave, Bai Lixin closed the door and returned to his room.
After locking the door, he turned and headed to the bathroom.
Once again, bloody red words appeared on the bathroom mirror.
This time, it wasn’t “Leave here,” but—
“You will die!!!”
The young man in the mirror flashed him a creepy smile, and the next second, Bai Lixin lost consciousness again.
When he opened his eyes, it was already the next morning.
Bai Lixin got up and rolled up his sleeve. There was a faint scratch on his wrist.
Then he went to the bathroom. The mirror was spotless, with no writing on it.
He had deliberately scratched himself when he faced the mirror last night.
Since the scratch was there, the strange mirror and the eerie smile from last night weren’t just hallucinations.
Today, the four girls had agreed to go to Snake God Mountain with him to visit the Four Temples.
The Four Temples referred to the four temples located in the north, south, east, and west of Snake God Mountain, a common pilgrimage practice there.
The agreed meeting time was six o’clock. As usual, Bai Lixin arrived at the lobby at 5:50. Strangely, the four girls hadn’t come down yet.
He waited in the lobby for ten minutes, and by six o’clock, there was still no sign of the four girls.
After asking the proprietress, she said she hadn’t seen the four girls go out, so Bai Lixin went up to the second floor.
When they had checked in, he remembered their room numbers: Chen Min Min and Man Man were in room 205, and the short-haired girl and the long-haired girl were in room 207.
